The Ringer NFL Show - Conference Championship Weekend Rapid Reactions | GM Street (Ep. 225)

Episode Date: January 22, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss the NFL conference championship games starting with the Eagles' thrashing of the Vikings to win the NFC title (1:10), then the Patriots' fourth-quarter comeback against the Jaguars to secure their second-straight AFC title (19:05). Then Tate and Lombardi guess this week's narrative before giving some final thoughts on the Patriots-Eagles Super Bowl matchup (37:10). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to GM3 part of the Ringier Podcast Network. It is championship Sunday. It is Sunday evening. And I am joined by Mr. Mike Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? I'm good, Tate, Frasier. I think we owe the city of Philadelphia a tremendous apology. We made fun of them all year for buying all that parade stuff.

you know back in week eight week nine week 10 we said look you're buying parade crap they're crazy to buy it we didn't even say they were buying anything like confetti we were saying when they were planning the route around town i mean they were we already had the cars run into everything set up amazon has no confetti they bought all the confetti back in week 10 and you know what they look really smart i mean they look brilliant today i mean they look brilliant today the city of philly i don't know if there'll be a city of philly there by five o'clock tomorrow morning because they'll have to tear that baby down i mean they're going to go crazy and And what a great win for the city.

It was unbelievable on a day where they just dominated the number one defense in football. That was pretty amazing. And the way that this game opened up, it opened up like it was favoring the Minnesota Vikings. They'd come down. They do what they did against the Saints last week. They have this perfect drive. They go up 7-0. It was silent in Philadelphia.

Silent. Silent. They even mentioned it Joe Buck said you can hear a pin drop. And you felt that uneasiness in there. And then all of a sudden, you know, Nick Foles just becomes Carson Wentz reincarnated. and they just take this game over and blow them out. Yeah, their defense took over. I mean, their defense makes that play.

And look, I've said this before. In fact, I tweeted it. Look, you get Carson Wentz to become a good player. You know, I was apprehensive. Obviously, I said things about Peterson not being qualified, and I apologize last week. But getting Foles to play this well. I mean, to me, that's really separates himself.

My hat's off to him with great respect because that's a hard thing to do. I mean, there's been a lot of guys, Coach Foles, and not a lot of them have had success. Chip Kelly did that one year. We only threw two interceptions, had 27 touchdown passes. But to me, this was a different foals, really confident. And against a really good, on 3rd and 10, he started looking like Carson Wentz again, you know. And he was, his eye level stayed up in the pocket. You know, there's something going on there that they're doing with quarterbacks that it's just, if it happens once with Wence, okay, he's an anomaly, right?

It's happened twice now. So you've got to say, hey, Lombardi, you're an idiot. You're stupid. that was wrong. You were wrong to say those things because the guy obviously has proven to be a good play caller and to be a good quarterback coach and he's got that team playing at a level that, you know, they believe they're winning with their backup quarterback. And they believe in Pro Bowl's. I mean, that's what we're seeing right now. We're seeing them playing at that exact level that we once saw in 2013. And I think the biggest

play to show that and showcase that was this Minnesota defense does not give up big plays. That's something this whole season. They have not turned the ball over. They've not given a big plays on defense. The 53-yard touchdown pass that he throws to Jeffrey, where the pocket is completely collapsing, he's got hands all over him. He somehow shuffles away and throws a deep ball and gets a big touchdown. And that to me was the one where his eye level never

went down. Like, when usually, when you got that many people around you, you're worried who's going to hit you next year, eye level comes down. I level is everything about the quarterback. And so when his eye level doesn't drop, that's what made went so spectacular. His eye level never dropped all year. And so he kept looking down the field, and it's the same thing that's

going on now with Foles. His eye level staying up the field. In Minnesota, I mean, look, they're no slouch on third down defense. They're the best third. They were record setting third down defense. Now, I know they were playing on the road, all that, but that typically, you know, Minnesota's played well on the road. They were six and two on the road this year. They've always done that. Against foals that make them look that bad, I mean, they dominated that game. It was really, it was, it was over. And you got to take your hat off.

I mean, the Eagles give you a lot of different formations. They do a lot of different things. It's that it's that West Coast college version of offense, run-pass options. but with the power run game inside and the ability of the quarterback to look down the field, today they were way too much. I mean, that was an impressive win. And I want to talk about a little bit about the dome theory. So there is this stat. The dome teams that go on the road in these championship games, they were 0 and 12, and now it's going to be 0 and 13.

And Minnesota is a team that's built for outdoor. I mean, obviously they're a physical run team, and then you have the defense to back it up. But for whatever reason, you know, the Eagles, you know, they put their will in this game and they made it happen. And it was a warm weather day. It wasn't even like a cold day for Minnesota. Like, you know, Minnesota, it tackled worth of darn in the first half, and they couldn't get off the field on third down in the first half. The Eagles offensive line really held in there, and Foles was good in the pocket.

And like, even on the first drive of the game, you know, you got a sense that, well, the Eagles defense, they kind of did a couple things. They got them off kilter. But then in the second half, when the Eagles, when the Eagles, when they, when Minnesota tried to block, it was one of the worst protections you'll ever see. It's when they slide the line completely away and they have an end or a back. In this case, Minnesota had a tight end trying to block a defensive end. And ultimately, that play, that sack fumble that created it, that was going to be points right there.

And then the Eagles come right down the field and score again. So, you know, their defense gets two touchdowns. Their offense never took the foot off the gas in the game the whole time. They blocked them up front. I mean, this was truly, and this is the thing about this game tape rager. What I do Angelo-Catolli every Friday in Philadelphia, And I get, you know, he's always constantly, you know, giving me crap about Doug and all that. And I, and that morning at, and I think I did the show at 540, LA time, I picked the Eagles, you know, because I thought, okay, the Eagles are probably going to win this.

