The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Divisional Round Recap: Ravens, Chiefs, 49ers and Lions advance to Championship Weekend

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

The Ravens dominated. The 49ers had just enough. The Lions took care of business. And the Chiefs and Bills gave us another thriller. At the end of it all, we've got our Championship Weekend matchups: Chiefs-Ravens and Lions-49ers. Robert Mays and Nate Tice break down the Divisional Round on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. The athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing awesome. That game delivered.

It was great. A divisional weekend. Can't top this. This is exactly what you want. And so going right in with Bill's chiefs, just leaves he feeling great. I mean, I get I'm a neutral fan. I don't have an attachment to the Bills at all. I'm sure it's pretty sad night.

for them in Buffalo, but as a neutral fan enjoying the NFL, wow, this was a very fun weekend with some very fond games. It doesn't get any better than that. Watching that first half, I struggled to even keep up emotionally with what was going on. We were truly watching a classic, and I know there's some weirdness at the end. It was kind of a messy fourth quarter after a very clean first three quarters of the game, but this is all you can want on divisional around weekend. Even the Lions Bucks game, which we'll get to, was incredibly entertaining. This game between a weird NFC South winner and this upstart Lions team that was like, okay, like what's Baker Mayfield going to do in Detroit?

That game was wildly entertaining. Obviously what happened last night, the Packers gave the Niners every single bit that they could stand. But it was all leading up to this. This was the main event. And it was a main event between arguably the two best quarterbacks, the two best players in the NFL period. And it did not disappoint.

We knew that they were capable of this. I was in Kansas City two years ago. and watch them go haymaker for haymaker for an entire four quarters and produce one of the greatest playoff games we've ever seen. And this was a worthwhile follow-up. This is one of those, like when you go see Fast 4 and it was great. And then Fast 5 is better. That's kind of what this was. The same kind of ridiculous chaotic energy of a sequel that somehow topped the one that we had just watched. And I didn't even know if that was possible. But with these two guys, anything is on the table. And I absolutely love it.

Oh, man. I mean, just looking into stats, I had to make sure I had no filters on on true media that we look up. So because the numbers look fake. Both, both quarterbacks had a 56% or greater dropback success rate tonight, which is just, that's ridiculous. That's, you know, lead the league, obviously. But like both QBs had it. But also the bills, bills had 34 design run place tonight. 21 of them were successful.

Like, absolutely absurd. But just watching both of these offenses, the bills have found their. identity this year, the ability to pivot, do all the other stuff. We'll talk about that in a minute, but also the Chiefs kind of, you know, outside one, two Mikul Hartman fumbles, kind of like escaped some of the wonkiness that has had this offense has had this entire year. Starting with last week and now going into this week, you could see them finding a rhythm, plus their defense, which was getting gashed a little bit, but it's understandable when you're going against that Bill's offense, but playing their best ball, which is exactly what you want in January.

You said that stat. It's like 24 of 30, 21 of 34. A lot of that. was in the first half, though. That was the story of the game, is that when we got deep enough into the game, the Chiefs defense was able to bow up just enough, especially against the run, where the bills ran into a little bit of trouble that the Chiefs never ran into. The Chiefs moved the ball at will through this entire game, whether it was through the air on the ground. If that McCle-Hardman Fumble doesn't happen, the game is out of reach. I mean, this is a double-digit win for Kansas City, and they had absolutely zero resistance on that side of the ball the entire game. And we could talk about why, but this is a banged-up defense, but we also saw the type of Chiefs offense that was always looming.

It was always there to be had if we wanted it. The offensive line played fantastic. Mahomes was under absolutely no pressure. They did whatever they wanted in terms of him sitting in the pocket, and they ran the ball really, really efficiently. So if the line was going to step up, which they did against Miami last week, they played excellent against the dolphins last week, but they played excellent against a banged-up dolphin's front. to come out and do this against a Bill's team that wasn't injured on their front four. It's the only place that actually had all their guys to assert themselves that way. And then you have a receiver, two receivers, three receivers making a player to each in high leverage moments.

This was the Marquez Valdez Scatling Redemption game after a lot of the moments that he had this season. And so all that falls in line and you still have number 15 playing quarterback. This is always possible even if the Bill's defense was a little banged up. we have to acknowledge that. Yeah. I mean, right away, both quarterbacks were just, you could tell. It's like, oh, we're in for a good one. Yeah, there's locked in.

Just the whole time. Right away, it was just looked great. But yeah, the Chiefs had nine explosive plays today, which is huge. You know, you definitely want to see them. But again, they felt like they're in control, turn the right dials. I thought the run game definitely, well, you just talked about the offense line, zero sacks, period, on the entire night. Neither quarterback got sacked, which is pretty crazy considering what funky looks

these defenses can do to offense the lines and quarterbacks. combination of the offensive line play and those guys just making a quarterbacks. A half dozen Houdini moves over the course of the game. I'm going to compare these two guys to another quarterback that played today and identifying pressure in empty situations. We'll talk about that a minute. But also Kelsey probably looked the best he has all year. He actually looked happy. And we've talked about that.

We needed him to play at a certain level if the other guy, if you're going to have a receiving core full of whoever's and a very specific kind of player in Rishi Rice, you needed Travis Kelsey to play at a level that he had not played at a lot of, for a lot of this season. And he did tonight. Yeah. It helped that he was going against AJ Klein. That was the one part, especially in the first half, where poor AJ Klein had absolutely no shot against Travis Kelsey.

The fact that AJ Klein had to be on the field because he was calling their defensive plays, I don't know if that's a statement about how smart and adept AJ Klein is or how incapable all the other guys on the roster were of doing that. He's been there for like a week and a half. I thought maybe one of the safeties would do it. You know, it doesn't just have to be a linebacker. Yeah, that was interesting. Do you know, this is, this was the lowest amount of snaps or lowest rate of snaps that Kelsey played his entire career since his first full season, which. In this game tonight?

No, no, period. This entire season. Oh, this season. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So that, it makes a lot more sense that they're rotating him, but it's just, he's getting older. He's my age. You know, so it's just, but watching him tonight, this was the first time when he had the ball in his hands.

You can tell he gets dreaded being tackled now because it sucks getting knifed down at your. knees and your calves and your ankles over and over. See, this was the first time I, this whole season, because obviously it's a divisional round. He's like, all right, I'll take those. Yeah, you can pop me in the, pop me in the thighs a couple times. That's not too bad. I'll get those yards. But I thought the plan from the Chiefs was right off the bat, especially in the run game.

They knew exactly what they wanted to get to. The Pacheco Touch Zone was this play I want to talk about, which is split zone, which is where the tight end works across formation. But they did it a bunch with the ghost action, which is that fake end around. they did it on the first drive at least three times. And then the Pachaco touchdown was kind of the epitomew of it, but at least probably five, six times. And then also using Creed Humphrey, Rombo did a good job pointing out,

using Creed Humphrey as a polar, which was just, that's the Jason Kelsey wipe. Mitch Morris does it as well. But haven't seen that weaponized as much this year. And now that, again, this team played with confidence. It's like, oh, yeah, you're the Chiefs. And not just the past game in Mahomes, but actually the run game as well. And if people are trying to figure out, where was this Chief Chiefs team all year, I think some of the plays the receivers made are moments we didn't see for most of the season,

but this run game was not very good. And this is something that we knew needed to click into place for them to reach their potential over the course of the postseason. And we've seen that over the last couple weeks. And that's extremely encouraging. So I think that's something that definitely, that's, again, if you're trying to figure out why is this feel different? Why does this feel like this team is better and more potent than they were?

I think that's an aspect of it. There's also a chance that we've got some late career. Rear Spurs stuff going on where they know what they need to do in the regular season and they're kicking up a notch when we get to the playoffs. But I'm not willing to write that off as the reason just yet. I think that's a little bit more difficult when you're playing 16 NFL games. Yeah. In Mahomes, you know, he was pretty animated throughout this year. He wasn't like it was. He wasn't liking what was going on. So yeah, there is some of that always, I'm like, ah, we can kind of toy around this one. But it's the NFL. It's always really hard. But a bunch of, speaking of just even Kelsey,

but a ton of tight end usage, which is something they've really leaned into after their buy. Last week, they used a bunch of 13 personnel. This week they used a lot of 13 personnel and 12 personnel. Super successful out of it. I think 13 personnel, what was it? 11 plays and they had a 72% success rate. So that's kind of what you want to do. Out of any look is, yeah, 7 or 8 out of 11, yeah, those are actually successful.

That's exactly how you want to attack. But I thought that was something we thought they might lean into. And that's kind of the simplest game plan, the one that makes. made the most sense, especially on the bills, want to play defense. And as AJ Klein's of the world are on the field, it makes even more sense. And I thought they did a great job all night attacking out of it. Two plays that stick out, one from each quarterback that were just those, I cannot believe that just happened moments in this game. The ball that Josh Allen threw to Kulishikir at the pylon is one of the most ridiculous throws I've seen in a very long time. Him, he was going to run.

Then he decided not to run. He spills and escapes a little bit to his left. On the move, he puts that ball in a shoebox, like just going out of bounds in a two by two box that is the only place he could have put that football. And Shakir did a fantastic job hanging onto it. So that was just, I literally said, oh my God, out loud on the couch when that happened. And then Mahomes, there was a second and eight at the end of the third quarter. And the bills didn't bring a lot of heat today. And they blitzed on this play. Two guys came off the edge.

He steps up in the pocket on the move, hits MBS on that big crosser. It was man coverage. MVS got lost in the traffic. And those two moments, even in the second half, that was a little bit less back and forth than the first, just to display of what these guys are capable of on this stage in this moment. And that's what we got a lot of tonight. Oh, man.

But the chiefs obviously had a whole bunch of explosive plays, but I came up what would they end up with? They only had five third downs this entire night. And again, that's the run game, but it's also the brilliance of Mahomes, and just how down to down he's able to just pepper defenses. And that just the entire night, just each play helps when everybody's catching the ball that that really makes the offense feel like it's clicking a lot better.

But that was a big part of it. But I mean, right off the bat, I'm glad you brought that step up one. There is another moment. They, Bill's ran the same kind of third down defense they did last year in the regular season game, which is that odd double, which is where two guys are spying the quarterback, and depending on which side he loops, that other guy goes, and where the runnerback is, yada, but it doesn't matter. Last year, he throws a pick on it because Matt Mulano loops around, heats him up,

ends up throwing a pick, ends the game. This year, he had a plan. And it was again, it's like, oh, man, this guy's adding layers to his game to the stuff that was giving him issues right away. But again, they're just clicking all the right buttons with just other than giving the ball to McCull-Hardman in high, high-leveraged situations. But other than that, really clicking. So let's dig into some of that because I think that Josh Allen did a fantastic job

today of controlling the game, especially in the early part of the game, getting the ball out of his hands, having answers against pressure, leaning on the run game, and on that last drive two moments where he didn't decide to do that. He tries to go for the home run. He goes for the dagger in the end zone when he had digs underneath. And it's just like, ah, you know, like he played within himself the entire game. And then on that final drive, he tries to stretch it's just a tiny bit. And they have to kick that 44-yard field goal and Bass shakes it. And it's a tough moment for Tyler Bass. I'll live with that for the rest of his life. At the same time, you don't want to put that on a 44-yard field goal with a guy who was erratic last week in a windy stadium with your

season on the line. So I thought that Alan was phenomenal and he was nearly flawless. But those last couple decisions, it's just you think one of those goes differently. They give themselves maybe a chance to go for it on fourth down. Are we talking about the bills winning this game and this being the crowning achievement of this era rather than another example of them falling short? Right. And then, but then it's hard.

It's the double edge short of it all. It's like you love... I would never want to take that away from him. I know. And you love watching Josh Allen rip a freaking 63-yarder like... But that's another missed opportunity is that Diggs probably should have caught that ball. And there was multiple throws to Shurfield today that he probably should have caught down the sideline. The idea that the Bills receivers are the ones that let their quarterback out in this game is kind of a weird twist considering how this season went.

