The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Wild Card Saturday recap — Jaguars rally from 27-0 hole to stun Chargers; 49ers take down Seahawks

Episode Date: January 15, 2023

Well that was quite the start to the playoffs, wasn't it? Robert Mays and Nate Tice recap the Jaguars' thrilling comeback win over the Chargers and the 49ers' victory over the Seahawks on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.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/MAYS3:00 Jaguars-Chargers18:20 What's next for the Chargers?29:55 49ers-Seahawks57:15 What's next for Seattle? 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 Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? I'm great. Super. I'm super.

Where do you want to begin with this? I mean, at first I was watching this, I almost tweeted this and thank God I didn't. I almost tweeted this and said, this game was supposed to be one of the entertaining games. And, whew, thank God. It ended up being very entertaining. But the tail of two halves, that's definitely how this game went. There were about two minutes left when they were driving and go kick the game winning field goal. And I'm sitting there in my basement.

Like, we have to do a podcast after this on video. Right. I haven't done anything. I'm like in my sweats because I was going to get ready during the second half of the game. I was going to like compose myself. So I'm sitting there with my basement shower on. ETN gets the fourth and one carry. My dog is barking.

And there's just pure chaos for the last like four hours. Oh my God. I mean, I don't even know where to start. I was doing some back in the napkin math very quickly before we started because on the NFL Jesus system, they only have first half and final stats. Yeah. So Trevor was 10 of 24 for 77 yards in the first half. Yeah.

He finished 28 of 47 for 288. So my crude math says that means in the second half of that game, he was 18 of 23 for 211. yards. That's not bad. That's not bad. It was definitely after a few drives and him getting fooled a couple times. It was like, man, it's a playoffs, man, might be, you know, just treat him like a rookie. You know, it's good jitters get it out. But he came out in the second half and like just the confidence he was showing and him rallying the teammates and everything. Like even after he made bad plays, him come to the sideline insane stuff. And you can tell he was like, it's on me. It's on me. and man, he came out in the second half.

And the whole team, the whole Jaguars, they had just a great, great plan. And they never wavered. It was really kind of cool to see them kind of stick to the plans. Plenty runs and Trevor was Trevor with some great play designs as well. Let's start with how the hole got duck. So when we were planning what we were going to talk about in this show after the first half, I figured we would talk a lot about, man, what a game plan by the Chargers.

What a game plan by Brandon Staley did a fantastic job of just, making it hard on Trevor in a bunch of different ways. The best example being one that we don't need to show the play that we were going to, but it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things now. Right. On the, I think it was the third Asante Samuel interception. Okay.

Jags used motion to try to get like a man's zone tell with Christian Kirk. Michael Davis follows Christian Kirk across the formation and then the charges play zone behind it. And they, Jags running across her and Trevor thought, well, that's open. There's nobody there, and he throws it right to Asani Samuel in cover two. That happened a bunch in the first half of the game. They're playing a lot of man on early downs, driving hard on everything underneath, playing a lot of sticky man coverage, disguising it well. I thought, man, they're just junk ball pitching their way to this game. And that's going to be enough.

Like Staley's still a really good game planner. We've seen what he's done over the last month and the half of the season, and they really jumped on this Chargers team. didn't take advantage of all their opportunities. You know, kick too many field goals. The offense didn't look great, but it didn't end up matter. And you get up 27 at half and you kind of coast your way to a win. And what a great season for the Jags. Da, da, da, da, da, da.

Then the second half starts. So my big question to you, on the Jags' offense side of this, what do you think were the biggest differences with the Jags offense in the second half of the game? So in the first half, I'll start with the first half, because like you said, said that that interception that you just brought up was a great example of of what's kind of staley was doing what the chargers defense was doing the jaguars liked to be in those one by three formations wherever it's the only the lone receiver and the three wide receivers to the other side they would motion somebody across that's where you're saying the man's own town switching to cover

two and jaguars level are on crossers and drive drive concepts mesh concepts screens and in the first half the chargers kept showing single high man And cover three, three buzz, three weak, robber, just single high, single high. And on third down, they'll go to cover two. The second half, the Jaguar is adjusted. Not only just in the run game, they're like, okay, you're going to do this. We're going to run some more zone stuff that we can run against these fronts that you're showing, these single high fronts. We can't do inside zone because a little dicey, you have too many guys, too many bodies for us to block.

But also in the past the game saw a lot more outbreakers. Yeah, happening. So a lot more stuff. Deep Outbreakers, too. Which is good against cover three. and single high coverages just because you're attacking the leverage. And also just the underneath throws were a lot more available. And I think the underneath throws changed where Trevor thought he could get him.

I think he thought, oh, well, if it's cover six, I'm going to get him at one spot. I mean, I won't get into too much detail, but in between the same of the numbers. And now it's in between the, the, not the seam of the numbers, the hash and the numbers. And now it's in between the hashes. It kind of just the checkdown area changed for him, too, the areas that they attacked. And so just in the second half, I mean, the Zay Jones touchdown, the 39. narrow touchdown was a beauty because they checked into it. They were wait.

That was a shot play territory. Anytime that kind of 30 to 40 yard area, that's a green zone, gold zone teams will call it. You're going to see some shot plays. They checked into that same formation, one by three. And because they're getting, they got cover six on that play. And what I thought was brilliant on it was they had Christian Kirk run right at Durwin James and tied down Durham and James. There's no one, no one left to cover, Zay Jones.

Because again, a vertical route. Again, pushing the ball down the field in the way that they didn't in the first half. And I think that was one of the biggest parts of this is that they didn't do any of that. And then when they saw the way that the charges were playing them, they started taking just a huge vertical shot. But just all those cornerouts that we saw from them in the second half, that's just an area they weren't attacking in the first half. Yep. The Chargers, it was a great game point. Like I said, the interception, the first or the second interception, I should say on fourth down was the Jaguars were trying to.

go quick on it. They did a cheat account where the center grabs the ball and snaps it right away. So it's like a silent, silent count. And the Chargers brought a slot pressure there. Again, it's playing off the single high stuff that they showed. Right guard, Scherf, and the center get occupied by a crosser or crossing defense alignment. Free runner in Trevor's face. They're playing physical on them. They just clamp down,

clamp down, clamp down on them. But that was what's so nice about what the Jaguars did in the second half. Like you said, those deep outbreakers. They were attacking those areas that were given them because the Chargers are saying we're going to load up with bodies in the box so you won't run on us. And we're going to challenge your receivers. We're going to press them and throw it outside. Beat us on the outside.

