The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Wild Card Sunday Recap — Bengals outlast Ravens; Giants take down Vikings; Bills hold off Dolphins

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

Another NFL playoff day, three more thrilling games. Robert Mays and Nate Tice recap Wild Card Sunday with a look back at Bengals over Ravens, Giants over Vikings, and Bills over Dolphins on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubePhilo: Sign up today at philo.tv and use promo code MAYS to get 50% off your first monthBurrow: Show Burrow you’re listening to The Athletic Football Show by shopping at Burrow.com/mays and get 10% off your first orderLinkedIn: LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/maysMizzen + Main: Go to mizzenandmain.com and use promo code MAYS, to receive $35 off any regular-price order of $125 or more3:51 Bengals outlast Ravens21:26 What's next for the Ravens?28:31 Giants beat Vikings48:21 What's next for the Vikings?55:07 Bills hold off Dolphins71:53 What's next for the Dolphins? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. The athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. Nate, how you doing, buddy? Doing very well. Going from two games to three games felt like I added, you know, three miles to my run.

I'm exhausted. We went a whole season. Same times every game, the 10 a.m. game, you know, about 105. Well, it was like 150 for me, like, because they pushed that Vikings Giants game back. Because I, holy crap, that first. first game took so long. And then like there's only three games at the normal three time slots. And I felt like it just was a marathon all day. And I mean that complimentary. It was awesome. I mean that in a good way, in a great way. It was just beating you over the head the

entire day in a great way. It was such a good time. I was loving the Giants Vikings game. I had a smile on my face like the entire time. This game was so much closer than we thought. The fact that we got a good game in the first window. The difference is that even if the amount of time you're watching games is the same. In that early slot, for me, what is the noon slot during the regular season? You can kind of check out in moments where it's like, oh, you know, I'll go get a drink or I'll go to the bathroom. And like there's so many games going on.

I can't watch them all anyway. But when every single play matters so much, you're just locked in for 10 and a half hours. And that's exactly what it was. And when the games run right into each other. And in some cases with the Miami Buffalo game, they bleed into the second game. It was just nonstop all day today in the best possible way. I mean, you can't ask for anything more from a day of playoff games, two of which were like double digit spreads coming into the game. Yes.

The backup quarterback games ended up being really, really close games. And it was awesome. I mean, the first game, it was 173 with the bills. And I was like, okay, right. Okay, start cleaning the kitchen a little bit. All right. Keep that game on the TV. All right.

Yep, okay. All right. Well, this is staying close. My wife's asking me. She goes, the bills are better, right? I'm like, oh, yeah, there were two touchdown favorites. She even knew what that meant. But I was like, they're probably pulling ahead. But no, the game stayed close. I was watching every snap, every series. And it was just things happened. That's what today was. Things happened today. It wasn't just like doldrum drives. They never stopped happening. Never stopped happening. There was not a quarter or a drive that just got boring, which is just awesome. That's what you want. It's why it's the wild card.

It's much, usually we, the divisional round kind of has a lot of juice to it. But this one, hey, we had some great juice starting with last night, entering into today. Let's start with the game that we just watched. I think we have to talk about two things first and foremost. I don't understand what they were doing at the end, the Ravens with the clock management. The completion to J.K. Dobbins, I believe he caught the ball with like a minute and nine seconds left. They had two timeouts. They let 35 seconds take off the clock.

and I assume they were trying to make sure they ran it all the way down, but then you're left with one play on that fourth and 20 with eight seconds left to try to win the game. Prochet almost catches that ball, which would have added an entire layer of insanity to what we've watched over the last two days. But leaving yourself with that little time when you have two timeouts, and I think that they went home with one, that was really strange to watch, especially from somebody in John Harbaugh, who I think usually does a pretty good job managing the game. Yeah, that's kind of his part of his schick. Yes.

His game management, the clock management. So that's even surprised maybe even when we were pre-shown. I was like, I kind of like just let it go aside and then realize that when you're looking at the play-by-play and just how much time's burned. The fact that they kept the time out is all you need to know, especially in that type of situation. And then you end up going for it on fourth and 20, you know, trying to heave it like for the end zone. You're basically doing a Hail Mary inside Fieldgo range. That's not usually where you want to be taking a Hail Mary. We want like a realistic shot inside the 10-yard line for your game winner.

But that, I mean, the Ravens fought their asses off, and that's why they couldn't take penalties like that rough in the punter. And they can't have mistakes like this. And they obviously can't have that QB sneak botch, which we'll talk about in a minute. But that when you're, it's a game of inches always. But when you're the underdog, a double-digit underdog playing your backup quarterback, banged up backup quarterback. You can't have those mistakes. Everything else has to be, you know, efficient and perfect. the defense played pretty hard.

It had some good moments, but that came up short for the Ravens. That's what happens when you don't have that room for error. Obviously, the biggest game swing play of the entire day of the playoffs so far is what happened on that quarterback sneak. It's a 14-point swing in a matter of half a second. And you just have to know in that situation, you're a full yard. You're a full yard and maybe even a little bit of yard and change. Just sneak it in.

Yeah, two guys coming behind you. Think about the effectiveness of quarterback sneaks when designed properly this season. And you have the little bush push behind people. The conversion rate has to be astronomical. Just a lot of people. Just do three times in a row. Yes. A lot of teams and a lot of people have gotten a little loose with the ball around the goal line recently.

Even Justin Jefferson tried to reach for the pile on today. A lot of moments where it's a dicey proposition in those huge leverage spots. And it truly swung the Raven season potentially. It was a 14 point swing in a playoff game deep into a playoff game that they probably shouldn't have been sticking around it. Right. And again, it was a great drive that led to that moment too. And that's what it's like, oh my God, you can just feel the air come out.

But I mean, Huntley can't, he's got to know, you're, you know, listed 6.1, 204 pounds. So, you know, probably 6 foot, probably 1.95. I don't think going over the top and some people, I tweeted about this and some people like, well, what about Drew Breeze? And then Seth Galena had a cut up of Drew Breeze doing the quick jump over because he was so good at it. If you look on all those Saints clips, it's like fourth and an inch. Yes. It's like, you know, it's like barely.

And he's just a quick get over. He's at like he's taken off from like the three like Michael Jordan and Space Jam taken off from half, half court. Like Josh Allen did against the bills. But the Josh Allen's Josh Allen with a running head start. It's 65 to 45. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the other thing.

He looked like, you know, holding up Simba. He was holding the football. the line. I thought that, yeah, Rafiki holding it over the line. I know the, I'm trying to remember who the Bengals defender was. Was it? Logan Wilson caused the fumble. It was Logan Wilson. Yeah. And he was like, Logan Wilson almost like grabbed it from me. He was like, okay, thank you. Like just handing it off. So it was like in the water boy where he throws it right to him. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what it felt like. It's it. I mean, I don't Logan Wilson's like, okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. I know. So, yeah, you can't, you just can't have those moments. And that's when sometimes you remember, it's like, oh, yeah, you're

backup. You know, there's those positive moments of him running around, but then being a quarterback is not just the tools. It's just sometimes just being a quarterback and understanding game management. That's sometimes a difference between starters and backups. I thought the Ravens did a really good job of executing a plan that would keep you in it, shortening the game. There were 16 possessions in the first half of Bill's Dolphins.

There were six possessions in the first half of Ravens bangles. There was 16. 16 in the first half of Bill's. Dolphins. That's hilarious. I mean, the Ravens bled 10 and a half minutes off of the clock on that. I think it was a 14 play drive where they went down and scored. And that's exactly what you needed to do.

And I thought on the other side of the ball, along with controlling the clock, being able to run the ball a little bit, making some spectacular plays down the field than they needed to. Mark's touchdown, obviously the contested Mark Andrews catch. They got the plays that they needed. On defense, their plan seemed to be we're going to keep everything in front of us this entire game no matter what. You are not going to push the ball down the field.

And that's what happened. I mean, Joe Burrow in this game, I believe, completed like 20-something passes. And he finished with just over 200 yards passing. Joe Burrow, 23 of 32 for 205 in this game. I mean, that's less than 10 yards per completion. Jamar Chase had nine catches for 84 yards. T. Higgins had four catches for 37 yards. It's not T. Higgins' game.