And the other guys that, you know, the Kincaid's and Shikers of the world stepped up. And right away, you could tell Joe Brady was like, oh, I'm not targeting. digs, watch this, and then you like just peppered up through, put them in the number three spot. I gave him a hand off. But then didn't really hear much for other three quarters. Once they got off the opening script. So I thought, again, that's something that's been happening this past eightish weeks. But the other guys have stepped up.

But it is interesting when those big moments, like you just don't feel that digs dagger that we've seen maybe prior to three years. And I think that was the missteps from the bills in that final drive. And then we can get to the missteps from the chiefs. the Hartman handoff. We've gone back to this meme a lot, but this is very much of the enough of the clowns sort of stuff. Seriously, dude. The idea that they almost lost the game on that play would have been the most they died as they lived moment for this version of the Kansas City Chiefs that you possibly could have imagined. It would be McCle Hardman fumbling on a wide receiver handoff in short yardage.

Getting dragged down by two guys and he reaches for the goal line. I was like, no wonder this guy played defense in college to start. Like the, it's just lack of awareness. I was scream. That was just, the coach in me was screaming. That was bad. Him and Agnew, Jamal Agnew for the Jacks, both these former defensive guys that these coaches just can't quit.

And it's just like they just show up with the lack of IQ, football IQ all the time. It just happens over and over. But that one, that one would, I couldn't believe it because they're cooking. The run game was heating up, like just marching on them. And they're like, yeah, let's, let's give that. Let's give Hartman another touch. He fumbled the last one. And that's what was so frustrating about.

I think it was their second to last drive, too, is that after the, I can't remember the exact time, you know, but they get the ball around midfield post-fumble after the bills did not score on that drive. And they're running the ball down their throats and then they go away from it again. It's just, just, Andy, I understand you got the best quarterback in the world and one of the best quarterbacks we've ever seen. They cannot stop you on the ground right now. Just grind the game down, let it end. Instead, Buffalo gets the ball back. I thought they did a fantastic job of playing ball control on their final possession.

Let's get just a little quick completions. Here's one of Kincaid. Here's one to knocks on a big fork down. Let's just move the ball, trickle the ball down the field, no clock. They did everything in the exact right way that you would want them to over the course of that entire drive. And then again, those two aggressive choices from Allen, and they're forced to kick the field goal. Dude, I just looked up. They had, so the bill said drives of 14 plays, 11 plays, 12 plays, 15 plays, and then 16 plays to end the game right there.

If you told me a Josh Allen-led offense would be nickel and diming defenses like Drew Burris. That's why I loved it, though. That's amazing. It's the balance of everything. Yes. It's what we wanted. It is the exact, it's exactly what I was going to say. It is the offense we wanted them to be coming into the season.

Coming in for last year from two seasons ago against the bucks and whatever, November or December, since that point, this is the culmination of this offense. And that's why it's so devastating to fall short. And that's what it felt like. I have no frustration with it. There was a play. I want to say it was the first half, and I filed it away because I wanted to bring it up when we were having this exact exact discussion, because I knew we would. The movement on one of these runs that Osirons, Torrance got, and then McGovern, is that his last name? Is it Connor McGovern? God, you always do it is. Whoever the left guard is. Yes, yes. I think it is. You always do this. I'm always like, yes. Yes, I believe it is. Yes. It's Connor McGovern.

He seals Chris Jones is a beautiful block, and they probably get like six or seven yards on it. I'm sitting there watching that play. I was like, this is it. This was the, this was the, vision to be able to do this. And then you sprinkle in the Josh Allen runs as part of that equation in the postseason. And it's just this, we've said it a million times, this slow heartbeat version of the bill's offense that is made for these sorts of moments. And it still wasn't enough because that guy is on the other side. And what's so awesome is seeing that, and again, I'm a neutral person. If the bills had won this game, it would have been great. But I think if you're trying to tell a story about this, watching this version of a Chiefs team get where they got to.

Watching this version of a Patrick Mahomes led team get where they got to. And we still end up in the same place where they're in the AFC championship again. This guy has been inevitable the entire time he's been in the league and to see him solve this problem that is a new problem and to watch them do it over the course of the season. It's just a reminder that even in a down year, a relatively down year for this guy, he is different. He is just different. He is unlike anything we've probably ever seen at the position.

and to do this in a season where it wasn't clicking for them on all soners, to go on the road for the first time and have to do it, is remarkable. His career has been remarkable. It's been unlike anything we've ever seen in the first six years of a quarterback's career, and he continues to wow us at every single turn. Six straight, Final Fours, six straight. That's just, that's insanity. I mean, I think Andy Reid did the same thing when he was in Philly, actually.

We already do five, four or five, but it's just watching Mahomes do this and now seeing all these versions from the 2018 version, which was literally, it was high flying. Like, that's the best way you described. RPO is everywhere. Downfield RPO's Hill, Kelsey, just everything. Everything worked. And then just watching it into the nickel and dime version in 2021. And then getting into last year where it was like, oh, this kind of balanced version of what actually the bills are kind of going through right now.

Hey, you get the Mahomes plays, but we have a good run game. And we get other pass catchers outside of Kelsey can help out and just be, you know, get those efficient plays. place. You know, Juju Smith, Schuster is Kincade in this instance, you know, kind of that version. And then now just watching this and even with the quote unquote struggles, they were struggles. I mean, let's be honest. But then when now watching just, even when the run game is bad, even when guys are dropping the ball, he is inevitable. It's just that he keeps fighting back and battling back all the, you know, fourth quarter stats that he has, you know, when he's down by a touchdown or more, you know, that he's just ridiculous compared to just the actual standard or just the average of what, what quarterbacks are in the NFL. But it's just, that's why it's almost like, really, we did all this and just again? And especially how the bills have to feel.

That's how the bills have to feel. Yes. We got this close and we had this version of them that felt vulnerable and they still couldn't do it. And that's why the off season that they're staring down, it's tough. It's tough to stomach this one because there are some teams that, okay, you look at their cap makeup, you look at the roster and you think, okay, there's a path. There's a very clear future to how with one or two moves, you can really run back the version that we saw, maybe get a little bit younger, add a couple pieces. We're good to go. The spills team, it's messier than that. There are $43 million over the 24-4 cap as it currently sits right now.

And there aren't that many easy levers for them to pull. Allen only has a $24 million-dollar base salary. So even if you wanted to borrow from that, you know, there's not a lot you can get there. A lot of contracts, they've just handed out. and a lot of ways they could save money. These are guys that are hugely important pieces of the team. You know, guys that wouldn't be a huge dead money hit. So it'll be fascinating to see how they work through this.

And coming into the game during pregame warmups, they announced Hyde and Poir together at the end as the last guys that they announced out there. And they did that for a reason. These are two guys that I think have embodied this era of Bill's football. They came in in 2017 2017 as free agents. And this team was built through free agency in a way that a lot of contenders really weren't early in their time. It was a lot of veteran additions that weren't through the draft. And that path was strange.

And these two guys really embodied, I think, the cultural shift that we saw from the organization. Hyde's a free agent. And he's not the only one. Gabe Davis is a free agent. Dane Jackson is a free agent who was a nice debt piece for them. Trent Sherfield is a free agent. A.J. Epinessa is a free agent. Tyrol Dotson, who played a role for them,

late in the season as a free agent. There's a lot of guys who are going to be moving on here. Leonard Floyd, who gave them a ton of snaps this year as a free agent. So how they retool this and how they try to come back next year, questions about the receiving court and how it's going to be made up. What does Diggs' future look like? It's a pivot point. And I think that they'll be competitive for the most part as long as Josh Allen's there.

He is that good and he is that crucial to a contender-level team. But outside of that and really just the offense. of line, there are questions at pretty much every other level of this roster that they're going to have to answer this offseason. That first wave of free agents they brought in is kind of, I actually knew a handful of those players just from my coaching and scouting career. And it was all these high personality guys, just full blown, Andre Holmes. I know you like that one.

Pat DeMarco. Yeah. Even John Feliciano went over there. Just all these guys that are high, high, high football IQ guys, high high, high, Michael hard worker, establish a culture. I mean, culture seems like the buzzword of the weekend because of what's happening in Detroit, justifiably. But Buffalo kind of did the same thing.

They rebuilt the entire culture with these kind of... They are absolutely a touch point when you're thinking about how a rebuild should look and what path you can take to get there. We think of Josh Allen. And yes, Josh Allen was a prize and a gem and they helped develop him and all that. But that early playoff run that they made was because all these vets stepped up and they just had just great personality. The safeties are the huge part of that.

And I know we keep hitting on this because of the quarterbacks. When you have sustained success, you start seeing the revolving characters. But it's still weird when it happens. We can talk about it. We know these guys are in their 30s. We know what happens to players in their 30s. They were hanging on to it, though. I think it happens quicker for other teams.

The chiefs were ready to move on from Patrick Mahomes. They got rid of other guys that were veteran pieces on those teams. The bills, I think, were hanging on to it for as long as they possibly could. They were financially kicking the can down the road in ways that the chiefs hadn't for the last couple years. And at a certain point, you've got to let go with the rope. Yeah. And that's where they are right now.

I mean, but how they play defense, it matters. I mean, they totally. That continuity is hugely important. Yeah. So that's hard to let go. And just if you let go of one, okay, which one are you picking? You know, so I mean, obviously they get the decision kind of made for them now with both. But it's just, yeah, it's just, honestly, just we talk about all the times, but really when you see it happen and like those moments when you announce it, it's like, oh, yeah.

All right. So what now? This bill's team on offense found this new, new identity. Okay, what's the identity shift on the defense side? Which is going to be so fascinating. And I think that this is where the lack of stars they've gotten in the draft and some of those drafts not really being full of hits ends up mattering. Because one of the reasons that the chiefs have been able to survive as they've made

the difficult decision to move on from expensive veterans and kind of reset who they wanted to be is that they've crushed the draft. They've gotten so many pieces, especially on defense. And the bills drafts have been fine. but they really do lack a lot of difference-making players. And they're starting to look better. You know, what Bernard has done or what he did this year, they missed him in a big way tonight.

Shakir seems like a really nice piece moving forward. Spencer Brown has gotten better at right tackle. So they do have some pieces that they've found, but it still feels like there's going to be somewhat of a lack of underlying young talent as they move on from some of the veterans. And that's going to be another thing that they have to sort through this offseason. So it's going to be fascinating. Yeah.

but I think that again when you have number 17 it's hard not to feel good about your future it also feels it's also very very difficult to let moments like this slip through your hands and this is one of those that they're going to be exactly and this is one of those they're going to be thinking about for a very very long time in the same way that that 13 seconds lingered over this franchise for a while all right let's keep going here we're going to now go reverse chronological order we're going to start it right it's going to go in chronological order we're going to start at the beginning now and get back to the first game that we watched this weekend.

That's right. That's right. Start at the end and let's go back to the beginning now. Let's chat about Ravens Texans. This to me was just a reminder of how dominant this Ravens team is. The Texans come out in the first half and I love the gameplay. I just absolutely loved it and we talked about it on our preview show. Are we going to see them bring a little bit more heat because you have to introduce some level of volatility into the game. Yeah.

man my god Domeico Ryans went up to that speaker and he cranked it to 11 my friend that one goes to 11 there was not some subtle third down blitz that we're going to break down like hey remember that third and 11 it's like yeah which one just they just brought yeah very frequent blitzing which you expect it because that's that's how you have it was it was the correct decision and it was just a reminder to me of and I know Domingo Ryans is the defensive coordinator on that team Matt Burke is but I think that Damico Ryans is a phenomenal defensive coach a nominal defensive coach.

And one of the coolest things about the evolution of those Niners defenses is the pressure stuff. As they added layers onto who they were, their blitz designs are awesome, even if we didn't see a ton of them. And that was, they were throwing out everything they could against this Ravens team. And in the first half, they caught him. It was Rocky coming out and fighting right-handed. I mean, that's how it felt.

