The Ringer NFL Show - "How Serious Is Tom Brady’s Thumb Injury?" and the Keys to the Game for All Four Playoff Teams | GM Street (Ep. 224)

Episode Date: January 19, 2018

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier kick off your weekend with a look at Tom Brady’s jammed thumb (02:16) and keys to the game for the Patriots and Jaguars (04:14) as well as for the Vikings and Eagles (11:40). Then, they make their picks for the two conference championship games this weekend (18:33). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Clear eyes. Clear eyes. Full hearts. Full hearts. Don't snooze. Buy your tickets now for Wednesday, January 24th at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles. Yeah. Welcome to GM3 part of the Ringer podcast network.

It is Friday. It is the Friday focus. Before we get into this, Mike Lombardi, we have to give a birthday shout out to Millie, your wife. Happy birthday yesterday. I hope she celebrated. Well, we did. Happy birthday, Millie.

Yeah. We went to this restaurant. You know, you're in L.A. Now you've got to do the hip thing in L.A. Of course. So we went to this place called Sir. Have you said? Oh, that's like,

it's Bravo TV especially. You know, I mean, you know, it's not exactly my cup. The Vanderpumps, right? The Vanderpumps, yes.

I didn't see any vander pumps there. But, I saw some pumps like hills or. Yeah, I mean, it was like, it was interesting. I've actually been there

with my mom before when she came out. Did you like the food? Did you like it? I don't really remember the food. I just remember just like random people were walking around and my mother freaking out

about them. So that's all it was, just yelling that that's, that's Jacks or whoever that one. I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I need my daughter-in-law with me when I go to those things, place, because I have no idea who anybody is because I don't watch Bravo TV. Although I did watch like that. What's that show?

I was kind of into that this summer. I was watching the real estate show in New York. I don't know what they call that one. Was it a million-dollar listing? Yeah, with Frederique. I thought he was hilarious. I thought that guy was great. Yeah.

But other than that, I got kind of bored with that. I went off of it. I'm like, I'm not watching Frederick. I rather than read a book, so that's what I end up doing. Whoever had the prop head that we would start this Friday of Championship Weekend with some Bravo talk? You just won. Congratulations. We did it.

Let's get into football. We got a lot of stuff going on. But first I have a quotable from Bill Belichick, the great Bill Belichick. He said, today is Friday. And that was in reference to the injury report that was put out on Wednesday about Tom Brady and his thumb. He apparently had an issue in practice, jammed his thumb and practice running into a running back. And now there are a lot of people that are unsure and uncertain if Tom Brady will. play Sunday. We, I think, both believe that Tom Brady will be on the field. But right now,

a lot of panic in Foxborough for the Patriots. The glove is the biggest story since Michael Jackson's glove. It's like unbelievable. Tom's wearing a red glove. You know, it's like... Well, it's MJ's glove, OJ's gloves, and now we're back to Brady's gloves. Now we're back to Brady's that's well said there. Look, I don't know what's going to happen. I think we'll know in pregame warm up. If I were CBS, I would have that pregame warm up films so that everybody, I know Vegas is kind of worried about it. We know Tracy Wolfson will be on the sideline reporting everything that Tom Brady is doing. Right on top of it and watch him throw.

But I'm sure he's not going to go out there and throw unless he knows he can throw. So we'll see what happens today. I mean, the one thing the Patriots said he didn't practice yesterday, people were in a paddock. You know, it might be good for his arm not to practice. You know, maybe he'll take a break. And one thing I know about Tommy and his rehab and what he needs to do. And I've seen some situations with Tom where I thought he wasn't going to be able to play on the game of the week, you know, kind of ankle, whatever. And he's always rallied to play.

So if he can play, he's going to play. Now, can he control the football? We'll have to wait and see how his thumb is, but I would assume he could. The irony of the whole situation is, as we went into the championship weekend, that people have talked about this all week about the quarterbacks that are playing. We have Nick Foles, we have Case Keenham, and we have Blake Bortles. And we have Blake Bortals. The People's MVP is what Joel Salmon won't me to call him.

He is the People's MVP. And then we had Brady, you know. But if Brady doesn't play and we get Hoyer and those three quarterbacks, I mean, we may have a lot of fun this weekend. Yeah, this could be ugly football. This could be ugly football. I mean, I would be surprised if Tom didn't play. I have no information of that because it's Friday and look, we're practicing. So, you know, one thing I do know that whomever plays quarterback for the Patriots, the game plan is really not going to change, right?