And that's exactly what they did to them all night. And I was a little bit concerned with that early on because they were getting a lot of those easy completions underneath. And I actually thought, Bro, played really, really well when you consider the offensive lion injuries and the way he had to get the ball out. So I thought, man, are they just going to be able to give them too much underneath and they're going to be able to keep chipping away at it? But when you have to string those drives together and your pass protection is wanting, because you were missing two starters, then your left tackle goes out at one point during the game, there's enough kind of cracks in the foundation where that necessity to sustain drives the entire game becomes difficult to do. Exactly.

And I mean, Burrow, how many tackles do you make miss? Dozen. Like, I mean, and he does that all the time, but just in this game. And the Ravens did a nice job with their pass rush and just trying to stay. disciplined at all that and making them work for it. And like you're saying, making everything out and they try to make it hard. And they said, hey, we will get some big plays up front. We'll game you up front. They're running so many twists and games. First drive, Callias Campbell switched gaps that he started in.

Did it multiple times in this game. And I think that they were using that is they saw something where they felt that could be a part of their game plan. Yeah. And that's what it is. When you're past protection, you work at those games, all the twists and stuff. stunts. It's just like a blitz path because the offensive line has to communicate it. Well, that's one way without blitzing is to make the offense a line communicate and make sure they're all good, especially with a bunch of backups in there. And, you know, there's just stuff like little tweaks. They hinted at this last week. The Ravens. And that's why, you know, there's some people this past week kind of watching. It's like, hey, the Ravens defense did some stuff. And they did again in this game. But they're running like spot drop, three buzz where the safety comes in and essentially double team chase at times. They were bracketing chase every time he was in the slot. They were running a quarters very but they're inside bracketing it where they had two guys on him. So they, again, they were on to their tendencies, which the Bengals have done such a good job of, you know, kind of dropping and changing up throughout the season.

But the Ravens just made it tough. It's a divisional opponent. They got them dialed in. That's not their first time playing them, obviously, this year. They played him twice in two weeks. So, yeah, they made it tough, but, you know, Joe Burrow made enough, he had a couple corner throws. He had one to Chase.

I was like, he must have thrown at three steps before Chase was hit his break. That was happening in all game. His first 25 attempts, he was 20 at 25. He had 2.36 time to throw on those plays on those 25 attempts. You could feel that. And there were a couple of extended play action throws that pumped that up. But if you look at the numbers, I didn't get this granular on it. But I guarantee you from the shotgun on third down, whatever, that number is much lower.

And the 2.36 is already a low number. So with about 11 minutes left in the third quarter, there's that third at inches play where Roquan has him dead to rights. Yep. And he somehow slips out of it. Third nine on that same drive. He gets it out to chase real quick working out underneath against Marlon Humphrey. Play action from under center on the very next play. He gets chase on the right side underneath.

And then the throw to Hearst for the touchdown. He audibles into that. And it's a beautiful quarters beater where they high low the linebacker. And he somehow sees that they're going to rotate back into it. Because Chuck Clark on that play. He threw that so early. He can he, he, all but audibles into the play.

So he, on that play, Chuck Clark is walked down over Haydenhurst as the number two receiver. And Burrow somehow is like, decifers that they're going to drop back into quarters. And I'm going to be able to hit him on a little end breaker with Joe Mixon holding down the linebacker right there in that spot. And he audbled into it and it was a beautiful throw, beautiful decision,

threw it right on time. Those are some of the moments. Again, not gaudy numbers from him, but playing with three backup offensive linemen against the team that has seen you a lot, knows you a lot, I think a very good team, very good defense team, but well coached on that side of the ball. I thought that he really controlled the game in a way that was beneficial for the Bengals.

What we said is that I should say learn how to play quarterback, but he's quarterbacked his ass off this whole year. He really has. I think tonight was another example of that, even if the numbers weren't great. It's playoff football. It's team game. That's what it is. The stats, it's, it doesn't matter.

Like it's the W at the end of the game and they played fine enough on that side of the ball. And that's on top of it. It was that type of a game. They were only getting so many possessions. They had to work for it. Like they were like, hey, we can't just give this ball right away or back right away. They did at the end of the game. But that's what it was.

They had to stay efficient and stay ahead of the chains, not make any mistakes. That's what it was. It felt like that from the Bengals, especially on offense. It was like, don't like just don't give any easy buckets to this opposing team. So it's like, we take care of the ball as well. Nothing stupid or anything. But then that's what's awesome about the team. And we talked about when we've complimented this Bengals offense and how they adjust

and become more efficient, especially running the ball and passing the ball. That's the only way, two ways that you can move the ball. But yeah. But then also under two-point T. Higgins is dunking. You know, and again, they always have that little card that they can pull off. Jamar Chase is making 20 guys miss. You know, still the first tackler is never brought down Jamar Chase. It's still going.

Longest streak that you ever see. It's the iron horse of NFL. football is how many the first tackler Jamar Chase has made. Luke Garrick style. But no, that's what they did. I love the Chase touchdown that they had in the red zone. Roquant Smith was running vertical with Tower Boyd

because it's just the rules in the red zone. It took advantage of Patrick Queen's eyes. As soon as Patrick Queen looks over there, Burrow hits Chase, boom, easy walk-in touchdown. So nice designs. And then they just have those plays and players in their back pocket of all times. Are you worried about the Bengals after what they look like tonight? not no this is kind of not really I'm not offensive line yes I will say I mean that's I think that's the

starting point but as far as how they're calling games and everything not really I think the bangles like as far as like what they're running and everything no there's not like where I was oh my god they can't win a game oh I'm not concerned about that at all I think they've done a great job of that all season but personnel wise and the guys they're going to trot out Jonah Williams is out I'm worried about that and the one spot on defense where we haven't really talked about it that much because they haven't gotten burned on it that often. Their corners are not great. I mean, they're rolling out Cam Taylor, Britt, and E. My Apple. And it is the weak spot of that defense when you consider all of their personnel. And I think that that's important to remember when they're playing some teams that

are going to be able to push the ball down the field like Buffalo is going to be able to. So I think that spot on defense and what the state of the offensive line is, those three guys, being out and what it potentially makes you do and how you have to play. I am concerned about that. I am worried about that against the Buffalo team that can heat you up. Yeah. No, the old line, that's what it is. I think maybe I just immediately think of Burrow and how the defense is playing,

because that's just how I go. But, I mean, that's a great point about the chorus because you don't really want to Marcus Robinson hitting you for double moves for touchdowns. Like, that's not really what you want to go into before you're about to play Stefan Dix. So, yeah, the offense line makes me worried. and then offense the line made me worried last year. You know what I mean?

Like I know that's lightning in the bottle sometimes, but it's Burrell mitigates that. They get rid of the ball so quickly. They have better answers that feel better about it on offense this year, but you never want to have a poorer line in the playoffs. It's just hard, especially when you're going against a Bill's defense, like you said, that has guys up front that can get after you.

I mean, at Oliver is probably going to have a, is looking at his chops about going up this. And also on their defense, it's another thing. This, I don't know, spoilers for the preview episode. that designed rushes thing from the quarterbacks. I am like that. Bengals had some issues defending Huntley tonight.

It's a very good point. The bills have still kept that in their back pocket, but they have that. They have the ostrich. I can always take that. There's a little hole in the armor going on with that as well. They took Trey Hendrickson out of the game at one point because I feel like they didn't really like how they were defending some of those plays. And the play that, I don't know how Huntley scored on,

but the big keeper that he had around the left side, the bills, that was the James Cook touchdown in reverse. It's the same play, but he gives it. So you're going to see a version of that most likely if you've shown on tape that you struggle to defend it because Buffalo absolutely can drop that out there.

So I mean, I still love so many things about this Bengals team. It was so weird in a game he threw for 200 yards, but this is tonight, it was just one of those moments where I was like, Joe Burrow is so good. Yeah. The quarterbacking, exactly what you said about him playing quarterback and him really leaning into that, I just feel like there's so many aspects to his game that he's improved from last year.

