The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Super Bowl LV: How the Bucs stopped Patrick Mahomes, inside Bruce Arians' game plan & Tom Brady wins his 7th ring

Episode Date: February 8, 2021

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the Super Bowl LV Champions! How did the Bucs' defensive scheme under Todd Bowles keep Patrick Mahomes at Bay? What are the secrets of how Bruce Arians & Byron Leftwich's game plan? Robert Mays and Nate Tice bring you postgame reaction as they review the best plays from the game & Tom Brady's 7th championship.Get all access to The Athletic for only $3.99 per month @ theathletic.com/footballshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays and joining me tonight. It's my good buddy, Nate Tyson. Nate, how are you doing? I'm good. That might not have been Patriots Rams. The spread, my only has been three points, but it just felt that was a startling result.

So let's start there because I was asking myself this question and I wanted to ask you this question, which is get going. So the Bucks beat the Chiefs 31 to 9 in the Super Bowl. I'm sure some of you guys watched one or two is that the greatest defensive performance you have ever seen in a Super Bowl in your lifetime yeah in my own thing yeah I think so too I mean the only only other one up there is the the Giants Pats game from 2007 but guess who was the same defense quarter um but it's it's not in the same way that that game got done but that was unbelievable we talked about right before we got in the show was unbelievable was that third down that the bucks where they brought the corner and they brought the nickel and it became created like a little saw pressure saw is usually

in the game early in the game i would say i think the second series second yeah i think it might have been the second possession second possession and they brought that and it was like oh oh oh bulls got some stuff like bulls okay all right let's see what he's got and then never did it again and then he just took it all away just all that prepping all the in between series stuff and yeah it caught him lean in because it was so funny because when they came out and they did that for Those guys who didn't see it. They brought the nickel and the outside corner on the third down. I was like, oh, shit. They're going deep into the bag in this game.

And I wasn't sure if we had just been totally wrong. Because you and I both thought that it was going to be fairly simple, rush four, too high, a lot of two men that play a little bit. You know, not safe, but that was going to be the overall approach. And when they did that, I was like, maybe they're just going to throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. But then over the course of the game, I want to say they only brought more. more than four pass rushers five times the whole game. And they played a lot of two high safeties. So that's what they did.

They eventually kind of settled into the game plan we expected from them. But the little tiny details within that game plan were absolute genius. So you and I were talking about this before we started. When they were bringing four, they did, that's what they did all game. And if you look at the pressure numbers, it's absolutely insane. Mahomes was pressured 29 times on 56 dropbacks according to ESPN next gen. Which it felt like that, right? When they got their second sack, late in the second half, I was like, they only have two sacks.

Seth Walder tweeted this out, an amazing stat. Mahomes ran 497 yards over the course of the game because he was running the entire time. That's an awesome stat. That's amazing. So they brought four, but they brought it in every conceivable way. Yep. It was the, so they ran the two man, which was like, oh, man, I feel smart. And I'm telling you, I tweeted it, but I gave one bet this entire season.

And that was Mahomes. It'll be over 20-something rushing yards and whatever it was, 20 and a half, 22 and a half. But that was the reason why. But other than that, it's the pressures they brought, like you just said, even if it was a five-man pressure, like they had Devin White looping on the outside to Mahomes' throwing handside. So Mahomes has a tendency he can drift. He can drift away from the pressure and kind of help out his protection a little bit and create these throws. only his arm town. He's one of the few guys that can get away with it.

And okay, we're going to let him do that. But let's not make it easy where he can drift to his right. Let's make him drift to his left. That kind of summed up the bucks thinking the whole day was rather than, yeah, he's going to get his stuff in. He's going to get it.

Let's just make it as hard as possible once rally to tackle. And they did it consistently the entire game. It wasn't just the first quarter when I was like, damn's going to break. Like, you know, yeah, exactly.

Stuff's going to pop. They ran, uh, the chiefs had a all, go, uh, uh, RBC, you know, a play that we've seen crop up the last few years, once everyone stole it from Carson Wentz. We just talk about it too. But they ran another variation of it. And, uh, uh, Mahomes ends up checking it down to Hardman on the swing and goes for a one yard gain. It might not, it might have been a no yard gain. And most times we see that play, especially

with the chiefs running. It was so much heat coming at you. Everyone just drifts off. You check it down. And the guy underneath goes for 14 yards, 12 yards, and it's an easy first down. They ran it. And the Bucks rally and tackle and it was only a one yard gain. I was like, oh my God. Like they're just on everything. I have said several times past few weeks is that the chiefs don't run that much stuff. They do, but they don't. They get really creative in the low red zone.

They get really creative on third, short and mediums. Other than that, they kind of run what they run. And their guys are going to get them, get them in the good spots and are well coached. They know how to do scramble drill and all that fun stuff. And it just seemed like the Bucks go, okay, you're only going to run these seven plays, but we have seven answers for it. And they did it throughout the entire game. And by the time the Chiefs adjusted in the second half,

the Bucks were really in control of the game. It was a fantastic performance from not only the Todd Bowles, but the entire Bucks like coaching staff and unit. It was just awesome. It was a really, really cool performance. There was a play on the first Chiefs field goal driver of the second half, I want to say it was. It was second down.

And Mahomes got the throw off to Kelsey. And Levante David tackled him immediately. It was a short game. That play to me was so, it's illuminated so much about why the Bucks defense was so good in this game. Levante David makes the play instantly. Nothing, no yak whatsoever.

He was really good in those situations and it allowed them to play two men because they trusted him in those spots. And they tackled instantly. The entire defense did that. They rallied this entire game. There was never any cheap yards that the chiefs were getting. On that same play, the Bucks had Vita Valle as the edge on the run.

right side and they had Jason Pierre Paul as a three technique and Vaya just collapses the pocket. Mahomes barely got the ball off because Vaya is just eating the left tackle. And I just, and on the next play, Vaya did the same thing. Barrick got the pressure. Mahomes had to throw it away. They kicked the field goal. But that idea of putting Vaya at the edge, it was just one of like 10 different ways. They created variety up front while not bringing extra bodies.

