The Ringer NFL Show - The 49ers Run Away With the NFC, and Mahomes Snaps a 50-Year Drought for the Chiefs | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: January 20, 2020

The 49ers leave no doubt as to whether they are the best team in the NFC by dominating the Packers and throwing the ball only eight times (2:40). They will face Patrick Mahomes and a potent Kansas City Chiefs offense who outperformed an impressive Titans team. Plus Richard Sherman’s Twitter pettiness continues to delight us (21:45). Hosts: Robert Mays and Kevin Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, guys, it's Liz Kelly, and welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. This week, to celebrate the 100th episode of The Rwatchables podcast, Quentin Tarrantino returns for the third and final movie in his three-part series with us. In the final episode, Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey discussed with Quentin one of his favorite movies, the 1990 crime thriller King of New York. Make sure to check out this special episode and follow at the Rwatchables on Twitter for highlights of all 100 episodes. To The Ringer NFL show. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing good.

Boomer and Tees on my TV. Sunday night conference championship. Life is good, my man. I am not watching TV. I'm sitting in a booth at Levi's Stadium because I can't sit close to the field because the music is still blaring through the windows. So I'm trying to give Craig. Are there people still out there?

There are people still on the field, yes. Everyone's having a raucous good time, which you can't blame them. It's totally understandable. No such worries in Kansas City because it's four degrees here. It's kind of, it's not warm here, but it's definitely warm enough to keep this up. That's for sure. Let me ask you a question. Everybody looked a little teary-eyed in that post-game celebration.

Is it because there's like wind and cold or was everyone just emotional? I think some people were emotional. Who was teary-eyed? I was only on the field for a little bit. It looked like Sherman was a little bit and it looked like maybe Kyle Shanahan. I don't know. It's hard to project exactly who was teary-eyed. I did not catch Shanahan afterwards.

But it looked like there was some moisture on the eyes. His dad was there. Yeah, his dad was there. I saw that. I was following John Lynch around on the fields and he was not crying. Is he crying now? He's tough as hell. He was not crying.

He was just looking around for anyone to hug. That's all he was doing. He was just hugging any person he could find. He was probably trying to hide his tears in the hug. Tough men cry. There was no crying from John Lynch. There was exuberance. Check the tape on that.

Laken Tomlinson was crying. And I talked to him about it afterwards and he was just saying how when you get to this point and when you've gone through what he's gone through, you're a first round pick, you're just an epic bust in Detroit, you get traded for pennies,

and you come over and you become part of something like this, it becomes really special. And these moments are, they carry a lot of weight for these guys. There's a ton of gravity to a game like this on both sides. I mean, Blake Martinez in the locker room afterward was somebody asked him about his time in Green Bay and he's a free agent and there's a chance

he's not there anymore. And I mean, he was really emotional about it. And he told me, he's like, maybe I'll step back two days from now and think about how cool this was. But right now, I can't do that. Yeah. We'll get to the Titans locker room was similarly emotional, but we'll get to that during that period. Let's start with the game you were at today.

I just can't remember anything like this where a running game looked that unstoppable. Every single time, Moster touched the ball, it was eight yards or 10 yards or 35 yards. It was like watching a team in quicksand. It really was. Every time the Niners did something, it seemed to compound whatever happened next. And I think the Packers really started to get inside their own heads and really started to kind of struggle to the point where they were fighting against themselves. I think that was schematically. I think that was players individually.

And there were so many times where guys were just darting in and out of gaps that weren't even there. You know, remember when Darnold said he was seeing ghost during that game against the Patriots? I think that's what happens when you're playing the 49ers every once in a while. I think the amount of different formations, the amount of motions, similar to when the Ravens were really rolling. I think their offenses are similar in this regard. I think you can just start seeing things that aren't there. You can start guessing at things that aren't there. And I feel like the Packers were doing that in the entire game.

No matter what they were doing, they just had no answer. And every mistake led to the next one. So there's a coach who made the Super Bowl, a Super Bowl winning coach who twice had playoff games where he had fewer, his team had fewer than 10 passing attempts. Do you know which coach it was? No. I'm sure it was a long, long time ago.

It was Don Shula. And he did it in 1971 and 1973. Did not. The 72 dolphins did pass more than 10 times in all of their playoff games. congratulations to those teams. But that's what we're dealing with here. I mean, it's funny. You kind of have to almost like the Lamar Jackson thing last year,

where I think they were running as much as, what, the 74 Rams or something, and they broke the record this year of the 78 Patriots for most rushing guards in a season. When you're running that much, the only comparable games and the only comparable teams end up being in the 1970s. I am in agreement with you. I thought that Jimmy Garoppolo was going to have a game like this this, this year. We talked about this with the Vikings game where he makes it uncharacteristic

mistake and everybody in San Francisco that I talked to or Santa Clara that I talked to in the press box was saying, you know what? He shouldn't throw a pass in the second half. Just run the ball down the throat, play bully ball and limit the mistakes. I think Jim McGroup is a pretty capable quarterback, especially with Kyle Shannon calling plays and George

Kittle and Debo Samuel and all the infrastructure they've built around him. But don't make, if you can win with him throwing eight times, do it. Fine. This is, this is, they are built to win in a handful of ways and this is one of them. And I think that this is a good example of a team understanding how what their strengths are and just saying, screw it. We're just, we're just going to do this over and over and over again.