And he was my second team all pro quarterback last year. I like him more every single time I watch him. And that includes tonight. I just feel like he has such a good handle on the game right now. And the way that he's seeing things and the decisions that he's making, he really has kind of made me step back and kind of think about what quarterback development can look. like for guys in this era because part of my concern about somebody like Joe Burrow whose skill set was more cerebral instincts, all those kinds of things in this world where it takes a while to develop the mental side of it as a young quarterback, that time I was concerned about how long

that would take and whether if you didn't have the physical talent to kind of overcome some learning curves on the mental side of it, what the early part of your career would look like. And he's gotten so good on that side so quickly that it ultimately hasn't really mattered, how quickly he's getting rid of the ball, how well he sees everything. And it's kind of made me step back and be like, all right, what does that mean? You know, if we have another guy come along that plays the game like that, what does that ultimately mean? I do think it's really important to remember in the story of Joe Burrough's success what his

physical frame does for him, though. because his ability to work through arm tackle, exactly. His ability to work through arm tackles and to shove guys off in the pocket, that's hugely important and is a necessary component of that entire discussion. But I do think that without the monster arm and some of those other things we've seen from the really good elite quarterbacks, young quarterbacks in the league, he's a lesson. I think that I've learned over the last three or four years watching him play. It's learning that just, I mean this in a good way, being functional, like a functional athlete.

and having functional arm strength and maximizing what those tool sets are, it just shows that it doesn't matter what you're given is if you're using it efficiently. Like Joe Burrow maximizes everything he can, not only just the pocket movements, but every throw out early. He doesn't throw outbreakers late. He knows what he is. And that is a skill as knowing what you are. That's, look at Tyler Huntley jumping from the three-yard line like that.

But seriously, knowing what you are matters. And that Joe Burrow knows what he is. I actually think some of the things was last year made jokes multiple times. They ran like five plays throughout the whole year. And I think sometimes Joe Burrow got into his comfort zone. I'm like, hey, we just call these plays. I'm good. If not, I'll just run around.

And I think he learned like, I can't live this way. But to learn that so quickly. And to make that circumstance so seamlessly, that's what's been so impressive. And that's why it's like, man, this guy's just, he's got it. Like, he just, he is a dude. He's a dude. He is a dude. And the way that the guys that.

the guys that didn't have in a way that like guys late in their careers were dudes and the way that like late career rivers was a dude like that i didn't expect him to have that handle on things in the way that he does this early in his career and it's very impressive to watch it is it really is it really is i i'm loving it because he was smart but he's playing even smarter than that's what's really cool to watch the ravens do a little post-mortem for them here very quickly got an interesting off season ahead of them man A have a very interesting offseason. It all starts with one guy. I think that they are one of the three or four most intriguing teams of the offseason. Because obviously you have the quarterback question. That's the big, looming question. What ends up happening there? Is it an extension for Lamar?

Can they get to an extension with Lamar? Is it the franchise tag for Lamar? What does that really bring you? We've seen it work out in the past. Dach was franchise tag. They eventually got to that extension. What does the relationship look like? between the Ravens and Lamar after the way the last month and the half is gone.

What do you do? What do you do? It's a long day. What do you do at your offensive play caller spot based on the way that this year is gone, based on some of the struggles that you've had, throwing the football consistently? What do you do at your past catcher spots so you get to a point in a playoff game where if Rashad Bateman goes down,

you aren't throwing to Sammy Watkins and James Pro-Short. Shea and DeMarcus Robinson, you signed off the street. You're not handed the ball off to Mark Andrews. I just think that there is a lot of looming questions and considerations about every aspect of the offensive side of the ball for the Ravens heading into next year. And it's interesting with the Ravens because they usually feel like such a, maybe it's just, you know, how we how we pigeonhole them, but a team always in control where it's like, no, they're just adding on to what they're doing. And they're on, they're two steps ahead. They're never acting out of urgency or panic. That's what it feels like.

Feels like. They're inching out of that right now. Yeah, it's uncharted waters. I mean, obviously it is for them. For a lot of franchises with your youngest MVP winner in NFL history is now in a contract situation. And really what is the answer. No, but it is fascinating what they're going to do because I think of what you said, even with a play caller, even with Lamar coming back would have been interesting what they did with a play caller.

Now, with Lamar and Greg Roman being such a specific type of play caller, and what he does and brings to an offense, good and bad. Like there are, there is as much as I've dogged Roman on the show for years and years, there's a lot of good that he does bring to the table. There is some creativity in the run game and all that. But that is, it was very much a Lamar move to make him to play caller in the first place. So what happens there? It is truly, truly fascinating because this team too has some really interesting pieces,

like Kyle Hamilton coming along, Tower Lindervaum coming along, you know, all these other guys, Roquant Smith, of course, they re-sign, They got some really cool pieces. Okay, but it's a huge pivot point for them. It's going to be really, really fascinating. I'm wondering whether or not they think that this model on offense has run its course or if they think it's best to stay that course because it sets their quarterback up to succeed and that's the guy they want playing quarterback. I don't know the answer to that. I don't know what they think about that, but I think their answer to it ultimately could help shape their offseason.

It's not a bad thing to be the Navy of the NFL. And I don't mean that just because they run the ball, but to zag when everyone else is zinging. Like, it's not a bad thing to have a unique offense that's a pain of the ass for everybody. That is a good, that can be a very good asset. So that's the thing is that, yeah, I don't know what they have a good answer. I still think even with that in mind, though, you still need past catching options and answers on third and seven. And Mark Andrews is a really good player. Please be a six two or a taller receiver.

Please. Just please some ball winner. Somebody that's going to make a play for you in a big moment. And I know Andrews is a good player, but like other than that and just like the structure of the passing game, it just feels like they have less answers in some of those high leverage moments outside of Lamar do something than a lot of the other really good teams in the NFL have. I think on early downs, I totally agree. Be difficult to prepare for. Be unique. Be a thorn in everyone's side because you are built in a slightly different way.

But at a certain point, you need to be able to make those plays when it's third and eight in the playoffs. And I just want better guys around them in a better. our plan around to be able to do that. Absolutely. It's always a drop-back game with them. And that's what the playoffs is. Do you have, you don't have to, like, this doesn't have to be your fastball or your major, but do you have a answer to what is presented to you?

And that's what you're going to see. That's what you already saw this weekend. How many times people took away other team's strengths or made their weaknesses glaring? And we'll talk about a couple of them, these later other games. But that's the thing. That's what playoffs comes down to. And that's why that's so important.

You can go 12 and 5, have an awesome run game. And as soon as you get the playoffs, every third down is just a nuke fest. Like that, that is not fun. It's not a fun place to live. So, no, no, that's absolutely right. They do need answers no matter what. They keep trying to trot out a new passing game coordinator every year for them. But they actually, they need more input.

Like, if they are going to keep Greg Roman, he's better freaking listen and actually, like, adapt what they're doing in the passing game. They have to. All right. We are going to take a quick break. And then we're going to get back with a barn burner in Vikings giants. All right. Giants go to Minnesota.

Knock off the Vikings, 31 to 24. What a fantastic game. Love this football game. What a fantastic game. I had just nothing but good feelings. Like the whole time on both sides of the ball. I want to, we'll dig into the nitty gritty and the minutia of it here in a bit. But I think my first takeaway is just a really kind of a culminating achievement for what the giant season was with this coaching staff and this group of personnel.

I think that this was a real statement for people that maybe didn't watch the Giants all year about what their offense looked like under Brian Dable and Mike Kafka with Daniel Jones playing quarterback. I think this is an incredible moment for Daniel Jones to play the way that he did today. And just a reminder that even though this team was the seven seed in the NFC or the six seed in the NFC, even though this team was a nine, seven and one team, they weren't supposed to be very good before the season. It wasn't a just happy to be their team. Like, they absolutely could give somebody a run for their money in the wildcar round based on the way that their offense specifically was playing and based on how healthy they were getting on defense. And that's exactly what happened today.

I love how you said, too, is that those who didn't watch the Giants this year, this was a great, like, kind of like culmination of what they have done, especially on offense. And it's hilarious, because that's what the offensive game plan today was Seiko and Barclay early and often passing, you know, catching the ball and getting the handoff. some Hodgens, some random receiver doing doing some good things. And Daniel Jones using his legs and being super efficient. That's, that's been their play at all year.

