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

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Nora and Steven are back to discuss two competitive divisional-round games, starting with the Chiefs' advance past the Bills to go to another AFC championship game. They discuss the exciting quarterback play from Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, some of the wild moments from the game, and much more. Then they move on to the NFC divisional-round game, which saw the Lions defeat the Buccaneers. They discuss how the Lions offense found success against the Buccaneers defense, briefly look ahead to their matchup against the Niners, and more (27:59). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Producer: Isaiah Blakely Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did Don Draper really buy the world of Coke? Did Tony Soprano really die? Or just order more onion rings? The finalees of our favorite shows can make us argue, make us cry, and make us crazy. From Spotify and the Ringer, I'm Andy Greenwald, and this is Stick the Landing, a new podcast where we'll be telling the story of modern TV backwards, one fade out at a time. Find Stick the Landing on Wednesdays on the prestige TV feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Norr Piziani. And I'm Stephen Rory.

The divisional round is over. And we just watched probably the game of the year. Bill's Chiefs, the Chiefs end up winning 27 to 24. They will play the Ravens in the AFC Championship game next Sunday. A ton of lead changes, ton of excitement. We're obviously going to start with this one. Just one of the most exciting evenings watching a game in some time. Like, there are so many places we can start with this game.

Where do you want to go first? The quarterbacks, the freaks on the field, the two guys that we were talking before the show that made the game, that could have been a sloppy game with all these mistakes and game-changing plays, but they made the game feel like legitimate and efficient. And it really did feel like that game two years ago with the shootout between these two.

And I didn't think we'd see that again. It was really, I mean, Josh Allen ends up being the loser in this, this, this. duel between these two great AFC quarterbacks. And he almost completed like a 60 yard, 60 air yard perfect pass in this game. It was just really, I mean, I was like screaming on my couch at multiple points during this because for all of the silliness and there were a number of plays by both teams where you felt like, oh my God, they're going to lose this game because of this.

And it's, it's going to be the number one talking point on every sports talk show. all week and it's going to become this like historic failure. And we should talk about it. If we feel like, you know, whether it's the field goal, whether it's some of the other decisions in this game, if there's something that sort of lives in infamy for Buffalo here, uh, despite the silliness, this just felt like such a big time game. These felt like such big time quarterback performances. Mahomes is like throwing a Travis Kelsey and a bunch of guys who can't catch and still is

just firing and averaging like 10 yards per play. And Josh Allen is doing crazy stuff on the ground, attempting some of those like, oh, God, but oh my gosh, he completed it. Yes, throws. And this just was so much fun. Where do you feel like this game was won for Kansas City? I would say it was the fact they had Andy Reed.

And the Bills had a coordinator in Joe Brady. that is, I think he's a good coordinator. I thought that when he was in Carolina too. I thought he got a bad rap there. But he hasn't had these moments. He hasn't been on these stages. I don't think he hasn't been in these wars at this level. And I think you saw Reid kind of adjust as the game went on.

And Joe Brady didn't. I mean, they had the run game working early on, but they couldn't figure out how to push the ball downfield. And they never were able to do that. I know they had the near miss to digs. but outside of that, Josh Allen had like an A dot of like four. Right.

And some of that obviously would have changed. That wasn't the only, there was a Sherfield drop. There was some of the receiver play for Buffalo. Could have changed that a little bit. But those weren't like normal throws though. Like the 60, you can't like that wasn't like a coaching thing.

