WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Outside Source Football: NFL Divisional Round 2024

Episode Date: January 20, 2024

 Evan Mick, Gabriel Vondrak and Joseph Doherty recap Super Wild Card Weekend and predict the Divisional Round.

Welcome to Outside Source football, your inside look at the NFL. Listen to the latest predictions and happenings from the season with your hosts, Evan Mick and Gabriel Vondra. Here they are now. Hello and welcome to 101.7 FM, Ready Free Hillsdale. This is Outside Source football with Evan Mick, Gabriel Vondrek, and Joseph Dordy. Back on our regular microphones. We sound so much better. This is beautiful, fellas.

This feels better than Christmas morning to me right now. My internet won't cut out every five minutes, so you can actually understand what I'm saying. It'll be great. I was on data on my phone, on Zoom. It was, it was bad. I mean, nobody sounded that good. Nobody did. It's, uh, it's just, it's good to be back.

It's good to be back. Wild card weekend, big playoff weekend, starting out with Brown's Texans. Huge win by the Texans. A great game. Evan, could we just have a moment of silence here? For perhaps the greatest run in NFL history that nobody saw coming and nobody was more excited about it. Except you.

Than we were. I did. He did predicted in week 12. But Joe Flacko's Lincanity run came. to a tragic end in Houston this weekend. But what a run. I say let's not cry because it's over. Let's just be glad because it happened. Okay. Go ahead, Evan. Okay. So pretty great game by Stroud. Rookie in the playoffs, a lot of pressure made, I mean, really no mistakes. A couple of elite throws wasn't like, you know, the greatest quarterback game of all the time, but like he didn't make any

mistakes. He was pretty flawless. He was pretty darn good. Yeah. And the defense as well played amazing. I mean, also a great game by Laramie Tunsell. I've taken on Miles Garrett. I thought that he outplayed Garrett the last time when they played, and I thought that Garrett was going to move to the other side most of this game, but they left him on Tunsel for some reason, even after Tunsel kept winning pass rep after pass rep. And it didn't really make any sense to me, and I think that was a big reason why they weren't able to get enough pressure. This game started awesome. I think through most of the first half, it was a shootout back and forth. Flacco was playing well, you know, taking the deep shots down the field, and so were the Texans they were answering. They were going score for score.

And then the Texans get one stop, go up by 10, and then that's when the, you know, they're going to, you. the pick six has happened. The first one looks like he's trying to throw it away out of bounds, doesn't get there. And then the next one after that on the fourth down. And from that point, the game was over. They couldn't overcome that. The only way that the Browns were going to win this one was a shootout at that point, which is super surprising given how good their defense had been all year. But their defense had no answer for C.J. Stroud in this Texan's offense. So once they got down by, you know, whatever it was, 21 points, 24 points, it was, the game was over from that point on. The Cleveland had no running game to begin.

They were going to throw the ball, and then once the Texans knew they were going to be throwing the ball every down, it was really over. Shout out the Texans. What a win. They're a scary team right now in the AFC and a young team. So I don't know. We could be talking about the Texans for a long, long time.

They keep all these guys together. That second pick, I was not Joe Flacco's fault, though. If you watched it back, the tight end, Harrison Bryant was in position. Fourth and two, stay at the sticks, you know, use your body, keep the defender out. He's at fourth and two. He's at the sticks. Flacco throws it and then he starts backing away from it right before he throws it and the

linebacker just steps in and takes that one off. Well, that's good to know because any time that an interception is not Joe Flacco's fault, I am all over that. I thought you wanted to. I thought you'd want to know that. Of course. Yes. No.

So really he didn't throw either interception because the first one he was trying to make. He was trying to make a good decision. Yeah. So he actually threw. He should have taken the sack on that one. Three hundred yards on a touchdown. No interceptions. No.

It was a great day. Okay. Honestly, though, without joking, if he wants to play next year, I feel like somebody. I feel like somebody should give him a chance. At least bring him in to the quarterback room. If he wants to keep playing, I would be willing. If I was a quarterback needy team that was desperate, I would give him a shot. He obviously shown that he's still very serious about it.

He's in shape. The arm is still there. So we obviously have a lot of offseason left before the start of the season. But I could see like the Falcons picking them up maybe. Just because they're going to get a later quarterback in the draft, maybe just as like a fail safe. How about Bill Belichick to the Falcons and you pair Joe? flacco with all those young guys. Goat with goat combinations.

It's the retirement home falcons. That'd be awesome. Okay. Anyway, what were you going to say about the game? Sorry. So I didn't know this, but the Browns defense all season has been horrible away. Yeah, they were the worst team on the road. I saw a graphic during the game and that really came home to Roos this time.

But I think that the real, the real bad part about the first pick six is that the Browns were down 10. It was the opening drive of the third, I think. It's very early in the third. in the third. They put together a great drive. It was like five minutes and then a pick six. They were moving the ball. They were moving the ball nice. It was a good drive. There wasn't any flashy plays, but they got a couple first downs here and there. And then just to throw a pick sex, it was just like all the wind got knocked out of the Browns and then it was over. And that stadium was rocking. I mean, those Texans fans, once they got into it, you could see the life on the Texans,

the defensive side. And like, yeah, from that moment, it was going to take a miracle to get back in that game because they had so much momentum, so much energy on their side. I loved one in the Cameroid Panta Deshawn Watson. Of course, the Texans, after having the greatest trade in the history of the NFL for the Texans, beat the Browns who they traded away, Deshaun Watson, too. That was pretty poetic. That trade looks really bad now. Even worse than it was before.

Honestly, if you're not even playing. If you are Deshawn Watson, you don't mind that it ended that way, this Flacco run, because now there's not, I don't think there's going to be any controversy about, like, next year. Like, Deshawn Watson will be the starter next year once he's healthy. So for him, it was kind of, I mean, honestly, a best case scenario for Deshawn Watson. Yeah, the guy who had a rough one for the Brown's defense was safety. Ronnie Hickman, number 33. He shouldn't have been starting this game.

