The Ringer NFL Show - Sunday Wild-Card Recap

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

Kevin and Nora are joined by Benjamin Solak on Spotify Greenroom to discuss the Sunday slate of wild-card games and look ahead to some divisional-round matchups. They start with the Niners hanging on to win in a wild game over the Cowboys (3:15). Then they discuss Kansas City blowing out Pittsburgh and the Buccaneers beating the Eagles easily (27:50). They wrap up by answering some questions from the Greenroom audience (45:55). Hosts: Kevin Clark and Nora Princiotti Guest: Benjamin Solak Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm Juliet Littman. And I am Joe House. Welcome to Ringer Food, the ringer's new hub for all your food-related content. You may have known this feed as House of Carbs, and don't worry, that's not totally going away. We will be launching two new shows on the feed, and the first is Food News with me and David Chacobi. You may remember us from our days at Grantland while Jacoby and I are back to go over the news, sample snacks, Share some personal tales of food news, some global tales of food news. Who knows what else is to come?

And House, what are you going to be doing? Oh, my taste buds, my hungry homies, my culinary comrades, we are back. We've done it here to tell you that we are reigniting House of Corms with a whole new slate of tasty episodes throughout the year. We are starting with a football fracas, a gridiron. gobble fests. We're doing NFL playoff potluck featuring taste tests of the iconic food item or items of every playoff city to determine which city reigns supreme. Ringer food is starting up this Wednesday, January 12th. That's so soon. So be sure to subscribe on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the NFL show. I'm Kevin Clark,

joined by Nora Prince of Adi. Nor, what's going on? Patrick Holmes scored five touchdowns in 10 minutes and 30 seconds. The Kelsey's mom made it from game to game in a single day. I'm doing great. Did we find out when she actually got into the Chiefs game? It's a long trip. The picture was posted suspiciously late. Did she see her son throw a touchdown pass?

It seemed like it happened right around then. The only thing is they did not reference that she saw the throw, which makes me kind of think that she just barely missed it and might lie and say she saw it. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call Donna Kelsey a liar like 90 seconds into this podcast. Ben Selleck is also here. What's going on, bud?

Yeah, good to be back. Seat feels nice. Glad of you on the mic. It's been a hot sec. Fun week to come back to. So let's get to the playoff schedule before we get to the actual result. So AFC starts on Saturday

430 Bengals at Titans. The Bengals play in every bad time slot game over the past decade. The Bengals have been in about 80% of those games. Saturday night classic 49ers at Packers 815 on Sunday, 3 p.m. Cardinals, Rams winner against the Buccaneers in Tampa. And then at 6.30 p.m. Bills at Chiefs on CBS. That's kind of the matchup of the weekend. Boy, do we have a lot to get to. I want to start with the Cowboys game, because why not?

I have so many things to talk about that I actually am going to put it in your court here first, So lack. What was your biggest takeaway from this game? Because you can go with the McCarthy talking points, and we will. You can go with the Niners coming out and impressing, and go with DACs struggling for large parts of the game. When you think about this game in five years,

you'll think about what? I'll think about how whichever team Domeco Ryan's is head coaching got dialed in on this game. I've really enjoyed watching D.Miko Ryan's as the first year DC of the 49ers. And that promotion after Sala left was a big deal. They have a defense-aligned coach there named Chris. And I still don't know how to pronounce his last name. It's like Koresick or Kosserker or something. Please forgive me.

But he's money, right? I mean, he's been huge for that line for years. He's rehabilitated, you know, like guys like Arden Key. He got Charles de Mennu for a sixth round pick. He's made him a good rush. Like, he is the man. And when Sala left, they could have. promoted him to protect him.

And instead, they took a guy who's had four years of coaching experience, two of which I tried quality control into Miko Ryans and said, you're going to be the DC. And that was a huge vote of confidence in Ryans, who across the course of the year has just taken the scraps of this 49ers cornerback room and has dealt with injuries to Jimmy Ward, injuries to Jakee's guitar, injury now to Fred Warner, and just continues to slap it together in the back seven with duct tape and prayers in a way that is. So impressive. This Niners defense got better week after week in the face of tremendous injury.

They are now deep. They have a rotation. They have young guys that can rely on. Avery Thomas was unplayable early in the year. They've got him to the point where they can start him on the outside within one season. The development of the young players on this defense, the hegemony you have now as well with this back seven working in concert. I mean, oh, the San Francisco corners are a problem. Nope, because they can just play zone and play it so doggone well if they can hide those guys.

That is extraordinarily impressive. Pressure packages, too. I mean, he was in Dax's face with blitzes. That is very rare to see. D'emiko's pitch and gas, and it is really, really cool to watch. Love your football talk. Let's get mad at Mike McCarthy. Amen.

So this was one of the sloppiest games I've seen in a long time. And it starts truly at the top. I mean, this was an unprepared team that made mistakes that had a huge third down penalty when they tackled an offensive lineman for no reason. At one point, the special teams unit tackled their own punt returner. The penalties, I think there were 14 of them today, a couple of them backbreaking.

The Cowboys have the talent to win this game. They didn't have the coach to win this game. And I don't know how you fix that because it looked like Kellyn Moore made some of the same mistakes. Michael Silver, after the game, said that Kellyn Moore is the one who called the QB run at the end of the game

that became a complete catastrophe. There were a couple of kind of discoursey things after that. They really surprised me. First of all, Mike McCarthy said, this is via Edwarder, that he thought that the New York review would put time back on the clock. Why are we relying on this?

Like, why can't we just run a normal play and not hope that the umpire will touch the ball and the mechanics of the play? We'll leave one second on the clock. It just seems like the analytics there are just not adding up here. And Mike McCarthy spent a year away from the game, understanding modern game management or whatever.

I'm not sure what he was doing. He had 14 assistants. He had a bunch of binders. I'm not sure it worked. She needs to go back to PFF and ask for his ultimate subscription money back because he didn't learn anything. Nora, when you look at the Cowboys, what disappointed you the most today?