That was a play call. How many Josh Allen throws can we really call normal throws? That's true. But to your, to your point, they came out running the ball. which seemed like a good, the right game plan against Kansas City. And it was really working. But I thought in the second half, you could see,

you could see Spags adjust to some degree. And it didn't seem like Buffalo quite had the pace to keep up with those adjustments on the offensive side of the ball. And when they started to clamp down on the run game and find a little bit there, they weren't able to get it back in the downfield passing game. And Josh Allen was able to make up for some. of that by running it himself, but they just never were able to put together the, the run game that they've developed and that's been such a big part of their biggest wins this season and how this team in some ways has taken a step offensively, but they were never

able to find that passing game magic that, you know, has defined Josh Allen as a quarterback when he's been really good and just put it all together. Whereas for Kansas City, I mean, how did they get this done? Because when I think about the Chiefs passing game in this game, I think so much more about their limitations and still, you know, the absolute disaster class of the Meagle Hardman fumble through the back of the end zone and just. the weekly barrage of what feel like game losing plays by this offense. And yet they scored 27 points. Mahomes was dealing. They have 361 total yards.

The bill's actually outgained them by a little bit. But this was an overall very efficient offensive performance. What do you think worked? Mahomes worked. He was just throwing these perfectly layered passes over the second level of Buffalo's defense. And I think those are the throws that Buffalo's. had to generate and we never saw them. It's hard to say from the broadcast view, whether they called those routes and

Allen didn't throw it or they just didn't unlock that area of the field. But Kansas City did. And the throw still had to be made. He made a lot of difficult throws. I know the receivers are open, but they're outbreaking throws. Their corner routes, like these are throws that like mid-tier quarterbacks tend to miss more often than not. And he didn't miss most of the night.

There were a couple early on. But after that, he was just locked in. And like you said, he was dealing. And when he started scrambling, I thought that's when it was game over. They couldn't stop him from throwing deep and they couldn't keep them in the pocket. That combination is tough. I mean, we should say, look, the bills dressed for linebackers for this game. This is not a healthy defense.

This is a defense that has been hit by injuries all season and kind of feels like they were able to withstand the first wave of. of big injuries. And, you know, in the middle of the year when Matt Milano went down, I sort of felt like, oh, man, if there's one guy that this, this defense just couldn't bear to lose, that's, that's who it should be. And then they figured it out. They really did. But at a certain point, it just becomes, you know, A.J. Klein is, is in critical positions

in a playoff game. and Terrell Bernard is out, and then Dodson goes in the medical tent for a while, and it just becomes this like one after the other domino effect of something's got to give. And look, this is a chief's offense that I think this game, like, it kind of proves both things, right? They still, they have limitations.

Some of these players who are in critical spots in playoff games, you don't want in critical spots in playoff games, but if you, if Mahomes has an inch, he will, he will take it and he will find more. So, you know, I think it's probably frustrating if you're Buffalo that you're in that situation, but everybody deals with injuries. And I just think it speaks to Mahomes's greatness and sort of what's become a defining characteristic of his career so far is just like, if there's, an opening, he's going to take it. And he just was, I mean, he was, he and Josh Allen were dual leg,

but he was the best player on the field. Right. And on that long scramble, I think that was like so emblematic of him just being in control. I don't even think he ever sprinted, like the one down near the goal line. He got to like the five yard line. It was like a 30 yard scramble. And he was walking, like the whole time he was doing like one of those walks when people are going across crosswalks and they're trying to act like they're running, but they're not really. That's how you can run on that play. I do that. And it doesn't matter.

He never has to run and he gets 30 yards scrabbles. It's amazing. I think I remember when I was getting my driver's license when I was taking driver's ed, I feel like there was one PowerPoint that we all had to sit through about like things that are dangerous. And there was some portion about being in a crosswalk. And some there was the person. teaching the course laid out some case that doing that where you sort of pretend that you're

running through the crosswalk or you start running to not let the time or time out, but then you slow down is like incredibly dangerous. And it really made an impression on me not as something that I follow, but as something that I think about every time that I don't follow it and just continue to do that. I just thought I'd share that with you. That's Josh Allen's approach to quarterbacking. To life. Yeah.