He was because of a couple injuries. Ohio State guy hadn't played that much all year and then kind of thrown into the fire the last couple weeks. And it's just a rough position to be in against one of the best deep passers in the league. The play that stood out to me, though, individual play for some reason was the missed DPI versus David Njoku on like a third and eight or something. They ended up using a timeout afterwards because they couldn't get a play in in time because they were just so frustrated that the DPI wasn't called. And that was the play that to me, obviously the two pick sixes were more impactful.

But that was the play to me earlier before the pick sixes that it was like things are kind of going in Houston's favor now. Moving on though to Dolphins Chiefs. What an awful game by the Dolphins. Awful game by the dolphins. They couldn't rush the pastor, which we knew last week because you know you lost both your edge rushers. They had they went out and signed. They signed anybody they could this week. They brought in Justin Houston.

They brought in Bruce Irvin. They brought in Melvin Ingram, I believe. I mean, they were, I'm surprised they didn't give Bruce Smith a call. They were trying, they were trying to anything. Unfortunately, it showed in the game. Their defense, especially their, yeah, defensive line could not get any pressure at all and could not stop the run. Joe, you were right about this one last week when you said the elements and the environment was just going to play so much into the Chief's favor that Miami couldn't do anything. I didn't think it was going to be this.

I mean, I honestly thought, I maybe was looking. too much at the Dolphins kind of, you know, season averages. Because on paper, they were very good run team. But it wasn't the style of running the football that they needed in this game. They were not a power run team. You know, it was still like everything they do, a lot of misdirection and sort of getting guys in space. And, and they, yeah, it's like they didn't even try to run the football hardly in this game. They just kept throwing screens for nothing. And that's, they were just content to do that the whole game. Really disappointing that they didn't have more of a plan. But But I understand not being able to play in those conditions.

I mean, it was nasty. It was brutal out there. The Dolphins lost this game when they lost to the bills in the last week of the season. Yeah. I mean, it is just nearly impossible to be a Miami team and go into Arrowhead and have to play against the Chiefs, let alone when it's negative 20 wind chill out and your offense is so flashy. And you're right. When they run the ball, it's not power.

It is very flashy stuff. Pitch outside to A-chan, let him run 20 yards because he's so close. explosive and the cold just froze them out. No, I mean, yeah, they are not like, yeah, get a hat on a hat. We're just going to out physically you kind of run team. That's not a part of their scheme at all. I don't think they could do it because they don't have the personnel to go, you know, three tight ends or extra offensive linemen and run the football because it's not something

that they had done all year. Yeah. Yeah. And Tua couldn't pass in the weather. I mean, he's not a strong arm quarterback. So he's way more affected by the wind and the cold than Mahomes was. Mahomes can still, you know, throw it on line to it depends so much on that touch. Well, and he's, he's been doing it for how long now.

He's been in Kansas City. He knows what it's like to play in those games. He, yeah, he's much, was obviously much more comfortable than, than Tua was. Dolphins' offensive line was also never that good. I mean, that's why their run game was just more of the flashy style. We're going to get a guy on a guy and then outrun you to the sideline. But, yeah, so. Also, got to give Ligeria Sneed some credit.

He's kind of annoying because I don't like the Chiefs, but he had a great game against Tyreekill, really neutralized him. I think the play where he jams him at the line. his scrimmage, gets him sort of off balance, and then just drives him into the ground. It was pretty much a good kind of sum it up play. Exactly. It was kind of a fitting analogy for this whole game. The chiefs just beat him up and were more physical and look like the better team. Yeah, moving on to Packers Cowboys.

Big win, first seven seed over two seed win in the NFL's short history of having a seven seed by the Packers exposing the Cowboys, actually like dominating. Oh my gosh. I have a lot to say about this one because the Cowboys, had to play the Packers because why? Why did they have to play the Packers? Because they got bailed out by the refs versus the Lions on that stupid call on that two-point conversion, which gave him the two-seed and made it impossible for the Lions to get the two-seed. And now it doesn't matter because the Lions have a home playoff game and the Cowboys are one and done. I love that. That's so

fitting to me. But my biggest takeaway from this game is, I don't know, like I don't want to take away from Jordan Love because the last half of the season, he has been a top three quarterback, if not like the best quarterback. But schematically and like coaching wise, every throw Jordan Love makes is to a wide open receiver. Oh yeah. I don't know if, I don't know if they just have like the best scouting like in the world. Is Matt LaFleville the best coach in the NFL? Seriously. Like I kid you not like, Romeo Dobbs. Like there was a pass in the middle of the field. I will say, where I was like, there's, there's no one 20 yards. There's in there are also a number of plays where Love does it on his own. He helps that happen by hanging in the pocket as long as he can. He does that thing.

where he just like drifts back, drifts back a little further. So he's really good at buying himself extra time. And obviously when you have more time, guys are going to get more open. But there were also, like you said, plenty of plays where he's just,

he's throwing it on time, hits his back foot to a guy that is insanely wide open. The one to the tight end. Yeah, for the touchdown. Luke Musgrave. I mean, you go wide camera and there's nobody within 20 yards of him. It was just a beautiful play design.

Yeah, Jordan Love wasn't making like high elite level throws. He was making semi-difficult throws. Every play and he was doing it at an insanely consistent level. The one touchdown threw up the scene was pretty great. That guy was like right in his hip and Love put it in the perfect spot. Yeah.