It was just completely unprepared. I mean, so the rule of thumb is that you need 16 seconds to run a play and be able to run another. And they had 14. So you're already in a position where you probably just should not be running a draw on that play. Then you're relying on the ref to get up to the spot. then you have the error which I don't know if that's on coaching or on on DAC where the football

should not be changing hands from player to player. Dak should be giving the ball immediately the ref. And even from the start, okay, Kellan Moore may have called the play, but in that same report, Michael Silver said that Mike McCarthy was on the headset, didn't say, no, no, no, no, this is going to be a complete disaster. So that is a multi-level goof of that brick proportions, right? But then you go back a little bit further. they run the fake punt convert,

keep the punt team out, end up taking the delay a game, cost them 29 seconds. They wound up settling for a field ball and that drive too. You don't think they might have liked those 29 seconds back? You don't think that would have mattered?

It's just the penalties, I mean, McCarthy gave some answer about, you know, I thought the reps were going to let them play a little bit more. Most of those penalties were pre-snap stuff. Like there is just no,

no excuse for it. I love, I love the implication. of like playoff penalty calling me a little bit lighter to be like, you could just go in the neutral zone. Like you can just jump off sides. Like what?

Yeah, it's just a lot of playoff. It's the playoffs, man. It's the purge, right? I was told us was the purge. No more illegal hands of the face. You can just knock guys helmet itself. Yeah.

It's fine. It's fine. It's a playoffs. It's January. Let them play, Raff. Yeah. Um, how'd you guys like the double punt? Double fake punt. Okay.

Listen. Why? Why? What? What? You want to get a timeout? You're going to time out? Firstly,

firstly out of Kyle. Jim Nats was like, are they going to fake it again? Jim Nitz like, are they going to fake it again? You literally said, are they going to fake it again? You can't fake again. There's no such concept of faking on first and dead. The best part was Romo did just just his best attempt at a little bit of Cowboys propagated. Romo said, I've seen this before.

I've seen this before once. I wanted Nance just to me to be like, horseshit. Like, absolutely not. only when in a nightmare. They were explorers in a disaster movie. I've seen this before. Oh, my goodness. It was, it's, that's such a good example of like, like, oh, they want to get a time

out of them. You should want to score points. You should want to make them cover receivers, make them tackle running backs. That's the larger want here. It's like points and the game and winning and it's going to get a timeout. That's far too great. granular at this stage. Meanwhile, the 49ers defense is just like standing on the field being like,

whatever guys, like we're good here. It was most of the starters because they expected a fake. It's not even like you had the special teams unit out. Romo was like Quint from Jaws of the double fake punt. He was like, no, no, no, no. I've, trust me. I'm good. I've seen this before.

And the Niner's like, yeah, okay, we're good. Just like one of the silliest moments of football I have witnessed in all of my years. Because of the duration. Because we just sat there and watched. It wasn't immediate. It's also like everything is funnier if the punt team is doing it. Yeah, it wasn't immediate.

Like one of the cardinals of comedy. Brent anger went in motion. He was like, hey, I'm getting a jet touch. Oh my gosh. I lost my mind. All right. So after the game, Jerry Jones says he doesn't remember

the last time anybody, a game disappointed him this much. He says that a coaching change is... 2012? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of them actually. But he said that coaching chain is not on the table. I don't know.

I feel like he was kind of saying let's not discuss anything right now. He didn't, yeah, in context, there's some messy headlines out there. In context, he was just like, we're not doing this right now. I feel like he was just kind of like we're kicking this can down the road. Nora, I'll start with you. If you're Jerry Jones, you do what right now? I think you fire Mike McCarthy because this was entirely predictable.

It's not really the fact that all of this happened. It's the fact that none of it is that surprising. Like, I think we went into the game with the expectation that there was a solid enough chance that Mike McCarthy just does not. not have it situationally. And then what do you know? There's two minutes and change left. And it's like, oh, great.

It's coming down to Mike and the clock. Let's see how this one goes. And it went about as well as could have been expected. I still think that if you do that. And, you know, we've talked about a lot of potential coaching vacancies over the last few weeks. And generally speaking, I think I would trend towards conservatism sometimes because it's really hard to be an NFL coach.

And sometimes it's hard to understand sort of what's going on behind the scenes, who's involved in what facets of decision making. There have been some firings this cycle that I've disagreed with. First of all, that is an incredibly attractive job opening. Second of all, I just don't think that, I don't think that this level of underachievement should be acceptable. Ben, same question. Yeah, it's funny.

I agree with Nora and I fall on the other side of the coin. If I'm Jerry Jones, I'm firing Mike McCarthy, but I don't imagine he does because of how predictable this all was, right? Like Mike McCarthy was hired when, like early 2020? And every single person went, this will matter for a Cowboys playoff game late in the fourth quarter. And then it did. And the second thing was, man, I hope McCarthy does it, Rogers, Dack.

And guess who's sitting back there? running like on base downs six different West Coast concepts trying to pick aside and read out an idea and just be perfectly right all of the time find the correct receiver in the progression like you know razor thin margins of success on every single passing down jack prescott right and and that's the but i think the really tricky thing for dallas is it felt really clean to say we get some more reps for kell and more Mike McCarthy's just kind of like here and then the succession plan will be clear. I don't know how strong you feel about that on the Kellynne Moore front right now,

just because I'm having this experience with Moore where it's like, all of his one-offs are really cool. Like, ah, like third and one, we're going to like hand it off to the fullback, but it's still speed option. Wow. Like all these like situational stuff is great. The meat and potatoes is not pretty right now. I don't know if it's like a DAC injury thing.

If it's a, you know, CD's not playing great. and we're suddenly super into Cedric Wilson thing, but they just don't seem to have, like, their pitches on first and 10. And that's a really worrisome thing to me. If I'm bringing in a guy for his offense, and his offense is all the fixings, it's all the sides,

and it's not really the belly of the beast. That freaks me out. Do you guys remember what Mike McCarthy admitted to just making up a story to Jerry Jones about watching every snap? Yep. I do. I don't, I'm okay with,

I guess I'm okay in theory, with not watching every single snap. Well, you don't have to tell the media immediately that you just lied to the owner. That seems like a strange move. But I guess everything Mike McCarthy's done in the past two years has been kind of strange. I think they're getting into like,

you lied when you said that discourse when it comes to high profile sports figures speaking to reporters as dangerous territory. I also don't think anyone told him that New York was looking at the play on the last play. No. And also they didn't.

