The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Divisional Weekend, Saturday Games Recap | Dual Threat

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

Nora and Steven get together to share their reactions to Saturday’s NFL divisional-round playoff matchups. They begin by breaking down the 49ers’ gutsy win over the Packers and discuss the quarterback viability of both Brock Purdy and Jordan Love going forward. Next, they marvel at Lamar Jackson’s impressive performance in his win over the Texans and speculate on what’s next for the promising Houston squad next season (30:37). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ringer gambling feat is your one-stop shop for all things betting throughout the NFL season, from week one all the way through Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. We have you covered every which way. We've got our favorite futures. We've got props. We'll discuss the lines. And, of course, we'll throw in a few parlase. That's a given.

So whether you're a sharp or square better, we'll be breaking it down in terms. Hopefully, everybody can understand. And we'll try to win some money along the way. So be sure to subscribe to the ring of gambling feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. From the Dole Threat, I'm Nora Pinciotti. And I'm Stephen Ruiz. And it is Saturday night, divisional round night one. And we finally got a good game.

The Ravens beat the Texans in a blowout in the afternoon. But 49ers Packers delivered. Finally some second half lead changes. Finally a game that came down to the. the final play, which it did. Drey Greenlaw picked off Jordan Love and that ended what had been a really, really entertaining, somewhat stressful and interesting lot to unpack NFC set up for the title game next week where the 49ers will play in their fourth NFC championship game in the last five years and

they'll play the winner of Lions Bucks. There was just so much that happened in this game. Stephen, where do you want to start with this one? should we start with Brock Birdie? And the fact that he struggles to throw in the rain, I got to make it negative. But I feel like we have to start with Brock Bertie because that's going to be the question

after every 49ers playoff game is like, is he going to do this thing? And so far, so good, one for three. He's got two more to go, but he barely escaped this one. But when, to his credit, after playing a poor game in the rain, I did think he played a hell of a last drive.

That last drive was like, that's what they needed him to do and he came through. He made a couple throws, a couple of outbreaking throws with a wet ball. So kudos to him where it's due. I don't think he deserves kudos for the first 90% of the game, but the last 10% he deserves them.

I get that there's like a clutch narrative and you got to win the game at some point. And he deserves credit for doing that. I just, to me, the idea that that final drive where, I mean, yes, he made a couple throws to the sideline on the outbreaking stuff which had been much more of a problem in the earlier, as you said, 90% of the game.

This is, it is really hard for me to get over how bad he looked in this game. And to not think that it should be, I mean, you know, credit to San Francisco for winning this game. I said it in the intro, four NFC championship games appearances in five years. That's a really, really impressive streak. Good for them. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn for, yeah. vast majority of this game. And I know the weather was bad and he had the glove on and then he took the glove off.

But first of all, I mean, I know his hands are smaller than Jordan loves. But like the way that they were talking about on the broadcast, I saw someone tweet. It was like, who's the Charlie Brown character Pigpen who just has the like cloud of the rain cloud over him at all times? It was like there's just like a little rain cloud following Brock Purdy around. And he was the, I mean, Jordan Love did not seem impacted by this. Brock Purdy seemed so severely impacted where it was hard to tell who he was throwing to a lot of the time. I mean, that was, I am, you know, look, this is not a super Brock Purdy enthusiastic podcast. Brock Purdy, I think, usually looks a lot better than that.

And to have that be, you know, maybe it's some combination of the weather, maybe it's some combination of having, what was it, 21 days off since the last game that he, started in, I suppose my takeaway from it is that if you're San Francisco, you better hope that it's that. Because if he, if this is what Brock Purdy looks like in, in the playoffs, I said it a little bit tongue in cheek before we started recording. But like, congratulations to the Detroit Lions on going to the Super Bowl. Because at a certain point, particularly because we don't know what's happening with Debo Samuel's health, if he's going to miss some time here, it just at a certain point, the skill position talent becomes not enough when, one, the quarterback just cannot make an accurate pass. And two, Kyle Shanahan continues to still put the ball in his hands

and ask him to throw. I mean, Brock Pretty finished the game 23 of 39. So he dropped back 40 times in this game. I just, I would be nervous about that. Do you think that I'm overrating the conditions, the how much the elements affected him, maybe some rest? I don't. I don't think you're overrating the elements. I think the elements were the main cause of it. I mean, we saw this in the Cleveland game. I think it's not a matter of Russ. It was the same exact way the ball was coming out of his hand

when they played Cleveland in the rain and he could not. It was the same situation where, like, you didn't even know where he was throwing, who he was throwing to at times. I don't think it's going to rain again next week. I think it's not going to be an issue for the next two weeks. And if it does rain and their opponent is Jared Koff, guess who has even smaller hands than Brockford

Jared Koff? So, they should be able to survive that. I think the fact that they were able to survive this this purdy performance and still put up 24 points. I know obviously they got help from the defense. They got a couple of turnovers, especially in the second half.