And then the longer the day went, when we did our show, I picked the, I said, now, I'm going to change. I'm going back to Minnesota, you know, and because I didn't think that Foles would ever be able to be this good on third down. Like, I've been saying this all year about the Eagles, like, how can they be this good on third down? and Wence leaves, and I said, okay, now things are going to get back to normal on third down. And they did. And now Foles is doing it again, and I'm like, okay, I give up. And we have Wins on the sideline now. He's coaching.

So he is sitting next to Foles. He's got the Microsoft Surface. They're going back and forth. They're showing plays. He said Peterson's in his headset on the field. And, you know, keeps him confident, keeps him comfortable. Then when he goes to the sideline, he has Wince there now. I mean, is there something to say?

I mean, we talked about Wins being MVP. But for him to be able to get Foles to almost like being able to play like, him on the field at this point. He is playing like him. I mean, they got a good job of reading the coverages. I mean, Minnesota's schemes on third down particularly are not that easy to protect. They did a really good job Philadelphia blocking him. They couldn't block Oakland schemes on third down when they played Oakland a few weeks ago. They've done a good job of blocking here. So, you know, look, I think Philly took it right to him. I thought there was a couple plays in the game that I thought the Eagle defense was really, really good. And one of them was, and Aikman, you know,

never really explained it on television, but they took Malcolm Jenkins, and he went out with the back, okay? And so Case Keenham sees Malcolm Jenkins go out to cover the back. He brings the back in. That's what we call an indicator in football, right? So they indicate what the coverage is. When the back comes in, if the backer,

if somebody went with them, a safety, a corner, a lineback, then you know it's man, okay? If he comes back with him, you got it. Okay, now we're going to run our play. So they bring them back. Schwartz brings Malcolm Jenkins. Instead of covering the back, he checks it to the linebacker and brings

Malcolm Jenkins on to the other side and blitzes him off the corner. It hits Keenham right in the mouth, has no chance. It was really, really good. And that kind of stuff is what's going to give New England a lot of trouble because they want to breed the coverage too, and Keenum never had a chance to figure it out. And on the first touchdown drive, we had that with Cal Rudolph, where they sent out Latavius Murray, a guy that just caught 15 balls in the season. They sent him out. They had to check their progression. They had to figure out who was matched up with who, and that's how they get the first touchdown. So Schwartz makes the adjustment moving forward that we're going to check off that. And it all comes full-

Right. I mean, and that's why when that play happened, the first time, I'm telling Millie, they're all screwed up on defense. You know, next thing you know, the pro seven cut for a touchdown. And Good's in. He's playing. Yeah, he can't figure it out. Now, you know, that was, and then they got to fix. That's all about football. It's like, how do you adjust the game, right? I think that's why I think you've got to give the Eagles a ton of credit. I mean, they've adjusted the game. They were able to figure it out. And they do the stuff with where they force you to, Minnesota's tackling today was as bad as I've ever seen it. Like, Minnesota, was like really bad tackling. Like, you know, this is something, they were six and two on the road. They usually typically have never played like that before, but today the Eagles made them play like that. And they had a lot of one-on-one matchups on the outside where we saw Barr, a guy that

usually makes all these big plays and big tackles on the outside, one-on-one, didn't quite, wasn't able to put guys down when he had the match-up on the outside. And then we saw Xavier Rhodes battling injuries. And as the game wore on, it just seemed like the Eagles wore him out. And they took their will. I mean, that's the one thing I think about the Eagles is they took their will out of them. The Eagles were pretty tough. I mean, they could have gone in the tank and, you know,

and they got that play from the defense, but when the offense moved the ball down the field, but their will was way stronger. I think they relished this underdog role. They utilized it really well. I said earlier in the year when they played the Raiders, the road through Philly won't be a problem. Because when you watch that team, you're thinking,

oh, that's not going to be hard to win in Philly. And I think if you're Atlanta today, Tate Frazier, you've got to be saying yourself, man, let's go, can we have those four plays again back in the 9-yard line? Because you're sitting there saying, like, you could see it like right there, last week. Atlanta had the Philadelphia almost beat. And when you

have a team that believes in itself like this team does, and you almost have them beat and you can't quite beat them, they come back stronger the next week. And I think that's what the Eagles did. And we had the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, it was almost a little bit, I don't want to say a letdown game for what happened last week, but the whole miracle, the whole context

of the situation, the whole buildup and everyone kind of pinning them as the team of destiny. Then they go on the road and Philadelphia obviously hits them in the mouth. I want to talk about the end of the half and how that whole thing transpired. So we had the Derek Barnett fumble, McKay's Keen

where at this point is 14 to 7 in the game, a chance for them to get a field goal or anything. Cut it to 14 to 10 and Barnett has a perfect

pass-russ situation where he's one-on-one with the tight-in, forces the fumble, they get the big turnover and then they had the Alshon Jeffrey touchdown to get a two touchdown

on 3rd and 10. Now, going into that play, they had not converted a 3rd and 10 since Carson Wentz did it against the ramps. That's how bad they've been on 3rd out.

And in this game, there's a magical moment. That was December 10th. This magical moment. of third and long, all of a sudden came back into the ego offense. It was like God opened the doors. It was remarkable. And he makes that play.

And they got that play he should be sacked on. I mean, there's no way he makes that throw. I would have said that was a wince play. But to me, that's when I said, okay, this is over with. I mean, that's what I think when I called you and said, let's go to studio earlier to tape this, because this is over with it. Yeah, we came right in. And then not only that, I mean, to add insult to injury, whereas 21 to 7 is a two

possession game. Obviously, you're down two touchdowns. But the Vikings have the ball. They're driving again. They end up having to punt. And then you're just thinking if the Eagles, you're just going to go in a half, take a two-touchdown land, it'll be fine. But no, they press, they go aggressive, they get down, and they make it a three-possession game. It's 24 to 7, and that that was pretty much all she wrote.

