The Ringer NFL Show - The Mahomes Comeback Game, the Titans Out-Bully the Ravens, and More Playoff Chaos | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

The Seahawks participated in yet another abnormal football game in their loss to the Packers, which featured a clutch Aaron Rodgers performance. Then we break down the Chiefs' historic 24-point comeback against the Texans (2:00). Next, we appreciate the incredible Titans' win over the Ravens and the 49ers taking care of business against the Vikings (22:50). Hosts: Robert Mays and Kevin Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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slash NFL. To the Ringer NFL show. I'm Robert Mays, joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, buddy? I'm good. I'm in Northern California. I am now, after this weekend,

completely confused over who's good and who's not in the NFL. And I'm excited to talk about it. I am as well. I am sitting in a side room in Lambeau Field where the visitors coaches sat tonight and there's a snow falling on Lambeau Field

and it's kind of gorgeous. against the lights. I'm going to be honest. I'm really enjoying it. It's a nice little backdrop. Where is Lambo on your favorite stadiums? Oh, it's definitely high. I just think that the entire kind of, I don't know, the atmosphere around the stadium is so cool. It almost feels like a church with that super high, the huge glass doors at the atrium where you can walk into. That's not where people walk in, but then there's the museum downstairs. It's just unlike anything else. I mean, it's Lambeau Field. It's like, it's a holy land. I mean, it's like a religious site. So, yeah, getting to come to football games here is always very cool.

I'm with you on that one. I will say I was impressed by Santa Clara. I like their atmosphere. Some of these new stadiums you can never tell. I enjoy myself. See, I'll be curious. I'll be at the NFC championship game next week. I'll be curious to see what a home game is like,

because when I was there for the Super Bowl, I kind of hated it. So for an actual game with actual fans, I'm hoping it's going to be a little bit different. Yeah. No, I thought it was good. I thought it was good. We'll save that for next week.

Let's start with the game I just watched because it's the one that just ended. The Green Bay Packers beating the Seattle Seahawks in, not surprisingly, not a normal football game. It took a while for us to get there, but we did end up getting there. I was wrong on one thing. So I said that the Seahawks were going to play a weird game

and have a chance to win late. And I thought that they were going to do it. The couple of things I did not anticipate, number one, punting on fourth down with three minutes to go. Number two. You didn't anticipate that? Well, I certainly did. No, I should have.

And then number two, this, okay, so there's a lot of controversy in social media about the spot with Jimmy Graham. I don't know how much you could see there. My thought is don't give up a nine and a half yard play on third down and don't give up a bunch of third downs. You know, we have talked many times in this podcast about how you sort of have to, the way to be a good offense is to convert on first and second down. Don't leave it to third down because that can be inconsistent. Well, the Packers got your third down and they just made plays over and over and over again. They kind of. put that notion to bed for this particular game. Devante Adams, all of his eight catches were for first downs. That was ESPN put that stat out there. They were just making third and long plays over and over and over again. Rogers was throwing really nice passes.

It was beautiful. It was beautiful. It was when Rogers needed to make a play, he would have Devonte Adams every single time. Rogers from Eric Eager did not throw an incompletion on a pass that traveled more than 10 yards in the air. That means he was throwing

nice passes all night. Yeah, a lot of his incompletions were throwaways. I think that he really had a good sense of the game. You know, the two throws that stand out to me, the one to Adams on that final drive, it's just, I think I said out loud as he threw it, that is disgusting, like in the press box. It was just unbelievable. That is a gorgeous throw.

And then the other one that I felt was pretty much just as good was that throw to Graham on that deep over route down the right side. I mean, both of those are gorgeous. And then the plays that stick out to me, obviously Adams was a monster tonight. but really cool designs. You know, Roger said after the game, I asked him about the first fake rubber out that Vante scored the touchdown on it.

He said he actually came to Fleur with that on Monday. So they did not have that in the playbook. That's a wrinkle they put in this week just because they expected, you know, man in that situation, they knew that just based on what Seattle has done, they could probably get them with that. And then the one on the second touchdown,

the 40-yarder, that fake overrout that DeVante ran, that's been in the playbook, but apparently their timing on it has been a little bit off. But the route he ran on that play is just filthy. I mean, Devante Adams is a really special player.

And tonight, you just saw exactly why. You know, this is what, when we were talking about the Packers in September, October, this is kind of what we were getting at the whole time, where if the problem,

the quote unquote problem is Aaron Rogers, if he was what was holding them back, that's a really nice problem to have, right? And that's the kind of thing where he's going to give you enough to where you just need to be a complete team outside of him to have these sort of performance. I thought the Seahsman win this game close.

