The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Cowboys roll past Buccaneers, move on to face 49ers in Divisional Round

Episode Date: January 17, 2023

The final game of Wild Card Weekend wasn't so super, at least from a competitiveness standpoint. The Cowboys dominated from start to finish, eliminating the Buccaneers with a 31-14 win behind a monster performance from Dak Prescott. Robert Mays and Bob Sturm break it down on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Bob on Twitter: @SportsSturmSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubePhilo: Sign up today at philo.tv and use promo code MAYS to get 50% off your first monthBurrow: Show Burrow you’re listening to The Athletic Football Show by shopping at Burrow.com/mays and get 10% off your first orderLinkedIn: LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/maysMizzen + Main: Go to mizzenandmain.com and use promo code MAYS, to receive $35 off any regular-price order of $125 or more1:37 Cowboys dominate behind Dak's big game36:44 What's next for the Buccaneers and Tom Brady? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight from The Athletic, from the ticket in Dallas, a wonderful voice on the Dallas Cowboys and somebody I am thrilled to have on the show tonight. Bob Stern, Bob, thank you very much for joining us. Oh, the thrill is all on the side of the table, Robert.

Thank you so much, man. Really fun game to break down. A blowout. The Cowboys absolutely handle the bucks 31 to 14. there's really no other place for us to start. Just what a night by Dak Prescott. It was really blown away, even as somebody who really appreciates him

and thinks he's a fantastic quarterback, we can talk about the context surrounding this performance. Troyickman near the end of that broadcast, that it was one of the best games of his career, and he's right about that if you look at the numbers. But I was just absolutely blown away by how good Dak was tonight. It was pretty staggering.

Yeah, and I'll go back since you mentioned Troy, with my work with him for for the Monday night football broadcast. We just last week were going over the Washington tape. And what, you know, I know the Washington game didn't mean much, Robert. But we both kind of agreed that it was like the worst DAC tape we had seen in ever. Last week. Yes, last week. And, you know, he looked skittish.

He wasn't seeing anything. He looked like a guy inside his own head. And so for tonight, you know, online with Troy during the game, in fact, and we're both kind of talking about this is the best performance I've ever seen from him. So the fact that eight days apart, a guy can go from, you know, the worst performance of his career to the best is what makes a sport great. But it does say that somehow, Dak, when he needed it most, and, you know, living in Dallas, your head gets filled with these narratives.

And some are true and some are just battered cowboy syndrome, battered fan where they, you know, they've got 30 years of baggage. But it felt like it was a real, real pivotal game in his legacy or career path, or however you want to call it, it felt like he needed a real big night. And so for him to play nearly perfect is insane. There was obviously so much chatter based on the last game, based on the interceptions over the last month and a half of the season, about where he's stacked up in the playoff hierarchy and where does he kind of rank among the elite quarterbacks in the league

and for him to play like this tonight, I think that it was a reminder of what he can be at his best. A little bit of context here. 0.6 EPA per dropback, according to true media. He's done that seven times over the course of his career, did it against the Vikings this year. So only seven starts. I mean, he's played a lot of football games,

and this is one of the best seven he's ever had. There's only been nine games of 0.6 EPA per dropback. among quarterbacks this season. Mahomes had two. Dak had one against Minnesota. There were two games against the Bears that shouldn't count. Mike White and Kirk Cousins. So only nine of those the entire season. This was my favorite one.

There have only been six such playoff games with that mark in the last 10 years. Josh Allen last year against the Bills or against the Pats in the divisional round. Nick Foles in the NFC championship game against the Vikings. Matt Ryan in the 2016 NFC championship game. Those are three of them. So those are the types of games we're talking about here. Just those burn you down unbelievably electric playoff performances that we still remember. That's the company that Dak kept tonight.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it was the types of throws he was making to the ones that were getting him in trouble at times over this last month or so. He's, you know, just to see the Daniel Jones stat yesterday of it was like his ninth clean game of the season. And honestly, with Dak, it's very difficult. to suggest he's had any clean games this season, no interceptions, no fumbles. It's possible he's had one or two, Robert, but you know what I'm saying.

