The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 18 recap — Super Bowl favorites take care of business, sizing up the playoff field, and more

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

This season's NFL playoff field is set with Week 18 in the books. Robert Mays and Nate Tice put a bow on the regular season and look ahead to the playoffs on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys discuss the Super Bowl favorites taking care of business in Week 18, the Bills' emotional return to the field, the Jaguars' AFC South title, and more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeToday's show is brought to you by...Peloton: Try Peloton risk free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only at onepeloton.com/home-trialPhilo: Sign up today at philo.tv and use promo code MAYS to get 50% off your first monthBetter Help: Visit BetterHelp.com/MAYS today to get 10% off your first monthPenrose Hill: Get your first 6 bottles for $39.95 plus FREE shipping. Go to TryFirstleaf.com/MAYS3:16 Lions player spoiler to Packers15:52 Seahawks get last spot in NFC20:43 Sizing up the playoff field25:23 Jaguars win AFC South37:51 The Bears are on the clock!44:48 Super Bowl favorites take care of business51:37 Emotional win for the Bills58:05 Patriots fall short in bid for playoffs66:54 Ugly Dolphins-Jets matchup75:54 What are you doing Chargers?78:03 What was that, Cowboys? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. Nate, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing well. We're here.

Week 18. We're here. Week 18. A bow on it. No more. No more you having to list off what happens with playoff situations with wins and losses anymore. We don't have to figure our way throughout.

I think that's been a highlight for me the past month is me and you on air. Just both sorting through playoffs. situations going, oh, they have to play the Patriots, too, at home. Like, that's been a really fun part of my life the last six weeks. Last night, I went to, went out to watch the Chiefs Raiders game in the first half, just because I didn't want to be locked in my basement for seven hours yesterday and then all day today. It's like, I'm just going to go out and watch the game somewhere.

And I was sitting at a bar in Logan Square here by my house, and we were talking about something. They're like, if the Jags lose, are they out? And I was like, oh, no, actually, they can get the wild cart. If this, this and this happened. And it took about like 10 minutes into the conversation, but they were like, why do you know all this? You just like, yeah, because I do.

It was deep in my brain for the last couple of weeks here. And listen, all those scenarios, all those possible permutations, week 18 did not disappoint. We got a really exciting day that started last night. I mean, the Titans Jags game was great. Everything you'd want from a potential playing game, the Titans giving their all. We're going to talk about that game in a bit. Obviously, some of the teams that needed help, like Seattle got it. Other teams that needed help, like the Steelers didn't get as much as they were looking

for. So there's a lot to dig into right now. But let's start with the game that we just watched. That's a brutal, brutal loss for the Packers, man. That really was. Do you want to reverse engineer this like memento by going with like the fourth downplay? So I think the fourth downplay is where we start because it's a, it was a third downplay. It's an unbelievably ballsy call. So they're driving a couple big decisions on that, in that stretch to not accept the penalty.

and get one more play was a nice little move by Dan Campbell there in the Lions coaching staff I thought was smart. I'm about Ramel and Dan Campbell, the former like, you know, just like not the players you expect. The meathead brainiacs. I absolutely love it from both of them.

So that happens, but then they get a holding call. So it goes back to second and 17. And on second down, their get right play on that second and 17 is a hook and lateral on the biggest moment of the game. in the biggest moment of the season, they're playing like they got nothing to lose.

Yeah. I really appreciate that. Yeah. I was waiting for so many more just fakes and on-site kicks. There's enough today from other teams, but I was expecting even more of that. But no, the hook and lateral was, that was so funny because you can just see it coming. Like I was like, why is St. Brown kind of shifted? Oh, that's why, because these two-hand shove passes like a basketball lateral.

So that was a basketball pass, like two-hand chest pass. So that was like, I've seen that play before it actually from Matt LaFleur. Like when he, didn't they run that against the Rams or the Rams ran it against him in the red zone, like in the playoffs a few years ago? It might as possible. I don't remember. I was in that game. I don't know why I don't remember that. But yeah.

So I've seen that play before at Lambo. So kind of laugh, I laughed at it. I was like, hey, I've seen this in this situation, like maybe not that tight of a situation, but down at this part of the field. So it's kind of funny to see that again. But then the first down was perfect. I want to see more of those, by the way. The Titans won yesterday was. A little extreme.

That one was a little bit out there. But those plays on third and forever, especially when you're in no man's land. Obviously, this is a different situation for the Lions. It doesn't matter if they lose the game. They could do anything that they want to. But even in normal down and distance situations, when it's like third and 17 and you need to get back on track and you're in that no man's land, those pitch plays, I think we should see a few more of them every year than we do. Teams were starting to do it against picket fence defenses, just like what you're talking about, third, an extra long. and then like when they have like seven guys at the sticks, just rallying the tackle.

That's where and now teams have started to tweak it more and more. You see about, yeah, I agree with you. You see it about four or five, six times a year. I think you're going to see it maybe even more than that because even the one that the Titans ran, which was just Berks, it was planned, but Berks went haywire on it. Like you got to rip the eject button on that play. At a certain point you got to tell. You got to know.

I know you have gigantic. He like hook shot of that. I'm like actually. I can't believe he got it there. I could believe it either. The fact that he got it all the way there was wild. I thought it was going to be one of those, you know, when guys get spun, especially when you get like smaller quarterbacks, the ball just floats up in the air. It actually had like a, like a nice arc to it.

Like it was actually like he hit a double to the gap kind of like kind of throw on that. But yeah, no, you'll see it a little more. I agree with you. I think you'll see it. Some of those more, not adlet plays, but extended plays, like planned extended plays. Like we're even seeing with protections where it's kind of the planned break contain. We're starting to see that a little bit more with offense align. So I see maybe those like planned extended plays are going to get. crop in a little bit more. And then that fourth and one, obviously, to win the game, not going empty there and throwing it is another just ballsy choice. 12 jumbo. Yeah. So they showed like a big run look and then went empty. I couldn't believe they went empty because I, you got to give some run threat a little bit.

That was my thought as well. But it worked out earlier. The quick out to DJ Chark on the conversion they had. The third down, I think it was third. They went. They sent Raymond in a little quick motion there and then it was little quick. Because I thought that was empty. I was like, oh, got to give a little bit of threat to run, but worked out well.

And they ran stick, which is hilarious. It's that Gordon Ramsey meme again where it's like, Joe Lombardi runs stick. You know, just like, oh, you idiot. You idiot. What are you doing? And then it's like, you know, Ben Johnson runs. And it's like, oh, you sweetheart. That's so awesome.

But they wouldn't address it. They went on the cheat account, which is when the center, as soon as you grab the ball, he snaps it, as opposed to even ready go. So, and then you have a backup linebacker there because of the Kwey Walker incident. And so that, you know, it was a little compounded thing that ended up in a big situation that won the game for the line. where do you want to start with Packers disappointment? The Quay Walker thing is in there. I would say inability to stop the run again in a huge moment.

The numbers aren't staggering. The Lions average a little over four yards of carry, but they have a 46% success rate. They ran the ball consistently throughout the entire game. And they had like 0.14 EPA per rush, which is very, very good. It was one of the best rates of the entire week far above what the league average would be over the course of the season. And so even though they weren't ripping off, you know, huge gains left and right, they ran the ball consistently in a way that they needed to in this game. They avoided negative plays, it felt like.

Yes. Say what the Packers didn't get those explosive plays for a defense, which is TFLs and all those types of things. So that's this lion's offense because, you know, they do smatter and some play action and some naked and some screen game that they never kind of felt like off schedule. Like so the Lions never felt like tight like with their offense. They were able to kind of get to what they wanted to because they had a lot. of manageable situations.

And when they didn't, they're running fricking pitch plays on second in, second and forever. And then they had the one shot play. And you're running the ball consistently. And then you set up that one shot play. Clefram is a pretty good guy to run that. He's a great shot play guy. Yes. Yes.

I know. So I love that. They were in, I think it was 12 person, they're 21 personnel on the play. They had a tight end in the game or a fullback in the game. So it was heavy early down. And the Packers were not in base personnel, but they were, they had, it was a heavy box. they were in single high defense. So Raymond was the number two receiver

runs straight at the post safety. They're in cover three. And the tight end of that side, I believe it was Brock Wright locked down the corner. So all Raymond had was all that space. You see that play a lot in the Shanahan offense, but it's from the number one receiver running that to the corner back to the post. So it was a little bit of a tweak on something we've seen a lot against the Packers.

Remember George Kittle had that touchdown on Sunday Night Football a few years ago and a similar idea. So they hit that for like their one big. explosive pass play. I don't think that the Lions had another completion over like 15 yards in this game. Didn't feel like it. So it felt like a lot of throws at guys' feet, like eight yards. They did not move the ball consistently.