Obviously, I was wrong. And obviously, they had the final drive there. But I was impressed with everything that, you know, Smith brothers were phenomenal tonight. The Packers defense is what was impressive. I mean, that third down sack, obviously of Russell Wilson, who is notoriously hard to get down in those sort of high leverage situations. I was, this was a nice nod to the to the, to the. job that Brian Guttenkins has done to the coaching job, Matt McFlurr is done. I mean, this is a more complete team than maybe even I was giving them credit for. I mean, the defense has played well in

recent weeks. We talked about the Smith. Sedarius had another big game today. Watching him live is so fun because when you have just the, you know, the vantage point, it's just so cool to just see him the motor he plays with when you're watching it. I mean, he's just going and going and going, even when he's double teamed a lot. The Preston, sack was huge. On that play, Blake Martinez actually did a really nice job of kind of slow rushing around the edge to make sure that Wilson couldn't escape that way. And that's what this defense is doing right now. Off front, they can really beat you up. And obviously, the Niners are better equipped to handle that than the Seahawks team was. But if the defense is keeping a minute and Aaron Jones is running the ball well, which he did again tonight. And I mean, obviously, his yards per carry numbers aren't going to be very good. I don't have them in front of me. Let me look at it right now. Yeah, he average three yards a carry. but there were a lot of like stuffed runs down near the goal line. So, I mean, for the most part, I mean, they did rip off some chunks when they needed them. So, I mean, if their running game is working and Rogers makes the occasional big time throw, this team can beat you.

And that's exactly what we saw tonight. I mean, these games are, they hinge on such tiny moments. And if he can just hit one or two of those every single game, and tonight he did, this team is really scary. Real quick, we will get into the sort of the particulars of next weekend's game on a Thursday show. but having seen this Packers defense and obviously seeing the Niners yesterday just bully the Vikings out of Northern California, how do you see that specific matchup going with the front of the Niners and trying to, quote, unquote, establish that run against the Packers? Do you see an advantage either way? Are the Niners going to be able to bully this Packers Front seven like they were with the Vikings yesterday?

I think you have to feel pretty good about this Packers front against anybody right now. They're really getting after the quarterback. And it's a different animal playing against the Niners just because you have to worry about so much stuff. All the misdirection, all the play action, everything else. I think in a similar way that the Ravens did for most of the season, the Niners really make you play slow because there's just so much stuff you have to sort of sift through. So it's a challenge. And we just saw them get diced up by the Niners recently. So, I mean, I definitely think San Francisco is the better team.

And they've shown that within the last couple months. But I definitely think this one's going to be closer than the last. one was. I tend to agree. I have the Niners in this one, but that's another podcast. All right, what else stood out to you about this Packers, team? I think that we really hit most of it. I really liked a lot of the designs. I think the Rogers made a lot of really big throws on third down. You know, Adam's coming through as a superstar. Jimmy Graham being a third down, Maven. And that's really, yeah, I didn't expect the Jimmy Graham revenge game, but he also didn't even have 50 yards. It just felt like a revenge game because he had two sort of important. Yeah, a huge

plays. And that was, that's good enough for a revenge game on the revenge game. meter. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, I think that this is the version of the Al Packers team that what we were talking about them in October, November, you know, if they get in, how dangerous can they be? I think this is exactly that. All right. Let's, you want to get mad at the Seahawks for a second? We absolutely can get mad at the Seahawks for a second. Same old stuff. Could you imagine having Russell Wilson and saying let's use him as a last resort and let's just screw around for three quarters? It's unbelievable. It just, it's the same thing every single time. It's, we, get they get down because they decided they needed to run the ball the entire first half.

And by the way, with no running back. Yeah. Russell Wilson, Russell Wilson was their leading rusher today. I mean, just they cannot move the ball on the ground. And there was one play where they went three straight runs and punted. That happened in one set of downs.

Yeah, nice job with that. Never happened. They should just never, ever do that. And for the fact that this team needs to get down for them to kind of settle into the best version of themselves, it's just,

man, imagine being a fan of this team and watching one of the best players in football just get misused and marginalized and for just years in a row. This is the exact same feeling I had watching them last year against Dallas. Yeah, it's funny. Brian Curtis and I were texting about this and he brought up the Dallas thing. This is what they did last year too. And it was just, it was kind of, let's just hang out for three quarters. And it's, oh, wait, we have Russell Wilson. And that's just not a sustainable thing. I am still higher on Pete Carroll than you are. But the more performance, as they have like this, the more frustrating it is.