Yeah, it's been. It hasn't felt like that. It's been a go. And for him to roll that out tonight and to fire the ball like he was right down the seams, no reluctance, no, no hesitation, and just kind of trust what he's seen and fired in there. And, you know, that's what they've needed out of him.

This is, this is kind of the, the old deal where with McCarthy, and with DAC and with Kellan Moore, this group. But it's great that you guys can put together top-ranked offensive seasons like they have. And with DAC on the field this year, they were number one in yards, I think, number one in points or one and two. And then last year, they were the number one offense in 2019 before McCarthy got there. They were the number one offense that finished like eight and eight. And so you put all this together, and it felt like tons of empty calories.

And, you know, we don't know where this might go next week. San Francisco is a whole different ballgame, of course, but this might be the type of game that can take the weight off the shoulders of a team that is just dealing with so much all the time. And maybe just start playing football a little more free and easy because there was a ton of pressure on them tonight. I know looking back, people will be like, well, the buccaneers aren't a good team.

And we knew that all year and how big is this one. It's a three-point line. Yeah, yeah. People were talking about how this was the best game of the week. I don't want this to be some revision. this history where we talk about how the bucks were imploding and this was supposed to be a blowout. That was not supposed to be the case. The bike was just handled business tonight. They sure did. They sure did. And, you know, for that, it certainly starts with the defense because

when they imploded themselves last year against San Francisco in that playoff game, the defense certainly contributed. They won't end up in the obituary, but the defense right out of the gate, let the 49ers go right down the field for 75 yards on that first drive. And, and thanks took care of themselves from there. So to see Micah Parsons in particular look like, you know, back to week one through week 12, Michael Parsons, where we were talking defensive player of the year,

it was rising to the occasion from several of these guys. My favorite thing about the defense is that the question that I had, the biggest question I had coming into the game, I was impressed with the solution. They've been trying to figure out what that other outside corner spot was going to look like since Anthony Brown got hurt. And we were racking our. brains in the preview podcast.

Like, what are they going to do? Is it going to be Xavier Rhodes? Like, what are they going to do with that spot? And what they did was they just moved to Ron Bland out there. So Bland hadn't been primarily an outside corner at any point during the season. There was one game where it was like 50-50. But for the most part, he'd been in the slot almost the entire year. They move him outside.

And then when they were in nickel, J. Ron Kirst would play in the slot and they'd have three safeties in the game. When they were in Dime, Kirst would play linebacker and Mukwamu, Israel, Cuamu, who was a fourth round or six round pick last year, came in and played as their nickel player. So that seemed to work. And what they did was they played a ton of too high coverage and a lot of, we're not going to let you beat us over the top.

We're going to trust that if we keep things in front of you, our pass rush is going to get home. And it was a very good formula tonight to go against the buck's team that really couldn't block them. There's no doubt. And, you know, they've had some really good depth at safety. and to figure out a way to kind of solve a couple problems

and to get up them all in the field at the same time, play that big nickel, even the bigger dime. I didn't know McQuamu would have success like that in coverage. He's a big, lanky guy. He seems like more of a downhill, you know, run-filled type guy. But he did great tonight and just overall to see the way the secondary handled things, that real odd play after the onside kick, late was what everyone was

fearing the whole time is that, you know, Xavier Rhodes or whoever would let Mike Evans behind him and, you know, the bucks missed a touchdown there, but it was already academic. You know, the game was over. But, you know, yeah, you're right. In fact, when they did inactives tonight, about an hour before kickoff,

you see, Nashon Wright was a scratch. He was inactive and so was Trayvon Mullins. And so two of their corner solutions for week 16 through 18, were inactive tonight. A third one, Kelvin Joseph,

who they've been lit on the field since Jacksonville in week 15, was active, but almost purely for special teams, which he's actually quite good at, but that's not what you want from your second round corner. So I'm under the impression, and you may know better than I do. It's been a while since I looked at this,

but Duran Blan was pretty much slot at Fresno, too. I actually don't know the answer to that. I don't know much about him until I started watching him this year. And he's been great, but man, I thought he was, from what I remember, he was a slot in college and purely a slot for the Cowboys. So for them to roll that out tonight, it's just another one on Dan Quinn's ledger of a very pragmatic approaches to finding solutions out there. Even there was a small moment where it was the play where Godwin fumbled, but they overturned it. They had Donovan Wilson in like a whole player role kind of sitting there just in case. because like, all right, if we're going to have