They can't stop it. And we're not, you know, I, I remember Bill Belichick saying this years ago and maybe five years ago. And they were talking about run past balance. And he said, we're not trying to be balanced or trying to win the game. And that's what this was. They weren't trying to be balanced. They were trying to have, you know, historic, historic number of rushing yards, rushing attempts,

and have Jimmy Garoppolo, even though he made $41 million in cash last year, he will be throwing the ball eight times. He will be September 2017, Mitchell Chubisky. Yeah, I don't think this is some victory lap for the running game. I think that this is a victory lap for having a total and complete offense. That's what the takeaway from me today is that this is the most complete team in the NFC, and they played like it today. that's exactly what this was

Mostert faced a box of eight or more on 13% of his carries today. That's it. The packers were in nickel and dime packages to stop the pass and the Niners said we're going to run it down your throat and make you pay for playing like that.

That's what happened. And they did it in so many different ways. I mean, we're talking about pitch plays. We're talking about traps coming back the other way. We're talking about reverses to Debo Samuel, just little flips to Debo, Samuel where the passing game is an extension of the running game.

They did such an incredible job getting guys in space. You know, Mustard had over 100 yards rushing in the first half, I believe it was like 140 something. But he had 100 of them after 106 of them before contact. I mean, this was a schematic victory. They scored a touchdown on a trap play on third and eight. And when the guys were talking after the game, Mike McGlinchie was saying, oh, yeah, we'd scheme that up the all week. We knew that when they were in those downs and distances, they were going to do some wonky stuff where they put, to Daria Smith over the center, and they were going to get up field, they were going to be

coming after the quarterback, and we could get them because they were going to have too much penetration. Stuff like that, it was just a complete and total victory. When you think about Shanahan scheming stuff up, the players, every single piece of this team seems to fit right now. And that includes a guy who is on his seventh team and runs really fast and looks like the greatest running back of all time. Yeah. So I really do want to briefly touch on this. So the September 2017 Mitchell Trubisky thing I referenced was that he threw what 24 passes over a two week period including

one game where he had seven attempts and four receptions but in that game they won the game 17 to 3 against the Panthers Jordan Howard only had 65 yards they just didn't do any offense this is the most amazing game I've ever seen this random Panthers Bears

game is unbelievable John Fox John Fox saw the future that was Eddie Jackson's first big game he had two touchdowns in that game. Yeah, that was Eddie Jackson's kind of coming out party. He scored twice in that game. It was an interception and a fumble return, correct?

He had seven attempts and then the next week he had 16 attempts. And anyway, I actually think they should have stuck with that plan in Chicago, FYI. Okay, so Jimmy Garapolo, much better quarterback than Mitchell Trubisky, but this is, you know, the broader point here, we'll get Trubisky out of the conversation mercifully, is that I think that they just knew exactly how to win. Now, here's my question to you. Kyle Shanahan. Is he the best play caller in football right now?

Yes. I don't think that the only reason I say that... Even a better play caller than the guy he's going to face in two weeks in Miami. The reason that I say that he is. I think they're the two best. And that's why I cannot wait to watch this game. I think they're the two best. And the reason I think that Shanahan is better is that he does just as much,

maybe not just as much, but almost as much with less. He doesn't have Mahomes. Mahomes solves a lot of woes. I think that on a play-to-play basis, Shanahan puts his guys in the best positions to succeed. Yeah, I'll watch. I'll actually watch some more tape on that, and we can talk about it as the week goes on

and obviously into next week. I think it's interesting that the Niners continue to exploit a hole in all defenses, not just the Packers' defense, which is that they could basically beat up anybody in the NFC, and we saw that again today. And then they could also do that in the passing game with George Kittle, with Debo Samuel. I mean, these guys break tackles.

They break tackles in the receiving game, tight end game, the running game. Beyond that, those guys can also block. It's just a physical football team. And I think that you said it was a schematic victory, and I agree with that.

I think that there were a lot of really impressive schematic edges that were that Kyle Shannon engineered today. But this is also a personnel thing. This is a philosophy thing. 100%. This kind of game happens in large part because of what happened during this week.