And I just don't even understand the mindset. I'd like to get some truth serum into Pete Carroll and just hear what his philosophy on offensive football is because I bet I bet we'd be more confused than when we started before, than before when we asked the question. Mike Sando did a really good thing on it in September. He tweeted a link out to it today just about how he thinks it helps you control the clock and control the game and all of the stuff. And it's just things that are so outdated.

I mean, you look at what happened with the chief. Chiefs today. The Chiefs just threw the ball every single time and could have put up 100 points if they didn't screw up the first quarter. It's just not the way you should be thinking about the game as it currently exists. I think that Pete Carroll is an awesome head coach. I really do. I think the job he's done there over the last decade is remarkable. But they cannot keep playing like this if they want to realize their ceiling. And I just don't understand how it would change. Yeah. It's not so good right now. All right. Anything else in this game? No. I think we can.

move on. Let's get to how's the how's the postgame drive looking? Oh, it's going to be terrible. The snow looks like it's actually pretty light. I mean, it's not, I'm looking down the field right now. It doesn't look like a ton is accumulated, but I don't think it's going to go well. You're going to call me from, from that outlet mall between Chicago and Milwaukee. I'm not driving all the way home. So at least I get to stop halfway and sleep. So that'll be nice. Okay, let's move on. Let's get to that crazy game from earlier today. The chief's just doing whatever they wanted to against the Texans. I mean, I don't know

if I, when they were down 24-0, I don't know if I thought they can win this game, but when they scored the first touchdown, I literally said to the person next to me, I think they're going to win this game. It just felt like they were going to be able to move the ball. They were getting it back after halftime. It was so funny because that was my

thought is, oh, if they score here, get a stop, they get the ball at halftime, and then they were winning by halftime, which is just so ridiculous. The two things I thought of, especially while it was happening, were the 28 to 3 Patriots Falcons game. And then the, you may not remember this, but Barcelona came back from 6'1 down

against Paris and Germain a couple years ago. And the reason those two stood out to me was because the teams involved and the players involved made it to where they were both completely irrational things that should never happen. But as you're watching it, you're like, well, this tracks. This completely makes sense.

This goes against all probability and will never happen again ever in our lives. But as you're watching, you're just like, of course this is happening. That's what I was feeling. And there was probably, you know, a through line between Brady and Messi and Patrick Mahomes, right? And there's only a handful of guys like that in the world. But what I'm saying is that the ability to make this all seem normal is something incredible. And this is what happens when you have a guy who can generate offense that quickly.

It's what happens when you're facing the Houston Texans the other side who have Bill O'Brien as coach and decided, I mean, it was almost every buddy had to play their role to go from down 24 to go up to win by 20. And that includes the Texans making some unbelievable mistakes. So this was as completed performance by everybody in both directions. I just don't understand the fake punt. I mean, kicking the field goal, I don't think it's a good idea because I feel like you need all the points you can get against this chief's team. But to not go for it on fourth and one from the 13 yard line. and then to go for it.

And then a fake punt, yes. A fake point on your minus, on the minus 35, it's just as completely incongruous. It's not a cohesive idea of how to approach a football game. And for him to say he didn't have a play on fourth and one, I just, I don't even know what that means. I don't think the Seahawks have fourth and one plays

because they would never go for it. But it seems like the Titans, or the Texans should have some fourth in one place. Yeah, you're going to want fourth and one play. So they've got, nine months to come up with some fourth and one plays. So that's an offseason. That'll be an offseason project for Bill O'Brien and the guys to come up with some, some, some plays.

Yeah, this was a disaster. John McLean was tweeting about one of most embarrassing things he's ever seen. And John McClain seen some embarrassing come from behind. He certainly has. With Houston. This was a disaster. This was a disaster. And it's funny because if it was a dignified sort of 24 to 10 loss to Camphiard

to Kansas City, then it's like, well, whatever, beaten by the best. But the amount of mistakes that team made, we got to see, we got to see Andy Reid just out coach Bill O'Brien for two quarters and 10 minutes. And it was unbelievable to see. It looked like, I know this is, it looked like they lost their ability to play football with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter, the Texans. It looked like that team, those 53 guys, were a completely different group of players than they were at the beginning of the second quarter.

I've actually never really seen anything like it. It went from total competence and the ability to capitalize on mistakes to I've never seen a football. It's they were completely just not equipped to deal with the Chief's offense. I mean, they were playing a ton of man coverage and that group of corners with zero pass rush. I mean, they could do absolutely nothing against that Chief's offensive line. Mitchell Schwartz did a great job against Watt, who's probably not playing at 100%, but it was still a clinic.