Macuamu on, the fact that I'm getting this right, it's 1030 and I've been doing this for like four straight days. I'm very proud of myself. If we're going to have him on Godwin, we're going to want some help. And it worked out perfectly. He just happened to hold on to the ball, just like little wrinkles there even saying, all right, this is where we're going to be

a little bit weaker, maybe it would be a little bit vulnerable. This is how we have to do this. Even that was a little smart tweak by Dan Quinn. My question now is going to be, all right, now the Niners have an entire week knowing this is your personnel defensively. How are they going to attack this group?

Especially, I don't know how hurt J. Ron Curse is. Part of the reason Xavier Rose was even in the game late, I think is because curse got dinged up. So hopefully that's minor and they kept him out because they're blowing him out. Right. But if he can play, then we got a guy who's never really played playing your slot in dime and then a guy who's never played on the outside playing outside. That's a Kyle Shanahan, Stephen Ruiz, microscope gift waiting to happen potentially.

No doubt, no doubt. And, you know, they're, they're great. out there in San Francisco of making guys tackle who aren't particularly adept at that sort of thing. I mean, it's a whole different ballgame. You go from the 30-second best rushing team to a team that literally teaches clinics about

how to run the football at the NFL level with inventive approaches and just, you know, just driving you nuts. Certainly as a born-and-bred cheesehead, I can tell you that they definitely taught clinics at the you know, at the expense of like Mike

petting back there in that 2019 championship game so i was there i was at the reheat moster like twice on third and eight running the 40 yard touchdowns game it was just just beautiful if uh if if you don't uh if you don't enjoy cheese but uh uh it was it was just masterful so so the exact opposite approach to offense uh in san francisco than it is in tampa bay and so whether all this works uh is is a great question looking forward there's a lot to a lot to play out there there. I just, I'm looking at the pass rush numbers and, and first things first, Tom Brady with what must be 65, 66 dropbacks is just insane. But the Cowboys,

53, four man rushes, eight three man rushes. So 61, and then a two man rush, 62 of the 68 were, we're not blitzes. So the Cowboys blitz rate under 10% in this game. And, you know, they were able to get pressure, not a ton of sacks because Brady was just getting the ball. I mean, hurt and throws. I mean, how many throws did he dirt in this game?

It was wild. It was very reminiscent to Kirk Cousins back in week 10 or 11, whatever that was in the ridiculous performance the Cowboys had in Minnesota. So they're obviously capable of springing these random games on you where they just boat race you. But in both cases, the veteran quarterback kind of lost. interest in looking downfield and was, was, you know, freaking out about the pressure and the,

the suffocating pocket, the collapsing pocket, Micah Parsons, you know, it's one thing to see cousins sort of bail out of a game plan. It's, it's different to see Brady do it. I know he's been doing it more and more this season, but today I saw more Chuck and Duck from him than I've seen it a long, long time. I think that's the concern about him. We can get into that a little bit later, about what they look like moving forward, what he looks like moving forward. But you've seen that. He doesn't want to get hit right now.

Maybe that's the state of this season. Maybe that's something where he's 45 years old and that's going to be Tom Brady now. But the J-Rond curse interception is the best example. He's turning away from that throw the moment that he makes it, throwing it up for grabs and then the game changes in that exact moment. So you mentioned about a 10% blitz rate from the Cowboys. Yeah. On the other side of the field, the Bucks brought pressure, according to the next gen stats,

on 32% of Dax dropbacks. He was only pressured eight times and took one sack. I thought a really impressive performance by both him and the offensive line against the blitz. And I think that he takes credit in two areas. There was one play. It was a third and four where he completes it to gallop on a little tiny and breaker. Yeah.

