The Ringer NFL Show - Wild-Card Saturday Recap: Texans Upset the Chargers, Ravens Dominate the Steelers, and More

Episode Date: January 12, 2025

Sheil, Steven, and Diante get together to debate and share their expert analysis on both of the big matchups on the first day of the NFL wild-card round. Chargers-Texans (1:52) Steelers-Ravens (35:28) The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producers: Chris Sutton and Tucker Tashjian Production Supervision: Conor Nevins, Arjuna Ramgopal, and Daniel Comer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about the Press Box podcast. The Press Box is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports or politics or pop culture, and wants to understand how that news really gets made. We have news shows every Monday and Thursday. We have long interviews with everyone from John Crackhour to Joe Buck. Your social media feeds are bursting with information every day. Let us help you sort it out. Join us on the press box.

To the Ringer NFL show, Shield Capadia here with Deonté Lee and Stephen Ruiz. Couple playoff games in the books. We got an upset to start the day. Texans take down the Chargers and then a Raven Steelers game that probably went as many expected. But we're going to talk about them both. Deontay, how we feel? Feeling great, man. I think that there's a lot of discourse coming out of this from both games.

Definitely. Lee, the Chargers Texans game I think is interesting. I know we're going to get into it in the second year. But I think that this was reflective of what the playoffs are, right? We start talking about one game samples and how teams can really lock in onto their opponents. And I think that in both games, we got to see a reflection of that. You know, teams really focusing in on game plans and being able to apply what they do best to expose other flaws. And we are now in that point in the year where if you have a clear flaw, it is going to be put on main stage for everybody to see.

There's no doubt about it, Ruiz. these are the games that shape the long, off-season narratives. We're going to get into them in a minute, all those narratives, but how are we doing this evening? Oh, they massacred my boy. How do you think I'm doing this evening?

Let's get to it. You're right. Let's talk about it. Let's get right into it. Houston Texans 32. Los Angeles Chargers 12, what turned into a blowout early on first quarter. I was like, all right, this is kind of how we thought this game was going to go.

Chargers go up, 6-0. Texans offense looks terrible. and then things flip really late in the second quarter. C.J. Stroud makes some plays on that drive. And from there, it was just like an avalanche. The Chargers could not slow it down. And the Texans dominate this football game as home underdogs. All right, Roos, I'm going to start with you.

Your big takeaway from this game, Deonté alluded to it. I think Justin Herbert on Sunday, on Monday. He's going to be the talking point from these games on Saturday. There's no doubt about it. So when you look at this Chargers performance, when you look at Herbert, when you look at the team as a whole, what's your big takeaway from this performance? I mean, there's no way around his stat line.

He threw four interceptions. Quarterbacks have games like this, and you're going to get killed when you have games like this. It's happened to many great quarterbacks throughout history, and it's time for Herbert to deal with it. We're going to have that conversation all off season long. We're going to be talking about him in the playoffs, his shortcomings in the playoffs.

He's had two performances. Both have been bad, especially in the second half, and you want to see your quarterback play well in the second half. I mean, but when you watch the film, you take a step back, total team failure, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The offensive line was, I mean, it just didn't stay at a chance against that Houston pass rush. I don't know how many offensive lines would have stood a chance against them today, just how they were rushing the quarterback.

The wide receivers weren't great, but we've seen that all season long, so that wasn't much of a surprise. I just think every aspect of the offense was off. You can go to the play calling also. I thought early on, they really failed to capitalize on some situations, especially when they got into second and short. in short, it was like every time they would run the football instead of taking a play action shot downfield. And I think that's when you have Houston in a game where they don't

necessarily want to be, especially on defense, when they can't pin their ears back and get after the passer. So I thought Greg Roma did bad. I thought Justin Herbert did bad. I thought the offensive line didn't play well. I thought the receivers didn't play well. I thought it was a total team failure, but Justin Herbert gets paid the most money. He's going to get the criticism. And I think he

deserves it after this performance. Deont, you mentioned the discourse, as you put it here, in the open when you look at sort of the blame pie here, how much of it on Herbert is going to be warranted, how much do you think is over the top, or do you think this is life as a quarterback who gets paid that kind of money

when you put forth a performance like this, you kind of deserve to get crushed. Deserve is always a funny word in this context, right? But what I will say is, I think that most of the people who listen to this show, I think people who are just a little bit more well-versed and understanding the sport now know that wins are not a quarterback stat,

but I think oftentimes playoff losses can be. And I think that that's just what we're dealing. We're going to be dealing with this offseason now for the Chargers. I don't think that he was helped very much by the interior of the past protection. I think that Will Anderson played a lights out game for the most part as well, and that was an issue for them. They already have issues along their offensive line on the interior. So when you're losing on the edge, I think that really just exacerbates some of the issues that they have. Stephen kind of pointed out the fact that they had multiple opportunities when Houston didn't have anything going offensively.

They're coming away with field goals. They're punning the ball around midfield and giving Houston more bites at the apple and ending their own possessions early. I don't think that Justin Herbert was done any favors, but at the end of the day, you look at the interception that bounced off of Will Disley. Can we blame Will Disley for that?

Yes, can we blame the roster construction for that? Yes, but I think that when you look at that play, even if you set it aside, and you start looking at the overthrow to Ladd-McConkey, that to me falls on Justin Herbert. So to me, I think that there's a delicate balancing act to kind of land on when you're talking about Herbert's performance today. Some of it was the receiver. Some of it was Greg Roman as offensive coordinator. Some of it was Jim Harbaugh as a

conservative kind of game planner and play caller within the midst as well. But I think that ultimately what this falls upon is the fact that Justin Herbert, like many other quarterbacks for as talented as he is, I don't know if you can just ask him to be the level of ceiling raise or he would need to be to deal with the bad interior offensive line and non-existent run game and limited wide receivers. And that's fair and that's fine, but that does mean that we have to hold him accountable when he has four performances like he did today. I mean, the question is, like, what's your takeaway from this game? Like, what can you take away regarding Justin Herbert from this game?

He threw four interceptions. Are you going to say that he's a bad decision maker and he's careless with the football? Of course not. We just all have one of the best interception prevention seasons of all time. And he's been one of the best that avoiding turnover worthy plays his entire career since he's entered the NFL. Are you going to say he's inaccurate because he missed the Ladd-McConkey throw on the interception?