He hears like Ken Dorsey being like, Josh, no. Poor Ken Dorsey. I wonder what Ken Dorsey would have looked like in the booth during this one. He's in the pit. I love the pit. This was just, I want to like, part of me wants to, like, sit here and have us rank the most insane things that happened in this game. I'm like, remember the chiefs not challenging the lateral on third and 17 that the bills somehow completed? Like three hours ago, I took a little note of that being like, oh, this might be the play of the game.

And it's like, we've lived 18 lifetimes since that moment. And like Taylor Swift's in a box and Jason Kelsey's got his shirt off and the pit is the pit. And they got more security for it. like this entire, I feel like I've lived so much life since the pregame show for this game. By the way, too much, too much Kelsey, too much Jason Kelsey. People complain about the, the, yeah, too many like shots of him in the press box. Like people complain about the Taylor Swiss stuff. We saw more Kelsey tonight.

And it was, it was way worse. There's a little more. There's a little bit more, more Kelsey than there is Swift. What do you? That's true. I, I, um, am not going to venture in a, attempt to guess Jason Kelsey's blood alcohol content this

evening in Buffalo, but I would bet that it was substantial. Yes. Fake punt? Fake punt. The fake punt! All of this was a movie. I mean,

we didn't have to do DeMarham one like this. Did we, Sean McDermott? Was that really necessary? And I get that they were, they only had 10 men on the field, right? Kansas City? Yeah. I get that. But like the angles weren't there. They had a defensive end in the backfield and they were like, go block a linebacker, go seal the edge on a linebacker who's used to sealing edges and you're a defensive end. You're not used to this at all. And that was

the key block on the play. Like, even though they had the numbers, they didn't have the blocking angles. That's why the play didn't work. It also was like, what, they were like 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Is that when that happened? Yeah, it was too much. It was like there's, there's sort of no need for that. I do wonder, is it like an auto check thing where they're like, oh, this is like a standing rule? Like I know it shouldn't be in that case, but I wonder if that's the thing. And they were just like, if your standing rule is the Demar Hamlin fake punt? That's a good point. Then I have a different question, but it's like my head is still crooks sideways at the at the sideline. I'm just like, what are we doing here? I have to ask, does this affect his comeback player of the year campaign?

No. Okay. I'd ask. I mean, all the votes are cast already, so it literally does not. But I mean, the poor guy. Yeah, yeah. He deserved that moment. They should have let him get the first down.

He deserved that moment. He needed to get like five yards, too. Yeah, it was tough. I don't think Christian McCaffrey gets five yards in that situation. Right. Like the 49ers, like if you ask Kyle Shanahan, they're like, okay, it's fourth and five and the defense has 10 people on the field. Would you run outside zone against that? Or would you punt.

He would say, I would punt. This is just bad call. Yeah, I think if that's the case, he probably should feel pretty certain that it's not the right move. I feel like really torn between the fact that we don't actually need. thank goodness to talk about the fumble through the back of the end zone rule because it didn't end up mattering. And yet also like it was one of the most holy shit moments in this entire game. I don't want to talk about the rule.

I don't care. I simply don't care. It's a good rule. It's just a rule. Like that's just what it is. Change it if you want. Don't change it. Whatever.

But like that's the rule. We need to not. I mean, did you also want to tear your hair out at that place? call. Yeah, and I've been saying, stop with the dumb play calls. I think I said this a month ago. The chief scene is stop with the dumb play calls. You don't have the margin for error anymore. Like, you aren't blowing things out by 30 points. The Meekle Hardman, like, swing pass has to die. Why is it Hardman?

I don't have an answer. I don't know. It's bad. Who would you run it with? Rice. Yeah, I don't know if I need, like, I can do without that play in that situation. Just don't run it. The problem is when they started running it, like in 2018, when Mahomes took over, it was Tyreek Hill getting the ball. So it worked. And Andy Reid was probably like, this play is really good. It is the most football coach move of all time, even for someone like Andy Reid, right, who's like an all-time great.