The makeup was a little bit different. They ran them all like 50 times a game at the beginning of the season. They came out slinging it today. But the usage of personnel, the rants, Isaiah Hodges being a random receiver. And then what Daniel Jones is doing with his legs, that absolutely was a through line through the entire year. Plus some of the designs. Yeah.

And it designs, exactly. Well, and they made a point of it. And they'd set out the broadcast was, They're really good in third down in red zone. They maximize their chances. They, that's what this team has done. They talk about just like every chance they get, they maximize it. Every game plan they've had so far, even though we make these jokes about what it is.

It makes sense. You know who's very bad at defending scrambles? The Vikings. So Daniel Jones, you can tell it was in his head. Oh, I was so glad when it just right away he was running, running around. I was like, oh, there it is. The first track. I mean, immediately in the first quarter.

And you could tell it was part of the game plan because anytime he confirmed he got man coverage, he scrambled. He just, he just went one, done, gone. And so that meant throughout the week, they're like, hey, look for it. It was not a, you can just tell in rhythm, how guys are in rhythm. It wasn't the scatterbrain, looked left and right, look left or right. And then scramble, it was, oh, one's done. Oh, they're in man. Gone. And yeah, he had six scrambles or six design or, yeah, six crambles days, six successful plays, four first downs. That's, that's a really good scrambling day. And on top of it, how they use Saquan, especially as a pass catcher, I loved Again, this is just designed.

I use the term brutally efficient by the Cowboys and just how they play, how DAC plays and how the run game is. What the Giants are efficient as, especially as a coaching staff and how their game plans are, we have these three plays and three designs we like, spam them. With that, there's a weakness that you can't defend. And for them, for what the Giants against the Vikings, it was having Seekua and Barclay cross-release, which is, you know, you release through one gap, but you burst across the field towards the other gap. He caught one where Jordan Hicks can tell that they're fucked. He just goes, oh, no.

And Barclays crossed his face. And then you can see Kendricks. Kendricks was looking the other way. And then it goes for a big gain. They went back to the same play later against a blitz, went for another big gain. But there was one. I just want to talk about this one real quick. There's a couple of fun plays the Giants did.

But this one was really cool was they had Seekuan and run a flat route a couple times. The Vikings like to be in too high, you know, cover six and stuff. And you can get those flat routes and bubbles because of the overhang. And usually is Eric Kendricks. and you just outrace them to the flat. That's just the theory of those types of place when you see someone just catching a quick flat route. But what the Giants did on one was they got into empty. They had Barclay in a chip position.

You know, like we've talked about with the Rams, that he's about the chip. And then they just had him run to the flat. They threw it. And Eric Kendrick, who's such a smart player, he sees Saquan Barkley in an empty chip. And he goes, oh, he's chipping. So when at the snap of the ball, he drops and gets depth. And he's supposed to have Barclay. And Barclay just catches it gets an easy first down, I think it was.

But little tweaks. Just the I know what you know. what I know what you know kind of plays. And that's what the Giants do. They just do it over and over. And that's why they stay in all these games and win these games. He did a lot of damage as a receiver. But that first touchdown that he had, the first drive where he scored that touchdown,

I think it was their second score of the day to make it, it was 14-7. But the pinpole touchdown that he had were showing it right now. They did this a lot today where they would light up in pony personnel with Brita on the field. And they would use Brita as the Jet Motion guy to kind of just give a little bit eye candy coming back the other way. And on this play, they pitched the ball to Sequin. It's a pin pole where they get both Andrew Thomas and John Fliciano on the move. And Isaiah Hodgins just does a great job of pinning down the end man of the line of scrimmage.

He did this multiple times today. Multiple times today they asked him to one-on-one pin down the end man on the line of scrimmage as a receiver, and he was able to do it. And that's before you even consider the work he did as a pass catcher in this game. He had eight catches for 105 yards and a touchdown. This is a dude that they signed off waivers in November. He wasn't on a team. He wasn't on a team the day after Halloween. And he was the best player in their passing game today.

And what's really cool is you watch him. They're drawing up stuff for him. He is the centerpiece of their passing game. And he's a guy they got on waivers on November 1st. It's crazy. They're running choice routes for him in the slot. He's six five. Yeah, and they're running choice routes.

Like they, they ran that snag, uh, weekside choice route like three or four times with him. And the fact, choice routes, whenever you hear me talk about them, coaches design them to get them the ball. Like choice is one of those concepts. Like, yes, there's four other routes on it, but really one route's kind of highlighted, start circled. Like this ball is going here, like maybe once one out 10 times it goes to like a crosser. But the fact that they're highlighting him on those in the slot on like third downs. He kind of third down on one of them, or first down on a third down on a third down on One of those.

That matters. Like they, they like them. And I look the touchdown with Barkley. That's such a great one with Andrew, the difference between athleticism between John Feliciano and Andrew Thomas. And John Fulciano is trying his best, man. He's tried.

Hey, he had some good fist bumps. Hey, I love John. That's what cracked me up. But I was like, I watched those two. And I was like, one of these guys was a top five pick. One was a middle round pick. I had to convert to center, even though he was a tackle in college. But even another, another great design was.

was the Bellinger TD took advantage of the eyes of the Vikings again. The Bellinger TD, like the will off the play action, like, man, just some really good design stuff that just took advantage. I mean, and the fact that Daniel Lowe Jones only had four passes that went over 15 air yards today. Yeah. Three of them, three of them went for first downs. It was just a, if you look at his heat chart, his target chart, it looks like a table at five yards, just all straight across, a couple screens and like a couple candles. And that's the four deep throws. But no, it was a great day by him and great designs.

And this is what they've done all year. My favorite play was the Hodgians touchdown. And it was really simple. They were in empty from about the 13-yard line. Andrew Thomas may or may not have gotten away with a little bit of a false start. It's now what matters here. So Richie James is the number one receiver on this play. He's the furthest outside to the left.

He motions into a stack with Hodgins and he comes just inside of him. And by doing that, the Giants play with the number count that the Vikings are defending on that play. So now with Richie James being the number two receiver, Patrick Peterson has to take Isaiah Hodgins as the number one, but he's out leveraged because Hodgson is in a tighter split. So they have it immediately. And as soon as Harrison Smith walked over there and started talking to Patrick Peterson and they switched, it was like, all right, we got him now. And it's just a really small, simple thing. but they do this consistently where it's just like a tiny little detail

within a play and they make it easy and Daniel Jones grips a great throw for a touchdown. And as soon as I saw that, I was like, man, that's just good. Like it's just super simple, but that's just good. And you saw that consistently from this team today. And the part of this that made the game fun

is that the same thing was happening on the other side for the most part. I mean, the stuff that the Vikings were doing offensively, all of the red zone designs that they had today, a lot of them, them using Justin Jefferson as a decoy, putting him in motion, putting him in the backfield. They did so many things to give themselves easy answers in that part of the field. And Justin Jefferson didn't really do much in part because of the plan that the Giants had for

him defensively, but the Vikings still moved the ball extremely well because they had a plan outside of Jefferson. Like today was pretty nice victory lap for the T.J. Hawkinson trade for Minnesota. That was a necessary move for them to be able to function offensively in a game where a team was hell bent on not allowing Justin Jefferson to beat them with big plays. It was the first time or one of the few times this year with the Vikings where it didn't seem like they were surprised by the plan for Justin Jefferson. Because every defense has a surprise for them going like, this is how we're going to take 18 out of the game. And this was the first time they felt like we think we know what they're going to do. And sure enough, there was Wink Martindale running a bunch of zone coverage.

and they were ready for it. And you could tell that they were ready for the court, like it was a lot of quarters variations. And in that quarters variations was the Vikings had a lot of answers for it. There's one play. Like they would go into, the Giants were matching nickel to 12 personnel. So the Vikings started to go to 21 personnel,

put a fullback on to make the Giants get into base defense. And they actually had a really good day out of base or when they had to put the Giants in base. But they kept going into slot formations, which is where two, If you're in a standard two receiver set, it's both receivers are on the same side. And when you do that against a balanced defense, like a quarter's defense, you're making them declare. Okay, are you going to have a guy in the box? You're going to have a guy in the overhang halfway.