Goff had the gloves on. So as a former quarterback, I did not like throwing with gloves. It's a personal preference thing. The gloves have gotten better as far as throwing. But I think his thing is because his motion is so over the top that the ball, when a proper spiral off your hand, You throw it down like a dart. Not that everyone throws darts, but okay. But your pointer finger is going to be pointed down at the end of when you're throwing.

And I think the glove was sticking to his pointer finger. And so the ball just kept nose diving on him. I just think his throwing style does not conducive to using gloves. That's just a theory. I have no idea. But I just thought it was too, it happened too often for it not to be like one thing that's making this happen. We're talking about their inability to move the ball consistently. Their quarterback not be able to throw the glove on and they still won this game.

because of the Packers' inconsistency on offense. I think that the third down numbers, at one point, they were like third of 14, and you can come up with every example of their faltering on third down. Multiple Aiden Hutchinson sacks, one that was the result of a chip by the right guard. The help actually screwed up the play. Yeah, the help ruined. And then you have some just miscues on third down, the performative go-ball interception to Kirby Joseph,

of which there could have been another if it wasn't a race by penalty. So the Packers offense just, again, did not make enough plays in the passing game when they needed to. And then you combine that with a misfield goal, a fumble while driving. I mean, just miscues enough of them to keep Green Bay out of the playoffs. It's a playing game, essentially, even if the Lions had nothing to play for. And that's what it felt like. Those five mistakes, you know, that's what it is. These tight, tight games, that's what it comes down to in a couple big plays.

That's why the Lions just need that one explosive play to kind of knock the top off because they're kind of shooting jabs the whole game. keeping up their own defense as well. But yeah, the performative deep ball showed up a couple times in this game. And that's what Rogers has been doing, especially in the second half of the year. He's kind of always done this, but he had this guy named Devante Adams, so it worked even better, was man coverage were blitz, man blitz. Yeah, I'm launching up go balls and slot fades. And I'm just going to punish you.

And that's what I felt like he again got to. Oh, I got man coverage. I'm taking it. And that's what the last interception was, pressure. I'm going to take this. It's not like a bad answer. It's just, you know, it's hard to sustain. when you maybe have some inconsistent receivers doing it or maybe not overly dominant

receiver. So that's what it just has felt like this whole year. And sure enough, it showed up twice. One got called back, but one actually happened at the end of the game. So a couple of moments there afterwards. I think Jamal Williams asked for Rogers's jersey or someone did. He said no. He wanted to keep it.

I don't know what that means. I'm sure it might mean nothing. It might mean he just didn't want to take off the jersey. He was walking off the field with Randall Cobb. But he was walking off the field with Randall Cobb in a very. contemplative sort of way. They were like hard their arms around each other walking through the tunnel and, you know,

looking up at the stands. And I'm sure he was enjoying that moment to a certain extent. But at the same time, it's hard not to look at that and start pondering or asking questions about what happens now. Because that's what happens now. Was a simple minds playing? Like, don't you forget about me? It's kind of what it was.

I expected the fist to go up when he was walking off the tunnel. But that's where we are. I mean, it's going to be another offseason of this. What's going to happen? Is he coming back? Is he not coming back? And this team looked like they could potentially be dangerous in the playoffs based on the way that they were playing. But when you give yourself this little margin for error and you're planning, it's a team that is pretty good and has been pretty good all year.

It was also on the doorstep of the playoffs. This is what can happen when you leave it down to one game. And this is what happened. Yeah. And we've talked about this whole year how NFC there's like, who are the contenders in the NFC? The other kind of side effect is that there's a lot of teams in the middle. And that's in any given Sunday type of situation is if you aren't having to bounce your way, you're not playing consistently, anyone can knock you off.

And that's a lot of flawed teams, good and bad, where it's like, oh, we can work on this, or it's like, ooh, this is really getting exposed to these situations. That's what happens. It comes down to one game, essentially a playing game against a team that you're more or less evenly matched with. And it comes down to a couple of plays, and now you're not in the playoffs. I know another offseason way, and we already have Rogers as like trade and dead cap, already down pat like already have those articles already did those episodes it's kind of all right well we already

did our homework for this off season we're ready to go because this is a year three of this it feels like big questions for the packers i think beyond the packer beyond the rogers thing their defense played better in the second half of the year and down the stretch but it was still a pretty disappointing season from their from them defensively overall when you consider the amount of resources pumped into that side of the ball they were up there in cash spending on defense with the extensions that they gave out whether it's the Campbell, Jaiyre, you know, Kenny Clark's on a huge deal. Preston Smith is an expensive player. Andrew Amos is an expensive player. They have a lot of guys that they've committed to on that side of the ball. Plus, you can rattle off the number one picks and the amount of draft capital

that they've spent on that side. And I think that they expected or probably expected to be an elite defense this year. And that's not what ended up happening. So them figuring out what the formula is going to have to be with Rogers, without Rogers, based on how this roster has built. I think ultimately could lead to some changes on that side of the ball. The rumblings were there all year. Maybe they died down a little bit based on how the last month of the season went. But I think this ending and may turn up the volume on those a little bit more again. Right.

Like just like a playoff exit's changed probably how they felt going to the past few off seasons. That's not making a playoffs at all. It's going to probably change everybody's mood. So I, and the thing with the defense is the defense had moments of playing pretty well and fine, a lot of fineness with this defense. That's the thing. Like you said, there was a lot of resources spent. And we knew this 2022 Packers was going to be more of a balanced team with a defense outcarried them to a lot of victories. And it kind of just like happened tonight, just not, didn't feel those explosive plays happening for their defense. And that's, that's an issue if you're going to be, that's supposed to be a strength of your team. The team that benefits from the Packers Bowl in that game is the Seattle Seahawks that come away with a win that was a little too close for comfort against this version of the Rams, I would say. But listen. Listen, all the matters is they won and they're in.

So now we get Seahawks, Niners. I believe, according to Beller here, that is going to be the 430 game on Saturday, the early game. Look at the Jags and Chargers. Look at our boys all grown up. Look at the night slot on that. That felt like the most early Saturday wildcard weekend game ever. Jags Chargers, four or five seed. But they're getting a primetime treatment.

I don't know if they know that you can play play playoff games on Sundays. They're like, oh, this is it. This is all we've ever gotten. No. But even that, I mean, shoot, though, Jags are going from Saturday night to Saturday night because even that game felt like kind of had that playoff atmosphere. It's in it. Absolutely.

I know. So it's kind of like, you know, they got a nice little tester on to prime their pumps for this. But man, how far we've come, it feels like a lot has happened and nothing has changed from the last time the Jaguars and the Chargers played whatever week that was in the first month of the season. Week three, right? Oh, my God. And here we are, week one. If you told us in the wildcard round, hey, both of these teams you playing each other, be like, yeah, yeah, I could see that.

But there's a lot of moments right. It sure didn't feel that way. An ugly win from Seattle. I mean, I think that if I had to stack up the moments that, you know, jumped out to me the most, Gino made a bunch of plays with his legs in high leverage spots in this game. Beyond the scramble to put them in position to kick the game when a field goal, which we could talk about whether that penalty was real or not.

that play just to extend it outside the pocket. He did that multiple times today, including on a field goal drive for them. So his ability to extend was a huge part of the way they moved the ball on offense. The Quadra Diggs Interception, which again, probably should have resulted in a taunting penalty, was a fantastic play. I mean, for him to get to that ball and to hang on to that ball

is an unbelievable play from a center field safety. And then the one rifle shot from Gino to lock it, Gino had a bad pick in this game, Jaylon Ramsey. He had a dropped pick six. that should have gone the other way. But he comes back and he's had as many of those like holy shit throws as anyone in the league, probably not named Josh Allen this year. And that was another example.

And again, in totality, it is enough to get them to the playoffs. Yeah, which is far, far cry from where I think even the optimist about the Seahawks thought they would be starting. I mean, how many rookies they're relying on. Charles Cross had a fantastic game today. I'm excited to watch him at the end of the year. Um, the fourth of one block, he had a pancake on Leonard Floyd on a pass set, which was pretty good. Leonard Ford kind of like half jumped and Charles Cross just like, okay, buried them, which was kind of funny.

Held his own all day. But the drop interception was a walkie play. Like that was because he caught it like looked back and like just yeah, that was just like, I think it might hit his knee or yeah. You had trouble corraling it. But man, just get the interception first before you're checking around. Yeah. It's just suck it away and then move on from that. But man, that locket. Touchdown was a beauty. Like, you just brought up the over and post combo. Gino, Gino can whip in those posts and digs. Like, he will stand in there.

The scrambling hit four scrambles today. I'm glad you brought that up. All four were successful plays for the Seahawks, including a 25-year game with the penalty afterwards. And then, yeah, the digs interception was hilarious. I don't know. It's also another reminder that Jaylon Ramsey is a really good football player, who was playing extremely competitive today.

I think going against D.K. Mechaf really gets them going. And a little bit. It brings the most out of him, yeah. Yeah. But this was the best the Seahawks pass rushes looked. I'm sure going against the Rams offensive line has a little to do with that. And Baker.