But I think there's a lot of contributions that come from what happens in March when they start putting this 53-man roster together because you can't execute this sort of thing unless you go out and you have Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch be really, really good talent evaluators. And not just that. When you just look at just the whole picture, it's not just the specific talent evaluation. It's knowing where guys are going to fit,

how to sort of adapt their game for the modern game, spending wisely and free agency, going out two years ago and getting Richard Sherman, that sort of stuff. This is a team-building victory as well. It's an organizational victory. It's a victory for vision. That's both on a schematic level

and on a personnel level. I totally agree. And you just watch that team today and it just feels like a group that all the pieces fit together. They really do. I mean, when you watch Moester within that offense,

it's just beautiful. It's just an explosion and everyone's moving in concert with one another. And it really is just such a cool thing to see. And it's, I mean, you think about all the little moves that it took to get here, right? I mean, trading for Lincoln Tomlinson for nothing, getting Ben Garland to be your backup center and him knowing that Shanahan offense so well because he was in Atlanta. And by the way, real quick, when Richburg went down, there were a lot of people in San Francisco who thought that was going to be a not a death knell, but a significant, significant injury. and the fact they've been able to avoid that has been incredible. In this offense, that's a huge injury, man.

I mean, I've seen this offense or Shanahan's offense get derailed because they lost their center before. In 2014, he was in Cleveland. That offense was good, like legitimately good. I've talked about this before. And then when Alex Mack broke his leg, it was a game changer. The center is a huge part of this offense. That's why they got Richburg in the first place when Shanahan came here. And to lose him and really to not lose his step is absolutely,

incredible. And you have guys like McGlenshey just ruining people. You have Joe Staley being Joe Staley. But then just so many little things and getting Debo Samuel as just a perfect space player within this offense, just the guy that you can get the ball on his hands and let him do stuff, even if he's not

super refined as a receiver yet, to bring in Emmanuel Sanders and have him be really a perfect number one receiver in this offense where you don't have to be a superstar, but a guy that does all the right things. It's just amazing watching all the moving parts and how they've coalesced at this point in the season. Sanders obviously had some

familiarity with some of the system stuff, but Muhammad Sanu and Emmanuel Sanders are both in the market in the same week, and they were dramatically different once they got to their new teams. Sanders hit the ground running. Sanu never really picked up anything in New England, and it never really picked up any momentum in New England. And really, I mean, I think that if, I don't know, because it's obviously different systems and all that stuff, but I think that there's a a great sliding door situation for what happens if those two guys switch places when they're both in the market

in the last week of the training deadline. Yeah, I agree. I think Emmanuel Sanders is a better player than Mohammed Sunu. I think he just can do more things. I agree with you. And that was, I don't know, I don't remember what I thought

about those two players back in the training deadline. I've actually thought the same thing might work just because Belichick is good. But I, there's no argument now. It's on defense, I think you can have a similar conversation. Rogers had some terrible moments today, but I also think that that's just a group that they didn't really have a shot against when they were playing well. They needed them to have an off day,

and they didn't. When you watch that front four with the guys they have when they're healthy, it's just so hard to deal with them. And any little mistake is going to get you. Bobby Turner misses Kwan Williams on that blitz, and Rogers gets this strips act, everything else. It just seemed like the margins were so, so small for the Packers today. And they weren't perfect. They needed to be perfect to beat this team or they needed the Niners to fall flat on their faces and neither of those things happened. I don't know how it finished, but I did see an Eric Branch thing that that Aaron Rogers was O for his first 18 third downs against the Niners this season. I mean, it was pretty bad. I mean, they had nothing down the field. He had one shot to Adams.

Before that, they could not throw the ball more than, you know, three, four yards downfield. It was all horizontal. I mean, they really had nothing going and they got nothing going. I mean, this team, Like I said, it is the most complete team in the NFC. And they played like the most complete team in the NFC today. It was clicking on every single level. And when this team is clicking on every single level, they're going to be really hard to beat. Yeah. And this was the Niners were just a better team.

And that was proven over two weeks. You know, Aaron Rogers was asked about after the game. I don't know if you were there. But I was not. Chinerman tweeted out. He said that this season's always going to be special because it became fun again. And I wrote about that in October. Yeah.

Yeah. You've written about this. It's been talked about a lot. This was a culture change year. This was getting a lot of free agents in the building and integrating them. This was realizing what they had from a talent standpoint, which I think is better than most people thought in 2017 or 2018. I mean, this was a building block year. I understand that Aaron Rogers is not 24, 25, and you don't have five years to plan this all out. But I think that this season should not be viewed as a disappointment. I think that of any of of us were told in August that the Packers are going to be in the NFC championship game and get manhandled. I think everybody would have been surprised by that, that they even got that far. Okay. And so I think that this is a, despite kind of getting bullied out of the NFC championship game, I think this was an extremely positive year for the Packers. The Niners were just better. I totally agree. Not a lot of analysis here. I mean, the Niners are just have a better roster, a better coach, and things, things will be fine in Green Bay. And this was, this was a nice season for them.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that, you know, we'll see what Green Bay does in the off season. They definitely need a number two receiver. They need some, a little more athleticism in the middle of the defense. You know, Blake Martinez is somebody who has been really good for that team. He was the quarterback of that defense in a lot of ways. I think that he was a stabilizing factor, but I'm not sure he'll be back. I think they may try to get a little bit more athletic on that side of the ball. You know, they'll have about $32 million in cap space.