Have Marvin Jones and Zay Jones beat us as opposed to Christian Kirk and Evan Ingram beat us. And it was working for a while until the Jaguar started to find answers, especially in the second half. But no, it was just a, it was a great opening punch and a great counter punch from the jacks. And they, enough points were scored off of it before the charges were able to adjust. I mean, the touchdown throw to Kirk is really good. ball placement working against Bryce Callahan. He hit another one, I believe the next drive

on the right side line, the same kind of deal. I mean, the ball placement from Trevor in the second half was really, really good. And you contrast that with what the Chargers offense looked like for most of this game. And they couldn't run the ball, which we didn't think they would be able to, 2.9 yards per carry. And that includes, take that out. So on running back runs, they had 20 carries for 55 yards in this game, which isn't surprising at all, given what the Jags run defense is and how the charges have run the ball this season. In terms of throwing the ball, they couldn't do that either. And they lived on third down and Justin Herbert escapes in this game.

His ability to navigate the pocket, find guys late in the down. I actually thought the tackles played okay, considering it was a third string left tackle and Trey Pipkins, who's been banged up all season against the edges. I thought the pass protection was actually okay. When it wasn't, he did a really good job of navigating the pocket. And then on third down in this game, I mean, their third down efficiency in this one was eight of 17. Yeah, you go 17 third downs. You go eight of 17, and 17 third downs, but you go eight of 17 on third down and you win the turnover battle by five and you lose.

That is a truly disgusting performance from your offense down to down when you do that. The second half. You brought up the running stats overall. They had zero successful runs in the second half, the Chargers did. And not even when you just have to run the ball just because it has to be a part of your offense. You're trying to burn some clock. Even if you have a double digit lead, you're still trying to milk some. And that leans into just even, like you say, it was disgusting.

Like the most disgusting play to me was after the Jaguar scored to go 28 to 30. And so it was like three minutes and change, I believe, left maybe about four for the Chargers. They come out in 13. So that is four minute offense territory. That is the offense. It's trying to burn the clock. Usually see a lot more heavy personnel. When I talk about situations in the NFL, this is one of them.

And defense trying to get the ball back. Chargers come out. 13 personnel with Joshua Palmer on the field. I like Joshua Palmer, but he's a nice role player. But they're going run, run, run, run, run. We're running right here. Run, run, run. And they run a heavy play action play.

The Chargers tight ends are not who you want on the field to design this. Gerald Everett can make some mismatches for you. but other guys are whatever. And Joshua Palmer, again, a role player. Yeah, you get him because he's your blocking receiver, but then now you're kind of pigeonholeing yourself. Where's the juice coming from? Who are you designing that play for?

Everett, maybe on a sale route. And sure enough, no one pops open. Justin Herbert takes a sack. That four minute drive is dead. And you can just feel the game go right after that. And sure enough, what happens on second along? Screen, running back screen. It's just so by the books.

There's no, even the creativity, like the play action shot is so by the books. It's like, oh, this is my change up. This is by the books change up. And sure enough, the Jaguars just teed off on it and then got the ball back and won the game. So many missed opportunities. I mean, Herbert misses that throw in the end zone and they have to kick a field goal. I mean, that's one that's totally on him. But you can just feel how little juice the offense had overall.

And then you lose DeAndre Carter at one point, which if your offense losing DeAndre Carter is somehow, this death knelt to your passing game. That's when you know you're in trouble. But that was the state of there was. receiving core coming into this game. You're down to Keenan Allen, Josh Palmer, and Michael Bandy at one point. And that's brutal. And then you have your third string left tackle in there.

And then on defense, Michael, Michael Davis getting hurt. And Jaseo Taylor going in there did end up mattering. You got dinged for the past interference. They had a quick comeback to Marvin Jones that was the type of play that they've been shutting down the entire game. And then you can just feel it start to slip away. Mm-hmm.

The whole second half, it was like, they came out and it just felt like that. I mean, when they, shoot, when the, when the Jaguar scored and they did the two point play, you know, after Bosa gets kicked out of the game, they, they, they're doing the two points out. He didn't get kicked out. I don't think he played the rest of the game, though. So even that little part of the meltdown is just really frustrating to watch. Well, the other thing was, of course, the Chargers hurry up play, you know, when they have a play that might get challenged is stick, two by two stick. which I thought was very funny. I thought, but can we talk about the fourth and one?

That was pretty sweet from the Jaguars. I wanted to talk about just the mindset they brought into that half period. The fact that it was never over, that you could feel that it was, they never thought it was over, going for two after getting that penalty and saying, all right, we're going to put ourselves in a position to kick this field goal. And then having that fourth and one, and instead of just sneaking it, saying, we can go for the throat right here. Yeah. That's who Doug Peterson was all year. And it was fun to see that version of this team with their season on the line pulling off one of the greatest comebacks that we've ever seen, capped off by a marvelous decision in that huge moment.

It was awesome. Well, and before it looked like sneak, sneak, sneak, sneak. I think everybody, even Tony Dungey came alive for that thinking it was going to be a sneak. And he, he wants up. And I mean, everybody, like before the time out, everybody's within the tackles, the offensive tackles. I mean, there's like five defenders within there just squeezed in. There's no gaps to be to be found. I actually originally thought Trevor was going to snap it and try and bounce it outside,

which you'll see the quarterbacks do a little bit now. And they come out of that time out, come out on the Chicago Bears fight song, the T formation. It was awesome. And the sweet to eat you out. It was awesome. We got Manhurt's set in the edge. I mean, it was just a great counter. It was awesome.

I mean, because even that even kind of sells sneak a little bit because it's like, oh, they're wedging it forward. Like they're going to have those three guys run four and push them. So even there's maybe that casts a little doubt, but it was awesome. Just a little, yeah, talk about changeups right there. Like we're not growing right up the middle. We're going to bounce it outside with the guy with crazy legs ETI and who's going to get to the edge no matter what. So awesome, awesome play.

Even going for two and just the quickest two point conversion of all time. Trevor's sneak launch quickest play of all time. It was like Derek Fisher against the spurs, the point four seconds. Yeah. Like that's what it felt like? It was just like, boom, boom. Don. I was like, what the hell just happened?