So the Patriots know that they have to be able to protect the football. Jacksonville's 17 interceptions. They're not going to do that. They've got to be able to prove that they can run the football against Jacksonville because Jacksonville is one thing Jacksonville will allow you to do is run the ball. And for New England, it's really critical to be able to run the ball out of their base formation. because if they can run the ball out of base, whether it's Devlin in the backfield, whether it's the other tight end in the back field,

whomever it is, and it keeps Jacksonville's base defense on the field, then that gives New England an advantage to spread them out. If this becomes an 11 game where Jacksonville can play their nickel, where they can kick Callais Campbell down inside, and they can have Malik Jackson and Campbell over the guards and have their two rushers on the outside, then it becomes a challenge, a more challengeable game.

If I were Jacksonville, I would just say to what? I would tell Tom Brady, Brian Hoare, whomever plays quarterback. I'm in nickel the whole game you guys deal with it, see how you work out. But I don't think that's how Jacksonville's going to play it. And we're just talking about Jacksonville in general. I remember this story. When Calais Campbell, when he goes down to Jacksonville,

I remember all the Broncos guys, all these people saying that, you know, people don't go after championships anymore. They're not even trying to go after a Super Bowl. And Campbell, when he went down there, he was like, I saw something in Jacksonville. I thought we could go to a Super Bowl and everyone thought he was crazy. And now he's one game away from the Super Bowl. I mean, just that Jacksonville defense for them to get to

together and get to this moment is pretty wild. It's really remarkable considering, you know, I mean, look, what they've had to overcome and how they play, but they're really well coordinated, they're a zone concept defense, they rally to the football, they've got really good team speed, they tackle well, and they create turnovers, and they force you on the play along field, and I think that's going to be the key to this game. I think the key to this game is going to be special teams' field position. You know, Coughlin has this great reputation for beating Belichick, and it's earned because

he has done it. But I think if you dig deeper into why he has won, because Tom's a true understanding how to play the game. And field position matters. And so when he beat him in that playoff game, the best field position I think the Patriots had was their own 25-yard line. They played Weatherford should have won the MVP of the game, not Eli and Manningham.

I mean, he pinned the Patriots back. And I think that's going to be the key to the game. If Brady can play on a shorter field or Hoyer, whomever, and move the ball 30 yards, 40 yards, and score, then it's a different game. If he's got to go 90, that defense is going to eventually make a play at some point on that drive. And you mentioned Tom Coughlin, a man of three phases, three phases of the game, believes in all that. Is there something that he says? We don't know how directly he deals with the team itself.

I mean, but is he a guy that Doug Maron would bring in and say, hey, Coughlin knows these guys. Let's let him talk to the team or something like that. Well, I think certainly he could talk to him and address the importance of the game. Like, look, these are special moments. Like, I really truly measure your career, not by how many Super Bowls you win, by how many conference championships you get to. because anything can happen on top. But when you're one of the final four teams in football, you really have achieved something. I mean, that's a great achievement.

I mean, for the Patriots to have seven consecutive Final Four appearances is a record that's never going to be touched. They might get eight next year, but you don't know that. To me, I've always thought the conference championship games should be twofold. I think they should be recognized as an achievement in your career beyond, you know, we didn't win a Super Bowl. Okay. And secondly, I still think Lamar Hunt was right when he said, we should take the conference championship games and make them into conference championship weekend. Like take them to a venue to blow it up like a Final Four game.

And then have the Super Bowl after that. And I think, you know, we see it in college football. People travel to the Rose Bowl or people travel here to support their team. People say, well, it takes away home field advantage. We see it in college all the time. Those fans travel. The crowd, look, that crowded Georgia-Albara game was unbelievably loud. So I think those.

But I think truly this is a measure, and I think Coughlin can speak to that, Tate Frazier. I think he can talk to him about that. And I think he can talk to the coaches about how he views Belichick will try to play the game and the style in the matter that he'll try to play it. And I know we don't get too much into the vagus situation with the lines moving. But we should mention that the line has gone down. It was at 1.9. I think it got up to 9.5. And now we're at 7.5.

So a lot of people believe in these Jacksonville Jaguars, which is. I think it'll be a close game. Like I could see that. I don't see how the Patriots are a touchdown better team in this game. I think they're the better team. And just let's say Brady's healthy. I think there's a way that they have to play it. Now, Jacksonville, on the other hand, you know, the Patriots' defense hasn't really gotten a lot of credit.