And they jumped on the Ravens a little bit. You got a Palmer Turn touchdown. The offense was choppy to say the least, but they're playing against. the best defense in football. So that's not necessarily surprising. A lot of pre-snap penalties shot themselves in the foot a little bit. But still at halftime, they're very much in this. And then the Ravens get to half, take a deep breath, come out, a couple very important

adjustments and really show you that this is a different class of football team that you're talking about. Both sides adjusted. The Ravens defense went, hey, we don't have to blitz. We can just win with four. That's easy. They only blitz twice in the second half. They blitzed, I think, eight times in the first half, maybe seven, something like that. And then the other thing was the offensive adjustment.

And again, this kind of seems like this was the whole flow of the weekend was they were getting blitzed aton. So they were going into five-man protections and getting the ball out or Lamar just being awesome and making a guy miss. And again, that seems to be a common theme. Making guys miss and making plays happen when there's a free runner. Hmm, it seems like all the best guys can do that. Maybe that's important. Having a quarterback who is more than just a cog in the machine is very useful at this stage of the proceedings. Because it literally is breaking the rules.

It's saying they're screwed there. The defense won. And you're not only saying, no, it's neutral. It's the offense wins. It's the most defeating thing for a defense player. But I mean, the offense, the whole game, man, 10 explosive plays, 33 successful plays on the day. They were methodical once they kind of figured it out. but the Texans blitzed some 21 times,

eight first downs on those, 10 successful plays. That's pretty good for Lamar. Lamar could be volatile. And I'm sure a lot of those were in the second half. Because in the first half, they struggled. This is the stat on offense that really says it for me. So the Texas blitz on like 70% of dropbacks,

more than 70%. In the first half, Lamar averaged 3.92 seconds was the average time to throw. He was 7 of 11 for 52 yards with 3 sacks. So 39% passing success rate in the first time. half. In the second half, his average time to throw was 2.48 seconds. He was nine of 11 for 100 yards, zero sacks, 73% passing success rate. And you could see it. And they talked about it. They came out afterwards in the game. And Lamar said, me and Monka talked about it. We said,

we got to adjust. We're trying to push the ball too far down the field. We got to get rid of it quickly. And a ton of moments from those first couple drives, likely on that little stick route against the pressure, two short completions, the Justice Hill on one drive that ended up getting them in range. He was just getting rid of the ball and getting it out of his hands so fast, and they had an answer. And so the fact that they got jumped on, again, took a beat and said, all right, well, how are we going to figure this out? We can figure it out. That's what we talked about on Thursday. Why is this Ravens team different than the ones who have petered out in the playoffs? Because they have pivot points. They can be whatever the fuck they want to be depending on the situation. And they got one of the best

players in the world at quarterback and a lot of dudes elsewhere. That's a flower's route when he snapped off Stingley in the first half. It's like, these are different sorts of guys than we have been dealing with on this Ravens offense for a very long time. And that's why the end result is probably going to be different. I mean, different guys. And then you say you like Rashad Bateman catching one way over the middle, different running back. All these guys are just getting first down, big play, first down, different ones. But that's when you're blitzing like that, I mean, the Dolphins game when Brian Flores pants to Greg Roman on Thursday night a couple years ago. It was, oh my God, I was at Cesar's.

I remember just watching it at the sportsbook and I was just like, wow. Like it was embarrassing. And the plan used to be, and I'm talking on both sides of my mouth here, the plan used to be, Lamargo do something. That now, and this is the Bills and the Ravens offense, we're going to talk about this. They still have that capability. Lamar go be awesome. But now they have.

That's what the first half was. He had to scramble for them to find positive plays in the first half because they didn't have an answer. And you scrambled well, but you don't want to live that way. Of course not. It's crazy. It's just hard to do over 60 plays. So now they have plays in structure. They have a passing answer, which is Greg Roman did not have that.

Like, I'll just be honest. That was with something you can make him simplistic. He's going to throw a hitch. That's what they did. That was their check. Seven man saw I throw hitches. That gets gamed up. What did you see what just happened last week with the Eagles against the Bucks?

Like, it's very easy, very predictable. And man, it was just really cool to see them because it was methodical. Like, it was like, you could tell they're like, oh, we're getting into five-man protection. Just a cell to the flat, you're beating Perryman. Like, you're beating him to the flat. He can't keep up with you step for step. It's just, it's just physics. Like, it's just that's how it works.

But again, it's a simple answer. And it sounds simple, but in the heat of the moment, that's hard to do. It is hard to go. Because you're leaning into the punch. You're going, hey, they're blitzing us. Let's get, what's have only five guys blocking. But now you can get better answers and different answers. It's just a different answer that's.

they found and yeah, compliments to them. I also, once we get through the defense, I have a fun, that first blitz they brought on the third down was a freaking spicy. It was the queen coming all the way across the formation. We'll talk about it in a second. Yeah, I know, but it was my next note and I was like, oh, I got hold on that. So I want to focus on the offense just a little bit more because two things that I think jump out to me.

When they hired Munkin, I think both of us were extremely excited. Oh, yeah. Because he's had a great track record as a play car. You go back and I remember the last time he was an offensive play car in the NFL, those Bucks teams, 2018, 2019, those are fun teams. Really, I guess it was just 2018. That was a fun team. It was a fun brand of offense.

Saints Week 1 game was amazing. Remember that way? And he goes to Georgia and again, that flexibility and all the different stuff that they were willing to do, I think you could envision a version of this Ravens team that had those layers to the offense and had that flexibility. Those are what James Cook was making a living on at Georgia. same exact play. Literally the same exact play. And so Lamar Jackson and this improved receiving core filtered through that sort of

offensive approach, this was always the goal. It was always the goal to reach this sort of unit when you got into playoff time. And everything about the Ravens this season, these are organizational victories. Lamar's improvement, the flexibility on offense, and then what this defense looks like. It is hard. And teams run into this. And maybe I'm talking from my own personal experience here. You want to grasp on to comfort and certainty, even if it can be a little bit underwhelming. Wink Martin had some really good defenses for the Ravens for years.

And their willingness to say, you know what, Wink, thank you very much, really appreciate the time. This isn't going to take us where we want to go. That's hard. That's scary. A lot of teams aren't willing to make those sorts of tough decisions. And the Ravens did. And by bringing in Mike McDonald and transforming into what this is,

they have created a defense that is so flexible and chameleon-like that they can be whatever they want for whatever the situation is. They never have to fight against the current. And that's why I'm so impressed by that. When we watched Cleveland last week, you have all these heavy boxes and single high coverages against this Texas team that can't run the ball. And I'm just sitting here like, am I crazy? Am I taking crazy pills? Why would you play them this way? And then the Ravens come out.

and they played 70% nickel to the Texans heavy personnel. The Texans had a 25% rushing success rate against nickel looks in this game. They had an 18% rushing success rate overall because the Raven said, why would we play you like you can run the ball when you can't? And they pants them as a result. So it just, this defense being able to be whatever it needs to be for the situation, again, I think just one more layer that makes this team so, so scary. And it's just when you match it's NFL's all about matchups.

So it's okay, who am I more scared of? C.J. Stroud and Nico Collins or Devin Singletary. And no offense to Devin Singletary. But yeah, yeah, Stroud and Nico Collins are a little more scary. So let's, let's defend that. Let's, let's make sure that's covered. Even like Dalton Schultz is probably, you know, neutral single Terry.

Singletary's had a nice season. So he looks fast. He might be double Terry. But the run game is bad. It is objectively bad. Why would you play them that way? That's how they want you to play them. And single up Nico Collins for 60 plays.

Yeah, you don't want to do that. But that first third down blitz, though, and this is the intelligence of this defense. But also that wink Martindale to McDonald kind of switch is a great example of don't like good, be the enemy of great. Exactly. You know, that's what it was. It was like, nope, we need more. We need more. Hey, that was the Alex Smith move, I guess.

To go home. It's like, hey, we got, no, we need more out of this. And those are often franchise changing decisions when you're willing to make those sorts of tough choices. Yeah. But that, okay, so that first third down. Blitz. They ended up with a Strout Scramble. Right away when you're seeing C.J. Strouds Scramble, you're like,

uh-oh. Because that means he's only doing that. Like, that's the last case. He can do it, but no, no, that's the last. That's seventh on of his options. But he, so they create a 5-0 look. So that's five defenders, including Roquant Smith across the five offensive linemen.

Texans do 5-0, as every NFL offensive line would do in a normal unadjusted game plan. And what that creates is the running back because the six-man protection has any off ball defender that comes if they blitz. Five offense alignment have the five on ball defenders. They have any off ball defender. So, Queen blitzes and Roquant Smith leaves the line of scrimmage to run underneath Nico Collins. So it was just perfect because you're gaming up the 50 and 50 protection. So you're leaving six blockers to block five guys. So that's already a negative one count for the offense right there. Boom. Now, usually the answer if there's a voided coverage in a normal blitz, if you are bringing five is hey, let's go to our ISO guy in the inbreaker because there's going to be a voided area. So what are the Ravens do? Let's have Roquon Smith fly underneath there and take that away. And that's why Stroud went, ah, because he's like, I'm not throwing that.

Has to eat it, has to take the sack and they get off the field. But it was just a great understanding of protection. It was a math changer. And it was a great understanding of the answers that the Texans are going to try to get to. And Strau's going to try to get to. It's like, that's the difference between what we see with the Browns. And Jim Schwartz does some amazing stuff. But this is a new age kind of version.

is what we're seeing more and more that these top tier defense coordinators do because that's true understanding of offense for rules. Yeah, it's modern football. This is the, this is the pinnacle of modern defensive football. And that's why, listen, coordinators aren't always great head coaches. It's a different job. It takes a different skill set. But if we're looking at the resume that a coordinator is putting out there, he's as interesting as anybody. I think he's probably been in the conversation for the best coordinator offense or defense in the NFL this year, period. I mean, he consistently is doing this week after week against often the best offenses in the league. I mean, the run that they've had to go against against these really, really good units has been extremely impressive. And outside of that

one Rams game, and we know what the Rams offense is capable of, they're winning these matchups pretty consistently. One of the few teams says they answer. Run the ball in a quarterback that's willing to make tough throws. It's like how many teams have that? Yeah, they're a top five offense. Eventually, the other guys get paid too. I mean, McVeigh is very good at this. So that's going to happen every once in a while. Outside of the schematics, though, what's really cool about this Ravens defense is that we have gotten these level up seasons

from everybody. Everybody. You look at every single level of the defense. You have guys playing the best football of their careers. Roquant Smith is obviously an all-pro. Kyle Hamilton's been one of the best defenders in the NFL this year. But what jumped out to me watching that game

was how dominant the front was. Truly dominant the entire game. Even if they were bringing four, C.J. Strad was pressured on about half of his dropbacks in this game. And it was everybody. Metabique was a monster. The entire game was a monster. He had seven pressures, I think, over the course of the day.

It didn't matter who he was going against. Drew Scruggs had a bad afternoon going against that front. But, Peter said some, Michael Pierce said some moments. The ballad of juice Scrugs, man. He's a rookie. You know, he's a rookie playing out of position. He's supposed to be a center. He's supposed to be a center.

This is a young team. This is a young team. I agree to him as a center only guy. I don't know. I don't know if he could hold up by guard. He started the left guard for multiple games. This is a young team playing against a wagon on the road and the place. But Matabike was phenomenal.

The other interior guys, I thought, had really nice days. Pierce, I mean, everybody that they trotted out there. But the edges, too. I mean, Owe got tonsil a couple times. Clowny was phenomenal. And that's what we've seen. We've just seen this entire unit, whether it's one-year free agents like Clownie or in-house guys like Madabique or O-Way.

these guys really step up in their development plan all at the same time and all at the right moment that's allowed this defense to become what it is when you combine it with the plans that they have every single week. And even understanding where the weaknesses are. So like, okay, Darby's in there. How many times do you feel like you felt his impact, good or bad? That's a good thing. That's understanding. And that's been all season.

I mean, it doesn't really matter. It's like, yeah, like anybody's missing time. But even that pass rush front, when they started just rushing four in the second half, mostly, ETs, oh my God. So especially on the right side. So an E.T is an end first tackle loops around. E. T.E. I won't even answer.