He scored? Was there a penalty there? But yeah, Jaguars, I mean, right away, they went forward and fourth down. Like, even with the interception that you ever had, they never lost that confidence, that aggression. It was awesome. Part of me was a little bit disappointed in that we really liked watching this team for a good chunk of this year. And I think a lot of people who maybe didn't watch them as often as we did or as closely as we did, seeing them fall flat like this to be like, man, really? Like, people were excited about the Jags at some point this year.

And that's why so many of those moments in the second half were fun. Even, this is a small one, but Fatu Kavut. Tassie getting that sack after he made the play on the Trayvon Walker personal foul that ends up given the charges another chance. It's almost like a ball don't lie thing for him where he roast Zion Johnson on that play action, the sack that you were talking about, and he makes a play. And then, so you got that defensive injection that we did in the offseason that we had seen at other times this year. And then on offense, Christian Kirk making two or three monster catches in the biggest moment possible, and Trevor being that guy. You know, it was not a great first half.

that the couple bad intercepting the two the ones that Samuel where he doesn't read the coverage is is where he gets tricked truly on him yes yeah yeah so he gets tricked on that one that's the end breaker with samuel samuel made a great play on it that's not a great decision but one was tipped and one was probably past interference yeah and so it's not a it's obviously not a great half when you throw four interceptions but coming back and seeing him do what he did in the second half wasn't surprising if you've watched trevor lawrence play all season no they i mean they've had multiple of these moments, multiple of these games, especially

huge deficits, the Ravens game, especially. And not to get into like full blown, like, real life is Rudy moment, you know, or anything like that or Hoosiers or something. Well, Hoosiers is based on real life, but they, but those types of like sentimental moments. So they showed them on the same. Yeah, I know.

God, dang it. There's a terrible analogy. But just showing them on the side. I'm talking about the dis, disinification of this. We're not, but we're not, they're not our parent company.

We're good. So it's just like any of the like they showed him on the sideline, especially in the first half. He had the one bad play. Even last week when he had a bad pitch playing against the Titans, he went right up to whoever they tried to pitch it. I think it was Austin, Tavon, awesome. He goes, that was high. It wasn't, ah, my bad.

He put his arm around him. They showed him. He was like, hey, my bad. And when they started to make the comeback, they showed him on the sideline with the Microsoft Surface tablet. It's like an advertisement now. Just going like, did, do, do, do, pointing at it. And the whole offense is just locked in.

It's like, man, they just compare these sidelines right now. One side line just absolutely needs to change their underwear. And the other side lines, like, frothing at the bit just to get back out of the field because they feel like they have them. They have them on the ropes. And they did. They actually did. It wasn't just a fake confidence type of thing. But it's awesome because there's so many bad moments for that Jaguar's offense and defense.

Like, you know, like Chad Muma is getting torched by Gerald Everett for a touchdown. You know, Austin Ackler bounces and Tyson Campbell misses, you know, misses the angle. and it's like easy touchdown to bouncing. Trevor has his moments. The run game's not going. And then the second half, it was just a collect, not just Trevor,

but just the whole team just had that confidence. The defense, you could feel them attacking the run game. So it was a fun story. And that's the thing. It's kind of cool to actually see them truly bounce back within the game in a playoff moment, not just like,

oh, they came up short, maybe next year, these feisty jaguars, the cardiac cats. No, they actually pulled it up, which is, it's just astounding.

It's a fantastic win for that team. You contrast that feeling with what the Chargers must be feeling like right now, and I think now we're led to some pretty big questions. This is now going to all happen in the shadow of one of the biggest playoff collapses, if not the biggest playoff collapse that we've ever seen. There were already some conversations about decisions that the Chargers have made over the last couple weeks with Michael Williams getting hurt in that game because they played the starters with this team underperforming last year. I don't want to be overly reactionary and have that color ever. everything we think about what the Brandon Staley regime has looked like in Los Angeles. But as we talk about the aftermath of that game, what do you expect a reasonable set of moves and decisions to be for the Chargers organization?

I think Staley, the coach, just talking about X's and O's really impressed me in the last stretch this season and this first half of this game. and then, but stately as the head coach kind of like, the team just kind of lacked some stuff. And really, I think that starts with the offense. And of course, this team has just been decimated by injuries. So we always have to keep that in the back of our mind. But knowing that not seeing adjustments throughout this year, the defense adjusted their asses off, especially when losing Bosa and other guys and bouncing, guys bouncing around,

the offense never had that same identity of versatility, especially even with the quarterback and all that. I think you have to address it in some way, shape, or form. If you're keeping, I think Staley has coached has done a lot of good as much as there's been moments that we're pointing at, especially in week 18 and the playing the starters type of thing. But there's also just been a lot of good. So it's like either path, I understand in a weird way, but the offense has to be addressed in some way, shape, or form. If that's changing the head coach to an offense in mind and head coach, or if that's changing the coordinator if Staley stays. But I think what he's done with the defense as an X as an O's, uh, standpoint.

point has been very impressive and the team did fight back in the second half of the year. But there's always just always just that lacking, that feeling of want with this team a little bit. And that starts at the top. Yeah, I have the same feeling where I just want more out of it. I don't think anybody who heard me talk about that team before the season started and heard some of my frustration as the season went along, specifically at some really low points. It just feels like there's more there. When you think about the amount of talent that they've accumulated and that starts on the offense. And I think a lot of people

are going to look at what happened tonight and the first thought. You saw it happen as the game got back into contention and as things got bad and as it slipped away, the amount of Sean Peyton jokes that started tumbling out on Twitter. That's not going to go away, you know, until the charges come out and explicitly say he's

back or he's not. I think that he probably deserves to be. I think that they made the playoffs, think what he did in the second half of the season. I think that you need to reevaluate everything about the offense and about the plan on offense. Who's the offensive play caller? What does our personnel look like?

Do we go get some more speed? You know, the offensive line, I think, obviously, Slater got hurt. Slater. Yeah. Slater getting hurt is huge. Saulier played well for a rookie thrust into that position. I think that the interior, like, FIWR didn't have a good year compared to what he did last year and then, you know,

right tackle, Pipkins was hurt for most of the year. year or so you think about what the offensive line needs to look like personnel-wise and then you think about who the play caller needs to be and where you can inject some more explosiveness within the offense because that to me is you look at the personnel and the talent that's the thing that was missing the most we knew that coming into the year we did they had no speed and they still they had no speed at the end they did everything just felt so tight and condensed and what christian kirk could provide for this team in this game for the jags when everything felt tight in the first half, the Chargers didn't have that guy, especially without Mike Williams, but even with him,

they didn't have a guy with that level of explosiveness within the offense. So I think that's the biggest question. My concern is that there's not a lot of wiggle room with this team. They spent to win the Super Bowl this season. This was their, yeah, that's what they did. Push the cap year. JC Jackson is making $17 million against the cap next year. J.C. Jackson didn't play for that defense that was one of the best defenses in league over the second half of the season. A lot of the things about their plan coming into this year were not the reasons that they ended up being a dangerous team or looking like it by the end of the season, which is kind of funny.