I mean, we know he's not inaccurate. We've been watching him for the last five years be one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the NFL. I think he just played a bad game, and it happens. Like I said, I think the worst play of his and the play that kind of led to that avalanche, as you called it, was the interception after the turnover, where they take the play action shot, he throws it deep,

they're up six-nothing there. If they get a field goal there, they go up 9-0, that changes the game completely and you're not playing on the back foot and you're not allowing Houston to pin their ears back in Russia after you. So I feel like Justin Herbert didn't really, have an opportunity to succeed. He was pressure on over half of his dropbacks in the

average time to pressure was 2.5 seconds which is like a ridiculous number. Like the average pressure during the regular season is like 3.3.2 seconds. So yes, but he also contributed to that environment. He allowed it to happen by giving away the football in that one spot

where they could have really put the game out of reach and forced Houston to play like L.A. had to play in the second half. There is Herbert fatigue coming in the offseason. I think it's already happened in previous off seasons. And I think a lot of this has to do with framing. I think if you're going to talk about him with the big boys and say, you know, he's played as well as Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, like if they went on the road as favorites and completed 44% of their

passes in a game like this and had four interceptions, I know the one wasn't on him. The pressure, the way he didn't, I understand. The pressure was coming quickly. But I think Bill Barnwell tweeted out. He was one for 11 for 17 yards first pressure. He made one play with his legs early in this game where he rolls to the left and I think it was fisc he hits. And it was like, okay, that was a night. We didn't see a play like that the rest of the game. He didn't have one scramble in this game. He was not able to go in creation mode. That was to me the biggest disappointment with Justin Herbert. We've been talking all season long about how he was playing freer. It seemed like they had unlocked something out of him where, hey, you don't have to just be a robot back there. You

are one of the most talented quarterbacks in the league, let it show. It did not show in this game. And I just think any quarterback was going to put forth this performance, it's going to depend on your view going in whether you make excuses for the guy. And I'm not saying those are invalid. I understand. It's not a great receiving core. There were drops. The interior offensive line isn't good. But let's be honest. If another quarterback who, you know, and we all have our, who we like, who we don't like, had that performance, you wouldn't be mentioning any of those in the first five minutes of the podcast on the quarterback. Okay, but like I said, what's your takeaway from the game on Herbert?

Yes, he played a bad game and you could say, yeah, if any other court, yeah, if you put Sam Darnold back there, we're going to have a different takeaway than if you put Justin Herbert back there. Of course, because we've seen Justin Herbert play before. We know he's not interception pro. We know he's not inaccurate. So, like, what's the takeaway that he choked and that he's a loser in the playoffs? Like, that's just not interesting analysis to me.

I think that, well, you know, and I don't want to be too long-winded with this, but I think the takeaway is just reframing our understanding of what an elite. quarterback from a talent perspective still needs in order to be successful in a playoff environment, right? I think that there is a level of cognitive dissonance that happens when we talk about players at this position where you can easily identify the traits that put them in an elite level of conversation, right? You mentioned this even the accuracy, the sack avoidance, the turnover avoidance, you know, his ability to put the ball on a guy's shoulder. We've talked about that with Josh Allen. That definitely is a box that Justin Herbert checks as well. You know that he can't

extend. We've been louding this offense for using his legs and really encouraging him, not only as a design runner, but as a scrambler to be able to get away from pressure when he's in trouble. But I do think in games like this, and this is what I said in the opening, right? If you have a weakness, if you have a fatal flaw, a defense like Houston is going to continue to poke and prod at that and see if it breaks you. I think the interior line, the interior offensive line was something that always could have broken for this team this year. And it's been a reason why I can't run the ball. It's been a reason why they've had so many issues trying to find an early down identity.

I seem like Houston that is going to sit on your wide receiver on the outside and not give you the quick passes on the hitch routes and the drag routes and the checkdowns and force you to have to hold the football. That's going to put more stress on your interior offensive line. You would never know that Houston was a bad run defense this season based on how they looked in this game because they were able to just load up the box and go after these guys on early downs. and that to me I think is more reflective on maybe the roster construction than it is Justin Herbert. I just think that for us in having this conversation and trying to do it as honestly and honorably as possible, you do just have to acknowledge the fact that Justin Herbert as a singular force, maybe isn't Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. That's not to say they win this football game if they're dropped into this situation because it's bad for any quarterback.

But I think it's okay to say maybe he's not in that level of quarterback, but I do believe that he can still be a Super Bowl contending type of, passer if they had just one of these offensive factors fixed between the interior offensive lines so you can run the ball and protect better or having a better receiving course so that way you have some guys who can separate against the kind of tight coverage that you know you're going to get from Houston or from a Baltimore if they had advanced or from a Kansas City if they had advanced. I mean, it is kind of hard to criticize the roster construction, considering where they were

starting from. This new infrastructure that just took over this year, they were cleaning up a huge mess left behind by Tom Telesco, who just got fired after one. in Las Vegas. Nobody thought this team was going to be the playoffs. We thought they were going to be one of the worst teams in the NFL

and that's with one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL on the roster. We knew that in the offseason and we still thought this was a four or five-win team. I think they're just a victim of their own overachieving. Four or five-win team coming into the season? I think in that division,

that was a reasonable assessment. I mean, no, I mean, it's maybe three to four games, I would say, maybe you're just saying it to make the point and have the effect. I mean, I don't know. I didn't see anyone picking them

win four or five games. I don't think that would. I think they're over under was probably seven or eight. They had one of the easiest schedules in the NFL coming into the season. And I do think expectations change. I mean, they were favorites going into this game. We all picked them on Friday. So now to look back on it and say, well, they did, you know, we should have seen this coming. I do think that's moving the goalposts. And I still like Herbert. Like I would take Herbert over many quarterbacks in the NFL. I think he will have moments in the playoffs where he plays really well. I think there will be a playoff run at some point. At the same time, I understand why there would be, you know, people, the public or fans or listeners would say, like, I'm tired of here.

I don't want to see a great throw from this guy in week seven next week against the Raiders where we all compliment his arm strength because he's been in the NFL for five years and he hasn't gotten out of the wild card round. He's played in two games. One of them was a historic collapse. And the second one, I mean, to Deonti's point, I understand the limiting factors. The point of the great quarterback, it's supposed to be able to overcome some of those things. This wasn't a juggernaut team that the Los Angeles. charges we're facing. This is a mediocre team. This is why you have the great quarterback because you say, all right, they can make up for some of those things. And I just don't think he made up for

those things today. I think he added to them. So again, this is not a referendum on what the rest of his career is going to be. But if we're talking about this game, I come away very disappointed in a guy who I thought had a very good year, who I think has a high ceiling in the way he performed in this one game sample. And I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. No, I was pushing back against the criticism of the roster construction, like the front office had no means to build up this roster. I think that's what I'm pushing back against. Not like that Herbert played poorly or anything. Like I would say, I mean, I think that he and Trevor Lawrence, who you mentioned earlier show, I think that those two guys are in similar boats, right, where you can see all the

talent. It is easy to do some qualitative analysis on who they are as passers, the decisions they make. You can go and look at the stats and find all the underlying metrics in the world that would support the fact that he could be, you know, on the most aggressive in a fringe MVP candidate. Steve, you know, I know we talked about that on the podcast towards the end of the season because he was playing well, especially when you're able to factor in all the things that he does not have around him. But like you said, Sheal, at the end of the day, we expect elite level quarterbacks, the guys who are actually in the conversation as year over year, you expect this guy to be competing for Super Bowls. I don't know. It's not necessarily that he can't be that guy. It's just that we have not

seen enough demonstrated yet when the cards are down when they're behind on game script. If there is an issue with the game plan or an issue with their pass protection, we have not seen Justin Herbert rise a level of everything around him in order to be able to win football games. And that's going to be an issue that I think people are going to have to face, even if you do believe that Justin Herbert is one of the eight to ten most talented quarterbacks, if not higher in the NFL. And like I said, that's fine.