So if you just look at all the different things they did, it's. that. It's the amount of games they were running. There was one play that I loved. It was very similar to what we talked about coming into the game. They had all three guys on the right side of the center. And they had Barrett loop all the way around. And Mahomes, for a second, step forward like he was going to run and then realized he couldn't because Barrett was there to catch him exactly like you thought might happen coming into this game. And it was just all of that stuff. And I think that the ability to not just rely on your talent advantage along the front four, But to make sure that you were creating just this discomfort with the Chief's offensive line

because guys were coming from a different alignment or it was a different guy or was a different stunt. Or was Devin White looping or was Devin White adding on and you were only bringing four and sometimes five? The variation while never putting themselves in a bad spot was just absolutely incredible. It was a no-hitter. Todd Bowles is undeniably the MVP of that game. player, coach, whatever. That is, in my opinion, the best defensive coaching performance I have ever seen in a playoff game.

I'm all with you there. It's, so I just brought the instance of Devin White looping on, onto Mahomes' right side, but countless times, countless, they either laid the fool's gold up the middle, where Mahomes thought you could step up and then it closed off on them. Like, you just shot up on him, and he had to get the ball, get rid of quick. How many times do we see Mahomes' legs getting tackled? And then he had to like throw some sidearm throw. And he almost did.

Oh my God. I thought I saw Jesus. The one where he was paralyzed to the ground. I thought I saw Jesus there. I like that ball hit the guy's hands. I was like, I actually sounded like a girl. Like I was like he's so excited at that play.

I had to tweet it out because I was just like, I hope everyone else felt the same way I just did because I just saw God right there. But it's there, even at times that he was looping to his right. How many times of Jason Pierre Paul was looping around? And there he was. Just this long, limed guy just coming around the corner. And yeah, like you said, it's, it's funny.

It's almost like a no hitter. Okay. So like, like you said, you're using the term no hitter. Pressures I've always akin to, all right, the sacks is getting the hit. But the pressures is like taking a walk like in baseball. It's being on base. Yes. It's getting on base.

It's the on base percentage. And when you accumulate pressure after pressure after pressure after pressure after pressure, that's like getting a single after single after single after single. And then when you hit the you get the sack, that's like hitting a home run with two guys on base. And that's what I've always like, that's what. But even though sometimes like the first game, they only got two sacks, but the whole second half that the Bucks defense was really getting after the Chiefs offense, you could see that throughout the entire game of this game.

So it was like they just took a whole bunch of three ball walks over and over and over. And yeah, okay, like it wasn't like Mahomes was, they still got a field goal or something like that, but that's winning. That's winning against this team. Absolutely. You're taking away those home runs and you're just making them take singles. That is a win. And they just did it the entire night.

the entire game I was waiting for the dam to break and it never broke it just never did it's it's unbelievable it really is i can't stop for just raving about it i'm just thinking of like the best possible version of all those guys in the front seven and we saw the best possible version of all of them like the way they used devon white was perfect don't drop him into coverage let him sit there and be spying and adding on when he needs to yes and making plays in space and using his athleticism and being bendy as a pass rush or all that stuff yeah use levante david david david and he was levante david as your coverage linebacker because that's what he's been good at for 10 years. And use Jack Barrett just as just this really well-rounded pass pressure.

His sack was just such a beautiful instance of using, of tying together moves while continuing to move toward the quarterback. And he just so many. Just grit on top of it. Like, yes. And that was the thing. Yeah. I'm sorry.

Talent. Talent, talent, but just this, the unbelievable effort and just the physical dominance and the fact that their physicality shine through, they beat them up the entire game. And if you just think about the ways all those guys got to Tampa, it's just such a beautiful kind of convalescence of team building. Devin White's a top 10 pick. You need him to be a star. He looked like a star tonight.

Levanti David's been there for 10 years. And this is his moment. He is Mr. Buck. He's watched every iteration of this. And he's just been consistently great for the last decade. And he was again tonight. You have in Dama Kinsu, you signed as that veteran kind of presence that you always need on teams like this.

JPP you got for next to nothing when they traded for him. They traded a third round pick for him, I want to say. He was a guy in the back half of his career. And Shaq Barrett was somebody they signed for $5 million bucks last year. And even if you, the franchise tag, it's like, oh yeah, he's making market money. At $15 million for that guy this year, underpaid. He absolutely played better than a $15 million pass rusher tonight. And for the course of the entire playoffs and most of the season, he led the NFL in pressures.

And it was just so beautiful to see all of the, it come together and see that amount of talent and all the little puzzle pieces fit in the front seven and for them to kind of single-handedly win this game for this team. When you have a guy that can consistently just win those one-on-ones, it's like just such a unlock so much for your team because then you don't have to run the games and you can just, okay, you run the games, run the games, run the games, run the games, but then you just throw the change up and everyone just straight rushes. Okay, so then you have that left tackle that's, you know, starting to underset because he's expecting, you know, Jason Pierre Paul or Vita Vaya to just shoot into him

because he's coming from the inside and then Shaq Barrett's going to loop on the out, look from the outside to the inside. And all of a sudden you run that and they just straight rush it. And then all of a sudden you got Shaq. Barrett on the edge. And if you're a left tackle, a backup left tackle, a third string left tackle, all of a sudden, you know, that's a lot of disadvantages that you have to also be under. It's you have no chip help first off.

Second off, you're already undersetting because in the back of your mind, you're going, Well, the last time I overset here, Vita VEVA just whacked me, earhold me and knocked me off the gap. That's what I was saying about keeping them off balance, about always not, never knowing where it was, never knowing where I was, they were just having their head on a swivel the entire game. Simple games, a loop, a guy looping from the opposite A gap. They ran every type of game possible. It was exactly what we talked about on Thursday or Friday morning. And just like, it came to fruition.

They just did it even better because they even threw in that pressure, that that corner nickel pressure. that's the shit that keeps you up at night as an offensive staff. Because also, in that series ads, that's a third down. You're off the field. You're pissed off. You're going, all right, what happened on a third down? Okay, we look at the Microsoft service tab, but great advertisement right there.

So all of a sudden, you're looking at, you're looking at display. You're looking at display. Okay, next time we're in six-man protection, we're going to call it like this. We're going to call it like this. You're wasting mental energy. Sometimes more of the win is just taking away the energy of what they're adjusting to. If you spent, they spend all that time wasting all that mental energy on how. how we protect that third down pressure you just brought.

We just, we can't talk about first down. We can't talk about the run plays we like. We can't talk about a screen we might like. You're just taking away something out of their toolbox and making them emphasize something else. That's what that kind of pressure can do. And the fact that it hits home, I hope you guys can hear a midger right now.