I think it's a good sign for them. It very much felt like a playoff game in San Francisco when Jimmy G was the quarterback. And usually they lose those types of games where the quarterback is just so bad that all the talent around them can't overcome it. I think this 49ers team that they've built around the quarterback

position is too good to fail. Purdy really has to have a stinker for them to lose next week, I think, in my opinion. I don't think either team, Tampa Bay, especially not Tampa Bay, but Detroit stands a chance unless Purdy has like a horror show. That's the one thing I'll say. But like even still, even though Kyle wasn't necessarily like leaning on the run game, you still got an impact from Christian McCaffrey. He's that good where it doesn't matter how many carries is getting.

He's going to impact the game. Brandon Iyuk, he wasn't getting good. service from Purdy all game. Even on like the last third down conversion, where Purdy kind of throws it at his knees and like Ayuk is running, has to reach back, catch it at his knees. Like that was a great catch by him.

But like they're just going to make up for it. Juwan Jennings is like the most clutch player in football. Right. He's making like leaping throws, adjustments in midair over the middle where balls tend to get dropped and he's making tough catches. But unless like Purdy has a D minus F game, like it's very hard for this team to lose

because they just have such a margin for error that no other team in this conference especially enjoys. I mean, if you're on the 49er side, that is definitely the better way to look at it and the more encouraging way to look at it going forward in the playoffs. And it's not that I don't think that that's within the realm of possibility or even likelihood, I guess.

I think how much Purdy struggled kind of masks, how little Green Bay did defensively. Right, yes. I mean, they gave up a lot on anything that was in breaking. They really struggled to defend. The second level was really weak. That last drive, I mean,

he made a couple of those nice throws to the sideline. But in general, all of a sudden, that was sort of like, okay, if you just don't miss by two yards, this is what it looks like against this Joe Barry defense. And it's just like some of the clock management stuff we can talk about. To me, I was just sitting there and yelling at my television. Like, if you're going to play like this, just let them score.

Just let them score. Just if they're going to score a touchdown at the end of this drive. And Jordan Love ended up with a minute and seven seconds to try to make something of it. And obviously, you know, the last pick was a bad pick. Yeah. But I think if the quarterback had had had a even competent night, they would have put up some pretty significant points. And so I don't think, I mean, obviously the conditions are the, adverse quality of the environment,

but I think they were in a pretty friendly environment in terms of how, what they were facing on the other side of the field. So I really feel like if you're Green Bay, I mean, this shouldn't be hard to stomach, right? You are so far ahead of schedule in terms of where Jordan Love is, where the rest of this team is.

You want a playoff game and you lose by three points to the number one seed to the 49ers who've had all. this playoff experience, all this success, that should feel great. I wonder, honestly, if it is pretty tough to swallow and in a lot of ways tougher to swallow

than, you know, the Ravens losing by 24 to a team that was, sorry, the Texans, not the Ravens, losing by 24 to a team that was just clearly better than them. Because the Packers played a better game. Like, the Packers should have won this game. The Packers were pretty clearly the better team, but... Let me stop you there.

Let me ask you a question. Were they the better team or did they have the better quarterback? I think they were the better team. Now, you know, if you make the pie chart of that, a huge amount of it is tied up in the fact that they had the better quarterback. But, I mean, just overall, like the way that they were able to move the ball was substantially better than San Francisco. I guess defensively, you know, San Francisco gets the nod there.

special teams, I guess, is kind of a wash, right? Because Green Bay got a bunch of big plays, but they missed the field goal. I take your point, and a lot of it is the quarterback, but as a whole, the 49ers got outplayed, I think. Yeah, yeah, I think that's fair. But just going back to your original point about the concern about Purdy, I think there is concern, there should be concerned with a performance like this,

but I think that's more long-term concern, like, because it might not rain next week, and it's definitely not going to rain in the Super Bowl because they're playing indoors. It's going to rain in San Francisco again. Right. Sometimes it rains. Like, it happens a couple times per season.

If your quarterback isn't viable in the rain, like much less good in the rain. This team, it is based in a metropolitan area whose, like, most famous quality is fog. It is a precipitation-related natural element. It can't be. that he just simply cannot play in the rain. Like, we can't do this.

And it's so, it's like kind of fascinating, but also kind of maddening because they've been on this roller coaster of, oh, we can win with a limited quarterback. We just need someone who can run Kyle's system. And, oh, no, just kidding. We've got to trade all these picks for Trey Lance and see if we can get someone who has, you know, plus athletic ability and can be a playmaker.

And, oh, no, just kidding. That didn't work out. But Brock Purdy's here. And he's got a little bit more athleticism, a little bit more playmaking ability. But he's more in the propped up by the system category. And that's okay. And this is such a silly conversation to be having in some ways. Because like, what if they win the Super Bowl?