And Baker. Oh my God, man. Baker's habits are just so brutal. He wasn't wearing a visor today. And he just looked very human, you know? Like, he's just like the, it's just the guy out there. It's just a guy out there. Exactly.

Without the visor, it's like, hmm. And he's not wearing number six anymore. So it's kind of like all that kind of magic, that Luster kind of fell off. But 10 QB hits for the Seahawks today and five sacks. So better than not having 10 kv hits and five sacks go to the playoffs. And they need it. They need a little juice with their pass rush. Yeah.

I think that the big plays they can make in the passing game is the upside for them in the playoffs. And it's the reason that they could potentially give the Niners a problem just because you do have that. I mean, you have that Gino ability to kind of hit those potential three or four just holy shit throws that he's done this year. They're off just absolutely tailed off. But that is obviously, you know, that is still in there for them. And the Niners make you do that. They make you make the holy shit throws. And it's like, all right, it's nice to have a quarterback that's willing to do it.

But, you know, again, it's better than have that than maybe not having that with a checkdown factory, which is what the 40-9ers watch you to be against them. All right. So the playoff field is set now. AFC, chiefs get the buy. A chief spills a UFC championship game would be on a neutral field, which we all kind of assumed would happen. Bengals are the three seed, jags at four, chargers of the five, which we will get into. they were always going to be the five. The Ravens are the six and the dolphins get the seven.

So we'll talk about that game in a little bit. Bills at Dolphins is a Sunday 1 p.m. Eastern kickoff. Bills are 10 point favorites against Miami. We'll see who plays quarterback for the Dolphins. Bengals are six point favorites against the Ravens on Sunday night. Jags against the Chargers, hosting the Chargers. The Chargers are two and a half point favorites in Jacksonville. And that's the Saturday night game.

Go to the NFC. the Eagles sew up, top seat in the NFC, get the first round by. Niners take care of business. So the two, Vikings three, bucks are the four, Cowboys five, like we always knew. Giants are six. So those five are pretty much what they were coming into the weekend. And then Seattle grabs the seven seed. The Vikings are, excuse me, the Niners are nine and a half point favorites against the Seahawks on Saturday afternoon.

The Vikings are only a field goal favorite against the Giants on Sunday at 4.30. And then the Cowboys are three-point favorites at the Bucks. Monday, I forgot about Monday. Monday nights in Tampa, we get Dak Prescott against Tom Brady. That's where we are. I forgot about the Monday game, too, until it flash across my screen this week when they started doing the scheduling. I was like, oh, that's right. Because last year, it was, um, Cardinals. And I was a massacre after the first quarter. So I think I just blocked that game out of my brain completely. What of divisional matchups, which is fun. Yeah, it'll be nice to be able to go rewatch those and have some something to work off of because that's always in. interesting when you see those teams play for the third time. Absolutely. And then, I mean, I think every, every game in the playoffs this weekend is a rematch.

I was one in that as well. Yes, every single one is. Bill's played in a divisional. Pangles Ravens division, Chargers Jags is week three. A lot has changed, but they've still played each other this year. Niners Seahawks have played each other. Vikings Giants has only been a couple weeks. And Buck's Cowboys was a season opener.

So all of these teams have played each other at some point in the season, even if a couple of them are early season matchups. That's great. for me. It really helps the homework out for our Thursday show. So no complaints. But, man, it's some awesome matchups. So I'm excited. I'm really, really excited for some of these games. We got a lot of time to talk about them over the next week or so. We're going to take a quick break and then talk about what happened this weekend before we get ahead of ourselves. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. All right. I know it wasn't the prettiest game from them, but the Jags still went from having the number one pick in the draft to winning the AFC South

and making the playoffs, which is a pretty excellent turnaround. So Jacksonville Jaguars, you have my attention. It's a great story, and they made enough plays on Saturday. I mean, a couple different things that I think stood out. They stopped the run when they needed to. And I think that was a huge part of what stood out, especially in the second half. The Titans had a 28.2% rushing success rate on the game. The average for the season is like 40%.

Yeah. Negative 0.21 EPA per rush. Both of those would rank dead last in the NFL over the course of the season. And they loaded the box. They had eight or more in the box on over half of Derek Henry's carries. And that was enough to slow them down and just hope that our guys up front, you know, against your offensive line, if you have to throw it or better. And we don't trust Josh Dobbs to make enough plays. And so the defense came up to do that.

And Trevor, I know missed a couple throws, but he also had a couple big time throws in that game. And they could not run the ball at all. So again, in the aggregate, not a pretty game, but they did enough to win. Yeah, and that Titans defense. I mean, that was, you know, DeNico Altry coming back and you got Paramounte Simmons and frigate Tartre was back. Oh, my God. They still were struggling at corner because they just don't have the depth there. But a lot of those guys were back.

But as opposed to the Titans playing the Eagles failing at corner and they have these guys, AJ Brown and Devote Smith dunking on you. It's like, you know, the Jags make their living through the middle with Evan Ingram and Christian Kirk and moving Zay Jones around a little bit. that's how they make their living. And then that's why you saw probably a little bit more Marvin Jones this game because it was like, okay, well, we have to. If you're going to give it to us, well, might as well take some of these throws. But yeah, I agree with what you're saying about what Trevor.

He had a couple of the missed touchdown throw. I mean, it was pretty bad. But I mean, Troy Aikman was like a heel commentator there like in wrestling. Like, oh my God, just burying every like, like any JV quarterback can make that throw. I was like, Jesus, Troy. I think he said you just don't see misses like that in the NFL very. often, which man, Troy. Troy was also, he was

just destroying Christian Fulton early in the game. Do you hear him? He's like, even when he was healthy, he just wasn't playing very well. And I was like, Jesus, Troy. Holidays are over. Christian Fulton do something to you? I felt unnecessarily hard. Trevor had Lawrence had a throw, and

it was a pretty damn good throw. And Joe Buck was like, mad. That, you know, Joe Book was like really praising the throw. And Troy was like, yeah, you know, you got to make those. And he kind of I just like was not selling it at all. But no, but it was, yeah, he had a couple of those. But after that, like the strip sack was, I mean, the Jags brought some cool pressures. I know the Titans offensive line protection and Josh Dobbs aren't really the top tier of in that regard.

But it was kind of cool, some creativity. The one on the strip sack was great because they tricked the Titans protection into sliding four of their guys instead of going 5-0 and blocking the five down. So the runnerback got caught. I was really surprised on that. Even with the pre-snap look, it felt like that was not the right choice. No, it was. If you look at the play, they had five guys down. And then ultimately, they dropped Josh Allen off the left end of the defense.

And then they brought Jenkins off the right side. So you had four, because the left guard slid right, you had four guys blocking two on the right side. And the back was tied up with the linebacker who was blitzings, which no one touched Jenkins. Yeah. And Dobbs had was totally unaware that he was coming. And that's it. And that's a game swing and play. That's it.

I mean, they poked him, poked them. Dobbs had some nice pocket movement. That was kind of surprising. I thought he played just fine. He played, he had like two really,

really good throws that I was like, those are like legit starter throws. I mean, yeah, he played fine. He played winning football, I thought other than, you know, strip second at the end, time runs out.

That's why he's a back. The one pick was under thrown. Yeah. I mean, he went, tried to make a play into tight coverage. It was one-on-one. Yeah,

he's been there for two weeks. Yeah. I thought that overall, played well enough given the circumstances. Like they played hard. They absolutely could have won that game. They stuck in it the whole time. You know,

they didn't run the ball efficiently, but I still think that's the right game plan. Give the ball to Derek Henry 30 times. Let's see what happens. The one guy on the Titans I came away with just impressed again was Okonkwo. He's great, man. He is. He does everything for them.

Yeah. And he's really like the focal point of their passing game last night. And I think he should be. Like when you watch him play, he's easily their most explosive playmaker. And they're dialing up place for him. He's more polished than I ever thought he would be like this early in his career. Like he was just a great athlete.

But he is, I mean, blocking well like him into Hooper of a fun little combo. But also like you said, like he's explosive. But he's like, his route running is a lot more polished than I ever thought it would be. I thought he would just be a kind of an ingram in a little bit where he's straight line. But or John Hussmith. But no, he's breaking guys off. It was pretty good. Also some great moments as a blocker last night.

He got called for holding in a huge moment. There was that 36-yard Henry run where he got dinged for holding. Other than that, he had some nice moments as a blocker too. And the Titans were dicing them up early up in that fourth down, the two fourth down conversions early because the Jaggs were going to man coverage. I get it. You're not really scared of the Titans receivers. And so they go man coverage.

Titans just ran the same pick play twice on the same drive on Fort Town. One to Hooper, Wonder Woods. Yeah. Yep. That was it. And it was just pickplay a lot of trips, which is different guys doing it. But no. And the Jaguars defense line brought some real heat.