I'll just let you guys figure out what that is. So, but what they were doing was just they attacked the right side of the Texas offensive line over and over and over. The right tackle just kept getting pinched inside. And there's Matabee K looping around. Pinched inside. There's Maddo BK looping around. And what that creates for quarterbacks and Stroud is a great understanding of the pocket. And so I thought he was just really trying to create something outside, extends himself, is it creates kind of a fool's gold escape lane.

And you saw him trying to take it a decent amount. Happened like four times. Because that's what you, it's hard to not take it. You're like, ooh, they just broke a contain. All right. I'm going to get out to the right. And here comes Matabiki who can run. He's very explosive.

And so he's chasing them down. It just makes them again, makes it an offense simplistic or at least off schedule, off script. And this offense is, no, they want to be methodical. They want to get a half-court offense and go at you. So that was just a scheme thing that they just took advantage. That's creating a blitz without blitzing. Like, that's what that's doing. It's creating that edginess.

And they did it over and over. Mattabika has been awesome this year. I mean, just really, really good player. But there was a part of my brain where I'm watching the defense and just thinking, I don't know if I'd want to give him $20 million. The defense is so good and there's so many one-on-one opportunities and he's constantly put in the right spots. this game was, I think, the moment around

I was like, all right, he's winning all these one-on-one matchups. He's the most impactful defensive player on the field. Even outside of this little ecosystem that they've created, I think I'd be all right with it. I did my all-pros teams for one tweet, not even an article, just to tweet something.

And I was like, I wanted to make sure, I was like, I had Madd-BK as a second team all-pro. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't like, you know, buying into my own hype. Like, you know, like, I really like to say, so I like, I studied it my ass off watching him. He is, yeah, he's great. It's like it's a real thing.

It's a classic combination of a player getting unlocked by scheme, but him also just, you know, transcending the scheme and really just encouraging it. So yeah, perfect, perfect example of that. And contract year. Contract year always helps. Obviously a disappointing end for the Texans, even though he had to have a good game in the box score. And even though their offense couldn't do anything, I actually thought that C.J. Stroud acquitted himself very well against this defense.

He had one. The Donald Schultz drop, or oh, it doesn't happen. Don't Schultz drop. And again, they shot themselves. in the foot so many times. Pre-snap, penalties. It was not a clean game from the Texans offense. Every running play was a waste. And so he had to carry so much of it. He didn't get sacked one time. Against all that pressure. I don't think he got sacked one time. He had one intentional grounding. So if we want to say that to sack, fine. But the lack of negative plays in that game,

considering the buzzsaw of a defense that he ran into, the arrow is straight up with this. Yeah. And you can make an argument that the arrow is straight up with the team in general. This team has a lot of flexibility. And I saw this yesterday. And I want to push back on this a little bit. People saying, ah,

you can't do the future as bright thing with every single team that has like a decent young quarterback. Look what happened to the Jaguars. The Jaguars are paying the tax of like four years of shitty free agent decisions right now. Yeah. They had no financial flexibility whatsoever coming into this season. Go look at what the Jags could do. in free agency this year. They spent $0.

They could not sign anyone on the open market. They did all of the contracts that they signed. All Rayshan Jenkins, Darius Williams, guys have been fine for them, but they're paying at the top of the market. Christian Kirk. The Texans haven't done a single bit of that. They're walking into next season with $70 million in cap space, a guy who is already like a top eight quarterback, in my opinion.

He is a star already at base in the season that he just had. You have a franchise left tackle. You have young explosive receiving options. You're paying them like $20 combined. You have a very, very good young pass rusher and a very, very good young corner as the cornerstones of your football team with all of this flexibility around it. You have a still have a first round pick even after the trade because you have the Brown's pick. So I think that there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the direction that the Texans are heading in, even if we have some recent examples of teams taking a slight step back after this sort of season.

It's their year ahead of schedule. So for me, it's like, yeah, they still have questions and everything, but the fact that there's already proof of concept is, okay, we're good. Like you said, they have flexibility. They have ways to move. And I don't know, when you have, again, have real talented players at the hardest positions to find talented players, quarterback, left tackle, receiver, corner pass rusher. Yeah, it's a good place to start, especially with the quarterback is the youngest one of that group. So like that that's that's exactly where you want to start. Also, sorry, you just, I thought of Will Anderson.

This is how my brain works. Sorry. So Will Anderson made me think of Jonathan Grenard, which made me think of Patrick Ricard blocking Jonathan Grenard several times one on one throughout this game. Patrick Ricard is an awesome inline tight end slash six offense alignment out there. But it's, it's, yeah, but now he is a benefit instead of a weird joke within the offense. And I guess that. That really kind of shows you the evolution that the offense has gone through.

You talked about the defense, all these players playing their best selves, offense too. And that's what Todd Munkin's done. Patrick Ricard is not going to use, like you said, as a joke as a mean player. It's like, no, it's use him as a weapon, which is, hey, he can block Jonathan Gernard, who has a dozen sacks this year one-on-one. There's three tight ends that can do that in the league right now. Yeah. So shout on Patrick Ricard, who is a very, very important colleague.

And the chemistry of Lamar Jackson and Nelson Aguilar. Nelson Aguilar and Brock Wright had big plays. on the exact same play design, similar play design, I should say, power pass. I'll talk about the Brock Wright one later, but I thought that was funny that Nelson Aguilar and Barack Wright, they each had big play on the same play design. I mean, I loved some of the designs in the Ravens offense, the keeper on fourth and one where it was the round play where you had the tackle pole, you had the quarterback draw RPO touchdown.

That was absolutely beautiful. And then that rollout pass to Isaiah likely, the softest catch I've ever seen. the way that he like so gently plucks that ball out of the air. I was like, you could almost like, it was like a, there's like a little soft noise when he caught it. It was gorgeous.

And that's what this Ravens' offense has felt like. There is a beauty to the way that they have played this year. That is very cool. But pivoting back to the Texans here and just their outlook, Grinard is a good name to mention. He is a free agent. And I'm fascinated by what his market is going to be. Yeah.

Because I think he's a good player. And it's hard to find 27-year-old edge players that are, consistently impactful and he is one of those guys. So I wouldn't be surprised if he got paid. This team has a lot of money. So there's a chance that they're the team that ends up paying him. Their offensive line should be healthier. Tice Howard was hurt this entire year. He's under contract. So does Scroggs move back to center? You have Howard at guard. They sign Shaq Mason to an extension after trading for him. So you've got some pieces up front to go along with Tank Dell stepping back into this offense. There is a lot to be excited about. And that extends to the guys in charge.

what Domingo Riance has done, what Bobby Sloak did in his first year as a coordinator, what the organization feels like is just such a far cry from what they had been over the last couple years and even what the most optimistic person could have pinned to this team coming into the season. Oh yeah.

This is, I like Stroud. I like D'Amico Ryans. And I was like, oh, they're going to be interesting at least. You know, I think we're interested in the defense. And it was just, yeah, this is way ahead of schedule. And again, it didn't feel fluky. It was like, oh, no, this was a very, very, you can see a good operation happening here where, again, I watch this team and I just feel good stuff. Even an endgame situation sometimes with Domeko Ryan's.

It's like, okay, all right, where this is a lot of good science to start. And the fact is it's not like some intriguing seven and tenure. This is a division winning team that they're at this. This is the ground for, which is really, really cool place to be in Houston, especially the timeline of this show with the Texans. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, for two years, and I'm like, no. I mean, Houston fans knew. They actually were really good about it for two years.

They're always just like, yeah, we get it. We're the Madden's 78ers. What was there to talk about? I mean, it was just a holding pattern for two straight years in every single way. The players that they signed, the picks that they had or didn't have, the coaches that they hired. The Davis Mills of it all. Yeah, that's what it was. The Davis Mills, David Culley of it all was exactly how the Texans felt for a very long time.

So it's nice. Nice. It's nice talking about it. I totally agree. Last thing I want to say about it. the Texans. I get why somebody like Bobby Sloick is going to be accelerated through the process. There is a lack of offensive mind head coaching candidates. He did a very good job this year. I was talking to a head coach today. And we were talking about coordinator, you know,

coordinator jobs and coordinator candidates and guys getting head coaching jobs. And something I had really thought about, but I think is important to think about when you're looking at who's getting these roles. I want to see guys that have had to solve problems. This is his first year as a coordinator and you don't really have to work through that much. By the end of the year, you kind of realize what your problems are. And that's why I think it's important to have more time on task in these jobs before you get kicked into the next one. Because you never had to figure out where the weaknesses of your specific offense were. And I think that's an important part of the process over multiple years, different sorts of players, et cetera. So I think it would

benefit Bobby Sloick and the Texans for him to be back as the offense. And the, of coordinator next year before this gets maybe one step ahead of schedule. It's kind of my parting thought there. Kind of how Ben Johnson did where he was last year. That's what I'm thinking about. Yes. Yeah. And just so much respect for people that take a chill pill sometimes.

It's really hard to turn down one of the 32 jobs in the NFL and in the world. There's only 32 NFL head coaches in the entire world. It's hard to turn that down. But again, when you have, well, how else when you coach that quarterback too? but also just like you saying being able to solve problems being a head coach is wearing so many different hats not just going hey he's calling plays hire some old defensive coordinator boom you're done you're set there's just so much that goes into it and so much that now that he knows that he's like hey i'm actually getting a shot he goes to the combine i'm making up stuff right but he can go somewhere

he can talk to people pick their brains going like hey i might be next up so now how do you how do you do practices how does your schedule during a buy week how do you do friday practices after a Thursday How much time do you give off after the season? That sounds all like minutia. That's being a head coach is literally figuring out that type of stuff, that type of scheduling. So just kind of bring up to other aspects of this job. Not saying that Bobby Silloch might, he might have a manifesto of 500 pages ready for this stuff, but you just don't know until you know kind of thing until you're sitting in that seat.

It's just so many different things, different aspects you have to get around. I think that's right. And I also wouldn't be surprised if Mike Mottonnell didn't jump at one of these jobs because I think that he probably, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a similar. outlook on it where he's a good coach, he's going to have opportunities down the line, most likely jumping at the first one that comes up maybe isn't necessarily the best move for some of these guys who could use a little bit more time. Let's get to our next one here. The 49ers squeak by against the Green Bay Packers in a game they absolutely could have lost in multiple

different moments, but they get by, they are in the NFC championship game as the number one seed. Where do you want to start with this? What is your lasting memory of this game going to be? What do you think it is? Was it the Tucker Kraft Luke Musgrave show? Was it the 24 snaps of 12 personnel the Packers used? 50% success rate, rushing success rate on those plays, by the way. Bowmelt and touchdown. The bubble pump was out of 12 personnel.

But I'll say, hey, this Packers team is another team that's a year ahead of schedule. They took it to this 49ers team. I thought they would be able to hang a little bit, but maybe run out of gas as the game went along and the four and hours kind of pull away. But I mean, the defense did stuff and has had two good weeks and really a good month more or less. And on top of it, this offense, even with the pick at the end of Jordan Love and we'll get into that. Yeah, you feel pretty good about where this Packers team is and where they're situated. Having said that, this 49ers team is also very good as well. I think in a lot of these moments, if you're the Texans, what you have to tell yourself after

that game is it's just a different class. We were not ready. I think that's hard. her to tell yourself if you're a Packers fan. You let this one get away. You let this one get away. I mean, the misfield goal at the end, obviously, but like you said, the defense had the right plan.

And we talked about this in the previous show. What's the Packers defense going to do? We've seen teams handle those Niners in different ways. Do you load up against the run? Do you play nickel and dare them to beat you on the ground over the course of the game because you want to take away the explosives? The Packers went with the first one. They played almost exclusively base defense to that 21 personnel that the Niners roll out there.

And what happens when teams do that is that the Niners gash you through the air, gash you. When teams played base against the Niners this year, they averaged 0.48 EPA per dropback. So just for context, that is twice what the league lead would typically be overall. It was eight times the league average in those situations. They were down. And that's why teams don't play them that way because you're afraid of what they're going to do with you through the air. Well, against base defense in this game, Brock Purdy was 7 of 13. They had 45 total passing yards.