The Giants every single time walk the overhang defender out towards Jefferson in the slot. They're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're not getting us. And that's why the run game was pretty nice for the Vikings. They had some nice runs out of those slot formations. The feeling wheel route that he caught near the Red Zone outside the Red Zone. outside the red zone. Another quarters meter off play action. He's doing it from the slot and the slot formation. Yeah, Jackson and him were on the same side. That was 21 personnel with both of them on the same side. Yep. All the underroutes, the Hawkinson underrout, those are all high lows,

quarters beaters. The Julian Love almost interception that he had. It was a classic high low, just an underneath route with a dig behind it. And, you know, in quarters, the safety drives really hard on digs. And so that's why I almost got picked. It's a great play by McKinning. That's exactly what you have to do. If you're going to play that soft quarters coverage, you have to drive. You have to dry hard on that play. And I thought they did a really good job of that all game. I was a little bit worried. After the first drive, when I saw how much soft zone coverage they were playing, I was like,

uh-oh. I don't know how this is going to go. Yeah, yeah. They, I mean, the Vikings, Kirk Cousins finished 31 of 39 in this game. I mean, they were consistently completing passes, but they had very, very little down the field. So the overall plan today from the Giants clearly was you are not going to beat us over the top.

They put split safety coverages on 65% of their plays, according to next-gen stats. That's their highest mark of the season, okay? Yeah. They averaged like 64% against the Vikings in their two games. That would have ranked as the highest rate in the NFL over the course of the entire year. In all of their other games, the Giants ranked 30th. It was like 24%. So they went totally out of character, and I was a little bit worried about that.

We talked about it on Thursday. And they allowed a lot of completions in this game. but they allowed almost nothing down the field. So the Vikings had three completions in this game over 20 yards. One of them was a play you pointed out on Twitter. Tony Jefferson missed a communication on third and nine and let T.J. Hawkinson leak out. So it was just a blown assignment.

Okay, that's one. Two is the wheel you just talked about to Adam Thielen, where they, I can remember for it was a... They flashed a fake towards, like towards the slot. So did Jefferson fake a store? fake a screen on that play or do he run it? No, that was the fourth down. They just had like a switch

switch vertical kind of thing. That's right. So it was just switch vertical, but they put, it was Jared Davis. It was just like a real wild. They put Derek Davis in space. But the point is it's a schemed up play,

right? Like you're scheming up that play as a shot. So that's the second one. The third one also a schemed up designer play. It was the stick nod to T.J. Hawkinson. Yes. So another quarters meter. Yes.

The three 20 yard plus completions they had in this game. Two of them were designed plays within quarters coverage. One of them was a missed assignment. That's it. Other than that, it was all stuff underneath the entire game. Cousins average 4.71 yards per completion in this game, air yards per completion. And that's the plan worked. Even if they completed 31 to 39 throws and even if they consistently move the ball, their plan of you are not going to beat us with chunks in this game, that ultimately did play out. Yep.

And I mean, another way they did it was they had seven DBSs on the field for 20 dropbacks. It's crazy. I mean, you can keep track in who all the guys were. It's like, is one of those things yesterday? I was like,

is Tony Jefferson playing Ryanbacker? Like, who is that? That's where when Jefferson did the, you know, the palms up, like, what was the signal.

And I was going to tweet. It was like, this is what happens when you play seven DBS. Like not everyone's going to be in tune on what your checks are. But that's, that's what they did. But that's another thing is that you're going to, you know,

mitigate big plays because you have a little more speed on the field. So it's a lot of guys can just keep up, especially down the field. But I think there's just really, really just felt like one bomb attempt from Cousins the whole day and it was covered, easily covered by the post safety. Like they couldn't even take a chance. That's what quarters can do if you play it right, is that you put, if we say a shell, too high shell, you're literally putting a shell on the, on the offense. If the safeties play are smart and know how to pass stuff off, the overs and post

combos, you can make it really, really hard to hit big plays against it. Same conversation we're having about the Ravens where we want to make you string drives together and there were a couple moments that ultimately swing this game. The third and one throwback to cousins early in the game that is ill-advised you're moving the ball and I think O'Connell said it at halftime. He's like, I shouldn't have done it. I was

looking for a big play. We should just let our offense keep going. I do love his honesty, man. He is right. And I think that's great. And then the biggest turning point in the game was the set of fourth and ones I believe in the fourth quarter where the Giants have a fourth and inches excuse me, the Vikings have a fourth and one.

Yeah. Derisaw gets dinged for a false start. They ultimately have to kick a field goal. And then the Giants have a fourth and inches from the six and they punch it in for a touchdown. And the game swings in that moment. You go from a potential touchdown for the Vikings to take the lead to the Giants getting the ball back,

them going down and scoring a touchdown. And that's what I mean. If you're making those team string drives together, it's a third and one here. It's a false start there. And that ultimately could be the difference in the game when you're moving the ball as well as the Giants offense was. Yep. And that's what we've talked about with the Vikings and why it can seem stretches of frustration, especially with their offense, was they have trouble being efficient. They thrive off explosives and those big plays. So that's what the Giants did. Hey, you guys like explosive plays. All right. We'll take it away. So let's see you guys nickel and dime us. And, you know, cousins had some nice moments. And like you said, it was a win for the Hawkinson trade because that's what that's what Hawkinson is for is to beat zone coverage. That is what he is for. He is an underneath quarterback's best.

friend, attack the middle of the field. Secondary receiving option when Jefferson gets taken away. That's what they needed. That's what he ended up being in the biggest moment of the season. He is not Kelsey. He's not Darren Waller. He's not Kittle where he's just running away from guys. But he is meant to destroy zone coverages.

Like that is what he is for. And that's what it works, but that's the thing. It's hard. That's really hard to do as an offense when you don't have haymakers to throw. And I mean, they had the Vikings had some great, great designs. Like you've already brought them up. But using Jefferson on the motions and everything and the fact that the Giants kind kept pace with that with their own offense is, again, team ball. That was team ball once again.

They got their explosives and they limited the Vikings explosives. A couple guys I wanted to point out on the Giants that came up with huge plays in this game. I don't want. Well, I mean, Dexter Lawrence, that final fourth and eight, if Dexter Lawrence doesn't get pressure on that play, then, I mean, there's a chance that cousin completes that. It was almost, it was a ball, it don't lie thing for earlier for getting that pass interference or to get that personal file. Four QB hits today. He had eight pressures. I mean, he is. is such a difference maker on that side. You saw that consistently.

That last drive, I think you had three or four pressures when the game was on the line. 345-pound defensive tackle, 70 plays into a game is making a difference in those moments. That's awesome. Lining up and nose when he gets double-teamed on every pass set because they slide to him. Like, yeah, it's pretty ridiculous what he's doing. Darnay Holmes had two huge TFLs on completions to Dalvin Cook in the second half, where he just stuck him in the, in the, open field for like three or four yard losses to help torpedo drives.

Two of them. Cordell Flott did not play the whole game, didn't play the whole game, and then comes in for his first play of the game, I believe, was on a third and eight on the final drive of the game, and he had a PBAU against on KJ Osborne, and then the next play was that fourth and eight. So a guy comes in cold and breaks up a pass to at one of the biggest moments of the game. Dori Jackson was back today. he shadowed Justin Jefferson. I think that was really big.

Their defense was as healthy as it's been, but you still had these little, we're rebuilding moments where Isaiah Hodgins is your best receiver. And Jared Davis, who didn't start the entire season, was one of their starting linebackers. The entire tapestry of what this was was the 2022 giants. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Like anytime there's three linebackers on the field or they're in base defense on the field, it was like, oh, God. I think, I want to say, They, like the Vikings just shredded it in the passing game every time they passed against it. But same thing was the KJ Osborne touchdown. The play that I know is Moses. Moses mesh. Yeah, that's what really, that's part of like the Red Sea.

But you see that and you see the linebackers. It was pretty awesome because the Giants d's are so focused on Jefferson. He's running it over. So they, both safeties and the corner are looking at Jefferson. And so when you have the mesh with the two crossers, all the linebackers just get swallowed up. and there's KJ Osborne just sitting right in the middle. It was pretty hilarious. There's just like, you know, the Ohio dot the eye kind of thing where he's just by himself.