They're the free agents they're looking at really just Bulaga on offense is the only real contributed that they're going to have to replace. So for the most part, if you can go out, find yourself a right tackle, find yourself another weapon, try to add a piece or two on defense. This roster is very good, and I think they're in a really good spot. This felt to me, one, a team that just was not as good. And two, I mean, Kyle Shanahan is the master. Matt LaFleur is a pupil.

Matt LaFleur is a guy that kind of learned at the hip of Kyle Shanahan. And it just seemed like Kyle Shanahan, not surprisingly, was one step ahead of him today. Yep. Shouldn't come as much of a surprise. We predicted this last week, certainly not that our predictions are gospel or anything, but I think that there's a reason most people pick the Niners, and it was just their better team, full stop. What did you think of the atmosphere on Santa Clara? I really liked it. I've never seen a game here before. There was an actual football game.

Walking in, I was very hungry. There were a lot of smells of tailgating. People were here early. It was a good crowd. I was down on the field for that last Richard Sherman interception. and the place was loud. It was cool. It's nice that football matters here. It's a good football town. It's a cool fan base. To see this team kind of be reinvigorated was really fun.

And even just being around the guys in the locker room afterward, it just seemed like this group has something that's really cool. And it seems like we say that about every team that gets to the Super Bowl. But I do think getting to the Super Bowl kind of requires that. I mean, for a team that's been down for as long as this franchise has, you know, Joe Staley was talking. talking about it afterward. He said, he almost retired. I was ready to retire before Kyle Shanahan came here. And they explained their vision for the organization, everything else,

and he's back. And it seems like there has been just kind of a reigniting for a lot of people who've been around this league for a long time that are part of this team. And I think that includes the fan base. And it was easy to see. Yep. I'm with you. I mean, this is a smart organization. There's a reason that the same organizations typically reload and and get good with new coaches or new GMs or whatever. I think that this is, it's what he said. It's an organizational victory. It's cool that that stadium is seeing relevant games.

And this is a pro 2019 49ers podcast because they just did a great team building job. I'm also seeing George Kittle right now on my television wearing a shirt of Jimmy Gropolo and underwear. I was in their locker room, so I did not see that, unfortunately, which I'm kind of bummed out about. It looks like it's autographed as well. Yeah. And it's, I think for me, it's fun. I'll take a small Kyle Shanahan victory lap here. It's, there were people that really doubted whether he was the right guy over the last

couple of years in San Francisco with the way the things were going. And when you just watch those offenses, when you watch what Nick Mullins did last year, it's just impossible for me to sit there and think that anyone else should be the head coach of this franchise or that if he were to be fired, it would take him six minutes to get another job somewhere. He is the best offensive football coach in the NFL, I think, on a schematic basis. And watching him kind of ascend to this level and possibly ascend all the way to the highest place in the sport, I mean, watching his offenses for the last five years, I feel like in 2016, I was on those Falcons teams probably faster than anybody else was just in terms of how great they actually were on offense. And I think that we're in the same place now. This team is in a similar spot to that Falcons team where you just watch what he's doing and it's clear that he is on a plane that few play callers ever reach.

and it's going to be really fun to watch his team play in the biggest game. Before we move on, let's take a quick break. Everybody has to do taxes, and yet not everyone feels comfortable doing taxes, which doesn't seem right, especially when you consider all the amazing things these same people accomplish every day of their lives. TurboTax believes, with the right tools and encouragement, people can be good at anything. Yes, even taxes. And to help people feel more comfortable with the tax process,

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to another fantastic offense. Watching the Niners today, it just felt like it was inevitable. It felt like there was a level of helplessness where if you didn't do everything perfectly, it was over. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it felt like by the middle of the

second quarter, I was in a very similar place watching that chiefs team. Yeah, I mean, listen, the Titans played a really nice first half. And they were up double digits at one point. And it never really felt like the chiefs were in any serious trouble. I mean, I think that there becomes, when you're down 24 points and you erase it in less than a quarter, 10 points seems like nothing. And I think that we've seen Mahomes score so quickly that it'll be a long time, you know, Bill Simmons. always has that thing about, you know, the never-bending against Brett Favv and stuff like that. And I think that there's there's probably a handful of quarterbacks like that.