Also, what a moment for Steve, Stephen Ruiz's no old refs push. Yeah. Like if we had a ref combine, man, they're getting that. They might get two plays off. We had some sprinters down there. Ben, Dak Prescott, according to PFF,

only three of 10 on 82 yards for passes over 12 yards today. What did you see out of him? And should we be, I guess, worried about play off DAC right now? Yeah, tough to push the ball when corners gets a play with six yards off, eight yards off. and when even when Nick Bosa goes down, Charles Omenahue's just beating up on Tyron Smith.

That's not the winning formula, right? Protection wasn't great, and they really love to get five in the concept. And I get why, because you love Dax's ability to process from the pocket, but that's been a little bit of a slog for the last, like, month to six weeks. You know what I mean?

Like, this Cowboys offense hasn't felt as good as it should have since somewhere around mid-season and kind of that DAC, like, calf re-aggravation. and all that nonsense, right? The urgency to push the ball down the field, I understand it, it makes sense, and you feel like you have the guys you want to do that,

but there's no gallop, and they're putting a roof on top of you. You've got to get Tony Pollard more involved. You got to get the ball to CD at line of scrimmage. We got to let guys make plays after the catch. That's the thing is, like, there's no, like, kind of layups in this offense. There's no kind of, like, rhythm inducers, right?

Like, think about, like, the Niners passing him on the other side of the ball. It's like, how do we minimize our course? back and maximize our playmakers. And the Cowboys is just the polar opposite. It's all right. Let's put everything on DAC's shoulders. And hopefully we're going to get some explosives to get like, you know, that third

and 15, whatever the Frick, Cedric, Cedric, Cedricin Wilson, beautiful scene ball was. Like, right, that's gorgeous. But we can't be living on that right now. So in terms of DAC playoffs, I'm not too concerned, especially if there's lingering health things, which it feels like he just hasn't been at 100% all year. But Cowboys writ large, Jerry Jones said, he said, like,

it feels like when you have this amalgamation of talent, you should be winning. And it does. something's wrong in the formula, something's off offensively, and I'm not sure it's just McCarthy. Yeah, and that's why I'm with you on the giving pause to the Kellynne Moore thing, because I just think that the whole coaching staff right now was something just a little bit off. And I wouldn't have hired Mike McCarthy in the first place. I would fire him, but one thing I warn against, and these type of franchises, the Jerry

Jones types of franchises, there are scenarios in which you'll be praying for Mike McCarthy. There's a scenario in which he hires a coach who basically, you know, whether that's a first-time coach or whomever where Jerry has the run of the place. I mean, one of the things that many people, Bob Stern and others have talked about with Jerry, with Jason Garrett was his, one of his best skills was managing Jerry. And that's a real thing you have to worry about when you're in that franchise. And so there's a, there's a scenario here in which he does what we say, which is fire Mike McCarthy, but things get way worse because that's just the nature of how the Cowboys operate,

nor anything on the Niners here before we kind of divvy up into the next round. Yeah, well, again, so season high 22 pressures, they're getting pressure 48.5% of the time. I do think we've had a number of conversations over the course of season about how they've managed some personnel stuff. And sometimes there's some criticism of Shanahan that goes along with that. Whoever is figuring out how to just like snatch pass rushers out of thin air for sixth round picks. well done tip of the cap. Like it's not all, it hasn't all been good this season

in terms of personnel moves they've made, but this team can survive, right? If it's just run game and pass rush and you get a touchdown on the first drive because Jimmy doesn't have to do everything as easy button, right? It's the opposite of what Dax's working with where it's just third and long all the time

and they're asking him to go through all of his progressions and make perfect decision. Everything is just, especially when they're on that, that first 15. It is so simplified. It looks so crisp. Jimmy was Jimmy. And we'll talk about that. But I just think they're a tough team. I felt silly for not picking them. After they scored that first touchdown. I was like, oh, yeah. Okay. I want to get into a handful of points for we're getting to the Jimmy G discourse because that could be as heated as the Mike McCarthy discourse.

Debo Samuel is amazing. 72 yards rushing today. And when he gets, they're a very very very very very few people in the NFL right now, when they get any momentum, I don't want to be anywhere near them. Like, he runs so, he is the definition of a downhill runner. And that part of that Shannonhan's play calling and getting him out into space and getting him the ball. And I just, I love what they're able to do. I mean, they've always been a tough physical team, kind of like what you said. I mean, they're just a team of badasses. And when you were around it, they have this kind of physical vibe that they give off. They're just kind of football players. And one of the things that, you know, we used to criticize or joke about how much they

paid their fullback. There's a method to that madness. There's a method to getting a bunch of big guys who can move and do everything and go heavy and then play a finesse game when they need to or also just run over you. Nora, what are we going to say? It's just funny how you look at how they played this game. And I found myself thinking about personnel stuff positively a little bit more in some cases that, I mean, you know, they have their core concepts.

And a lot of that is really good and really effective. And again, the first drive was spectacular. late in the game when they did kind of turtle got really prevent defense and made some questionable decisions you are kind of doing the oh god Kyle Shanhan and the fourth quarter white knuckling it stuff there's a lot of how this team was built in this game that made some choices that I haven't always been on board with look pretty good which is a little bit of the inverse of how we usually talk about the 49ers. knuckling was lessened because Dan Quinn was on the other side.

They canceled themselves out. Oh, true. I didn't even think about that. The 28 to three ghosts canceled. It was fine. It was one apiece. I will say playoff beard Shanahan when they would cut to him late in that game, his eyes just empty ghosts in the back of them with the beard.

He looked like he hadn't slept in days. He looked like he had laid away thinking about Jimmy's going to throw a pick with six minutes left. Jimmy's going to throw a pick with six minutes left. Jimmy's going to throw a pick with six minutes left. And it happened. Can I just say, like, ladies, like, find you a man who loves you as much as a cover three oriented defensive coordinator loves his scheme. Like, it's just so, you can't trust much in this world, but you can trust that.