She says hi. But, but that is what, but that is what the, that kind of pressure can do. It's just that kind of change up can just keep. it's really like if you all sudden see a batter getting a change up or a 126 curve and also their knees buckle and they're like oh wasn't expecting that that's what a pressure like that is

that's the exact same comparison I can have by the way like my home's got out of I keep talking about this pressure my homes broke out of it and almost completed a hero throughout three times he got set like 20 you could have told me 10 and I would have been like yeah that sounds right yeah yeah yeah I could see 10 sacks I honestly didn't know it was three until you just said that right now That was five. Three sacks, eight hits, four of those hits from Shaq Barrett. It's impossible for a defensive player to win the MVP of the game if he doesn't have like five sacks or like ridiculous plays or a touchdown.

But I think if you look at the actual guys who are the most valuable on the field in terms of their impact on the game, you could make a serious argument that he was the most valuable player for the box tonight. Yeah. God, it was a great team effort. And we haven't talked about the offense. I mean, on the flip side is they stuck with the wrong game. I want to ask you, though, I want to have, before we move on to the offense, I want to ask you, is there anything you were surprised that the chiefs didn't go to?

Like, what, was there an adjustment that you thought they, but they went to that early, though. But they went away from it. They, they, they, you just kept hitting that even, because in my, the way I was thinking about that, because I had a similar thought. But then when I was watching the first half and they were going to it, I was like, this is a win. if you're making them go to this, you're already in their heads and you're already dictating the game. And that was my thought about it.

If you kept going to it, it wasn't really working for them. It just, I don't know. It felt like in the first couple of possession. They couldn't get a rhythm for it. You know, sometimes that's where Andy Reid's really,

those awesome tight end screens that we see from them where they're two guys going in different directions and everything. That comes in the middle of a drive. So I think maybe they couldn't just get in the rhythm of where Reed is comfortable. He's not a guy that really goes like a first and 10 screen. It's almost like he does it on a third and short or maybe a second and long when he's expecting soft coverage. That's where Reid likes his screen game. I thought I thought the screen game, they couldn't go to a draw game because games, D-Line games will take away draws.

Sure. Because O-Line's setting, past setting, you run a game, it just makes it edgy unless you're really well coached for it. I think with the screen stuff, I thought there would be a little more from it. I just think the game got out of hand that they were just like, no, we need chunks. And they weren't willing to take the maybe two yard gains that they wanted or that they didn't want. They wanted just chunks, chunks, chunks. But guess what?

Every pass play just seemed to push Mahomes out of the pocket, which sometimes, most of the times were all like, oh, yeah, that's fine. Like, Mahomes is going to make it work. Yeah, but it wasn't working today. It was a fantastic gameplay. It really was. The other thing, too, was I just didn't think. had the time to get to anything else they wanted.

That's kind of my thing. Would they just destroying the game too much that it was just there's enough? There was no answers. You could have whatever you want game planned up. If you're a lion's game, their ass is kicked. Okay, the run game was okay. But like other than quick game, passing game or RPO's, you're really taking out a lot of the past game.

And chiefs, especially in the second half the season, they're not much of a traditional play action team anymore. They don't really, they have a run leak in like seven, eight, nine weeks now. they've gotten away from that and I get it with the O line and those issues as well I just thought maybe they had to go against type sometimes when the defense is so on your shit and I'm king of Mr. Lean into it but this is where you just truly have to go into your change up just over and over and just lean into it. Everyone's waiting on your fastball and you going through the scramble plays. But guess what? The Bucks guys were ready for the scramble drills. I don't know what coaching they did.

I can't wait to watch it all 22 because then you can see how the DBs were moving with these plays. Mahomes is going to push out of pocket. he wasn't finding anything right away. He was like, ah, and he's like, one year out of bounds, throwing something sidearm flicking it up. And it's like, okay, so what were the DBs doing? And that means awesome job to the DB's coach for the Bucks, awesome jobs to the Bucks DBSs. Like, awesome job to their coverage unit.

Great. It is just a great performance for them. The play I want to talk about before we get to the Bucks offense, I think it really shines a light on what we're talking about here. There was a third and four in the second quarter when the chiefs had the ball. and they tried to run that screen to Darrell Williams. Remember that? Yep.

And the problem is when you're running screens and they're not blitzing, their guys just waiting on it. So there was instant penetration. I can't remember who it was by. It might have been by a defensive tackle or one of the backup defensive ends. It wasn't, I don't think it was barren on that play, but you got instant penetration and kind of got in Mahomes' face. And then White was right there to break up the screen.

So, yeah, it would make sense if you're getting a lot of pressure to throw some screens. but when they're not bringing more than four guys and the linebackers are sitting there waiting for it, sifting through traffic the way that these guys can, that's not an answer either. And that's why that play is really sticks in my mind. It's like, man, we can't do anything. We have absolutely no answers against this.

So let's go to the offensive side. There was a sequence that I really loved, and it was on the buck's first touchdown drive. And I kind of felt like, oh, they're in now. Like, they're really locked in now. And it started Brady, it was, I assume it was a called pass. And Brady checks, you know, it was a kill, kill, kill. I think Godwin comes in, they run duo, right?

Shocking. They run it three times in a row. Next play, play action, come back to Antonio Brown on the right side. Next play, play action, screen to Cambrate. They go down, that was the Grancowski touchdown on the RPO. They're in. I was like, that was, I tweeted out. I was like, Byron Lefwich, that's a hell of a drive.

That is a throw and fire drive. And that to me was the moment where they settled in. And they were like, our game is going to be, if you want to bring all this heat, we're going to run straight at you. We're going to run screens and we're going to run play action. And we trust that we're going to be able to gash you that way. And they guess what? They did. That's exactly what they went to the entire game.

Before we get into some specifics, I want to throw out Brady's play action numbers at one point. I asked for them. We got them from next gen staff. I found him on next gen stats. And the third quarter. And the third quarter. It was around the end of the third quarter. It was around 30 attempts for Brady.

The sacks were in there, so I had a hard time. It was 26 attempts. They used play action on 40% of those dropbacks. He was 9 of 11 for 1209 yards and three touchdowns. 11.7 yards per attempt. Decent. The fact that this team was using play action on 18% of its dropbacks, 12 games. into this season is absolutely mind-boggling.

But that's what we talked about coming into the game. They had pared down what they knew they did well, and they just spammed it over and over again tonight. And it worked. It was a masterful job from Byron Lefich, from everyone on that side of the ball as well. Even the, they had a pop pass to Gronk,

and it was just like, like you said, they, when I've watched with the Arian's offense over the years, they'll have a drive where they just kind of go like, okay, we're running the ball this drive. All right, do, do, do, do. And they'll run like three or four times in a row.