Yeah. I think it was like the third touchdown. Yeah. That was a really good play. Yeah, but yeah. But don't take anything away from Jordan Love. I know that what we were saying. Yeah. It's not,

that's not hurt on Jordan's fault that his receivers are wide open. Yeah. If they just were. I wasn't trying to like make an excuse because I'm secretly scared that the Packers are going to have their third Hall Fame quarterback in a row and I'm going to cry and I want to die. The Lions have had 20 quarterbacks since Brett Favre and the Packers have had three. But, you know, it's all right.

So I don't know if you guys saw this stat, but you're looking at the Stroud love comparison from their first playoff game. Three touchdowns, no interceptions, the exact same pass rating, the exact same completions, both 16 for 21. The only difference was like six yards. It was, yeah, just a couple yards off. They were almost identical statistically. Yeah.

It was weird. It was weird. It was like watching J-Javu and the Cowboys and the Browns both through. pick sixes. So, yeah. Game for really, really similar. And for the Cowboys, they felt, I felt like they were in this game when they were down 20 to zero.

You know, they had some unfortunate, deck through a pick. The Packers were like in the red zone, right? They were like on the 20 going in. They score quick. It's 14 nothing. But it's 20 to zero. The Cowboys are driving right before half. They get the ball to start the second half.

And I'm like, oh, the Cowboys are going to, they'll be fine. And then Dak throws that horrible pick six. Yeah, that was a bad pick. Very bad. And then all of a sudden, it's 27 to zero. I'm like, yeah, I don't see a world in which the Cowboys come back from us. So even after the 27 to 0, the Cowboys go down and get that score. And I'm like, okay, like this could be interesting.

Their defense never got to stop. No. None of it mattered because the Cowboys' defense could not get off the field. They couldn't stop Aaron Jones. They couldn't stop anything. They had no answer for this Packers' offense. So anything the Cowboys' offense did, it didn't matter. Yeah.

The Cowboys' defense is the best defense in the league in the league when they have a lead. Yeah. But other than that, they are not a good defense. They thrive and pass. rush, but they cannot stop a run to save their lives, especially against how the Packers run the ball. And they can't stop play action. You don't talk about power. Yeah, they can't stop play action. So any of those, they were talking about it on the broadcast. Was it Greg Olson? Yeah, he was talking about how there's like, what is it, the even chance plays or something like that,

where it's like 50% run, 50% pass and the Cowboys defense just can't handle that. Down and distance kind of plays. Yeah. You're staying ahead of the, you're staying ahead of the chains. It's not, you know, it's first and 10. It's not, it's not an obvious passing situation. It's a first and 10. You run it for five. It's second and five. I mean, you can do anything. You can do anything. You don't have to throw it or anything. And yeah. No, I think we saw this against Buffalo. This is the same way the bills beat them.

But, you know, the bills ran the ball even more. I mean, the bills didn't even have to throw the ball in that game. All they did was, all they did, they got a lead and then could just run the ball. It was very similar to that. Yeah, to your point, this Cowboys defense was not, you know, this team is built to play with a lead to kind of get on you with their offense. And then that defense can, you know, force you into passing situations. And yeah, they have great pass rushers and good defensive backs. But, yeah, again, the Packers flipped the script on them.

They get the lead. They can run the ball. They dictate the game. And the Cowboys didn't have an answer for it. And now I think somebody like the Jerry Jones is not just going to run it back again. I mean, this is I think three seasons in a row now where they have 12 wins and they're out before. And they're one and three. Yeah.

Yeah. They're out before the divisional round. They're out out in the divisional round or before the divisional round. So either I think it's going to be either McCarthy or DAC, but somebody's, somebody's going to get blamed, I think. Yeah. Moving on, though, to Lions versus Rams. The biggest game of the weekend, maybe the biggest game in all of history. Since 1992. The biggest game of our lives. Wow. What a, what a day. Of course, though, the Lions can't just blow out the team that they're playing. You know, they have to only win by one, even though every single other team that won last weekend kind of won by

more than one score. It was a bad wildcard weekend. This was the best game by far. This was the best game by far. That's okay because they won. And Lions fans booed Stafford, which if you listened to the podcast last week, you know that I was supportive of that. And Matthew Stafford seemed pissed off at the press conference, which made me happy too. But yeah, you know, I mean, what else is there to say? The Lions are, the Lions won a playoff game and I'm so excited. Yeah, great game plan by the Lions to go after Michael Hoyt in coverage. The guy who's kind of built like a defensive end, but he plays outside linebacker. Number 97. Yeah, and he drops back in a coverage a lot. They went after him all day with fast receivers and it was like I mean yeah the run game is always good no matter

what you just run the ball up the middle I could call that play but going after him was like the second part of the offense that that kind of unlocked all the first three scores I mean the offense looked unstoppable in that first half yeah yeah Sam Leporta playing was huge obviously he had that touchdown and I was I was so impressed by that I thought there was no way he was I forgot to I forgot to check the injury report before the game so they're announcing like the starting offense as they do on NBC. It said Sam Leporta. I was like, what, let's go. He's playing. What's going on? But Aminara St. Brown, I mean, well, you know, Pooka Nukuwa went off because the lion's pass coverage is horrible. So I don't know if I can say that Aminra deserves to be above him. I mean, I do because I think

Amonra is a top three. I think Amin Ra is a top three wide receiver in the league, let alone the NFC. About those two guys, probably my two favorite receivers to watch after the catch. I don't know if there. Devo Samuel's up there too, but nobody is tougher. than those guys after the catch. I mean, it takes so many guys to bring him down. And Alman Ra uses, I love the way he uses the sideline. He'll, like, run towards the sideline and kind of baited a DB into thinking that he's going to run out of bounds and then just break it down and cut back in and pick up like five or

seven more words. He's so good at that. Oh, yeah. I love that guy. He's going to get paid this off season. He deserves it. And he deserves it. Rough one by the whole lion's secondary.