And they're talking about, oh, what a great blitz pickup by the offensive line. He beats that. And he did that multiple times in this game. I also thought he did an unbelievable job. This is just one area where I think people aren't going to appreciate this performance enough by just looking at the box score. What he did at the line of scrimmage and tempo, how many protections he changed, how much control of the game he had combined with what both the normal and advanced stats

are going to tell you about Dax Night Tonight is why I was just totally blown away. But the offensive line also, in their own right, was really, really good. And that's suffering and injury in the first quarter. order and have it to shuffle again. Yeah, and that's, that's a great point all across the board. With Tampa, um, obviously down Shaq Barrett, and they've been dealing with that for two months, but when you look at Tampa, you definitely don't see the edge problem. You see guard center guard are going to be under attack, as, as you know, with, with

Vaya and, and, and, and your boy, your boy, Akeem Hicks. Uh, and they, you know, they could cause all sorts of problems getting in there. And, and if you don't have good anchors in the middle, you got real problems. And, you know, like we saw yesterday in Minnesota, you can get your center thrown all right out of the club on regular occasions against the guy like Bay or Dex de Lawrence. And I thought that was going to happen. So did I. On the first drive, that happened. I was like, man, maybe he's just not right.

Is this going to be one of those nights? Right. And it wasn't at all. No, no. And you got to give deck credit because, again, to just go back a week and what Washington's interior can do. And, you know, he's played Washington two times. year for a while now and they keep after they fortified

with the with the two Alabama defensive tackles, it's just been a recurring theme that Zach Martin's going to be fine, but those other two spots are going to have all sorts of problems keeping dudes out of Dak's lap and, you know, just today I thought he did a wonderful job of standing

tall, making quick decisions, being happy, a couple times he dumped it right down to Zeke or Pollard right over where the where the linebacker would be and just took the easy eight yards and just did that repeatedly and made quick, decisive decisions would let it rip. You know, these are all things where we've become accustomed to DAC as he earned his contract.

But honestly, you know, and this is all armchair psychologist, but I got to tell you, as the contract has gone on, it feels like the weight of expectation has slowed down his processing. And, you know, again, I might be all wet on that. But it does feel like things begin to, you know, become a cumulative weight on him. And it's slowing down and he's becoming more tentative and reluctant and double pumping. And so, you know, I obviously, when you start looking at turnover worthy plays

versus interceptions, he's had some bad ball luck this year. But it would be ridiculous, though, to suggest he's looked right. So there's some middle ground where we can all agree that, you know, he's, he's trying to step up stuff like average depth of throw to, to make this a more attacking team so you don't succumb to a zone like the 49ers last year. So that was the objective. We got to get the running game going. We got to get DAC, you know, not necessarily just willing to dump it down to Dalton Schultz and to Cedric Wilson for six-yard curls all. game long like the 49ers kind of baited him into doing. So in being more, being more aggressive, now you're working the seams, but you're also flirting with disaster, safety, smaller windows,

and more chance for interceptions. And once that balance gets out of order, now your head starts swimming, like, wait a minute, am I supposed to do this or am I not supposed to do this? Am I killing us or am I helping us? And so you could feel him doing the math on the fly. And the more that happened, Jacksonville is a great example of it, but even Tennessee, even Washington, even Philadelphia, you could just feel him being of two minds. And so to see him tonight, I don't know, man, it's wild how tonight he was so decisive and so sure of himself. And maybe that's just getting hot early and just feeling like, you know, you're on a heater suddenly. But whatever it was, his whole night, barring, you know, aside from that first possession where things did look a little shaky.

but right after that first possession went awry, he just played darn near a perfect football game. And so that changes the math tremendously about what this Cowboys team could do. I thought that the mix of being willing to live underneath when the situation called for it, hitting some of those high lows, getting rid of the ball quickly, if they're going to play some soft zone, let's attack it, and then picking your spots down the field, the Dalton Shult's touchdown is a perfect example, right?

They hit a little stick nod, where they're playing with the safety there and they're taking it vertical. He moves the safety with his eyes. Like, let's throw it kind of into a confined space, but he's manipulating that confined space and being able to take a shot. And then the play, the big one to C.D is just a beautiful play all around. He adjusts the protection. The Bucks brings six and Pollard comes all the way across the formation to pick it up.

It's a perfect pocket with six pass rushers, which was unbelievable to watch. And they know they had it. because it's a one by three formation with the tight end as the lone receiver. As soon as he comes across, they vacate that space. You could tell the DBs were having trouble miscommunicating anyway, and then BCD comes all the way behind it. I felt like they had the pen last the entire game. Maybe it was something that they saw on tape.

