The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Super Wild-Card Weekend: Sunday Games Recap | Dual Threat

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

Nora and Steven are back to recap the two games from Sunday’s wild-card round, starting with Detroit beating the Rams for its first playoff win in 32 years. They discuss the Rams offense, Jared Goff’s impressive performance, and more. Then they discuss the Cowboys getting dismantled by the Packers at home. They discuss what’s next for the Cowboys, Jordan Love’s continued impressive play, and more (16:27). 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 Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everyone, it's Ariel Hawani, and I wanted to let you know that each and every week, I'm part of a great program called The Ringer MMA Show. I hosted alongside two absolutely brilliant minds. Their names, Chuck Mindenhall and Pizzie Carroll, and every Thursday, a new episode drops where we preview the weekend in mixed martial arts and react to all the biggest news. Plus, after every UFC pay-per-view, we give you a post-fight show. So this is what you have to do. Just follow the Ringer M-MMA show on your Spotify app.

So you don't miss an episode. We'll talk to you then. Two, I'm Norfolk, Ziyadi. And I'm Stephen Ruiz. And Stephen, we finally have a competitive football game to talk about. We waited, you know, really just 24 long hours. But we finally got one tonight. The Lions beat the Rams for Detroit's first playoff win since 1991.

A lot of tears, a lot of hugs going on in Detroit, a packed stadium. and a really, really interesting game. And finally a close game. So let's start there. Where do you want to start with this one? What's your major takeaway? I mean, we had to start with Jared Gough. They were chaining the man's name before the game.

It was definitely. Already making ring puns with we went to Jared on the broadcast at the end. It really, it's a sight to Z. It really was. But this was like the ideal game for not only the lion's offense, like how they're constructed, but also Jared Gough, like he didn't face a lot of pressure. When he did face pressure, he didn't play particularly well,

but he didn't face a lot. And when he wasn't pressured, he diced the Rams up. Like, he had plenty of time. He had plenty of options in terms of downfield receivers being wide open. And then when it looked late, like maybe we would see the return of bad Jared Gough. He made the throws he had to make to seal the game. The throw to St. Brown at the end, which effectively clinched. the win.

Yeah. That was an impressive throw. And that was like a trademark throw for golf throughout the last two years. So not only did they win, they kind of won on their terms. And it was a really impressive performance, not only for golf, but the whole program. I mean, defensively, it seems like the Rams, I'm sure the number one regret from this game is the performance in the red zone. The number two is probably just the inability, especially in the first half to get any pressure on. on golf, it seemed like they had a lot of, they had all those five man fronts, especially early.

It seemed like they were selling out maybe to defend the run, maybe to try to get some more pressure on him and, and to free up Aaron Donald a little bit. And it just didn't work. Was that the the lion's offensive line winning? Or do you think it was something the Rams did schematically that led to, I mean, they stacked him three times. I think there were nine pressures, but all in all, a pretty comfortable game for Jared. Yeah, it's kind of hard to fault the game plan when the offensive line is that dominant. I really think it came down to the offensive line. And that's how Detroit has won this entire season.

And the Rams have been an offensive team. Obviously, the defense has outperformed expectations. But if there was a mismatch in this game coming into it, we would have thought it would have been in the trenches on that side of the ball. and that's how it played out. The Rams tried to blitz at times. It didn't work. It was like Jerikov, no matter what coverage they played,

no matter how many rushers they sent after him, his stats like across the board, it's almost eerie. They're like basically all the same. It's like he averaged 10 yards per attempt against every coverage and against blitz or no blitz. And that just suggests that Rahim Morris didn't have any answers, the DC for the Rams. Like anything they tried didn't really work.

I think this was a personnel game for the lines. leaned on this team that they built. They built the roster to win games like this. And I think this was like the perfect defense to go up against for this game plan. I think they're going to get another perfect defense to go up against this. If the Eagles win on Monday night, we'll get to that later in the week. But this sets up for a nice little run for Detroit through the playoffs, especially with Dallas losing and now they have a home game next week.