And they've played better as the year has gone on. They keep people out of the end zone. And they're going to play the run much better than Pittsburgh did. There's no doubt about that. They're going to play the run much better. And they're going to force the ball in the Blake Bordel's hands. Can he do it? The key to this game, though, Dave Frazier, for me, is the first quarter.

If the Patriots can get the lead and play from in front, Jacksonville has two personalities. They have the personality that they played on Sunday against Pittsburgh where they're in the lead. Where everything's going right. Everyone's smiling. Blake Bortals is smiling. Everything's great. And then they have the other personality like the San Francisco game when they got behind in the game

and Jimmy G was really shredding them down the field out of base personnel. I think the Patriots must play from in front in this game. I think it's a harder game for the Patriots if they have to play from behind. One more note before we move on to the next game. Did you see this Jalen Brown thing? No. So Jalen Brown, for people I don't know, shooting guard for the Boston Celtics,

big name guy. Sixers beat him last night, which was shocking. Congratulations to the sick. Congratulations to Joe L.N.B., the guy that we've thrown some shade at, but started on the all-star team, congratulations to him. But quickly, Jalen Brown, his cousin is A.J. Bouyeh.

Okay. Great cornerback for the Jags. It's had a great season. And, you know, Brown and that Boston fan base, you got to stay all Boston. That's usually how it rolls up in Boston. as we know it with Bill Simmons and this whole situation here. But Jalen Brown came out and said that he is supporting his cousin, AJ Bouye.

He'll be wearing a Jags jersey. He's all about it. This was not a good decision. The people came after him quick, all the Boston fans, they're saying, well, trade him for Anthony Davis. I mean, every single comment underneath that was trade him for Anthony Davis. I didn't even like him in the first place. I mean, they went full circle 180 on the guy in 10 minutes,

and now they want to trade him out of town. How tough is that, I mean, to hear that if you're dealing. That's why they call him fans. They're fanatics. about it. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, that's why that's the nickname. I mean, you know, the one thing about that area, and that's the other thing about the Patriots. I mean, there's

two venues this weekend, right? So, Foxborough and Philadelphia. And Foxborough isn't, the Patriots lost two games out of this year, so it isn't like it's allowed. And it's going to be warmer, so it's not going to be cold, so people can actually get, and, you know, they're drinking all day, so three o'clock start there. You know, it's going to, but it's not like you can't

run your offense there. It's not like, oh my God. Where's it? Philly, six, three, 30 start. I mean, half the people are going to be so drunk. I don't even know if they're going to be able to chin. Yeah, it would be great. So I'm not sure there's a, that home field is as prevalent in New England as it is in Philadelphia. And going into this game, I just thought that, you know,

New England had gotten to a point where they were fat and happy. And then I saw that Jalen Brown situation. I was like, okay, well, they care. It might be a rough weekend for a boy, Blake. I don't think New England ever thinks they're fat and happy because I think Belichick has been drilling this team all week long on, hey, we can't turn the ball over. He's probably showed the team every 17 of those in

receptions. Look at this moron trying to throw the ball here. Look at this idiot. Can you imagine doing this? I mean, he showed it all to him. And just how I just said it right there is how he'll do it. Look at this moron trying to throw this in-cut and when he guys got inside technique. Look at this idiot over here. Just deadpan never raised his voice. So they're well aware of what they have to do. And I think it's really going to come down to Joe Judge's special teams unit, their ability to cover kicks and their ability to make Blake Bordell's play on the long field and make Brady play on a short field. Blake Bortles, he's our moron.

The people's moron. Blake Bortles is going to be just, I mean, I just can't wait to see it. I really can. I mean, he's the people's champion. He really is. He is. We're excited to see what Blake can do this weekend. Let's go to the second game of the day and that will be in Philadelphia. Where the parade is. Yeah, the parade's already being planned. We've been talking about it all season. They're now really, really buying into this.

Minnesota's coming in town, a team that has been deemed the team of destiny after the incredible digs touchdown that we talked about at length on Tuesday. But now we've got a situation where the Eagles have Keenham and the Vikings coming to town. I thought one funny tidbit about Keenum, he did dump his Gatorade on Diggs in the locker room. And Griffin and Linvald Joseph and all those guys in the background, you could hear him yelling.

I saw us on inside the NFL. They're yelling, hey, don't do that yet. Don't do that yet. Save that for when we actually do go to the Super Bowl and win the NFC. So it'll be a fun game. I think this will be a really good game. I think the chess match.