Yeah, you could see that Foles was feeling it, right? They had this belief that Foles just could deal it, and he was put the ball where he wanted to, when he wanted to, in the perfect spot. I mean, Foles made himself a lot of money today, Tate Fras. I mean, Foles made himself a lot of money today. I mean, there's a lot of teams that need a quarterback, and, you know, people are going to say, well, there's Foles. There he is. He's that guy went to the Pro Bowl, you know? And so he made a lot of money.

People said, well, Case Keenham didn't make a lot of money. You know, Case Keenham still has a whole season of playing well. This game, I think, a lot of Vikings player, they got behind. I mean, this is the thing that makes it so difficult is you get behind on the road. It's hard against the team that's built to rush the passer. I mean, the Eagles are the ultimate complementary team, right? They're the ultimate. We're going to get the leave.

We're going to score early. We're going to win the first half. It's the way they beat everyone all season. Right. We're going to jump out in front of everybody. I mean, they beat this team today, like they beat Denver, like they beat. like they beat all these other teams that came through there. Yeah. And I just want to say a little tip of the cap to Barnett getting that big play,

having a Tennessee guy, you know, a guy that broke Reggie White's record at Tennessee, the sack record he hit at Tennessee to come in and make that big play. It was sort of eerie, you know, kind of all spiraled in the right direction for all the Eagles fans. To me, that's been the biggest success of the Eagles this year is you've got to give them credit, Howie Roseman, the front office. They've done a good job of getting depth in that defensive line. I think that's been the difference. And it's, I think what we saw and We'll talk about this later, but I think what we saw in Jacksonville game, when the defensive line tires and everything is tied to the front, you know, and it tires, then all of a sudden, like what happened with Brady in the fourth quarter, things start to fall apart. But this team's had to be able to rotate players, keep guys on the field. And by doing that, they've been fresh and they've been rushed. I mean, Chris Long looks like a completely different player this year. He did last year. Barnett's a different player. Vinny Curry's a different player. I mean, their tip your hat to them.

I mean, their defense, their speed of their defense, even though it's not quite to the level of Jacksonville, it's pretty good. Yeah, when you saw the Chris Long recovered that fumble, that Barnett forced, and you saw him pick up the ball. And, you know, the whole place went crazy. And at that point, it felt like it was into the game. A quick tangent on just Mike Zimmer and the Vikings in the season that they had with Case Keenum. I know Case Keenum isn't necessarily going to be deemed the franchise quarterback. We don't know if he'll come back and be the guy for the Vikings at this point. But just their entire run this season, I mean, what can you say for that Vikings?

It was sad to see him go out like this. Yeah, I mean, look, Dalvin Cook, they lose. They've overcome him. McKinn and Potthal play really well. Murray played well too. But I think they got to figure out who's their quarterback. Is it going to be Sam Bradford? I don't think it can be because Sam Bradford looks good until he has to play a lot.

He can play a game or two, but does he have to play a lot? He's got bone on bone on his knee. That's never going to be good. He doesn't throw the ball, chuck it down the field like you want them to. That's not going to be good. They're losing their coordinator who did a really good job. I thought Pat Sherman did a really good job. there was a couple calls.

The first interception, I kind of thinking, like, you know, play to your strength. Like, don't take that much of a risk. Like, you know you can't really block them up front. Like, you almost should have treated them a little bit like Blake Bortles. That being said, the guy made a horrible throw. I know Chris Long batted, kind of distorted the throw. But that guy was an open over there anyway. I was a bad read.

And good for Patrick Robinson, a former Colt, a guy that some people thought was a bust at one time, having a big play in the NFC championship game. I mean, I played well. And so now, you know, so now you've got to get another coordinator in there. Is it Ben McAdolte? I doubt that, right? Okay, good luck if they do. He'll be in Cleveland, hopefully. No, no, I think it's going to be Todd Haley in Cleveland. Anyway, that'd be another interesting one. Can you imagine Haley and Hugh arguing on the sideline? That'd be you pay for that. That's called reality TV.

That is. It could be put it on Bravo. Yeah, we'll figure it out. We can put that on Bravo. So, you know, the Vikings have a lot of, they've got to get their line better. And they've got to figure out who's their quarterback. Is it Bridgewater? I can't tell you whether it's, no one can tell you other than people in the Viking organization who've watched Bridgewater practice. I can't tell you it's going to be Bridgewater. The only thing we hear about Bridgewater really is that Zimmer loves him. That's pretty much the only thing that comes out. But he doesn't love

him enough to make sure that he's dressed. They dressed Bradford because they felt Bradford was more ready to come in in a relief role. And he did say Zimmer, I think, before the game, maybe this is before the Saints game, he said that if they got down, there was a chance that they would put in Bradford. If they needed someone to throw the ball to kind of catch

up in a game, and then obviously after last week's game, there's no way you can binge Keenham, regardless situation, you know, in this. But Keenham's a smaller guy, you know, I think when a good defensive front forces him to have to step and throw the ball and drive it, there's a couple times where, look, I don't put this game on Case Keenham at all. I mean, this game, really, Mike Zimmer is going to get on that airplane and say, look, we sucked on third down. We're supposed to be the best defensive football, and we gave up over 30 points to a backup quarterback. Like, hey, if we're going to win this game, we're going to have to win at 1713. We're not going to

win it 38, 34. No chance, right? I mean, I thought, I would, I said play the under in that game because I thought that was going to be a field position, punt kind of game. I didn't think the Eagles could move the ball that well, nor did I think Minnesota would move the ball to a degree is what they did. So to me, that's why Minnesota lost. Minnesota lost because their defense, which was so good, didn't play well. Is that the Eagles or is that Minnesota? I think it was a little bit of both today. Yeah, and we should say, I mean, Zimmer before the game, he said they were going to win this game by hitting falls and hitting them early. They never did. And they never even got to them. They never got near them. They couldn't get. That's why to me,

Peterson won me over today because usually his protections are so bad that people can attack him and the best blitzer to me, the best designer of blitzes is Mike Zimmer in the league. He does a great job of it. He usually gets guys coming home free. Actually on the touchdown pass to Tori Smith, the one

no, to Jeffries deep down the field. Yeah, Sean, yep. I mean, Barr's standing there. I think Barr was supposed to come and he never went. He would have cleaned up the pocket had he gone. He stayed in there. He wasn't sure what to do. They were in really never in rhythm today on defense. And that had a lot to do because Foles was always in rhythm.