And I think Patrick Mahomes is becoming one of these guys where he can, he's just capable of anything. And being down 10 points, not a big deal. And there are a couple of things. I think the fact that the number one, um, Russia today was Patrick Mahomes and that the running backs did almost nothing. I mean, it was basically the exact opposite of, of what we, saw in Zarenskgo today. This was a quarterback-driven game. Every game from here on out for the Chiefs for the rest of time

will be a quarterback-driven game because he is that special. It was really funny to hear Brett Beach, the GM, kind of have a victory lap after the game because he said at the Combine that Mahomes was one of the best players had ever seen and everyone kind of said, what are you doing, Brett Beach? And Brett Feach said, you all thought I was crazy, but look

now. He's right. So I think that, yeah, the chiefs are just, they're, they are capable of offensive onslaught. They are capable that that run Mahomes had, where you looked like he was going to get tackled, maybe in the backfield, then it looks like he's going to get tackled for a small gain.

Then he just keeps going. He runs down the sideline, the thing is going to run down the sideline, run out of bounds the whole time, and he just keeps going, breaks a couple tackles, and drag some guys into the end zone. That was one of those plays.

And you're not always right about the plays you think are going to be, talked about forever or that you're going to remember forever. But as I saw him spin into the end zone, my first thought was, this is the Mahomes play I'm going to remember maybe for the rest of, until he has a better play in two weeks, of course. But this is my Mahomes moment until further notice and for a long time. I mean, that was an unbelievable play. I think it came across as cool on television, but being there alive and seeing him just walk on a tightrope on the side of the field, that was legitimately unbelievable. In the press box, everybody was kind of yelping.

I mean, that was, it was just a phenomenal run from, by the way, the best passer in football. I don't want it to seem like I'm going nuts here. And I don't want to couch this in anything, because I actually do kind of believe it. But watching him today, that run especially, And then the throw he made where the deep throw he made kind of out of structure where he's moving around a little bit. It felt like watching Michael Jordan

where just there is this predate naturally talented person. It's not like watching LeBron because LeBron's this overwhelming physical presence. And Mahomes is not that. Mahomes is not, he's not built like Cam Newton.

He doesn't look like that. But it's just this unbelievable playmaking ability and sense and talent and flare. That's what it felt. like to me. It felt like watching early career Michael Jordan where there was just this ability to get

to the bucket and this ability to make something happen no matter what. And that's what he feels like to me right now. He just feels like a completely overwhelming talent more than a completely overwhelming physical force, if that makes sense. Yeah, you know, it's funny. When I talked to Brad Veach about this in August, he actually compared

his aura to LeBron James. He said he called him a rock star and he called him like LeBron James. But I think from a player standpoint, I think you might be a little correct. I'm sorry, a little more correct in the Jordan comparison. I mean, I just think there's nobody really like him. I mean, I think... Yeah, that's what I mean.

It's just like he's a singular talent within the sport. Yeah, I mean, watching him was unbelievable. And some of the passes he made. And a couple of people made this point. Meena Kimes made it. Is he, his throws are so unbelievable that we think they're normal. And we should actually never take them for granted. I mean, the off-balance stuff or the change of

direction stuff or just the vision he has or the windows he gets into. I mean, I think that this is a very strange thing for me to say. But you know how we always joke about how Belichick would like a bad quarterback just to play around with or like a different quarterback who could run the ball, whatever, just for a couple of games? Sure. I've always joked about that or Sean Peyton with Taysam Hill. It's actually kind of funny to me because there's probably a universe in which Patrick Mahomes gets no offensive help from his play callers, and it's, it's just bat shit crazy. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just, it's way, the amount of open throws he gets helps him so much.

Obviously, and the fact that he's the best quarterback and the best passer in football helps, but it would be so funny if his receivers are just never open and he was just making these, these throws as well. And obviously, he'd be much less successful quarterback. He wouldn't be in the Super Bowl right now. But it'd be really funny to see him with like, you know, John Fox. and he's just putting John Fox on his back and winning divisions anyway.

That's called Aaron Rogers 2016. It's not that fun. It's really not that fun. I like this. I think an extension of that. To be clear, I don't want that to happen. I think Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are one of the best football marriages

in the history of the sport. So that's what I was going to say. And I will leave it there, but it would be absolutely bananas to see him with like Mike Mularky. So I think the extension of that, I think it's really cool to see Andy Reid with this type of quarterback.

Obviously, this is just a whole different thing. I can't remember who had said it today, but they were talking about how, I'm not going to say who it was, but somebody on Twitter was talking about how when you're thinking about like a quarterback, you want to build your team around, this is the guy you should envision.

And it's like, if you're trying to plan for this guy, you are immensely fucked because there is one of this dude. But at the same time, I think it's still cool to watch Andy Reid with an amazing question. quarterback. I never thought it'd be a guy that's this amazing. But for Andy Reid's entire career, Donovan McNabb was fine. Alex Smith was fine. But he never had a guy who was truly, truly special.