It was negative 0.19 EPA per dropback. And they lost. And that's what's so devastating here is that your defensive plan, maybe it was because of the rain, maybe because, all right, let's make them throw the ball in the conditions. We don't think they can. The way they went about it was correct. and they still couldn't take advantage of it by the end. And that's why, even with the bright future that kind of lingers around the corner with this Packers team, this one is still going to sting because it was there for you.

Yeah, and you just never know how many situations like this that you get. You're always like, oh, we'll be back there next year. You never know. Man, right away, you can tell they were feeling good about what they were doing too. Because as soon as you see those DBs on first or second drives jumping on stuff, that means they saw that play and were anticipating that play on film early. And they knew that you could take that chance. And right away, it felt like that.

And it felt like Gary won a little bit late. You know, some of the pressure stuff, Purdy was having to throw. It felt like a lot of bit off platform. Some of that was just some of the coverage stuff too. Yeah, absolutely did. I thought the Packers, again, front played very well. I thought their front played very well. For the first three quarters of the game, essentially, I thought that they affected the game consistently.

We talked about those 5-0 looks and them creating those one-on-ones. And when they did that, the Packers front is better than the 49ers' offensive line. Like, full stop. Across the board, that unit is better than the 49ers' offensive line. So Kenny Clark was excellent in this game for long stretches. Gary had his moments against Colton McKibbitts. Brooks had a couple plays. And they consistently were pushing Purdy off his spot.

I think Purdy was... Purdy? Let's do this. Okay. The reaction to the final draft. drive and some of the things that were said after the final drive were unhinged. Like just, just an insane entrance into the discourse. I was at a friend's place, so I missed all this.

So I just remember the Giants game earlier this year when there were some crazy ones that we saw. Just an insane entry into the discourse. Like five or six things that I saw last night, I was like, okay, whatever. But I think that part of the reason he struggled for large parts of parts of this game is one, he struggles in the rain. Like we've seen that so far. He has small hands. He struggles in the rain. Two, he was pressured consistently.

They were really pushing the pocket and making things difficult for him just in terms of the platform that he could work off of. So we saw him have a very uneven game because he just doesn't play well from those sorts of situations. He's not going to, even though he plays well under pressure because he's a good escape artist, he does some stuff off schedule that I think has really helped this offense. He doesn't have that creativity as a thrower that we talk about. where if you start closing in on him, he can make some of these off-platform plays.

So he struggled for a good portion of this game. He had a good drive at the end, but somehow that overshadowing every other bit of overthrows and inconsistency. And I think part of the one of the other things that creeps in with the rain is he doesn't play with, he's not assertive in his decision-making because I think he isn't as confident in ripping some of those throws because of the conditions. So it starts to impact him in two different ways. It's harder to hang out of the ball and he plays a little bit late because he's not playing with the same level of just assuredness because of how he handles those conditions.

And some of the throws that he's best at like the he's really good at like field outs, you know, especially to IU. Well, the IUks winning all the time. But it's like a lot of towards the sideline throws outbreakers to the field. He's actually pretty good of them. Those are hard in the rain because you have to throw it. You have to throw a missile, but it has touch. And you have to throw it early. And so, and especially if you just have any hesitation, is our guy slipping?

I mean, look how many guys slipped in this game, too, especially on the 40-9 defense. But guys were slipping all over the place. So, all right, did he come out of the break clean? No. Okay. And then, okay, that's how it felt consistently. Yes, yes. It felt a lot of times that he was like, this is, people have made this word a curse word.

But this is the difference between anticipation, though. This is real anticipation. Anticipation is needed because the windows are so tight that it. if you throw late, when the guy's already breaking, guys can recover, guys, like the room for error smaller, especially if you're throwing through the sideline, because then it becomes a true sideline catch as opposed to a catch one, two, and then the guy runs out of bounce, room to work with. And it just felt like, so those were taking away. Even the touchdown to Kittle was a little bit off script. And to me, and again, I don't have all 22 yet, but I will let you guys know on

Monday, or what I do watch this, felt to me that he went to the wrong side on that read. and I'm just basing on what I know about that play. And then he ended up finding Kittle on it. But I was like, I think, I think it's still late. They had very little on time in the passing game. Yeah, on time. Yeah. And there was very little on schedule one on time.

And everything felt tight. Like if you look at that at the heat chart, there's nothing past, you know, 10, 15 yards. The Packers were just keeping a lid on a lot of them and just rallying and tackling, which is like, a lot of people say they want to do that. They actually did it against this team. The throat of Jennings late in the game that was in traffic. Like, that's not a good throw. It's not an on-time play.

Jennings has to go up over three guys and get that ball. He's late on the corner route to McLeod. Because remember, he had to wipe his hand off in the middle of that play. So he was consistently late throughout the game. And I think, but again, this team has enough talent to overcome that. You have McCaffrey had a 40-yard explosive run where he makes Darnel Savage missing the hole. Iyuk goes low for that huge third-down completion.

You have a couple great kiddle moments. Eventually, this team is so obnoxious. tactiously talented on offense that if you leave the door open, there's a very good chance that they're going to find a way. And that's what happened. He deserves a ton of credit for that throw to IEuk, the corner out, and the scramble on the final drive. But if Darnel Savage catches that ball on the first drive, if that other overthrow in the

second half that goes over Nixon's head gets caught, this is an entirely different conversation. And I think that's the flip side of the Jordan Love part of this, is that the bad plays that Jordan Love had resulted in interceptions. The bad plays that Brock Purdy had didn't result in interceptions. And it went a long way in determining how the game played out. Yeah, absolutely did. By the way, Juan Jennings rocks, another 49ers number three receiver that I'm going to fall in love with that I already have fallen in love with. But he's a restricted free agent. So, you know, a little discussion after the season about that. But no, but he steps up, you know,

Debo Seaman wasn't out or was out. And you have Chris Conlin. doing all the you could tell Debo plays. Like they had the motion. There's Chris Connolly number 84 by doing them. They handed the ball off the Jennings on the first play of the second half. I was like, okay. So you guys are just like, no, we're sticking to these plays. Shannon had acknowledged that it was a mistake.

He said that they checked into it. And but it just happened to be the Jennings. The check was that into that play. And they probably wouldn't have called that play. Because they go wristband. Yeah. So if it has the check on the wristband. Yeah.

Oh, I've had that happen before. Yeah. that's sometimes the negative of using a wristband. But I thought, man, watching love too and watching some of the throws early on. And again, finding those, finding those just the big throws as he's working back in the pocket and finding those moments and all that. And even the last interception, that's several people. I don't know why Jordan Love already has some people hating on them already. I got mentioned on it.

And everyone's like, oh, what excuse are you going to give on that one? I was like, I have no excuse for that. That's terrible. You don't want a quarterback to do that. In the rain, that's a very difficult play to make. You're trying to fight off way more than you need in that moment. Absolutely. And especially what he was at about like the 38-ish yard line too.

Yeah, you have time. I thought that you live by the gunslinger, you die by the gunslinger. That's the thing. It's like people just remember these one or two negative plays and not the 14 fucking awesome plays that happened earlier. Like that, it weighs out in the end. Sometimes that good play doesn't happen until the end. And that's what we remember. This reminds me a psychology class where they talked about, sorry, I can't believe I'm about to say this one.

But they're talking about they did a study on males getting colonoscopies, and they only remember the beginning in the end. But that always sticks with me. That's the human condition. You only remember the beginning in the end. It's all the stuff in the middle that you forget the minutiaia. So that's what sometimes I feel like that colonoscopy example, sometimes when people are just going, what about that interception at the end? It's like, yeah, but sorry, I actually remember the 14 of the throws that happened throughout the game. But I also thought he did a very good job of mitigating negative plays for a good chunk of this game.

The fact that he didn't take any sacks. and the fact that Nick Bosa was living in their backfield. Javad Hargrave had some really nice moments that forced them to kick a field goal at one point in this game. So I think that his mitigation of negative plays in Sack of Wittance was a big part of this. The throw to Dobbs on the left sideline in the first half is an absolutely insane play. The missile he ripped on the in-breaker, I think it was to Dobbs again or in the first half. He made some highlight throws and I think mitigated a lot of negative plays for the first two-thirds of the game. The problem is the three.

really bad plays ended up costing them. He throws it behind Tucker Kraft and that ball gets tipped and intercepted. Again, that's the difference. His interceptible balls were intercepted. He misses Aaron Jones on the third and two in the fourth quarter. He escaped pressure. Jones was open and that ball is if he resets his feet, he can find Jones for a huge conversion there.

So there, listen, he wasn't good enough in the biggest moments of the game. But again, it's these little tiny, slight differences that really aren't on the quarterback that separates the winners and the losers in this situation. But I'm, Jordan Love is a guy you bet on because you're just like, hey, all that stuff that goes in the middle of it, it's going to work out because it's just,

I mean, man, also too, I joked about it, but the run game plan though, too, and talked about just all these young players, the receivers and the tight ends, man,

like Wix was blocking his ass off. You want to talk about why the run game getting going. Wix was blocking Chase Young and Nick Bosa several times. All those outside. plays Aaron Jones for all the pinpole plays. But again, it's like sometimes it's imperfect with these young guys. But man, you got to love what all these guys are showing because of just all the down to down stuff is getting there along with all the flashes. But you have Wix who's getting has been highlighted the last couple months as really just all these big plays and all these

amazing moments of all these young receivers. He's still doing the gritty work and doing it really well. He wiped out Chase Young at least twice. He got Nick Boss on one and that helped get the run game going. But I just, again, the craft gets a touchdown. Musgrave has a nice play earlier, then different receivers step up. Bow Melton's catching a touchdown every single week, which is just still insane to me, that Bo Melton is catching a touchdown every single week. But, man, it's a lot of good signs. And they almost just pulled out, even if they have those brutal mistakes like you just

brought up with those three plays. It's just like all the other stuff outweighs all that. And you hope that they learn from this. You wish it was week 16 and not the divisional round or week four and not the divisional round, but it still is a game. It still is a rep. and you hope, again, that they learn from it. I'm sure all these other great ones talk about all these plays that they made the mistake in,

and hopefully they don't repeat it down the road. And the Niners made it really hard to throw the ball over the middle of the field, which the Packers have done well consistently throughout the year. That was kind of off limits to them in this game outside of a couple high-level throws, and I think that their passing game struggled as a result. They found a lot of success on the ground against this Niners' run defense, which we thought they might. But again, in the end, those mistakes and the young mistakes that they made ultimately cost them.

speaking mistakes that almost cost a team what Kyle Shanahan did at the end of the first half I don't want us to forget in the wake of this Niners victory. Clicking this thing down, the time they lost on that drive and him deciding in the moment, I'm going to just kick a field goal here despite having more than enough time to go down and score a touchdown. It's driving me insane. These young coaches off this tree who have devised these soul-crushing offenses that just for over years. McVeigh building what he built this year with Stafford and that group and then being a top five offense, Shanahan spending years developing and fine-tuning this death star that he's built only to turtle

in the playoffs and not lean on your offense is insanity to me. I just, I can't explain it. Because if Mike Zimmer did this, right, or Vic Fangio did this when he was a defensive head coach, you'd get it, though. It's like, oh, I'm going to lean on my defense. You know, we're going to play small ball. That's fine. But young offensive coaches who are built on scoring points and aggression and all this, I cannot believe that they approach this stuff situationally the way that they do. It's mind boggling to me. probably the best game managers this weekend, as far as this kind of stuff, this aggressive, kind of more cocked manager stuff, new age thinking, or modern thinking. Todd Bowles, has had a great showing this year, Dan Campbell, you know, exactly what we think. So you get these guys, you look at all the head coaches, you go, okay, yeah, yeah, okay, Harbaugh, of course, special teams guy, you know, Ravens, okay, we're good there. All right, yeah, yeah. Todd Bowles, he messes up all the time. He's had better decision-making than Shannon McFay did this weekend, at least just some of these

minor decisions. But again, it is, it is funny. It's like there's just no, I don't know. I don't know, because it's been a thing for what? The entire time they've been head coaches. It's just year after year. They're always just in the, all those lists. They've gotten better in some areas. So Shana, I think McVeigh in the fourth down decision making was significantly better this year than he's been in years past. Shanahan had showed some flashes with the fourth down decision making because I think he has more trust in his quarterback than he's had in years past. So the fourth downs are trending in the right direction. But McVean, lighten two timeouts on fire in the wild card round and then Shanahan deciding that he didn't need a possession in this game and then missing a field goal. It's just tough to watch. It is tough to watch these guys who are so good in so many areas. And it's not just schematics. I think that's important. It's the they've built schematically impressive offenses. But the way that the Niners play, the speed at which the Niners play, they have instilled a certain culture and

play style in that organization. Like, Kyle Shannon is a good head coach beyond just the numbers he's pressing and the numbers he's calling and the dials he's pushing. They have a feel to the way that that team plays. So it's not just like big brain stuff that it doesn't translate to other elements of head coaching. It's just this game management stuff, but it continues to pop up. And hopefully, it won't be their undoing because it was very close to hurting them in a big

way in this game. And you could see it happening. It was like a car car wreck. like unfolding right in front of you. Like at the end of the half, it's like just like everyone was like, what's going on here? Why are they doing it like this? And it's such a great point to bring up, though, how the speed of what they play with. A lot of teams always go, like, oh, we're going to use emotion.