This is what we got excited about this group early in the year. Everybody had a moment. Yep. Arden Key, man. He had seven pressures on 19 past rush snaps. That's a pretty good slugging percentage right there. No sacks, but three QB hits. And then like you said, everybody else stepped up to Josh Allen and Trevon Walker had some nice moments as well.

Walker, I mean, sat down, Jeff Swain on that TFL late in the fourth quarter that ended up becoming a huge play. Corey Peters had a TFL inside the 10. I see Corey Peters did it. DeVon Hamilton had a couple moments. Every single guy in the front seven against the run had their moment last night. They all played extremely hard. They understood what was at stake. And that was the fun part about watching the Jags defense last night is that especially

in the second half, you could kind of sense that urgency when they were trying to stop the run. Josh Allen, I mean, how juiced up he probably was. This is the first, like, meaningful game he's played as a pro. He made two plays in the first drive. And you can tell. That's why I mean, his adrenaline was probably just, And he took it out on the Titans. But that matters, man.

Like you said, that's what these games are so cool, especially like the Packers Lions game, Seahawks Rams game a little bit. And then this game, the Titans Jags, there's others too. But these guys know what's on the line. And you could just see when it's like watching the World Cup. Sorry, I'm rambling a little bit here. When you watch these guys, because a season could be a slock, but once they get into these big moments, these top tier athletes, it's so cool watching them when they're 130.

percent competitive mode. And they're just, they're cranked up for all 60 minutes. And that's what's really fun. Why these games are so tight and all these big swinging plays happens because these guys are cranked up. They know the playoffs are about to come on. It's not week 12 and they're like,

or week nine, they're like, oh, my God, once's our bi-week, I need a rest. They're like, oh, playoffs, we got to go.

So, I don't know, it's really cool to see these top, top athletes like really competing like this. And we saw a ton of it this weekend. They had three plays to Christian Kirk in this game that were some of their most explosive plays. The touchdown to him was beautiful. You pointed it out on Twitter.

They lined up in 12 personnel with Chris Manhurtz on the field, who's there primarily blocking tight end. And they went heavy play action to kind of lean into that tendency. And Kirk was in a condensed split as the number one receiver on the right side and the Titans were in cover three. And the problem with that is when he's close to the formation, the cornerback there is an outside leverage. So when he sells it to the corner and breaks it back off the field, that's a really difficult. Colt assignment for Roger McCrory there. It's just a great call against the right defense in the right moment and it leads to a 30-something yard touchdown.

And then they had two plays with Kirk in the slot. And Trey Avery was on him at one point and they got him for a pass interference. And I think they eventually, the Titans were like, we can't do this anymore. Like we can't roll him out there anymore. So they started going to their big nickel package with three safeties on the field. And then you have a Moni Hooker on Kirk in the slot. But that's a mismatch too. So they hit him for that huge,

slot fade down the right sideline. That was a beautiful throw by Lawrence. So those are just some of those moments. I think the touchdown is just great scheme. But those plays to Kirk against Avery and against Hooker, I think that's just one of those moments where there's no Elijah Mulden. This team has been searching for corners all year. The personnel started to show up a little bit.

And I think the same thing happened at linebacker. Because they had a couple big completions over the middle of the field. There was that Kirk third and long early where he just stopped at the sticks. I don't know what number 50 was doing. Then there was the beautiful completion that Lauren. had where he moved 50 with his eyes and came back to Ingram over the middle of the field. So I think you're David Long not playing. And then again, some of the other personnel issues that you saw from Tennessee, whether

there was a lack of pass rush off the edge, the lack of corner depth, you just start to see it really matter down the stretch in that game. All pro second team, David Long. Spoilers. Spoilers. Yeah. I know, but that Chris Manhurt's tendency is such a fun one because I think wrote about this a couple weeks ago, like tight ends that play 200,

more snaps. There were 73 of them at the time. So it was two weeks ago. He was 76, 72 out of 73 and run pass ratio. So on the field is how infrequently they pass. He was 72nd out of 73rd. So that's a real run heavy tendency for him when he's out there. You get into that, though, in a facto playoff game, those are where you can throw those haymaker counterpunches and really make it count. Just like us on these pre-shows, guys. We got more data to work with now. So do the coaches. That's what we look at the same. We look at the same kind of stuff. There's is more detailed, but that the quality control coaches look at and they say,

oh, when this guy's in this game and in the slot, they do this, this, and this. Like that's what they could start breaking down instead of three or four or five games. Now it's 17 games that they can look at this stuff. But if you notice, like two, the David Long injury, yes, being out, that's heard them for a few weeks. But all the Titans linebackers were just pushing so deep on every pass point. They were like out of the frame. And that's why you saw Trevor having to check it down over and over and over,

which was working for them. But the tight, like you said, Titans had a good game playing. They say, we're not letting up any explosive plays in the run game or down the field. You guys have to nickel and dime us throughout the game. And the, the Jax had a couple of moments where they shot themselves in the foot. So it was working to the Titans favor. But, you know, Jacks came out in the end. Not, you can't say enough about the job that Doug Peterson did and the staff,

the job that that staff did this offseason. Obviously, they went and spent, which we also heard a lot about on the Monday, on the Saturday night broadcast about the amount of money they spent. free agency and the willingness to do it. It's like you spent a free agency because you've built your team the wrong way. Right. I think we have to understand that. No, no, it's the pay.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. They did bring in a lot of talent and they spent a lot of money on talent, whether it's Kirk, Ingram, Brandon Scherf. I mean, they remade this roster in free agency this offseason. But I think that what you got from the quarterback, what you got from the offense overall, I mean, how much more professional and put together this team looked on that side of ball this year compared to what they look like last year. I mean, Christian Kirk and Evan Ingram are the sole driving forces there. Like what's going on structurally was incredibly important to the strides

the Jags have made. They're going to use perfectly to their skill sets with a quarterback playing exceptionally right now. So it's a pretty good combo for them to kind of have a great breakout years and be worth the penny that they got paid. Yeah, it's not like this is the team that was like 21st in offensive efficiency that stumbled into the playoffs. They were very good on offensive. throughout the season. Yes. And they, they just shot themselves

in the foot in the red zone. That was their main blanche. Two plays that were four points swings. The underthroat a Kirk that should have been a touchdown, but great played by Jeffrey Simmons, which that'll happen. Pressure. So I think you saw for the most part why that team has been really good

on offense throughout the season. Kudos to them. I mean, you go from having the number one pick to making the playoffs. And I think that for most of the season, watching them on offense, it felt like they were a borderline playoff team that kind of deserved to be in.

and they ultimately do it. So congratulations to them completely deserve based on the season that they had. All right, next one here. Chicago Bears, you have my attention. I'm excited. Number one pick. Will you try not to jinks it all day? I didn't hear a peep from you for hours.

The fourth and 12 that Davis Mills hit. I didn't watch the game really because Sunday ticket was broken. Just a Viking funeral to Sunday ticket. It made the joke earlier today. It died as it lived, just not working. I truly appreciate my last weekend with DirecTV. The fact that my Sunday ticket didn't work. So I had two weird streams going on.

I couldn't put all the games I wanted. So Texans Colts, I was watching through Twitter and Red Zone. And then eventually when the, I can remember which game it would have been that got out of hand. I threw it on. And I saw the Cook's Completion Live and just started laughing my ass off. I was like, fourth and 12. You got to be kidding me. And then they get to fourth and 20.

And he throws a Hail Mary after a Sack. sack and it goes through. I think it was Rodney Thomas, your guy that you were talking about on the all pro show that was coming out. I was not naming of an all pro, by the way. He was just, no, it was one of those.

The kiss of death where it's like, oh yeah, Rodney Thomas was a nice player for them this year. He had some moments. And then ball goes right through his hands. Jordan Nagan catches a touchdown. I did like freak out when they got the two point. That I openly celebrated when they got the two point.

And there we go. Lovie Smith on his way out the door does the bears a huge. a huge solid against them the number one pick in the draft. Amazing. And then there's a video going around on Twitter. The Circa, the casino here has a survivor pool. You know, you pick a game each week. Yeah.

The winner. And I think there's three teams left or three guys left. And one guy had the Colts. The video is him on the fourth and 12 and the fourth and 20 and then the two-point game being completed. And you can actually see his soul leaving his body as they're happening. And I hate, I'm not a big cringe humor guy, but watching it, it's like, oh, man, because we've been there, but not maybe for $2 million. Have we not been there? That's unbelievable.

It's quite the video. Oh, my God, that's terrible. And you should hear him talking after the fourth and 20. He's like, I thought he was going to get a sack there. He's like breaking down the play because he's a shell shocked. He's just like, didn't they have the sack? Like, they couldn't bat that ball down? Like, what happened there?

And it was just, we've all been there. We've all been there, but maybe not that extreme. So now the Bears have the number one pick. Well, yeah. I mixed feelings. But I think ultimately the tank was well orchestrated and they got where they wanted to go. $130 million in cap space. They have the number one pick.