The thing to me, Stephen, and you hinted at this, the issue to me is that this does not the Herbert discourse does not now have to get tentacles that reach into the roster construction piece of this. That's a whole separate conversation about, you know, John Hortiz and what he's going to do in 2025 and 2026. This is not a Justin Herbert issue to be resolved right now. He just played a shitty game. And sometimes you just got to call a shitty game and shitty game and say that maybe the guy

is not a superstar MVP caliber quarterback right now, but we know that he's capable of it. And if he can put it together in a playoff environment, then we're not having these conversation. But even that, I feel like is overreactionary. I feel like you could have said the same thing after Patrick Mahomes in the Tampa Bay Super Bowl, where he was dealing with a similar environment and he played a similarly poor game. And if he would have said after that game, oh, maybe he's not a superstar. Maybe he's not one of the, like, no, that's obviously wrong. We know what Patrick Mahomes is. You can say that about Lamar after the game in Buffalo, the playoff game where he throws the intercept, throws a pick six or whatever was to put away that

game. He's played poorly in these games. And if he had said that about Lamar after those games, you would have been wrong too. So I don't know. I feel like even that's a little bit, that's a step too far. And even putting him in Trevor Lawrence's conversations is a step too far for me because I think he's had a much longer track record of success.

And his tape is way better than Trevor Lawrence's. Yeah, I put him in a different class with Lawrence. I'm with you too. I definitely have him above Lawrence. I mean, I think those other guys had moments in the playoffs. I'm just trying to think of the historical comp. Like, is it Stafford? Because, I mean, five years for a quarterback

who we think is in a certain class, that's probably the only guy in recent memory. that they go five years and the team does not have, you know, there's really no semblance of team success in the postseason. I mean, I think you're forgetting about Peyton Manning, who like in like his fourth year, I think of the playoffs, he lost 41 to nothing to the Jets in a wildcard game. Okay, but he had one playoff games prior to that now. I mean, it's one thing if you have a bad game after you have done stuff.

I mean, I don't know. I don't have to bring up Peyton Manning's profile. Like they lost the dolphins in the Titans. So I think that was at least his fourth playoff game. I don't know. I would have to look at his playoff game log here. But usually I feel like at this point, a guy in this regard has had that moment now. There are one of one career.

So it could be, it could happen. He's got the coach now. They've got to upgrade the roster. Again, I'm not saying he stinks that it's never going to happen to him. As someone who likes Herbert, this was a disappointing performance for me. I was like, come on. Like this is, you have played better than this all season long. And, you know, this is one of probably your worst game of the season when the lights are the brightest.

this, that leaves me wanting more from a guy who's that talented. I mean, I would say, you'd probably say it's the worst high leverage game of his career up to this point, right? Which is okay. Which is okay to say. And again, I think this all wraps around the conversation that we're having around who Herbert is. Everybody's timeline is warped because all the best quarterbacks in the NFL are younger than 30. So there's no, you know, nobody wants to be patient with these guys. We're all looking to see these plants.

These flags be planted with all these guys before they hit, you know, the middle of their, athletic prime. And I think that that's okay to say, and everybody's chasing 15 in Kansas City. So I think that the framing of this is always going to be a little bit off when we're talking about quarterbacks. It's going to be difficult to try to make sure that we center these things properly. But yeah, I come back to what you've been saying throughout this conversation, which is just that we don't expect our quarterbacks who are at the highest, the upper echelon of guys to have games like this. And we just have to acknowledge when it's bad, when it's as bad as it was today against the Texans.

And it's a credit to the Texans. I would say that this might be D'Amico Wright's best, like, single game game plan, maybe in his tenure as an NFL coach, right? Like, you would be, he's had some great games against Sean McVeigh, but when it comes to, like, one game sample size and totally taking away, right, been totally taking away what offenses want to do best. This is going to be up there on his resume as somebody who structures defenses and prepares his, you know, whether or not he has play-calling responsibilities

or is doing the day-to-day work with the defense. This is clearly his structure, and he clearly has an elite level of understanding of how quarterbacks think and how to cause problems for offenses. And once they locked in on playing press and a bunch of man coverage and not needing to blitz to be able to affect the interior of this offensive line, there was really nothing else for the Chargers to do schematically besides asking Justin Herbert to get the ball out earlier than was probably viable, given their receiver's struggles

with trying to separate against tight coverage. I think the one like takeaway you can have regarding Herbert's game is that Domeco was able to kind of force him to do things that he's not necessarily the best at. I don't think he has a lot of weaknesses as a physical thrower of the football. But he doesn't throw with touch as often as you see some of these other guys throw with touch.

And I thought the Texans did a good job of kind of working underneath the Charter's routes and making those windows tight and making Herbert layer balls over the top of the second level. And I think he did it on occasion, but he wasn't able to do it consistently. And when you have pressure in your face,

I think combining that with the tight window throws, it was going to be a hard afternoon for any quarterback out there. But I think it was perfectly suited to kind of disrupt what Herbert is best at. And I do think this performance does kind of shine a light on his weaknesses in his game. Every quarterback has weaknesses.

Literally every quarterback in the NFL. Patrick Mulhombs has weaknesses. We saw the manifest. themselves not only in that Tampa Bay Super Bowl, but against the Bengals when they lost in 2021. And I think that's what happened with Herbert here. I think he definitely has things to work on. We can talk about the touch. You can also talk about the willingness to be a playmaker, although I do think Houston's rush plan deserves a little more credit for keeping him in the pocket. Like every time you saw him climb the pocket of throw, he was like working through

traffic. It was like almost like the video game Frogger where you're kind of working through traffic and trying to get a throw off. He did it sometimes, but sometimes he just ran into a sack. And like that was the issue in this game. Like if you're looking at the offensive issues, I don't think you start with Herbert. I think you start with that interior line, what it wasn't able to do in the run game, and what it wasn't able to do in pass protection.

I was watching this game and I was thinking, I've spent too much time this season ripping Bobby Sloics offense and how much I hate this Texans offense and probably not enough time looking at, hey, this Texan's defense is kind of still doing what kind of we expected them to do. I mean, if you look at, you know, the metrics coming in to the playoffs, they were still a what, top three defense based on defensive DVOA. And that didn't occupy enough of my attention when talking about this Texans team.

And you saw it in this game. I mean, they've got young players who know what they're doing with the game plan, with the coaching. Will Anderson up front. Derek Stingley, Lasseter at cornerback. To your guy's point, Justin Herbert, 28% of his throws, according to next gen stats, were into tight windows in this football. all game, 28% of his throws by far the highest of any quarterback that played on Saturday. And to your guy's point, D'Amico Ryan's like, he's building up quite a resume against great quarterbacks.

Like you see what they did against Josh Allen earlier this season. You guys alluded to some of the other playoff stuff he did with the San Francisco 49ers. They allow 15 first downs, 261 yards, four takeaways. And I was the dummy who was saying, hey, this Chargers offense looks like it's found something because they've played three, four games in a row. One of them was against the Broncos, so they faced good competition. They were going up and down the field. And they just put an end to that. I mean, they had those turnovers in the first half. And to your point, Ruiz, they come away. I'm with you. It's six nothing. It felt like this game's going the Chargers way and they come away

with that interception there. I think they had three turnovers and the Chargers had three points off those three turnovers. Like I know defensive coaches love that type of thing, that your offense is not giving us anything right now. First five possessions, Texans' offense didn't do anything. And the Texans defense just hung in there, hung in there, made plays, gave CJ Stroud some time, and all of a sudden you're running away with the blowout victory. I feel like we did say on the pot, I know we all picked against the Texans, but I feel like we did say, like, if there is a chance, it's going to be a great Roman game where they try to run the football and they can't run the football and the play action isn't popping guys open. And that's basically what happened in this game.