We're going to use all this stuff. And they usually have to burn timeouts and guys are lined up wrong. Two guys are running into the same area on routes, all those types of things. Two guys are blocking the same guy and one guy's running free. And it takes a day one, again, confidence when you're installing all this. stuff and also understanding the repercussions of all that. Kyle is very proud of, hey, until this year, actually, which is another whole side story is it doesn't take a lot of delay games.

Despite having these long play calls with all the motion shifts and killing plays and alerting plays and all that, he knows that he has to get that play in at 26 seconds on the play clock because he has to know the next play. That's what's just so funny. The amount of detail that's first and 10, he goes, I'm going to likely get six yards on this play. I might get two, so I have to have a second and long play. And then the next play, the next person now next.

next and then no foresight to go hey it's a minute 28 left we have two timeouts okay probably want to get to this range of her here we don't be to keep no you can't introduce the time into it that the time is where we get off off schedule here the time is this is so funny that his brain just also just goes err like it just comes to a crashing halt but yeah it's definitely a thing again it when the talent takes over though this team becomes very scary and they did a lot of this without debo and you could tell the debo I think was going to be a big part of the game plan because you was in the rain, them getting the ball into his hands.

You saw it in the first two drives or the first draft. I mean, they got through the ball to him on kind of ball control underneath completions as an extension of the running game multiple times and not having that, I think, became an issue. But eventually your CMCs, IUC, Kittle, all made huge plays. Nick Bosa was a big force. Warner was all over the place. And they managed to survive.

So we'll see them in the NFC championship game against the Lions next week. They're already about a touchdown favorite. A lot of time to talk about that game. Before we move on, let's spin this forward a little bit with the Packers and their future. It looks pretty good, man. I don't really know what else to say about it. Jordan Love played very well for the second half of the season. He was excellent.

And it was not the best night last night, but you're playing against a really good defense on the road with a young offense. The future looks very, very bright for him and LaFleur. He's under contract for one more year on a cheap deal. I assume he will sign an extension for a lot of money. this off season. And if I were the Packers and if I was the Packers fan base, I would have really no problem with it. Oh, absolutely not. You said Stroud, the top eight guy. And I think love is right in the same conversation, if not just right outside of it at the very least. Top 10.

We'll say top 10 for now. That's easy. And I think that's easy, easy to say. Just watch him week and week out, understand the game plans. I think LaFleur was one of the most impressive coaches by anyone. There's no doubt. Just every week. week with him and the offensive line coach did every soon. The situational game management and timeout usage issues, he seems to have an immunity to it among all the coaches in this tree. That's fine. He, and his offense is unique in this tree, too.

I mean, he has his fingerprints. It's a little bit different than what the other guys do. And that's what I like about it. I mean, I thought this year was, it was really funny in a morbid way to kind of laugh at him, kind of not trying to get frustrated with his young players, even though I could tell he was like, I'm giving you guys some freaking, like. like some like Picasso's here. And you guys are just, you're just ruining it.

But he was being good. And he was really good. And like now the dividends are starting to get paid. And it's, oh my God. And it's like, this is what we're, this is the baseline with these young guys. Bakhtiari, we didn't even need him this year. And what's it kind of figure out that contract too? They're going to have space.

They have resources. They got the second rounder from the jets. So they, yeah, they're sitting in a really, really good spot. I think because they have the quarterback. Of course, they have the weapons. they have interesting defense. Yeah. It's looking really good in Green Bay right now.

I also want to say, and I think that the point about the young guys is very, very good. And I think that it took a lot of courage for them to go into this season without veterans in those rooms. And just to say, you know what, they're going to sink or swim. We're not going to cut off pathways to these guys. They are going to sink or swim. And I think that they did that on purpose. And I think that ultimately it benefited them in the long term. And having the foresight to under.

understand how that can be a win for you, even if the road is going to be rocky. I think that both Goodkunst and LaFleur deserve a lot of credit. From last night, LeFleur telling the sideline reporter, I can't remember who it was, that he kind of praise every time the kicker goes out there. I know that people are going to joke about, like, I can't believe he said that. That is just Matt LaFleur. Like, I don't think that's actually true. I think that his, people are reading too much.

into that, I think is what I would say. I've had conversations with Matt Lafleur in the past. People are reading too much into that. Matt's one of those guys you don't know if he's kidding or not. He says something and he says something mean and says something funny at the exact same way. So you have no, he's so it's really hard sometimes. I've worked with him. I know him a little bit, but it's just, yeah. So I understand where there's some confusion and maybe going because that's a, he's very blunt and dry sometimes and you're like very, very dry. And I think a lot of people are sharing that being like, I can't believe he said that to the sideline reporter.

I think that was in jest. It is how I would read that. Exactly. I would read that from Matt Lafoyorre. But anyway, looking at the core that they have, I'm with you. And they're going to have some financial flexibility. I wouldn't be surprised, one, if they moved on for Bakhtiari, two, if they kind of retooled that contract, he has a $40 million cap hit next year.

So they're going to do something with it. And even if they just move on, they're already at like $21 million in cap space. and they've got that young core that we're talking about. There are a couple other financial levers that they could easily pull. And if you look at the areas that I think are strongest moving forward, obviously, quarterback you feel good about the young weapons you have to feel good about. Aaron Jones is a very good player who was phenomenal last night. Yes, he was.

On defense, I think the front is really good. I really like the pieces that they have. I know Gary was uneven in the second half of the year after the extension, but he's a young, really good piece. Kenny Clark, I think, had one of the best seasons of his career. Yes. He's still only 28 years old, which is... He was a baby when he came to league. He was like 20, I think. Yeah. So he's this is a sixth year. And he's still really young. So he's only 28. All the other guys, I think T.J. Slayton had a career year. Carre Brooks was really good.

Wooden has had some moments as a rookie. And then Van Ness. And so now you have a first round pick who is a rotational piece for you this year. That I feel really good about the defensive backfield is where the resources need to be spent. And there are guys hitting free agency this year at that position. Cam Curl, Jordan Whitehead, I mean, just guys that you can pay them $10 million a year over three years and get solid play out of that position. I think that is the number one thing that they have to worry about heading into next season. But they'll have the flexibility and the resources to potentially address that. Yeah, and they have, they custom could play out of the Valentine, Valentine duo too, in the DB room.

But, you know, this draft too, it's set up really well for where they're picking to draft a corner. That's kind of where the corners are going in this first round. And also, you know, if they wanted to go offensive line, there's offensive line there at the end of the first this year. But I think they have ways to find answers, which, and also a guy, another guy, Quay Walker, I felt like has, he still has that half second hesitation. but it's more like it's on half seconds. Now it's like 0.35 seconds of hesitation and it's so much better because he's so athletic and big and he's like position too man it the development curve at that spot is it's a long time for guys.

Tremade Edmonds took a while to come on and so I think that there's that position specifically it can take two or three years for guys to figure out. Linebacker Traits pilled now just get these big fast guys and give them time. It's almost like tight ed now. There's not enough of these guys. that can do what the asks that position are now. That's why I've come around on the Jack Campbell thing with the Lions because I just think there's not a lot of guys that can do it.

Well, we got to find someone. So what's invest in it and give him time to figure it out? And I think he is starting to figure it out, which I think is, that's a cool thing because there's not a lot of guys that can move like him. Yeah. So it's hard not to feel good about their future. And as someone who isn't necessarily rooting for the Packers to be good and rooting for the Packers to have another good quarterback, it was a frustrating.

kind of deflating year again. But at this point, I've just become used to it. Let's stick with other good teams in the NFC North that are going to ruin my life for the next several seasons. The Lions knock off the bucks 31 to 23. The Lions are on to the NFC championship game in year three of the Dan Campbell, Brad Holmes, Jared Gough, experience. Wow. What a job. Just what a job.

I mean, again, what are you going to remember? remember from this game. I'll remember that moment just as the clock takes down where you have these guys finishing this thing off in a way. It's not with the title, but like to be in an NFC championship game in year three from where they were in year one and to think about where this franchise was for years, decades, and to now have this level of optimism, this level of underlying talent, Gibbs had his moments today, Leporta had his moments today, Brian Branch had his moments today. Mel Phone was an in-house draft pick. Amon Ross St. Brown, all the offensive linemen, watching Penny Sewell Block in space, seeing Jared Gough play the way that he did today.

I said it in week four. I love watching Jared Gough play football right now. I just like watching him play the position. He is spinning it. And in this game specifically, the damage that they were able to do over the middle of the field. This is a guy who has the confidence of the organization that he's for. You can see it just kind of coursing through him. Life has been breathed back into his career, and he is playing in an offense with a play caller that has specifically tailored this thing to what he does well, and he has been allowed to play at a level that I don't think anyone outside of that lion's building and Jared Goff's immediate family ever thought he was ever going to be able to play out again. You want to talking about confidence at position, the second touchdown to St. Brown. That ball placement

was it was one of the prettiest touchdown throws you'll see, that wheel route. That was just, and that's what he plays. When he is confident and feeling it and it can be protected and everything, oh my God, no one spins the ball better, especially throwing over the middle. He'll whip in some of the hardest. He's such a funny player because he can throw the hardest throws, seams, digs, stuff to the field that's like, you know, real pushing the ball stuff like corners and out routes and stuff like that.

And then it's just sometimes can feel off. He can't do other things. He can't do some of the creation stuff and everything. But it's like that stuff that he can do, he's one of the best at. And you can see it because this team's winning, obviously, and we're seeing more games of it. But it's really cool to see it consistently happen and happen in moments that, like, truly matter. It's not like, oh, that was a cool throw and a 20 point loss or a 20 point win. It was like, no, that was a freaking ballsy touchdown.

That was a real big throw that, like, puts him over the top. And watching him, watching, again, this is, we talked about with the Ravens, but watching every guy. I played to their best selves. Brock Wright, catching probably the longest play of the game. Jamir Gibbs. He looks so confused when he was running down the field. He didn't know what to do with himself.

That's every catch my dad had in his career. But the watching, we talk about these guys playing their best selves, but it's just, oh man, I was thinking him, I was thinking Branch, I was thinking of the offensive line.

Oh, Jemir Gibbs. Okay, going into this year, I was like, hey, fantasy owners, you're going to be frustrated because Jemir Gibbs is not good protection. This is why you're going to see a lot more David Montgomery. Watched Ramir gives him protection now.

He's good. He's good in his first year. And he had one of the, that blitz pickup he had today was just, was beautiful. I thought it was Montgomery at first. It was absolutely beautiful. And we talked about that coming in.

Because we didn't see Gibbs in the first matchup and they're going to blitz the shit out of him. So what is he going to be able to do in protection? The answer is he's going to answer the bell. The same way that every single member of this roster has all at every single turn over the last three years. That was funny too, because you can tell Bolts. Bulls was messing with them because they didn't play Gibbs a bunch to start because they were probably expecting a bunch of blitzes.