So, but no, that's like, again, it's like it's not always perfect, even if they had so many fastballs throughout the day. But also, but then they just have dudes like Dexter Lawrence that step up. So it's just a, it's an interesting team, but always entertaining team. We have a lot of time to talk about the Giants future and what they're going to do with Daniel Jones and all of that, maybe next week. That's only it's worth getting into you right now. He played very well tonight and I was impressed by him.

him, the Vikings and their future, I think, is worth talking about. What an interesting team in an interesting spot. Because I know you and I were enthusiastic about them coming into the season. We both picked them to make the playoffs. We both pick Kevin O'Connell to be coach of the year. We both pick Justin Jefferson to be the offensive player of the year, I believe. I was enthusiastic about them. But even before the season, Queseidofa Mentsa referred to their year as a competitive rebuild. Remember when he said that? And so people are wondering, what are they going to do? Are they going to tear it down a little bit because they've been this middling team for a little while? Are they going to try to stay competitive? And so I think this year, obviously all the numbers will tell you the Vikings were better in their win-loss column than they probably were as a team. So what does this off-season look like for them? I really don't know which direction they want to go. This team is $20 million over the 2023 salary cap. I saw a tweet about that.

Well, it's because of the decisions that they've made. You know, when they, I believe it was the previous regime when they were trying to save some money by restructuring deals for Adam Thielen and Harrison Smith, for example, right? Both of those guys are slated to make $20 million about against the cap. And you can't really move on from them for much savings unless you make them like post-June 1st cuts. And even that is, you know, well, I guess you can save a decent amount of money if you do that. But there aren't that many clear avenues for them to save a lot of money. So I just don't know what their offseason plan is going to look like based on where they are as a team right now and based on the way the season went. Yeah.

It's sorry, but like when we talk about this, we talk about this like with the jets and talk about their offseason and like, oh, well, you can cut this guy. We'll look at all that room and everything. That's what's actually kind of really fun, reverse engineering. Like, what could the plan be? And same with the Vikings. I mean, this is a team that always just, I wouldn't say always all is. but under Zimmer, it just is like, they're always competing. There's no rebuilding or even sniff of a rebuild ever happening in the Vikings for feels like a decade.

But that's what's interesting. And I, that competitive rebuild, I'm glad you brought that back up because that can mean so much. That can mean, like, we're leaning towards the competitive path or that can mean, we're leaning towards the rebuild path at any moment's notice. So, no, I'm very curious what they do. This is a very vet-laden team. It's an old team. Old team. I mean, just look at their DBs.

I mean, that's all you need to look at, even the linebackers, too. But it's an older, older team. But they have some interesting pieces as well. So, no, I'm fascinated to see what they do as well. I really am. That area, the second area is, I think, where they have to get the most amount of youth. And they did that this offseason. They drafted Andrew Boots.

So what does that end up looking like? You know, one of the guys, Zadaria Smith, they can move on from, but Zadirio Smith played really well for them this year. So those are kind of the questions. Jordan Hicks is somebody where they could save some money. So a lot of looming questions, I think overall, though, an important takeaway, a very promising first season from Kevin O'Connell and from that staff. I thought that he did a great job. I think he's the right person for this job and the right person for what they needed in the post-Zimmer world.

The way that guys talk about that building and what the culture is and just what it's like to go to work every day. I think that as teams overcorrect based on their previous coach, this is one of those moments. where it was probably smart to do so, and I think it has paid dividends for them. Absolutely. I think he's a very thoughtful coach, and I mean that I really like his answers when he gives answers and quotes I've seen from him. He just, he's honest, and I like it. I really do like it.

I think that it wasn't always perfect this year, but when they tried to adjust their game or when they tried, even like the Packers game that was ugly for them late in the season, it is some of the bad stuff. I could see what they were trying to accomplish. And I like that. That's where it's like, hey, it wasn't perfect, but at least your process was decent, like, as far as game planning and all that, I'm optimistic as far as that regime. I think they have a lot of good coaches. I'm optimistic about him.

It's just curious what the personnel is going to be. But I do think he's as smart enough to understand his personnel as time goes along. Maybe early in the year, maybe he was like, we're going to be 11. And they realized, oh, this shit ain't working. But they realized that they had to do that. And he tries to find answers. And I think that's a very important quality. coach. They have to figure out what their defense is going to look like because that defensive

plan of just playing the amount of soft zone they played throughout the entire season. I understand if that's partially driven by the worries you have about your corners and just the state of your defensive secondary, then if when you upgrade those spots or when you get a little bit younger, a little bit more athletic, does that change? Because whatever the defense looks like at the end of the year, that can't continue. And how those changes come, that's another question. But I think that we all can agree on that. Yeah. No, I agree. I, uh, we, we, definitely, That's what we laughed at. I was like, oh, yeah, play man.

Well, I don't think they can. I don't think they, he uses the dice move too much. I think that's all he's got. That's always got, man. That's always got. And I thought of just sitting there in the club like Seth Rogen. It's kind of how it feels at this point. That's how it really felt.

We're going to take one more quick break and then talk about Bill's Dolphins before we get out of here. All right. A tight, tight game that I don't think anyone expected. Nope. In Bill's Dolphins. I mean, my first takeaway is just, that was way too close to. comfort if you're buffalo. That was way too close.

Especially with Skylar Thompson throwing like, you know, as soon as he threw that first interception, I was like, all right, that's about it. That's really what we're going to have. But no, it just felt like they couldn't get over the hump and you never want to feel that. You're you, that's probably as a Bill's fan, this whole game. You're like, are we, are we that team? Or is this, is this really happening?

Because it just felt like they just couldn't get out of that little mucky start that they had. It was such a strange, swing of emotions because when they were up 17 to nothing, the first touchdown, the first scoring drive, there was the bomb to Diggs,

which is just beautiful. Alan adjusts the protection. They go with seven in protection. He knows he has the one-on-one. The dolphins bring a zero blitz, and he goes 60 yards in the air over the top of it, which is just like,

okay, I mean, I guess I guess that's a plan. If you can do it, which is just ridiculous. See Darius Slay on Twitter was talking about it. He's like, as a corner, that's not supposed to happen. You're not supposed to be able to, if it doesn't get home, you're not supposed to be able to throw it 60 yards down the field for that sort of play. We run a 40-yard dash for a reason.

We don't have to run 60. So that happens. And then he completes the ridiculous one Dawson knocks for the touchdown. And then they get the pick and then they score. And it's like, well, this is just one of those games where the bills have this gear. and to know you have that gear as the playoffs are ramping up. And then to almost have this season where you were the Super Bowl favorites coming into the years slip away from you against Skyler Thompson, that little vacillation and feelings over the course of a four and a half hour football game was a lot to deal with.

Oh my God. It was like a college game. How long it took. And all the mistakes that were happening. I tweeted this. It felt like it was the best fun belt game I've watched in weeks. Like that's what it really felt like as the game went along. But I mean, the first play, it was a sign of things to come for the day was the

Dolphins said, we, you know, better than burn out than fade away. They brought heat and they brought pressures. They brought that cover zero early and they brought a lot of pressure throughout the day. And this was the most throws of 20 or more air yards that Josh Allen has had his entire career in one game. It was, I looked it up since he started starting. He had 12. Almost a third of his pass attempts were 20 years.

air yards or more. 12 of them. He average 15 air yards per attempt in this game. Because they blitz, I mean, and I guess the bills just don't like hot routes. They just throw go balls. And that's fine. Like, that's what's tough. And I, I just real quick as me as a, my football theory here is when you get pressured is my,

I've always believed this is you block it up and you gash them, just like it happened in that first drive to the beautiful deep ball. But it also goes to show you how go balls are. the 50-50 balls and how they can bounce the wrong way for you. Alan went five for 12 on those throws for 159 yards and one touchdown but one interception. And that's what it is though. It's a boom or bust. That was almost 50-50. Five for 12. You know, six for 12, you know, that's 50-50. It just, it's a hard way to live. It can be very, it can leave you frustrated for those drives. And we talk about getting those explosive plays. The bills had, what, 13 explosive plays today.

they've only had one game with more this year than that was 14. It was just, yeah, Alan was chaotic, and I'll talk about that in a second. Like 21 of his past attempts for lasted three or more seconds. That's the second most he's ever had one game in his career. Like he just had, it just, it was chaotic. And that's what the Dolphins wanted. They wanted high variance Josh Allen. They said, screw that.