It's actually kind of funny. They just like, okay, we got to get this run set up. And they just like, like, as opposed to just running it once. They're just like, no, no, we have to hit a quota. We're hitting it three times this drive. And they'll do it, do it, do it. And like you said, the counters that they have off it, it's awesome. It's like not every counter has to be perfect and matches with exactly what you do.

Because like they, they had the pop pass to gronk. They pulled the center. I believe I had a friend look up and I really want to say it was Deonti Lee and he had to look it up for PFF's numbers, I believe. And it was I the the Bucks only pulled their one of their guys like on a run play like 6% of the time this entire season. It's crazy. It's crazy. I think they were either last second or last or third to last. They were bottom three.

I can remember that part. I can't remember all every number. But they that it's something like that. They pull them like bottom three in the league. That's what's funny is that you can still pull guys on play out. and it'll still influence the linebackers or in this case on the pop pass they had the grom is matthew tyron matthew so they pull they pull the center tyron matthew goes like what the hell's going on here he steps up and then there's gronk leaking out and it's like a 20-something yard game it's

it's as simple as simple football can be that is pop pass that is that is ninth grade onwards is every quarterback knows how to throw pop pass but the same thing the fortnight touchdown was the same thing where it's just a simple power play but they're not ready for it Marpet pulls, you have the two tight ends on that side, wash it down. Gronk just destroyed the linebacker. He was amazing in this game. They wash it down. Marpet pulls around 20-yard walk-in touchdown.

This is not really complex stuff, but the fact that they are these little tiny curveballs to the fairly simple things they had done all year and that they continued to do, they were just pressing all the right buttons at all the right moments. I am so impressed by how much Byron Lefwich grew as a play caller over. the course of the season. I agree. And how much he came to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their offense. And I thought tonight was his best performance by far. It's, uh, hold on.

I'm grabbing Mitch for everybody. Here's my cat, Mitch. She says hi. If everyone can hear her real quick, say hi to Mitch. This is Mitch. I'm glad everyone got to meet her finally. Cats. Yes.

Thank you, Mina. No, it's I, Byron Leftwich and the merging, I would say beginning, this season, I was very as curious to see that interaction with Byron, Ariens and Brady. And I truly do think it's a triumvirate that they have there. It's a three-man team, a three-man, three-headed monster. You can see, especially after the biweek, when they started honing in exactly what Brady likes. And that's what's really funny, by the way, about when I was talking about, oh, oh, they run the same play. They run duo three, four straight times. It's funny because I'm sure Ariens has an influence on Leftwich. He's got that same line of thinking.

you know, I remember Coach Chris's lessons from Wisconsin if I ever called plays. You know, like those are the lessons that I learned too. And just seeing him meld and merge these ideas over the years or over the season, I should say, is really cool because all of a sudden they just go, okay, Brady likes these plays. That pop pass I just talked about, I've never seen the bucks run that. I've never seen Bruce Arryn's run a version like that. I've seen them run a traditional 989 play action with a tight end moving. I haven't seen that version with a center trap and then a so we'll sneak route by Gronk over the middle. That's a New England Patriots play.

How many times you seen Gronk do that? Just run right down the middle of the field for that exact play. But that's awesome. That's good coaching. Good coaching is knowing, hey, this guy. We've talked about the bills running the Mustang package with Cole Beasel. Same thing. It's going, hey, our guys are really good at this.

All right. I'm not comfortable with it. I don't know what to call it. How do you like to run that play? Oh, you like to run it like this? Okay, okay. We'll put it in. We'll put it in.

We'll put it in. Okay, cool. We do it with this. Hey, hey, we got two plays off it. That's good coaching. That's just realizing, hey, my shit's not always the best stuff.

There's other, there's a million ways to skin a cat, no pun intended, because you guys just met Midge. But it's one of those things. It's like, there's a million ways to score points in the national football week. And they did.

They ran the RPO to Grock. Like, Aaron's is an RPO guy. What is an RPO? They're not RPO guy. That's a Houston Texans freaking play. That is a Clemson Tigers play running, running the zone read.

And as opposed to Brady having to keep it, they just run, you know, the flat to Gronk out there. And they got a walk in touchdown. That play is brilliant because it's main coverage down there. Sorensen, who's covering Gronk, has to run with him, but he also has a run fit. So on that play, you can see him just stop at about the C gap or the left tackle and go, do I have to, do I have to fill the run here? But he doesn't. And he has to run with Gronk, who's a freak of nature still.

We talk about, you know, everyone's saying like, oh, we should see Gronk in his prime. He's still freaking good. He's still really, really damn good. He could have been the MVP of this game. He was amazing. Easily. Easily could have been. Yeah.

It's awesome. It was a, I was hoping a little more out of the chiefs. Like, I really was. It's just that the game script got out of their hands. And it's a team that I thought was game script proof. But it turns out three scores is pretty game script proof unless you're playing the Texans last year in a division of rounds. I loved there, there was a sequence that led the two plays before, three plays before, two plays before. Two plays before Gronk had that play action pop pass down the middle.

It was the third and four. And the Chiefs brought pressure. And Brady got four net into the left flat. Just instantly got it to him completion. Might have been just like over the middle of the field. But he got it to four net underneath. Third and four completion moved the chains. I thought that they had, they looked so much more comfortable against pressure in this game.

In part because they were willing to use the running backs to kind of give them easy outwits while everything else was gone. Well, it was either their blitzing, running backs right behind it rather than let's dump it to the tight end every single time like they did in the first game. I just thought overall they had so many more answers and plans for whatever pressure looks, the chiefs were going to bring them in this game.

And we talked about that. That speaks to how good the protection plan was for the Bucks was the idea with any protection plan. If it be it five men, obviously, it's five offensive linemen, and nobody protecting, but most protections are six-man protections, potentially seven-man protections, usually involving the runnerback is the key to protection plan is you get your lineman on the big guys, and the runnerback only has to block a linebacker or a DB.