But what does that mean and how does that inform the team you want to be next year as you kind of really take stock of this if Brandon Staley is going to be the guy who stays and Tom Telesco and all that? Right. And bringing up Christian Kirk's a great. great comparison because it's not just, everyone thinks like, oh, juice to the offense. And we use that term a lot. And it's not just having a burner, just having a Khalif Raymond, which would help, don't

get me wrong. But it's just having some guy that can beat man that's not pinning the ball on the guy. Keenan Allen can beat man, but it's a catch and tackle. It's angle routes where he gets catch and tackle. I love Keenan out, but this is just his game. This is his game. Keenan ran a four, seven, ten years ago. Yeah.

And he, yeah, that's all you need to say. But then you watch Christian Kirk. I love Keener out. Yeah. No, no, but we know, everyone knows this game. He's an old man at the Y. Like that, that's what it is. And then, but then Christian Kirk who runs a four or five, maybe.

And but he's so smooth. And he provides that separation or just that man beating ability that's at the intermediate levels. There are so many short level beaters with this, with this, uh, Chargers offense. That's like, so it's either a stop route or a back, you know, back shoulder go to Mike Williams on the outside or it's keen and out and winning and getting tackled right away.

And so there's just not that creativeness that, that someone just taking it run it. Gerald Everett, but Gerald Everett's hard to rely on, especially like how you want to use him and where you want to align him. He has a limited role. And even for that, look at how Evan Ingram's used and how Gerald Everett's used. It's like Evan Ingram is just crossing, crossing guys to death, just crossing routes, crossing You see Gerald Everett run that, but then you see him running a lot of corners and digs. And it's like, no, that it's not wrong, but it's not great.

It's a lot of B-mindous answers of how they use their personnel, but they need juice. And having juice will help find answers because just gives you room for error, no matter who the play caller is. I just said, I think that he deserves to stay. Would you keep him if you were the Spanos family? If you were the owners of the Chargers, would Brandon Staley be the head coach of the Chargers next year? Yes, but you have to change the offense coordinator. I think we're in the same place. Stay away in the second half.

We had all had high expectations. And he does like him as a coach. That's why I keep saying X's no schematics did a lot and how the team fought their asses off. Those matter. Great. Defense play caller and you're the head coach. The team reacted, responded. They didn't just look at the, what's the freaking Broncos?

Watch other teams that just folded up because they didn't believe in the head coach. Those guys fought for the head coach. But you have to address the elephant in the room, which is the. the offensive play caller. And I think that's the caveat or that's the one check mark that he has to mark off. Checkbox he has to mark off. That's where I land to is that we need

more out of a star level quarterback and what we spent on receivers and all that. I think that they deserve a lot of credit for fighting through the amount of injuries that they suffered this year. I think that they deserve a lot of credit for what their defense looks like in the second half of the season. But I don't think you can get through another season with a middling offense

when you have a quarterback that says talent that's the one that they have. Correct. Just let it open up. Let it breathe. What to breathe. They need a decanter for the offense. Just let it breathe a little bit. So you actually like,

it tastes the aroma of Justin Herbert. Jags most likely will get the chiefs next week if the Bengals and Bills take care of business tomorrow. I don't know. I'm excited to watch that game. It's a tough one. It's definitely a tough one. But I think that this is a team that has deserved our attention

and deserved our enthusiasm. excitement and tonight was an emphatic reminder of that despite what the first half looked like this is the jaggs all year so much good driving the ball doing some cool stuff punching himself in the nuts several times and then coming back and he's just like and at the end you just remember you're like wow that was fun and you just forget all the bad parts that happened at the beginning this is but this is the jacks all season this is what they did to us like beginning of the year you took at the season or you look at each game there's a lot of this throughout the year but they're a fun team at least it's entertaining. That's all he could ask for. All right. Anything else you want to say about this game?

No, that, I will say, a compliment of Brandon Staley. He had some cool disguises. I'll say that. Like, the simulate pressure they got a sack on that was really cool. They made Travis E.TN. stay in. Sorry, I know we just worked up, but there was some cool stuff in the first half. I was, trust me, I had so many notes. I was ready. And then the second half happened. But the Santé Samuel pick that we talked about again. It was really cool. Make sure you guys rewatch it. If you can see the motion beforehand. because how they disguised it with Michael Davis running with emotion and then him and Derwin James switching spots and then running cover two was pretty sweet. It was a lot of that.

That was pretty nifty. That would have gotten me too because Trevor's like, man, man, man, okay, I don't have to read this post snap. Everything I saw was man. And then you could see his brain short circuit. That's why he didn't even want to throw it. His brain was telling him not to throw it. And he throws an interception.

But I just want to bring that one up too because it was pretty sweet. All right. Let's get to our next one here. 49ers crushed the Seahawks, 41 to 23. Watching that game brought me back to the conversation we had about the Niners on Thursday, where the word I kept coming back to was that they're just, they feel overwhelming. They just feel like this force of nature that can overtake you in, and it doesn't take along. No.

And that's kind of what this game felt like. I mean, obviously, especially in the second half, you could just feel what they have. what they have personnel-wise and the amount of super power that they have. Rock Pretty in the second half of that game, I believe, went 9 of 11 for 185 yards. Normal stuff. The Seahawks were winning at half-term. Yeah. And they played, I thought they played really well in the first half.

They did. The quick strike touchdown to D.K. McCaffeth, they had a methodical drive. Gino was 9 of 10 in the first half. On the ball. Kenneth Walker had 13 carries for 54 yards. You know, Brock Pretty was 9-on-9. Other than the McCaffrey 68-yard run, the Niners running backs had four carries for zero yards in the first half.

Before one of the field goals, it was a great play by Puna Ford against the run. The one punt that the Niners had, Shelby Harris threw off Trent Williams. I was like, man, and play where Meccalf ran over Chavarius Ward in the flat. I was like, this team is not going to go quietly. And credit to Pete Carroll and they're showing a lot of pride. And then the second half starts and it just they get absolutely boat raced.