Everyone today has been like, what do you want them to do with that? I was like, I don't know, guys. It's January 9th. We got a long time between now and then. I said it coming into this week. I said it on the preview show. It's better to have the number one pick than it is to not have the number one pick. It is.

Even if it's as simple as getting the Texans to trade up. to one. What you can get for that. I think that wanting two and 12 in order to do that might be a little ambitious, but this team needs players and picks. However you end up accumulating those, that's the most important thing. And I think having the number one pick in a draft where there are some quarterbacks is important. And even in previous years, where those quarterbacks haven't always been high, high level prospects, we've seen this happen. The 2016 draft is the one that comes to mind where golf was the number one pick. You had a Rams team come up from the middle of the first round, trade away a ton

to come get him. And I think you have some other teams, even outside of Houston, whether it's the Colts, the Raiders, the Panthers, some of these teams that could potentially need quarterbacks. I think that number one pick should be open for business is the way that they should be handled. And that is a good thing. I think so too. And I think it's a pretty good draft. I think with a little bit top heavy.

And I think with that, it gives you flexibility. be like, hey, we can move down to six and maybe get a really elite town while getting all those picks. Not just, you know, there's a lot of teams too with a lot of draft capital to make some, make some moves as well. Carolina has a bunch of extra picks. Obviously, the Texans have a bunch of extra picks. So I think that they should be accumulating as many as they possibly can't. Absolutely.

That way, that's the move. I think so too. Houston's a two. The Cardinals have the third overall pick. Yeah. Sneaky. Sneaky number three pick there from the Cardinals. And that Colts loss potentially.

big for them, gets them to the fourth overall pick. And they're the other team that I just think has to come away from this draft with a quarterback. Based on where they're picking, based on the merry go round, they've been on the last few seasons with those veteran quarterbacks. I just think they have to make it happen. And I say that

because I'm just trying to drum up even more interest for them going up and getting the guy that they want. And then the other teams, you know, in the top 10, C-Ox are at 5, which we'll see what happens there. The Lions are at 6. Lions missed the playoffs. Talking about Jared Gough with his gloves on.

It didn't look so great. I think that eventually they probably understand they need more out of that position, whether this is the time or the year to do that. It might be based on where they're picking on the ammunition that they have. So I wouldn't rule them out as a possible team coming up. Perfect position. If they think if they like a guy that's considered more project-y, like an Anthony Richardson, they're like such a good position to do that.

That's why I personally think. At this point in time, like January 8th, got a lot of times to change my takes. But I think of all teams, that's like a great team to take a home run swing on one of these guys. We talk about this all the time. When you're a team that isn't bottoming out, but you don't have your quarterback of the future, your pathways to getting that guy are cut off. I think it's overstated how important that always is. But this is their best shot if they're going to continue to be competitive.

You have a sixth overall pick. You have the 18th overall pick. you're not going to be in this position again if you continue on the trajectory you're on in Detroit. So this might be their best shot, whatever that ends up looking like, who knows. Raiders are at seven. They're another quarterback needy team. I don't know if that's going to be a veteran. I don't know if they're going to want to draft somebody.

Falcons are at eight. They're another team that there's going to be a lot of intrigue about. Panthers are at nine. Same sort of deal. And the Philadelphia Eagles who have the number one seed in the NFC had the 10th overall pick in the draft. Life is fair. from Saints too. And the Titans are at 11.

Yeah. So the Titans went from being a team that I think everyone expected to be in the playoffs and picking in the 20s for most of the season to now being a team that couldn't play their third round rookie in a de facto playoff game because they didn't think he was ready. And have Ryan Tannahill on a $35 million cap hit next year where they can save half of that if they move on from him. So I think that they're now in striking distance to potentially go get a quarterback when they find a general manager and they figure out what the next three or four steps looks like. So we're going to have a lot of time, though, to chat about the draft and about the draft order and what teams may do there.

So one more thing before we get to some teams that kind of disappointed a little bit today. The favorites, the contenders, for the most part, you guys have my attention. You guys took care of business this weekend. That's what I wanted to see. Right. Chiefs just beat up on the Raiders. I thought the Chief's front had an amazing game. We did our all-pro show.

we already recorded it. It's running on Wednesday talking about Chris Jones. Our award show, we're going to do a week from Wednesday. And I still think Nick Bose is the defensive player of the year, but Chris Jones went out with a bang, my friend. He was absolutely dominant in that game. The Chief's defense has, they've turned it on for whatever, like, oh, God, where was it? I had a nice little stat with him on what I'm talking about. But their defense, since their by week has really cranked out. Oh, since they're biweek in week eight, they're fourth and sixth.

accessory going in today and 12th and EPA per play. So they're in their 10th against the pass by DVOA. They're kind of, they're cranking it up a little bit in playoff time. And that pass rush Carl office is whipping out the Ronaldo celebration out of nowhere. Didn't what, didn't know he, I know he's the Greek freak and everything. Didn't know he had that and the, wasn't expected it from him. You know, sometimes you see some of these celebrations. It's like, that that's not who I pictured doing the Ronaldo. But there we go. But no, it's, yeah, I think that the Cadarius Tony, they're really, you know, they're kind of dripping in some Cadarius Tony, Blake Bell's back out there.

Yeah, I think they played with their food a few weeks, for the past few weeks, but then watching them against the Raiders, it was like, man, they're doing like, freaking like merry-go-round formation. Yeah, well, also playing with their food. Yeah, while playing with their food. Ring around the Rosie in the red zone. Must be fun. Must be fun just to win that many games while be able to play football that way.

So Chris Jones in this game, okay? 11 pressures on 37 past rush snaps, two and a half sacks, two TFLs, six quarterback hits. Six quarterback hits. The right guard can block them all day. It's a tough day for Alex bars. It was. It was really tough.

I was watching with my dad. He felt bad for him to. There's nothing you can do. This guy who was bounced around. He was on the Bears last year. He's been a journeyman kind of end of the roster guy. You're going against a legit defense player of the year candidate who was playing with his hair on fire yesterday. Yeah, I know.

He, it was one of those, our discussion about him last week. I know we're spoiling our all pro show left and right here. But like, we're talking about him and as you kind of like break down his stats and you watch him, you're like, this guy's fucking awesome. Like he's unbelievable. He's, he's, we say, I'll use the term again, the closer. It's like when that, when it's, it's nut cut, nutcut time, he's going to crank it up and he does it over and over, especially when he has a mismatch like he did on Saturday. Four run stops in the game too, just ridiculous game from him on Saturday. All right.

The Eagles take. care of business. Not the prettiest game in the world, but I think that Jaywin Hertz is probably not back to 100%. No. Based on the quotes after the game, they kind of alludes that a little bit. Now you get your bye week. It was all about just getting the buy, getting to rest everybody, shut everybody down for a week. They get there a fantastic season from Philadelphia. Another couple ridiculous Devante Smith plays. The hat he was wearing was unbelievable in the locker room. So some great moments from him. AJ Brown broke the Eagles. single game or single season receiving record today.

So capping off a very good season for Philadelphia. Bengals take care of the Ravens. Joe Mixing with the coin flip celebration, which I really appreciated. Pulled out of the sock literally like he did the Joe Horn cell phone out of the sock. Oh no, no, no, Joe Horn was under the under the thing. It was a, oh, no, T.O. was the Sharpie. Joe Horn was the cell phone. The cell phone was in the pad.

In the pad. But T.O. yes. The Sharpie and the sock. Sharpie in the sock, dang it. So he's going to get fine for that, but apparently Chad Johnson. Yes, he's going to get fine for that. Apparently Chad Johnson offered to pay the fine, which I was very noble of him.

I saw that Mixon paid a trainer or a hundred bucks for the quarter, which maybe isn't the greatest financial planning, but good for that trainer. And then I think my favorite moment from that game afterwards, they were talking to Burrough about the championship window. And he said the championship windows is the length of my career. As he has the Mitch Headberg sunglasses on. That guy is, I can understand the amount of confidence permeating that Bengals building every single day. Because he has it and it is earned. He puts a box of cigars in his locker too, which is like he just has, he has them tallied off for each type of win. You know, like when people get married, they have a bottle of wine saved for it or champagne.

He has cigars, which each win. Okay, division victory. Okay. I got this one. So each playoff win, he's going to have a cigar for that. His pocket movement today was outstanding. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Oh, my God.

Yeah, he was, he was, he looked good today. O'Line got a little banged up and it was like T. Higgins went down for a sake. That's a rough moment. Losing Alex Kappa in this game. That's a tough one. Just want these guys healthy, man. I know, because this AFC playoffs, especially, it's like there could be so many just awesome matchups. So I just want like these guys fully stocked.