It's like body types. That's always your plan. That's always you're figuring out the math. You're figuring out everything else, the angles, everything. But that's your number one thing is you're figuring out how to get like bodies on like bodies. And the Bucks did a fantastic job this game, even being in six-man protection, which there won't to do is that in that six-man protection, they got the running back out. And the chiefs, a heavy pressure team like Spags is, like a heavy defensive corner,

like a Rex Ryan, the Spags, or Greg Williams, even a Bulls, is that they're planning on you occupying the running back. He can't get out. They're going to mesh it up. They're going to make you waste an offense alignment. Runnyback has to block a D-end or a big body because they loop it around. they manipulate something. Speaks to the Bucks protection plan and their game plan is that so many times this game is,

it was just the offensive line protecting and Fernette was able to get out or Ronald Jones was able to get out. And they were able to get all five eligibles out into the past scheme. And doing that puts a lot of strain, especially if you're bringing pressure because all of a a sudden you're going, we're not planning on this. We're playing on this running back, staying in the backfield looking around and, and I got pick up this guy. I got, you know, bad, that's what bad protection does is.

running back's got sky that means runoffback cover up our asses cover our asses that's what that means is running back cover our asses for everyone that we don't protect but instead the bucks had a great game game plan joe gilbert and bruce aaron's baron left which they had they had stuff in plan where they're going like we're going to short this out with the offense line runoffice going to get out to the flat and turn a four-yard gain into a 12-yard gain that's good coaching that's a that's good opponent game planning and i uh we talked about on a friday is that spags is such a pain the asked to go against is that he is willing to do these game plan pressures, just like Todd Bulls did with that corner and that nickel, which he has never shown this entire season. That is a game plan

pressure. That is something it's unscouted. And Spaggs is one of the best at that. And even with those unscotted looks, Bucks were protecting it, getting guys out. Brady was finding him. Just again, we talked about the defense. I just said, hey, it was a fantastic performance by them. Same with the offense. Just having a protection plan against Spags, gash or B. Gash, they just, they blocked it up and they were able to get gain after gain after gain after gain, move the ball consistently. That's what you have to do against this defense. And that's, you know, it's key to the game. So many different answers, whether it was running the ball straight at them on that drive, whether it was screens, whether it was using play action as a way to slow down the pass rush. I love that as an approach because I think

it's counterintuitive, but it often works. If you're getting your guys on their pass rushers and you're kind of creating that tiny moment of hesitation right after the ball was snapped, that's a really good way to slow down a pass rush. My favorite moment, I think, of their of line on the entire game was on the Gronk touchdown. It was a play action. And Marpet just gets right on the nose and just stonewalls him right in the middle of the pocket, slowly is walking back but gives almost no ground whatsoever. Brady is able to hold it long enough for Grunk to break back inside after initially having

the corner covered up. And it's just all that stuff working together. And that play, I mean, Brady just let that throw rip. And I understand the refs had a role. in the second quarter of that game and that drive. Absolutely, they did. I still think the pass interference to Evans was a pass interference. The Matthew penalty to set up that touchdowns a little tiki-tack.

The Brown touchdown is a little tiki tack. I understand that. We can talk about the interception and whether that was actually a penalty. Over the course of a season, that stuff's going to even out. The reps did not determine this game. The chief's got their asses kicked. And did it make Brady's stateline probably look a little bit? Did it help the cosmetics of it?

probably, but I still thought that he was in complete command of that game in the ways that he needed to and was able to be the trigger man for a very, very good offensive approach that again, I think pressed all the right buttons. It did. It was, we haven't talked about, you know, like leading like just a run game even. Like they hit the duo, they hit the zone. They hit the split zone. That's what the bucks are going to run over and over and over.

Guess what? They just, you had the great joke on it. You said it was the long game. They all of a sudden just ran, they ran the power out of nowhere. And it goes for a touchdown of frenet. That is a whole using a whole season of throwing fastballs. And then all of a sudden just going like, hey, guess what? I have a slider.

Here's the straight change. Yeah. Hey, buddy. I got, I have four pitches actually. You thought I only had three. I actually have four. I was just waiting for the playoffs for it. That's what they did.

And that is, that's as much of it is. So like when you're game planning a team, especially against bullets is or in situational football, you're going normal. down distance, which is first and 10 or second of one to six. You go second and long. Then you got the third and down series, which is short yardage. And then you got third medium, third and long, third and extra long. Red zone is the other one.

You're really getting situational in the NFL. Chip Kelly had the line. He says he didn't realize until he got to the NFL is how situational the NFL is. It's just not just ball place. Third and five is different than second of five. It's just how it is. It's just how the game playing is. It's how the defense looks at.

It's how the offense looks at. When you only have six plays, it's hard to really think about the sport situation. Correct. And it's when you get those types of things and you're able to. So if I look, if I'm breaking down a team, usually I look at the previous four games and any games against us previously. Usually for a year or two, you'll look at some auxiliary stuff. Oh, maybe I played this defense coordinator three years ago as a coach or the last time we played

a cover two team. They did this and we like these plays. You know, that's what you're looking at in the game plan. And so when you play a team that I'll say, okay, I watch this team and they ran the ball 200 times and they only pulled a guy 10 times. And I only have a limited practice reps every single day. We only get 40 practice reps on this day because NFL rules and everything. Yeah, I'm not going to really practice against a guy pulling.

I'm going to practice against duo zone, inside zone or I'm sorry, inside zone, split zone where I'm going to practice against the stuff that we expect to see because we've got to look good against those looks. And then also you pull a guy, that is where throwing these change jobs really matters. And that's where the good coaches know when you are going to throw the change up and they don't want to wait on it and they just knock it out of the fucking park. And like, but also you see it on the opposite end, they like the bucks did. They pulled a guard and it's a touchdown.

That is, that is when you are waiting for that two strike count and you just throw something they've never seen before and you just buckle the whole defense. That's great play calling. It really is. It's great play design. It's just having to ball. So pull it out at that time rather than going, you know, that's not really our favorite play.

And I'm, I'm just going to run something that I'm comfortable with. And millions of coaches do that. And it's fine. I'm a big time proponent of leaning into it. But this is a great instance of not leaning into it, but throwing the change up your fastball. And I just love it. Should we talk about Tom Brady?

Yeah, sure. Why not? He did okay, right? Seven rings. It's one of those things where you don't like to ascribe the entire legacy to how many championships you win in a team sport like this. Because I think that it can get dangerous in a hurry in terms of where how much of an impact he had in those moments.