I think Mike Zimmer is one of the best coaches in football, and I think his ability to handle, They're the best third down team in football. What's fascinating about these final four teams is Bill Parcells loves this stat. It's called rushes and completions. So you take the rushes and you take the completions in a game and you add them together. And if you get over 51, you should win the game. Okay.

The number one team in that stat is Minnesota. The number two team in that stat is New Orleans. Three is New England. Philadelphia is seventh. Okay. So the teams that are in the finals, Jacksonville, I think, is four or some, they're in the top five. Okay. So the teams that are in the finals,

prove out Parcells' theory, that rushes in completions. And what that tells you is your execution's really good. Minnesota's the number one team in that stat. They're at 53.9. So they're really good. So they execute. That for a coach or an executive, that tells you how your execution is. So you're looking at that.

They're good there. They're also really good on third down. And I think this is where the game's going to come down to. Nick Foles only through seven incompletions last week, four in the first half, three in the second half. So the second half, he was very good on third. third down. I don't know if he can be that good on third down. Going into the game, he was averaging about three yards per attempt on third down. He was 12 for 28 going into that

game on third down. This is going to be a whole different game on third down. This is going to be a lot of different looks, a lot of exotic double a gap pressures, how they handle it. And I think Zimmer's going to put a lot of pressure on it. And I think both defenses are going to have to carry the offenses in this game. And we obviously know Zimmer and what he's able to do, the acumen that he has on the defensive side of the football. But then we also have on the other side, Jim Schwartz, a guy that, you know, we thought should we, I think we gave him the assistant coach of the year. Yeah.

And he's going to have the defense doing the sort of the same things to Keenham. So, I mean, that's going to be a chess match on defense. I mean, that's basically going to become the off. That's going to be the entertaining part of this game. Both teams' defenses will become the offense. Now, I think here's where Minnesota has a little bit of an advantage. It's in the kicking game, right? So Minnesota's punter has never punted the ball in the end zone until last weekend.

That was the first time he got a touchback all year. So he controls field position. The weather is going to be in the 40s. Maybe it'll did. into the low 30. So weather's really not going to be a factor. It's not going to be frozen tundra of Green Bay. It's not going to be ice bowl part two. So the field position is really going to matter in this game. And when you're playing good defenses, like New England's playing Jacksonville and Philly's playing Minnesota and Minnesota's playing Philly, the field position

really matters. And I think Philadelphia's special teams are really good. And I think Minnesota's special teams are really good. So that battle, the punters are really going to play a role here because we know third down isn't going to be easy for either team. Okay? It's going to hard to block Jernigan. It's going to be hard to block Fletcher Cox. It's going to be hard. So you're going to have to punt the ball a little bit in this game. You're going to have to play back and forth.

I think it's a game in the teens, and I think special teams really are going to matter. And I think Minnesota's ability in that area is what gives them a little bit of an edge. And then we have a situation too where, you know, it's like four Beth versus Elliott, those two guys for the Eagles and the Vikings. I mean, it may come down to kicks in this game. It's definitely going to, here's what every game comes down to. The final four minutes of both halves. I mean, look, if you go back and watch the Atlanta tape again, you. You're almost sick to watch it again.

I mean, I still can't believe how bad the play calls were on the – but at the end of the first half, the defense allowed those three points. If they don't allow those cheap three points that the kid makes the 50 – Elliott makes a 53-yard field goal. Then when it's first to go at the nine, they're kicking the winning field goal to win the game, right? So they matter. So the last four minutes of both half really matter. And I think that's where these defenses can excel.

And both of these offensive lines, Monday morning, when we wake up and whether it's going to be a parade on Broad Street or not, it's going to be based on the Eagles' offensive line, blocking Minnesota, and it's going to be whether Minnesota's offensive line can block Philadelphia. Yeah, and we should mention Carson Winston Winston Winst is probably going to get a lot of looks on the sideline. A lot of looks. I don't understand why he's down there, though, Tey Fras. Like, the guy's on a crutch. Like, why would you want to risk? I know he's back there a little bit, but like I... I think that sort of plays into the grittiness of Philadelphia, though, for him to be on the sideline with the toboggan on and the crutch and just to see like he's a normal guy.

because, I mean, for the most part, if someone that high profile, I mean, look, when Jeremy Shockey was hurt with the giant, he was up in the owner's box. So, I mean, if a tight ends up there, of course, the quarterback could be up there. It should be up there, right? I don't understand. Like, what is he doing down there? It doesn't make any sense to me. Like, I don't know. With a championship game, there was, you know, we talked about this on the pot. I mean, there was a zillion people on the field. Like, the less people on the field, the better. Like, you got to be able to think. And I think this is true what's going to happen here. I think we saw some really poor game management coaching last week. And I think this weekend, I know in the Jacksonville, New England game, that'll be really well handled by both sides. And it'll be interesting to see how Zimmer and Peterson do that chess match there, how they handle it, how they play it, and how those last four minutes are managed. And the Vikings are favored by three in this game. Has that line moved at all? No, not at all.