Like on the flip side, I want Lamar to be playing in the playoffs as well because I want these teams, you know, fully operational. So the Chiefs are the Super Bowl favorite at plus 300. the Eagles are plus 600. The Bengals are plus 800. They have the fifth best odds. The Niners who beat up on the Cardinals today are plus 600. They're tied to the third best odds. They just continue to roll.

Elijah Mitchell came back today. Five carries, 55 yards, two touchdowns. Nice little guy just to sprinkle back into your offense. All week I was getting like kind of notifications about it. Like, oh, you why Mitchell practice everything. He looks like he's going to play this weekend. And it's like, oh, okay, that's cool. I'll probably give him like five, you know, five reps, much less that what he did today.

I think he even got Scott Hanson. He's like, oh, that's CMC. Oh, that's E.I. Mitchell's scoring a touchdown, too, because you just need more guys that can run 4-4 flats and take any carry to the house. Like, that's exactly what this offense needs. That's CMC route. Did you see it? Yeah. Oh, my God.

They're running stutter. So the route is, it's called a stutter comeback. So about 10 yards, you stutter, like you're going to stop at that point because that's usually a breaking point for routes on the outside. So he stutters and then runs a deep comeback with a running back split to the number one spot. I have three guys. I think in my life I've seen that. Like, you know,

so that's pretty. And they actually threw it to him. It wasn't like a fake like just dummy route. It's like, yeah. Yeah, that's, I love him in this offense because they're just,

it's just so cool to watch them in this juiced up offense right now. And they're going to be a fun team. And here when we get to the playoffs. Vikings knock off the bears. Thankfully, they're the three seed in the NFC. So congratulations to the Minnesota Vikings. Oh,

man. The last team I want to talk about. I want to talk about this a little. bit more in depth. The bills beat the Patriots. And after the week that the bills had, that moment for them to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Amazing. And Josh Allen's reaction on the sideline, he was just overwhelmed and he was so emotional afterwards when they asked him about it. For that stadium, for that team to have that moment. And, you know, DeMar Ham when is watching, that was really special. That was just one of those things that I think everyone there will probably remember for a really,

really a long time. And this team had one practice. And they played against the Patriots team that has a really good defense, an offense that I actually thought played okay today. We'll talk about that in a second. And they took care of business. And I just think to be able to even come out and put together a coherent game based on everything that they've been through over the last week is pretty damn impressive.

Yeah. I think Josh Allen called it spiritual, which I thought was really cool. I really did. I like that phrase. right there because it was. It felt just, um, it was an overwhelming experience. I've seen some bills kind of like bloggers tweeting about it, how they just like didn't know what to do with their hands. Like they said, that was my worst high five I've ever given because they're just so overwhelmed in the stands trying to high five people like because that was cool. It was

unbelievable. And I mean for even for us, we got naeem hides to do it as well, which is just it was a nice like, hey, that's great as well. Athletic football show All-Star having his moment. Season one All-Star. So I was, it was. It was. It was. That was a really special moment. And I mean, enough people have said it's like you couldn't script that. You did that in a movie. People laugh at you. But on top of it, like you said, that's just the spiritual side.

But then the physical and mental side, they took care of business. Like you said, I mean, you nailed it. This Patriots team is not a joke. This defense is not a joke. They have good players and they're not going to let you run the ball easily on them. They're going to make it tough on you. And they played well. They won out in the end.

They made enough good plays. Obviously, I've had two kick returns. But even on offense, they did enough cool things if we do to want to do any schematic. analysis of it. But no. Alan had like six moments in this game that were unbelievable. I, yeah,

like which one do you want to talk about? Because like each one was like, the one on the run to John Brown was just ridiculous throw. He had a 60 yard from essentially the far hash to the pylon, throw to Stefan Diggs, which was amazing. With somebody in his face. Yeah.

That shouldn't have been possible. And then there were three or four others that he made outside of structure, just making something. happen. I mean, this is one of those games that I know the kick returns are going to take up a lot of oxygen and they should. But this was a reminder of just what kind of force of nature player he is in those moments. He had a sail route in the first quarter on third and two to Dix. And I can't wait to watch an all 22 because he threw this thing so feathery soft.

But when he throws a feathery soft, it's like anybody else throwing a line drive. So he's throwing touch on it, but the things like lasering out there. But I can't wait to watch that one because you don't see Diggs completely on the on the screen. I want to see the timing of Josh Allen because it's just he's like when he's on like that and he's making those type of throws, not just the moon balls, but also the underneath stuff he's thrown with touch. It's like, oh my God, this guy's unbelievable. They also did. I called it a Coach Klein and Waterboy play. They fake that they faked.

They did a fake mesh return. So there's mesh, which is crossers, two crossers. there's mesh return, which is when you fake the crossers and return back and you have a dig behind it. In past places, I've called that the Red Sea or Moses play. But then they did the fake that they're going to return and then they kept continuing on their crossers. So I called it the coach Klein play. That's what it was. They fake that they fake.

Where am I? I need to sit down. That's exactly what they did. So it's got to, I like that. They had a couple of cool plays. They mix up their personnel as a bunch. They used a lot of heavy personnel, a lot of jumbo personnel. But yeah, I like the game from the Pills.

And of course, Josh Allen's amazing. What does he say? He pretends to fake. He thinks about faking. He thinks about faking. Yeah. That's a great moment. Fantastic Winkler, an all-time Winkler.

Where am I? And he sits down. That's how I felt after both of those Josh Allen throws. All right. We're going to take one more quick break and then talk about a couple teams that had a little bit of a letdown today. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. All right.

So the only reason we're starting with the New England Patriots here is because they could have won if they had gotten in. I don't think it's overly disappointing that the Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills who were a very good football team. But they absolutely could have won this game. If they don't give up two kick returns in this thing, they're in it. They were giving them problems defensively. I thought that the Patriots offense didn't play that poorly today. It's going to say three interceptions on the stat sheet for Mack Jones. Two of those come down, two scores in the football.

final minutes of the game. And I thought that their offense was less hapless than it's been for most of this season. So if they don't give up those two kick returns, they're 100% in this thing and potentially could have gotten into the playoffs. And ultimately, they fall short because their special teams do them again, which it has done all season. Again, there's been so much sloppiness with their special teams. It's been like, it's just stunning. Like, you're not expect, you don't expect this for the Patriots. That's like kind of their bread butter. Even if they're never like, sometimes they're not excellent at special teams. They're never, you know, sloppy. This is the worst season of his tenure. Oh, yeah. It has. So they, I looked it up.

They are the previous last one. Then 2018, they finished 21st in special teams EPA. That was the last, that was the worst season under the, under Belichick. They are 26th this year. They were 29th and weighted special teams devoid coming into this game. That's before they gave up two kick return touchdowns. So it is going to be the worst season of the Belichick tenure on special teams. Over the last decade, the only team with a better special teams, the APA combined than the Patriots is Baltimore with John Harbaugh and with Justin Tucker over the entirety of Belichick's tenure in New England, they are number one by a wide margin in total special teams DVA. Consistently in the top five, this was an aberration for them considerably.

And that's the thing. It's not just kick return. So today it was kick return, that their kick return was terrible. They've had the moments against the Raiders a few weeks ago, and their punt unit has sloppy moments where the mishandling the snap cadence. A guy is not getting picked up in a protection. They also just had a lot of shoddy punning this entire year. Like their punter kind of was just all over the place. It felt to me, and this is more just anecdotally,

but that's what it just felt like he was very inconsistent as a punter. Which is, again, this is a team that will give up more spots on their roster than others for special team focused players. Every team has a couple that's like, okay, we don't ever want you to actually see the field on defense or offense. But hey, you know, you could, you could be that dude on special teams for 20-something snaps. They, they have more of those than usual. So that's why it's really,

like, just out of nowhere. So that's the thing. Their offense plays well today. Their defense plays their defense. It's a really good bill's offense. So of course, it's going to be kind of a fight. But then their special teams do them. That's what this Patriots year was. It was when their defense was carrying their games, their offense couldn't, you know, walk and chew gum at the exact same time. But again, I thought today, I got to look maybe like air yards for Mac Jones on today, but it did feel like they had more intermediate attacks against this bill. It did feel that way. It's just a little more just, and that's, I think it's conducive to Mac Jones's skill set, some more overthrows off the play action and everything, as well as some of the dunk balls.

But that's the thing is, dunk, 50, 50 balls are fine to have in your offense. It's just making your whole offense out of them is what the issue is. And I think this game was a lot more. They attacked over the middle of the field. And it looked a lot better. The one, the throw, the interception on the throw to Aguilar, it looks ugly. I understand making that play. So one-on-one opportunity, you're trying to give your guy a chance. The touchdown to Parker later in the game is on a similar moment. Yep.

