Speaker 1: Shot. Bateman comes in motion to the right. Lamar takes
Speaker 1: the snap. Blit's pressure coming. He pumps once pocket collapsing.
Speaker 1: He backed up the whole waterway, steps up Pros complete.
Speaker 1: Hill hasn't touchdown Ravens Lamar Jackson extended the play. Justice
Speaker 1: Hill got open and the Ravens are on the cusp
Speaker 1: but blowing the Steelers out.
Speaker 2: That was Lamar Jackson two Justice Hill for a absolutely
Speaker 2: ridiculous touchdown at the end of the first half.
Speaker 3: This is NFL Daily and.
Speaker 2: Yes we're going live on YouTube and everyone listening the
Speaker 2: next day. That was the end of an absolutely perfect
Speaker 2: first half by the Ravens. Went into halftime twenty one
Speaker 2: to nothing, did not look back for the rest of
Speaker 2: the night. Twenty eight to fourteen is the final, although
Speaker 2: they ended with the ball ended up one yard short
Speaker 2: of three hundred yards rushing on the day. Yes, I'm
Speaker 2: Greg Rosenthal. I'm in my somewhat smoky garage. I don't
Speaker 2: know if this show is a health hazard tonight, but
Speaker 2: it's still a perfect night to talk football and I
Speaker 2: have the perfect person to do it with Bill Barnwell
Speaker 2: from ESPN. What is happening? And thank you for spending
Speaker 2: your late Saturday night with me.
Speaker 4: Bill. It's a pleasure Greg to be sitting here. I
Speaker 4: love anytime there's a call where you have, like you know,
Speaker 4: a announcer saying throw it away and the play give up,
Speaker 4: don't do it, and then the person who is incredibly
Speaker 4: talented does it and it succeeds. So perfect setup for
Speaker 4: the show right here.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you for covering me there.
Speaker 2: That was our friend Jerry Sandusky Rod Woodson on the
Speaker 2: call for WB A L. And I'm glad we're not
Speaker 2: listening to them on the season. I think we had
Speaker 2: to show a first half highlight. Like often we play
Speaker 2: the play that kind of ends the game. There wasn't
Speaker 2: necessarily that play you had the.
Speaker 4: Day might if the game, to be honest, right you, But.
Speaker 2: The story was the first half. And it's not like
Speaker 2: textay to talk about. But the first half there were
Speaker 2: two drives. The first drive of the game where they
Speaker 2: ran the ball nine out of thirteen times and then
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson throws an absolutely awesome touchdown through a little
Speaker 2: hole to hit Rashad Bateman on a third and long
Speaker 2: for the touchdown. And then the other touchdown drive where
Speaker 2: they go thirteen straight runs, the longest drive any team
Speaker 2: had all season without passing the ball for eighty five
Speaker 2: yards and like that, that kind of felt like the story.
Speaker 3: The story was the.
Speaker 2: Beginning of the game and then the rest of it
Speaker 2: was just aftermath.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Certainly for a team that did not have the
Speaker 4: player who we most of us I think believe is
Speaker 4: they're only above average wide receiver Inza Flowers, it didn't
Speaker 4: feel like the Ravens missed even the tiniest of beats
Speaker 4: on offense. And what struck me about this game, Greg,
Speaker 4: is we do hear people talk about this idea of
Speaker 4: the divisional game right that you're playing a team you've
Speaker 4: played multiple times. This was the third matchup between the
Speaker 4: Ravens and the Steelers this season, and it felt like
Speaker 4: every time the Ravens ran his own read ran power
Speaker 4: read ran, you know pinpoll with the readop with the
Speaker 4: ability for Lamar Jackson, it felt like they never had
Speaker 4: answers for it. I feel like the Steelers were making
Speaker 4: mental mistakes. They feel like they were sloppy, especially on
Speaker 4: that long Henry touchdown run in the second half. There
Speaker 4: was a huge hole where multiple players ran with Lamar
Speaker 4: Jackson early in the game, you have MIKEA. Fitzpatrick coming
Speaker 4: down from free safety to try and tackle Lamar Jackson
Speaker 4: as a scrape on the scrape exchange just the defender
Speaker 4: on the edge to try and stop a third and
Speaker 4: short like it felt like in a situation where the
Speaker 4: Ravens are a very familiar team against the Steelers. The
Speaker 4: Steelers was still trying to find answers two quarters into
Speaker 4: this game, after having played them twice already this season.