He obviously knew that Watt wasn't going to come with any sort of power because he's coming back from that injury. It's the peck, all of that stuff. He just played it for speed, ran it by the quarterback all the time. And when they're not getting pressure and you have to deal with those guys on the back end with a coordinator that is just does such a good job of understanding. If you're going to play me this way, this is how I torch you. They just had no shot. They had absolutely no shot. I mean, they scored 50 and they made it look easy.

If they did it in four quarters, I don't even know how many they could have put up. All right. I do want to make a couple of points about the chiefs offense. First of all, they score on seven straight possessions. That's amazing. The play calling was good. Mahomes, the next-gen stats had this. Mahomes scored a touchdown, a passing touchdown from basically every place on the field out wide, the slot, tight, all these places. Like, he basically found every single target. He had five touchdowns. He loved the chiefs in rushing. And this was a total performance. And one thing I hope that it comes across, if you didn't know, starting with 10 minutes left in the second quarter is the Mahomes can still and is still

Mahomes. Josh Hermes-Meyer had a really good piece about this last week in 538, which was basically that a lot of the numbers that he put up last year have, you know, the word is regressed. He went from 50 touchdowns to 26, all that. But that is a lot of that's superficial, quite frankly. A, he played two less games. Beyond that, he was banged up in a handful of them. But beyond that, was there's a lot of problems with red zone kind of unstable from year to year sort of metrics. And he was a lot better in some of those metrics last year. And that's why he had more touchdowns, stuff like that. His yards per attempt was higher last year. But he can still throw the same beautiful passes he did last year. And I think that this is probably in a year where everyone

talked about Lamar Jackson for good reason. Lamar Jackson was amazing. He is a league's MVP. Mahomes was strangely the forgotten man. And I think that there's, there's a lot to be said for the fact that he's still the best quarterback left in these playoffs. Just the work he was doing down here, the goal line was so fascinating. The little kind of toe drag he did to stay behind the line of scrimmage on that one throw to Kelsey. And then he had another one that was kind of an improvisation on the right side with Kelsey. Travis Kelsey, by the way, who was unbelievable today. I mean, just to be that weapon in the middle of their offense to be able to run the offense through a tight end like that.

I mean, it's really him and Kittle and that's the end of the list. So, yeah, I mean, it was just more of the same. It's a type of stuff that we came to expect from them last year, the gear they definitely still have. And they're scary, man. They're scary as hell. And I just, for all the fun we've had with the Titans over the last couple weeks, for how impressive their little mini run has been, I just don't know if they're going to be able to deal with this team with the way the chiefs are playing right now. Imagine counting out the Tennessee Titans, the hottest team of football.

I can't count them out. All right. Well, we'll get to that. We'll give them later. But I just, this was a incredibly impressive, impressive performance from the chiefs. It was the type of performance. It's strange. Again, the fact they spotted the Texans 24 points, although that should be a negative. It made the performance so unbelievably urgent that it is significantly more impressive to me than had they, as I said, have won 24 to 10, something like that. I'm worried about the Texans. Like their future? Yes. I mean, they should hire a GM. This was the year, man.

I mean, and we knew they weren't the team, but this was still the year. I mean, the degree to which they went all in this season when you consider not just the trade for Tunsell, but the trade for Gary and Conley, the trade for Duke Johnson. I mean, they're going to cut a couple comp picks, but this is a team with very little draft capital. They have a decent amount of change in free agency, but the Watson extension is going to be coming soon. And it's just, I don't know what happens to them now. This felt like their ceiling was to lose to a better team on the divisional round. And I didn't expect it to happen like this, but I figured this would be the end of the road for them. And when you, when that's who you are as a team is to lose to a better team in the divisional round and you've used all your resources, it just, it seems like a really, really terrible place to be.

So the Texans invested a lot in this season. they traded two first round picks for Laramintons. Andrew Luck retired. The Titans still made the playoffs. The Texans probably either would have won the division or been a slightly worse kind of nine-win team. Still in the playoffs. And so near as I can tell, the Texans spent all these resources and gave up part of their future in order to at one point lead the Kansas City Chiefs

before losing instead of just losing. Like that's that was their ceiling was always to lose in the second round of the playoffs. They just looked a little better for about a quarter and a half. I think they got a couple breaks for a quarter and a half. I'm not sure how much better they looked. No, I'm just saying that that was,

if their ceiling was always to lose in this round, then their improvements allowed them to look slightly better before getting pounded. Congratulations to Bill O'Brien on looking slightly better in the second round of the playoffs while still losing. That team will be fine

as long as Deshaun Watson is there. But in a way, I think that Watson is in a better position to succeed than Russell Wilson typically is put into. Well, I mean, that's... It's not hard. But I do think the situations

are comparable because you're looking at this fantastic quarterback who can carry you when he needs to. But the question is, why make him? Why have this be a situation where you're like, oh, we have to Sean Watson, we'll win nine to ten games.