I think it opened up at three and a half maybe, and now it's at three, but I'm seeing everywhere. I think everybody thinks home field really matters, and I think it does, and I think it certainly will in Philadelphia in the first half, I do think that, you know, this is the kind of these games, because they play 60, the longer the game goes, home field matters less and less. And so, you know, this is going to be a night game. And I think Keenham is going to have to rally to the challenge. One of these guys, Keenham or Foles, are going to have to be the difference in the game. I just think Minnesota is just a little bit better as a football team. I mean, look, Philly's the number one seed, but that's because of Wence.

This isn't the number one C because of what Foles did. I think Foles is going to look at, they're going to look at that Raider tape. And if you really watch that Raider tape closely against the Eagles, John Pagano did a really good job of attacking the Eagles protections with his defensive scheme. And I think that Zimmer can do that. Atlanta was not good at that at all. Atlanta's not what Atlanta does. It's just like Jacksonville.

People say, well, Jacksonville, Jacksonville is really a bad blitz team. I mean, Jacksonville's numbers when they blitz are not very good. Jacksonville's numbers when they play zone and they play their cover one, which is... And let those four guys get the pass rush. That's when they're good, right? And if you spread out Jacksonville and you try to throw that stuff on, them, that's when they're really good. But if you play out a base with them and force them to have to defend

runner pass, different games. So to me, it's all how you want to play. I think style is going to matter. That's why I'm excited to watch both games. Absolutely. And before we wrap this thing up, we got to get you. What are you like in the games? You can't sit there and, you know, you've got to cough it up. Let's go. It's going to be Pat's Vikings. You think so? Yeah. I think it will

be. I think we're going to get Minnesota at home. I think they're going to have a good chance against the Pat's. There's no way that the Jaguars beat the Patriots. But as I'm saying that, I'm really hoping that Blake Portals hears it, rallies. You want me, you want me to have to live through two. You're really rooting for Philly Jacksonville. See, if it's Philly Jacksonville, we're going to have to really figure out what we're going to do.

No, we're going to go back in. I mean, look, we'll talk about it. I mean, it'll be interesting to see. People can really get involved. I mean, I would think the NFL had set that up to spite us if that would happen after our whole season of coverage. People say, well, Philly go, I mean, we know this for a fact. People in Philly are absolutely insane about the Eagle team. And if Carson wins was the course.

quarterback, aka the MVP of the season, then I'm picking the Philadelphia probably to win the whole thing. I think there's no doubt. Yeah. I think there's no doubt. I think the... And if they had Peters on the line, I would pick that. I mean, there's so many guys that they lost this season that keeps Philadelphia.

It's not because you don't like the Eagles. It's just the amount of the guys they've lost. Yeah, exactly right. That's all it is. So what are your picks? Can you give me your picks? I said I like Minnesota and I like New England. Okay.

Minnesota. I think... And I think both games will be really close. Yeah. I think both games will be really close. And I think that it's going to come down. I think the Minnesota-Filadelphia game will be back and forth. I think the Patriot game will be about the first quarter and then we'll figure out it from there.

And I think once Belichick gets a sense of what the plan is in the first quarter, are they going to try to throw it to run it or are they going to try to run it like they did in Pittsburgh? I think they'll have a sense of trying to get control of it. I think the game in Jacksonville, New England, I think that game will be a 24-17 type of game. I think the Eagle game will be in the teens. Absolutely. I will say this. If Blake Bortals has a first quarter like Marriota had and they get up 7-0, I may lose my mind. That could be easily happened. That could happen, right?

But it's going to be interesting how Blake handles the pressure, too. We're not even counting that in there, okay? Like, there's a lot of pressure on you here. There's a little bit of pressure. You've got to be able to deal with it. Let's see what he does. Let's see if you can Bordle his way to the top and get to a Super Bowl. This has been another edition of GM Street, part of the Ringer podcast network. Friday Focus with Mike Lombardi.

somebody. Thanks, Dave Fraser.