But we talked about this throughout the playoffs, even getting there and even being in this position again and playing well enough and being the number one team in the NFL in EPA per playoffensively during the second half of the season, being one of the two or three best offenses in the league as a 43-year-old quarterback who threw 40 touchdowns this year. I understand that, you know, he only threw for 200 yards tonight. But it's about getting there. It's about being the steady hand on the wheel that this franchise desperately needed, and he was.

No matter how you slice this, what he did this season is unfathomable. He's 43 years old, and he played at an extremely high level all year. Your playoff numbers are never going to be these monster numbers for the most part. These games are these individual one-week kind of, I don't know, these self-contained worlds, and all you need to do is win each one and keep moving on. And he's done that in his entire career. The man has won seven Super Bowls. He got to this team with no offseason,

turned them into one of the most efficient offenses in the entire NFL. In doing so, helped instill a belief throughout that entire building about what it takes to do this and to win a Super Bowl. And people there will tell you that's real. It's not just us trying to ascribe that to the situation. It's real. And that steadying hand proved to be what took this team over the top. A lot of this roster is the same. It's really just Tom Brady, a right

tackle and a safety. And they went from being a seven and nine team to a team that destroyed Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl. It is unbelievable. And it's so hard to wrap your mind around what he has accomplished. There is no, really no overstating it. There's no hyperbole that's out of bounds. He is quite possibly the greatest in like team sport athlete we have ever seen. I would still give it to Michael Jordan because I am extremely biased. What Tom Brady has accomplished is just so, so hard to comprehend in this moment. It just seeing him accept that trophy and seeing it again and just how normal it all feels and how familiar it all feels. It's, it's hard not to become numb to it. And the same way that you become numb to the greatness of Patrick Mahomes and how just marvel, how we marvel at it and how just stupefying his talent is, just the overwhelming greatness of Tom Brady feels the exact same way to me right now.

Well, seven rings. It's just you can't, I don't even understand how to even think about it. I was 14, I was 13 years old, 14. I was 14 years old the first time he won one. Okay. It's crazy. And so like seeing LeBron win one in Miami, Cleveland, and then L.A. It's like, okay, NBA.

That's what it feels like. Movement. It's still hard to win. But seeing like just one year out of it, just going switching teams and winning the next year, like in the NFL, especially at a quarterback position. Like you see guys like, oh, the guy that slot receiver or the defensive tackle or something like that. you know, uh, uh,

uh, uh, some guy at, you know, Roanowski went from the Broncos or Raiders and they started winning there. You know, just, just stuff like that.

But it is something, there's something to be said. That's why it's just, there's a human thing of just confidence that comes to an NFL game or just, yes. game. I'm just talking about sports. It's just,

but in the NFL, especially when all of a sudden it's like, as opposed to a guy going like, hey, we're chasing this. Hey, I, so I was in Oakland.

All right, 2016. we had, we had a, We were talking about short yardage and we were talking about, hey, is one yard, what's is three feet going to limit you? Bobby Johnson was our tight end coach. He was in charge of a short yardage.

He's offensive line coach with the bills, hell of a coach. And he was talking about, hey, is one yard is three feet going to limit you from the Super Bowl. And then he goes, all right, boys, who here, offensive team or offensive unit? Who's here has won a Super Bowl? And I want to say one guy raised her hand. And it's clutchy with the Ravens. And that was it. And that was the entire offensive unit.

And that blew my mind. And I was just like, oh, man, wow, it is really. I knew it was hard. Trust me. My dad's been around it and he never even went to the Super Bowl. And all of seeing Collecchi do that. And then Michael Crabtree was the other one who had been to the Super Bowl, but didn't win. And realizing, like, just getting to the game is some people's goals in their life.

Like, I have made a personal goal of never go to the Super Bowl unless I'm in it. And guess what? I'm probably never going to go if I'm never going to be able to team. But it's, that is how people in this league look at it. And then all of a sudden, when you get in. and hey we have a quarterback we believe in we love him we love him to death he we think we's stud he's going to lead us to the promise land he's been to one pro bowl we've been in the playoffs we've never won a game i'm just making up a story here but i'm just saying like you get that doubt sometimes the guy doesn't

win can this guy win a game lamar jackson won the MVP last year it didn't win the playoff game and all a sudden it's like lamar can't win a playoff game that's a doubt that so's in your head tom brady has elapsed then you go it's tom it's tom brady he's fine he throws one pick he threw three picks against a backers last week. Everyone just goes, yeah, whatever, whatever. But guess what? If I'm just trying to think about young, if Josh Allen did that, when just everybody just be like, oh my God, he's done, he's done. That whole season was a blowup. He's that he can't win in the playoffs. He throws three picks. He falls apart. Brady throws three picks. We just go, yeah, whatever. It's Tom Brady. It's an aggressive defense. That's the confidence that a guy like him instill is nice. Because it's deserved team.

It's deserved. He's earned it because he's going to come back from it. And that's, that's to me, what's so amazing. And I, I've thought so much about the Super Bowl losers recently. And the fact that the Rams just traded Jared Gough, the fact that we saw what happened to the Falcons, the Eagles, I mean, the Eagles won, but the teams that lost and just what it can do to you. And like, the brainworms from the Seahawks losing one. Cam Chancellor writing about it this year on the Players Tribune talking about how they still thought about it, thought about it every day. And that belief and the one, if you have it, and if you think you can win, and in these individual moments. Do we think we have the guy? That matters. It really does matter.

Yes. And him being there, it took them where they needed to go. It took them over the top. It mattered. And it's just, again, LeBron and just those guys that really have created these resumes that you can't even believe them when you look at them. And Tom Brady is absolutely there. The other guy I wanted to talk about when we get to the coaches too. Rob Grunkowski was amazing in this game. Amazing. The guy took last year off of football as the greatest tight end that's ever played the sport, in my opinion, because of what he does as both a blocker and a receiver, and then just walk back in. He didn't put it the greatest stats this year, but no one did. Chris Godd was an all first team or second team all pro last year. He had like 800 yards. That's not how these offenses work with Brady.

And Grant comes into this game, dominates, just dominating edge guys as a run blocker and was the most productive receiver on the field for the Patriot or for the Bucks. I don't really think about this that often, but I was sitting there watching that game today and just watching him play. And I thought, I wish my dad could have watched him play. Like, my dad died, like, right before Grant came into the league. And, like, that was, like, he, I just had that moment today.

I was like, I wish my dad could watch Gronk play. Like, he just had this amazing career of just being this football player's football player, where he's doing all these little tiny things. And if you love the sport, he was just so easy to appreciate. And this was a perfect encapsulation. of that, just all the little things he did and how funny was to watch. And just that guy who's already headed to Canton, kind of stamping this onto his resume and the way he played in this game and just adding those moments and catching two touchdowns.