Because even the ones who aren't overly in love with their scheme, like it's what they do. It's their pride and joy. They pour their lives into it. So they love it. is to be attached to a play call so much that you can't remember that it's different when you don't have Tyree Kill to run it. Like, come on, man. I mean, Mekyll Hardman has been, like, the chiefs and the Jets have been playing hot potato with just, like, rostering this player to begin with. And it's a really, really competitive, AFC, division round playoff game.

You're at the goal line. Just don't do it. Just don't do it. just take that little chunk of the playbook and a Sharpie and just cross out, cross out, cross out. Would be my prescription. But what do I know? Oh. And I'm just like going down a list of crazy shit that happened in this game, the field goal.

I mean, that's just tough. Like the wind was bad and they were talking about it and all of that. But just you feel for Buffalo fans, I at least think. And some of them were, you know, obviously horribly behaved after the game and throwing snowballs. and all that stuff stupid. But like, there's a lot of good football fans. And that just sucks. I just,

nothing gives me more secondhand. It's not embarrassment, but just like secondhand pain than a missed field goal at the end of a playoff game, particularly this team, this context, this setting. It wasn't just like for Bill's fans. For like football fans,

it kind of felt like a lame ending to the game. Like even the chief's getting the first down, I would have liked to see the bills get another chance at it. But like, I don't know. It deserved a better ending. It was like the anti-13 second game where it started off slow and then it ended quickly and then this one had the opposite effect.

You had like the fast start and then kind of fizzled out. I don't know if I could have handled over time. I guess if you're like worried about Josh Allen's sort of like human mental state, maybe that's like maybe that's the merciful way to go right rather than you make it and then mohomes drives them down and they score touchdown and they win or i i don't know it's painful either way obviously but this was just an incredible game i'm trying to figure out what we've missed from this conversation i thought spags had an interesting interesting sort of approach overall and some of it i mean buffalo came out and they were doing all that stuff with the sixth line

and really digging in in the run game. But again, I think the second half adjustments, you could see them pay off. Wasn't able to get a lot of pressure. That was actually true of both defenses. But our guy, what's the, what's the spag status at this point? I mean, he's good. You can always trust them in big games.

That's the thing. I don't care what happens during the regular season. Just get spags to the playoffs and he's going to cook. Look, that's what happened in this game. And I was kind of surprised there wasn't more blitzing, but the plan worked. And he forced Allen into that conservative style. He threw a lot of checkdowns in this game. And there were no openings downfield.

It wasn't like Allen was making poor decisions. There was nowhere to go with the ball. And I thought Spags went against type. And he's been doing that all year, to be honest. Like there hasn't been a lot of blitzing. And that's what he's been known for in the past. This showed restraint. on his part because it could have been easy to send the house at them when they were having

success on the ground and he never did that. Buffalo on the other side, I don't know what the actual blitz rate was, but they ended up actually trying to send some pressure at Mahomes, especially as the game went on, which I don't necessarily quibble with the strategy just because they were so injured at that linebacker level that I think it became about like, okay, what can we do so that these guys aren't just a liability and coverage. This was just one of those Mahomes games where I think you sort of, what are you going to do, man?

Like, he's just incredible. But I really do give them a lot of credit for how they've hung in there defensively. And look, I think there's some conversation about Sean McDermott's job security. I don't get the sense that that's a real thing. You know, this team was on the brink. and they were just down to the wire to go to the AFC championship game. I think he's salvaged it. I do think he had some pretty clear boo-boos in this one.

But overall, I think it's impressive how that defense fought and did what they could with the guys they had. I think eventually it was just too much. But I don't think there will be any real conversation there. And which coach didn't this weekend? Like Andy had his boo-boos. Kyle did too. Right. I don't think it was that bad.

I think this was a good performance for him. And I think Brady, Brady was the one that was kind of questionable for me in the second half. But other than that, I thought the coaching, the game plan was fine. Yeah. Right. It's there, you know, there's, it's the little situational moments that we're talking about. But when you talk about the overall game plan, that's, that's where I totally agree with you. It was solid.