It's easier to give Devante Parker that opportunity than it is to give it to Nelson Aguilar, but I understand trying to take that shot. And on the play, it's a, it's a four-strong concept. And he went, I'm taking my one-on-one. I'm going against, I'm taking my, he was giving his guy's chance. It's not a bad answer. It's, but like you said, you want maybe like, you know,

Jamar Chase or T. Higgins or Mike Williams maybe as that one-on-one guy. I did have one of those this year, though. He had one and it was one of those. I didn't know he knew how to do that moments. So there is some history of him doing that this season. But the Parker one, he's done it multiple times, including the dunk touchdown today.

I am fascinated by what they're going to do this off season. Yeah. They have $55 million in Cap Space. They can free up more. Some of the contracts and just some of the construction of this team, John Hussmith has a $17 million cap hit next year. I did not. Did you remember Johnny Smith was on this team?

Barely. I did. 245 receiving yards this year. Probably had like 40 snaps. He probably makes a million dollar a snap. Him and Hunter Henry make $32 million combined next season. So we'll see what they do with that. If they make him a post-June first cut, they can save like $5 million against the cat.

So I'd assume they'll do some, have some decisions to make there. but then their tackle spot. Isaiah wins hitting free agency. Trent Brown will see if they keep him. I think the offensive line will need some retooling. Jacobi Myers is hitting free agency. I think today was a reminder of the fact that Jacobi Myers is a really good player. Yeah.

How about that a third or fourth and short route when the little whip route they ran to him? He's going to get paid this option. He is going to be a really useful player for somebody. Yes, a very good number two. Whether that's Patriots or somebody else, they have the money to pay him. And the other guy on offense that I think you have to come away with impressed today, Remodry Stevenson's a really good player. He really is.

He's really good. I liked him going to the draft, but he's a lot more explosive than I thought. I consider him a designated hitter, which means like passing downs and third downs. And just like that's that he makes his living on like short yardage and third passing downs because he was such a good pass protector in college. But he has so much more juice than I ever ever considered with him. Yeah, a great, great player. But Damien Harris is going to be a free agent. Damien Harris is a free agent.

The interior of their offensive line is under contract. Andrews, both guards. They're more guys on the contract than I thought. On when it was, had a really nice season. So they have some bones on offense. And I think that Mack Jones in the right circumstances can be like a solid NFL quarterback. We saw him do it last year.

So what they do with their play calling spot and how they ultimately handle that, I think has to be the biggest question combined with how they spend a little bit of that money that they have with some of the holes on offense. the defense was really good this season. Really? And they have a couple guys hitting free agency. You know, Jonathan Jones is a free agent. That's the big one.

A couple other guys, but they've done such a great job of kind of refilling the coffers a corner consistently. I mean, to do it this year with Jack Jones and, you know, Marcus Jones coming on a little bit later in the year. I trust them to figure that out. And they have some really nice, interesting pieces on that side of the ball. So I really do think if they figure out the play calling thing and they can get maybe a real difference maker. you know, on offense somewhere along the line with either that cap space or in the draft. I do think that they can be an interesting, relevant, competitive team next season. I really do.

They were one this year after botching all of those decisions. Dude, I'm right there with you. This whole year, I've been just really interested in this defense because they tweaked. They turned a knobs differently on what they use coverage-wise and even front-wise a little bit. And they had different body types than they usually do, like Josh U.C. is so different in every Patriots past rushers has ever existed. So it's really interesting to see kind of some modernness with this defense along with the typical Belichick elements, you know, like a plugging linebackers and stuff.

But I agree. I think it's just this offense. Figure out the play caller more than anything and how to help out this quarterback is the number one answer. They can't do tryouts like they did all this last offseason. Who knows what's happening with Bill O'Brien and all that. Like, you know, his name's probably, you know, on speed dial right now for them. So I just think that that's what they have to figure out more than anything, more than personnel, because they have avenues to help themselves out. They got their picks and everything.

So yeah, I agree with you. I think this is a very, very interesting team. I became more of a Mack Jones fan this year, even as negative as his year was, as far as some of the cheap shot plays he's had and some of the whininess, but also just like maybe even the statistically didn't have a great year. Watching him kind of like deal with all of it and try to find good answers in this offense. actually was like, I think he knows the right things. Like you said, I think this is a very workable quarterback. And I think it's closer than further away than I think people are considering right now. Last guy to mention, I don't believe Devin McCordy is under contract after this season.

I think that this is 35. Yes, I think that all of the other remaining years on his deal avoided, he's 35. So this could be the last year for him. They'd have to fill that spot. He had a good year too. He had a big moments today. He had a full recovery today. So that's just one other guy if we're trying to project what the defense might look like moving forward that might not be there next season.

So the Patriots losing that game obviously allows the dolphins to make the playoffs. And I don't really know what there is to say about this game. I mean, it was gross. It was gross. I can't believe I had to rewatch it. It's gross whenever you just see. Okay, Joe Flacco is it's Flacco. Come on.

We all probably have the same mental image of Joe Flacco. But then seeing him wearing number 19, I know this is for the Jets, but that's the grossness of this game, is seeing quarterbacks wearing 19. And right then and there, that's what type of game that you're starting with. It's just right there as soon as you put this game on and seeing that. Joe Flacco was the starting quarterback for the Jets today. I looked it up because I was curious about Deshaun Watson's stats. Every quarterback in the NFL who has at least 150 attempts this season, there are 39 of them.

Joe Flacco is dead last in EPA per dropback. Deshawn Watson was 38th of those 39. But Joe Flacco is dead last. Watson is right between Zach Wilson and Joe Flacco. So the Jets, two most used quarterbacks or two guys that got a lot of run for them were 38th or excuse me, 37th and 39th of 39th of 39 quarterbacks. So that was the state of the Jets passing game for a good chunk of this year. The Jets today had 20 carries for 38 yards.

The run game is brutal. 15% success rate. The league average is about 40 this year. So it just gives you some context there. They're starting tackles in this game where Cedricabooey at right tackle and Mike Grummers at left tackle, which it's 2022. So it's never what you want.

That's just the state of their offense. By the end of the season, that was the state of their offense. And Garrett Wilson had nice moments today, but that's kind of where we were. Like Garrett Wilson bail me out every once in a while is kind of where the Jets had arrived on offense. So I don't know what the Jets do this offseason. I don't know which.

if they take a quarterback. Robert Sala, after this game, was not very committal about Michael Fleur coming back. A reporter asked him directly, and he was not willing to say that that's going to happen. So it kind of feels like all options and avenues might be on the table for the Jets. Yep. That's what it feels like. Like quarterback especially, I mean, they could go to so many different paths. And I could totally understand why they do so. And I think they have a workable cap situation. I think, you know, they can make some cuts and everything. Their defense, again, is a strength. that's when you watch this team it's like of course it is and you watch this offense and it's just like the dolphins defense is fine but it's not a defense or a defense that you should look like this

on offense even when it was starting joe flacco quarterback i did like that they knew where their bread was buttered with garrott wilson um garrett wilson according to next gen stats had the fourth highest target rate in the game since 2016 so they were just and i think they were like hey maybe this get this guy offensive rookie year or make us look a little better at least you know so like, hey, let's get them all that. But yeah, I don't know what this Jets team. Again, we've touched on it a few times, usually in a Zach Wilson quarterback light, but that's going to kind of lead what the answers have to be.

They have to figure out that quarterback situation first. Otherwise, they're just going to go through another year like this with Joe Flacco and Mike White or insert quarterback here with a good defense and another frustrating year. They have to figure it out. They have the financial flexibility like you alluded to to go get somebody, whether it's Jimmy Garapolo, whether it's. it's Derek Carr. I have no idea what they want to do. I have no idea what they think is the best plan for them. But there are a lot of options on the table with the resources that the Jets have.

Talking about figuring our quarterback situations, the dolphins are going to have to figure out theirs because they are in the playoffs. And they made enough plays today. You know, they had one shot to Durham, Smyth, one shot to Mike Gisicki. They had a really nice drive running the ball in the third quarter coming out their first drive at the third quarter. They had a fourth and five pitched to Jeff Wilson that got them into field goal range to kick a field goal. I mean, if Quincy Williams doesn't get a borderline horse collar call in this game in the fourth quarter, the dolphins might not win, but they do. So now it becomes a question of, are we going to see this version of the dolphins against the bills? Or are we going to see the version of the dolphins that push the bills to the limit a couple

weeks ago in Buffalo with two at quarterback? And understandably, Mike McDaniel was very not committal about what that was going to look like because he has to be. He has no idea what's going to happen. Obviously, everything that's happened with Tua this season, I think there's probably some real hesitance to play him at all, let alone before he's completely ready. So that's going to be the huge question. And I have to assume with the line in that game being, I think it was 10, as it stands right now, they're probably assuming the Tua is not going to play. And that's going to be a tough road for Miami if they're starting Skyler Thompson again. Right.

Oh, man. Especially against that Jets defense. They only got sacked once and no interceptions, but it was like six TFLs, nine QB hits, four passes deflected. It was tough sledding. The tweak, I mean, Mike McDaniel's not, uh, he knows what Scottor Thompson is. I thought it was interesting. They were under center 19 times today.