It's just incredibly cool. Like, just of those guys in that game and just the moments I'll think about is just the greatest tight end of all time, just kind of throwing a little bit more on there just because he could. Yeah. And we watch Gronk and I, I've laughed at the plays over the years. especially with the Patriots, where he looked like the kid that hate puberty early. And he's just carrying three guys and just running into the end cell. And it's, it's one of those like a thing like, I was going to say like a hipster fan like me and you would be like, yeah, but watch is run blocking.

And, you know, but like, but it's so cool to watch this year. And it's like, because he's not doing the early kid to puberty things. And I even compared him early this year. I was like, hey, he's in the Jermaine Gresham role where everything's just, yeah. He gets the two plays designed for him each, you know, each week. And then he blocks the rest of the time. He made, yeah, that was his role. I would say until about week four or five or six.

And then all of a sudden the bucks were like, and this speaks to Byron leftwich and just accepting it. And Bruce Arons and everything going like, hey, let's get this, this. Let's get this damn guy the ball a couple more times because he's pretty damn good. But also they do. He's able to unlock those things like the past protection thing from last week where he's past particular gets Chase Young. that is that a maneuverable piece like that versatility is a we lock him into a y x x halfback fullback but versatility at the position not only where you can line up but the uh uh the scheme that you can

run the assignment that you have and the fact that gronk is not a negative anywhere he has a plus in a run game he has a pus and pass pass protection he's a plus on a route a short route where you can create yak a deep route because he can get there because he's He's long leg and he can actually gain. He's not a big stiff. You know, he can actually gain yardage 20 yards down the field. So when you have a plus on every aspect of the game, that's, it's remarkable. My dad is one of the harsher guys on tight ends because he was a true wide tight end.

He was a tight end tight end tight ends tight end for 14 years. He played put it this way. He played for 14 years. He caught 13 touchdowns. Sons it up pretty nicely, right? Yes. So, yeah. So he's a wide tight end.

So for him, he got reached out to, I think it was Victorfer, or reached out to him this week from the athletic about, want to talk about the tight ends from this game, Gronk and Kelsey. And he complimented both guys and which is, it's crazy to hear that because I thought he was kind of diss Kelsey and say, oh, he's not much of a blocker. But he was speaking to what a genius Kelsey is. We were actually talking about this morning and we're saying like talking about against zone coverages and just, you know, the design basically scramble drills that the chiefs do. and just seeing Kelsey is just, he was a quarterback. You can tell he was a quarterback in high school because he has that spatial awareness that he has in zone coverage. And he gets by in the run game and he has gone better as he's gotten older. But that's the thing is Gron could do that and then like 20 other things.

And I'm not trying to take away from Kelsey. They're both unbelievable players. But it was just kind of cool to hear my dad who was so hard on so many guys, especially at the position he played. He's one of those guys. He's like, he's not a tough guy. He can't block. He's just a receiver. He should wear an 80.

Put him in a teen number. You know, he would say those old school guy things. But for him, I was talking to him this morning and for him to just rave for about 15 minutes and we just talk tight ends. And it wasn't like once he just went, well, he can't block or anything. Oh, he's old. He's slow now. He just, there's 15 minutes of just raving about gronk and raving about Kelsey. And that's really cool.

And it's like for me, that's a private thing. But it's like that speaks to these guys. These guys are just freaks in nature. And I know we were talking about gronk about. I want to throw on Kelsey there too, but it's just, it's special to watch these guys. Tight ends, we shouldn't take for granted. Titans are unicorns. Just how many things you have to do.

And like, that's the coolest thing about Gronk. And that's cool thing. I just do my dad would have loved watching him. Like, it just, he would have loved him. And he loved the sport. And that's just the type of guy that I just know that because he does all those little things. And let's, I want to talk about Bruce Ariens just really quickly before we get out of here. I loved Bruce Ariens for a long time.

I mean, I talk about that 2015 Cardinals team all the time. I'm, it's one of my favorite, like, teams that didn't win a Super Bowl. I love watching them play. When I make that joke, I, I'm dead serious when I say that, though, is, is Robert, I was in the league. I was with the Falcons, completely different division, everything. And Robert wouldn't shut up about the 2015 colonel's offense. And that's why I make that joke, but I finally got to watch them this off season. So I finally got to study them.

I watched some plays over the years, but it was like, finally got to study them. But no, keep going, Robert. But that I mean that for everyone that's listening to the show. That offense was, I thought, was so fun. And I just love the style and how aggressive it was. And when it looks good, it looks great. And I think that you could say the same thing about this offense. And Bruce is just a football guy.

I mean, it's just like to his core. And I'll never forget sitting in his office last year. And I was talking about Byron because I was asking him, because Bruce was always that guy where he's like, if I don't get to call plays, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. That's what I like doing. And I asked him, I was like, why, why didn't, why would you give it up?

Like, are you ready? Why were you ready to give it up? You always said you never would. And he's pretty much told me, he's like, Byron's the only guy I would have given it to. That's awesome. If I, there's no way I would have done this or come back if they wouldn't have let Byron call plays

and they would have let Byron be my offensive coordinator. It's the reason he came back was to allow Byron to have that opportunity. And that's what Bruce has been for people. And the fact that he is the head coach with three black coordinators, the only black offensive play caller in the NFL. and Bruce, that was a mandate for him to take this job. Bruce didn't want to come out of retirement. I mean, he was living a nice life on his boat in Georgia.

He was a guy who, you know, he was having a nice time. He was having a nice time. He was playing a lot of golf. And he enjoys life a lot better with a heavy hand. That's exactly right. With a ring weighing down his finger that trust me. And he came back for this job had to be perfect in a lot of ways. And that was one of them.

And the fact, he told me, and he said I was in the meetings for about a week and the game plan meetings, everything else. And he's like, I don't need to be here anymore. I can go do personnel. I can be a head coach. That's so cool. I can be a CEO type head coach. And that's how much he trusted Byron.

And that's what he put on Byron's plate. And to watch that entire coaching staff find itself over the last two seasons and especially in the back half of this season, I think it speaks to the leadership in that building, what Bruce is, how he empowers the guys he has. And it speaks to those coaches individually. those guys are coming back. That staff will be back intact. And I think we better be talking about both of those guys

as head coaching candidates early on next season. Because I agree. I can understand halfway through this year why you wouldn't think Byron left, which was ready to do it. Yeah. Now, after what he did after the second half of the season and the changes they made and how flexible they seem to be, they did an incredible job both those guys.