Because that home field advantage, that was real tonight. Oh my gosh. It was crazy in there. I mean, even like, I thought the M&M intro on the broadcast was really cool. I was shocked to see Taylor Lautner in the crowd, but I get why you would want to go to the game. I mean, it really seemed like it made me appreciate a nice game in a dome with a crowd that's just absolutely so hungry for it. It was really fun. I mean, it was a fun, like, interesting storyline.

I do think the Rams deserve some credit. I mean, they held the lines to three points in the second half. Yeah. Right. So it's not as though there weren't any defensive adjustments or anything that they were able to to find that worked. But I do think overall the Lions were really able to play this game on their terms where Goff wasn't seeing a ton of pressure. They could lean on that offensive line and just kind of play the way that they're designed to play. and it felt as the fourth quarter was going on, that the drive before the Rams last drive,

where they went three and out, that felt for a moment like, oh, they might have just lost the game here. And then, you know, it wasn't super pretty, but L.A. comes back out. They're not able to do anything. we can talk about some of the Sean McVeigh decisions and whether he should have gone for it on that fourth down. And then the, you know, the lions get the ball back and they were able to do enough, right?

And it wasn't like this spectacular, oh my gosh, contract earning, march down the field, 80 yards, 12 plays, explosive, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, it was enough. And, you know, Goff didn't commit a turnover. Like, this was a really clean sheet. And I think that speaks mostly to how they've built this team and just the overall infrastructure. But they've got to be really, really happy with this result. I think at a certain point we should talk about how replicable it is. But as you pointed out, they may end up in a similar situation, no matter who they end up facing next Sunday.

So it might be a little bit of a while until we really find out what happened. Let's talk about the Rams. 0 for 3 in the red zone, which really, I mean, they outgained the Lions. In a lot of ways, they outplayed them on the offensive side of the ball, but they settled for field goals where Detroit scored touchdowns. They were pretty pass heavy in the red zone. Was there anything that you noticed about why that wasn't working for them? I think one thing is that Cooper Cup isn't the player.

that he once was, and that's probably an injury thing. I don't want to, like, say he's washed or anything. I think like a full offseason of rehab is going to serve him really well, and I think we'll see the old Cooper Cup next year. But the current form of him, I don't think is a, I don't want to, like, overstate how much he's regressed, but I just don't think he's the factor that the game plan suggests that he was in the red zone. And I also thought like the Lions pass defense approached this game as if it was going to be called like a playoff game, whereas the Rams defense didn't.

Like they took advantage of the fact that refs got to swallow their whistle, especially on defensive pass interference or defensive holding calls in the playoffs, especially compared to the regular season. And they were physical. And especially when you're in like the loudest, craziest environment that you're going to be in with this crowd that's just like absolutely gutting for it. I'm not, you know, I'm not saying that there's any conscious choices to swallow a whistle. anything, but like, we know that that affects people, right? So I, I think that's a, that's a really good point and an interesting point in terms of like how coaches prepare their teams. I do think that that's, that's a tough choice, right, to not be ready for that because that was sort of predictable that this wasn't going to be a game that was officiated really tightly. And I mean, look, there were a

bunch of situations where particularly the Rams players, but, but, you know, both sides, guys were getting crunched in this game. And it was hard to watch it at times. And obviously, there was the injury with Higbee. And then there was the moment when Stafford and Pukunukuoka, Kua were both going into the tent at the same time. But I just think it's an interesting thing to consider whether or not that was a factor that the Rams underestimated because I don't, you know, there's no huge indictment. He's done an incredible coaching job this season.

I don't think this was a super great showing for McVeigh. No, it could have been better. And just to drive home that point, like about the red zone, I just looked up the numbers for next gen stats. They, when Detroit played man coverage in the red zone, which is where you would see like the tight, sticky coverage, Stafford went 0 for 5.

Right. I think that had a lot to do with it. is that they were able to stay tight to routes. And in the red zone, like, windows are smaller anyway. And you have to react faster. And, like, overall on the game, Stafford didn't play well against man coverage. He averaged seven yards per attempt

compared to almost 12 yards per attempt against zone coverage. And he held the ball 2.9 seconds compared to 2.7 seconds. So he had to hold the ball a little bit longer when they did play man coverage. And in the red zone, you hold the ball a little bit longer. That's a death sentence for that play. So I think it was the style of defense kind of lent itself to the Rams moving the ball in between the 20s. And then when they got to the red zone,

things were going to become harder. I don't know if that was by design. I don't know if Eric Glead was like, yeah, just march up and down the field on us. Hey, Pooka Nakua almost said, I don't know, did he almost set a record? I don't know if he did set a record. That famous Aaron Glenn, Ben, but don't break defense. Yeah.