They're not going to have a conversation about replacing Brock Bertie. But he can't play in the rain. Right. Are you calling him a clear skies merchant? Yes. I guess. Like, it's just silly. Like, it's just, it's just like a silly thing.

Have you ever flown into that airport? You're, like, you don't know where you are. You're just wrapped in, like, gauze. And then all of a sudden you're on the ground. It's foggy there all the time. Put a roof on that stadium if you're going to sign Brock Purdy. Of course. This is, you find a way.

The 49ers should just travel with a roof and be like, when they go to away games and it starts raining. Like, do you mind if we put a roof? roof on over? Could he get one of those umbrella hats? Like, could they attach it to his helmet? Just one of those big. Yeah, with the, you know, like, cinch it.

They got to do something. I don't know. It's a problem. Like, we're laughing about it. And, like, I think people are going to write it off like they did with the Browns game. But when your quarterback can't throw in elements, like, it is a problem. And, like, that has to factor in. It just has to factor into decision making when you're deciding whether this is the guy you're going to roll with for the next five years,

presumably. Like, I feel like it has to matter. And I don't think it will. I think it will matter in games like this. I mean, it will. Right, no, no. But I mean, like, like contract or then deciding, they're not going to be like,

if they went to Super Bowl, like you said, you're not going to be like, well, you remember those two times when he couldn't throw him in the rain? But maybe they should say that. Because it's like we have said, it's going to rain in the future. So, I mean, first of all,

it's not like this is the only example of, this guy being somewhat limited, right? Like, this was a bad Brock Purdy game. This was the worst game I've seen Brock Party play since the last time they played another team that's still alive in the playoffs. So it's not just a one game bad elements sample of when he's facing tough competition.

It's not great. We'll move on. There's so much to talk about from this game. There's no interest in ragging on Brock Party for the sake of ragging on Brock Purdy, there's like, honestly, a online football narrative conversation that I could not possibly want to be a part of less.

But, like, this was bad. He, he, his best plays were, except for two throws on that last drive, involved receivers, like, really contorting themselves in order to make catches that were not thrown near their hands, near the center of their body.

And there were five or six throws in this game where it landed somewhere completely random. And I mean, you have to go back and figure out did someone, maybe there's other forms of miscommunication and someone was supposed to be somewhere. They broke at the wrong level or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, it's pretty uncommon, I feel, to watch a quarterbacking performance

and see so many throws where you're just like, I don't know who he was, what was he, like, what was going on? where was that supposed to go? And this is the second round of the playoffs. Like, it's just weird to be having this conversation. But whatever, it was raining. So I guess it's fine.

But if we see the light draining out of Kyle Chanhan's eyes, this might have something to do with why. Not that Kyle was totally innocent himself here. The end of how. half-clock management where it seemed like they weren't trying to score or they were just playing to get to halftime. They did end up getting a set up for the field goal kick, but it got blocked. So they went into the half up seven, six was really, really questionable.

I guess he was vindicated for the end of game management where he really just made it about that one possession. And then Lafleur kind of did him some favors with not calling to. timeouts while Greenbyo was playing defense. And that ended up being either the right decision or a vindicated decision. But I didn't think that this was like a great showing for Kyle Clock manager. No. I feel like I'm being really negative.

What, like, what did the 49ers do well in this game? They're going to the NFC championship game. Let's let's give them some compliments. I mean, I think they won a game where they played poorly. Like, that is an accomplishment. And it was in, like, a unique environment. I guess it's not that unique. We keep harping on the rain, but it is unique to their quarterback.

They affect it has on them. And they were able to survive. Like, these performances usually send teams home. Like, Baltimore in 2019, when they ran into a team that nobody gave a chance in Tennessee. And Baltimore played its worst game of the season. They went home. This was one of the worst games we've seen out of. of this offense all year long. It was one of the worst

games, like you said, that we've seen out of Brock Purdy, and they won against an opponent that I think, like, I know their seed is it, the seventh seat in the NFC, this is one of the 10 best teams in football. And they were able to survive their sea game against one of the 10 best teams in football

in unique circumstances for their quarterback. I think that's a positive. But I would be more worried about Kyle's performance, at least as it pertains to the rest of this postseason, because that's the worry with Kyle.

No one's really worried about his play calling, but game management has been an issue with him time and time again, and it usually shows up on these big moments, and this was another big moment where if they lose this game, of course, like Brock Purdy's getting a lot of shit, but I think Kyle is in for one hell of an off season if they lose this game. And for him, that's always the case.