Last game, we let him nickel and dime us. They let him run on us. No, hey, we'll live with you throwing go balls all day and we'll heat you up. And it kind of worked. At least kept him in the game. It was death by, you know, they took some haymakers, but it kept him in the game and it kept him alive and made Josh Allen make a couple of mistakes. Pushed the ball on the field was one answer that was with mixed results. And then when they would heat him up, he was trying to take off on some of those third downs.

His eyes came down all the time. Consistently in this game. So it was either I'm taking a shot down the field or I'm trying to take off. And that was not a good set of answers. And despite all the explosives that they had, they were not efficient offensively. They went five straight drives without scoring. So after the 17, after going up 17 to nothing, you have the John Brown interception on the deep shot. Cleo Shakir, that incompletion on that third and eighth.

If that happens, the game changes a little bit if he hangs on to that. But that's an incompletion. The cohoo tip to Javan Holland with a little bit of contact against Beasley that's intercepted. They come out in the second half, Eric Rose, strip sack, fumble touchdown. Three and out. And then the following drive, they had the weird misconstance. Q on that counter bash for like a four-yard loss for a TFL. Jail Phillips gets a pressure right through Spencer Brown's chest,

incomplete deep shot three and out. So that's six drives in a row where they came up empty. And then the game, in my opinion, shifts on the Cleo, on the Kyir-Elam interception. Yes. So it's 24 to 20 at that point. And the dolphins are pushed way deep in their own territory. Scalar Thompson lets one rip.

I couldn't tell what the cover. was, whether that was covered two and he was underneath it. Because if he was trying to take a whole shot, either way, ill-advised. So that ball gets picked off. That's a sinking corner if it's covered too. That is a very much sinking corner. That's one of those moments where Skyler thinks he's Josh Allen with what they are. And that, unfortunately, is not the case.

And then that drive is the one where they finish it off with the Beasley touchdown. Get the ball right back. And then you get the jerk route to Beasley out of empty for like a 25-yard gain. And then the missile shot to Gabe Davis. on that corner route. I think we have the video of it. This is just a silly throw. Talk about what's happening here for the people who are watching. So it's a classic high or low and Gabe Davis is running a burst corner. So inside stems and he runs a little seven route, a corner route. But Josh Allen hits the top of his drop and lets this thing loose. So but this is a difference like you said,

Skylar Thompson and throwing a whole shot and Josh Allen throwing this. So on this, it's just a Stefan Diggs is running a flat route or a flat stop. High low. This is what smash. This is what you beat covered two with. So with Gabe Davis running that inside stem, the corner sees Stefan Diggs coming down. He's like, well, I got to stay, you know, stay low on this. But it doesn't matter.

It's in the red zone. That's still a tight space. Josh Allen hits the bag of his drop and just fires that bad boy in there. I mean, the dolphins didn't even have a chance. Even if they did play it smart and anticipated it, that throw didn't give him a chance. So this is just the combo of good scheme against the perfect coverage. for that scheme and Josh Allen just being a freak and giving the defense is no room for error, even if they were on top of the play.

And that's the frustrating part about this in Miami is that you've given yourself a chance with some of the turnovers, you win the turnover battle, some of the inconsistencies with how they handled the blitz. But you can't leave the door open because these plays are still going to come. This play is still going to come. The drive after the Elam interception, that was a third and eight. where he keeps it on that third and eight. He is still going to be that force of nature

that's going to get you a few more times over the course of the game. So even with those miscues, the dolphins weren't able to take advantage of that, whether that was some of the drops early on, and then obviously the biggest moment being that fourth and one where they have to take the delay of the game

after taking multiple timeouts to have to beat the play clock. That's just a really, really tough one. Yeah, it honestly felt like it. I don't want to, you know, analyze, you know, body language and all that. But it just felt like the dolphins, especially maybe Tyreek. Like, they just didn't think they had a chance really because Scott R. Thompson sailed a ball. And Tyreek just like, he kind of did the look over, like kind of jokingly, like kind of like, oh, I had no shot at that one.

And I was like, oh, they're checked out. It's cold. They're done. Like, especially when they went down that early. But actually, you know, kind of damaged them in the long run because they actually hung in the game. You can see them having a little more juice and having like, oh, shit, we're in this. And it kind of just, you know, too little. too late, and that's when you have Scholar Towns trying to throw holeshots and all that.

But they did. I love the game plan that the dolphins had. And that's what you said. When you don't have those chances and you are a double-digit underdog, you can't miss on the chances, just like we're talking about the Ravens game. You can't have those mistakes, even if you are starting the backup quarterback. I just thought it was interesting. It was like the Dolphins Jedi mind trick, Josh Allen.

They really did. They heated them up, made him start looking around. I said he had the zoomies, like a dog, like a golden retriever. because he kind of did. He wouldn't like check it down. It was just like his eyes were going everywhere. So the first game they played, or week three,

that was the most Josh Allen's ever targeted his runoffbacks this whole entire season, the second most in his entire career, he's ever targeted runoffacks because he kept checking it down. All right, you're going to play this soft coverage. I'll check it down.

Eight yard gain. This year, or this week, he only targeted his runoffics on 5% of his past attempts. And that's the sixth lowest amount of his entire career, targeting running backs.

And it was just like, There's no reason of not to. He just kept launching these balls over and over. And again, that's fine to sprinkle in there. But be efficient. You don't need to just be hunting these big plays. It just kind of felt like he was hunting. He just hunted the whole day.

He was wanting that big play over and over. He was trying to stop the bleeding. But sometimes we talk about it, you have to be a quarterback. Yeah. And today, kind of he went away from that. He's been better, but he really went away. The strip sack. He has to know he's hot.

That is a classic five-man protection. They showed it. You know that you're hot off the one off the edge. That's in five-man rules. And he doesn't even look at that direction. He looks to the field and then tries to come back. No, you can't do that. And that's Josh Allen.

He's Professor Chaos, but he has to be a better quarterback as opposed to just being a good athlete. The fourth and one decision, I think, is going to take up a lot of oxygen already did today and the delay of game that they took. I understand people are hammering Mike McDaniel about it. Totally fair. This is one of those moments as a rookie head coach, the third string quarterback when you're also the play caller, that it can get on top of you. And it's not surprising necessarily to see this happen.

I think we've seen this happen with other young play calling head coaches in the first or second time they get on this sort of stage. And I think that it's fair to criticize him about that. It's an unacceptable thing to happen in a playoff game, but this is something that hopefully you learn from. And you figure out, all right, And the story that they told, which makes total sense, you could see it on his face. They thought they got the first down.

So he had signaled in a first and 10 play, realized they didn't have the first down. They were out of timeouts because they had to take so many of them early in the game to not get delays of game. So they had to get a different personnel group out there to run the fourth in one play and they took a delay again. That's a communication thing. That's a process thing. And that needs to get better. But I think that can get better. This is the first time this coaching staff has been in this sort of moment, again, with a third string quarterback on the road in a playoff game.

It's important, in my opinion, to step back and have some perspective about what Mike McDaniel and his staff did this year before we tear down the Mike McDaniel experience in year one. Yeah, I've enjoyed the Mike McDaniel experience in year one. He created the most explosive efficient offense in football with a quarterback that everyone was writing off after his first two years. that said, yeah, he's not even workable. He's the RPO merchant. And he was like, okay, you took that and ran with it. It made it not only just work, made it explosive. No, I think that's exactly right.

It's you would hope that this rather, he probably hoped this, that kind of mistake happened in week two. You know, on a one o'clock, CBS game, you know, maybe, you know, some team, maybe against the Texans. No one's early watching as opposed to a wild card game against the bills where you make those mistakes. But that goes to show you. And again, this is where, mini rant time, but this is where sometimes people don't understand the communication that happens between play caller and getting it to the quarterback, but also to your assistant coaches and getting personnel out there. It all, like you said, it gets on top of you. You have 40 seconds. You really have about 12 seconds to get the right personnel group and the right play call in.