Man, yeah, you certainly can. They will just run it until the cows come home. I just, I, that's, cover three is eternal. Those guys have one pitch. You're like Mariana Rivera. It's either working or it's not, okay? I got an idea. The biggest thing for me coming out of this game, by the way,

is Nick Bosa and Fred Warner and their health. And what happens? I mean, this is probably, probably is not a coincidence that the Dallas is able to move the ball as the game went along when those guys were out. Let's start the Jimmy G discourse. He was steady. Then he threw a potentially crippling interception.

We know what this is. We know what this looks like. Ben, where do the Niners go from here in these playoffs with Jimmy Garoppolo with the team you saw on Sunday? how cold is it in Green Bay when they play? It's a night game. Any snow? If we get bad weather,

Sianara. If we get like decently good weather, don't have to worry about Jimmy's grip and the accuracy that comes from that. Get Bosa back from the concussion protocol. We got a ball game. I mean, this, I think I said on the gambling show, the worst team the Packers could have caught in the NFC was the Niners.

Packers are very familiar with playing the Niners in the playoffs too. the best thing to do to Aaron Rogers in January is put him on the bench in a big coat and tell him to wait. And this Niners team can do that, man. They can rip through. We saw it in this game too. Second 11, run.

They know what they're about. They know, we're here to eat clock and gets third to manage. Well, yes, sir. And we believe we can pick up those with a variety of plays. And this Green Bay defense, listen, you know,

they've been playing well. It's been impressive. They're getting reinforcements back. It's awesome. They aren't as built to stop this running game. as the Cowboys were. The Cowboys at least had like penetrators. The Cowboys had team speed.

They had disruption, TFLs. Hackers are out here playing some too high, asking some safeties to make some tackles in a box. That's Debo against Arnell Savage. I'll take it. I'll take it a lot of times in my running game. So this, this Knighters team on offense is very, very, very well suited

to taking Green Bay the distance. So this gets really fun if you can trust Jimmy to have a solid game. Like I said, no weather. if you get Warner and Bosa back on the defense side of the ball. Those are your two impact players back there. 10-day forecast in Green Bay. The night of the 22nd, this would be two degrees.

Yeah. So in this instance, we're going to throw the ball. We're going to throw the ball 10, 12, 15 times, right? We're going to all play action slide, all just quick ones to Kittle, which the fact that the Niners didn't have to use Kittle today is incredible. That's how you know this offense is working. Well, they had to use him on a weird, incomplete pass that Cowboys thought was a fumble. Yes.

That one, again, Jimmy not generating a turnover because his arm was too weak is truly a twist. Didn't even see that one coming from the writers. Usually we go the other way with that one. But Jimmy, again, like Jimmy, he plays within himself. He knows where his bread is buttered. He had a really good three quarters. And then everybody in their mom knew, especially like once he missed Ayyuk wide open on third down, you were like, James. And then he comes on the next drive and they're still throwing it.

Like, James? And then the pick comes. That's just, that is who he is. And so it's a question of how big of a lead do you build and on what side of the field does he throw the pick? Who's a better coach in your mind between Shanahan and LaFleur? LaFleur, comfortably. Now, LaFleur is dealing,

LeFleur is playing with a stacked deck. Getting 12 behind center is real nice. But we got to get, we don't really thumb our nose at LaFour, but we have to get to the point where we acknowledge the winning percentage is out of this world. That's not a mistake, you know, three seasons in. This is, this is a level of consistency

that a lot of other coaches would miss. Shanahan could be that, but at this point, like Shanahan has the yips a little bit. You know what I mean? Anytime Shanehan gets into these late game situations where he has a lead, there's at least two things that happen where you're like Kyle. Listen, putting Trent Williams in motion, I get it. Overload line.

I get it. It makes a lot of sense. Defense lines forced to shift. Now the defense lines moving horizontal and you can go vertical in the sneak. It makes so much sense. But you're asking a 37-year-old tackle to get in his stance off of motion. He's never done this in his life. Like this is the sort of stuff where it's like

Just everything Shanahan tries Seems to always have that knife twist at the end He overthought a lot A lot, a lot, a lot of big brain from Kyle Alright, here's my new theory on this Is I think that he wants to continue to be aggressive Because this whole thing is don't screw up Kind of like Nora, we were talking about the guy

Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw up He's white knuckles so much In the last two minutes I think he wants to keep pressing and doing interesting things Because he doesn't want to revert To this very conservative style Maybe I don't know Maybe it's an ego thing, but he just does a little too much

and overthinks late in games. What are you doing hunting on fourth and one? That was bad. That was real bad. Lost in the McCarthy trying to lose the game is how hard Kyle was trying to lose the game. Next gen stats had that costing them 8.5 percentage points of win probability. That's like, I don't mean to go, you know, nerd bomb on everybody. But like, that's a lot of points.

And you have, I would argue, and like this is an absurd argument, but you have like the ideal guy to give it to, in Debo? Like it goes like Derek Henry, Nick Chubb, Zeke Debo, which again, it's like fascinatingly weird, but is true. So you got like five guys in the team who can get a yard. Like this whole team is built to get one or two yards. Like that is, that's what they do. Norr, this 49ers team, how does this next couple weeks play out for them?

So I got to think that the Packers are going to have an easier time exposing the fact that the secondary is still not good. I thought Dallas would be able to expose it. And I think things were just too hard on DAC. The way that they were playing offense, they just didn't make enough easy on him to be able to have that come to fruition. If they're going to get pressure like this and a lot hinges on those defensive injuries, I mean, it was great to see Fred Warner like jumping up and down on the sideline.

But if those guys are able to play, that makes a big difference. If they can get this amount of pressure, they'll be dealing. with a good offensive line in Green Bay that's gotten Bakhtiari back, but I think they will be able to disrupt them. I would pick the Packers, but I think they make it a game. Line is five right now.

I'd pick the Niners to cover. It's been moving Niners pretty much since open, open around like five and a half six. What do you pick? I bought the Niners at six. Yeah. I don't know. I had them straight up against Catwise.