Maybe it was something formationally that they thought they could get to. It felt like he was just totally dialed in to what he was getting almost the entire game. And I think that's what leads to some of that confidence. some of that decisiveness. I think that the team he's going to play next week is going to make it a little bit tougher out of him. There's no doubt. There's no doubt. And, you know, what's funny about all that is real conversations about what tomorrow morning might have held in the city if it goes wrong. I mean, it feels reasonable to suggest that Mike McCarthy would have been in some real peril and Kellyn Moore for sure. And that's the wild thing about the Kellyn Moore discussion is,

depending on who you ask, he's either a great candidate to be your next head coach or the Cowboys need a new OC. And tell me how many times that's happened where, you know, somebody's fired OC is actually your head coach candidate. It seems, it seems wild. I think it's more common than you think. I think people in Philadelphia last year and even still at times this year, shock that Jonathan Gannon is getting head coaching interviews, even though they've been one of the best defenses in the league this season. I think that when there's any sort of stumbles or missteps for a team that is otherwise has high expectations, the coordinator is one of the first people that guys won't thrown out of the building. So I do think it happens more often than you probably think it does.

That's fair. That's fair. And, you know, with McCarthy, it's just a deal where if you're brought in after 10 years of Jason Garrett, the whole premise, at least that you're sold is this is about doing things in January. And so for him to go one and done in January this year and have three seasons with not even a wildcard win, I really think, and by the way, Brian Dabble did not help that yesterday in heaping even more expectations from the owner's office. And listen, I'm not in any way trying to verify the Jones family way of thinking and doing things and so forth. but I would have to admit as a guy who does think Mike McCarthy is a real good coach and frankly has, in my mind, an equal resume to somebody like Sean Payton,

just not the same marketing department. I would argue that he needed this really, really badly. You look at, and I think that's what feels different about this. I went back and I was looking at the playoff history just because I can't remember every team and exactly how it's gone. And I was shocked that the only playoff game they've won. in Dax career is the wild car game they won against the Seahawks in 2019. I was at that game.

It was a disgusting game. I mean, it was just a really, really gross football game. That was a game where Chris Carson had 13 carries for 20 yards for Seattle. That game almost single-handedly set off the let Russ Cook movement because of what the Seahawks offense looked like. That's right.

So the Cowboys win that nasty game. And then obviously there's the pretty high profile failures, the 2016 loss to the Packers being the most important and the most relevant. But to win this game in this fashion, considering what their playoff history has looked like over the past five years, it's huge. I mean, if we're to feel this different,

it's a huge moment for the franchise for the city for people who root for this team, because it is a huge departure from what they've been used to. And it's January 17th, probably when people hear this. And I would just simply say, that's the 30th anniversary of their last roadposts. playoff win. And that is an insane truth. They had never beat Tom Brady. That's an insane truth. And eight tries. They had never beat Tom Brady. They haven't won a road playoff game since the 92

NFC championship game at Candlestick. And, you know, if you want to keep throwing out ridiculous stats that are true about the Dallas Cowboys, how about this one? They have made the playoffs in consecutive of years 21 and 22 for the first time since 2006 and 2007, 15 years. You know how much time the NFL media spends talking about the Dallas Cowboys, and they haven't made the playoffs in back-to-back years for 15 years? So, so, you know, there's a lot of things that make this fan base as skeptical as any. I assume the Vikings are probably very close, but, but a very self-doubting fan base that honestly is somewhat justified.

Part of it is also they're spoiled with five Super Bowl. Sorry, Vikings fans. There's different reasons for this. But in the case of the Cowboys, you know, Robert, I made this point today on the radio. I don't know if it's true, but it makes sense to me. I think it's almost better for them to play on the road because the fan base and the organization, just everything, when they play in front of them

in a playoff game. There's there it takes about five seconds for the whole stadium to get this real vibe of dread around cowboys football and so playing on the road you kind of get away from last year. Yeah, yeah. And yet you don't even get out of the first quarter anymore. And so, you know, it's not that they don't want you to win. It's that they don't believe you can win. And so that's what they're up against. And maybe a night like tonight changes that. It probably will take another night on Sunday to really bring the fan base around. But I almost think going on the road is good for these guys. Well, they're going to get their wish.