Yeah, go for 180. Go for almost 200 passing yards. But I do think there was some of that to the plan, and it did work out in that way. That makes sense. That makes sense. My issues with the way that McVey coached, coach this game. We're not like, not in the extreme. It was just, you know, the,

the decisions to take the timeouts early. Obviously, when it's coming down to the final minutes and it's close, you wish you could have those back. And then look, Hindsight is is what it is. And going for it on a fourth and 14 is going to be a low percentage play. But the decision to punt there I would quibble with as well. So, you know, we know that he can be conservative. in these ways. We know that he loves to use a time out early. So it's nothing that we haven't seen before. And if that's the bad that comes with the good, take it any time. But it is a little bit, you know, it stands out in particular going up against this, this Lions team that's so aggressive. And it just leaves you with some what ifs, particularly in the end of game

situation there with the decision on that fourth down. But that's, you know, the Lions went out on won this game. But I do wonder if there's a little bit of regret there. Yeah, I think so. And that's always a thing with McVeigh, like you said. But at the same time, I feel like they're playing with House Money at this point. Like, no one expected them to be at this point. And even Stafford, like, I know we don't usually celebrate quarterbacks when they lose. But that performance was so impressive. And it wasn't just like the numbers and like the fact that he was getting hurt and like more and more hurt as the game went on. Like he was just picking up injuries by the quarter. the arm angles and how he was able to, like, mitigate Detroit's pressure whenever they got pressure,

this very much felt like, and this is not to take away from, like, Sean McVey being, he's a great play caller, and that offense is good, and Nakua is a great talent. But it almost felt like it was like a system versus, like, a one-man show on the other side of the ball with Stafford. And he kind of had to create things that golf didn't really have to deal with. When golf was under pressure, he went one for six. an average one point or one yard per attempt. Like golf didn't have to do anything. And that's that's okay.

It didn't have to do anything under pressure, obviously, because he didn't do anything under pressure and the game still worked out for Detroit. Stafford had a higher degree of difficulty. I thought he played. He was the better quarterback. I just didn't want to lose sight of the fact that Stafford gave us like one of the most impressive.

Oh my gosh. A couple of the sidearm throw, which you wrote. wrote about and you wrote about some of the sort of crazy arm angles and the fadeaways that have taken over the league. And I was thinking about that. And actually both of the games today, there are some good examples. But Stafford is just amazing because he does the old man version of it where like first of all his hand is like falling off. He's bleeding out of like 19 places. He takes a really, really scary hit. And you know, I'm not going to speculate about it. But there's screenshots of his eyes rolling into the back of his head. And he's like picking himself up and and and lim off like there's barely anything left in the tank. And then all of a sudden he's just like throwing these passes that you see, you know, 10 times in an NFL season it feels like, but it also simultaneously feels like he manages to have a couple of those every week.

So he's, he's, I wonder how much he still has, has left in him just because physically it seems like he takes such a beating out there. But he is really amazing. and you're right to point that out. This is a fun game. Yeah. I really enjoyed it.

It was just like, it was an interesting sort of tail of two halves thing. It was an interesting result to see the Lions hang on. I mean, do you think the better team won this game? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think I do too. I think it doesn't look like it. Maybe if you like just take a shallow look at the box court because of what I just said about

Stafford and the quarterback performance we got from him and like the performance from Nakua, obviously. but like in terms of like total team performance I thought this game like just proved how much better of a team they were than L.A., which I don't think was like that apparent coming into the game. Did you like the M&M intro? It was good.

That was funny. It was a nice little pallet cleanser coming off of the Catholic game. I liked and then you get one shot and we know what happens after one shot. Okay. Thank you, Marshall. All right. Shall we move on?

Let's do it. All right, let's take a quick break. We will come back and we will talk about Packers, Cowboys. After an incredible NFL super wildcard weekend, we're on to the divisional round for these teams. It's winner go home. But you'll always have a spot in the playoffs with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Fandall has so many ways for you to pick up a W this weekend.