And it was a vintage performance for Nick Foles. We know that he's going to be beloved in Philadelphia for a long time after this one. He didn't have to buy a drink either. I mean, you know, hell, he gave Tanya a $200 tip. Remember that? We heard that story, right? Yeah, he's going to mean a lot of Philly cheese steaks for the next few years for free. Yeah, I mean, Tanya's level to go back to Buda Khan and wait on him again.

Now she gave him a $2,000 tip. I mean, you know, it's unbelievable. At least, especially the new contract. At case anybody didn't know that story, one of the people that work here, Tanya, Hubbard, girl that does all our helps with the, uh, helps with the, audio, video. You know, one thing about the ringer, everybody does a thousand jobs, right? She does them all. And so she's waitressing back in her day when she was living in Philadelphia at BudaCon. And so Nick Foles and his wife comes in and really kind of when he's the franchise QB.

When he was the franchise QB and he has such an, you know, she has an infectious personality. He kind of notices it right away. And so when he leaves, gives her a $200 tip, not like Shady McCoy gives a dollar tip. And life goes on. It's a pretty nice setup. What to go, Tanya. Congratulations. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing that story. I think it's a good story for Nick Foles. It's a great story.

It just makes you like Nick Foles because you know he's... Exactly. Anyone that tips like that is a good man. Absolutely. Should we move on to the Jaguars and the Patriots? Or should we... Any more final thoughts for the Philadelphia people? We should say we're excited about the parade route.

It looks like it could possibly happen. I am going to tell you right now, Tate Frazier. I'm going to pick Philadelphia in the Super Bowl come hell or high water. I think it's a horrendous matchup for New England. Yes. I do. I've said to you off the air. That front four.

Well, I think it's a horrendous matchup. and this will lead into what we're going to talk about. What Jacksonville did in the first half, running Kansas City style of offense, spread the field, force you to play inside with power, and then attack the edges. That's been the kryptonite for New England, and that's what Philly does all the time. And let's talk about it. The Jacksonville Jaguars in this game, they came out. They showed some real guts, some real guts in the second quarter to get ahead in this one.

A lot of people were excited. Me, I had trepidation the whole time because I was waiting for Tom Brady, fourth quarter time to come down and score the game-winning touchdown as he is prone to do. But in this one, Blake Bortles and the Jaguars defense especially, really showed up and had a great effort. And it looked promising for a little while, but then big time Tom came in. Let's work backwards. So I think what Jacksonville did was, Jacksonville said, look, if we try to pretend we're going to run this ball with Leonard Fournette and line up in jumbo and attack them, that'll play right into their strength. So what they did was give them tons of credit.

They went back and took the Kansas City opening day game plan. And they've kind of molded that game plan into what really can bother New England. Spread the field horizontally, right? And then to force New England to run the ball inside, throw quick bubble screens, make it a space game, make it a horizontal space game, and then still have some power inside and stay out of a lot of third and downs and long. And that's what they did. And Bordles executed that well.

I mean, he's through some. Now, some of those stop fades, I'm not sure they were stopped fades. They were, to me, look like bad throws that the receivers make great catches on. Notwithstanding, I thought Bortals played as well as he could play in that first half. I don't think he could do anything different. I think the thing that killed that team more than anything was the delay of the game penalty. And if you want to blame Bortles for anything, coming off the timeout, he had the clock go down. And I saw it when he completed that third and ten pass over there on Malcolm Butler.

To Mercedes-Louis. To Mercedes, right? It made a great catch. And it got called back because of the delay game penalty. To me, that was the difference. really, if you want to make one thing the difference in the first in the game, to me that was it because that forced them

to punt. And that gave New England the ball back to get it back in the end of the second head to get it back and they go to back down the field and scored. Yep. And we should say you're talking about the way that they were attacking the Patriots. The way they were doing that was this Corey Grant play and it was the same little play where they set up the screen where Lewis is ahead

blocking him, grants behind them. They just get downhill little screenplay. But then they had another option out of that. They were in the same play again later in the game and then they handed it off inside to Fort Nett who had this nice little sweet play up the middle. All Kansas City stuff. All Kansas City. All stuff Philly does regularly. They do it all. It's run-pass. But I don't think Jacksonville was doing it with a run-pass option. I don't think they were, they were going to hand it off. You know, Tony Romo, everything is a run-pass option at this point. I don't think it was. I think it was they were, I think they just

did it. But what they did was they forced New England to defend the 53 yards of the field with, which then softened them up inside. And then it made it a spree. base game because as bad as Minnesota tackled in space today against Philadelphia, I thought New England will tackle way worse than that. And so, you know, that became a real problem for him. And they moved the ball effortlessly down the field. They got him in a lot of third downs and Bortles was able to convert those third downs. I thought Fournette ran hard.

You know, there's a couple times Bortles had a chance if he hits, if he has a chance to get the ball over, bad noise head for that wheel route. You know, there was some things there. But he didn't quite make the throw. and it was, you know, that kind of cost him a little bit. And we did see Hernes. Herons had a great game. He showed up.

I think he had six for 80. I want to talk about a little bit about the situation with Gronk. So Gronk takes the big hit down the middle of the field. And then he goes out for a congression protocol, is out for the rest of the game. And then from there, you know, people start freaking out there. They don't know what's going to go on with this offense without Gronkowski out there. But then there's a young man by the name of Danny Amandola, who's completely unstoppable. Yeah, he really is.