They had some success early on. I thought they were doing some good stuff to kind of play on Houston's aggressiveness on the defensive line, like some trap plays, some sweet plays. But once Houston adjusted to those, it was done. And I think one of the issues with an offense like this that really relies on that backfield action instead of play action where you're pulling guard, you're pulling linemen, you have tight ends screaming across the formation to take out an edge rusher. The problem is sometimes you have to ask J.K. Dobbins are Will Disley to block Will Anderson.

And then what happens? We saw. That's happened in this game. Like every major passing down, that's what happened in this game. And I think that once they realized that they weren't going to get these play action passes off on first down, I thought they should have adjusted. I didn't think we saw an adjustment. They kept trying to play the same style of football for those two middle quarters, the second and third quarter. And that's really where the game got away from them.

Yeah, it was not pretty. They won that on the chalkboard with the game plan and then with their execution in this football game. So we'll see what the Texan defense can do next. week, whether they're facing the Bills or the Chiefs. The Texans offense, where are we? This has been an ongoing conversation on the show all season long. Again, first five possessions, three punts, two turnovers. Then they have that, it's weird. It's the play, you know, we do all this analysis. And the play that gets them going, I thought, like so clearly, fumbled snap by C.J. Stroud, picks it up, finds Xavier Hutchinson downfield for 34 yards, then finds Nico Collins,

then another Nico Collins for a touchdown. And all of a sudden, they have the lead. And you're saying, wait, are they actually going to win this game? And that got the offense going a little bit. So I didn't watch this game and think, oh, I feel great about them. They found answers. I thought C.J. Strau did a good job of kind of weathering the storm early, weathering some bad plays early.

And then they were hitting on explosives to Nico Collins. With his legs, he had the 27-yard scramble. So he kind of just got into playmaking mode a little bit. And then they were able to ice the game there running the football. with Joe Mixing. So I can't say I feel that differently about this Texan's offense, Deontay. Where are you with that? This was still a bad game from Houston offensively.

If we're just talking about running healthy offense, building a structure that protects your quarterback and maximizes the skill talent around them, they still failed by that measure. I think that ultimately the play that you mentioned, Sheal, where you get the bad snap, I was joking with some of my colleagues that like this is at every level of football, when the ball goes over the quarterback, you're saying, hey, hey, all defensive players lose executive function. They just turn into dogs,

like just locked in on the ball. And now if you recover the ball, you're going to have areas that you can attack because guys are just wondering whether or not they're going to have an opportunity for its turnover. But I think the more important things, the things that are going to stick with me

from this game is going to be C.J. Strought putting his foot in the ground when the first and second look isn't there and accelerating as a scrambler. It wasn't just, let me see if I can extend or leave the pocket and try to get close to the sideline and maybe dumped the ball off.

This was about as athletic as I think he's ever looked in the NFL as a runner. I mean, you saw him just driving down the field as a runner, evading guys, looking for extra yardage. And that's not to say that that's going to be a playoff winning formula when they do see a Buffalo, when they do see a Kansas City. But that to me is something that can help you avoid a third and forever is knowing on first and second down, hey, if this look isn't there, let me just go get seven, eight yards as a scrambler. That's what Patrick Mahomes does all the time. It's what Josh Allen can do as a scrambler as well.

Obviously, we know Lamar Jackson can do that. That's what the elite quarterbacks in this conference are capable of, is being able to turn what would be a bad player or a failure of a play into something a little bit more manageable, if not an opportunity at a chunk game. And if they're able to lean into that a little bit more, if CJ Stroud can accept that in a playoff environment a little bit more, I think that that will serve this offense well.

and then from the actual passing perspective, once they were able to connect with Nico Collins a couple of times down the field, it did feel like there was a bit of a sigh of relief within that offense. That's still something they can access, even against a defense that is as locked in on taking away explosives as Los Angeles is.

And if they're able to do that in playoff environments, I don't necessarily feel like this has changed their outcome or how I feel about them as a team. But it means that next week, no matter who they're mashed up against, it's not going to feel as much like a Feta Complete because C.J. Stroud is still capable of being a little bit of a ceiling razor, even if we haven't seen it over the course of the 17 game season coming into this. Yeah, I do feel like Bobby Sloick deserves some credit for just spamming those, like, glance routes that they figured out in the second quarter. We're talking about the explosive plays, but I thought what Houston did, what they haven't done all year long, is kind of find a way to sustain the offense and keep themselves ahead of the chains.

And it wasn't with the run game, but it was with those quick passes with C.J. Stroud getting the ball out of his hand right when he hit the back of his drop. Their offensive lie was not playing well in this game. And when C.J. Stroud was trying to hold onto the ball and make those plays, that's when we saw the pressure.

That's when we saw Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack affect this game. I think somewhere around the second quarter, they started just throwing those quick glance routes over the middle of the field. And, like, Los Angeles never really adjusted to it. I mean, like, change your leverages or something, like play some inside leverage.

I mean, I'm not a defensive coordinator, but I think anyone watching that game from home would have thought the same thing. It was just like any slant route, any glance route, anything quick over the middle that was inbreaking. C.J. Stroud could complete it. He went 13 of 16 on in breaking routes for 223 yards. You have to make it harder. You have to switch things up in the second half. I don't think Jesse Minter did that. We've been celebrating this guy all year. I do think he had a bad

showing in this one, too. Add him to the list of chargers. It's a long list of people and coaches and players who had a great season but didn't have a great showing on Saturday. So if the bills beat the Broncos, the Texans are going to Kansas City. If the Broncos beat the bills, then the Texans would be going to Baltimore. Is there like what are the- Stop me right there. You're done? This is one and done.

That was the question. You know the question was coming. Ruiz, you feel the same way? Yeah, yeah, it's done. I think that the Texans defense can be friskeyer against Kansas City. because I think that what I saw as terms of past rushing, it's a little bit easier for me to picture them being able to bother the Chiefs offense. If they aren't as originally connected to playing man coverage as they were

when they saw each other a few weeks ago towards the end of the regular season, they definitely gave the Chiefs what they wanted in terms of trying to play cover one all the time, and Kansas City was able to get in a bunches in stacks and just get guys free releases. And that will be an issue for them. So if they're able to let go of that and just really focus their energy on rushing the passer with four and maybe playing a little bit of softer coverage on the back end, I can see it there.

Based on what I saw from Baltimore tonight, at least in the first half, in terms of being able to control possessions with the run game, I didn't see enough today on Saturday against the charges to lead me to believe that they could handle what Lamar Jackson and Derek Kennedy will be throwing at them. Well, yeah, they're not going to match up well with the Chiefs either. I think, like, you can pressure them,

but I don't think Andy Reid is going to allow you to get the matchups that Greg Roman allowed you to get in this game, like especially on the edge. So I think it could be a low-scoring game. I think they definitely have a path to victory on that one side of the ball, but I just don't see them being able to replicate the success they had against the charges, especially in the second half on the ground. That's fair.