They gave us an awesome game. I mean, this is the bat. Like, this is the game of the year. The narrative thing doesn't help. Divisional round, Mahomes again, close game. That's tough for him. But that's, I don't know. I don't think that stuff matters.

Yeah, I mean, also, like, the bills are in some ways. They're fighting an unwinnable battle on that front because there is always, you know, there's a second team of the era, right? And maybe there's maybe there's competition for who actually is the second team if the Ravens win a championship and and really have it figured out. And as we talked about yesterday, there should be a conversation about Lamar Jackson as the top quarterback in the league, or at least among the very top quarterbacks in the league and a person who's in that conversation. But the chiefs, like, the stakes of the chiefs, and especially as we talk about where they're going to go from here, what the chiefs are playing for other than, obviously, like,

the point is to win the game, to go to the Super Bowl, to win the Super Bowl. But in terms of, like, legacy stuff and sort of accomplishment metrics, the chiefs are chasing the Patriots, and that's sort of it. Like, what, in terms of things that they need to prove, there's just not a lot out there. Not a lot out there for Andy Reid. There's not a lot out there for Patrick Mahomes. What they're trying to do is collect numbers on the pace of a Bill Belichick and Tom Brady with that dynasty that potentially it's going to be really, really hard, but they're not

so far off the pace. So for Kansas City, like, that's what the stakes are of a postseason run. if they lose next weekend in Baltimore, which they very well may, we know what this team is next year. They just had the best defense of the Mahomes era probably. They have serious work they need to do with the past catching group, but they can do that.

That's fine. Yeah. And they have Patrick Mahomes. And as long as Andy Reid wants to keep coaching, they have Andrew. Like, we know exactly who they are and they will be penciled into the Super Bowl yet again. And it's all fine.

It's just, are you literally? adding another trophy or are you not? And that's, and like for Buffalo to try to get past that is really, really, really hard. It does feel like that. It does feel like this is this monster. They just can't slay. But, you know, we've we've talked about the narrative that existed about Lamar playing in the playoffs,

which was just so silly and taken out of a really small sample size. That's just the nature of playoff football, right? Like there's only a handful of games that you can draw off. In the case of Allen and Mahomes, the games have been these, like, epic battles where you lick the wounds for months and months and years and years. And people talk about them on bar stools a decade later, probably. But, you know, we've seen this Bill's team beat this Chiefs team. I don't really, like, I don't feel like they, I don't feel like they can't do it. I just feel like they haven't done it.

Right. And they haven't done it. They have done it. they just haven't done it on this stage yet. But it really feels like Casey is the new New England. And it feels like they're like kind of speed running it. They're almost like late era New England with Tom Brady, where Brady and Gronk are listening to bad boys for life

and everyone's counting them out. And that's what this game felt like. It felt like an old man game. It felt like an old vet game for them. And Pat Mahomes is like, what, 28 years old, 29 years old? It's crazy. Well, Mahomes is also like this is a different era, right? where a lot of the younger players are just,

they're just like, they're more boring than they used to be. Like, Mahomes is, Mahomes watched Brady, right? Like, Brady has been such an influence to this group of quarterbacks. So they go to bed at 9.30. And they don't eat nightshades and they drink a green juice in the morning. And they,

they, you know, don't get up to anything they're not supposed to get up to for the most part. So it really does feel like they're, their speed running it. We'll have a lot of time this week. to preview what hopefully will be another great AFC playoff game in the championship round. But early thoughts on Chiefs Ravens?