And to see him with one of those guys is incredible. And yeah, there are moments where Mahomes is thrown to open guys because the design of the offense is amazing. But on that Tyree kill touchdown, that's not design. I mean, it's cool to watch Hill out of the slot. You're never going to guard him one-on-one out of that alignment. But that's still an absolute do. that he could have thrown into a shoebox. So it's just a combination of everything. It's a perfect marriage of play caller, scheme, and just overall talent on the offense

to watch McColl Hardman just be plugged in there. It's a similar experience, I think, watching both of these offenses, where it just seems like it all comes together so well that it just feels like all of these players were created to play within these offenses. And I think that's just a testament to the visions of both teams.

Yep. I mean, like, that's the funny thing is when I'm joking about, you know, Patrick Mahomes in a bad offense, I can't even imagine what that looks like. Like, I can't imagine that looks like because he was given one of the most creative play callers in the history of football. And together, they're just completely owning everybody. And that's what's so amazing. And is he making things happen beyond that? Yes, that run today was unbelievable. Some of these passes are just incredible. They're unguardable. The number one, the hardest thing to defend in the sport. of football is a perfectly thrown pass, and he makes those routinely. And that's not supposed to happen. And in some cases, he and Lamar Jackson, I would say, are both basically breaking the game of football with some of the things that they're doing.

And obviously, Lamar didn't make it this far. But, I mean, just as far as the things that they've made routine, it's really amazing to watch. Yeah. I think we start taking it for granted a little bit. And I watching, going back and reading what I wrote about Rogers this week, that's what Mahomes reminds me of. It reminds me of early career Rogers,

where it's just you see these throws where it feels like anything is possible at any time. And that's really cool. That is something that's really good for the sport. It's something that's really good for everybody, and it's something that'll be really fun as we go in the lead up to the Super Bowl. I mean, I'm so happy for the sport

that this is, I don't know, I have no vested interest in the actual sport, but as a fan of good football, this is an incredible matchup. This is good coaches, good rosters, good, I mean, Mahomes is one of the most fun guys to watch in the sport. George Kettle is one of the most fun guys watching the sport. Richard Sherman's back.

Like, this is football heaven in a lot of ways. I do think the amazing stat here is that they're from the NFL. There's only two players in the history of football to have 250 past yards, three touchdowns, and 50 rush yards in multiple career playoff games. Patrick Mahomes and. Joe Montana. How about Joe Montana with the wheels? It's a pretty good company.

Man, think about the storylines we got going here. It's the Joe Montana Bowl. It's the D. Ford Revenge game. There's a lot of stuff with the Chiefs and the Niners here that we can kind of hone in on it over the next couple weeks. Justice for Elvis Gerbach. Speaking of D. Ford, though, before we get out of here, I kind of want to talk about just that idea. And the idea of savvy and aggressive moves that can end up unlocking. your entire team or an entire side of the ball for you.

And John Lynch talked about that this week, and he said, talked to, I asked him about it today. If he felt like he was one, if he felt like in the spring, like he was one or two moves, big moves from kind of unlocking this entire team. Deb was like,

did you think you were this close? And he's talked about how, when you have a guy like D. Ford, it unlocks everybody else. And I think that Tyron Matthew did something similar for the chiefs, where if you're looking at these rosters and you know how close you might, be, it really is often a matter of one, two, three hits, whether it's in the draft of free agency

that can completely take you over the top. And I think the chiefs were in a similar spot this year where bringing in a guy like Tyron Matthew completely changed the complexion on defense. Yep. And that was something that Brett Beach talked about after the game in the locker room was just leadership abilities and just the small, listen, Matthew is a really freaking good player. but you need as kind of what we talked about earlier with the Niners, like you can always sort of tell when a team is going to go on a long playoff front. Everybody kind of likes each other. I think that winning leads to chemistry and not the other way around necessarily,

but I think that when you have guys like Matthew, they matter in the locker room and the locker room ends up mattering over the course of a long season over 20 weeks and add in training camp and it's even longer. So I think those guys are just incredibly important. to bring in and to be smart on and to spend the money wisely and that kind of thing. I think that Brett Veach did a really nice job figuring out what this team needed. It was funny after the game.

He said that everybody viewed that Denver game where Mahomes got hurt as the end of the season, but he viewed it and he ended up viewing. I don't know if he did at the time as the beginning of the season because he thought that the defense started to get their identity then. And they started to march towards what they would be. And I think it goes without saying that without the defensive improvement, they might not be here. Whether or not that means they don't get the buy or whatever.

I mean, it's a completely different season over the last two months. They don't have the defense they have now. And you saw it today. Frank Clark gets the whatever sack you want to call it. Brian Tannanhill following down after getting pushed. It counts. It all goes down on the same in the record books.

But I thought that was, I think there was a nice team building job here. I think that the Chiefs locker room had way more comedians than you would think today. Eric Stone Street was there. Paul Rudd was there. David Kekner from Champkind from Anchorman.