It just shouldn't have to be like that. The aspiration should be grander than that. And they just aren't with these teams because they consistently hold their quarterbacks back. Yeah. I mean, this is some teams believe that if they have a great quarterback, that he should play like a great quarterback every single week,

and that that's how they'll solve problems. That's not really it. You build an infrastructure around your quarterback to where he doesn't have to be great all the time. That's how you win Super Bowls. If you're depending on 16 incredible performances from your quarterback and then three more in the playoffs, you're not going to get lucky every single time.

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All right. Let's get to the Red Hot Tennessee Titans. What a bizarre game. Hey, listen, bizarre is one word for it. But we talked about the bully ball that the Ravens played all season long. And I, for one, singled out the Ravens as a team that had figured out how to play a brand of football in 2019 that was, was, I mean, quite frankly, borderline revolutionary. When you think about it, they're the best rushing team in the history of football in 2019, where that's not supposed to happen.

Okay. So I loved the Ravens. The Titans just bullied the Ravens out of the stadium. They pushed them around. They pushed them around. This was, I guess you can call it bizarre from a result standpoint because neither of us saw it coming. I thought the Ravens were going to go to the Super Bowl, but as the auto play video starts

rolling. But I thought they were going to go to the Super Bowl. but this was not, if they play this game 10 times, I don't know how many times the Ravens win, but that performance on Saturday night, that was not a fluke. They pushed the Ravens around,

and when you watch that game, it makes sense that they want. Could the Ravens have won this game in a lot of different universes? Absolutely, those two fourth and fourth and short. I mean, those were huge. That goes the other way. But again, the reason he did,

especially the second fourth and one, the reason they didn't get that push is because that Titans team is really physical and bullied that offensive line. I mean, it was, it was an incredible performance from the Titans. Derek Henry is still unbelievable. That's still going. And so I think that you just start to think about, you start to think about a million things going on with this team. First of all, I, hopefully you're saying down for this. You did see that Marshall Yonda said that he, he's not going to focus on his future yet, but there might be a retirement there. I wouldn't be surprised if

you did it by walking away. So that was reported last night. But I just, this was an incredible Ravens team. And the fact that the Titans ripped their hearts out at home coming off a buy, I just thought that was one of the most impressive performances I've seen a long time. I wrote about it this morning, but I think you can absolutely argue that the Ryan Tannahill trade is the most important move by any team of this entire year. Because while he hasn't been center stage for these two wins, they don't get here without him.

And the Patriots have taught us for so many. years that the playoffs are all self-contained one-week games. It doesn't matter what you do within those games. Just find ways to win. Maybe you're a different version of the team you were during the regular season. That's okay. And that's what the Titans have done. Their passing game has not been great, but trading for Ryan Tannahill saves your season. And it saves a roster that clearly was worth saving. I mean, that fact that the rest of this team is lifting up the passing game now is a testament to John Robinson understanding I need to do something

because the rest of this team is good enough to do something is good enough to actually make some noise and that's exactly what we're seeing right now it was just so impressive on both sides of the ball again pushing Baltimore round up front Henry just ripping off huge gains

left and right I really liked just the discipline that the Ravens had up front you know Lamar Jackson had a big game rushing but you know Mark Enger did not do much on those fourth and short it's just a matter of understanding and where you're supposed to be. They frustrated the Ravens

in a way that other people have it. And the Ravens ran into mistakes that just weren't there all season, not getting those fourth and shorts, which they've gotten the entire year and should have gone for both of them, turning the ball over in a way they had in this season. Just kind of one, two, three, four plays

that don't go your way. I mean, they come away with two field goals in the first half instead of having those, for the entire year, those drives end up as touchdown. So it's just small, little stuff. I don't think Lamar played particularly bad. I think that they had their moments. There's some great throws sprinkled in there, but it just didn't go the way it did all season for

the Ravens. I saw Chase Stewart had this. Lamar had 488 total yards, which is the second most in a playoff game behind only Tom Brady and the Eagles Super Bowl, who had 506. And listen, not everybody, I'm looking at it right now and the top six all time were three and three in the those games. So that, obviously there's a lot of players who were just putting up a lot of numbers because they were trying to keep up. Yeah, you don't want him to throw 59 times. That is not the ideal. Exactly. But what I will say is like this narrative that Lamar played horribly or whatever. I mean, listen, this Titans team played really well. And it's funny. I saw some of those quotes after the game, Kenny Vicar was talking about how they swarmed him and all this stuff. And I just think that you needed to