It felt like every drive of the 40-N-Ires just had an explosive play where it was just like just left and right. And big ones. I'm like 30-yarders, 40-yarders. So schematically, all years, Ciox have had some issues defending out of base personnel. and showed up today. 30%. So 49ers had 25 plays out of 21 personnel. 30% of those went for explosives.

So they had 13 dropbacks. They average basically one point per dropback out of 21 personnel. And it was just the runs, the toss zones, the Devo Samuel out of the eye formation, and then playing off it where they have CMC as like the loan receiver. So they run the toss play to Devo. And then they have CMC split out. And they run the same play, but then they do that dart route, which is a now route.

Slam. Yeah, yeah, slant. And CMC is running it. But you have your running back running your dart route. They usually X receivers run. And you got your wide receiver in the back field in the eye formation. And you already pitched it to your wide receiver in an eye formation. And then now you have your running back getting a now route.

And it's like for a defense, it's just like, what do we do? Because you have to check into certain coverages because you don't want Debo running a, man on man with the linebacker. So it's just this offense is just overwhelming. It is. It's overwhelming to watch. I'm sure as a defender, it's just overwhelming to defend because what do you do?

You miss one tackle and it's a score. Brock Purdy finished the game, 332 yards on 30 attempts. Okay. People are going to talk a lot about the way he played and everything else. This game, first in form of two things. I think my biggest takeaway is about the San Francisco or 49ers come away from this game.

Kyle Shanahan is out of this world. You just talked about a lot of them. They averaged 7.9 yards per play in this game. Then the 49ers did. The first play that really jumps out to me is the McCaffrey run. The huge 68-yard McCaffrey run, which we can pull up the dots for here. Yeah. It's a beautiful play.

So they have use check. I believe lined up in the slot on the left side. You guys can see it here. He cracks Barton inside to get an angle there. And then they have, I believe it was George Kittle coming across the formation in motion. He leads up on the corner with IYook going to the safety. And then you have Tratt Williams doing a fantastic job on Irvin as the edge rusher, the guy, the man in the line of scrimmage.

And the moment that you see that collision with you. use check coming inside in the replay. It's like, oh, this is absolutely beautiful. And it looked like it. I mean, Kittle was, he was looking for somebody to block. And it was just perfectly drawn up. It's exactly how you do. To Rick Wolland wanted no part of him.

It was, he was like, he started backpedaling towards the sideline when he saw 85 running at him. I mean, that was the first one where it was just like, okay, this is going to be one of those games where he's just dialing up this kind of shit. It was awesome. And then there were two, two completions that really jumped out. three where there was one to IUC early on play action. He sold it vertically and kind of came over on a crosser.

It was beautiful. And then there was another one where they had Danny Gray as the number one receiver on the right side and IYook on the left side. And they had Gray clear it out and they ran another big play action crosser to IEuk. Even that like small thing where you got your, this guy is solely there for speed in Danny Gray. That's what he is right now. And he's clearing out that space for IUC.

So two huge completions. to Iyuk on play action over the middle. And then there was a third one to George Kittle in the third quarter that I wanted to point out. Hell yeah. What's beautiful about this play, and you guys can see it, they lined up in 21 personnel with Kittle and Yuscheck as tight ends to the left side. For those of you who can watch this right now, I want you to look at the amount of space between all of the receivers on the Niners here.

Chris McAfricer runs in motion. He's running up the right side line. So he's pulling that corner all the way to that side. Brandon Iyuk as the number one receiver on the right side is running vertical and pulling the safety out that way. Debo Samuel from the backfield is running to the left flat. So you have every single yard of grass across the entire field covered. You have a vertical stretch on the play. And then Ushcheck is high-loing the linebacker over the middle of the field who has to make a decision between Ustchek and Kittl.

And Kittles open by 10 yards. And Purdy puts it there. And that's what happened to all game. I understand that Purdy's numbers are going to look really gaudy. But Dan Pizzuta from Sharp Football Stats put out a stat that I thought was fantastic. In this game, Brock Purdy had two throws into tight coverage. In the game, not just completions, two attempts into coverage with more or with less than a yard of separation. This was Kyle Shanahan just playing every right note at every right moment and the Seahawks had zero answers whatsoever.

It was great. It was, anyone know this is the term brick jokes, you know, like where something happens first and then it gets paid off later. That's what it was happening at this game. I'm glad you brought up that play action to Kittle because even the action on it, the dolphins love to do that action where they have the jet sweep action, which, okay, so jet sweep with a switch release. That's one way to attack a defense and make them communicate. But then they pulled the guard, Spencer Burford, who has been playing exceptional for them. The interior of the offensive line period, I thought, has been, that was. Daniel Bronskill has played so much better.

The one team, we thought, the one area coming into the season, personnel wise, I was like, eh, was the interior of the Niners' offensive line. And we don't even talk or think about it. And I think that is such a testament to the progression that's happened from that group over the course of the season. Yeah. I mean, but just that play. No, exactly.

They pull the guard. No pressure happens on it's nice and clean pocket. I think Debo, yeah, Debo's in the backfield. He goes strong to weak. They fake the hand off to that. And so all this is meant to attack the linebacker. So I'm glad he brought up juice check on the play because the 49ers today a lot were cross-releasing. So a back or a tight end would release through the guard in the center, a guard and tackle.

And then the rep would work across. And it would occupy multiple intermediate defenders. So that's why those guys' eyes were just going back and forth, back and forth. And just the angles in the run game, like that, the long CMC run, there's another play, because that ends up being like a pin pull with your skill guys. That's what run game is just angles. So him cracking outside and then also juice check goes into the linebacker inside. So he's working outside.

So there, there's your pin pull. But they had another one where they went splitbacks with McCaffrey and Debo. And it was where Debo kind of made about three guys miss. It should have been like a one-yard game, turn into like an eight-yard game. which won, but this was just, it was early in the game. And so they go splitbacks. And usually in this look, and you'll see the Rams do, you see the Packers do it. It's like one of the plays in the NFL.

Splitbacks, one guy goes in a bubble motion or a jet motion is inside zone with a bubble. And it really just a overhang read for the quarterback. You read this intermediate defender. Can he tackle the bubble? With the 49ers doers, they show that. But instead of having a zone play, it's just a call basically bubble play. those two outside receivers crack inside, and CMC, who's in the backfield, leads outside. So again, it's like a pinpole with your skill guys, with Debo Samuel in space, and then he ends up making guys miss.