I'm not sure why I'm straight up against the Packers. Especially if Warner's out, that's really worrisome. But this Niners team, man, they are really stinking fun. The way they play football is awesome. All right. Let's get on to the Chiefs Steelers game. Nora, I'll put the ball in your court first. Are we sure we need a seventh playoff team from each conference?

I'm sure that we don't. I hate the seventh seed. Now, I hear the argument that more people who love football get to... No, no, no, no, no. let me stop right there. I hear the argument that the NFL is getting an estimated $150 million for this. That's the only argument. That's why the NFL is doing it.

Right. No, I know. There's no football argument for it. It's not changing. But if we're arguing the merits of whether or not the seven seat is a force for good or a force for evil, I hear the argument that it allows people who love this sport and love their teams to be invested with the interest of making the playoffs longer in the year. That I think is a genuine benefit of the seventh seat. The cost of the seven seed is what we just watched.

And the fact that it rewards mediocrity. And the fact that we just watched a football game where Ben Ralthusberger had a first half that was probably the worst first half of his entire career. They tied a franchise record in punts. And essentially all that happened was that the Chiefs got to add a few, like, funky plays in the red zone that are going to make Leslie Frazier's week more difficult. So good for them. But you get what you ask for. And you get what in the NFL's case, you get hundreds of million dollars for. Sure. So it suffers from the same problem

the college football playoff scenarios suffer from, which is that the only way to make it more compelling would be if the seven seed played the sixth seed. The problem is there's just not a lot of good football teams. So having the two seed play these guys is just going to create mismatches. And there's no, unless you're going to add a bunch of games, there's no way to make that round more competitive with more teams because there's normally not a hot team. The Colts were the exception last year. That game was close.

Philip Rivers was great, all that stuff. Yeah, but we can't be nice to the Colts because it is their fault that we are dealing with this mess. And the Chargers. No, we can be nice to the Chargers. The Chargers should have been in. The Chargers should have explained, Ben, that the process was sound and the NFL would have let them

them up. Yes. And they also should have just beat the Texans. Or the Raiders. Ben, was there any questions you had about the chiefs that were answered tonight or was this kind of just landed to play in safely? No. Obviously, like, you don't want to start with. I believe

it was four punts. You know, a little bit of trouble moving the ball. The past protection is in my opinion not great. I, you know, I know Orlando Brown got some like all pro recognition. I don't really see that when he plays. If I were going up against a Buffalo pass rush, that's really fresh. Buffalo is a really good job rotating their guys right now.

I'd be a little bit worried about that matchup. Buffalo's ability to get pressure with four and drop seven and kind of keep a blanket on this thing, I think, projects well for Buffalo in this game. But we kind of already knew that coming in. You know, only started giving up movement on offense late when the game was decided, and that's what's expected. The best thing was just watching like that, the Steelers score, that touchdown, that scoop and score. and just it's like, you know, all that for a drop of blood, right? Like, it just set off the sheet. That set off the scoring deluge, right?

Like five touchdowns in 12 minutes or whatever it was. Cool to see them take one punch and just immediately go thermonuclear. That's what we're used to seeing in January from Kansas City. Nor, same question. It was five touchdowns in 10 minutes and 30 seconds. The previous record was Brady doing five touchdowns in 25 minutes. Like, that is very casual. incredibly short period of time to score that many points.

Here's the thing, though. Brady did not have working in his favor an offense on the other side of the ball that goes three and out and takes 40 seconds off the clock because all they do is throw five-yarding completions. That's a great point, Ben. It's a great, great point. I mean, there's the edge. The Chiefs love to play press coverage.

Normally throughout the season, they've played 40% press, which is already tops the NFL. Their secondary was aligned in press, 68% of the NFL. of the times, the time against Steelers' receivers. You are just, I mean, football coaches love to say you got to defend, make them defend every blade of grass. Not a lot of blades of grass going undefended in that situation. All right. Does anyone, before we get to the Chief Spills mini preview, does anybody have any other

takes on this game? I continue to really enjoy the Steelers as a like B-level veteran quarterback landing spot. it would be better if Deonti Johnson. Why B? Why B? Why not? Why not A? Sure, A. I'm just not sure you're able to get A in the building. You know what I mean? A would be great. Like if Rogers is available. I don't know if A is moving is the thing. Yes. We have a lot of evidence.

Guys, why don't we just call him Aaron Roger? Well, no, because Russell Wilson is also in that. True, true. In that group. I just mean the hypothetical. And also, by the way, this time last year, we had no idea that those guys even wanted out, right? And so it could be anybody shaking. free. I think the B we're talking about like a Jimmy Gropolo type. Are we even putting him on the

B level? I think B minus. I was thinking more like Kirk Cousins, Derek Carworld. I just thought about Steelers changing from current era Ben to current era Russ. And the tectonic shift might displace the city of Pittsburgh.

Just going from what Ben is now in terms of I'm going to throw the ball right away four yards behind line of scrimmage to Russ. I'm going to run around for five seconds behind line of scrimmage to maybe throw it 55 yards down the field is going to break people's minds. It does not get more polar than that. I would love to see it. All right. Nora, the chiefs beat the bills how this next weekend?

So they find a way defensively to keep Josh Allen in the pocket. And they have another Mahomesian performance on offense. I mean, I think this game is more like, holy crap, this is going to be exciting. This is the, you know, AFC Super Bowl more than it is. What are they going to do against the sudden juggernaut that is Buffalo? I know last night I felt like the bills would be my pick in that game. I think I probably lean in that direction. I just don't know how much you can take from what we saw and spin it forward

as reflective of what Kansas City would be able to do in that matchup because it's just a completely different beast. This is like when the SEC teams on like November 21st schedule where they play like the Citadel before they play their rival. Like that there was, that's why

I was, that's why I asked Ben if there was anything you could draw from this game tonight. With the exception of the scoop and score, this was not anything. This was just basically just a little, this is like a spring game out there. We have to shout out Nick Algrady for throwing

the defensive player of the year to the ground and then catching a big man touchdown like there has to be that has to be like a thick 12. It can't be a thick six. We have to have a new name for it. Ben.