It's kind of like a Dak Prescott thing, where like it's what have you done for me lately with Kyle, especially in the playoffs, because he has, I don't want to say he's blown the leads himself, but his teams have blown significant leads in the Super Bowl on the stage. And I don't think he can survive another one of those. And this was another one of those embarrassing,

or this would have been another one of those embarrassments. But he got through it. At the same time, it's the same mistakes. He's always making time management, whether to be conservative or aggressive before the half, when to call timeouts, when to use your timeouts,

there was a lot of, like, end of the play clock situations where they had to use timeouts, and that's a thing with him all the time. The fact that he and Lefleur both had all of their timeouts going into those final two drives was, like,

not what I would have anticipated. No, those are two men that love a good timeout. Love a good timeout. Love to call a timeout. So credit words do, I suppose. But, like, for me, I'm not really taking a lot from this game from the 49ers perspective

because of the rain, And maybe that's a fault of my analysis, but I really don't think this is a game that's useful for predicting what's going to happen next with the 49ers, unless it rains next week. Have we checked the weather report? There are on average 68 days of rain per year in San Francisco. No, I didn't check the weather forecast next week.

But we'll hope for sunny skies. Mostly sunny. I just checked. Few. Thank goodness. 49 is going to the Super Bowl. And then, and Las Vegas, a desert. Perfect. Perfect situation. Everything is solved.

Hey, I'm going to be there. I'll bring sprinklers if I have to. My job's on the line here. A little spray bottle. Like, when you were doing that with your cat? Yeah, yeah. Like if your cat's like chewing on something or Miss Bia, you're just a little spray.

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to send spray brought pretty with this. I think I could get Mark Davis on board with this. He doesn't want to see the 49ers win a championship. I know they moved from Oakland, but that's still a rivalry. I could probably convince Mark. The Raiders facilities, first of all,

they are like a global warming nightmare because they've constructed this very like indoor, outdoor facility and also it's like 100 degrees there during training camp. So they have, but then you like walk underneath, you walk into this sort of like garage where they have all of the gym stuff and somehow it's 68 degrees and it's just like, this can't be good. This can't be a good idea.

But they have all of these, like, big spritzing machines. So he's got it. He's got the technology. All right. This is like, okay, we got it. We got to get in touch with Mark Davis. When it comes to the NFL playoffs, you've got to win one game at a time. But when you bet the NFL playoffs on Fandul, one game can mean a lot of wins.

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required refund issued as non-waddrawable bonus betch, which expire seven days after receipt, max refund $5 unless otherwise specified restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. I really want to talk about Jordan Leff. Let's do it. The last play was tough. I mean, you don't throw across your body like that. He's been the king of the fade away, but that was like really, that was falling, not fading.

but I don't want that to be the lasting take because he played such a good game and he did so much to mask how good San Francisco is defensively and I mean just the way that he deals with pressure is so good it is such an asset for them

and for a game where it felt like it was sort of like who was going to make the last mistake like this was a really interesting game. It was a really entertaining game. But it felt like a game that was defined by like fuckups. I'm just like, oh, they miss a field goal. Oh, like, here's this drop.

Here's this interception. I thought Jordan Love, I mean, you know, he did. He threw ultimately two picks in this game. But he was the player where I was like, thank God someone knows what they're doing. What did, I mean, you've, you've bet on his game from the start. What did you think about his? performance. Yeah, I think that's what stood out, like, these damn fade away. Sometimes they, sometimes they burn you like it did at the end. But I think that's the trait. Like, that's capital

T, the trait for quarterbacks, especially now, is being able to have some answer for pressure in your face, whether it's making the back foot throws, whether it's like a Tom Brady situation where you just shuffle over in the pocket, find new space and then reset and throw. Like, I think that's like the common thread that connects all of these quarterbacks, like across generations, like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, like all of these guys, one thing that they're all really good at is avoiding sacks. And Jordan Love has that. And he has it because of this arm and, like, he's like a multidirectional thrower.

Like that's not even a term I've ever heard anyone talk about using football. But like, that's the only way I can describe how he can throw the football. He can go to his right, go to his left. He'd be going forward. He can go on backwards. He can go in diagonally. And I think that's the trait that you need to have to be an elite quarterback in the modern NFL. That's why I'm so skeptical of guys like Brock Purdy who, I think, like, Brock Purdy is a good off-platform thrower for a guy that we consider, like, not super talented.

But you see when he has to throw from an awkward platform, when he has to make a fade-away throw. That ball floats. You can't put zip on the ball. And I think one thing that Jordan Lough proved in this game, even though we saw the last few mistakes, was that that skill plays against an elite defense and an elite pass rush. Right.

And I thought what was really impressive about this performance is, like, I know the names have changed and like some of the players have changed, the coordinators have changed, but this 49ers defense is similar to the 49ers defense that took on Green Bay when Aaron Rogers was the quarterback in the playoffs. and we saw how much their dominance broke the offense when they pressured Aaron Rogers. Right.