Yes, they surely are. Playing against a really, really good football team. And I'll say this, kind of putting a bow on the Cowboys part of this tonight. After watching them play tonight, it makes me five times more excited about that game. Yeah. Because I was worried that the team we saw down the stretches, the team they might be. But beyond the way that Dak played, I thought they had real answers to some of the biggest questions. what they did in the secondary and then what the offensive line looked like.

Having Beattish back there to sort through some of those protections and to help them play the way they did, I think I thought was huge. And I honestly think when they came out and Jason Peters was at left tackle and Tyler Smith was at left guard, I was like, really? I just, you've had a guy play there the whole season. He's been pretty solid. You're going to change two starters. I just don't, I just don't understand that as a plan.

And then Peters goes down and then they have their offensive line. with Tyrone Smith at Wright tackle, the line that they've had all season. And they looked great. So I would not be surprised at all if when we see them take the field next week in San Francisco, the line they ended with tonight is the line they start with on Sunday. Yeah, and I think that's right. I do, I do struggle a little bit with Connor McGovern next to Tyler Beattis just because, you know, that's certainly the weak spot and that's where you would put like Armstead.

But, you know, when you look at the Buccaneers versus the Niners on the D. defensive front, it's clear that the trouble switches from inside to outside. And so to be fortified on the edges is probably an advantage in that situation. And I mean, because both are just rex games like very few guys in this league does. So, so. It's a good point, actually. It makes me rethink it with the nine, if you're worried about individual matchups and if they're just going to pick on McGovern the whole time. But I just, I want the continuity. Yeah. I just want that because you're going to have to do with a lot of stunts when you play against the nine you're going to have to do a lot of overload fronts.

I just want guys who are comfortable playing with each other. Even if you get incrementally worse at one spot, I just feel like the overall unit being more solidified like you saw tonight. I'm just leaning that direction. Yeah, it makes sense. And for those of us who suffered through that playoff game last year and had to basically pick it apart for six months, to me, the theme of that game is, you know,

as good as Dak and Kellyn looked tonight, they looked that bad in that game, and they had no answers for what the 49ers were doing to them defensively, and let's be honest, the 49ers do this to a lot of teams. But for the Cowboys to leave that game with C.D. Lamb had one catch. Tony Pollard had like two touches the whole game. It was the entire, if you look, if you just look up the touches from that wildcard game last year,

and you look at how many went to Dalton Schultz, Cedric Wilson and Ezeko Elliott. It would blow your mind. It was the entire offense. And meanwhile, Amari Cooper did not really touch the ball. C.D. Lamb did not really touch the ball. Tony Pollard did not really touch the ball. And so you had this plotting, you know, painful offense,

again, inside a stadium where the crowd is wanting to turn on you and has no belief you can figure this out. Dak looks confused. Kellan can't string plays together that make any cogent sense. So just the real test here is when you get those zones, can you create conflicts with defenders? Can you give your quarterback options? Because too many times if you look at the Polaroid,

you know, that they do down on the sideline after the snap and you just see this dude's covered, this dude's covered, this dude's covered. What do you want to go with the football? Because there's no options here. And then, of course, your offensive line got their butt kicked by that 49ers front. Speaking of Zeke, we don't have to dig into this a lot, but 13 carries for 27 yards tonight. I don't want to see Zika 13 touches against the Niners.

You'll lighten those plays on fire. Honestly, I didn't think, here's what's funny. He averaged 2.1 yards of carry, and based on what I've seen all season, this was probably one of his better nights. I mean, he's, God bless him. He's just fallen so far. I assume this is it for him here, and I assume there's almost no market for him. So maybe he ends up back in Dallas on a real,

the real big haircut, I don't know, but it happens fast for these running backs. And so the fact that they gave Pollard more touches, not significantly more, but 18 to 15 in touches tonight, Pollard over Elliott, that is a sign of progress. It's still very frustrating to any cowboy fan that says, why are you giving these carries away? Zeke does serve a purpose for those tough yards, but it does feel even when he's at his own 20 that he's at the goal line and he's struggling to get that yard and a half and break the plane of the 21 yard line or something like that.