I mean, the corner, I mean, the safety's played okay, but the corner's really, really rough. Deline didn't get great pressure, but it was okay. Like, it wasn't a bad game with it. I would say the secondary. Yeah. Hutch had two sacks, one of which he just touched Matthew Stafford when he tripped. When he tripped. But I think that that made up for there was a holding call on the last drive for the Rams

that should have been a sack, but it was a hold. So I think, you know, that evens out. But just Ben don't break defense. I mean, that's the difference in this game. Forcing three field goals in the red zone. In the red zone. Pretty deep into the red zone. Yeah, pretty deep into the red zone.

And that shows you even more how bad our secondary is because as soon as you short in the field, it's like, oh, wow, look at this. Our D-Line and our linebackers are actually, like, decent enough to make the tackles. To make the tackles. And our cornerbacks don't have enough room to get torched. They're, like, good coverage, but they just get torched all the time. No, I mean, it's a strategy, though, and it worked. It worked for them.

And I don't. I would almost rather you give, because the two touchdowns the Rams had were just, like, broken plays, long-fifty yards-ish. I think that we should just let teams. Let teams get in the 10-yard-run. Just keep it all in front of you. It's a way a lot of teams play defense now, just. don't give up the big play and then tighten up in the red zone. It's not a bad strategy. And I didn't

like the Rams in the red zone. Yeah, it was, it was very much, we're going to try to get Cooper Cup one-on-one and throw back shoulder fades. And it hadn't worked all year. Didn't work. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Cooper, yeah, they were, it was like we're trying to bring back the Cooper Cup of 2020 or 2021, whatever. I think it was 2021, his best season. But yeah, was not the answer. And that was the reason they had to settle for all those field goals. And then I, I will say I was a little disappointed with the end of this game, just from an entertainment standpoint. Obviously, it was great that the Lions won.

But the Rams forced that stop. They get the field goal, cut it to one point, get the ball back. And I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. There's like, five or six. Matthew Stafford's legacy game. Six or seven minutes left. I was like, all right, here we go. And the Rams start driving.

They're getting down the field, get into field goal range. And then you have the third down where the lion stop them and there's a holding penalty. And I was, I did not. Like, honestly, if I was the head coach, I said the client. I don't know. I don't know how I would have chosen that because they were just maybe on the outside of field goal range, like really long field range. It would have been like a 50 to 55 yarder, I think. Yeah, it would have been a long field goal. They definitely, yeah, maybe a little more. But against Brett Maher, who had been. He's had a rough season. Yeah. I mean, they've had multiple kickers. But it is indoors. You know, there's no elements. Like if it was windy. Either way, I think the Rams, they would have kicked it for sure. They would not have, they would have not have punted it. They would have either kicked it or gone for it. Instead, they take the penalty, knock them back to third and 14. And I was like, oh, here we go, giving them a second chance. And then they get the stop. You get the big stop.

You trust your defense. And then lions get the ball back and knee it out. And that was it. There were really no late game, no late game drama. And all I hear from Rams fans is like, oh, Puka was held on that play. And was he? I mean, yeah, kind of. But let's not forget the fact that in the game before that, the Packers versus the Cowboys,

the defensive, I forget which team it was, but the defensive player flinches, and then the right tackle, step back. And it's an off-sides penalty. Because the offensive lineman react. to the defensive linemen. And it was like explained on TV. I was like, oh, okay. The exact same thing happens right before halftime.

But it was worse. But it was worse because the guy actually was off sides. It was so obvious. It was so obvious. He jumps into the neutral zone. He doesn't just flinch. Yeah. And then the Lions player moves and they called a false.

That was at the end at the end of the first half. That was because it could have been huge. It was fourth and five. Could have given the Lions a first down. I think the Lions score again because the Rams were able to have good half time adjustments that shut out the Lions offense. But I think that they'd score again there. And that would have been huge momentum going in the second half.

But it doesn't matter they won't. They won. A one point win is just as good as a 20 point win. So, out of all games this weekend, some great quarterback performances, and I kind of hate to say this, but Matthew Stafford was the best quarterback this weekend, and it wasn't particularly close. That was one of the best games by a quarterback I think I've ever seen. Even the incompletions, if you go back and watch them, like some of them hit the receivers in the hands.

I mean, obviously, have the one that hit Pooka in the hands at the end where he was being held and obviously, you know, a little bit. You have the one where hit Tyler Higby in the hands and then he got toppled over. but like accuracy, no look, two no look passes, one on a screen pass, pretty easy. But like, as far as games by a quarterback, this is one of the best ones I ever watched. And that's before I even consider that he was playing with a swollen hand for half the game and somebody stepped on his shoulder. And a concussion. Intassant.

Toward the end there. I think he was knocked out. But yeah, I mean, the Lions defense is so bad, secondary at least, that a good quarterback like Stafford is just going to walk all over him. And that's what made me super concerned for this game because if the Rams, no matter what, Matthew Stafford was going to have a good game. Yeah. And if the Rams won, they were going to win and Stafford was going to have a good game. game. And my dreams would be crushed. But Jared Goff, you talk about Jerkoff? Jerkoff, no pressure. And I would have been out of Jersey. And I would have been out of Jersey, yeah. Luckily, it survives. It

it survives this year. But Jared Goff was 22 for 22 when he wasn't pressured. That's, that's ridiculous. And I think that maybe we should draft an O-Line. If we draft anything on offense, I know I'm looking ahead, but we should draft an O-Lineman and just make our offensive line even better. Because Jerich Gough is fine when he's not under pressure. It's when he's under pressure where he does the stupid double-hand toss backwards to whoever that was. Who even was that. It was either right or right. It wasn't Leporta. I think it was Brock right. And I'm like, what are you doing? Like, what do we do? Why would you do that? Yeah. Well, thank you for listening to 101.1.7 FM, Ready for Hillsdale.