play really disciplined against Lamar and you needed to be in the gaps and you needed to have kind of like what I wrote last week, Ken Venturi, the former defensive coordinator was talking about how you basically have to have a guy and a half in each gap because it's really hard to tackle him in the open field. They play disciplined football. They had the bodies for it. They had the physicality for it. This was

a complete performance. And this goes not to Mike Vrabel and Dean Pease, but also to John Robinson for building a tough, fast team. And I will say, I thought it was kind of funny this whole thing about how somehow Derek Henry beating the Ravens last night

was some sort of victory for like old school football, man, the Ravens were the best rushing team in history. Like, I understand that Ryan Tannahill hasn't had 100 yards in either of these games, but this, if anybody was blending in the old school with the new school is the Baltimore Ravens. So I think I'm having a real hard time extrapolating any big picture lessons from last night.

The only lessons I can take from last night, where the Titans had an awesome game plan. They have a talented roster, and they're really hot right now. And by the way, everyone's saying, I saw some weird stuff about how Ryan Tanya Hill doesn't matter or whatever. But that's even weird to me because this is a completely different team with Ryan Tano. Maybe there's some play-calling differences. Maybe it's just a coincidence, and Derek Henry is great, whatever.

But Ryan Tannahill has played really well for this team over the course of the regular season. And even though he's not getting over 100 yards right now, you know, obviously this is a different Titans team with him. So listen, there's still a 9 and 7 team. There's still a team that needed a lot of breaks, needed an Adam Gase Jets team to beat the Steelers to start controlling their own destiny in the last two weeks of the season. But they're taking advantage of it. And in the playoffs, which is just an incredibly random thing every couple of years, they're doing

what thing to do. Yeah. That entire argument is so silly to me. Without Ryan Tannehill, who was the most efficient quarterback in football over the final 10 games, this team is watching the playoffs from their count. So that's just dumb to me. I don't even understand anything about that. And I agree with you.

I think the lessons thing, I think the lesson here is have really good coaches. I mean, Dean P. has done excellent in the first two games of these playoffs. He's a very good defensive coordinator. Have really good coaches, have talented players,

and have a team that can play in different ways. I think that is the thing that's been nice for Tennessee, is that they've been able to tap into a different style than they played for most of them. the season to kind of grind out these wins. And I think flexibility is the name of the game when you get to the playoffs. And that's what they've shown. They've shown a week and be, you know, they were a downfield play action passing team

for the last 10 weeks of the season. Then Derek Henry comes back healthy and they just lean on a 250 pound monster at running back for these two wins. So the ability to do that, I think, is really what's allowed them to kind of get to this point. But I'm not sure there's any lessons to be learned there. Yeah, no, again, and even in the defending Lamar thing, there were so much, Rich Orrumburger I talked to on Friday,

and just briefly, and he was on Cowherd, and he was talking about how the Titans were equipped to get to the mesh point and all this stuff that was going to stop Lamar. And I think that there are certain schematic things like that and the way you can be built for it, but I also think it takes a lot of luck within that, because Lamar is going to make you pay a lot of times. And Lamar's, listen, the Niners played Lamar really, really well,

and it ended up not mattering. And I would have actually loved to have seen that rematch and to see how that schematically would have turned out in better weather and on a neutral site and all that stuff. But listen, it is the Titans made the most of the opportunity. Again, I'm thrilled with the team building job that John Robinson did. And the only thing you can't say on Saturday night is that the Titans didn't deserve it because they out bullied the bully.

Yeah. They absolutely did. I mean, it really is a testament to what you, if you just put a lot of talent on the offensive and defensive front, when it can carry you. And it's carried the Titans. Jero, Casey, had a really nice game and their offensive line played great again. All right.

Last one, the game you were at this weekend, Niners, Vikings. By far the most boring game. Give me your main takeaways. By far the most boring game. Well, they did not get out bullied. They bullied. They were the bullies. another interesting nugget from

Chase Stewart, which was that in the last decade, there have only been four games where teams ran the ball over 69% of the time. And two of them were this weekend. And one of them obviously was the Titans and one of them was the 49ers. And at half time of that game, I was talking to some people in the press box,

some smart people. And we all decided that this is the type of team, this Niners team, that can against Team with the Vikings make Jimmy Garoppolo do with the bare minimum. Jimmy Groplo through a very strange interception that it was funny because some of the Niners

writers were talking about that, about his propensity to just have kind of, just what was that kind of interception, or turnover. It was a pretty nice play by Kendrix though. Sure. He got depth. Once watching it live, I was like, uh-oh. And I think that Garoppolo is in

this system, a very, very serviceable quarterback. for a good quarterback. And I think that I knew sort of coming into this game, okay, the Titans are the best team in the NFL, the Titans. The Vikings are the best team in the NFL covering the tight end. And so this was not going to be a George Kittle goes for 140 yards type of game.