So it's a it's a tough go here because it brings into play the entire power mechanism in this franchise. Like if Kellyn Moore didn't want Zeke in the game this many downs, does he have the power to do it? Does Mike McCarthy have the power to do it? And just, you know, now we're back having the same conversation we've had for 20 years. is a flat circle, man. It really is. It really is. Speaking of Father Time coming for us, let's do a little bucks chatter before we get out of here about what happens next. Tom Brady is a free agent. It seems very unlikely that he will be back in Tampa Bay. It also seems unlikely that we just watch Tom Brady play his last game because I don't

think that's how that last game is going to go for Tom Brady. And he's going to have a market, I'd have to assume, even with some of those concerns we talked about earlier about maybe some of the changes in his play. the team I keep coming back to and the team I'll keep coming back to until somebody tells me I'm wrong is Vegas. Because of where they're at in their team building process, the relationship, he can step into an offense that he knows Devante Adams is there. They have past catchers. It almost makes too much sense where I feel like I'm missing something as to why that isn't going to be something that happens in a connection that happens. No, you know, it makes sense.

I will tell you, you know, just from from my perspective, there there's a, there's a, time where you just don't want to get hit anymore. And that drastically reduces your value. I think that's gone on with Aaron Rogers a little bit. I think we definitely saw it with Brett Farrb near the end. I don't know if we're there yet with Russell Wilson, but that would explain things. And so this this five-year period where quarterback age meant nothing, Robert,

maybe we've, maybe that's what one of the themes of 2022 is quarterback age started mattering again because these guys all realize that it hurts to play quarterback. back well at the National Football League level. It's a young man's game. So I tend to agree with you. I don't really expect him ever to take that Fox job. I know I'm not alone in that, although it looks like it pays really well if he wants to. But, you know, I sense that I would concur. We have not seen the last of Tom Brady at this point in time, even though as he changes into his street close probably this evening. He's probably going to be asking, does he still want to do this anymore? Yeah, I wouldn't blame him based on the way that tonight went, but I honestly think that answer might

push him to play a little bit more. I don't even want to try to comprehend, like, if this was Tom Brady's last game, because we don't have another two hours to talk about that. No, but it's been five months of him looking miserable. Yeah. Right? Has there been a time at this season where it looked like he was really having a great time? So let's, let's extend that to what's happening in Tampa, because I think that may be contributing to it. I agree. It look like tonight and some of the decisions that were made. It's a tough look and it's a tough justification to say we can just roll this back

next year with a different plan, a quarterback. Them punting the ball on fourth and three from midfield when they were already down two scores and you could feel the game already slipping away. It's a playoff game. Truly. Like you just can't do that. And the defense, I think, has looked a little bit static and easy to pick on. We talked about that.

I feel like Dak was playing like he had some answers to the tests. And you have a succession plan that was in place because they were winning. The continuity was worth it. It was worth just kind of saying, let's keep letting this ride. We're signing all these guys bringing them back. Brady's back. Let's see if we can push this over the finish line one more time. That didn't happen.

I have to assume a lot of different avenues, whether that's starting over with the coaches, retooling the roster a little bit, trading some big name guys. His team has $44 million over the 2023 salary cap. Right. We talk about teams going all in and it not working and picking up the pieces. This is the better example. It's not the Rams. The Rams have some bad contracts and traded away some picks.

This team, look at the deals that they signed. The Godwin deal, the Shaq Barrett deal, the Carlton Davis deal, the Vitavaya deal. This team really did everything they could to coax everyone back. Ryan Jensen's on a really recently renewed contract. To coax everyone back. So I have to assume they have to try to keep this group together, figure out a temperament, temporary quarterback solution to maximize this core, but it's pretty ugly when you consider all the factors. Yeah. And, and, you know, again, when you lose at this time of year, people,

people want changes made at the coaching spots, the coordinator spots, left which has been under fire the entire season. Todd Bowles has to a certain extent called a variation of his defense, but I think, I think we've seen time and time again when defensive coordinators become head coaches, they get a little, they get a little more conservative how they call their defense. Yeah, it's a really good point. I think that's true. Yeah, because, you know, now, now they have skin in the game for the outcome, not just how many times you hit the opposing quarterback. And so, you know, they went for it. And, you know, it's that interesting deal, even with the Rams and with the Buccaneers. I mean, they're two great examples because they have Lombardi trophies.