I mean, Danny Amidola is, you know, he's a guy who's always had a, a big contract, had to redo his contract, he got to get it back into normal things, great team player, great teammate. He and Julian Edelman, even though they kind of play similar roles, I mean, look, they're one and the same. They really are. It's a thing one and thing too.

I mean, when you think of some big games and some clutch moments, Danny Amadola's name has to come. I mean, we play Baltimore in a game. We're down two touchdowns twice. Amadola makes some plays in that game. It gets you back in there, makes some tough inside catches. You know, that third and 17,

I think when Doug Marones on that. 13. 1318. When he's on that airplane flying home tonight, I think that's the one that I think, I think if he would have put a little bit, if they'd have played man to man, right, you know, kind of forced Brady to make a tighter throw. Look like they got some zone in there. That's the one of those that kept that drive going, you know, and that was a killer. I mean, that was a huge play. And but I thought Amadola, you know, Amadola has always been Mr. Clutch for that team. He's always been never really been, you know, they got Brandon Cooks, they got Edelman, they got Crog. Where does Amadola fit? But my last year there, I thought, Amadola might not even make the team. You know, it was going to be, how does he fit in all these guys? Malcolm Mitchell's coming in.

You got Hogan to worry about. Hogan to worry about. Amadol. You know, and that was the year that Bill really, then this is the brilliance of Belichick, is Bill was like, no, I'm going to keep Amidola on PUP. I'm not going to put him on PU because I'm going to bring him back. He was coming off an injury, and he was really the only one that wanted to do it.

Like everybody else was like, I'm not sure this is going to work out. You know how kind of, not the coaches didn't want Danny on the team. But it was like a Walker situation where maybe we just move on and go some rounds. And Bill, for whatever reason, just always knew there was something about Amadola that brought that element to the team, whether it was Super Bowl 49 and then eventually became Super Bowl 51 or today or any kind of playoff game. I mean, he's truly been an unbelievably valuable player and Brady trust him. I mean, look at his face. And he makes great catches. Matt catch in the back of the end zone was great.

Yeah, get those two feet down in the back of the end zone. It's sort of similar to San Antonio Holmes. They're trying to throw the ball of cooks over here. It was a good. I thought it was going to be a pop pass to Amadola originally by the formation, but they were trying to run a Colorado route, which is come inside and then break out. And they kind of, you know, the one thing about the officials this weekend, I thought they did a great job of just letting people play, right?

There was, like, you were here tonight. There were no holding calls today. No, they were here. The Patriots only had one penalty. Yes. The only team that's only had one penalty in a playoff game, you have to go back to 2011, I think, and that was the Patriots. Wow.

And that was, you know, and that was on a, it was on a, it was on a, on a special team's play. So they let him get away with some kind of grabbing and holding and tugging a little bit today. But that play, but he didn't have it there. And then he came back, made a great throw, great catch. I want to talk about two guys that were unsung heroes that ended up sealing the game for the Patriots. First, Gilmore, a guy that they brought over that has, you know, a lot of people have said some things on the side of their mouth about what Gilmore really brings, especially with the contract that he has, but he makes the game winning play on the fourth and 12 where Bortals throws it deep. It looks like he has a man open, has a shot.

Gilmore makes a great play. I mean, he jumps up, gets his hand on the guy, swats the ball away, saves the drive. He dropped the interception earlier. Yes. I mean, on the same drive. I mean, the ball went right through his hands. You know, he dropped that interception, then comes back and makes that play. Wow.

And then the next one is when they get back on offense, Patriots get back on offense. Dion Lewis, we're in a third down situation. We're not sure what's going to happen with this drive. I may have to punt it back to give the ball back to Jacksonville. And Dionne Lewis scoos outside. Yeah, outside zone gets 13, 14 yards in this game over. You know, and that run that Dion fumbled on. I thought that's one of those Dion's worst runs I've ever seen them

because that play I thought was going to be a touchdown. And for whatever reason, Dion kind of broke it back in and kind of back into Miles Jack, who we really didn't talk about. Miles Jack's a great player. He blew his knee out today. I think, I don't know what the report. I'm pretty sure that's the report. I hope it's not because that was the injury coming out of Kyle.

I mean, he's a fabulous linebacker, and the speed that they have on that team is remarkable. And so I hope that's not the case. I mean, the trick play when the Patriots had the huge play and he just doesn't give up on it and strips the ball back out. Well, they run two trick plays in the game. I mean, think about it. Take Frazier.

They get the pass interference call on the one. But see, this is what makes them so unique, right? They know they have to have those. They've practiced those plays pretty much all season long. So when they need them, they're there. And that's the brilliance of what they do. They're so much, they're so well prepared for every situation. And they needed those plays.

I mean, that really kind of, and then I think what happened there, after that trick play and Dion Fumbles, Jacksonville went three and out. I think that was the killer for Jacksonville. Jacksonville had a chance to really do something there. And actually on that play, I just remember this as I was trying to think about running through that sequence, Jack gets the ball and gets up and takes off. And they blow the play dead.

They blew the play dead. They went crazy on the Jacksonville sideline. I think he might have scored on that. Yeah, that would have been a touchdown. You don't have to worry about the offense. That's what Jacksonville does. I mean, that's how they need to score almost with their defense. Right.

But when he rolled over with the ball, he could have been engaged with Dion. I think it was a fumble. I think even if they would have called it a not fumble, I thought it was because he did lose the ball, even though he had a pin to his head. He pinned it back. Yeah, they've started to, even Romo was saying the lie. He was like, does that count as he regained possession? But it was almost too close.

Yeah, I didn't think it did. But, you know, those next three, that three and out by the Patriot defense there was to me the plays of the game right there. That was really the difference in the game. I mean, because Jacksonville had the momentum. They got the turnover that they needed to have. I mean, Jacksonville went through this whole playoffs without turn the ball over. I mean, they sit in there.