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Wager only $10 first deposit required bonus issued as non-witchrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook. Fandul.com. All right. Welcome back to dual threat. It's time to talk about Packers Cowboys, the early game and probably the most surprising result of this first two days of Wildcard weekend. And that is the Packers defeating the Dallas Cowboys, 48 to 32. not anywhere in here as close as as that result suggests.

This was an absolute beatdown by the youngest team in the NFL against the Dallas Cowboys. And there's going to be some ramifications for that in a lot of different ways. But let's give Green Bay there too. Jordan Love, you wrote about him this week, Stephen. You've been on this train for a long time. and he was absolutely dealing out there. Talk to me about what you saw from him. Yeah, like, you would think I peered into the future

and picked the perfect time to write about his back foot throws because it seemed like every throw he made downfield was off of his back foot. And it really did not affect the quality of the throw at all. That's what was so stunning is that, like, I think Love was the clear star, but I think the Packers game plan and their play calling, from LaFleur was like perfect.

But anytime like the play call didn't work out and end up with a Packers receiver just wide open downfield, like Love had some pressure in his face and it didn't matter. Like you got the same results. He was still pushing the ball down field. And the reason he's able to do that is because of this arm that he has and this fluid throwing style that just looks so similar to Aaron Rogers. And then before Aaron Rogers go Brett Far like all of these Packers quarterbacks, it's not just that they've had.

these three star quarterbacks, assuming Jordan Love continues this in a row. It's like these guys play the position the same. Right. And it's so unique and we've only really seen it from those three guys. It's a joy to watch. That sound you heard is every Bears fan who listens to this podcast, turning it off, by the way. Yeah, every Bears and Vikings fan. I'm so sorry, guys.

You guys do not deserve this. Like, Vikings fans just came out of the Kirk Cousin. They're not out of it yet, but, like, they're maybe near the end of the Kirk Cousins experience. and like it's it was kind of successful. Like Kirk has had some good years. They've gone to the playoffs. And then the Packers just fall into this guy. And then they're reminded like actually that Kirk Cousins experience was probably bad.

And we probably should have went somewhere else with it. It's rough. It's rough going for them. But it's not as bad as being a Cowboys fan today. Oh my goodness gracious. I mean, all right. Let's talk about it. Do you think Mike McCarthy survives this?

I don't know how he does. Like this is. It's the worst it possibly could have looked. He had one job. Avoid embarrassment. And it was 27 to zero by the midway through the second quarter. He did not. They're showing Jerry in the box.

How many times did they show Jerry? They showed Jerry like 15 times. And he was. Jerry versus Taylor. That's the real wildcard weekend competition. And I think Jerry won. He did win. It was a landslide.

It was 27 to nothing, basically. It was like the same as with the Packers. into his team. I was expecting to see Bill Belichick in the owner's box by the fourth quarter. I did do some mental math at one point pretty early in the game about like, can you fly, if you fly from Nantucket directly, no, you can't get there in time. Somebody check, where are the college football sicko fans who like track the planes? Track the plane.

The coaching cycle. Someone get on that because there might be a plane coming from Nantucket to Dallas very soon. I have no idea of Phil's on Nantucket, but that just seemed like the right guess. I mean, yeah, so Jerry after the game said this is beyond my comprehension. He said he hadn't given any thought to Mike McCarthy's job security, which would make him about the only person on the planet. But we'll take his word for that. He's lying. I don't even know if like, if you're Mike McCarthy, do you want to stay?

I mean, probably you get paid a lot of money. Yes. But yes. Yeah, you stay. He grifted his way into this job. I'm not saying you like, I'm not saying you like commit, you know, ritual supuku as Cowboys head. I'm just saying like if you, if you, isn't there some part of you that's like, I don't

want to do this again. I don't want to go through another season where I can win 12 games and just go into the playoffs and it's and know that it is in no way good enough. That sounds awful. Okay. You're leaving the second part of what happens in the season out of that. like they embarrass themselves nationally. Like if he can just avoid that,

like the 12 games thing isn't the problem that it seems to be. That's what I mean, I guess that's what I'm saying is like I hate the cringe of it and I would want to be out of there as fast as possible. Mike McCarthy is the cringe. What do you mean? Well, and Mike McCarthy also has gone to great lengths, including potentially committing some fibs

about how much film he watches in order to secure this position. So Mike McCarthy, I might be underrating his careerist instincts. Yes, you should. It's not really up to him. He just got bodied by Joe Barry on national television, man. He does not have prospects after this. You should hold on to that job for dear life.