Outside Source Football. We'll be back after this short break. Welcome back to Outside Source football. I'm 101.1.7 FM, Ready for Hillsdale. Moving on to Bill Steelers. It was pretty clear that the bills were the better team in this. This is one of the wildcard weekend games. I would say maybe the only one that went pretty much exactly how everybody thought it was going to go. Bill's dominated the game from the start. Had a little bit of a block kick, which led to some Steelers points. And the Steelers put together one nice drive.

I able to come up with a touchdown. Put it within a score. But, I mean, this game was pretty much out of reach for the most part. Yeah. I mean, Bill's at home, better team. Josh Allen looked really good early on. Obviously, I had the 52-yard run for a touchdown. That was quite electric.

But I agree. You know, they jumped out to the big lead, a little bit of a lull in the middle of the game, and then pulled away at the end, just as every. expected. The Steelers' offense just could not get really anything going. You have Mason Rudolph back there and he did his best. Yeah, they had some nice short plays. The bills made them work really hard for him. Jalen Warren had a couple of plays here in the little screens, some nice runs. They had some highlights in the game. It wasn't all bad. Yeah, they were. I mean, they didn't play bad themselves. They lost because they were they were not the better team. They didn't

get demolished. But yeah, I mean, yeah, and not to mention not having T.J. Watt on the other side really, really hamstrung that defense because he I mean he is their best player without a doubt had they had him probably would have been much more interesting could have held the bills to a little bit less but you take him out of the out of the picture and the defense is is just not the same yeah and a little bit of a shout-out last minute thing to the bill's punter who uh pulled his hamstring or at least it looked like he pulled his hamstring yeah on that trying to chase down to check down after the block field goal and then he went out and punting like two minutes later pretty wild good for him so yeah not not surprising though to see a pulled hamstring and whether that cool.

I'm a punter. Who doesn't run? Who's not used to running full speed? Who has my dad blocked on Twitter. That's a story. Sam Martin, he used to be the punter for the lions. And my dad gave him crap on Twitter.

And he blocked him. He blocked him. Yeah. He's a Twitter troll. I didn't know that. No, that's the one good Twitter story. And I have.

But, nope, this is exactly what you'd expect a two-seed to do a seven seed. So Cowboys maybe take notes. But my favorite thing is is the bills just chucking snow when they went. After they won. It's so cool. It's kind of like the fireworks. It's like fireworks. Like Josh Allen runs a 50-yard touchdown. And it's just just the stands are erupting. I think that

that's so cool. Yeah. The biggest, the biggest story in this game was the snow beforehand. Yeah. Right. And during the game. Moving on, though, to Bucks Eagles. The Bucks played a pretty good game, but really the Eagles just collapsed. And I thought that talent was going to be able to get to this game. Obviously, no A.J. Brown either. But, I mean, really fell apart in all all phases. What happened. to the Eagles. I mean, you talk about, they look like the worst team in the NFL the last three weeks and now into the playoffs. I mean, I wouldn't, I mean, I mean, yeah, you're talking, they lost to the Cardinals. They lose to the Giants. They get absolutely blown out by the Bucks. A week after the Bucks put up nine points on the Panthers. This Bucs team is one week removed from a nine to zero win against the Panthers. In a game deciding their

playoff fate. So you can't even say, oh, the Bucks were taking it lightly. Whatever. They need, They needed that game to get in the playoffs. That was essentially a playoff game for the Bucks. And then they come out and hang 32 to 9 to the Eagles who early in the season we talked about, a Super Bowl favorite. This is an insane collapse. This team completely fell apart. I don't know what's going to happen.

After seeing all this, I think we're all in agreement that it was the coordinators were the most important thing last year. Losing Shane Steichen, losing Jonathan Gannon. And this team looked lost. They look absolutely lost after, you know, the 10-1 start. then you get blown out by the Niners and the Cowboys. You lose to the Seahawks. And again, the Giants and the Cardinals down the stretch, this team is, I don't know where they go from here. I don't know what it's like.

I can't imagine what it's like to be in that locker room right now. They got to just be like stunned. Like what the heck happened? Like how did it get this bad so fast? Yeah, I just don't get it because it's not like, you know, you're rolling and then your quarterback goes out with an ACL and he's done for the season. And that just kind of like sidelines your season. They were pretty healthy, except the AJ Brown thing, they were pretty healthy the whole season.

and they just lost, they just lost the will to win. Like, there's no other way to say it. They just didn't care. They just did not look like they cared. They looked like they had a flight to Cancun, leaving Philly on Tuesday morning, and they're just done. I wouldn't go so far as to say they didn't care. It just, you know, through,

it felt like they didn't care. Through those first 11 games, and especially after that, like the last three, they're who they beat, they beat Kansas City, they beat the Bells and they beat Dallas. All of them close games. All of them could have gone the other way. and they had a number of games like that this season. But what we kept saying is, wow, this Eagles team finds ways to win.

We thought they were good because, you know, as close as those games were, they kept finding ways to win. Jalen Hertz was clutch. The kicking game was clutch. And they made winning plays. And that's what you need the playoffs. And that at the end of the year, it flipped. It completely flipped.

And all of a sudden it was they could not make plays to win anymore. And they just kept making plays. They couldn't leave it down to the end of the game. And not only could they not even, I mean, in this game, they couldn't even keep it close. No. The defensive tackling was horrible. And yeah, outside of the defensive line,

yeah, the linebackers and the secondary was just pitiful in this game. You know, the defensive line at least got some pressure on Baker Mayfield and kept this thing close for a long time. Forced him to some field goals. And I think even going into the fourth quarter, this was still a one score game. It was 16 to 9. But the offense, without AJ Brown, couldn't get anything going.