I thought like Denzel Perryman going out of this game. Like, when he went out of this game, I was kind of like, oh, man, that's a big loss for the charges. And then I wait, wait, wait, Denzel Perryman is a big loss for you. Maybe you're not long for the playoffs if that's the case. And it kind of was the case because Joe Mixed, like there wasn't a run game for the first three quarters, but when they had to run that game out,

run that clock out, they were able to do it easily. Yeah, we'll see who it ends up being for the Texans. We'll talk more about that matchup, of course, during the week. And then let's zoom out with the charger. So you guys,

I think hit on the big thing, obviously interior offensive line. You need to address this offseason. And then you hit on Ladd-McConkey. Ladd-McConkey was terrific in this game. you probably need like at least two more pass catchers, I think, to make this an even more potent offense. But if you do zoom out, you say, all right, first year of the Harbaugh era, you made the playoffs, you won 10 games. It didn't end the way you wanted it to. But I think if it were

me, I would say build on the off. I would say shore up that offensive line, address wide receiver, and then go to the, I know the defense isn't that talented, but I would say, hey, you kind of did more with less on defense. I would want to get that offense fixed. It's my priority first. Ruiz, what do you think in terms of the Chargers offseason here? I mean, I'm thinking about offensive coordinator all offseason. I know Jim Harbaugh is not going to move on from his boy, Greg Roman, but that's what stuck out to me was this was not an offensive coordinator adjusting to the matchup in front of him. I thought it was Greg Roman trying to be the team or trying to call plays for an offense that he wants to have and not necessarily the offense that he does

have, especially saw it on like third and short where they were just trying to line up and run the football against maybe the best defensive line in the AFC and one that was kicking their ass all game long. Like, why do you think you can win in that bar fight? That's a bar fight that the Houston Texans are suited to win. So that would be where I look first. But they have plenty of cap space. I think this was years, this was supposed to be year zero for them in terms of building up the

roster. So I'm not too concerned. I think they're ahead of schedule on the rebuild. Deontae, you agree on the chargers? Same. I would say, yeah, if I had my own druthers and. yeah, you would be addressing the offensive play caller, but you know that that's not going to happen. And if they were to make a move from Greg Roman, it would just be bringing in another guy

who has the same kind of beliefs, says the Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh. So I do think if this is a style of play that they're going to be committed to, this will be a great offseason to go bring in a few more vets along the interior of the offensive line. It doesn't cost you a ton of cap space to do so. And then if you're able to go and bring in one veteran guy, even if it's not someone at the top of the market, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be a T. Higgins guy who will go dunk over the top of the defense if you're playing a 101 coverage. But just somebody else who can separate so that when you're running your play action game, you've got one extra option, whether it's a tight end, whether it's an extra receiver. I think that that would just add so much relief to this offense when it needs it on early downs when they're looking to pass the wall.

So to me, that's really where I will be looking to invest. It's definitely on the offensive side. That's not to say that the defense doesn't have issues or areas where they can need. make quick improvements. I just feel like because Jesse Mentor is staying, right? And you have a guy that is already proven now that he can take this kind of hodgepodge group of veteran guys and implement a defensive system that takes away explosive plays that play solidly against the run, even if you're not getting a bunch of TFLs.

You were able to generate some pressure this year, obviously with having your veteran edge rushers, maybe if one of those guys departs or takes a step back next year, it doesn't look the same. But I do feel like, based on what we've seen throughout the course of this season, You can probably feel pretty good about that side of the ball regardless. Maybe you go draft guys that you can develop over a longer timeline, so that way you stay cheap on that side of the ball while you address offense. But yeah, if I'm spending money this offseason, it is 1,000% going to be the interior of this offensive line

and then hoping to bring in one difference making pass catcher that can kind of change the math for us on early downs. We have over a decade of evidence that the Greg Roman offense in order to play at a championship level, which we've only really seen it do twice. In the early 2010s with the 49ers and 2019 with the Ravens, it needs to be an elite offensive line. Like it can't be a good offensive line like it was this year.

It can't be like above average offensive line. I think that's closer to what they were this year. It has to be a top five offensive line. Like you have to build Detroit's line if you want to play like Detroit's offense. And they haven't done that yet. All right. Let's move to the other game, the night game, Ravens 28, Chargers, 14. Ravens come out and just dominate the first half of this football game over 300 yards in the first half.

The Steelers had two first downs. Steelers never made it that interesting, but they put together a couple of drives there in the second half where at least I thought, man, if we get that one fluky Steelersy fumble, pick six special teams play, then maybe this will be interesting down the stretch. That never happened. I'm going to start with my big takeaway because we're going to spend a lot of time talking about the Ravens, I think, this week in the weeks ahead. and on the show.

But I couldn't help him, but watch this and think, are we sure it makes sense for the Steelers and Mike Tomlin to continue this relationship together? And please listen to how I framed that. That is not, if you've listened to the show, you know that I think that one of the dumbest stats and it's a nugget you're going to hear again now in the next 24, 48 hours,

Mike Tomlin hasn't won a playoff game since 2016. And I say, put another coach in there and they don't sniff a playoff game in many of those years with the quarterbacks he's playing with. Having said that, I just kind of looked at the team and like the chargers we were able to pretty easily identify, hey, do X, Y, and Z, these are the steps you need to take in the next offseason, maybe the next two off seasons,

and you potentially will be in position to compete for a Super Bowl. I don't know what those steps are for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I mean, they're going to be too good to bottom out and get a top five pick. They're not going to be good enough to really compete with these teams. teams in the AFC. You look at how they finish the season. They lose five straight games to end the season. They're outscored by 66 points. They look outclass by the Ravens twice, by the Eagles, by the cheats. Like, they're not competitive in any of those games. And then I just pull up Mike Tomlin's pro football reference page. I go 18 years. It's a long time for anyone in any industry,

specifically coaching to be in one place. So I'm adding it all together. And I'm wondering, like in my head, just would Mike Tomlin welcome a year off? then come back in another spot. Would he like to say, hey, I'll just go reset, preach my message to Chicago, to Jacksonville? I don't know. I'm just throwing some names out there. And would that make any sense for the Steelers to say, hey, like, we're not in position to just like, let's, let's go at this and try to be competitive every year. We need a real plan, a sort of mini-rebuild, add a quarterback who we like, where we can actually be a Super Bowl contender. So I don't know exactly where I landed, but Ruiz, that was my takeaway as I kind of watched a lot of this game when it's a blowout at

halftime and then in the second half. Where do you stand on the Tomlin Steelers' conversation? I don't think it makes any sense for like Tomlin to move on because what is another team going to offer him that the Steelers can't offer him? Like quarterback? Well, yeah, if they already have the quarterback in place, but then you have to rebuild everything else up and he's... What about Chicago? If he goes to Chicago, are they well positioned? You're going to the NFC. if you like Caleb Williams, you have talent on that defense, you need like a culture setter, competent face of the franchise guy. Are you all of a sudden feeling better that, hey, this team can turn things around and potentially be a Super Bowl contender if Caleb Williams is good?

I mean, I definitely feel better about it, but I just think there's a lot of ifs there. And we've never seen Tomlin rebuild before. Like, that's the one thing. He took over a team that was a Super Bowl contender, and he helped maintain that for a decade. And I guess this last last five years stretch has been a rebuild stretch and it hasn't looked that great. I mean, it hasn't been a rebuild because they've been making the playoffs. So it's kind of hard to say. I don't know. I just think the idea that Tomlin being this floor razor prevents them from getting a

quarterback, I just don't agree with that because we've seen throughout history. Like the Chiefs got a quarterback. They got Patrick Mahomes while being a perennial contender with Alex Smith. It's not like they were missing the playoffs when they got Patrick Mahomes. They had the same record. They were basically in the same spot. They couldn't win a playoff game. And then they got the quarterback.

they trade it up. I think the Steelers just got to go get that quarterback instead of trying to do it. Keep Tomlin and keep taking swings that quarterback. Yeah. And stop trying to do it the old-fashioned way. Like stop trying to get the local guy and Kenny Pickett. Like I thought that was just a naive way of trying to get a quarterback. Like trade up and go get your guy.