Yeah, I mean, and especially, look, the Belichick thing feels very possible. It's gone as far as, I think in my head, the question there is, like, what happens in Buffalo? because I have started to wonder if you're Bill and somehow Philly or Buffalo, if there's another flame out there and let's say Dallas and one of those is open, I wonder what's more attractive if they all want you. But this has come far enough where the variable to me feels like does Pelichick want the job rather than is it going to open up, have all of these, you know, have the stars aligned, which is really crazy because this felt like such a hairbrained scheme and theory not that long ago,

but it really feels like, I mean, I know he's the betting favorite. It really feels like it could happen very quickly, no. If it doesn't happen, I'm going to be very upset. Like, as a football fan, I want to see Bill Belichick coach Michael Parsons. I deserve that. We all deserve that. And Bill deserves it. Bill deserves to get his second LT, his second Lawrence Taylor. And I think he would turn.

If Bill's on that sideline, does Micah Parsons have more than one pressure? I think so. Yes. They do not get embarrassed. They do not give up 48 points. I know Bill gave up like whatever to Nick Foles in that Super Bowl, but that doesn't count. Matt Patricia was involved. I'm blaming it on him.

This game would never happen under Bill. And even if it would happen, like I know Jerry Jones is thinking a coach like Belichick would never let this happen. I mean, how much if that goes on Dan Quinn, too? A lot of it? They gave up 48 points. Yeah. I mean, Mike McCarthy, look, he's an offensive head coach.

You've still got to be responsible for the entire team. But this is a team that throughout the season plays a lot of man coverage and then came out and decided that soft zone was going to be the way to go. And, you know, what you were saying about Jordan Love earlier, it reminds me of what we were talking about with Stafford, obviously, except in a much more, you know, successful and explosive instance today. But it's this marriage of playmaker and system where, again, this is, I mean, I can't imagine a game that played more into exactly how Green Bay wanted this to go, right? Like, you get up early, so you're less worried about the Cowboys Pass Rush. And you're just able to hang out under center

over 60% of the time and just have the whole menu of run game. Aaron Jones is super dominant, play action, and then Jordan loves playmaking when you need it. And that is the most comfortable way to be

if you are that offense. And I can't, I mean, the Cowboys, all credit to Green Bay, because when you talked about it, like the playmaking of Jordan Love is really spectacular. But the Cowboys just let him do it.

Right. Like all these things can be true, right? Like, it could be McCarthy's fault, but Dan Quinn still shares a lot of the blame for giving up 48 points. 48 is a lot of points. Green Bay's offensive system could produce a lot of easy plays for Jordan Love in the form of wide open receivers. Like Luke Musgrave averaged nine yards of separation per catch. And he had three catches. You can do the math on that.

He had 27 yards of space combined on his three catches. And then also Jordan Love can make plays under pressure when things. don't work so well with the play design. I think this is, you kind of compared it to the Rams and Stafford on Sunday night. I think it was like a combination of what the Lions had going with their offensive line kind of dominating

and then providing the idea. Sorry, that's what I was combining two things we talked about. That's what I meant. But he also added in the Stafford creativity stuff. So it was like you got the best of both worlds. And instead of getting 26 points or 24 points, whatever the lion scored, you got 48 points. You doubled it up.

that's why you go for these types of quarterbacks. I think that's why Green Bay had so much faith in Jordan Love while the rest of the football world basically left him for dead after a year two. We hadn't seen him play. The only time we saw him play after that was an ugly performance against Kansas City. But when you have that level of talent,

which has always been apparent with love, like going back to his college tape, you give those guys an extra shot. You give those guys extra time to develop because if they do, it looks like this. And this is the type of performance that can convince you that this quarterback is able to lead you to bigger things like a Super Bowl one day. Like if I'm a Packers fan, I'm after this year, I don't care what happens next week. Like this season, it was everything that I could ask for.