They blitzed, hurts a ton. He didn't have any answers for it. He was under duress, the whole game looked out of sorts. It was ugly. It was really ugly. Yeah. No one. I mean, we talk about the play calling, and it's like, I talked about it a little bit of the specific defensive play calling last week, but the offense, there's a play, and it's a really funny play. The buck's blitzed, because, you know, they were pretty much blitzing all game. They sent six, and Eagles had six blocking. First of all, they didn't block all six. They only blocked five, guy off the edge. But like, that happens in a football game. And so Jalen Hurts has to throw off his back foot. And he throws it kind of towards two receivers who are standing right next to each other with two defenders on them. Yep. And even the, like, the announcer, I don't remember who it was calling this game. I think it was Troy and. It was Troy.

That brought that up. Akeman was like, I don't know why they were both there. Like, that's, I don't know what this play call is. It doesn't make any sense. And it's like some of the offensive calling, it's not only that they're predictable, because you know that they're running it on third and four. If there's less than four guys. But it's all a numbers game.

It's also, the passing game is bad. They had, I heard that they had three crossing routes the entire game, which is just, like, why? Like, isn't that one of the most important routes in the game, especially against, like, zone coverage or man blitz? Crossing routes, no crossing routes. So that's so I guess. Yeah, I haven't, you know, I haven't, you know, I haven't,

watch their offense close enough to see exactly what guys are talking about. But there are a number of people that have compared this Eagles offense to a high school offense with how, like, simple and how it's how easy it'd be, how easy it had it, it has become for other teams to stop. So, I mean, like, we said, do you put that on the coordinator, the new coordinators, the head coach, uh, Siriani? No one unsafe. Jalen hurts. I just, I don't know, but I just, this team seemed way too talented to finish as bad as they did. I thought it was a fitting end for them too when the Bucks jumped off sides on the extra point. Yes, totally. I was about to bring that up. And they went for two points with the tush push and they didn't get it. I felt like that was a fitting end. That was a very,

that was kind of a statement. Yeah. After that play, I was like, yeah, they're not going to win this. It's over. Yeah. They're not going to win this. You know, because at that point, it's 16. I don't know why they went for two in the first place. It's 16. Well, it's 16. 9. They kicked the extra point they get it. It's 1610. There was an offsides penalty. So they're like, okay, well, we're on the one. We have the most broken play in football. Why don't we just run it and get two points? And then the buck stop them. And then all the momentum that they had from that touchdown is gone. It was an attitude thing. Yeah. It was like, it was a want to thing. Yeah. Like y'all said, it's fitting. It almost feels like this Eagles run is already over. This team that was so good last year and they were 10 and one this year.

You felt like the Eagles are set up for sustained success. This is going to be a good team in the NFC for a long time. They have a young quarterback. They've got a lot of young players. And all of a sudden now it feels like it's already falling apart. Yeah, the dynasty is over. And yeah, they might be blowing this thing up this offseason. Siriani may be gone. I don't know. I think that's a good segue into if Siriani is gone, how good is this team with Mike Frable? How good is this team with Bill Belichick? A lot of teams are good with Mike Vrable. That was a very interesting move by a head scratching move by the Titans. Yeah, I don't really know what they were. I mean, they have one of the worst rosters in the

league. You're starting a backup second round rookie quarterback who people thought is the project. Like he was the long-term guy, not year one. Great starter. And he's still, like, one of the worst rosters in the league, and they still found a way to win some games. They're competitive, exactly. And the whole time, are we getting into this? Are we talking coaches here a little bit?

Okay. The whole time Vrable has been there, he's overachee. They never had an insane roster. Ryan Tannahill, they traded a fourth round pick for. You don't trade a fourth round pick for a guy and then expect him to be your starter long term. That's like a one-season kind of plug-in fix. You know you're not going to be very good.

And then you go out draft quarterback. He turned Ryan, you know, Ryan, you know, Tana Hill was a pro bowler. They made it to an AFC championship game. They were number one seed in the AFC. So I mean, I think Vrable is an excellent coach. I think he's proved that. I know that their past two years have not been good. But I didn't realize it, but apparently the relationship between Vrable and Titans, either management or ownership has been bad for at least a year. And people inside the NFL kind of saw this coming. That it was just, I don't know if it's egos, whatever, but like, Vrable does not have like the people skills or the soft skills to like schmooze up to the ownership.

or the management. Like, he's going to do it his way. He was straight to the point. And I feel like he has earned the right to do that. He's shown that he was successful. He's a good head coach. I think you should do that. So if he just finds the right owner, the right manager, the right, the right people to work with that are going to let him do his thing and do it the way that he wants to do, I think he'll be just fine. But I think, Ravel is an excellent coach. And, you know, good luck to the Titans. I don't know who you're going to find out there available that's better. That's a better head coach than Mike Brable. That is exactly what I was going to bring up. You know, you want to fire a coach and then have a good backup like there you know what I'm saying like you want to you want to like see the vision but like who are they going to hire that's better like you have to hire bill bellichick it's the same way with

quarterbacks teams always talk about getting rid of your quarterback like the cowboys right now we're going to get rid of deck prescott okay okay yeah they lost who are you who is available that is better than deck prescott especially your draft position exactly it's coaches and head or quarterbacks and head coaches are very similar in that regard where if you have a good one you are probably better off hanging on to them because they're at a premium there are only so many guys that are actually great at it. And I'll tell you, it's not 32. There are not 32 great quarterbacks. There are not 32 great head coaches out there. There's only a few. And so if you have a good one, I would hang on to it because you look at teams across the NFL. I mean, look at the Lions last 30 years,