And Bulls like didn't blitz at all like the first two drives. And I just, I love when that happens. It's kind of like, oh, here it comes. Here it comes. 50% blitz rate. Here it comes. And then it's like, uh-uh, not going to do it. Not going to do it.

Yeah. I'm holding back. And then he kind of got into as the game went along. But the fact that Gibbs, running back pass protection is really, it's an indicator is, it's actually like defensive basketball. It's effort from the player and it's coaching. And that's really what it is. It's one of the most, I don't want to say it doesn't take talent, but guys that are not as talented as other players can do it really well and have long careers because they can do it. Yeah, Samajet P. Ryan is not a talented running back by NFL standards.

Hey, has the college football record most yards in a game? I think Kansas. But no, but Latavius Murray, who was really, he had the speed score when he was coming out of UCF. But Latavius Murray is able to stick in the league because he's so damn. good in protection. That's just what his, what's calling card is. And when these guys have size and they can do it. But why I'm saying all this is, again, it's just like with the Packers receivers, they can do all the flashy stuff. But the fact that now they're getting like, they're really eating their vegetables, it's, that's good. That's where the growth happens. Because they're not just going,

hey, Jumeir, you're going in just to run choice routes, which you can early on. It's now he's getting asked to do real football stuff and excelling. Jameson Williams is the same way. They don't use Jameson Williams just run posts and goes. They use them to run. digs and glance routes. That deep little hinge route that he had on the first drives today. Where he's threatening down the field. He has to sit it down. He had a moment today.

And we've talked about this with this team. The patience and the adherence to the plan is remarkable. And they have had a vision for this entire thing that I often couldn't see. And I was willing to admit that. When we talked about the Lions coming into the season, I wasn't sure that they had done enough to put themselves over the top. Do you really have the firepower? to compete with some of these really, really good teams. You got a second round rookie tight end.

You got a rookie running back. Those were your moves? Those were your moves in a year where you're supposed to be a division winner or potential contending team. Well, I was flat out wrong. But in that conversation, I said, I have been wrong. I have not always been on board with the decisions they've made.

I've been wrong about them. Brad Holmes has been correct in the vision that he's had. And I'm willing to admit that what they did this offseason may be another example of that. And it was. Even the ways that they built some of the position groups, right? You have Derek Barnes, you resign Alex Anzolone, you draft Jack Campbell in the first round. It's like, well, you need all those guys. And then you have Barnes make the play of the day and finish off this game with an interception.

Anzolone has been a nice steadying presence for them over the course of the year. On the back end, it's like, oh, man, you just kind of like through bodies at the problem. Like, how's this going to shake out role-wise? Like, who's going to play? They're all same-y. They have same stuff. How does this work out? And then the answer is, well, we have tons of personnel packages.

If we want to play three safeties together, we can do that. Melphone was a dominant blitzer. You know, C.J. Gardner Johnson had an interception today. Branch has been excellent for them. Kirby Joseph, it was really good as a rookie. So you can't have too many good players. Even if the pieces don't always cleanly fit into what we think. and how we see a team being built

and the way it should be built, that isn't always the most important thing. And I think that they've done such a good job of understanding that. There are so few square pegs and round holes on this team in the way that they've put it together. And they've been able to see two steps ahead of where everyone else could. It started with the golf move,

but it is extended to really everything else they've done as they've built this roster and as they've rebuilt this franchise. Again, it's another thing where it takes effort and work to develop a player that means coaches and the player are putting in a lot of effort. And like you said, the confidence and maybe just the vision and just the trust that the flashes that they do see, Alene McNeil is the best example of it. Ali McNeil, I'm telling you guys, I watched maybe six games of all 22 lines defense last year, maybe more of that, but at least six.

I think I mentioned Ali McNeil never, ever. And then he comes into this year and he's a good player. And the fact that they're like, oh, we're bent on him in his development. He's going to be okay. We complimented the Colts offensive line and all that in the same way. We're going like, really, this is your guys playing? You're going on it. But they trusted with their own eyes and saying, hey, we can do this.

Sometimes, again, this is a double-edged sword where you're like, you know, some teams tell themselves that, oh, this guy's going to be a pro ball or this guy's going to be this, but they nailed it. And they actually were, you have to be able to evaluate your own roster. Yes. You have to be able to evaluate your own roster. Yes, that's it. And I think so many teams mis-evaluate their own roster. When they're talking themselves into the players and they're rationalizing it,

it. Listen, I hear it every year. I hear it every single year. I go out around training camp. I go to 25 different teams. Oh, yeah, from the teams. Oh, especially in August. Why did you do this? Why did you do that? Why'd you build it this way? And everyone tries to tell you a story. Sometimes it's right. Sometimes it's wrong. And the lions have been right throughout this entire process in terms of the way that they have put this thing together. They really have. They really have. I know. Also, you know, just even what they're doing on defense, you know, I think Glenn, he's trying. And that's why I appreciate and all the stuff. But they really got Baker a couple times today, too, just even talk about just. Cranking up the pressure looks, I think it's the right decision for them at this stage. I think it gives them the best shot. And when you have an offense like that, I like that personality kind of mix.

Yeah, me too. Because again, they can do both things on offense. They can be the snipers, but they also can just control the clock and make it methodical. And they can go through those two kind of identities. That's great if you have a defense. I can maybe create some turnovers and get the ball back. Like, okay, and we can either go for a haymaker or we can really grind the game down and they don't get the ball back for six minutes. And I, yeah, how they've been using these guys, you mentioned the blitzing.

Also just, I thought today, Baker for a guy that has a lot of starts, five-man protection doesn't know his rules. And one of them, oh, we're talking about all these guys had good games and everything and had a great day and what a season. This is the, usually the Sunday night game, because this is with the NBC crew, I don't have very loud because I'm doing notes. prepping for the show. I have it out like volume two. So I don't really hear Chris Collinsworth. He had the worst weekend of anybody. Chris Collinsworth did. He was going on a like a five minute rant about how the Bucks need a big play in the second quarter as three explosive plays are happening right in front of him. As he's like talking about Bucks need a play here, there's Mike Evans for a 24-yard gain. You know, Bucks really need a play here. Here's another first down for a 15-yard gain.

So he might go crazy, but why I bring that up? The one sack with Baker, I always thought his name was Gedecki. It's not Gedecki. It's Gettiki. Get a key. Yeah, it's definitely. So my fault. But Getticoke, Collinsworth's breaking down this blitz. And oh, there's a sack. I'm not sure what the communication was. If somebody didn't get the right thing here, and it was like, oh, my God, you guys are killing me. One, Baker, you got to understand hot protection. Two, Chris Collinsworth, this is like your 400th game you've done. You don't understand it. So it's a five-man slide, empty protection, five man slide. They're sliding the five offense alignment to block five defenders that are to the left of the right tackle and they're leaving Aiden Hutchison on block

because you're just, you're making it simple, you're giving it the simplest answer. Ayn Hutchison has the longest path to the quarterback. Baker, the quarterback has to understand he is hot off the unblocked guy. That is five man protection from freaking day one in college, for colleges that run real offenses. So it's, there it is. There's the five man slide. And Getty key is trying to be a baller there and rally back. He's trying to big duel with. He was trying to help it. And that's, He looks bad in that moment when that's not on him whatsoever. Oh, as a son of an offensive line coach, I am losing my mind because a common fan, I get it. A common fan, like, this is, this is protection.

It's hard stuff. But it's, it hurts me because there's the commentator just gone, man, that right tackles a moron, isn't he guys? As opposed to Baker double clutching when he's hot. And it's that to me watching it, I'm freaking the F out. But on top of it, the first driver of early in the game, Baker took another sack on an empty protection. where he's hot again on the same exact type of play. And why I'm bringing that up, and Baker has played very well this year. That is a difference between him and the dudes.

The Josh Allen's and the Marr's and the Mahomes is they get empty protection. They get heated up. They make a guy missed. They get rid of the ball. They're throwing sidearm. They're throwing underhand. They're going to break and contain. That's the difference between those types of guys like Baker and the guys and their plans against

empty. I want to have this conversation about Baker. I also, but I did want to do announcer talk. so I'm glad that you brought us to this place. The idea that Greg Olson would be the guy in this group that would lose his job after this season is insanity. I watch the CBS broadcast. I watch the NBC broadcast because of Brady. Oh, that's right.

That's right. Okay. I listen to Romo and I listen to Collinsworth. And even as it's not that I like hate announcers. Like I can enjoy a guy announcing a game. I am so, it's disappointing to see what the Romo Nance broadcast has become based on compared to what it was in the first year one. I just, I don't think they, I don't think he adds a ton to the broadcast. The energy is like weird and chaotic.

It's weird. I don't think it's fun. I just don't enjoy it that much. I really don't. And the, NBC, the broadcast is like, I think Trico does a good job. I don't mind Collinsworth. I think it's mostly forgettable. I think that watching Greg Olson or listening to Greg Olson during a Fox broadcast,

It is one of the best broadcast experiences I've ever had watching football. I love the interplay between them. I love the energy between him and Burkhart. And I think that he does such a great job bringing a value add to the broadcast. I'm a football nerd. Maybe that's why I love it. After almost every single play, there is context as to why something is happening. It's the right replay.

It's allowing you to understand the layers of what's going on. his knowledge of situational football, why teams are going for it in certain situations, why teams are doing things going for two in certain situations. It is, he does a phenomenal job. And I think that is a pretty stark contrast to a lot of the other football broadcasts that we're watching, where it's either just kind of background noise or something that actively annoys me. And I would say the guy that has done the biggest 180 for me is Troy Aikman.

He went from a guy I was eh on to I very much. much enjoy Troy Aikman now. For a very different reason, though. I think, I think for him, it's just like, it's an entertaining product. I think that him and Buck makes the game more fun. I think that Olson actually does a really, really good job. Oh, yeah. No, but I would say Aikman to me, as far as like what, like, uh, explaining some context

of the game and maybe calling out some stuff. Maybe that's why I like him a lot more now because he's sometimes just not. There's a little too much, you know, look how amazing your quarterback is. Right, fan? Like that really irks me sometimes. or I'm just like, come on, guys. Like, because people listen. People listen.

People listen to what that guy says, whoever it is. They were going to, the announcer said this. How many times people coming to my replies, they go, well, the announcer said this. I'm like, yeah, guarantee you, former linebacker X doesn't know anything about protection. So I know who I'm going to trust. But I watch, you know, I watch Aikman because sometimes he'll actually call guys out. I like that. And he's, it's, that's why I like him is that the, yes.

Their product is very real what him and Bucker do. Very real. I like hanging out with them as I watched the game. Yes. And for me, Olson, think brings me a layer deeper that I want to go to where I'm having a good time, but I also think that he's adding the right context. For Aikman and Buck at this stage, it's just a good hang.

I don't watch the Manningcast. I watch the Akeman and Buck Monday Night Football broadcast because I like spending time with them in the booth. So I think they're doing a very good job, but I think that Olson is at a whole different level right now. And the fact that he might get bumped off that number one team, I just think sucks. Like I just think that sucks. Like I told you, said before, so many times when he does a game, I'm like, ooh, here's something I'm going to point out on the show. Can't wait for that. And there's Olson explaining it perfectly. And I'm just like, oh, shit. Okay, never mind. All right. Well, scratch that off or maybe I'll just mention about it. But he does. He does a great job. Like, everything you mentioned, understanding game situation stuff. I think that it, I mean, that's something that irks me to when I see these guys criticizing, oh, the coach is doing this. I don't know why. And it's like, come on, man. Like, we watch all these games. How do you not learn stuff? Like, I've just, it blows my mind.