My unnecessary Chiefs touchdown shout out goes to Andy Reed who had a wild card Travis Kelsey to Byron Pingle past, wildcat, excuse me Travis Kelsey to Byron Pringle pass touchdown in his docket. It was like I'm only up 28 on the Steelers and decided that was the time to empty the chamber.

So I don't, I feel like maybe that would have been a good save for next week, Andrew. You know, when you know what that means? He's in his bag all a month. Right. He's got these to burn. Now it's an RPA, right? He was in the lab. Right.

Yeah. He was in the lab. All right. Also, if you're Leslie Frazier, aren't you watching this game going just like, ah, this asshole? Now I've got to teach this stuff. The thing about, and that's kind of one of the reasons why you put it on film is because you make the opposing team spend time on it,

and then you'd like do or don't use it. But the, the, the, I'm really excited for this Bill's Chiefs game. Obviously everybody is. But I, I, I, I, the energy with which Buffalo came out against that Patriots team was awesome, right? That was a, that was a, that was a, we hated what you did with us in game one. And we also didn't punish you the way we wanted to in game two. That was a beat down.

Now they get the chiefs who, Kevin, we talked about this a lot preseason. This is the team they built to beat. The message in Buffalo. It's all they thought about. It's all they thought about. for seven months. The message in Buffalo this year was beat the chiefs, beat the chiefs,

what do we need? How do we need? How do we do we do? Who's got to get into the building? What do we have to care about? We're going to beat the chiefs. So they have to come off of the energy they got, that huge spike against the Patriots over the last two months,

and recalibrate to the energy of that was the big boss. This is the final boss. Like we exercised those demons. We got to get right back up, jacked up to an 11, because we're facing the team that we can. care about. So right now I'm on like two polls in terms of I can see the bills coming out and boat racing Kansas City. Not to the same degree they did against the Patriots because the chiefs can pass their way into it in the second half, but like I could I could see a big first

half deficit for sure. I could also see the pendulum swing the other way. And they just, they kind of emptied the tank a little too much against New England and they come out a little bit flat against, you know, final boss part two. So the emotions coming into this game are really, really fun, especially on Buffalo side. Nor are you want to do 20 minutes. We We have 20 minutes left. We move Ben Rothesberger memories. I'm going to pass. All right, let's move on to the Bucks and the Eagles.

Boy, this was a talent disparity. This was a whooping. This was just the bucks being a lot better than the Eagles. I think this is the kind of game. Ben, you are kind of the Eagles expert here. Not kind of. You are the Eagles expert. Kind of game where you have more questions coming out of it than you did.

You know, almost when I was watching this game, I was thinking, man, it would almost be better for the Eagle season to have the dignified kind of week 17 exit and not play in this game and feel good and have an offseason where you're building towards something rather than experience this and come out with so many questions and so many holes. I'll start with you because you're the bird expert and we'll get into the bucks here in a second. But what is the vibe right now coming off of that Eagles loss? Yeah, it's a sobering loss. It was really cool to come into the year. expected to win six games and then win nine, ten, I don't even recall, make the playoffs, right? That was pretty sick. That was really cool. It was awesome to come into the season with the

expectations for where Jaylor Hertz was, the understanding of where he finished year one and see him improve every week and exceed those expectations in year two. That was all great. However, there's been a lot of meat left on the bone for Jaylon Hertz in the passing game. The Eagles did a great job offensive coaching staff wise, Nick Siriani, Shane Steichen, building a lot of around Hertz, finding a running game that worked, becoming this run-first-oriented team, throwing outside of the numbers. And their efforts in building an offense around Hertz and winning was tremendous. Siriani sold us a bill of development, said the roots are planted, the flower's going to grow,

and he was right. It is to his credit that the Eagles made the playoffs when they did. We needed to see in Philadelphia, because we can get a little too excited about things. We needed to see in Philadelphia, Jail and Hertz go up against a playoff caliber defense that did not respect the offense they were facing. Did not respect this collegiate style, this hokey throw bubble screen, RPO, spread and shred nonsense,

and said, we're just going to run, be fast, and tackle. And they needed to see that defense punk this offense for four quarters. Because it's a reminder that for as good as Jalen Hertz has gotten, for as much as he has improved, his skill set,

what he is good at, what he's bad at, his strengths and weaknesses, detail in offense that the NFL is not trying to play. this, you know, spread them out horizontally offense, work outside of the numbers, pick half of the field, be run oriented, be RPO oriented. If you can't throw middle of the field, you can't throw layered, if you can't throw deep to shallow, it's really hard to run an NFL passing offense. So this is kind of what you, if you want to get in bed with Hertz long term as your quarterback, this is the sort of offense you'd have to run and to excel at a playoff level with it, you'd have to be really, really good and really, really athletic. And that's what this reminder was.

So Hertz can still get better. but this is the style of offense the Eagles will play with him and that to me doesn't map to the playoffs. Hertz much more so maps to a long-term backup career spot starter. If he's Marcus Mariotta

and Tyrod Taylor for the rest of his life that's an awesome result for a second round pick. It's just not the guy you want to tether the wagon of your future too. Nora, the bucks? Yeah, well,

I was impressed with their ability to defend the run and they were devoting resources to that because they were just playing a lot of single high safety and saying, look, we don't think that your quarterback is exactly going to go through the progressions and effectively get the ball down field. But still, that was the area where we felt like the Eagles could potentially attack them and expose them a little bit. Jordan Whitehead got picked on in coverage a little bit, but I thought was super effective against the run.

And then Levanti David coming back, I think, helped a decent bit. and, you know, we're not going through some Devin White, hot and coldness after the game. It does seem like those guys coming back matters for them. And I was impressed by Tampa's defense. I mean, the game got out of hand so quickly that it's another one where it's a little bit hard to draw super firm conclusions. But they still held the number one rushing offense from this season to 95 yards total. Third of that's from the one long Boston Scott. rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Prior to that, they were giving up 3.8 yards per carry. I think you count that as a good sign for this defense going forward. Brady, I don't think, broke a sweat. No. In this game. But if you want to take it as evidence that they will at least have that balance and getting those guys back on defense matters, it's probably a good thing for them just given how much they're going to have to make up

with the injuries and the guys that they're missing off. defensively. Brady's average time to throw in the first quarter was the quickest of any quarterback this season. It was almost two seconds flat. It was 2.1. The Tristan Worf's injury. How do you even like the arm motion?