Speaker 2: Just because there's no good answer right like the first half,
Speaker 2: the answer the answer was kind of let Lamar run,
Speaker 2: and he was running quickly. He had ten rushes with
Speaker 2: about ten minutes left in the second quarter. He ended
Speaker 2: up with fifteen rushes for eighty one yards. I don't
Speaker 2: know if he tired himself out or they just realized
Speaker 2: that that's not the best way to go, but that
Speaker 2: he really didn't run the ball much again until the
Speaker 2: very end of the game when they were trying to
Speaker 2: kill the clock and he needed to.
Speaker 3: He looked a little.
Speaker 2: Banged up with a couple of times. But you mentioned
Speaker 2: that long Henry run. That's one where the dots are beautiful.
Speaker 2: I know you love the dots, Bill dots. Yeah, A
Speaker 2: simple man. The dots. The dots all go with Lamar
Speaker 2: on that run. Four dots go to Lamar and Derrek
Speaker 2: Henry goes up the middle. And the reason is Lamar
Speaker 2: holds it extra long, or makes it look like he's
Speaker 2: sold the extra log or just can't decide until the
Speaker 2: last second. And it's been the story of them all season.
Speaker 2: They're almost a hard team to talk about in at
Speaker 2: least in this matchup when it's just so much obvious
Speaker 2: they're better because it is the same thing week after week.
Speaker 2: And I'm not sure there's a great answer for it,
Speaker 2: but this Steelers defense needed to be like unreal to
Speaker 2: carry this team around them, and they weren't.
Speaker 3: They were below average for five weeks straight.
Speaker 2: It's kind of a Mike Tomlin thing, and just checking
Speaker 2: out the comments before we got going, like the whole
Speaker 2: fire Tomlin from the Steelers fans is going to be
Speaker 2: a thing this week. Well, let's let's put a pin
Speaker 2: in that for a second while we talk about this game.
Speaker 2: But this their defense just didn't really have enough answers
Speaker 2: On a night when Lamar did drop back to pass,
Speaker 2: they did pressure him a decent amount.
Speaker 3: Wasn't like that was the problem. But they just they
Speaker 3: weren't special.
Speaker 2: It's hard to be a special defense in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four or twenty twenty five, and they just weren't special.
Speaker 4: Well, we're going to talk about a game. I assume
Speaker 4: we're going to talk about the earlier Saturday games as well,
Speaker 4: and that was one where to me, the best players
Speaker 4: on the Texans defense won them the game. Derek Stingley
Speaker 4: was awesome, Well, Anderson was awesome. Do you know? Hunter
Speaker 4: was awesome? And they were transcendent in those moments for
Speaker 4: the Steelers. Their stars were not stars in this game.
Speaker 4: I mean TJ. Watt. You know, did you what was
Speaker 4: your favorite t J Watt woman in this game? Greg?
Speaker 4: Do you even if.
Speaker 2: He was on the field, if he's like him shaking
Speaker 2: off a lot of injuries. He I mean, he had
Speaker 2: the elbow thing that there wasn't there wasn't much a
Speaker 2: pressure too. It's similar, frankly to a lot of TJ.
Speaker 2: Watt performances over the last four or five weeks.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean Cam Hayward, who I think is phenomenal,
Speaker 4: a first team All Pro from me this year, did
Speaker 4: not have a big game, was in and out a bit.
Speaker 4: Joey Porter Junior had a couple of nice plays, but
Speaker 4: also a couple of penalties as well. Make if Fitzpatrick
Speaker 4: didn't have a great game. He got stiff armed into
Speaker 4: the earth by Derrick Henry on Aaron, he got the
Speaker 4: rare double stiff farm where you get stiff armed and
Speaker 4: as you're falling backwards, Dereck Henry tries to stiff arm
Speaker 4: you on the way down again, which is very impressive.