They go wristbands. Now, when I say wristband, they just go wristband seven because those Shanahan kind of offensive play calls get a little wordy. Okay, so play seven. What if we have an adjustment on it? What if we came off and said, hey, instead of play seven, we want to put him on a corner route instead of a post route on that. Okay, well, that changes the term. Okay, do you got to remember that? Next time we call play seven, you got to remember that.

All those things add up in a backup quarterback, not doing the down distance. And that's just, it happens. So you see good teams sometimes, especially in the red zone when they look and they can't get the right sub in because some players going nuts. They're excited. And all of a sudden they have to burn a time out. Look at the Packers. That's happened to them plenty of times. They have a back-to-back MVP winner and a pretty good play caller in the floor.

It's just really hard. It's really hard to do. It's a lot on your plate. It was in a big moment. And that's just what happens. You've got to remember you just got to step back sometimes. It's a really hard process and really hard to manage and do very well. That's why there's only a few that do do very well.

Most of the year, he has done it very well. But it just came up in a big moment. I also think that this is a reminder of how much of an outwire Brian Dable is in his first year as a head coach. the amount of game management successes that they've had with the Giants. And it is another example of why giving away those play calling duties and being a manager of the game can be advantageous. But it's always going to be a push and pull. Always. You are going to make a sacrifice in one area if you don't do that.

Mike McDaniel has been a wonderful offensive play caller this year, an offensive designer. And the value that they've gotten from that, I think far outweighs the drawbacks in some of the game management areas. So it's just something that you work on. Coaches get better. Coaches can improve. Coaches can look at their processes and say, oh, what can we do differently about this? And I think that is what this should be from Mike McDaniel,

not some death knell about Mike McDaniel's head coaching career, which it kind of felt like a little bit on Twitter today. I miss that because I'm kind of stunned that anyone would think that after what's been the happening. I think people were just like really, really ripping him apart. And it's just like, okay, like that was a bad mistake. It's been a really good season for Mike Daniel. They're hanging in the game. Yes.

With the third, they were 14 point underdogs. Like, I go back there even in the game. No, I know. I think that's a lot. It's just hard. It's hard. It's hard.

One mistake happens. Personnel and that's the thing. They thought it was first and then. They might have been an 11. They might have a juicy, it's ball game. So you want to call your best short yardage play. It might be a totally different personnel grouping.

Headset turns off at 15 seconds. What if it's at 14 when you realize that? Now you're hand signaling trying to get the, hey, two, but you know, there's so much that happens in this short time span. And that's why there's so many times where people are like, why does he not know that he has to go for it on for it down there? It's like, yeah, probably the guy that was in charge of it took too long to tell him, hey, go for it. And they couldn't get the play call in. They said, screw you, we're punning.

That happens because it's just, time's going. It doesn't stop, especially when you don't have a time out, literally. But no, I thought what he did this year, he surprised me in the best way possible. I thought it was an innovative offense. I thought that offense adjusted in the last month when teams started taking away some of their weapons, which is always a good sign. I thought players played hard for them. It was a weird team. It worked, though.

I mean, but it really did. So, yeah, just a tough moment for him. I also think the last thing to mention about this game specifically, they had a multiple backup offensive lineman in the game. Robert Hunter had to play right tackle. He hadn't played right tackle. And he played a little bit last week. But before last week, the last time he had played right tackle more than like a handful of snaps

was in 2020 during his rookie season. So you have a right tackle that hasn't played in two years. You have a left guard that I think you signed off the practice squad. Toran Armstead was in and out of the game today. So that means you also have a new right guard because Haunted bumped out to right tackle. So they had a bunch of false starts today. They struggled in pass protection today. It was beyond just missing out on Teddy Bridgewater and Tua for that offense to even be sort of functional.

So for them to be in this game was kind of a miracle. Now the question becomes, I think, what happens for them in the offseason? The biggest one which we cannot answer now is what ends up happening with Tua. and his health and what sort of contingencies they think they have to build in because of that. I don't want to make light of that, but I think it has to be a real question that they ask themselves. Other than that, other than his role and his availability moving forward, what do you think is the biggest question about the dolphins as they hit the spring? Man, it's free vamping.

I think they need some more help on their defense and they need less stopgap stuff. They don't have a ton, you know, Tyreek trade kind of, and then they also forfeited a pick. you know, so that kind of hurts a little bit as well. And they traded a first-round pick for Bradley Shubb. Yes. Yes. Yes. And they gave Bradley Shub a massive contract. Monster deal. Yeah, they need more out of him. He's been banged up, which I think is understandable.

But like that was the card that they played. And so they need that card to come through for them in the long run. But, I mean, you've got an amazing skill, guys. So I think it's almost like outside of the Tua. You need more help on the offense line. You got to inject some juice somehow, especially in the interior. I think, again, that's what Mike McDaniel and Tua, you know, mitigated a lot of this year was those old line woes, either by design or how fast Tuo is getting or the ball. And I just think the defense needs help in being a little more stout.

I think in some way, shape, or form, now just with Wilkins, who's played so well, but they just need something. They need a calling card other than bringing blitzes every single time. They need to be able to live somehow, some way of just sitting back with four deep, you know, in some way, shape, or form. So whether it's revamp helping out the linebackers, rather than just random guys there, or just getting some juice somewhere with pass rush. They had some guys step up this year. But just they need some juice on O line, a little bit on defense as well. They have juice at receiver.

We know that. Their secondary was so banged up this season. Yeah. They didn't have, obviously, Brian Jones didn't play at all this year. Nick Niedem was hurt. So what ends up happening at those spots when those guys are healthy? You know, do they bring Brian Jones back next year on a big price tag? Do they revamp with that position?

looks like. Do they rely on a guy like Kate or Coahu moving forward? I don't know what those questions are going to be. Keon Crossing played a bunch for them this year. So what that group looks like when everyone gets healthy, I think becomes a question. Brandon Jones got hurt for them at safety. So just the secondary overall when they get some of those guys back healthy. And then Austin Jackson, same kind of deal. He went on IR this year. He's been banged up. So what does that, what does the offensive line look like when they're all healthy? I think those are the biggest questions outside of the quarterback. And we'll see what they do, because they do not have a ton of resources. They really tried to push all their chips in this year to make sure that they got the most

out of their quarterback. And they did that. But when you fall short, now what happens next? Right. Now it's, okay, we helped out our quarterback. Now we got to help out the rest of our team. I mean, that's really what it is. But no, this team played tough today. I mean, they really did. They made it tough on the bills other than the early swamping and they competed in a lot of games that maybe they should even been able to compete in. And yeah, they did some nice things. But like you said, It's that back end. They need, I think that for me, I think the best term I could use is they need some more playmakers on defense. And I know health will help that, but they need something.

I know they have some nice guys, but don't get me wrong, but they just need a little more there. Yeah, outside of just with the quarterback situation. We get Bengals bills again next weekend. Right. So very excited to watch that. What are the other matchups? Do we know it? I mean, we obviously know.

Chiefs Jags. And then the Giants. will go play the Eagles again. Right. So we get Giants Eagles again, Bill's Bengals again, Chiefs Jags, and then the winner of tomorrow's game

will go play the Cowboys. Or the winner of tomorrow's game will go play the Niners. So that is, it sounds just fine to me. It does. I know. I'm excited.

I'm juiced up. I know that one designed run you brought with Josh Allen. That was the only one they did all the game. I still think they're waiting to break that glass. Yeah. I bet you that whole day today,

you know, they were hovering. Ken Dorsey was hovering over and going like to it. Do I need to do this? Do I need to unleash number 17, the ostrich? And he held back. He held back.

But I really do think, like, Josh Allen had some nice moments that he had some of the wow throws, but it's, he's got to be a better quarterback next week. Like he just has to. This team, I mean, like most teams, but this team lives and dies by how he plays. And it was just, it was too chaotic, even for him. And I, I, I just that he has to. He has it in him. He's fantastic.

He's an unbelievable player. It's just that he just had one of his kind of weird days today. It felt like younger Josh Allen today. All right. That's all we got. Guys, if you have not, please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you're watching this. If you are listening to this, you can click on the link in the description of this show. We are going to have a podcast reaction tomorrow with Bob Stern, who does some great cowboy stuff for us at the athletic.

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