I don't see how Baltimore doesn't win by double digits. I don't see how Kansas City scores on them. It's a tough matchup. But like, it's Mahomes, it's Reed, it's spags. Anything can happen. but like my early feel is Baltimore by by a big amount

look I've been sort of sticking to my priors with this chiefs team just because I feel like I sort of like you plan a flag you got to stick with it there's I do still feel watching this game and watching you know that Hardman play

and some of the drops that I just I can't believe that this group that this group of receivers is going to win a third game in a row and against that Ravens defense in particular. But when you watch Mahomes play like this, it is that anything can happen. I still, I think Baltimore's got him, but there is something about it that just feels inevitable. The receivers aren't going to be as open against Baltimore.

And they have Kyle Hamilton who can take care of Kelsey on his own. And when you have that, that piece, it becomes so much easier to defend an offense that has been easy to defend this year. If you've been watching the NFL playoffs from the sidelines, there's still time to get in the game with Fandul America's number one sports book. New customers bet this Sunday's conference championship games with $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Vandul has so many ways for you to pick up a W. If you're going to sign up now, I would advise that you bet on Baltimore this weekend. and I really like them on the money line. So if you want to follow my picks, go to Fandall right now.

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$10 first deposit required bonus issued as non-witrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook. Fandul.com. All right. Should we talk about the early games? Should we talk about Lions Bucks? I guess.

This game was interesting to it. It feels like such a. I mean, I feel like my heart rate is still elevated from Bill's Chiefs. But so the Lions win 31 to 23. Lions will play San Francisco in the NFC championship game. Where do you want to start

with this one? I think the offensive line for the Lions was the that was the winning piece. That was the thing that Dan Campbell built this team around and it paid off in this game a 61% success rate on the ground.

Jared Goff not sacked when Tampa Bay Blitz against a Bulls defense. Very impressive. That's what won them this game. And I think it just, I mean, I don't want to like relitigate the whole process behind Detroit's offseason and their draft. They beat a 9 and 8 team.

Right. Last week they beat a flaw, like a young Rams team. I thought L.A. would win, but that Detroit was favored. I don't want to take away from the NFC title run, but it's not like your typical NFC title run. Right. But I do think it's, you know, you just got to go out and win the games that are in front of you. Right. And it does show that being a physical team in 2024, 2023, you could still win for.

football games. I think that's what it proves. You can still win football games. And particularly, you know, they understood the assignment, right? Like, this is a team that Dan Campbell has over the last three years kind of built in his image, his image of who he wants them to be as a football team. But it also, you know, by happenstance or by design is the right type of team for Jared Goff.

And no, the bucks are not, you know, the bucks are the, were the worst team left in the playoffs. But this Todd Bulls defense is the type of defense that can give Jared Goss some trouble. And they blitzed him over 50% of the time. And through a combination of just quick throws, Goff's average time to throw was 2.51 seconds. He got pressured on those plays where they sent the blitz just five times. And he didn't get sacked, as you said. And he was really efficient. And that's the type of thing that in the past he would not have been able to do.

do and he would not have been in the right situation to be able to do. I think one of the most underrated pieces of how it all went wrong and went downhill in L.A. is that as that offensive line started to fall apart a little bit, Jared Gough fell apart and it just didn't work. And he has that there and it all, the whole thing fits together. So I do think like you, they can only play the teams on the schedule and they get some credit for defeating an opponent who's not the most menacing team, but one that did seem particularly suited if it had wound up like that to give them trouble. I mean, particularly, you know, he ended up being okay, but there was that moment in the first half where Ragnow leaves the game and, you know, there's Vita Vaya in the

middle and you're just going like, ooh, this could get, this might get a little bit dicey. Obviously, he was okay. They did lose Jonah Jackson on the interior line, but they ended up being able to figure that out and deal with that blitz, which was probably the number one objective on the game plan. I was really surprised, not really surprised, but I was struck by Aaron Glenn's defense and what they were able to do. Just in terms of I thought it was a smart game plan, really sad, I thought you could see the ways that they've been able to, as the years gone on, design more and more pressure, get some of those unblocked rushers. And obviously, the game ends with Derek Barnes's interception. And, you know, this was a balanced game.