Speaker 4: It just felt like the Steelers for them to win,
Speaker 4: for them to compete with great football teams, their stars
Speaker 4: have to make transcending plays and at their best this year, TJ.
Speaker 4: Watt made those plays. Cam Hayward made those plays. Bager
Speaker 4: Fitzpatrick made those plays. They did not make those plays
Speaker 4: in this game, and there was no alternative for the
Speaker 4: Steelers defense.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I was surprised when I saw the pressure rate was
Speaker 2: as high as it was. Then again, Lamar only threw
Speaker 2: twenty one passes. Yeah, he hit sixteen of them for
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy five yards, so it couldn't have
Speaker 2: been more efficient. Part of that is he was pressured
Speaker 2: on the I would guess four to five just true
Speaker 2: scrambles that he had maybe sixty seven scrambles that he had,
Speaker 2: and so he makes a positive out of that.
Speaker 3: But the first half of this yeah, when.
Speaker 4: They did get pressure, they weren't able to finish most
Speaker 4: of the time. And there were plenty of places in
Speaker 4: this game they got pressure on la Mar Jackson and
Speaker 4: he just stepped up and stepped through those pressures and
Speaker 4: found an open receiver. That happened multiple times in this.
Speaker 2: Game, Yeah, including that that touchdown throw to Bateman, who
Speaker 2: has been so good this year and steps up tonight
Speaker 2: as the true one receiver, and maybe that influenced them
Speaker 2: leaning even more on the run than usual. Henry ends
Speaker 2: up with twenty six carries for one eighty six. They
Speaker 2: ran the ball sixty nine percent of the time. I mean,
Speaker 2: the game scrapped obviously helped in that, but they were
Speaker 2: running it like that in the first half as well.
Speaker 2: But at halftime they had nineteen first downs. That's more
Speaker 2: than the number of plays that Pittsburgh had, three hundred
Speaker 2: and eight yards to fifty nine. And the thing that
Speaker 2: will strike me the most, and let's listen to the
Speaker 2: clip we got Eric behind the glass helping us out
Speaker 2: across the Los Angeles area. Just keep an eye if
Speaker 2: you happen to watch this one on YouTube of Derrick Henry,
Speaker 2: I believe, laughing during the middle of his touchdown in
Speaker 2: the second half war the shotgun.
Speaker 1: Three receivers to the left, Jackson Wall hand it off
Speaker 1: Derek Henry twenty like.
Speaker 5: Right, God, touch.
Speaker 1: Down Derek Henry and they're going wild, leaving Jay forty
Speaker 1: four for the score.
Speaker 2: I mean, this man is so happy, he's laughing while
Speaker 2: he's running, and you you just kind of have to
Speaker 2: laugh seeing these two guys together. I do hope Zay Flowers, though,
Speaker 2: is back next week. We know as we're taping this
Speaker 2: show whether they'll play the Bills or potentially the Texans,
Speaker 2: but it's most likely the Bill is obviously a heavy favorite,
Speaker 2: which that feels crazy. You always get one divisional round
Speaker 2: game where you're like, I can't believe these guys are
Speaker 2: playing each other this early in the playoffs, and that's
Speaker 2: going to be the one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know what Derek Henry's laughing at. Could
Speaker 4: be a lot of different things. It could be, Hey,
Speaker 4: thank god, I'm not playing in Tennessee right now. I
Speaker 4: have a meaningful team to play for into January. It
Speaker 4: could be, hey, thank you for making this so easy
Speaker 4: that you know, nearly half of your team ran with
Speaker 4: Lamar Jackson on this fake and I could just cut
Speaker 4: back through the bithic it was the b gap and
Speaker 4: just run free for a touchdown untouched. I could accelerate
Speaker 4: through your entire defense without even having to run anybody over.