And Jordan Love has been everything that they could ask for realistically. So I'm going to imagine there's going to be some moment this offseason, but late this offseason because they've got to wait the whole 12 months where someone from the Packers front office and a member of Jordan Love's representation are going to have a conversation about what a new contract is going to look like or what an extension is going to look like. And when this happened last year, they were, they really, they really were playing the slow role game. And obviously, he had, he did not have a lot of football on tape.

So on some level that is that is understandable. I mean, this is going to be like, do you think there is any world in which this is not a full-fledged starting quarterback, franchise quarterback type multi, multi-year top of the market deal? I think that's how it's announced. I think that's how it's presented. I think that's what like the back of the box numbers say. But I think it's going to be structured in a way where not like love gets. a lot of money and his agent gets to say, hey, I got my client paid and you got a big signing bonus. But like, it's after maybe two years, it's a year-to-year deal after that.

I think that's the smartest way to go about it. I think that's the best way to go about it for both parties. If Love wants to cash in on this season without having to prove it a second year, and if Green Bay wants to negotiate early and avoid a bigger payday down the line, I think that makes the most sense. And we've seen teams use that structure in the past and kind of benefit from it. Like I'm thinking about the 49ers when they signed Colin Kaepernick, it was very much a year-to-year deal. Right.

And when he regressed after Jim Harbaugh left, they were able to get out of that without having a big cap penalty. I think that's how you have to do it, given this unique situation. Like, we have never really seen anything quite like this where a guy is on the bench for three years. We don't see any, any real flash of him. And then all of a sudden he comes out and looks like a future star. Yeah. I'd rather be Jordan Love than the Packers in that negotiation. I got to say because I'm sure because of that it is a different situation.

They will be able to make it a little bit more, you know, get those trap doors to be a little bit more substantial than in some of the top tier quarterback second contracts. But again, they're in a unique situation because they have to wait, which means that there's going to be a couple more deals that get done. And, you know, no matter what happens next week, whatever after, he's going to suddenly have quite a bit of leverage. And, you know, look, to some extent, quarterback contracts go the way that quarterback contracts go. And it just inches up and inches up. And some of that back end structure is where the wiggle room is. But I think they've got two priorities with Jordan Love this offseason and it's figure out how much they're paying him and what makes sense there and arrive on a significant long-term deal. And I don't know.

Make sure he stays off Reddit. Like, just keep this guy normal, please. It's all they have to do. The last two, the last two have not gone. I wasn't even thinking of the other one. So let's continue the playmaking. Let's continue the mobility. Let's continue the spectacular arms.

But maybe let's make some changes otherwise. I don't know. I don't work in Green Bay. But those would be my, those would be my one and two. There's a lot of downtime to get into some trouble in Green Bay. I'll just say that. But like, I don't think the Packers, I don't think it's that tricky of a situation because.

I think Jordan loves a good player. Like, I think he's proven that. Oh, yeah. We don't need to see more. And I don't think teams ever live to regret paying good players unless they get hurt. I don't think this is a situation where he's going to turn into a pumpkin and not be a good player going forward if they do pay him. I think his baseline is what we saw this season. And what we saw this season is enough.

He finished like, what, third in EPA per play this year? Like, obviously he's playing more of a caretaker type of role. as a quarterback, but we've seen the playmaking. We know we have that extra level of play in them, that extra level of development that may be like a Jared Gough, for instance, doesn't possess. We know Love has the performances and the throws that we've seen other elite quarterbacks make.

So I don't know. I think that makes it less complicated. And then at the same time, they have so many young weapons who, I don't think, are having money commanding years, necessarily. I don't think any of these guys are going to be like, oh, I need an above market deal right away. And they have so many options, especially in the receiving core, that they can pick and choose which guys are going to be the most thrifty going forward. Their cap situation is basically ideal considering the fact that a year ago they were really in cap hell. And it looked like this was

going to be a real issue of Jordan Love and these young guys didn't develop into anything. Well, let's the other thing is that Love has done this working with an overall team. that's they're so young. All of those receivers are developing as they go along. I mean, they didn't have a hundred yard receiver through 15 weeks.