But that's just a nice, like, kind of like snapshot of what Kyle Shanhan does. He just creates these amazing angles for his players. And these guys, all of them can take it to the house. So it's speed with smarts. And it's just impossible to defend over time, over 60 minutes. You can't do it. I want to talk about that, just the scope position talent in general. last play I wanted to point out, the Jennings leak play when it happened. So Jennings is lined up in

the condensed formation. They run a play action to that side and then run a leak to that side. And I watch it happen. I was like, it looks really familiar. I remember watching that recently and go back, look at the completions from their week 15 game. They ran pretty much the exact same design, but it was out of a double Y Y, what you call Y, Y, Y, wing, the two tight ends on the same side. and they completed it to Tyler Croft on the right side, almost the exact same design for a huge chunk against the Seahawks last time these two teams played. And it's just a little tweak on the same idea.

And that is a Shanahan staple, those little tweaks on the same ideas. You talking about Debo's in more motion. I think Debo's in the backfield and maybe McAfricer's line up as receiver. It reminds me of that scene from Little Giants where it's like, the center's in the backfield. the quarterback's not even there. That's how every single 49ers offensive play feels at this point.

And then when you're- In fact of Puerto Rico, every single play, that's what it is. When you're combining that with, this is the other thing that really jumped out, watching them again, shocker, the skill position talent is unbelievable. In all these small moments, the Debo touchdown, where he takes it the distance, that's obviously the best example where you're just spitting the, ball out to a guy. And he's doing something that one human being can really do when it's him.

But there were three others today that were subtler. And it was, the first one happened on a second 10 in the first half. They ran Kittle. I don't even know if it was actually a crosser. He like sat down about four yards past the line of scrimmage and they cleared it out for him. And Barton just couldn't chase him across the field. And he takes a four yard completion for 13 yards and gets a first off.

It's a small thing. yards. But being able to do that with your tight end is something this team can do that really no one else can do. Correct. And the biggest one, the biggest example and the best example of this kind of idea is a third and seven in the second half. And this is a play to Debo.

And they just run Debo on a little crosser against Tariq Wallen. And they make Wollin carry him all the way across the field. He catches about three yards past the line of scrimmage on a third and seven. and what should be a five-yard, six-yard gain on third and seven, Debo catches it in traffic, manages to make the linebacker miss and run into Wolin, and then turns a three-yard completion into a 20-yard gain while breaking two more tackles. And it just happens all the time. In this game, the Niners averaged 10.85 yards after completion per catch.

Some of that is driven up by the 66 yards. on the Debo touchdown. But plays like this are commonplace for them, where you have a three-yard completion on third and seven turn into a 25-yard explosive gain simply because of the guy who's catching the ball. And they've got a bunch of those guys. And that came up over and over again today. I thought Purdy played fine.

He didn't make a big mistake. But even the throw to Jennings, he leaves that inside when he shouldn't. And so he's doing enough. But this idea that the story of this game is Brock Purdy and what? what he's accomplished is I just don't agree with that. I think that his two best plays were probably the escape to Elijah Mitchell and the touchdown that Brandon Ayuk dropped. Yeah, I'm not pretty pretty fine.

I mean, but are we honestly that blind? How many, how many throws were these guys were catching behind them? Behind them or wide open or. First like nine throws wide open guys were behind. Like, I mean, yeah, it felt like a lot like when they would show like AJ McCarron as like a Heisman candidate in college and he's like throwing a screen and some like,

you know, receiver is taking it 80 yards and he's fist pumping and then they show him in slow motion. I'm like, show the receiver running 80 yards for this card. They did that a couple times where, you know, Debo scoring and they're shown Purdy fist pumping.

It's like, yeah, did a lot. He played fine. But no, just this combo of like this juice that they have, pretty being effective with the ball and finding the right throws and then just the little dial up Shannon has was the first play of

the two minute drive in the first half. It was about a minute left. It goes to I. It had 10 yards after the catch, actually. So right on the average of the day. Cioxx are in three match. There was a lot of three match was the coverage of the day for both games. And it was just this little subtle thing.

So it was under center. CMC is in the home position. Think of a we're running back of lines. I don't have the gift for this. So everybody gets the audible version of this. So CMC does the little, they do the little short motion with him, even though he's in the home position. We've talked about this play.

And usually they'll have him run vertical on this. why this all matters. It's the first play in the two-minute drive. They motioned him out. Being in three-match, Tariq Wollin is a rookie. He had a rough day. He looked like a rookie today. His head pops because he goes,

am I still man on IUC? Or do I have CMC? Because he's number one now. But they snap the ball before he's all the way outside. So he hesitates. Even though he runs out whatever, four, three and change at whatever he is, six-four, that split second of hesitation,

I-Euk just runs across, catches it 30-something yard gain first play. And that's what all that is. It's just that little window dressing to make the opposition, the opposing team hesitate. And then these guys just open it up. Like it's room for error with room for error that just creates this just magic sometimes. That just little play right there is just a little window dressing on something simple and turns into a 30-something yard gain.

And it was just little stuff like that. It's so it's entertaining to watch and watch it all build off each other, like the layers of it all. you're talking about the like do you see something early and then it comes back it's like shenhan's offense like check off's like check off's motion like if it happens early on it's coming back later it's kind of what it feels where he's planting these little seeds that's exactly it i check off's motion i love that a lot of people i think when the discussion was happening about purdy today you know it's like well why hasn't the diners been like this before you know if it's if the quarterback doesn't isn't a huge part of this then why couldn't jimmy j do it jimmy

was doing this before he got hurt when McCaffrey got there. Since McAfrey got there and since the offenses had this group of skill position talent, they were rolling. Yeah. I mean, like absolutely rolling. This version of the Niners is still relatively new with all of these guys because you have McCaffrey who has been there since the middle of the season. Iyuk has not always been this version of Brandon Ayuk where he's, I don't know, a top

15 receiver in the league probably. Yeah. Like in that general range. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he is. I mean, he's,

he was somehow he's become an afterthought, even though it's like everybody's breakout candidate. He broke out. Like he was a really good player. He was their leading receiver. And he is a like dynamic player. Yeah. He'd be the guy every other team would dial up plays for.