Just unbelievable. You want to talk about structures that won't work in the playoffs, man. This Gannon-Everfluous defense just does not scare elite quarterbacks. They don't give a hoot. They don't get a spot drop cover too. Screw you, brother.

There's nickel and die in the way all the way down the field. They're the new Billy Beans. Our shit doesn't work in the playoffs. All right. the Tristan Wharf's injury, I don't know what happened there. He came back in the game. He played two snaps. He should not have come back in the game.

And I actually got some, I kind of got into it with some people, which is not totally normal on Twitter. Because I said he should not have been in the game. People were saying, oh, well, the doctors cleared him. Well, the doctor shouldn't have cleared him if he came in, limped the entire time, and then got beat, obviously, to the point that he put Brady in danger because he took a hit. But then you had to leave and fell down to the turf and was clearly injured two place

later. And Ariens was saying, you know, there's a. tackle depth problem, these guys need to work through it, whatever. This could be a significant, significant injury. Ben, how does it change the calculus if works? By the way, I think they said he was one of three players to play every snap this year, something like that in the NFL. Like, if he's out, that changes the calculus.

Yeah, the quick game reliance becomes all the more important now because you're expecting to get pressure off of that right side. The nice thing about the bucks is that they already have kind of the infrastructure with tight ends and with arguably, like the best blocking tight end kind of in the league still in Rob Grodkowski, which is nuts to say, but still kind of true, that they can add to that and they can help assist that guy, Brady's really good at dealing with, you know, expected pressure off a certain side, knowing he has injury.

Who their opponent is matters a little bit more. The Cardinals rush Chandler Jones off one side and Marcus Golden off the other side. That's pretty bad. The Rams rushed Leonard Floyd and Vaughn Miller off of each side. That's worse. And there's also another dude on the other. the Rams who's really good at rushing the pastor. He plays in the interior's name is Aaron Donald.

You don't want to find L.A. if you're Tampa Bay because they play the winner of that game regardless. I'd be rooting for the Cardinals and my ability to have Brady be quick against man coverage as opposed to the Rams and trying to deal with that pass rush in the event that I wharfs out. Yeah. How are you feeling about the old bucks going forward here, Nora? Yeah.

About the same, I would say. The OL injuries are bad, right? because if you start stacking things there, that had been the area of the offense where it was just like, all right. Ariens, I think, even said, I believe this was to Peter King. I'm sorry if I'm getting this wrong.

He gave a quote recently where he basically said about the injuries or receiver, as long as we've got Brady and our line is healthy, we're good. Now, I think that is overstating it a little bit if you're just missing so much receiver talent that you built around for the better part of two seasons. But if that becomes, if that goes from a strength to middle of the pack or a strength to a weakness,

I mean, there was a point in this game where we were like, it's Grom going to have to play tackle? Like, what's going to happen here? And your depth chart is just being tested that much. That's, that is scary to me because Brady can do a lot. But if Brady's already having to figure it out with less experienced receivers with twos coming in and filling in, if the protection breaks down as well.

You're starting to put an awful lot on his plate. Still Tom Brady, but it's a lot to deal with. You need some questions, guys? Love it. Absolutely. First one, Nora, I'll throw it to you. This is actually a really good question. Is playing the Steelers better than getting the buy?

Nick Wright had this take. He did? Yeah, his take was better than the buy because you get out there, you play, right? You stay fresh, but obviously it's like playing on air. What about Nick Wright's question that he asked to launder through us tonight, which was that the Chief's offensive line is playing too well, and it's hurting Mahomes because he's not getting out of the pocket and improvising. Yeah. I don't mean to cut off Norris question. I apologize.

I just want to briefly stay on the Nick Wright point here for a second. I don't necessarily agree. Like I said, I haven't loved how Orlando Brown has played. I don't think anybody was watching Andrew Wiley this week and being like, man, he's just too good. This is a problem. The home's ability to create outside of structure has always been his best trait early in the season. They were catching like absurd turnover luck. They still had like a really weird one.

The whole T.J. Watt deflection. Like they're still catching some bad coin flips. But in general, it's just in my opinion, the regression on those plays, which are always going to be high variance, has just swung back the other way. I don't think it's the offensive lines, quality of play changing how much Mojams is and isn't out of the pocket. I just feel like any, any take that can be solved with let's bring back Mike Remmers and have him play every single snap at tackle. get the box back in the Super Bowl run it back. We have a plan now. Right, exactly. Just put the Remmer.

The Remer's role in the Super Bowl can be duplicated. Okay, I know we can do other things well, but let's get him back to where Mulams is taking a hit on every single play. All right. Nora. You want the answer to the question? I do. I think the answer is no.

I think you want the buy. However, I think Matt Lefleur recently has been on this. I think part of it is because, they came out so flat in week one after not playing a lot of their starters in the preseason. But Matt Lafleur has been on this thing about like, you can't rest too much. Guys really will get rusty. If you ask Matt Lafleur, you might get a different answer.

Yeah, I bet. Okay. So I think that there's the health part of it is important. But also they ran out of fireworks tonight. Like they got to have a football party. There's something to that. There's something to that. That's nice. It's fun to have a football party.

Ben, this is from Eddie. What does the Chief's defensive game plan look like next week? So really important. Nora made the great point. You asked how do the Chiefs feed the bills? The first thing she said was like, what do you do with Allen's legs? How do you keep Allen in the pocket?

Chiefs want to play man match. That's eyes on receivers, baby. That's linebackers turning their backs, right? They're putting their eyes on the sideline, putting their eyes outside of the slot receivers to the out of most receivers. That's safety's playing with eyes on receivers. If Alan's given a green light by dable, and say like, hey, if you see an alley take it, this gets wonky quick if the chiefs want to play

the way they want to play coverage. All right, so we go to step two, spy him. There is not an athlete on the field for the Kansas City Chiefs. This is not an athletic second level. Their best athletes like Willie Gay, honestly, like Daniel Sorensen, Ben Neiman, like these are the dudes that are their best athletes on the second level. So unless you are taking Tyron Matthew out of coverage and even that doesn't make sense because he's not big enough to consistently. tackle Allen. Honey Badger is not the biggest dude in the world.