So there's these wonderful thought experiments played out before our eyes these last two years. And part of it was all in. We're doing it. We're going for it. We're going to see how long we keep this window open. Now, the windows don't seem to stay open very long, especially if you build on veteran players, but you get your trophy. So it's, it's that paradox, I suppose. But yeah, I would have, I would have very little faith in a Tom Brady list Buccaneers team with this current coaching staff, putting something out there that, that scares the rest of the NFC self. on the other hand, I'm wrong enough in this silly sport to realize that I have to admit what I don't know on a lot of fronts.

And, you know, there's a long ways to go. But, but, you know, just simple things like not really able to ever figure out how to run the ball. And maybe the most mind-blowing stats of every Buccaneer stat is 30-second and explosive play rate this year. I don't know that I've ever seen a team go from the most explosive aerial show to the least explosive. And think about it. When you're 32nd, you're below Houston. You're below some of the real impossible to watch offenses in this league. That's Tom Brady.

That's Mike Evans. That's Chris Godwin. Over there, the guy you used to know is Julio Jones. And I realize, you know, time waits for no man. But that is insane, Robert. You mentioned all those guys, and I have to assume, I don't know if I have, actually, I was going to say I have to assume a lot of those guys are back, they may try to save some money somewhere. And I don't know how they're going to do it. But if I were a team looking for some pieces and I had a lot of cap space to spend, I'd be picking up a phone and seeing who was available on that roster.

But let's just say they figure out a world where they can keep most of it together. They can do some saints, black magic bullshit and keep most of the roster intact. What happens a quarterback becomes a really interesting question. because now you're a team that almost needs an instant answer. You're picking in the 20s or 19th, wherever they end up after losing this game. So it's going to be difficult to find one in this year's draft. Do you go shop in the veteran quarterback market just to say, this can keep us competitive, whether it's a Derek Carr or somebody in that range,

just because it immediately gives us a reasonable answer with a roster that we need that for right now. Yeah, maybe you just talk about a lot of. Vegas, a little bit of a quarterback swap. It's funny, the same name popped in both of our heads as you were forming that thought. And it actually, that actually probably is the path of, of least resistance for them to try to run it back and at least remain competitive on the fly. If in fact, that's something they want to do. For all, for all I know, you could argue, you know, not necessarily strip it down for parts, but, but maybe kind of turn the page and, bite the bullet with some dead cap situations there and just try to expedite the

changing of the guard. It's, again, it's wild how fast the contenders and the heavyweights in the NFC have sort of cycled through this really fast. And down is up and up is down and the Detroit Lions are going to be a favorite next year. You know, it's just, it's, it's a wild ride at how fast it happens and how hard it is to sustain winning, which means. maybe takes us back to the Tom Brady conversation and just reflecting on, you know, a dude who's more successful as a person in terms of winning Super Bowls and winning

playoff games than pretty much any franchise in NFL history. It's, you know, it's beyond words. The wild ride continues for the Dallas Cowboys. So you get one more week of having to figure this team out as they go to San Francisco for what should be a very fun game. Bobstrom, thank you very, very much for the time. This was wonderful. I really, really appreciate it. It's always a pleasure. And like I said, I'm a big fan of what you do. So keep it up, man. Thank you very much. It means a lot. All right, guys, that's all we got. Thank you so much for listening. If you have not listened to, I guess it's still the Monday hangover with Mike Sando. So yes, we're still calling at that. Mike and I just kind of did a news and notes kind of grab bag about

some of the things that have happened, whether it's Lamar Jackson's contract, whether it's the Cardinals' GM hiring. We also talk with Jordan Rodrig about Sean McVeyer returning. We talked to our Chargers writer, Daniel Popper, about Brandon Staley's job with the Chargers and what that might look like. So fun show really digging on the last, I don't know, 72 hours of news that weren't totally related to the game. So please go listen to that. If you have it, Nate and I will be back on Wednesday morning tomorrow.

We're doing awards. It's awards time. Picking MVP's. We're doing all the fun stuff. So please come back and check that out. Please subscribe to the athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show is where you can. do that. Really appreciate you guys.

Grandin along with us here over the last couple weeks. It's Plath Time. We're having a good time. I hope you are too. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.