Yes. Like, you know what I mean? And he's just an afterthought at times. Yes. And that was not always the case. He was in the dog house for the first half of last season. And so this version of this version of who they

are is different. And I think that's why the machine feels different. And it is so dynamic and so dominant with acceptable quarterback play. And I think that it would probably look like this if Gropolo is in there based on the way that they're playing right now. Maybe with one or two off schedule plays that Pertie can make that maybe Gropolo couldn't because he can extend some stuff. And he has that escapability. So I think that's important to acknowledge as to where this team is and why they're having this sort of just, again, overwhelming success on offense. And we haven't even talked about defense. It doesn't really matter.

I mean, it's, they made a couple big plays today, but they could have given up 35, and it wouldn't have mattered in this game because of the way that the offense played. Oh, I know. They squeak, I mean, the Seahawks, the touchdown of D.K. McHuff was beautiful offensive football. I'll call it that. They've wotted it up, blocked up the splits, go ball, you know, take your one-on-one. one, that's what D.K. Maccalf is supposed to win. He was up for the challenge day. Maccalf was. But that's the thing with this 49ers defense. They just squeeze everything else.

They make the run game hard because even if you get a good run, you try to go back to it. Boom, they're popping you. They make, they squeeze everything if you want to check it down. They make you scramble. And when you're scrambling, you're running for your life. You know, you're trying to run naked boots where, you know, lonesonesons is what they call. Gino's trying to run for it. You got another guy in the 49ers, not one of the all pros, making the tackle for a TFL. to save it. Like this whole defense just plays with an attitude and just so much speed that even when they get kind of bloody, their lips bloodied a little bit, they come back and make huge place.

Seahawks are driving. They get the strip sack on Gino. And that's like that's just a big play and a big moment for them. And it's not like it got lucky. Well, if that didn't happen, I was like, yeah, but Seahawks kind of lost it there. That was their window because you know that 40 hours defense is going to start just squeeze and squeeze and squeezing and just pinning their ears back just like they did. And as soon as you give them an inch, it's over.

And that's what happened today. As soon as that play happened, the floodgates open and the game just ends. And even that play, Bosa gets really good initial pressure. They have a really cool looking stunt where they have an overload on the right side. They have a long loop with Aenehu coming all the way back across and he makes the play. A man who is not as good of a player as Brandon Ayuk by the way. But the fact that a guy like Charles Ameadow who is like the third or fourth player on the Niners front and he's somebody that I think is a pretty good player. they just have those guys all over the place.

Tashon Gibson made a big play today. Yeah, he did. That was the play I was talking about. It was Tashon Gibson coming down on the running down Gino. But yes, sorry. That was a, it was funny because the design of that play, this is not worth getting into, but I thought it was interesting.

They had Parkinson as the offset in the gun as the second back in the backfield. And they had him come across the formation, I assumed to be a lead blocker on that play for Gino. If that doesn't happen, I think he gets the first down. because that's the only reason that Gibson got pulled that way is because they were in man coverage and he was covering Parkinson. If they had just left Nick Bosa unblocked on that play, I think that he gets an easy first down. It's the worst.

I hate when that happens, especially in man coverage. They just bring it over. But no, hey, you got to make the play still. You know, Gina, she's a tough runner. You know, he's not the fastest of the world, but he's a tough runner. He's long. But, like, then Eric Armstrongstead, like, steps up. Like, you know, like, in your comparison to the I yuk of the defense.

But it's like, oh, yeah, this guy. This guy. Yeah, this guy's really good, too. Like, they just have dudes. Like, they just have dudes on all three levels. And yeah, I mean, just a fast, fast team. I mean, that's what it is. They just play fast and angry.

We are now looking at the realized, idealized version of what the Niners have wanted to be under Kyle Shannahan. Like, this is the ultimate realization of his, speed kills. His ideas and his plans and it's made possible by the McAfrey trade. And now the fact that they have these skill position players that you comparing to them the Warriors is right in the sense that one of the reasons the warriors were so dominant on those teams is that the alike body types and the ability and what it gives you on defense, it's the inverse of that for an offensive football team. And the fact that you have all these guys that you can switch everything essentially, it really makes them dangerous. And you see that all the time with them. and it is very, very cool to watch. And this is watching this game and watching what the second half of this season has wrought

is watching Kyle Shanahan's masterpiece. Like that is what we're watching right now. And it is very cool. As somebody who has, I think both of us, you know, kind of always watched him with a real reverence based on what he could do. And if you go look at Nick Mullen's stats in the San Francisco 49ers offense, that's all you really need to understand what Kyle Shanahan can do for a quarterback and for a team.

And now you give him this personnel playing this way. This is the final result. I know the Seahawks defense isn't great. It's beyond the Seahawks defense. They have transcended who they're playing against here. Well, I felt like, I feel like Shanahan's offense for years and what people picture it as, really what it was. I mean, just picture the Texans and everything.

It was like, okay, outside zone and naked, you know, bootlegs and outside zones and death by eight yard gains, death by six yard gains. That's what they get. And then they bootleg you have. for a 20 yard over and they just do it over and over. They make Matt Schaub look like an all pro. But then I think, like you said, this is, you know, almost as Magnus Opus, you know, not even this in the 2016 Falcons is because, I mean, every one of these plays can go,

literally get taken to the house. Like, it's every play that they run, which is awesome because he's dialing up guys hitting the, like, you're seeing CMC catch, or Debo catching these toss plays. They don't get contacted until like seven yards down the field. Wow. And then they run a pass play and there's overrouts where guys are wide open. But it's not just, there's so many times where you see these offenses we laugh. Like, oh, Shanahan wants to play on the expert mode.

You know, that's why he's playing this guy over this guy. But now you're seeing it. It's like, now he's doing all the stuff he was doing, but playing an easy mode where it's like, hey, I just run a naked. And it should be a 12-yard gain. And that's what I used to make my living off. But then there's Devo Samuel taking it, you know, to the house. And that's the difference. It's just what should have been six-yard gains turned to 60-yard gains.

but it's not just one guy. It's the entire offensive skill position. We're at least four of them. And Harrison Barnes, juice check. Again, very useful. I mean, that's very useful.

What he can do is a necessary component of who they are. Yes. The fact that he can split out into crack linebackers and then on the next place he's in the backfield, next play he's a tight end. It's so useful. Because it's 21, but it's 12 and then and then like it's the alignments.

11. They can live in 21, but they can do whatever they want. And I think that that is a really key component. And the fact that, well, because in 21, your tight end is somebody who can give you some juice vertically because it was the way, the type of athlete he is. But then he could be in the back field pass protecting. And then it's, it's disgusting. It's a fevering fan.