If you were to take the most myopic look at this, right? If you were to be as pessimistic as possible, you would look at Mike Tomlin and say, oh, he's the Van Gundy family in the NBA. He's Larry Brown. He's Jerry Sloan with the jazz. it's always too good to not be able to get the superstar player that you need, but never good enough to truly be in the class with a Lakers or the Miami Heat or whatever the elite teams are at that given time. I think that you could maybe have an honest conversation about that.

There were times tonight watching this game where you start trying to spend things forward and you're looking at Cam Hayward, you're looking at T.J. Watch. You're looking at Alonzo Highsmith. And you're looking at Mika Fitzpatrick and saying, none of these guys are going to get any better than they already are. You have probably maximized what this roster can be as currently constructed, and Mike Tomlin does not have an appetite for a rebuild. Otherwise, it would have underwent one already.

They want to be as absolutely competitive as possible from week one to week 18 and into the postseason. And I think that that's okay, right? That is something to aspire to be, and that's something to be proud of, I think, as a franchise, is that your head coach can take any collection of talent that you hand to them and make them a competent, if not competitive team on a weekly basis. So, yeah, I'm with Stephen from the sense that if I'm Mike Tomlin, there's really nowhere else in the NFL that I need to go to prove that I can do what I already do. I think that the question now is if Steelers Brass, if the general manager,

if the brain trust with ownership is not willing to break from decades-old practices of not aggressively trading up early in the draft to try to get control over who they can pick in terms of quarterback or just difference making talent in the top 100, this is not even a conversation worth having with keeping Tomlin and what you can be, because the answer to that is that you're going to be what you are this season, which is interesting at some parts, but very flawed overall and not in a position to compete with the Baltimore's or the Kansas cities or the Buffaloes in this conference, and certainly not across the rest of the NFL.

I don't think that that makes you a failure of a franchise, but I do think it's okay if you're, you know, from your perspective, if she ought to ask whether or not there's anywhere else for this marriage to grow, because I don't know if there is as currently constructed. I think the playoffs kind of shine at light on the limitations of this high floor approach that the Steelers take to football, where you're kind of waiting on other teams to beat themselves, especially during the regular season. I think by the time you get to the postseason, the Ravens are a perfect example.

The Ravens have had so many problems. They were like a perfect team for the Steelers to play in October. But by the time we get to January, they've ironed out all those issues, and they're no longer that team that you can capitalize on their responsibility. stakes. They're not going to burn the house down, so to speak, at the end of the game in January. And I think that's why Tomlin has failed to kind of carry over that Tomlin magic from the regular season, where they can pull off an upset, where we've seen them beat Super Bowl contending teams over the last couple of years, even though they don't have a quarterback that should

allow them to beat those teams. But then you get to the playoffs and you just get run off the field by a Josh Allen, a Patrick Mahomes, or tonight, Lamar Jackson. Yeah, and even this team felt a little different with the way, like the quotes from the locker room, the defensive players. We talked about it in recent weeks that it didn't feel quite as buttoned up as before. It sort of felt like a team that knew what it was after seeing what good quality opponents did to them. I mean, even just looking at their body language in the first half and the Ravens are running 13 running the ball, 13 straight plays and going 90 yards on a Mike Tomlin team. I know Ruiz, you pointed to that game against the Eagles where the Eagles finished the game

with what a 21 play drive where like Tomlin wants to be that team doing that to other teams and now other teams are doing that to his team. So I don't know what the perfect path is. I mean, because even the quarterback thing, like, it's hard. So you have to identify the guy who you want to go all in on and then trade up for him. And now what are you trading? And that hasn't worked that well for a bunch of teams. Is it more like the, I mean, what they're doing is not that dissimilar from the Vikings, if you look at it, like do they just build up the roster and take some swings and maybe they hit on a quarterback. That's what they did this offseason.

I thought it was a fine plan with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Now, it didn't work out or you landed a guy who you're like, yeah, let's sign this guy to more money. But you could continue to do that in future off seasons while you're drafting and trying to build up the offensive line. Pass catchers an issue. I mean, George Pickens is going into the final year of his deal. That's why I'm conflicted.

It's because I feel like a lot of things sort of have to happen for them to get back in that mix. But quarterback is the most interesting, Ruiz. It did kind of work for them, though. It worked for a season, yeah. Yeah, it definitely worked. Like, this was the best, probably the best Steelers team of all these teams that have kind of snuck into the wild card and played spoiler at the end of the year. I think this was probably the best one.

I mean, you didn't land, you didn't find a guy who you're like, let's hang on to him a little bit. Aaron Rogers. Is that who you think? I saw your tweet. I was mostly joking. I do. Like, Mike Tomlin, Aaron Rogers partnership would be amazing to me. Apparently, they've had, like, funny moments on the field where they're kind of playing at each other.

when they played against one another. But I don't know if it would work out. I don't know. I think those two might be fighting, like actually physically fighting. I know where my money would be. But like Sam Darnold, like you talked about the Vikings.

Why not Sam Darnel? I think Sam Darnold would kind of be the ideal quarterback in that type of situation. Like, unless you're going to get an elite quarterback from somewhere, you're going to draft one? No, you're going to be able to trade for one? No. I feel like Sam Darnold,

behind a good offensive line, beyond a decent run game that kind of protects the quarterback and with some downfield targets, We've seen it this year. It worked this year. I know we won't have Justin Jefferson, but I think, like, if you can get 80% of what they got out of Sam Darnold this year, I think that's better than what they got out of Russell.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. If we fast forward to March and the Pittsburgh Steeler signed Sam Darnold to, you know, let's say, let's even just say the Baker-Mayfield contract of last year, you would feel good about that? I would not feel good about that. I don't know if I'd feel good about that either, show. I feel fine about it. Really?

If the point of comparison is Russell Wilson, then yes, of course. If the point of comparison is Patrick Bowles, no, I wouldn't feel fine about it. No, it's just like as a path forward to get yourself actually competitive in the AFC. I mean, I feel like his situation is going to be way worse. His past catchers are way worse. He doesn't have as good of a play caller. The offensive line is not as good. Now you're playing Tomlin ball.

I don't know that Tomlin wants him to be. The other option. The other option I threw out was Aaron Rogers. That's a way worse option. I don't like that one either. Exactly. I don't like any of the options. This leads us back to the conversation. to the way you started this conversation.

That's how I'm trying to get up to Chicago. There's no good option, Mike. This brings us right back to where you open this conversation, which is just like what even is the path, even if you were to sit down in that meeting room and be a fly on the wall and listen to how they're talking about forecasting the next one to two seasons,

I don't know if there's an honest conversation they can have about, oh, we can make this move and that's going to put us on par with Baltimore. I think that they are much closer to being in the exact same tier of Cincinnati. who already has an elite quarterback or a fringe elite quarterback, that still is struggling because of paying that market rate

and what it means for building out the rest of your roster. The Bengals, obviously, you're in a different situation because of their spending habits. But to me, if you look at the Steelers, outside of the peak of Ben Rathesberger, and you can even make an argument against it there, they're not always interested in paying market rate at that position. They've always kind of had an approach of evenly distributing their money and trying to build the best 53-man roster that they possibly

can. And that means more often than not that you're going to be an 8 and 9 to 10 and 7 football team that's frisky during the season and too flawed to beat an elite team. And like I said, like I opened with, I think that that's fine as a median outcome. It's just a matter of, would they be willing to take a swing to change their fortunes? Even if that meant that you might land on a year where you go 5 and 12 instead of being that 9 and 18 that you usually are, because taking a swing makes you land flat on your face. Pittsburgh is not demonstrated to me that they're aggressive enough in terms of acquiring talent for me to believe that that's coming in the future.