You don't have an answer. Okay, so change your rush plans. This still isn't working, man. Melvin Ingram is not built to break Allen down in space. Alex Ogilford is not you have big ends. This is how you built it. They are not capable of running the little games and you're, oh, we're going to rush the end and we're going to loop him around.

We're going to push Alan that direction. You do not have the horses defensively or the structure defensively meant to handle this. So the only player who can stop Josh Allen is Josh Allen. So, right. what do you do? You play zone. You're going to sit and you're going to play with eyes on the quarterback. And you're going to try to go zone match.

You're going to try to play with eyes on Allen. You're going to try to stop him with seven on the defensive backfield. Sick. You better hope Stefan Diggs forgets his hands because Alan against zone right now is a threshing machine. I mean, it's a wood chipper because the guy's just has an absolute freaking rocket. I mean, these throws are ridiculous. And he's really getting comfortable with, you know, Emmanuel Sanders Moore and Colby, is he, Gabriel Davis figuring out his guys.

And now they've got this like Devin Singletary, Isaiah, McKinsey behind the line of scrimmage. Oh, if you're going to play zone, we'll just take the free stuff thing, which they didn't have two months ago. Bills are on all cylinders. So what's the game plan? Zone and pray, baby.

We're going to make you put together long drives. And if you lose to Devin Singletarian, Isaiah McKinsey, you lose to Devin Singletarian Isaiah McKinsey. Nora Lorenzo has more of a question, or comment than a question. Jimmy G looks like a sole cycle instructor. Oh my God. That's funny.

She'll let that hang there for a second. All right, guys. anything else from this Sunday? I'm sorry, I need a minute. Bengals Titans, Kevin, where are you at emotionally on Bengals Titans? It's all I care about it. Well, I mean, as you guys know, I can play both sides better than maybe anybody

in media. So I'll probably do a hand. This is a guy, listen, you're talking to a guy who did not pick the Bengals to make the playoffs, yet I am dining out on the concept that I was the first person to see the Bengals coming because of a straight comment I made out of desperation on the Rich Eisen show

about seven months ago, the day after I was in Cincinnati, okay? And so, so I can, I can handle this. What I will say is that I like the Titans, but I will, I will kind of throw out different, a lot of misdirection during the week to make sure that I can, I can stake a claim to something that happens. I'm probably going to go with something like Titans win,

but huge game out of Joe Burrow. Yeah, statement game for Burrow, but proof to the putting that Brable constant, wins. He wins the tight games, right? Return of Derek Henry. A lot of narratives you can play up in one another. I love, the thing I love about this Titans team is just how mad it makes everybody in every direction. Titans fans are so mad about everything and they have a right to be. And then it's like the people like, like analytics people were so mad. And then the icing on the cake here is that Derek Henry is coming back, which if you listen to the

analytics and analytics people shouldn't matter. Right. Like you so it shouldn't matter. And here's the thing. Do you want to have an absolute nightmare of a Sunday? Titans lose when Derek Henry comes back. It's going to be a bloodbath if it happens. I just, it's so great to me. As someone who, and I have to be honest, I've talked to something before,

the more I am in this game and, like, covering it on a very close basis, the less I believe in, like, actual football line looks. Like, there's certain core tenets, passing efficiency, passing more than run, running backs being, semi-replaceable, not using a high pick on a running back, not using money on a running back, et cetera, et cetera, that I will always believe.

But if you took a snapshot of me in 2014 versus 2022, I believe a lot more in toughness. I believe a lot more in heart. It was interesting. I was listening to Andy Reid interview from NFL films yesterday. The NFL films doing this podcast where they replay old interviews. It was like a 20-year-old interview. And Steve Sable said, Andy, if you could have a spy

in another building, who would, what would you, what info would you have them collect? He said, I swear to you, all I want to know is who has the biggest heart

because I know to avoid them on big place. Like in January, just like, stay away from this guy. I love Andy. I love Andy so much. That is so good.

Andy's so sweet. And I know that that obviously sounds just kind of, um, almost like a non-answer, but it's not. It's not. And so the point I'm trying to make here is like,

the one thing I appreciate about of the type, is they do so many things that fly in the face of just everything that the internet believes about football. And I have no idea if they're going to play Sunday. But I just like how angry they make everybody. God bless. What a wholesome end to the podcast. Andy wants to know who he's got the biggest heart.

Kevin loves the Titans because they piss people off. You're ending the podcast, do you want us to leave? Wow. Kevin was rapping already. I'll hang. I don't care. I haven't gotten to talk about football last like four weeks, man. I got takes.

we are an in podcast can we get one ben is there a take that you're just like dying to get out there especially one that's like super dated that you had like three weeks ago but you weren't able to get out into the public what did you not have an outlet for on like December 28th I'm just googling week 16 NFL schedule and we'll see if I look at a game and it pops something to my mind all I can see right now is all I can see right now is dolphin saints that's not the whole schedule I'll say this the the week Week 18 Trevor Lawrence game is the springboard for his career.

Dude was shredden. Dude was what I know I just said that Matt Everfrews' defense doesn't count, but that felt like a reminder to Trevor, like, oh, when my coach is in an active detriment to my team, I'm a really good quarterback. And I feel confident we're going to see that continue to blossom in year two. I love it. All right. This has been Ben Posture mistakes.

Nora, producer Isaiah says, go Jags. All right, Nora and I will be back. and Wednesday with Mal. Ben will be back on Friday with Kalin and Stephen to preview the divisional round. Jason Golph, Ryan, Jayzer, James Jones are up next on this feed. On Tuesday, they'll break down the Monday night wildcard game. Thank you to Nora and Ben. Thank you to Isaiah Pakely First Production, not only on this episode, but also on the Green Room that we're doing live. And thank you to Arjuna Ram Ball for additional supervision.