It's unbelievable. It is. It's awesome. Let's do a little postmortem here for the Seahawks. Okay. A disappointing end to the season, but playing with House Money a little bit. We've been talking about this for a couple weeks or a couple months. This team was supposed to be bottom of the barrel, rebuilding.

and to be a playoff team and to look like they did, and even today, again, going back to that first half, I'm sitting there watching them being like, man, Pete Carroll, 71-year-old Pete Carroll, and being able to kind of get his guys up to meet the moment in that first half before they just get overwhelmed by the talent on the other side of the ball, he just, he's been very good at this for a very long time. And I think that this season with a team that was this young and had this many holes on it, and to be able to put together the year that they had was incredibly impressive. And the reports right now are that Gino will be back next year. He said he expects to be back.

Curious what that looks like. You know, is it a two-year contract? Is it longer than that? Can they not come to the right extension? Because this is a weird area. You know, what this middle class quarterback contract world looks like, it's hard to figure out. It's hard to navigate.

So I really am curious to see what that number is if they get to an extension or if they get to a place where it ends up being the tag because they can't figure that out. He deserves to be back the way that he played. I think that he keeps them competitive next year with all the resources that they have. This team has $48 million in cap space before whatever they figure out with Gino. So if that's the tag, obviously is a huge chunk of it. But if not, then get him playing on a $20 million tag or cap hits. You know, you still have $30 million in space, whatever moves you make. Plus, his team has the fifth pick in the first round, the 20th pick in the first round, the 38th pick, and the 54th pick.

They have four top 54 picks. Pretty fun. And you made the playoffs. Yeah. That's fun. No, they can kind of choose your adventure a little bit in a good way. It's, I think, yeah, I would assume that Gino is coming back. I think you can do that because they nailed this last draft.

I mean, they really did. They got a lot of starters, good starters. They got two tackles in the same draft. They got an all pro, a guy that was fighting for all pro. He was a probo corner as a rookie, which would usually be a big deal if there wasn't another probo all pro pro pro quarter this year. They got, I mean, the guy that they traded for first round picks was even playing this year, this year in Jamal Adams.

They found some other interesting pieces, Wosu, you know, other guys stepped up. But I just think that's what's nice is that they can kind of do what they want with Gino. And then they can kind of choose who else are their pieces, their building blocks. That's what's nice about kind of where they're at on top of adding young talent. They can draft a quarterback, have them go behind Gino, which is also another fun path. They can go down. But I think this was a house money a year for them. Pete got those guys up and it wasn't lucky.

Like their offense played legit well for a long time. They had some blumshes at the end of the year. The defense improved for a while and came back down. but they punched above their weight all year, but also has some interesting young pieces. So it wasn't just like pure luck where you're like, who else is they can build around? So awesome year for them.

Awesome year for Seattle fans. Go Mariners. The Cracken look good. You know, now the Seahawks. You know, so not a bad year. I can't remember what the Sounders did. They didn't win the M.S Cup. I know that.

But it's like, you know, the Sounders also too. But good year for Seattle fans. They can hunt for an edge rusher in the top 10, which I think makes sense. A lot of Bruce servant snaps today. It's been a lot of Bruce serving. How to Bruce serving and coverage, which is not what you want in 2020, 2020, really.

So you try to remake the defense with some of those resources and just see where you can get on that side of the ball. But I think a real testament to that organization and to Pete Carroll, you know, there were real questions coming into the season about, you know, a rebuilding team and a 70-something coach. And does he really want to be a part of this? I mean, that seems like pretty long in the tooth to be starting over again with our young, roster and he it was fan it was really really good it was really impressive like what they did the final result is again just a reminder that p. Carroll has been an excellent head football coach in this league for a very long time and you talk about punching above your weight I think he's been able

to get his guys to do that for better part of a decade now I mean what's how to do it man what is the what's the worst season that p. Carroll has had as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks it was last year, right? They were seven and ten last year. All right. Before that, the last time that the Seahawks finished below 500 was 2011. They went seven and nine. 11 and 5, 13 and 3, 12 and 4, 10 and 6, 10, and 1, 9 and 7, 10 and 6, 11 and 5, 12 and 4.

And then 9 and 8 this year and another trip to the playoffs. It's a lot of wins. It's a lot of wins. Yep. A couple DVOA championships in there. A lot of DVOA championships in there. But that speaks to them. Like they've always been, it's been real good teams.

Not like, oh, they got lucky this year and they're expected win losses. Like, no, they, when they won 11 games, they won those 11 games. That's how it always felt like with them. So credit to them and credit to a really good first step in their rebuilding process. And we'll see what step two looks like next year. Yeah. All right. It was fun here for.

that's all we got. That's all we got. We did it. First day. I was not ready. I was not ready for what that first game with that second game and the pivot that was necessary. It really reminded me of you're in a press box and you think you're going to write one thing. And then the game changes at the end and you're just looking at a blank screen.

And that's kind of what that felt like. And that's an exciting moment. And I've been part of plenty of those. I was at the 28 to 3 Super Bowl. I was, I mean, I've been, I've been, they were, today was the five, I didn't know that. Today was the five year anniversary of the Minneapolis Miracle and I was there.

I mean, I, I've seen some pretty wild shit live and I, everyone that was at that Jags Chargers game today, I'm sure it was going through a very similar experience. And when you are there for that sort of moment in a playoff game, that sticks with you. It's pretty damn cool. And so that was,

it really brought me back. It had that panic that I was feeling in the 15 minutes before we started recording. Yeah, it's always good when you see, you know, some like cold weather games especially, you see the big drunk guys with their shirts off like to start the game. Jacks fans were taking them off as the game was going and it wasn't because they were going into the pool and the upper deck. That was that atmosphere today. It was, it was the world's largest outdoor cocktail party part two, or at least the first one before the one comes this fall for 2023. Congrats to those guys. That was an awesome game for them. I hope they enjoy it. Their prizes

that they get to go play Patrick Mahomes in Arrowhead next week. All right. Go get them, Tiger. No, it's going to be a great game, though. I'm stoked for that game. All right. If you guys have not, please subscribe to the YouTube channel. I'm going to try to do this with these games.

You know, obviously the primetime games is only one thing to watch. We're going to try to provide some examples of the plays that we're talking about, little things like that. We're still learning on the go here. I appreciate you guys kind of going along on the ride with us. We will be back here again tomorrow night doing the same thing. Talking about three games that are going to happen tomorrow. So in the meantime, please subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show is where you can do that. Same time-ish, same place tomorrow. Until then, we really appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.