They didn't win it necessarily on offense or defense. But I did think that the Lions played a more sort of complete game than I necessarily would have given them credit for it. I've been a little skeptical of this defense, but I thought that they had a good game plan. I thought they played hard. I mean, there was the conversation on the broadcast about, you know,

Glenn was telling them that Mike Evans had dropped the ball because he was scared of getting hit and they were all getting hit so hard. And that's like coach speak and a little like, okay, man. But you can, you could see it. And I thought they had a little bit more spice

on that side of the ball than, I necessarily expect from this lion's defense. So overall, I was, I was impressed by them. Yeah, it was like a boom or bust approach for the defense, for the run defense, at least on first down. It was like they gave up 5.9 yards per carry, but a 33% success rate. So like when Tampa Bay had a good run,

they got a lot of yards, but when they got stuffed, they got stuffed. And then you get Baker Mayfield in those situations where you can throw blitzes at them and get free rushers. And that's not where Baker Mayfield wants to live. He wants to live in early down passing. And I thought that was a smart thing, smart approach.

What did you think of Baker overall? I mean, he was good, but the problem is the thing that doesn't show up in the box score or the stat line is the sacks. The sacks were the big issue with them. And he took one that knocked him out of field goal range. That would have changed the last drive. It would have changed the game. That's really where it showed up. He threw the ball well, though.

Yeah. Well, and that's, I mean, that's sort of been the story, right? And obviously, you know, they'll see what they do in the offseason. It is like, as we've said, the Bucks, no one thought the Bucks were going to win the Super Bowl. But at the beginning of the year, no one thought the Bucks would be within, you know, spitting distance of the playoffs. And Baker Mayfield is a tough player to evaluate because there's something ridiculous. about being like, oh, no one believes in Baker Mayfield, you know, Heisman winner first first overall pick. And then also like, I don't know, in August,

Baker Mayfield was in a quarterbacking competition with Kyle Trask. If that's not no one believing in you, like I don't really know what is. So it just, it's like wherever, wherever you're anchored dictates where that conversation goes. And if you're anchored in two different places, then like, it you can just people can talk fast each other about this player so, so, so easily. Um,

I guess I think they will probably try to have him back. I, I mean, how do you though? Like this is the ceiling nine and eight and you beat like a Eagles team that quite quit. Yeah, but they're going to be, I mean,

they're going to be, they're going to be drafting in, in the middle, in the sort of bottom middle of the first round. What you're going to, you got to make a run at Kirk Cousins. You're going to make a run at, like you can make a run at Gino.

Kirk maybe. I don't know. I don't know. There's no one out there really. There's not a Tom Brady out there to save them. But like you have to try. You have to shoot your shot. They should try to get something.

Russ maybe. Oh my God. No, yeah. Tampa Bay just becomes like. Can you imagine a Russ Baker? A Russ Baker competition? I know you have a joke lined up that you're like sitting on. Yeah.

I'm not going to say. Detroit, San Francisco. I was so down on San Francisco's offense after the way that they played in the rain. And I do. I think the Lions can give them a game. Again, I felt encouraged by the defensive performance regardless of the Bucks limitations. So I'll be curious to see how that pans out. I mean, San Francisco is definitely going to be favored.

I do think maybe we should take a minute to, well, no, first, let me, like, what do you think about that matchup? Yeah, I'm with you. I feel more confident in Detroit's defense after the last couple of weeks and what I saw them do. I think they can put Brock Purdy in similar situations that they put Baker Mayfield in. I don't think, I think Brock Purdy is playing better football than Baker Mayfield is and it has all season. I don't think he's more talented than Baker Mayfield. And Baker Mayfield used a lot of that armed talent to make the throws he made in this game. I'm not sure Brock can make them as consistently. That said, I could envision Kyle Shanahan looking at Jack Campbell in the middle of that defense and going, it's going to be a long day for you, kid, and putting up 45 points on them. Kyle Shanahan, like, there's some poor linebacker who every week just ends up in Kyle Shanahan's burn book and like, he's drawing the little horns and just going like, I'm going to make your life so miserable.