Speaker 4: Just the joy. I mean, this was a game where
Speaker 4: it felt very fun to be a member of this
Speaker 4: Raven's office. We saw Anthony Miller, who I did not
Speaker 4: know was in the league, still catching multiple passes in
Speaker 4: this game from Lamar Jackson. It really was a if
Speaker 4: you are a Lamar Jackson MVP person and I at
Speaker 4: the end of the year decided I was one of
Speaker 4: those people, this was a great case for you. I mean,
Speaker 4: not only did Lamar Jackson make plenty of plays against
Speaker 4: a good defense or with you know, on paper, a
Speaker 4: good defense without his top wide receiver. Not only did
Speaker 4: he run the ball effectively, but just his gravity for
Speaker 4: Derrick Henry was on display throughout this game. And we're
Speaker 4: not going to factor that into his numbers, but it
Speaker 4: is a meaningful thing. It is a real thing, has
Speaker 4: been a thing all year because he clips most weeks
Speaker 4: of players on the edge who are just frozen because
Speaker 4: they don't want to miss out on trying to tackle Lamar,
Speaker 4: and then Derek Henry runs pass them for for solid games.
Speaker 4: So it has been just a perfect fit in Baltimore.
Speaker 4: We all had expectations and it's not even better than
Speaker 4: any of us could have expected.
Speaker 2: And yet yeah, no, next week we'll tell this story,
Speaker 2: but we'll have a lot of a lot of time
Speaker 2: to talk about that. Lamar Jackson, by the way, is
Speaker 2: the team All Pro quarterback, which generally means you're gonna
Speaker 2: win the MVP.
Speaker 4: Have you actually have we actually looked at that. I mean,
Speaker 4: I assume it's likely, but it feels like one of
Speaker 4: those things that we all take for granted, and I
Speaker 4: haven't seen anyone actually go back and check and see
Speaker 4: how often it actually turns into being a true thing.
Speaker 4: Maybe some people split their votes.
Speaker 3: Well, yes I have.
Speaker 2: It's never really come up where a guy gets more
Speaker 2: votes than the other guy and then then it would flip.
Speaker 2: But it's also a it's completely different circumstances now than
Speaker 2: it's ever been because they never used to have to
Speaker 2: vote for five different players, and so that that does
Speaker 2: change the math where I guess you could split it.
Speaker 2: I mean the Steve McNair Peyton Manning year, they didn't
Speaker 2: have the exact same votes, so something changed up. It
Speaker 2: could change up. You also have Saquon Barkley like being
Speaker 2: thrown into the mix. Some people could say, like Nick
Speaker 2: Wright pointed this out to me, like some people could say,
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson's the All Pro, but Josh Allen's the MVP.
Speaker 2: That part doesn't make sense, but I could see. You
Speaker 2: never know. If he won All Pro by one vote
Speaker 2: or two votes, and more people had Lamar Jackson fourth
Speaker 2: or fifth where they had Josh Allen second, you never know.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the Steelers a little bit.
Speaker 2: Offensively, Russell Wilson played well in the second half of
Speaker 2: this game. I did think what the Ravens did coverage
Speaker 2: wise in the first half in general kind of confused him.
Speaker 2: Like all year, he's not really going through his reads
Speaker 2: very quickly, but he threw a lot of beautiful passes.
Speaker 2: In the end, you look at his stats, it was
Speaker 2: kind of like a Denver Broncos Russell Wilson game where
Speaker 2: at the end you're like, oh, those stats are pretty good,
Speaker 2: and yet you don't feel like he dominated the game.
Speaker 3: What did you think about RUSS.
Speaker 4: I mean, what I would say, more than anything from
Speaker 4: the Broncos side, from the Steelers side, I should say
Speaker 4: is that it did not feel like Mike tom And and
Speaker 4: Arthur Smith trusted Russell Wilson at all until they had
Speaker 4: no choice but to let him throw the football. I mean,
Speaker 4: it was a very limited, very conservative game plan. They
Speaker 4: punted multiple times on fourth and one and fourth and
Speaker 4: two in the first half of this game, when I
Speaker 4: think a lot of other teams would have been very
Speaker 4: comfortable going for it, and they didn't even bring on
Speaker 4: justin fields for those situations on fourth and short. You know,
Speaker 4: certainly when you think about how should I play as
Speaker 4: an underdog against a team that has an explosive offense,
Speaker 4: hold the football, you know, don't put your defense in
Speaker 4: a compromise position. And Mike Tomlin did not trust his
Speaker 4: team to do even if oh he could go, He
Speaker 4: did trust his team to get aggressive on fourth down,
Speaker 4: and it backfired earlier in that game. And so it
Speaker 4: really felt like Russ almost succeeded in spite of what
Speaker 4: the Steelers' expectations were, Like I think they they in
Speaker 4: this game. I think if the Steelers had won this game,
Speaker 4: Mike Tomlin believed the best way they were going to
Speaker 4: do it was we're going to slide on the mar Jackson,
Speaker 4: We're going to get a turnover or two, and we're
Speaker 4: going to have as little Russell Wilson in the mix
Speaker 4: as possible. And it turned out to be the exact opposite.