how hard it is to find a head coach or a quarterback. Look at the Raiders. Unless you're the Packers. Unless you're the Packers and it comes so easy to you. I hate them so much. The Packers are Matt Damon and Goodwill Hunting when it comes to drafting quarterbacks. It is so easy for them. So good. It's okay, though. They only are. I only. have three Super Bowls to show for it? Two, two, two. Only two. Three Hall of Fame, well, two all of them quarterbacks, one feature all-a-one. We're already, we're already Carding. He's all-a-favor. History repeats itself. Yeah, though. The four names that pop up to me in head coaching jobs, it's Ben Johnson, who he wants like a lot of money, which makes sense because,

you know, head coaches, some of them just don't. Please, Ben. Just don't do well. Please stay. So I think that he, you know, kind of wants to stay in that if they're not going to offer him a whole bunch of money. And so there's a chance that he doesn't go anywhere, but he'll definitely get some interviews. He's up there. Harbaugh, who is back in talks with Michigan, actually, I just learned today. So there's still a chance that although he's had some NFL coaching interviews, he stays at Michigan. Yeah, everybody's talking about the Chargers as the frontrunner for Harbaugh. But I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he leaves Michigan either. I'm with you there. I think I would too after you lose so many. Because they're losing. A lot of players, and he's just one and Addy.

Yeah. That's a good ending. It is a good time to walk away. But I mean, he does have a pretty good gig at Michigan, and since he won a national championship, he will never be fired. Yeah. Like, it would take probably three really bad seasons. Like losing to Rutgers, Nebraska type seasons. So, yeah. Like Michigan State type seasons.

It kind of just depends on what he wants. If he wants job security, he should never leave Michigan. But if he wants to go to the NFL, then he should, now this is the, if he wants to go the NFL, this is when he should go to the NFL. Yeah. 100%. The third name that pops up, obviously Mike Frable in the fourth one, Bill Belichick, NFL coaches already had great success.

success. Like McCarthy. Mike McCarthy? He's getting fired. He's not officially out. I don't know if he's a great head coach, though. Same thing with Nick Sierraani. Great regular season. He's all right.

He's all right. But like, so the names that those are the four names. The most, the prettiest coaching jobs right now is possibly the Cowboys because of how their seasons ended. If that becomes open. Something's happening. Possibly. I think this one's even wilder.

I don't think Sierra Annie is going anywhere. You don't think so. Not this off season. I will say this. I think there's a chance he's fired midseason next year. He's got two years on his contract. They might give him another. Is it Jeff Lurie is the owner?

I don't remember his name. I believe it's Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman is the GM there. They've done this before. Doug Peterson won a Super Bowl. Doug Peterson won a Super Bowl. Had two bad seasons. One or two bad season after that. He's gone.

So, Siriani, okay, you got to a Super Bowl and lost. You made the playoffs this year. You finished the season horrible. Two and six. It wouldn't be unlike the Eagles to pull the plug on something quick. So you think it's more possible? I definitely think it's possible right now. Yeah, that it happens this offseason.

I don't think it will. I think he will be back. But, I mean, you never know. NFL owners are, they're an unpredictable breed of people. And the fans... They usually don't have patience and stuff like this looks bad. Like, a collapse like this looks really bad. The fans of the Eagles are definitely calling for somebody to get out.

They're mad. And it's, it's the dog or the, the, the cowboys are in a similar spot because it's, well, the Cowboys, I think is even worse because it's been the same thing three years in a row. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah. So the other job that comes up, like really beautiful job is the Chargers.

You already have a franchise quarterback, top 10 quarterback, and you have some other pieces in there, a lot of aging guys, but that's. They got some salary cap issues. Anything with a starting franchise quarterback is a nice job. Having a quarterback is a little bit. Yeah, some of those guys are going to have to like Echler walk or Keenan Allen. I think Echler was going to walk. I think after the season.

After the season, I agree. But I'm just saying interesting stuff. And that's the Seahawks. That's the Seahawks job. That was the other one. I couldn't think of. That's an okay job. I mean, Gino's been pretty decent the last two years.

You have, that would be a good place to bring in Ben Johnson because then you have Pete Carroll still there. You don't have any, like, any, like, he still has a veteran coach presence in the building. I don't know exactly what they're going to do with him. At the same time, you don't want a guy, like, breathing over your shoulder. You know, you don't want to feel like. Yeah, I guess that's a fair point. I could see a coach seeing that as a negative.

Like, I don't want the guy who used to have this job, like, to still be around and feel like he has any kind of influence. Like, this is my, this is my thing. I want to be able to do it my way. Yeah, that's true. I think that Ben Johnson would thrive in L.A. with the Chargers. And that's what I think, with, with Herbert. Or, oh, my gosh. Or imagine the Eagles with some crazy creative play calls. We saw that last year. We saw that last year. Exactly. We saw how good that offense was with a good play caller. Yeah. Moving on, though, to predicting the divisional. Wow. Not a word about the Raiders. Not going to talk about the Raiders. Not going to talk about the Raiders.

Oh, whatever. Antonio Pierce. Fine. Last week, last week was so nice. We didn't even mention the Raiders once, and it was, it was half the time. They were, those were, last week was probably our lowest rated show in program history. It's the shortest show for sure. It was, it was, it was, no, actually, all I want to say is it looks pretty good that both Champ Kelly and Antonio Pierce will be retained. And you're happy about that, right?

And I am happy about that. That's what I want them to do. I feel like culture-wise, they both work with the current roster. The players have been absolutely outspoken about both of them. So let's hope Mark Davis doesn't mess that up. They have interviewed other people, but I think that's just kind of a formality for both of those positions. So that's all I got. Yeah, moving on to predicting the divisional round, Texans at Ravens.

Texans, great run, great rookie quarterback. But I think the Ravens are just the better team in this aspect. And the problem is I said this about the Cowboys last week. And that didn't go so well for me. The other problem is is that all four of these teams that I picked to win last week, all won. Like the four teams that I picked to win in the second round of the playoffs last week, all won the first round of the playoffs. Well, two of them were one seeds.