They said, we're not going to let Bortals turn this ball over, and they didn't. And they had a chance to win the game. I mean, shoot, they're throwing the ball at the end of the game to try to at least, you know, make it 27, 24. But I thought it was really those three plays. And the people asked on Twitter, were saying, well, did they get conservative in the second half? No, I don't think, I do not think Nathaniel Hackett, who I thought did a great job today. Called a great game. Right.

And I thought Jacksonville's offense was really well done. Okay. I don't think they got conservative. What I think they got is they ran out of place. This isn't who they really are, right? This isn't not, this style of offense isn't kind of what they do. They were trying to avoid a drop-back pass game. They were trying to avoid everything in their power to make it

so that Bortles didn't have to just stand back there, read coverages, and throw it. So they were, they did, and they unloaded it all in the first, and they got, you know. And they tried to get Fortnet going on the first downs, but it just seemed like over and over. It was, you know, second and nine, second and nine, because they couldn't quite get it. They couldn't quite get it, you know. And so whereas Philadelphia now, the Eagles, that's their offense. They got a thousand of those plays from the spread formation where the bubble screens and this and that. The Cheesecake Factory menu.

The cheesecake. Oh, they got them all. And they run them all. And they can run them all, you know. And so where I don't think, I think it would be unfair to be critical of what Jacksonville did in the second half. You could say, well, they got a couple bad pass interference calls. Look, I thought the one call on the double, on the halfback pass back to Brady, I mean, they got had them around the neck. Yeah.

Right. And then the one call were the first, the second, the first touchdown for the Patriots, he pushed him out of bounds. I mean, the guy drilled the guy out of bounds. I mean, that's pass interference. You can't do that. So, you know, for the most. part. I think when Jacksonville looks back on that game, that does come down a little bit to discipline at that point. I mean, they were almost testing them out. You saw Brady a couple of times

when he threw those balls deep. He was sort of praying for the flag. I mean, he didn't, wasn't necessarily he had a chance for the catch, but he knew that if he threw it up, there was a chance for a flag. It's going to come back to that third and 18 play. I mean, you know, the play before he threw it up, you know, and it was, I'm like, God, you can't make that throw. Now it's 13. You're not going to get this third down. And next thing, you know, Brady converts the third down against it. So, you know, I'm thinking in my head, God, darn. You know, you really made it tough. But Look, can we just spend a moment and talk about the greatest player of all time? I mean, really, honestly.

Blake Portals? Yes. Well, we can talk about him later. I mean, truly, I mean, seven consecutive conference championship games, right? And then he plays like he did today in the fourth quarter. I mean, it's really, without gronk. Like, that's what people don't understand. Like, there's no gronk.

I mean, when gronk was in there, it was not that it was an easier game, but at least it took, they had to double this guy, right? Yes. Without gronk. and even when he was getting doubled it I mean Brady when he got hurt on the concussion on that drive he had thrown to him four straight times

right I mean he pretty much decided we gotta get back in this game I'm throwing it to Gronk every single time I mean Garank dropped the one over there by the Jacksonville bench which you never see him drop that one usually those meat cleavers go up there I always call his hands they look like toilet seats because they're like he wears those white gloves

and they literally look like a white toilet seat they're so goddamn big yeah they lower them down on the table because they're so damn big but I mean he did that and then he does it without and then really what happened was once once gron got hurt dwayne allen comes in the game and duane allen they would have been they basically put another offensive lineman in the game because all he did was chip on the edges he had to help cam fleming out who was really going to struggle blocking

either either defensive end for jacksville so by when gronk got hurt it really the burden really fell to cook said amadola even more so and then lewis fumbled they took him out of the game you know and so I mean, Brady just is like, you just kind of knew it, didn't you? Yeah, the whole time, I mean, I was watching a lot of people that were pulling for the Jaguars, just to be contrarian and pull for the upset, of course. But the whole time, I mean, you couldn't even get excited because it was set up perfectly. Because the first stop that they had, when the Patriots got the ball back the first time and they have to punt back. You know, they stopped them the one time.

And you're like, wow, I mean, they stopped Brady. But, you know, they go a quick three and out, punt it back to the Patriots, and it was go time. Yeah, it was fun for about five minutes if you didn't want Brady to. do it, but it was inevitable. Six minutes to go in the game, and that's when he started that drive. And they scored, and with three, well, a little more than like a little more than three. It was like 248, something like that. By the time they scored. And how about Devlin, James Devlin today? James Devlin was the greatest decoy of all time. I mean, James Devlin was in the game, and he lined up outside the numbers probably every single time. And somebody had to go out there

and defend them. That's what James against the Eagles. That's exactly where Devlin's going to line up, but we're going to be hugging those sidelines. You know, at some point I was like, maybe we should just cover him. See if Brady would actually look over there throwing the ball. But I thought Brady threw the ball really good for a guy with a bad, what he had? 14 stitches in his hand. 12 stitches, they said. 12 stitches in his finger. And so I thought he threw it really good.

Did you think, they asked Brady after the game, you know, he said, we'll see how it goes. And then he asked, how was it? And, you know, people went crazy because obviously they had won the game and the fans were all excited. I mean, are you concerned about his hand still going into the Super Bowl? I mean, he does have 12 stitches. I know Bill Belichick said it wasn't open heart surgery, so he'll be

fine. But it's still 12 stitches in his hand and he's still not 100%. We saw a couple of times, Jim Nance mentioned. When he went down, he was able to cover his hands so he didn't fall on it. It's so smart. It's unbelievable. I would say it's not going to be a problem for him. I think he's probably this week, they'll have a couple of practices. I mean, look, they're going to play a team that they know pretty well in the sense that Jim Schwartz worked for us in Cleveland. Bill knows him. Bill knows what he does. He's had games against him in Tennessee when he was there. and they practiced against him when he was in Detroit. So it's pretty familiar with what they're going to do.

So the game planning will take this week before they go to Minnesota and practice up there. So I think he'll get healthy. I don't think he'll have to throw the ball very much this week. And we did see one time I want to talk to you about the Tom Brady situation with him. He had the Jaguars. He sent a guy out. He sent him running back out. I think it was James White at one point out to the outside to see what the matchup was.