It did not happen against Jordan Love. He didn't get sacked. And that's not to say, Jordan Love's a better player than Aaron Rogers because in Aaron Rogers, in Aaron Rogers' prime, when he was Jordan Love's age, he could do all this, he could do everything Jordan Love's doing at a higher clip.

He was way better than him at his pride. But that was the one thing that I thought Aaron Rogers lost over the last couple of years, even when he was winning MVP. and it's kind of the thing that had been missing from Green Bay's offense, and they got it back this year. And I know how it ended, but we still saw glimpses of that on the biggest stage of Jordan Love's career.

And I think that's a positive sign. If I'm a Green Bay fan, like, I'd be disappointed in how the game ended because they were in the lead. They had the ball. It was right there for them. But, like, when you sleep on it, you have a night to sleep on it, you take a step back, you take a breath. Like, this was everything you wanted to see as a Packers fan.

It's a really interesting conversation in terms of where the league is going because, and look, you know, they're both part of losing efforts. But the two quarterbacks who we saw play today, the two rookie, not rookie quarterbacks, but like first year starting quarterbacks who we would not necessarily have expected to see in this position at the beginning of the year and are with their teams ahead of schedule, CJ Stroud and Jordan Love, neither one of them took a sack today. Both of them were facing defenses that got a lot of pressure. Neither one of them took a sack. So in terms of that being sort of like the trait,

there's a pretty good argument for that based on how these young quarterbacks performed overall on this day. Again, it would be nice to have a win to show for it. But these are young teams. I mean, when we think about the off seasons and sort of like where they go from here, the Packers have an interesting situation with the contracts and what to do,

but they'll figure that out, right? And there'll be a day on Twitter where everybody, you know, puts their economist hat on and goes like, this is a team friendly deal or this is a player friendly deal, but it won't matter. Like, Jordan Love's going to play for the Packers and it's fine. Packers offseason, then other, like, I think it's probably too much to ask for a sort of schematic overhaul of the defense.

I wish it weren't, but I think it, I think it is. So then what are your priorities? You want to get better at the second level. You want to get better at safety would be good. You want to have a little bit more of a fighting chance if the game does become about those in-breakers and you want to have a better chance of defending that. I mean, everyone always needs cornerbacks.

Everyone always needs backup offensive linemen. In Houston, it's sort of like, yeah, you'd love to get another really good receiver in there. That's great. All that's great. Like, that's a nice, those are the, first world problems of off seasons. So

in general, the outlook is so positive. It's like, I don't know, I find this hard to swallow for Green Bay. I thought they had them. It just felt like they were the team that could move the ball down the field and I guess not quite score. Let me push back up against

one thing you said. I think they should overhaul the defense. If Joe Barry's the D.C. for this team next year, I will lose any faith I have left in Matt. I'm not saying that I don't. I'm not saying that I don't think they should. I just don't think they will. Oh, yeah. Well, that's a different conversation. No, they absolutely should.

I just don't think they will. I think they'd need to look at what Minnesota did and do that. And it's not Brian Flores, but like find Brian Flores light. Find a guy that's going to come in and it'd be like, yeah, I'll blitz 50% of the time. If you want me to, I'll just do it. Like, that's the type of defense. I think they should play if they're not going to be able to like restructure the back half of this defense, which is, I think is a more massive undertaking than just simply changing defensive coordinators. Every problem that you could

talk about with Dreambase defense from a personnel perspective is something you could have said about Minnesota last offseason. And we saw what happened. Like, hire Wink Martindale. He's available. That's the guy. He just popped in my head.

Go higher wink, please. It would be great. They would be a better team for it. I don't think Joe Barry's losing his drop. I just, I don't think that that's happening. It's kind of tough when you have like a coach from that coaching tree, like the

the Shanahan McVeigh guys, like they are very innovative, but a lot of nepotism going on in that. It's a little little bit. It's a nepo baby coaching tree. And I think like they really love Joe Barry and it's a part of their crew and I don't think they're going to give up on them that easy.

I think that would be my one concern. But if they do, go for a blitz boy, please. Go for a blitz boy. Let that be the headline. Could you imagine if Wink was in this game calling Blitz's cover zero against Brock Ferdin can't throw the ball? It would have been fun. It would have been a fun day.

But unfortunately, I'm sorry, I will never get overgo from a Blitz Boy. Do we know what the relationship status between Shanahan and LaFleur is these days? Because those two are my favorite frenemies. Like, you know there's a little bit of like, you bitch. Yeah, I think there's a little tension there. There has to be. And I think, like, with them, the fact that they play each other in the playoffs can't be helping that relationship. I feel like coaches are like always friends and then they play each other.

And then, like, that's the end of the friendship. And then it's over. We can't handle this. We cannot get past this. Okay. It's just, I just want to. They looked very friendly after the game. It seemed fine.