George Kittle showed himself as a blocker. And as somebody who could just knock people around, which he's been doing his entire career. But this was a Debo Samuel game. This was going to be more on the outside, had those guys break the tackle. It was funny. I had somebody come up,

the fan actually a fan and say that the story I wrote about George Kittle about him just running people over. I should not write the sequel about Debo Sandville because he's the receiver version of that. He's just bowling people over. And this is the way they built this team. This is a physical team. This is a team that understands that defenses have gotten smaller and faster and more athletic. And if you just run right at people, and this is the same way the running backs operate too. This is the same reason they got, they gave a fullback more money than any team in the history of the position.

They understand that you can just run people over. And that shows itself against a team like the Vikings, which maybe wasn't as talented on defense as some of the other teams, the NFL. I just love watching this offense. I mean, that's not news to anybody. Watching their run game and how diversified it is, all the different types of runs, how they dress them up, all the motions. I mean, it's just, and their skill position players,

they just have so many guys that are good with the ball in their hands. You know, I think that we probably knew that about Kevin Coleman coming into the year. And Kevin Coleman hasn't even been. their best running back. I mean, he had a huge day against the Vikings, but Rahim Moster, just like the burst that he has when he touches the ball, watching the creative ways they've gotten the ball in Debo Samuel's hands to kind of manufacture yards. It's just a very well-conceived offense with a lot of different ways to beat you. And you're right, Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't need to be great. But the thing that stuck out to me, I mean, the offense was kind of what

we expected against this, just what we've seen from them all year. But watching them just completely suffocate the Vikings' offense with their defense. I did not necessarily expect that after some of the lapses that that defense had over the second half of the year. Obviously, they got some guys back this week, but I still was just kind of blown away by how dominant that defensive performance was. Yeah, I'm with you. And the Vikings had to play a perfect game. Listen, I still think the Vikings, they had a very nice season. Okay. And this is the team I picked win in Super Bowl two years ago. They kind of delivered on some of that promise this year. That game in New Orleans was great. The defense will finish top five in points.

They are who we thought they were, you know, from that perspective. But I just, this Niners team is just really good one through 46 active players. This is, this is the, I think, the most talented roster still left in the playoffs. This is the team that if I had to guess is probably going to win the Super Bowl. And I think that this was just the Vikings team going up against a team with way more talent. I understand what you're saying there. but after watching that Chiefs game today, I don't know.

It's hard for me to not pick them right now. Let me ask you a question. If the Chiefs hadn't gone down 24 points and it was just a normal ass game, do you feel differently about them? Do you feel better or worse? Oh, I don't care about them going down 24 points. Well, I mean, they did.

That's part of the thing here is that we saw them go down 24 points and then just say, eh, now we can start the game. Like, that's the most impressive part. I think I'll put up 51 points. Yeah, well, it's good to say. Texans stopped trying. The Texans flew home at half time. If they put up 51, I don't care how much they were down or up or whatever.

I mean, just put it up 51 points and making it look easy for three quarters. It wouldn't have mattered to me what the lead was. Very quickly, Vikings, what do we think about them? You said, we've talked a little bit about the future of the other teams that were knocked out. Is there any thoughts either way on the Vikings in 2020? Well, we'll see what happens with our offensive coordinator, right? Kevin Safansky is now the head coach of the Cleveland Brown. is a move that you and I both understand.

I mean, we both talk to Kevin Stefanski. He's a open-minded, smart person. And I don't know how some of the aspects of that job are going to go, but I do know that he's going to be willing to listen to no ideas, and he's going to approach this job with a humility and a curiosity, I think is necessary for to be a good head coach. I have no idea if he will be one, but I do think he's wired to be in charge of an organization

that wants to think like the Browns do. I don't know what they're going to do. I think having Gary Kubiak will be a nice holdover so long as he stays. I think that that's good infrastructure. That's my question. I think he likes being a little bit behind the scenes. I don't think he wants to take on a full-blown coordinator position. Maybe, maybe not, but I think that he likes where he's at.