And they brought him back in. And then they showed a different protection. Just what we were talking about with the Eagles that ended up doing in the second half. Yeah. And they got Brady one time. and he got shook and they sent him blitz and he took a big hit. You can get them once. You just never going to get them twice.

It's like a good shooter. He never missed it the same shot twice. No, no, you're not going to get them twice. I mean, if you try to, and the thing is you can't unload that in the first half, right? You got to save your best stuff for Brady for the fourth quarter. And that was in the second quarter when that was in the second quarter. See, you got to save stuff for the second half. And I think what happened to Jacksonville a little bit too is they ran out of stuff in the second half.

I don't think they got, again, I'm going to say this. They didn't get conservative. I just think they ran out of stuff. You know, they really wanted to. limit the amount of time that Blake had. Their offensive line, can we should do a shout out? I mean, I feel bad for Joel Solomon, frankly,

a former guest on this show, you know, Patriot, a Steeler fan through and through, right? I mean, having to watch James Harrison get close to Blake Bortles, which none of his Steelers ever did, was pretty remarkable, right? And it's almost sad because it's exactly

what the Steelers needed in that game to give him a little bit of Joel to injury, just to get a pass rush in there. James Harrison, every single time he came in, he somehow got a hand on the football or he tackled well in space i mean he's you know look he's going to be good at it i think he's you know look when they when they did it when they cut him i knew he was going to be going to england not because belichick said it to me i just know bellichick right and so i tweeted out like you know i wouldn't be surprised if he you know and then the next

thing you know he's there and i there were you knew there was something left in his game or else pittsburgh would have cut him four or five weeks ago right but they were holding on to him and they just kind of like, and I said this too. Like, when you cut him, you had to know Pittsburgh was going, New England was going to claim them. You had to know it, right? They had nobody, they really struggled to set the edge. They struggled to play with that rush to passer, you know, and that's going to come down to the game. The game, you know, we said this on Friday.

Who was going to win the Eagle game, Minnesota was going to be which offensive line play better? Clearly, Philly's offensive line play better. That's why they want. Same thing's going to happen in the Super Bowl. Whose offensive line is going to play in New England or that? you know, we'll see. I think it'll be Philadelphia because I told you I'm going to predict that right now. I don't like the matchups. I don't need to study it any further. But I think that's the case. Although New England's offensive line, I thought played much better in the second half. All right, Lombardi, before we move on and do guest narratives for the week. We're going to take a quick break to get aware from our sponsor. Hotel Tonight, fun fact, unlike flights or other travel, hotel rates actually get cheaper at the last minute. In fact, Hotel Tonight partners with awesome hotels to help them sell their unsold rooms, which means you get amazing deals. All it takes is 10 seconds, just three taps and a swipe to book a room. No long, endless list of a zillion hotel choices.

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So start scoring amazing deals at incredible hotels and download the Hotel Tonight app now. Should we do guest and air to us for this week? Oh, God. Yeah, the city of Philadelphia is just going to be unbelievable. I mean, ESPN miles will just move five people down there. Sal Palantoneo is going to have a lot of time. He's going to be in Philly this entire week. Sal's going to run out of ties.

He's not going to have enough ties to wear on TV. People are going to recognize. I've seen that tie before, Sal. You can't wear that tie. He's going to have a full-grown beard by the end of this. He's going to be covering every single bar. It's going to be good. When you think about Nick Foles and him being in the Super Bowl,

and he's going to get a lot of coverage now. And this moment will become big. A lot of what happened with Case Keenum leading into this game. He became almost a household name all of a sudden and people were wanting to get interviews. You know, everyone's on top of him. That's going to happen to Nick Foles. So one of my narratives is just to watch the Nick Foles media tour

because there's going to be a lot of redemption stories that are going on this week. And I mean, look, I'm not the only one who thought that Doug Peterson wasn't really the guy. I mean, when he got hired, Hallie Rosen took a lot of crap for it. You know, remember, he was hired when McAdoo didn't come down for the interview. And so, again, I bet McAdoe wish you would have come down now. Yeah, I think so. And obviously, look, the Eagles ended up at the time, the Giants thought they got one over on the Eagles,

and now the Eagles have the last laugh. So I think he'll be the narrative. Second year coach, really never called place before in his life, really didn't have an extensive background. You know, he played in the league, but I think that's going to be the narrative. It's like, look at this guy. I think people are going to try to copy that. You know, I know Mike Rable got the Tennessee job.

We still don't know who's going to get the Arizona job. That still remains to be seen. But I think Peterson will be the story because he's done such a remarkable job. And he's got to get credit for it. And I think that'll be the narrative. And then, look, the goat's got to be the narrative. I mean, come on, let's face it. Belichick and the goat.

I mean, Belichick's in seven consecutive conference championship games. And now he's going to the Super Bowl. I mean, they should really call the Super Bowl, the Tom Brady invitational, right? At this point. Yeah, in the 21st century, it's been pretty ridiculous.

It's so bad at this point that when they gave Bill Belichick the AFC championship trophy, he just threw it away. He just gave it to someone else. They're like, Bill, hold on to it for a second. At least, can we get a photo op? He's like, I don't want this.

Yeah, I mean, so look, they went there 14, that we didn't go in 15, went 16, 17. I mean, you're never, Tate Frazier going to see a run like this in any sport as dominant as this. And, I mean, this could be, because they have, some serious issues in this offseason.

They're going to lose two coordinators. They could lose three coaches. I mean, Brian Flores could get the Arizona job. Who knows, right? So they're going to have a lot of term change on their staff. A lot of players, it's going to be a fascinating, you know, could this be their last moment. Yeah, this could be the highlight, the final chapter or the final ride for all these guys. Or they could just re, I mean, a lot of people thought last year was going to be that. Right. But I think this year more than ever, right?