I just think the ups and downs of that particular relationship are kind of funny. Let me talk about Lamar. I want to talk about Lamar. Okay. Go. Lamar Jackson. I'm not so sure that Lamar Jackson isn't the best player in football right now. And that includes Patrick Mahomes.

Wow. Okay, make the case. Okay, there are three players that win that game today, or, like, perform well enough for their offense to score 30 plus points in that game. He was under pressure on half of his dropbacks. You seen blitzed them 75% of the time. Can we talk about that for one second? Like, that's unhinged.

They blitzed in the – normally they blitz like 22% of the time. Right. 75% of the time. Nobody was open downfield. He was getting instant pressure. Nobody was getting open. And he would just like, I don't even know how to explain it because it's not running,

but he would like kind of just shuffle back a couple feet. And then all of a sudden, like he'd be out of pressure. And like he never sprinted the whole game unless he was like running in the open field. And the Texans players just couldn't catch him. The pass rushers, they got a couple sacks on them, but that was only when like the pocket closed in and it got instant pressure. It was an amazing performance.

And like the most impressive part of it, Wasn't the 100 yards rushing or like the four touchdowns. It was like the quick game, the boring stuff. Like that was the adjustment they made in the second half against the Blitz. They wanted Lamar to, they were just like, be Tom Brady. Like I know you were trying to be Lamar Jackson the first. I just beat Tom Brady this half. And he did it and he finished with averaging like 0.4 EPA per play.

He had like a 60% success rate. These are Patrick Mahomes MVP year numbers. In a situation where he's getting blitz, 75% of the time and pressured on 50% of those blitzes. He was under duress all game long. They didn't have a run game on the design runs until the fourth quarter. They had a 19% success rate going into the fourth quarter, and that includes Lamar Jackson's runs.

You take his runs out. I don't know what their success rate would have been. It would have been like 5% or 10%. They were averaging minus 0.19 EPA over the first three quarters of the game, and they had 30 points. Or they had like 24 points, and they scored shortly after that. But this guy was just like, it didn't. It didn't matter what Houston did.

And, like, after the game, that was, like, the theme with the Texans players. And D'Amico Ryans was like, man, he just started making plays. And there's, like, nothing we could do about it in the second half. And, like, that's what the Texans players were seeing. And that's what I saw on the field. And it was, like, amazing to watch. Obviously, the defense did a lot. They didn't let the Texans score.

And they dominated the game, and they made things very easy for Baltimore's offense. But when the ball was in Baltimore's hands, it was all Lamar. And that was a good thing. And that's usually not a good thing. for an NFL team, especially in the players. I mean, that was, that, that's what the Ravens sort of were as a team. I mean, they, they all told the story. And Lamar told the story after the game about halftime because, you know,

this is a tie game at the half. It was, they hadn't really found the answer offensively yet. And he, according to all the players, all the post-game reports, all the stuff out of the locker room and what Jackson said in his press conference, he ripped in to everybody. And it was Jackson leading the halftime meeting. And he wouldn't say exactly what he said. He said it would be inappropriate if I said it right now.

He said he cussed a lot, though. But yep, he said some swear words and got everybody riled up. And it apparently worked. But it does seem like a token of the way that this has just become really his team and the way that his leadership has just taken on a new level this season. I mean, he's very clearly always been a very popular player. Teammates love him. It's not like that wasn't true before.

But this feels like his team in terms of how he's playing, but also in terms of the intangible stuff, the locker room stuff, the, you know, team leader stuff in a way that it, hasn't before. And, you know, I've read a tweet during this game that was like, it's the first player in NFL history with two passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, 100 rushing yards, and a 100 plus passer rating. And I was like, oh, yeah, like postseason.

It's not in the postseason, just ever. He's just the first player that's ever done that, like in the history of the NFL. And I don't know. The Mahomes conversation, I think, is so. complicated. But there's certainly no one who's playing better football than he is right now. And this Ravens team, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just because they sort of had something to prove at the beginning of the season. But our wonderful colleague Ben Solac put out in the middle of this game just some of their recent results against playoff teams. And so they end up beating

Houston by 24 in this game. But in the regular season, they played playoff teams eight times. They went six and two in those games. Their point differential was 121. It was plus 121. They beat the Dolphins by 37. They beat the 49ers by 14. They beat the Rams in overtime by six. The only

two games that they lost, they lost by two to Cleveland. They lost by seven to the Steelers. So they lost two division games. They beat the Lions by 32. They beat the Browns by 25. They beat the Texans by 16. I think because maybe it's just sort of the trajectory

maybe it's because they had some games with where they seemed kind of mistake prone at the beginning of the season. I don't think they're recognized as quite the dominant team that they are. And I know that they, you know, it took a minute to get going in the first half

and maybe some of that is having some time off and maybe some of that is just figuring out how to adjust to this game plan that like was interesting from Damica Ryan's. and you love to see a team go out swinging, but I don't know that, even though it does make some sense,

I don't know that you would ever go into a game expecting to be blitzed 75% of the time. So maybe they just needed a little bit of time to adjust to that. But this was a really dominant performance. This has been a really dominant team against top competition. They seem to play their best.