He was there. It was ground zero for comedians who are from the Midwest. Yeah, Matthew is a transformative presence. He really is. It's hard to overstate that. I was in Houston last year when he signed there, and I was going to write about that before they lost. Just the idea of what he means to a locker room,

how much of a magnetic force he is. all of those things are true. I mean, those things seem like they don't matter, but they absolutely do. Speaking of comedians, though, before we get out of here, I would like all of us to take Richard Sherman's petty energy into the week with us. Are you looking at the tweet I'm looking at? I absolutely am. So for those of you who have not seen it, Daryl Revis tweeted from his couch on with a picture

of a TV talking about how after Richard Sherman got beat by Devante Adams down the field, that he's always afraid of getting beaten man coverage and that if he was a real corner, he would follow Devante Adams around the field the entire game. Richard Sherman, in response, I would go in on this has been, but I have a Super Bowl to prepare for. Enjoy the view from the couch.

Your ninth year looked a lot different than this, LMAO. I am so glad Richard Sherman is back in our lives. Just a legend. This dude is about to play for another Super Bowl. He probably this season has solidified himself as a Hall of Famer. And he still has to just tear people down who fuck with him online. I absolutely love it. Dave, that's part of it.

I mean, I, that is who he is. He is true to himself. You see this with Rogers too. I really do think at some point that energy helps them. It's what keeps you going. That's why Brady, I mean, this is something that, that I've talked about a few times on here, but the people that know Tom Brady say that he takes slights. or media, whatever, you know, people counting him out, he takes that stuff, not to, I don't want to say to heart, but he takes that stuff and internalizes it way more than we think. And the reason I say we think is that Aaron Rogers actually just talks about how he internalizes it. And Richard Sherman internalizes it and talks about it. But I think all of the greats in some way take that that sort of criticism and channel it into, okay, I'm working out at one in the morning in June kind of thing.

I really do think it's a part of the high, high, high achievers. I will say, by the way, Dennis Kelly becomes the heaviest player in postseason history to score a touchdown 321 pounds. Congratulations on a fat guy touchdown. We did a post-mort of the Packers very quickly. I think we should probably do one of the Titans. I love their approach. I love what they did in the first half.

I thought their offense was the exact plan I would have had going in where they know they have to get those play action shots down the field. That's what they're going for consistently. You know, Tanna Hill misses that one that probably leads to a touchdown. It just seemed like every single mistake cost them. And even little mistakes. You know, in the second half when they ended up punting from their own 38 on fourth and four, I thought it might be over.

I mean, legitimately might be over when they had to do that. And that's just how slim the margin for error was against this chief's team. I think the Titans did have a fantastic season. I think that their plan overall and the approach they took on both offense and defense was the best version of this team. Sometimes you just don't have the horses, and that's what it was like today. So I went in the locker room. The championship games, I don't think of this in Zerbizco, they do all of the stuff on the field, and it takes a while for the winning team to get back into the locker room.

So while that was happening outside, I went into the Titans locker room. That's exactly what I did today. press conferences. And that team was legitimately devastated. I don't think, how was the vibe in the Packers locker room? It wasn't like that. I think that just because they're- I think they probably view this as a generally positive season.

I think they view as a generally positive season. I think that they got completely boat race today. It was a different sort of game. The Titans probably thought in their minds, almost halfway through the game, we can absolutely win this. It was a different sort of feel today. So I went in there and Derek Henry was, I will say, tearyed.

You could probably word it a little more strongly than that. Ryan Tannehill was just staring straight ahead, just absolutely devastated. Saw a couple of guys like that. There were a couple of guys who were in legitimate, legitimate tears, like falling type tears. and I've actually not been around a team that seemed as upset as this one was. I mean, there were guys, there weren't a lot of guys changing in the first five, 10 minutes. I mean, these guys were just sitting at their locker on their stools, just trying to figure out what happened.

It was really interesting because obviously I was not in Baltimore, nor was I in New England. And it was really interesting to me. And what I took from that to see how devastated they were was I think that they thought that they were kind of a team of destiny. And when you beat the Patriots and you end the Tom Brady run of consecutive conference championships, and then you beat Lamar Jackson,

who everyone said, including us, said was changing the sport of football. And then you go up 17 to 7 on the chiefs. You think that you're in control of everything. You are going to make the super, Super Bowl and for everything to stop like that, I think that it showed me how much this team believed that they were going to win this game. And I was surprised the wrong word because I guess I shouldn't be surprised when teams are upset. But I was taking aback at how devastated they

were after this loss. Because you think about it, you don't even get the, I've heard actually people say this about the conference championship game or the Eastern Conference Finals or the Western Conference Finals and basketball. You get there and you, lose and you don't, there's so many memories you don't get, you know, you don't get to, even if you lose the Super Bowl, hey, you know, the whole family came down. It was, you know, a great week of media and vacation. You're in a vacation spot in Miami and it's, you know, memories for a lifetime, all that stuff. You get your, get your parents into the game, that sort of thing. You end one week before that and there's just an extra layer of hurt. And obviously these guys want to

win the Super Bowl and all that stuff. But if you're a team like the Titans and you were nine and seven this year and you were one step away from being able to say you played in a Super Bowl for the rest of your life. I think that that probably hurts a little bit just beyond just the loss. But it was interesting to see how upset they were.