I'm clearly so curious and he's clearly, he is seeking out new information. I just think he's very thoughtful, but it's also fun. And I think that being able to hit that balance is very impressive on a football broadcast. Yeah, it's not heavy-handed, which I love. So I'm glad I got that off because that drive in the second quarter and that sack moment, that sack moment, I almost had a tweet. And I'm glad I didn't. I've cooled off because I'm telling you, there's been so many moments of my life,

some running back or some quarterback botches the protection and the offense alignment gets blamed. And as the son of an offensive line coach, it sucks because you know the actual answer and you can't say anything about it. Now I have Twitter, which is great. I can. But yeah, sorry, that play really set me off because it was just, it was a very obvious one too. I'm very glad you brought us down that path because I definitely wanted to get my Olson cakes off. I'm glad that we got to. Let's get back to Baker and let's look forward at the Buck's future here.

I know the Baker thing is a fun story. And it is a fun story. And I think that he played very well for long stretches of this season. He played so much better. The calmness in the pocket for most of this year compared to what he had been in years past was no. You could see the difference. And it made a huge difference in their offense. In this game, he had some of those chaotic Baker moments under pressure where it feels a little bit.

It's like, ah, man, I just, I sense him getting itchy back there. That jitteriness shows up. And I don't want to be. I don't want to be, but I'm going to be the guy who is going to just raise my hand and play devil's advocate. as we're talking about Baker-Mayfield extensions here. Because I think people are just assuming that he's going to get some fat contract after this is all over and he's going to be the Bucks quarterback long term. If I were the Bucks in this situation, I can understand bringing him back.

I get it. You're a playoff team. You are a very good offense compared to what your expectations were, et cetera. But I think that finding the right middle ground financially and making sure you have an off-ramp, if not next year than the year after, whatever is very important here. Just for context, the Bucs' offense this year was 20th in early down EPA per dropback. They were 19th in early down passing success rate.

They were seventh on third down. And they had the second most, the second highest number of third down dropbacks in the NFL. Only two teams in the league had more third down passing first downs than the Bucks did. So a lot of people, I'm assuming, are going to point to the EPA per dropback numbers that Baker had, where he's like top seven this year, they're like, well, why wouldn't you commit to that long term? I think that there is some volatility in those numbers

that maybe you should be aware of before you're going to hit your wagon to Baker Mayfield moving forward. If he's back as a starter next year, I totally understand it. But to me, it has to be at the right price where you understand what he is in the overall trajectory

of where you want to get as a football team. That's all I'll say. Nope, I'm with you. I thought he played as best as he's played probably since that stretch in his rookie year, always especially, and I thought watching him drop back and ripped some throws. He had one throw on the move today, though,

on that sideline throw that was as good as anybody this weekend. But again, there is a limitation. He had a dozen throws in this game. Oh, he was absurd. Yeah, yeah. That guy, he can rip it. He can rip it. But there's other blemishes that he does have.

And again, like everything you're saying, I agree with. I think that's a long of the short of it. You think of the kind of quasi-gino-Smith deal, like something like that. incentive laid and there's an off ramp like you say after one year. I'd be looking at the Jimmy Garoppolo contract if I were the bucks. That would be the type of deal I would feel comfortable doing them. I think it was like, I think it's like 20 something high 20s. I think it was a number of my head. I think it was mid 20s. Okay. Okay. Like 30 max is kind of like so Jim yeah,

Jimmy was mid 20. So Jimmy's was three years, 72 million, 24 million dollars per year. 34 million dollars guaranteed at signing. So there was somewhere in that. So somewhere in there. This deal, the way that it looks, I think is totally acceptable. You have an off ramp after one year, even though there's like a decent amount of dead money involved. Oh, excuse me. No, Jimmy's, Jimmy's deal was worse than that in the sense that like there's, he has $28 million in dead money this year. So it's, that even feels like a little rich for me. I don't know what the exact numbers are going to be that they're not. I would just be, I'd be careful. I would too. Yeah. I'd be careful. It's, I get they don't. They, they're interesting because just they won the division. Obviously,

they're picking into 20s. Their quarterback draft plan is hard. The only other quarterback they have is Trask. You know, you're going to get another vet. Okay, are they better than Baker played this year? Probably not. You know, so that's just what's going to come down to too, too. And I understand it.

I understand how you arrive at the moment. I just think that proceed with a tiny bit of caution that I agree. That people seem to be throwing to the wind as they get caught up in what this has felt like. You're not saying it's not fat bag. It's more like, you know, a bag. But it's not a fat back. That's what Baker should get. I agree.

I think the Jimmy contract as a, you are the starter, but you are a decidedly mid-tier starter, I think is the correct approach here. Yep. I agree. I think the Jimmy D. Because I think I erased the Jimmy Garapolo Raiders experience from my brain, even though it was this season. So I think that's a great example, though, of that kind of deal.

There aren't that many of them. It's a very, it's a strange contract in the current NFL because there isn't a mid-tier quarterback market for the most part. But I think that as you think about where they are in their careers, what sort of players they are, like where they fit in the overall hierarchy, that still feels right to me. And I don't think a lot of other people are going to be talking about it that way. As you look at the rest of this roster, they're in pretty good shape in the sense that this was their reset year.

They took their medicine. They had all that dead money this year. And now they go into next year with kind of a shitload of resources. they've got like $50 million in cap space right now. Mike Evans is a free agent. So that's something that they're going to have to sort out. And Winfield. And Winfield.

That's right. Mike Evans and Winfield are free agents. So those are the two things. Those are the two big decisions that they're going to have to make. But they've got ways to save a little bit of money and they've got a lot of young pieces coming back. So to me, the biggest question they have to answer is how much are we given Baker? How does he fit into the overall plan? Because I think the pieces that they've built around him and the overall

core of the young roster is something to be excited about. And hopefully they get Canales back for another year because his name obviously has come up justifiably, I think, as a head coaching candidate. But getting him back, I thought he did as good job as anybody in this league. So that's another thing too. They have, yeah, I don't know, the Bucks team, this Bucks team has been weird since day one, day one meeting of this season. So it's just, they're way more optimistic view than I thought I would have maybe six months ago

about this team. way more. Obviously they made the playoffs and everything, but even just further long and midterm plans, I guess I would say as well. I think that their leadership, Jason Light, the guys there,

I think they've had a very sober-minded look at what they are. Yeah. Over the last few years. And I think that that will continue into this year, into this off-season. And they can nail some drafts, dude. They just, they find a player or two every single draft.

It seems like they nailed this one too. Their offensive line is some young pieces that maybe we didn't think, Gennicki played. played better than people assume Tristan Worf's is a superstar left tackle and now they've got some young defensive pieces that they can build around. So it's an interesting offseason because of the

quarterback question but again I think that they've got enough leeway here where it's hard not to feel good about how they handled this season and potentially how they can handle things moving forward. This is an organization oddly enough that I think has earned the benefit of the doubt. For a very long time they struggled.

They were one of the worst franchises in football for a good decade. or so. And I mean, you think back to how bad the Lovie Smith era was, how bad the Greg Shiano time was. I mean, this truly was like one of the moribun franchises in the NFL after that mid-2000s run. And I think what they have done over the last four or five years beyond even the Brady thing, but the team that they've built around him, how financially smart they are, the ways that they've kept a clean cap until they didn't want to because it's like, all right, well, let's go in.

We got Brady like, this is a year. And then to eat all the money this year to go into next year with a clean cap again. They have like $200,000 in dead money on the books in 2024. It's, again, they deserve a bit of the doubt because they've done a very good job at navigating these waters, you know, pun intended with the Buccaneer. And it's, I mean, unprecedented, really. Like, okay, yeah, we're getting Tom Brady is mid-40s. Yeah, and we're dropping it. We don't know if it's one year, two years, three years.

And that's hard. It's hard when you don't. It's really hard. Because how much do we commit to other people? Okay, and I mean, shoot, even this offseason, like when they resigned the corners the last couple of years, it was kind of like, okay, you are? The Jamel Dean thing to me was like a pivot point. It was like, okay, you're doing this? That was an indicator.

That was forever with free agency pod. We were like, okay, I guess they're keeping them. So, all right, I guess. By the way, him going out in this game and Zion McCollum going in tipping point moment in that game. They picked on Zion McCollum that entire drive. Oh, my God, right away. Well, gott didn't look anywhere else. I know everyone wants to talk about looking off the safeties and stuff like that.

Golf legit didn't look anywhere else. Got the snap, looked right at that corner. He was like, I'm going to St. Brown on this curl. Like, I'm going there. I love what that happens. I think I've mentioned this on the pod before, but the 2012 MC championship game or division or, I can remember Falcons played the Packers.

Oh, it had the Packers Super Bowl runs. So that been 2010. So, 2010. Rogers had a throw in that game that is still one of the craziest throws I've ever seen him make. But people of the Falcons, the personnel guys, are telling me a story that their starting corner got knocked out. And he's out. And then the backup trots in.

He trots into the huddle. And then they said, the guy telling the story kills it. But he's, Rogers is in the huddle. And also his head pops out when he sees that other corner trot on to the field. And then he's like, went to this. He did something to the sideline. You knew he was like, change the play. And they just attacked that guy over and over and over.

But I just always think of that when a corner goes out. And that guy, the next guy up just immediately gets targeted because it's like on the headset. They're going, hey, 34 is in there. Hey, hey, so and so and. so it was out, go after him. Also, the awesome touchdown, the first St. Brown touchdown, I believe. Oh, no, I'm sorry, the Josh Reynolds touchdown. It was not a high low. It was a high medium. And that concept is called a pay dirt concept. It is a Sean Peyton loves it. And there's a lot of Sean Peyton concepts in this offense. St. Brown, it runs right to the goal line. That's the medium of

the high medium. And then there's Reynolds wrapping around it. And you don't, and this is how golf is seen the game right now. That's not a. common throw. I would say on that concept, 90% of time you're throwing the St. Brown, it got covered up and maybe they knew that would get covered up, but I just want to commend the design, because I love that design, but I also want to commend golfers.

Their red zone stuff, man. Their red zone stuff is good, and golf is seen the game extremely well. Last thing about the bucks, if this is it for Levante David. I think Mike Evans, if I had to bet on it, I'd say he's back, right? I mean, I think that they have the financial flexibility. He was very important to their offense. I would bet they'll try to bring him back.

Levanti David, I think, is a bigger question. It's a little bit older. It was going to be hitting free agency this year. One of the most underrated players of the last decade. One of the coolest players of the last decade. That's awesome. Like Levanti, David, what he was for years and years and years within that defense, just an unbelievable player. And so if this really is it for him in a Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniform, salute, my friend, because I had a lot of fun watching you play football in this place. I did too. Played him in the college at Nebraska. And he ran down Nicktoon in the flat. I was like, who the hell is this guy?

This guy just, he went from silent and sidelined. It was right into me. That's why I was like, I mean, I remember watching on a film. It was really good. But yeah, he's ever since then. He's just a guy who kept an eye on. Of course, he's been phenomenal, one of the best linebackers of his generation, really, and really the past decade.

And I thought, too, it was kind of cool that even Bulls scheme-wise did a classic with him. They did some two-man and they let him guard LaPorteurta. And I was like, yeah, Devante David Olts, even maybe his last game with the boss. doing that like tied in or racing stuff like what they won the Super Bowl with remember him covering Travis Kelsey and that two man stuff. It was like kind of cool that he was still kind of shining. I kind of feel bad to leave him off my old pro team because he really stepped. It was beginning of the year, a little slower, but man, the last two months he's been on freaking fire and it's really fun to watch always.

So hopefully, hopefully someone keeps it going somewhere. All right. That's all we got. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We will be back with our standard athletic football show schedule this week. No more Kiefer in the beats. We're not, Zach has off for the playoffs. So sincerely, I haven't mentioned this, and I feel bad for not mentioning it.

I've said this to Zach because I deeply appreciate the contributions that he gave to the feed all year. And the fact that he took that on all season when he absolutely has so many other things going on and did not need to. I thought that getting the insight from all of those beat writers every single week, he did an excellent, excellent job. So thank you to Zach and thank you to everyone who came on that show and gave their. time on top of their full-time jobs as a beatwriter. So thank you sincerely to everybody involved. And thank you for listening. Thank you to all of you.

So please like, subscribe, do all of those great things that we love. If you have not followed the YouTube channel, please do that if that's what you're watching. So for now, that is all we got. We will be back to talk all things conference championship game moving forward. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.