And then Bow Mountain did it against the Vikings. Jaden Reed did it against the Bears. And then Dobbs got there in the first half today. So it's, it's first of all, I mean, love deserves all of this, this, all the credit of the world. But

overall, this package. team has been, has been just a really amazing example of teaching and coaching and player development as the season goes on. And, you know, some of what Jordan Love did this season was before they'd worked out a lot of those kinks and before they got on the same page. And I mean, I remember talking about it at the beginning of the year with you where we just kept saying, like, it's not that it's, it's not that it's bad. It's not that the players can't play. the players can play. It's,

it's, it's, they're just, they're shooting themselves in the foot over and over and over. And they stopped doing that. And we'll see how far it goes. But,

you know, no matter what, it really is gravy because the future just seems so bright. If Jordan Love is who it seems really clear he is. Uh, in classic ringer fashion, there is at least a joke within our staff that we always forget to talk about the Cowboys.

Um, Dak Prescott through two pick sixes in this game, we should probably mention. It wasn't a good game for Dak Prescott, no. But I think this falls way more on McCarthy than it does DAC. I think the broadcast did a good job, like especially Greg Olson, looking at the replays and showing that there was really nobody open. And Joe Barry's defense was really clamping down on that past game. There's a sentence you thought you'd be saying.

Yeah, I did not think I was saying that. I did throw out the possibility that it was a bad matchup for Mike McCarthy, that defense and how this offense has been constructed where it's a lot of vertical throws. And we just didn't see those vertical throws early in the first half. We saw DAC have to go to a second and third read and take checkdown options and throwing a tight windows underneath. And when you put that pressure on a quarterback and he has to throw, I think he dropped back over 60 times. He attempted 60 passes in this game. Mistakes are going to happen. And like the second one was a terrible throw by him, a terrible decision. It wasn't even that complicated of a coverage.

The second one, I put more on Brandon Cooks for getting beat inside by Jair Alexander, but it just shows that he has, he had a very little, a very small margin for error in this game. And that tends to be the case in these losses for them, is that teams take away the big plays, they force them to go on 10 and 12 play drives, and then that's when you see the mistakes. Because Dallas really hasn't had a reliable run game this season. It was basically Dak Prescott today. he had 45 yards, Pollard had 56,

and no one really had more than 15. So I just think it just speaks to how much pressure was on DAC throughout this year and how impressive his regular season was, that we didn't see more of these games where he had multi-interception outings. The run game did very little for them, and obviously they kind of got away from anything that had to do with that once the score got so out of hand and Dak had to pass so much. but even still, I mean, Mike McCarthy managed in the first quarter to just be, it was like, I've seen this movie before where they're not running the ball well, but they're still running it on early downs all the time. And they're just putting Dak and third and long. And as you said, the coverage is clamping down. And it's a tough situation to be in. And then there was a thing with Cady Lamb who, you know, still finished with over 100 yards because the Cowboys, once the game was pretty much out of reach, did.

managed to score some points and and rack up some yards. But in the first half and when the game was still being decided, CD was pretty absent. And the broadcast was showing the weird interactions with Dak and McCarthy on the sideline. I don't know if anything has popped up in terms of reporting about what the deal is there. Do you have, I mean, in terms of in game on field stuff, do you have any sort of thesis? I think it was just like minor route adjustment. based on the coverage.

That's what it seemed like. That's what it usually is when a quarterback and a wide receiver are having discussions like that. I think it's just like what the quarterback is seen, what the receiver is seen,

because they both have to be on the same page. They both have to see the same coverage to make the necessary adjustments. And I just don't think they were on the same page necessarily. But I do think the fact that that little miscommunication,

whatever it was between DAC and CD, just had such a damaging effect on the offense. It just kind of speaks to have. how much the success of this offense this year was based on that connection between those two. Like, obviously, we've seen good, Jake Ferguson has had a good year. I think Gallup has had a decent bounce back year after a terrible year last year. Brandon Cooks has been whatever, I don't know.