So I'm picking, yeah, two of them were one seeds. I only got two games right, but they were the two teams that I pick to continue to keep going. So I'm picking all the same games, just a spoiler alert. But I'm going with the Ravens in this one. I think that they're the more complete team. I think that we'll see the Texans come out to a quick start. The Raven start has been resting for two weeks. You know, they've got to knock the rest off a little bit.

I mean, there's an argument to be made either way. It's, are they too well rested and they forgot how to play? Or are they so well rested that they're just going to have way more energy than the Texans and just and just be able to dominate. But I feel like the Texans might go up to an early lead and then the Ravens will win. I'll take the Ravens. Before I make my pick, I feel like I need to explain my bracket a little bit. Oh, yeah.

From last week, obviously, I wasn't on the show to defend myself. Let's just say I filled it out a little bit in haste. I was out on the town in San Luis, Obispo, California. I did have to message him five times. Having a wonderful time. I think I used my girlfriend's phone to fill them out. And let's say just say maybe, maybe I made the picks that I wanted to see happen. Not necessarily what I thought was going to happen.

So unfortunately, my Super Bowl pick is already out the Browns and Joe Flacco. It came to an end. But, you know, I'll stand by it. But anyway, just wanted to get that out there. With that being said, I will take the Ravens as well. I really like them this season. I like Lamar Jackson. I am worried because we have not seen the playoff success from Lamar Jackson.

I don't know that he's ever won the playoff game. He is not. So that's tough. And like we just saw from this Texans team, they are young, they're exciting, they play like they got nothing to lose. They're confident in the playoffs. And they're smart. There's no change in the playoffs.

They have some really good coaches. D'emico Ryan's is doing an incredible job. Their offensive coordinator's name is escaping me at the moment, but he's already getting head coaching, a little bit of head coaching buzz for how well this Texans offense has been in his first season. So they are a scary team, but I am going to take the Ravens. Yeah, I'm happy for CJ Stroud, but we were, we were robbed of Flacco's return to Baltimore. I think the Browns were so close.

We were so close. We were so close. God, it hurts me. It hurts me. Up next we got Chiefs at Bills rematch for the ages. Chiefs always seem to win this one. But this time, they're in Buffalo. And these are two very different Chiefs and Bills team. Like the last couple times they've played, they've been kind of the same team. Explosive Kansas City offense and the Bills are a passing team with no run game. I feel like these are two very different teams than we've seen those last couple of matches.

And so I got the Bills winning at home. I would like the Bills to win. So I'm going to take the Bills. but this is a big toss-up for me. This is the first time Patrick Mahomes has gone on the road in the postseason if you exclude Super Bowls, which is wild. And Buffalo is going to be rocking. So I'm going to take the bills in this one. I'm taking the bills too.

Just because I want them to win so bad, I just do not want to see the Chiefs. And like, don't even get to the FC Championship. Just keep them out. Ruin the streak. I think that the home field advantage, I think, is going to play a huge role. I think, yeah, not being an arrowhead for the first time. I mean, it's going to be cold.

both of these teams are used to playing in the cold weather. I don't think that's going to be a huge factor. They're both comfortable in these conditions, but the fact that Buffalo is at home. And I do honestly feel like they're the better team right now. They have played better. They're on a nice streak. Give me the bills.

Packers at 49ers, I don't really think this one will be interesting. I know that the Packers played so great against the Cowboys. But I think the 49ers are that much better of a team. Do not bet against the Packers right now. Packers are the Texans of the NFC. I'm taking the 49ers. I think that the Cowboys thought that they were going to walk all over the Packers.

I don't think that the 49ers are going to think the same. I think that they're going to take them seriously. I mean, the same way the Packers own the Cowboys in the postseason, the 49ers kind of own the Packers. We'll see if Jordan Love can finally flip that script and break that curse. But yeah, I got to go with the 49ers. Up next we got Bucks at Lions. Lions.

Said it last week. Lions. One pride. Lions. Lions. I said it last week that I think that the Bucks Eagles playoff game. I said that it was the worst two teams. in the playoffs and I stand by that outside of the Steelers without T.J. Watt.

Now, if they had T.J. Watt, I think that I would take them over the Bucks or the Eagles. But with all that being said, I still think that the Bucks are probably the worst playoff team remaining now, and I got the Lions at home. The only thing that concerns me with this game is that the is that the Lions already beat the Bucs. It's hard to beat a team twice. It's true. Two very different teams. It was a long time ago, though. And the Lions didn't have Jemir Gibbs or David Montgomery in that game, which is big. And the Bucs offense, just not great at running the ball, but really good at passing the ball matches up really good against our defense.

Just like the Rams? Well, the Rams ran the ball, okay, but they were better passing. Yeah, correct. So that gives me a little bit of a concern, but no, I have to take the Lions. The Lions might make the NFC championship. Yeah, I mean, in the words of Dan Campbell, Jared Goff, you're good enough for Detroit. Yes. And Detroit's good enough for me in this one.

I think they're a much better team, much more complete team than the Buccaneers. I think if the Lions go up and score, we'll go up 20. 21 points on the first three drives. They scored three touchdowns. I think it's over. I don't think that they would let Baker do the same thing that Stafford did. But then again, our defense sucks. So I don't know.

Yeah, well, thank you for listening to Outside Source Football on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.1.7 FM. Have a great day. Have a great, enjoy divisional round of the playoffs. It's going to be a fun weekend. There's some good games on. I'm excited. A little side note, the Lions game, the tickets, the cheapest ones,

$520. The next closest is the Packers-Niners at $200. Pretty wild. Too bad, I can't go. Time to find out who the real fans are. I am poor. I am poor. I will watch it from my couch.

Take care.