And I am happy that we're going to talk about Bruce Ariens as a Super Bowl winning head coach because I think that he is, he waited a long, long time to get his chance. He was 60 years old. He's the oldest coach to ever win to Super Bowl, but he was only a head coach seven years ago. And the fact that he did it after coming back and what he's done to empower those guys,

it's a really, really cool story. And I'm happy for him. I actually, you know, going into the playoffs, when we were first doing our show, we went into the Wild Card weekend. And I started kind of, it's so much fun looking at after season stats, after regular season.

Because finally, when you get a good sample size, the season ends. and and the bucks were second in SRS, a simple rating system from pro football reference. And that's just always stuck in the back of my brain. And I was like, and then we did that show and you're like, since their biweek or since the second half of the season, they've been the we in the EPA and offense.

And I was just like, man, I'm underestimating this team. Like that's been in the back of my mind. It's the entire season. I think God I bet on them last week. But it's, but what I always love with Arients, okay, he's enabled Byron Leftwich to be truly a play caller and enabled him to go through the bumps

and do everything he has. Well, also like you said, he's not, he's not like, you know, he's not being the puppet master behind. He's okay, probably has some input. Of course he does. Of course he's going to have someone put up, but it really does seem. You know what Tom Brady does? I don't see Tom Brady come off the sideline and go straight up to Bruce Ariens.

He comes off the sideline, goes straight to Byron Leftwich. That's enablement right there. You can read a lot by. who a player looks at when something goes bad or something goes good. There is something to, again, the human element. You look at a DB code or a DB messing up. Do they look at the decorinator? Do they look at the DB coach?

Okay. You can learn a lot by when something goes bad or something goes good, who they look at. But I, you know, it just speaks to Arians right here is to enable his, his coordinators. I know of coaches, especially when they get to more prominent positions, they become micromanagers. And I get it when, especially when you're a head coach, you know, know the win and loss goes next to your name. And some coaches are fantastic going to just letting things happen and laissez-faire.

And some coaches have to micromanage. And it's just, it's the nature of the beast. It depends on the feed. It depends on the assistant coaches. It depends on the quarterback. Depends on everything. But it spoke to me that like Arians, they're talking about Bulls and they say, hey, hey, hey, does Bruce Ariens say anything into your headset?

And they said, maybe run cover zero a little bit more. Yeah. And I love that. Rather than, hey, hey, he comes in my ear to like, soften up. Like, uh, there's that famous clip with pet, uh, Patine, a petting and, uh, Cal Shan in Cleveland. Yep. And he goes, hey, run the ball here. You know, no, hey, cover, hey, lean into it. Hey, throw the fastball. Frickin do it. Let's do it. Let's, hey, like, like, like, I love that. Rather than shy up and show up and, and, and Jose Marino and just like,

no, no, we're going to win one nothing. No, no, let's win, you know, 55. Like, hey, no, we're going, we're, hey, we're taking it to them. And I love that. And that speaks to Bruce Aaron's not only he's going to hire the guy, but he's going to enable. And what I'm doing. Hey, run your shit. These guys are life first together. It's awesome. It's awesome. And that's what's he brought. He brought Harold Goodwin all everywhere with him. The fact that Byron played for him in Pittsburgh and he had to, he had to coax Byron into coaching. Why would you want to? I've been byron. I've been around Byron since Jacksonville. I'd never thought he was going to be a coach. I never thought he was going to be a coach. I never thought he was going to be a coach. If you played, you played for a decade and you made quarterback money and you were a starter and you had that kind of career. You don't want to coach.

That's it. And he, and Bruce was like, come on, come do it. And he's clearly great at it. He started. And the fact that he started as like an offensive assistant. Like he started as in a grunt role. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. And a different path than I did. The fact that Bowles has, the fact that Bowles has been there with him, you know, since the Temple Day is and everything else. Yeah. This is a group that's been together for a long time. And now they're the kings of the castle, man.

Now they're at the top of the mountain. They did it. It's the best. And I can promise you, Bruce Ariens will get a good time tonight. Oh, you think? I think, I can promise you. Thank God he knows everything in Tampa. You know, it's like he's like, he's just going to have a good time tonight.

And you know what? Hey, congrats to them. Because they just put on a performance for the ages. Every single one of them. That was, that is a, you cannot play better in this. Super Bowl than they did tonight and they deserve it. What a season, what a year. I mean, just signing Tom Brady and having it all come together in the first year, it's a magical run. And congratulations to them. And congratulations to you, buddy, for getting through your first

season podcasting. I appreciate that, man. I want to say thank you for doing it. When we met all those years ago, I never thought that we would ever be able to do this. The fact that we've been like, I don't know, we're like real friends. You invited me to your wedding. We're like real friends. And the fact that this opportunity presented itself has been one of the coolest things, you know, that I've gotten to do.

And I just want to say thank you to everybody for listening this year. I can't even tell you guys how much I appreciate it. There's so many options out there. And every single one of you guys that came to do this on Mondays and Sunday nights during the playoffs, whatever, it truly means so much to me that you guys would do this. My favorite part about podcasting is a medium is the intimacy. of it. The fact that we're in your pocket.

And the way that I listen to him when I'm cooking or I'm walking the dog and the fact that with all those other options out there that you guys would take a chance on us this season and so many of you did, I can't even tell you how rewarding this experience has been for me and how much fun I had doing this. I don't think you guys will understand what this year meant to me. And I cannot wait to keep doing it. I seriously cannot. It's going to be such a fun offseason. It was such a fun year. And we'll be back later this week, me and Lindsay, but then we'll be off for a little bit, but then we'll be back all year. I mean, we're going to have multiple shows all offseason.

So thank you guys so, so much for listening. Please, if you can, rate and review the podcast on your podcast platform of choice. I would sincerely appreciate that to kind of cap off the year. Please subscribe to the athletic all of the coverage we're going to have tonight. Nate Taylor is at the game. Greg Alman is at the game. Lindsay Jones. Probably going to be writing something about the Bucks later this week.

I'm telling you, you will absolutely be happy you did. Please subscribe to the show if you haven't done that already. Thank you for your time. Thank you for the entire year. We appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you guys later. This was the Athletic Football Show.