I think that what I've noticed covering the league for a few years now is that the locker room is usually worse, the less time you've had to process that you were going to lose. The ones that happen in the final moments have always been the ones that I felt were most devastating. The 2015

NFC championship game where the Packers dropped the onside kick and lost in overtime. That's the most devastated locker room I've ever seen before. And I think that the Falcons losing to the Patriots was a close second. But a game like today when you're the Packers and you're sitting there in the third quarter and you know that it's over, it doesn't matter that you got absolutely just demolished because you've had time to process what was going on.

So I think that's why it just wasn't like that today. And I think the Titans, they thought they had a chance probably almost until the end. So I think that's probably. the difference. Can I say one thing is that the Super Bowl is different because the Super Bowl, you're not actually just sitting in the locker room. You're being ushered to

media almost immediately. Not actually all that together. The Falcons team that lost that Super Bowl, like, you know, a few minutes after the game, they were basically separated and put at their own podium. Just so everybody knows there's not really, there is locker room access after the Super Bowl, but

really anybody who played in the game is put on a riser, essentially. which is a table and then people talk to them. So it's not the same locker room environment. So really the championship games, like you said, the Packers blow in that game in Seattle. The championship game is going to be the most devastated room because at the Super Bowl, there really isn't a coherent room

because everyone gets kind of drawn out almost immediately. The Falcons, they were in there a little bit longer than the teams typically are. It was a weird situation where it was a really tiny room and guys weren't really getting in and out. That's the longest I've seen a losing team really linger in the locker The Rams were actually in there for a long time too last year. So it's not the exact same thing,

but you can definitely feel the sense of the room still. And I think that, yeah, it's the Falcons one was pretty bad. And I do think it's just a matter of them losing right at that last moment. Yeah. Well, I also think it's hard, you know, with the Titans, Tanna Hill is a free agent. Derek Henry is a free agent. I think Logan Ryan's a free agent.

Marcus Mariotta was hugging guys. And I think that there's, you know, obviously he's not going to, to start next year he's probably going to go somewhere else. Probably going to win a Super Bowl with Bill Belichick for the next 15 years. But I think that there's probably a pretty real sense that this team will look different next year in some way. And I think that kind of adds to it that they had this magical run that they didn't expect. And now they have to say goodbye to some of these guys. I think that that's the case with every team.

You know, that's obviously an extreme case with the quarterback and your most, visible player and all of that stuff. That's on one end of the spectrum. But I think that's part of why these guys are so devastated at the end of every season is because in some way, shape, or form, every team is going to be different. It's never going to be the same group of guys. And when you get this close, you start to believe that this group of guys is the one, inevitably.

And when you have to come to the realization that it's not, it's tough to reconcile. And even if those guys are not the best players in the team or the most visible players in the team. There's always going to be that sense of this group will never be together again. And that's why you see the emotional reaction you see from those guys. Yep. And by the way, everyone thinks they're a team of destiny. Every single team thinks they're a team of destiny. You have to. And so, yeah, it's, it's, uh, that, that, that also was a deficit. Just because he lost, but we need to give him props. I, I, I've not spoken to you about this, but I assume we're on the same page. Arthur Smith, scheme lord.

Great. It's done a fantastic job. I will definitely take the L on that. Watching that offense was extremely fun as soon as they put Tannenhill in there. Were you anti-Arthur Smith? Oh, I had doubts just because you're promoting a tight-ends coach that's never called plays before. Hey, Sean McVeigh was a tight-ends coach. Yeah, it didn't seem like the most inspired higher in the world, but it worked out extremely well. I mean, I really enjoyed watching them. I think they'll probably bring Tannihil back. It makes the most sense.

I'm not sure if they'll do it in a way that financially is smart. but I assume he will be the quarterback there next year. And I think that I'll like watching that offense again. Him, Derek Henry, A.J. Brown, that offensive line. It's a group stylistically that I very much enjoy. Yep. I'm with you on that one. I think Arthur Smith's a good play caller. I think that this team, no matter what, will be fine next year.

Who's going to give Derek Henry $60 million? I don't know, man. I probably think it's going to be the tight. I don't think it's going to happen. That's a conversation for another podcast. We will get back. as we get back into the Do running backs matter

conversation after the Super Bowl is over? I think Derek Henry mattered in January of 2020 and that's as far as I'm going to go on their running back value conversation. He was a comet. Just a fleeting moment in football history.

All right, guys, that's all we got. We will be back this week to start talking all things Super Bowl. Until then, thank you so much for listening the Ringer NFL show

on the Ringer Podcast Network. We'll talk to you guys soon.