That's been true for months. I mean, we had a conversation off, of the 49ers game about like, okay, you know, say they end up facing the Lions in the championship game, who do we feel good about, who do we feel bad about? What would the matchup between golf and Purdy be, you know, how limited are these guys? This, I don't want my take to be like the Super Bowl is going to be a blowout,

but I mean, this team is, this team is just really good. The Ravens are just really good. Yeah, it's, we haven't even talked about the defense yet. And like, it's kind of amazing. that C.J. Shroud didn't play a worse game. I know his numbers didn't end up looking great at the end. He didn't really make a lot of plays, but Mike McDonald dominated Bobby Sloick.

And by the way, we need to pump the brakes on the Bobby Sloick head coaching hype because that was a brutal performance from him. He had no answers for anything Mike McConnell was doing. I thought it was a naive performance. I thought they tried to run way too much in the first half, the first down. Oh, that was...

PFF Bobby needs a few more years. Bobby having Devin Singletary up the middle for minus one yard on first and ten over and over and over again. And I don't want to make too much about this win, but I think, like, from a narrative standpoint, it was a huge win for Baltimore. Like, going back to 2019, it felt like they were kind of in danger of falling into that same trap going up against an AFC South opponent that was a heavy underdog. They're coming off this season where Lamar looks like the MVP. They're scoring a bunch of points.

And then in the first half, they come out flat. and the game is competitive. Houston is driving about to kick a field goal. The stadium was rocking all first half, but it was quiet during that drive after that third down completion by Stroud. But then Lamar, like, I just, obviously the defense helped again,

but Lamar just took the game over from there. But I think the fact that it was a blitz-heavy approach kind of like just brought up a lot of memorable, ugly performances for this offense, including that Tennessee game. After that Tennessee game, Logan Ryan, after the game was like, our plan was just to blitz the hell out of them.

Engage 8 if you played Madden. Like, that's the play call. Just blitz them, force them to either beat us one-on-one by throwing to the outside or if they want to run the ball, we're going to shut down the run. That was basically the same play in Houston had. Except sort of like on steroids. And a little, and four years too late.

Right. Because, like, maybe you could beat Lamar Jackson and the Ravens with that plan back then. But I think that's what this game proved is like, this is a different team. And like all the skepticism about this team, is kind of stems from that 2019 loss. And I think they answered that question.

I think Lamar answered that question by beating a similar game plan. I think Todd Monkin justified the move from Greg Roman because Great Roman could never adjust against the Bliss. There was that one Thursday night game against Miami where Brian Flores was the coach and just cover zero, cover zero, cover zero every fucking play. And they didn't have an answer.

Their answer was throwing bowl screen. The original Blitz boy. To Hollywood Brown who weighs 110 pounds. it didn't work but not Roman Monkin after the game John Harbaugh said he called a completely different game in the second half and I just don't think they

had that plan B. They didn't have that second pitch with Roman as the offensive coordinator and a lot of that was put on Lamar they were like oh if you take away the run game Lamar struggles no you didn't it wasn't Lamar it was the shitty receiving court and it was the shitty offensive coordinator who had no drop back passing game

there's a reason why they hire a past game coordinator and you don't see those around the league. There's a reason why Greg Roman always needs one because he doesn't have a past game. And it was just cool to see Lamar under these similar circumstances that we've seen this team fail under in the past, in the pro season. And he didn't fail. He dominated. He imposed his will. And I can't wait to see him go up against Alan or Mahomes next week because I think he's going to outplay whichever one comes across. He's the best player in football right now. It's really exciting. Whatever that game ends up being that AFC.

championship game, it's going to be really, really fun. The conversations that we've had about who the best quarterback is, it's always been Allen or Mahomes. It's been Mahomes for the most part, but whenever anyone's challenged Mahomes, it's been Allen, we got to put Lamar in that conversation from now on. I don't even care what happens next week. He is in that conversation. Yeah, I think, look, like, I think on some level,

the Ravens are probably happy that they somehow still do, I think, fly a little bit under the radar in terms of, terms of just how scary they are. Lamar's not to win his second MVP. The prior narrative stuff is so sticky. And it shouldn't be, but I think they're a really good example of how that really is tough to shed. Because it does feel like he's not in, like, in that general conversation.

And he absolutely should be based on how he's playing, like, based on what you see. see him do. But also it's like a little, there's sort of a dissonance there, right? Like he's about to win his second MVP. Like, how is this guy not in that conversation? But you're right. Like, when we have that, when we have it, it's Allen versus Mahomes.