18 of them were runs designed. runs. They didn't even do play actions or anything off of. They did one drop back off of it. I wasn't sure if it was a play action. But it is kind of funny watching what for this whole season's been this kind of spready, some condensed formation, but shotgun heavy, pistol heavy, motion heavy, you know, still 21 personnel.

Then today it was eye formation, eye formation, power formation, like king over. Like, I thought that was kind of like just a funny bit. That's what they've linked towards. They ran the ball well. They did. And that's what this past ball. I keep using the phrase. Church and State. But once they, that Bill's game, the second half of the Chargers game, ever

since then, they've been adding this element to their offense of straight running the ball, which is like, oh yeah, Mike McDonnell is a Kyle Shanahan guy. So it's like, they have that. And they, I mean, every time they've had to do it, they've done it. Like, last this last month. So I know, that's why if they can get to a pack and get some of that RPO-ness to their offense again, it's like, you know, along with the just designed runs, it's like, okay, they can at least be interesting as opposed to what it was today. obviously it didn't end up mattering because the Dolphins won, but the Steelers won. And the Steelers would have been in the playoffs.

And the Steelers again had a winning record. Mike Tomlin still has never had a losing record. Yeah. What I called the other day at the post. Yeah. That's what it was. And that's what it was. It's West Side story.

Whatever the second half of the Brown season on offense was not the type of word we usually see from Stephen Spielberg. I said it earlier. Deshawn Watson was second to last in the end. NFL among quarterbacks with 150 dropbacks and EPA per dropback. I get a lot of people responded when I tweeted this out earlier. He didn't play for two years and all that. Sure. Their offense was one of the worst passing offenses in the league over the second

half of the season. He made a million dollars in base salary this year. I believe he has a $50 million cap hit next year. Yes. So based on everything that the Browns traded for him and based on what they're going to pay him over the next few years, in order to recoup any value on that deal. They need him to be one of the best players in the league full stop. So there's a long way to go before he is one of the best players in the league based on the

way that he played over the second half of the season. And Chacobi Brissette played more like what Deshawn Watson's contract is. 10th. Yeah. Chacobobey Prisette was 10th. I was going to say, yeah. He was top, okay. I was going to say top 12.

So 10th. And that's, they were winning games with him. And you don't get that type of 200 million plus fully guaranteed deal to, knock off some rust. You know, yes, there's going to be some rust, like you say, playing for two years, but it's like, hey, you get a lot of money to not have that rust. You know, you're the quarterback. You're not the right guard. You know, you're not the D-N. You're the quarterback. You have to, like, hit the ground running. So that's how he's played. I mean, that first game back against the Texans, he missed about half dozen throws. I know that was his first game back, but it was like, it was ugly,

ugly. And it was like, you know, Jacobi could do this. And that's happened week and week out. He has a couple flash throws, but there's just a lot of inconsistencies to his game, but They can't have that from going on forward because, like you said, that contract is really going to start ramping up really soon. Based on the way that it was structured, this was the year where it was going to be cheap for them against the cap. His cap hit next year is $55 million. So it's knocking off rust, getting back into the flow, whatever it ends up being. This is the year where it was going to be cheap. And now it is going to be very, very expensive.

So we'll see what happens with that trade. But so far, it was not a good start. All right. One more here. The number five seats in each conference. Yes. I'm a little disappointed in both of you for some different reasons. I would love an explanation on what the Chargers were doing in this game.

So Mike Williams plays for most of the game, hurts his back, is carted off the field. Our Daniel Popper at the athletic said he had to be helped to the team bus because he couldn't do it. himself. Jeremy Fowler from ESPN reported that it's a minor injury that he'll be fine. Still, a guy that's dealt with back injuries, back issues that's been hurt this entire season. You've seen we are offenses without him. It's a terrible way to get to the playoffs. Joey Bosa left the game early. It was limped off the field. Justin Herbert was taking shots. And I know that when they had to declare their inactives, the five seed was still on the table. But it still feels like there was a better solution to this than the one that they landed on.

I know. I thought you treat the game almost like a first or second preseason game of the old Which their guys don't play. Right. But funny. Yeah, actually. But a traditional team that, you know, hey, run them out through the first quarter. You know, let him get going.

I understand maybe keeping the guys going, you know, especially they're working back from injury. We need some reps and everything. But I didn't make, it didn't make sense to me. Like you're at the end. Okay. So this game, okay, we're going to be competitive. We're going to play our starters.

You know, we're going to let her start in quarter. back take more shots of ribs, even though we got brutalized for that early in the year. At the end of the game, they don't take the timeouts and they could see the game when they could burn, you know, they could take timeouts to try and get the ball back. I think it was a one-score game. So it was like, what was your attitude going to this game? We're winning it, hell or high water and we're competing? Like, I didn't understand it all. This team, this Chargers team dances with the injury devil every single year. Why, why are you tempting fate like that? like with a roster that we know everybody knows is injury riddled that's why these guys that's

why the chargers are so hot and cold why attempt it like that it just seemed like unnecessarily risky he was asked about it afterwards like listen you can only dress 48 guys and yeah it's to do it it just feels like an unnecessary risk babies and everything that they've dealt with all season and then the other five seed in the nfc the cowboy's got destroyed today by Washington. Dak had, I believe, by EPA per dropback, the fourth worst game of his career. It looked like it. And I understand that they really had nothing to gain.

And that probably affects it to some degree. But I don't know how you can watch the way that they played today. They couldn't run the ball. They averaged negative 0.33 yards before contact on their runs today. Man. Man. they're going through like an O line shuffling right now. That's part of the problem.

Jason Peters and stuff, but it's not exactly where you want to be feeling some question marks as you're at this point in the season. You wanted to see some positivity coming from those reshuffled offensive line going to this. They played like zombies today. I mean, they really did. Like that's it just had bad vibes throughout the whole game. They picked it up like going into the half, I think it was. They had a touchdown.

And it was like they cranked it up a little bit. And but just they just weren't even there. It felt like they were so checked out in this game. The offensive line is going through a shuffle. I believe Tyler would be outage again did not play today. So they. He's a high ankle. I thought it was a normal ankle.

Yeah. So we'll see if he's back because that causes the shuffling because they have a different center. And because they move their left guard to center, they move Tyler Smith to left guard. And then Jason Peters played left tackle for them today. So you have three new guys in new spots because you're one center gets hurt. That and I think that is the biggest. concern, but they're also banged up on defense and, you know, they're still struggling to find

that other cornerback spot. I'm a little bit worried. I know that they didn't have anything to game because the Eagles won today, but based on the way that they played, based on the way that they've looked and some of those underlying issues, I'm concerned. You know, they are three point favorites against the Bucks. I do not think the Bucks are a good team, but the way that the Cowboys have played recently, I think is a little bit caused for worry.

They, they've managed to have kind of some loles in some of their games, like the Giants Thanksgiving games. and then they crank it back up, but that's the thing they were fairly healthy then. And now it's a totally different. It's like a revamped team right now that we're hitting in January. Last year, they throttled the Eagles in Week 18. Remember that that was like 51 something? It was like 51-26.

And then they laid an egg to the 49ers in the next round and the wild card round. So maybe they're trying to reverse jinx it. They're like that they played so crap that they have to crank up their practices this week. That's my only theory as well. But no, it wasn't, they just had weird vibes today. And it's not when you want to have weird vibes. We'll have a lot of time to talk about that game, what it's going to look like against the box.

We're going to do a two-part Divisional Round, excuse me, two-part wild card preview later this week. We're going to have an AFC show. We're going to have an NFC show. Both of those be coming your way in the normal timing of our preview shows. We're going to have two instead of one, so that's very exciting.

We're going to have a Saturday and Sunday recap show live next weekend. So be on the lookout for that. In the short term, I know we really didn't talk about Lovie Smith getting fired by the Texans tonight. We're going to do that tomorrow with Mike Sando. We're going to talk about Black Monday, some of the coaching news that rolls out over the course of the day tomorrow. So please come check that out. That should be available as a podcast tomorrow evening overnight.

So that'll be available to you. And then we're going to talk about some coaching candidates on Tuesday, me and Connor Ower from Sports Illustrated, who does a fantastic job keeping tabs on that. He writes about it consistently throughout the year, some of the candidates, why they're sought after guys. So we're going to talk about that with him on Tuesday. And then we have a two-part all-pro episode with me and you coming out on Wednesday, offense and defense.

So we're going to have like seven pods coming to you guys this week. So we're making up for a lost time a little bit last week. So please be on the lookout for all of that. In the meantime, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can do that in the description of this podcast. If you're watching this, give us a like. Give us a subscription. If you are not subscribed to it and you're here in the live stream right now,

please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show is where you can do that. We'll be back tomorrow with Sando, talking about some of the coaching moves. Until then, I appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was The Athletic Football Show.