So, you know, here they are again. And how much longer can Tom keep playing like this? how much can this Patriots keep dominating the AFC like this? I mean, it's really kind of remarkable. Again, I'm going to say this, as much as Blake Bordell's played well, and I grant you he played really good today, and I think Nathaniel Hackett should, his playoff run deserves an interview with some teams because he did a remark.

If I was Arizona now, and I don't have a coach, I would talk to Nathaniel Hackett because this guy's done a really good job of the playoffs. And so, but I think more than anything, I think you've got to sit there and say, where is New England, like, this is just really remarkable. Nobody's going to be able to do this again. It really does, you know, you have to pay respects to both Belichick and Brady for what they've done this entire ride. It's, I mean, the last time, I mean, the first time we ever saw this combination was in 2001, you know, for context.

There were some people that are watching these games right now that are going to graduate from high school that have grown up and just watch Tom Brady and Bill Belichick dominate football for their entire lives. Right. And this is going to be, this will be, I would say. We played Seattle in 14. They played Atlanta. This is probably the Seattle's offense was not as dynamic as Philadelphia. Of all the teams that they've played in the playoffs, I think this will be the most complete type of team that they're going to have to play because they're good in all three areas.

They're good in the kicking game. Their defense is really good as obviously what they did today. And then their offense, if Nick Foles plays anywhere near like he did today, it's going to be hard. Let's just do one award this week. And it's our favorite. And it's if you don't know now, you know. You got to know now Doug Peterson's a good coach, right?

We know it. We know it. We get cash it in. We give it to them. You know, take our hat off. Look, I can, you know, like I'm not saying it just to say it. I'm saying, look, the guy proved it. I think the one thing is, you know, you can be skeptical of people.

But when a guy does something and you got to admit you're wrong, I mean, the guy did it. And so, you know, when you win two playoff games, they're hard to do. And you make it to the biggest stage in football. With your backup quarterback. I mean, think about how good they would be if with Wentz. But the point I was making earlier. Or Peters or Sturgis. I mean, you go down the list.

Yeah. Well, I mean, New England has just a bunch of injuries, but they're not playing with the backup quarterback. They're not, you know, and so there's a whole different there. But the point I was making, still, when I look at Jacksonville's team, Tate Fraser, I think of what could have been had Deshawn Watson been their quarterback. And then I would say to you, that team would probably would have run through pretty much everybody. Because that's really what Nathaniel Hackett was trying to do was he, took a little bit of what Kansas City did, a lot of what Kansas City did, a lot of what

Carolina did, a lot of what Houston did in those early beginning of the season spread the field and he incorporated into what he did. And I think if he had Watson, oh my, oh my, that would be like, and that's going to be the fascinating thing about Jacksonville. What are they going to do? They know who they are. These two games going to convince them that Blake Bortles has turned a corner? Or are they going to go out and get a quarterback? Those, both the Vikings and the Jaggars are both in a situation where you have these two quarterbacks that have taken you to this point. But now you're going to figure out if you want to buy in and say that they are the franchise, they are the future of the franchise moving forward. Or do you want to say these are the mercenary guys that got us here?

We have the formula at every other position. We can find another guy at the quarterback position. I think to me, if you learned anything about the playoffs, is that if you have a really good defense and you can do some things, a bad quarterback, you don't have to pay a quarterback $19 million to do that. I think that's going to have to be Jacksonville's decision. Do I pay $19 million for a guy I got to manage? Or do I pay $8 million for a guy I got to manage and use the $11 million to try to find a guy I don't have to manage. I think that's going to be the key question. And we should say all four quarterbacks that were in the championship weekend, all Under Armour quarterbacks.

Are they really? Very interesting, right? Not a nice little nugget. I was trying to find one thing that they all had in common. It was they all represented by Under Armour. Did you see this Facebook thing on Tom Brady? Did you see that advertisement? No, what did he do?

They got some show Facebook. I didn't even know. He's got a Facebook show now? Is there TV 12 the show? They're going to be like how the longevity of Tom Brady. I'll tell you what, this is the best thing ever for the book. Tom Brady's book's probably going to sell even more. How many tasty cakes you think they're going to sell in the next few weeks?

Quite a few. Wawa's going to be packed. Yes, absolutely. There's going to be a lot of people wanting those energy bars. There's TB12 bars. Yeah, Wawa is going to be packed back in Jersey. I mean, everybody's going to wear their eagle shit tomorrow. Like the thing is, like, I'm probably like I would say this probably going to be a million eagle flag.

out by now. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Especially, I mean, it's crazy that the amount of Philadelphia of people you meet around the world, I mean, whether it's in Los Angeles, North Carolina, and they're everywhere. I have neighbors in Ocean City that is a great, they have a great family, and they have five kids, and then they all have kids kind of like my kids age, and then we have this one kid who's Andrew, who wants to be in sports management. He works for the Phillies now, and he's in sports management, went to Yukon. He's the worst of all Philly fans. Like, he has, he's a Sixer fan, he's an Eagle fans. Flyer.

I mean, he's them all. Bill and all. I mean, you got them all. He's covered them all. That hurts. I mean, I'm sure if he could text me tonight, he's going to try to kill me tonight. That's when my phone was blowing up because I have a lot of Eagles fans that are all hitting me up already. Because they just want to congratulate themselves.

And we want to congratulate Philadelphia because the parade route, you planned it. You were correct. We joked, but we're happy. You got it for you. Your vision is way better than us. I mean, look, when you're wrong, you're wrong. You got admit it. You've got to admit it.

You've got to say it. Hey, that's what it is what it is. And sometimes you just shed one single tear like Blake Bortles and keep it moving. This has been another edition of GM Street part of the Ringer Podcast Network. This has been a fun run in the playoffs. We have one more game left to Super Bowl. Mike Lombardi. Thanks so much.

We'll see you Super Bowl Sunday, Take Frazier. Yes, sir.