And if that's it, then yeah, the conversation is, if this is as good as it's going to be with Mike Tomlin, this is not an indictment on him, but is it worth continuing to walk this path in perpetuity until he's ready to move on? I don't know if now is the time to move on for him or to have those kind of conversations because this was a great season on the whole relative to X-Men. given their quarterback situation. I just don't know if I feel any better about this team 2025 and beyond just because they maybe played

a little bit above their heads in September and October in this season. I do think we're giving these franchises that do have the quarterback a little too much credit for their role in getting those quarterbacks. We would probably be having the same conversation if we did this pod after like the 2015 playoffs and we just watched the Chiefs blow another playoff game. We would be going, oh, they got Andy Reed,

the floor is too high. they're never going to get a quarterback. And two years later, they got the greatest quarterback of all time. The Chargers, like, they have Justin Herbert. They wanted to draft, too. Like, they kind of lucked into that player, too. The Bengals were just bad. They got Joe Burrow because they were the worst team in the NFL.

Like, these teams kind of just luck into these quarterbacks. So I think it's kind of like defeatist to be like, oh, as long as they have Tomlin, they're never going to get a quarterback. I think they just need the right breaks. And I do think they need to take bigger swings. Like, their biggest swing at quarterback, their two biggest swings so far have been drafting Mason Rudolph in like the second or third round and drafting a 24-year-old quarterback in the first round who has to wear gloves to be able to

hold the football. See, and I will push back because it really wasn't anything aggressive in their process with either of those decisions. That to me is a bit, that to me, I think is a bigger indictment on trying to forecast what this team is going to be in years to come. I don't trust that their brain trust is going to approach to draft and say, hey, we've identified a guy and we are willing to be as aggressive as the price calls for us to be in order to get access to that football player. They have not demonstrated that that's something they're interested in, even when it is somebody that we know might be a premier talent. That's not something that they've demonstrated.

I mean, really outside of trading for Minka Fitzpatrick, who's about as distressed an asset as there could have been at the time that they made that trade, we don't really see them deal top 100 picks to be able to have some control over the players that they get. and if that's going to continue to be the case, it doesn't speak negatively about the Steelers because I think there are a lot of franchises right now that wish they could be the Steelers and just be 10 and 7 and take swings

and maybe you can be a spoiler in the playoff every once in a while. I just think that for the Steelers, because so many other things are in place and they're going to have a lot of guys who are either smack dab in the middle of their peaks or on the tail end of their primes. If you're going to take a swing,

it should be now. And if it's not going to be now, then the question now becomes, when is it ever going to be time for them to be aggressive. I can't believe I'm defending the Steelers in their approach to finding a quarterback, but I will say this. I don't think they've had a lot of time to kind of take those swings when you think about their timeline. Like Ben Rathesburg got washed up overnight seemingly in 2020. So you have to move on from him. You draft a quarterback in the first round that you believed in.

I don't think they should have believed in Kenney Pickett, but they did. And then you waste two years on him. So they've really only had like two off seasons where they've gone in there knowing they need a quarterback. So it is kind of harsh to kind of be like, like, oh, they haven't done, they haven't done enough. But I guess when you draft Kenny picking the first round, you open yourself up to criticism. And we're having this conversation as though the Ravens didn't look like a team that can go when. Yeah, I mean, we should talk about the Ravens probably.

We spent too much time. Yeah, let's get to the, I do just to close the book on this dealers. I think you're right. I think if you keep Tomlin, you just keep taking swings as a quarterback. And it doesn't, like, sometimes it's hard to, you know, this draft. I don't think anyone would say, hey, trade a bunch of assets for one of these guys. So it's hard. So, like, maybe like, they took Chase Claypool over Jalen Hertz, you know?

If that was a different thing and they're running this option, like that could have been much more interesting. So I think taking swings at quarterback, even the same approach they had last year with two different guys, it could actually work out next year. I don't think that's a bad approach. It's not like they sunk a bunch of assets into it. And now they're paying these guys a lot of money or they wasted draft picks. That's kind of where they are.

So that's to close the book on this deal. I don't think they have an environment that can lift up a mediocre quarterback. Because I don't think the supporting cast is good enough there. And they don't have a means to get the quarterbacks. back to lift everyone up. That's why I feel like they're a little bit stuck there. Can I ask you guys a question? We're going to go to the Ravens now. Imagine if we went back in time to Thursday when we recorded the preview pod and I read off Russell Wilson's stateline. I said 20 for 29, 9.3 yards per attempt. Two touchdowns zero interceptions. I would have been like,

oh no, what did the Ravens do? Yeah. Right. So like the Steel, I feel like we've talked all week long about or all season long really about the Ravens, especially in regard to their matchup with the Steelers not beating themselves. And if like the Steelers, play a weird game and play and they get on the, they get the moon balls that they had a chance against the Ravens. The Steelers played a pretty good game. They played as good a game on offense as you could have hoped for, at least

in the passing game. I know they didn't have much of a running game. And it didn't matter. The Ravens still went comfortably. I think like that's the biggest takeaway for me is that one, the Ravens didn't beat themselves and two, they not only beat a team that was playing kind of it's a game in the passing game, but you beat them by two

touchdowns. And you covered the spread. Yeah, it's the Ravens offense, to your point. Like, their defense did show some flaws, and we should talk about both sides of the ball. But the offense, you know, looked like the offense we saw in the regular season. And this was without Zay Flowers. When Zay Flowers went down, I started getting a little nervous. Like, I mean, look at the guys that Lamar Jackson was throwing to in this football game. I mean, you look at it.

He's go, Isaiah likely, Mark Andrews, Nelson Aguilar, Rashad Bateman, Tylan Wallace, Justin Hill, Justice Hill, and Anthony Miller, who I did not know was still in the league. I mean, these were the past catchers, and it did not seem hard. it was because the running game, they run 50 times for 299 yards. The Steelers come out in this game and say, we're going to make Lamar hold onto the ball, and then we're going to try to punish him. And he's keeping it, and he's keeping it, and he's keeping it.

And he did get up a little slowly at one point. He got the shot in the back with by Peyton Wilson, so that's something to keep an eye on this week. But it just didn't matter. Derek Henry still had 186 yards rushing. Lamar Jackson had 81 yards rushing. and you look at their first six possessions of this game, they score four touchdowns on the first six possessions. They have a 95-yard drive, an 85-yard drive, a 90-yard drive, a 70-yard drive.