But those three quarterbacks, the three quarterbacks who are still live in the AFC playoffs, like, I think there's a really good argument that Lamar's playing better than both of them. But the idea that it's a two-man conversation is really silly. And if if nothing else, we should be that far, but I think we

should be even further along. If Lamar does win next week, it'll help. That means he'll have a Super Bowl trip and two MVP's. Do you know who has none of that? Josh Allen, but somehow he doesn't get questioned. And he is not as

good of a passer as Lamar Jackson's. It never has been. Sports so weird. So we talked about Bobby Sloick, who did not have the greatest showing. However, still an in-demand coaching candidate. It's got interviews with the

Titans, the Seahawks, the Panthers, the Falcons, and the commanders, that's going to be a big part of their offseason. One way or another is just, you know, are you losing your offensive coordinator? Are you losing your offensive play caller? And the guy who has primarily worked with Stroud during the season, you know, Bobby Sloak is only human. We certainly saw that today. It's not that they can't overcome that, but particularly with a young defensive-minded head coach and a young quarterback who, I mean, his results in this offense have been so good. You know, I think if you're in Houston, you're sort of crossing your fingers and hoping a little bit that you got another year or something. And maybe some of those teams decide to go in a different direction.

Beyond that, what do you think is next for the Texans? I mean, they have a lot of free agents. I don't know if you saw the Adam Schaeft or tweets. Like tweeted just out like a wall of free agents. no indentation. It wasn't a list. It was just a paragraph of free agents that they have. And there are a lot of, like, I would say like B-tier players.

There are no, like, huge names on the list, but a lot of good role players that I think they need to sign. But I think it's going to be fine because it doesn't matter when you have a quarterback that good. And, like that was my second takeaway from this game. I know that, like I said earlier, the numbers weren't great. They scored 10 points. They didn't score in the second half. But Stroud was so impressive to me.

Just managing that pressure, managing a terrible game where they were terribly out-mas. on that side of the ball, not making any mistakes, not taking any sacks. He made a couple plays when he had a chance to, but the fact that he didn't throw downfield, that was all Baltimore. That was their defense,

taking away the shot plays that Bobby Sloak has kind of powered this offense on. And I think that's where they need to take the next step, is I think Bobby Sloick on the McVeigh-Shannahe spectrum, he falls a little bit too much on the Kyle side. I think he needs to learn a little drop-back passing game from from McVay because that was I think that's what stood out the most to me is that when Baltimore took away the play action stuff and they took away the runs on early downs like

they didn't really have a comprehensive dropback passing game and the thing about Stroud is like he can handle that he isn't Jared Goff he isn't Jimmy G like you don't need to put him in this type of offense and like that's why I'm a little more skeptical of Bobby Sloat because like what you would assume is that they're doing it because they feel like they have to like I'm not going to run this comprehensive dropback passing game because I don't know if my quarterback can handle it. Stroud can handle it. He is one of the best rookie dropback passers I've ever seen. I'm putting him up there with Herbert. I'm putting him up there with Andrew Luck. And those two are the best I've ever seen. He can handle it. And I think that's what has to

happen next is the evolution of the scheme, not necessarily the quarterback. And that's a coaching thing. Yeah, I wonder what will happen. And if there is a coach. coaching change. Maybe it ends up being for the best. I mean, I don't know. I think Bobby Sloick, he's in general had such a good season as not just as someone who's worked with a rookie like Stroud who's had the season that he's had. But I think he's a good, I think he's good in games. I think he's a good play sequencer.

I think just the way that he's gotten the most out of a lot of young players is as impressive. So obviously they don't want to lose him. But. It's been one year, though. It's been one year. And it's interesting to think about what needs to come next for that offense, being sort of like a little bit, a little bit of an evolution in that way, and just sort of growing up and having a comprehensive drop-back game.

But that's for the off-season. We will get there eventually. Did you see Harbaugh dancing after the game? I have not seen it. He was asked about it in the press conference, but I did not see it. Maybe we'll leave it there. I'm going to look it up right now. It's just really bad.

It's just some really excellent bad dad dance moves. Based on the thumbnail on YouTube, it looks horrible. I almost don't want to watch this. It's like, it's a dad at a wedding is really what it's giving. But I love the enthusiasm. I'm watching it now. This is terrible. He should be fined.

Okay, everything I said good about the Ravens earlier, I'm taking that back. They should be eliminated from the playoffs now. The Texans should be able to advance. That was offensive. All right. On that note. Problematic. This is Ben Dual Threat on the Ringer NFL show feed.

I'm Nora Pinceati. As always, he's Stephen Ruiz. We'll be back tomorrow night. Recapping the rest of Divisional Weekend. Thanks for listening. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing this episode. Thank you to Eduardo Ocampo for his work on socials and to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramaphal

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