And I do think that that's a pretty, that's a good call in terms of what. He has like a siren in his office when the opponent has a white linebacker from Iowa or from the Big Ten that goes off. White Big Ten linebacker just starts flashing. That's the real pit. Every week, every week in who Big Ten linebacker gets sacrificed to Kyle Shanahan. That's the satanic ritual. Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you know that people are upset about Taylor Swift promoting satanic rituals?

Yeah, I saw that. I saw the, I saw one of those people today. I, it's, I assumed you would have. However, if I had just dropped a satanic ritual reference out of nowhere, I wanted to make sure that we had the requisite context for that one. Okay. Makes sense. That's fair. Ooh.

Good weekend. The round, this round, I think, lived up to, to expectations. A lot of that was Bill's Chiefs, but wild card round was a little sleepy. Divisional round was pretty good, I thought. We got a great narrative game out of Green Bay, San Francisco. We got a great championship weekend. I think Lamar versus Mahomes and the AFC championship game

is such a good matchup and something we haven't seen in the playoffs yet. It's been, what, four years, five years with them in the league and we haven't seen this yet. It's cool to see. And then on the other side, we have a couple of system quarterbacks. Yeah, but you know what? I mean, Detroit, in the NFC championship game for the first time since 91, that crowd, you know, the crowd in Buffalo is always fun to watch. The crowd in Detroit, the crowds that they've been getting. And that game will be in San Francisco.

But first of all, I'm sure people will travel. But second of all, not even in terms of like atmosphere and noise and all, but just what it means to people is cool to watch. It's, it's emotional for some people. It's exciting. it's, you know, you remember all the, all the lions memes just sort of get to me. Even the Aiden Hudgeson at the end of the game, like, it's exciting to see what is a historic achievement for a team that just hasn't had a lot of success. So I think we got a good, good slate of games, good weekend.

It's been fun. Yeah. No, I'm being dismissive. Like, I think like those two systems are so fun to watch. These two teams are so fun to watch that the game is going to be great. And I really think it could be a high scoring game. I think it will be a more entertaining game than maybe Baltimore and Kansas City turns out to be if Baltimore does blow them out. Right.

Yeah. But either way, the thing that's nice is like, I don't feel sure. And even if I did, we'd probably end up with a surprise. Anything else before we get out of here? I don't think so. Did you see Matt Patricia's contract is expiring? It's going to be a hot commodity. Any head coaching interviews?

Eagles tried the old, the old. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, middle of a shootout news dump, which I don't think is quite as aptly deployed during the internet era as maybe it was at the beginning of some PR professionals careers or whoever decided to do that. But yes, I did see that

what, Sean Desai has been let go. Matt Patricia is just like, he had an expiring contract so they're all just going to disappear him and hopefully no one ever speaks of it again. I like how they felt the need to have the follow-up Patricia tweet. It's like, yeah, we know. We know he's not coming back. With such a success.

Can you imagine? You know what this defense needs? No, no, even better. Even better. Make them OC. Make him the head coach. Actually, we've decided to fire Nick Siriani after all. Matt Patricia is now the head coach, offensive coordinator,

defensive coordinator, and general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. That's right. The one man, Howie Roseman, can't survive is Matt Patricia and his pencil and his laminated play sheet that can't be written on with a pencil. All right, that's probably a good place to end this. This is Ben Duel Threat. I'm Norfolk and Diadi. As always, he's Stephen Ruiz.

Ben and Sheel will be up next with extra point taken this week. And then we will be back next Sunday, recapping the championship games. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely for producing this episode. Thank you to Eduardo Ocampo and Kara Givens for their work on socials. Thank you to Connor and Evans and Arjuna Ramapal for their additional production supervision. And thanks to you for listening. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandual is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

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