It was what we've talked about all season, where, yes, it's the run game, yes, it can be Lamar in the run game. It can be Henry in the run game. And then they just have a drive where Lamar is creating, or it's third and 13 in the red zone, 15-yard touchdown to Rashad Bateman, no big deal. Easy to get that as well. So they just, Deonte, continue to have so many ways offensively where it doesn't feel like there's that answer unless they're turning the football over or doing something dumb or dropping a pass where they're not going to be able to move the ball and score a lot of points. For the entirety of Lamar Jackson's tenure starter, they've really only had two gears. Lamar killing you as a play action passer and Lamar killing you as a runner. They've been kind of desperate to find, I think, a change up for this offense that allows them to control the pace of the game,

to tempo with the game and gives them a little bit more optionality that's not just leaning on their quarterback, no matter how dominant he can be at his best. And that's what we got to see tonight was Derek Henry be on the field. They're in 22 personnel with the sixth offensive line. So they're basically playing goal line offense from like the minus 25 minus 30. You know they're going to run power behind Patrick Ricard. And there's just nothing that Pittsburgh can do. And to me, I think I was most struck by that because if there's any team that is built to invite an offense to want to play that way and just chin up in the phone booth. It's Pittsburgh, and they had no answers. And then when they did go spread, and I think that this was very

instructive for a team that's seen them three times that has a lot of intimate knowledge about the way that Baltimore likes to attack with Amar as a runner, they've tried three different ways now. They've tried blitzing in the first game, which is really effective. Then they tried playing a little bit more conservatively, asking Derek Henry to have to work in between the tackles, and that didn't work. And then in this game, they went back to being aggressive and challenging Lamar Jackson to hold the ball, to keep the ball, to be out on the edge, and deal was potentially exposing himself to contact in order to get yardage. And you just saw Lamar Jackson just pick this defense apart as a runner when he wanted to.

And I think that when you see that happening in the running game, and now you've only got to pass the ball 20 to 25 times. And you can basically be like a glorified kind of Cam Newton offense where you're going to run the ball 45 times, pass at 25. And as long as you convert the important third downs, you're going to be like a glorified kind of cam Newton offense, you're going to have total control of this game. And they were just able to march and control the clock to where you looked up at the two minute, before the two minute warning. And if not for a big play,

it seemed like Baltimore was pretty reserved with or pretty happy with the fact that a two-score lead was going to be enough to win that football game. And that was the way that the flow of the game felt before Pittsburgh made it a little weird in the third quarter. And if they're able to maintain that next week, when they go see Buffalo or if they do get an upset from Denver and now they're facing off against Houston,

they're going to be able to cruise against most defenses, and that's going to put a lot of stress on opponents to score on every possession. And to me, that's the best manifestation of what this offense can be. Yeah, Ruiz, do you feel the exact same way you did about the Ravens on Friday? Was there anything here when you look at maybe some of the hits Lamar was taking or defensively, you mentioned it? It was really only the second half. I mean, first half they put the clamps down.

So, you know, but like you said, Russell Wilson had 270 yards passing 20 for 29 and they were able to put together a couple of drives there. Do you feel exactly the same, a little different? Where are you with this Ravens team as they prepare for Buffalo or Denver in the divisional round? I don't feel too differently. And I think like the defensive issues weren't, I don't think there were necessarily defensive issues. Like, Russ just hit some throws. Like he hit some whole shots against cover two. When you call the defense, there are things that you are willing to give up.

And when you call cover two, if the quarterback makes all. a whole shot, he bakes the whole shot. You tip your hat to him and you, it's like a, like, Seth Curry hitting a step back 40 footer. You're not going to be like, oh, our defense was bad there. It's a good shot.

I think that's what happened. And I think the reason why I'm a little, maybe just a teeny bit more optimistic was just getting to see Derek Henry in January run the football. And then you kind of think like, oh, Derek Henry having him in the playoffs is good, but then you watch it and then you watch how painful

it looks to tackle him when it's 30 degrees. I just looked up his stats like when it's under 50 degrees. He averages 4.4 yards. per carry after contact when it's under 50 degrees in his NFL career. Business decisions. Yeah, there's a lot of business decisions going on there. And then when you throw in Lamar, you have to account for him. I think that's their ace in the hole in this postseason.

And that's what's so different from the other teams that we've seen in Baltimore, who have had a similar statistical profile. They've never had this other superstar in the backfield that you can give the ball to. You had to rely on Lamar to create all your explosive gains, whether it was on the ground in the run game or through the air or out of structure. Now you have this walking 20-yard run. You know if you give him five carries in a quarter, he's going to pop one of them. And I think that's what we saw in this game.

And that was really the game plan. I'm concerned about the hits Lamar took, but I thought, I kind of laid out that possibility on the preview show that Tomlin would keep the ball on his hands and try to just build up the wear and tear on him and make him miss throws. The problem is Lamar didn't miss any throws. I think he missed one throw the whole night. He had another throwaway. And besides that, he really didn't throw it an inaccurate ball.

And he didn't mess up against pressure. He handled it perfectly. I thought he managed the pocket well. That touchdown pass was the best example of his pocket presence and the steps he's taken as a pocket passer this season. Just a overwhelming performance from the guy that I think should be the MVP. Yeah, the touchdown to Bateman. He had a beauty to Isaiah likely.

Third and long was no issue for that for Omar Jackson. In this game, there was a second and 13 where he had a scramble. He had the scramble where he finds Nelson Agilore. He steps up versus pressure, avoids a sack, finds Mark Andrews for 19 yards. Again, listen, like, this isn't just, hey, throw it up to this one, you know, this number one wide receiver. Like, he's spreading the football around, rifled another one to Isaiah likely. And then the ridiculous play to Justice Hill, we don't even talk about. We just take it for granted.

I mean, that's a, he holds the ball for six seconds. It's just this back-breaking play ends up being a touchdown to Justice Hill. So, yeah, if you're a Ravens fan, you have to feel great about how this looked. I mean, even though, again, a couple drives in the second half, but this was 29 first downs to 11 first downs. This was 464 yards to 280 yards. And honestly, if this was a close game, let's say the Steelers scored a couple more touchdowns, I just, that Ravens's offense, again, that Steelers' dividends in the first half of the game looked like we don't really need to keep. we got nothing. Like Deante said,

start third time, we've tried everything. We got nothing here. If Cam Hayward would have retired at half time, like Vonte Davis, I wouldn't have a mind. I would have totally gotten it. I'd be like,

yeah, you should, honestly. You've earned it. Yeah, so there you go. Great night for the Ravens. If you're a Ravens fan, you've got to be feeling good

as we potentially await a monumental showdown next week. Although, who knows? Weird things happen in the playoffs. We'll see what happens in that Broncos Bill's game. All right. I think that'll wrap it up.

Is there anything else? Did you guys need to empty the notebook with anything else? Did you have a little weird take that you needed to fire off? We go long. I didn't even, I was like, I don't know how long we're going to have to be able to talk about these games. We hit on every topic. Went for over an hour. Now we get three more games on Sunday.

Everyone good? I mean, we're doing like 12 more shows in the next three days. You'll have time. You'll have time to get takes off if you forgot anything. All right. Thank you to Stephen Ruiz and Deonté Lee. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing. Thank you to Tucker to Sheejin for setting up the YouTube, the video.

Hopefully people enjoyed watching that or you can watch that on Monday night. Also, we will be doing a live pod after Rams Vikings. On Sunday night, we will be doing our regular recap pod. So you can watch that on Fandual TV on Monday. You can obviously listen to any of these on Spotify, Ringer NFL. So enjoy the games on Sunday. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL.

NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-88-78-889-7777.7. Or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here.

Visit Gamblinghelpline, MA. or call 800, 32750 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-8778-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope NY in New York.