And maybe there's something they could work out where he still maintains his influence on the offense and they don't lose any continuity there. We'll see what happens. I think that you're right. my understanding is that he doesn't want to handle all the meetings and everything else. Right. He's kind of enjoyed just being a sounding board. You know, Rick Denison is still there. He's the offensive line coach.

He's work with Kubiak forever. Kubiak's son is the quarterback's coach. So if Clint ends up staying, I think that that could probably have an influence on whether or not they can keep Gary around for another year. My assumption is that Zimmer will go to Kubiak and say, would you like to be the offensive coordinator? I think that that, if I had to bet on what the Vikings first. choices. That's what it would be, but I don't know if that's going to happen. Yep. Another year, last year of cousins next year, I think this team can still, I think this can be

a playoff, this can be a playoff team next year. I think so too. I think they need to rework the secondary. I would assume that Xavier Rhodes will not be on the team next year, just based on what his salary cap situation looks like. If they're healthier, you know, Mike Hughes has a bigger role. Trey Wayne is a free agent. So they're definitely going to need to remake those positions. But outside of that, you know, they have a few more guys. I know financially it gets tough for them after this year. You know, they really tried to do everything they could to squeeze something out of this season.

You know, they have almost never done. Well, two things they did this season, money-wise, they've never done before. One, they converted part of Eric Kendrick's signing bonus into a base out or base salary into a signing bonus to create more cap space. They have never done that before since Rob Prisinski took over the cap. Two, if you look at the deal they gave Anthony Barr, it's not a pay-as-you-go contract like most Vikings contracts typically are.

It's back-loaded. I mean, they really did. They stepped outside of their comfort zone to kind of keep this team together, and now it does feel like whatever that team was, it's going to need some reworking. So the roster is going to look different next year than it did this year and has looked for the past few years.

I understand why they did it, but it almost seems like the Vikings are just a much smarter Texans in which they went pretty, they pushed a lot of their chips into the middle of the table for this year and it was never going to be good enough. Does that make sense?

Yes. I can understand that. The ceiling, we kind of knew what their ceiling was and they maximized the talent on this team and that was admirable and they got here but they just didn't have enough to keep up with the top top teams in their conference.

Yeah, you're probably right. I also want to say before we get out of here, just another super impressive performance. by the 49ers front. They boasts ahead of nice game. They were really getting after cousins. That is a front forward that can dominate you when you don't have the guys on the offensive line.

And Minnesota doesn't. They were able to kind of hide it at times this year because of how heavy play out, how heavy of a reaction team they were. But when they're forced to drop back and play, they don't have a great offensive line. And the 49ers have a great defensive line. D. Ford being back today. I mean, that is a talented group when that entire defense is healthy.

and it looks like they're going to be. Yep. And Richard Sherman is back. I mean, they didn't even throw at him. I mean, we got to pay. We avoided him. Yeah. I mean, for most of the game, though, they just,

they were throwing to the other side of the field. But when you can shut down half the field, God, I mean, it's just such a weapon as a defense. I mean, it's having him kind of step into that Seattle form for this team has been so, so important. It's good to have him back. I like, I like him as a press conference guy. He's a good, yeah, football is better with Richard Sherman.

I like, he's a type. I feel like I'm glad Richard Sherman's a superstar still and he's playing like it and he's still giving the press conferences. I think when guys, I think if teams don't have any media friendly guys, they should just keep having people. Richard Sherman should be giving Seahawks press conferences in 15 years, even when he's retired just to keep it going. You know what I'm saying? Like that was, I remember when Miami and Florida State played like 10 years ago and I was in college and I was covering it. And Dave Hyde, who is a column of the Sun Sentinel. He was like, man, I'm so upset that Bobby Bowden is going to get fired one day because like, I,

I hope that he can just do the press conferences. Like he should just, he should, the only duties he should have is the press conference. And then ever someone else should coach the team, right? And like that's Richard Sherman. I want his press conference to go on forever, even after he's retired.

They are so good. He's so candid. Like when after Richard Sherman stops being a superstar, which I, you know, at this point, he's still playing like a star. I want him to talk forever.

Let's get him in a booth somewhere in 2029. It works for me. All right. Is that all we got, bud? that's it. All right. Guys, we will be back on Thursday. We will be, I don't know, we'll probably be somewhere.

I assume I'll be in San Francisco because I'll be going there for the NFC championship game. I'm going to be in Los Angeles. I'm going to KC this weekend. There you go. All right, guys, as always, thank you so much for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringar Podcast Network. We'll talk to you later. Before you leave, remember to check out Ladder. If you're married or have kids or a mortgage, you should really consider life insurance,

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