His usage has been weird all year. But this was all about DAC and CD, like this big year by DAC, this MVP campaign that he had. Obviously, CD put up crazy numbers. I don't think it was like a Mike McCarthy scheme thing. I just think they had this quarterback who was capable of living in this environment where he's asked to drop back a bunch. And he had this perfect receiver for that style of offense. And those two just cooked all year. But we saw when teams were able to take away that connection, the offense falls apart.

And obviously, if I'm Jerry, Jim did a really good job in coverage. Yeah. And if I'm Jerry Jones, I'm watching that and I'm like tracking that pattern. and I'm recognizing that pattern. I'm saying, like, this is a coaching problem. Like, better coaches provide more answers for the quarterback where it's not so based around one connection. So I don't know.

I just think all of the signs from this game fit a theme that has been present throughout Mike McCarthy's tenure as the head coach. Like, the embarrassing playoff loss, this isn't the first embarrassing playoff loss. Every playoff loss has been embarrassing. The first 49ers game ended with the, was it a QB sneak by Tack Prescott when they had no timeouts and they had to snap,

like spike the ball. Obviously last year with the Zique play, which I still don't understand. The Zieg play. This game. And this might have been the most embarrassing loss of them all. And that's just Dallas. Going back to Green Bay, his last two playoff losses in Green Bay were embarrassing. He gets blown out on the road against Atlanta in the 2016 title game.

The year before that, they blow the big lead against Seattle where they, in overtime, they give up like a 12 point lead in the fourth quarter. That's five times in a row. If you bring them back for another year and you get the same result, that's on you, Jerry Jones. That's not on Mike McCarthy. Right. Right.

Well, it'll be interesting to see if something happens when it happens, how quickly it happens. Obviously, tomorrow there's two more wild card games left to play. By the way, the extra point taken boys will have everyone. covered on the pod front after Eagles bucks and after Bill's Steelers earlier in the day. They're also going to have a same game parlay going on Fandual during Eaglesbuck. So everyone should check that out. But then when we move into the divisional round weekend, so the Saturday early game is the Texans at either the Ravens or the Chiefs.

And then the Saturday night game is going to be Packers at 49ers. Does it end here? I mean, what? Do you think they have a shot? Yeah. No, wait, no, no. Sorry. The 49ers are going to win that game.

Joe Barry, whatever works against Mike McCarthy. It's not going to work against Kyle Shadhan. I'm sorry. He's going to pick apart that defense. The 49ers just have more talent on their defense. I think they're going to be able to give, they're going to be able to take Jordan Love out. of the game that he had this in this round.

Like you said, he was able to stick in a positive game script. They didn't have to throw ever. They could hand the ball off. They can run their play action stuff. They could stay under center. I don't think it's going to be that type of game. I think the 49ers are going to score a lot of points. He's going to have to play catch up.

And as good as Jordan Love has been, he has been prone to some mistakes, into some bozo moments. And he has a lot of confidence in that arm. And sometimes it gets him into trouble. And I think in that situation, it will get him. into some trouble. Still, I mean, you know, this type of performance at least makes you feel like they can make a game out of it. And we'll see what happens.

Then on Sunday, uh, Philly or Tampa Bay is going to go to Detroit. I like that for the Lions. Uh, kind of either way that falls. And then the evening game is either chiefs at Bills or Steelers at Ravens, depending on those results. obviously two more wildcard games before that schedule gets completely set. Are you looking forward to tomorrow?

No. I'm not looking forward to Mason Mason Rudolph. Too much Baker-Mayfield. Too much Mason Rudolph in the afternoon. Mason Rudolph before dinner time is obscene. What is the ideal time for Mason Rudolph? When I'm asleep at 2 a.m.

noon on a Saturday when college noon on a Saturday when college football is played in the middle of the night. All right. Well, I'm excited about it. I'm excited to see some snow. I hope everybody in Buffalo is staying warm. This has been dual threat. Second installment of Super Wildcard Week coverage.

I'm Nora Puntiati. He's Stephen Reeves. Ben and Sheel will be up tomorrow night breaking down the last two games. And then we'll have a whole week of awesome coverage leading into the divisional round. And thank you to Isaiah Blakely for producing this episode and to Conorne Evans and Arjuna Ramble Paul for additional production supervision. 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. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit Fandul slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia.

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