Speaker 4: They had a lot of Russell Wilson because they had
Speaker 4: no choice. They were down a ton of points. He
Speaker 4: played pretty well and the defense did absolutely nothing to
Speaker 4: win in the game for most of the game. So,
Speaker 4: as Russ enters free agency, as we're thinking about what
Speaker 4: the quarterback situation looks like for this team next year,
Speaker 4: nothing about what I saw tonight makes me think the
Speaker 4: Steelers are desperate to have him back for another go
Speaker 4: around next year, presumably at a larger salary.
Speaker 2: Yes, and yet they weren't. They weren't into bringing Justin
Speaker 2: fields in. I thought they might, but then it was rewarded.
Speaker 2: I mean, in the second half, he did everything that
Speaker 2: you would want Russell Wilson to do.
Speaker 3: He moved the ball.
Speaker 2: Now, they did have a possession where they had a
Speaker 2: chance to make it a one possession game, and they
Speaker 2: stalled out, and you mentioned, you know, having, you know,
Speaker 2: skipping and going for fourth and inches in the first half,
Speaker 2: which is just brutal to have to go for it
Speaker 2: in fourth and fifteen. And then I sent the tweet
Speaker 2: out that's like everybody now like repeat after me, And
Speaker 2: you thought I was making fun of you. I was
Speaker 2: just doing it because we all have sent that tweet
Speaker 2: at some point.
Speaker 4: Little too close to the vest for me.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't even know. I mean, yeah, you skipped
Speaker 2: the early fourth down. I mean the Ravens also skipped
Speaker 2: a fourth and two did to start the second half.
Speaker 2: Maybe they thought that they had a twenty one nothing lead,
Speaker 2: but they did go for fourth and about a foot
Speaker 2: from their own forty late up by two scores, which,
Speaker 2: considering where it was in the game and where it
Speaker 2: was on the field, actually was more of a gutsy call,
Speaker 2: if you want to say it, and was very smart
Speaker 2: to go for.
Speaker 4: What I think happened is that they punted up was
Speaker 4: twenty one nothing at that point. I believe when they
Speaker 4: punted for midfield, and I think John Harbaught did the Oh,
Speaker 4: I don't want to give them a spark. I don't
Speaker 4: want to give them a short field. Get them back
Speaker 4: in the game, and then the Steelers drove like ninety
Speaker 4: eight yards for a touch anyway, then he's like, well,
Speaker 4: screw this, there's no point in not giving them a spark.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to go for it. And then they
Speaker 4: went for it and got it with de Mark Andrew Steak,
Speaker 4: where the Steelers I think actually had twelve men on
Speaker 4: the field. They weren't even prepared for the Ravens going
Speaker 4: for it on fourth down, which is not a right
Speaker 4: signed for this coaching staff. You seem to be a
Speaker 4: little hesitant when I alluded to the idea of Russell
Speaker 4: Wilson not being back next year. You're about to push I.
Speaker 3: Just don't know.
Speaker 2: This is a team that is fine just running back
Speaker 2: the same thing year after year and kind of accepting
Speaker 2: where they are. I think it's why so many people
Speaker 2: are frustrated. Smart Steelers fans and dumb Steelers fans like
Speaker 2: angry young ones or whatever that are just oh, get
Speaker 2: rid of this guy.
Speaker 3: It's the same thing every year. But I listened to
Speaker 3: John Ledyard.
Speaker 2: He's great, and he's frustrated, and I think it's fair
Speaker 2: to question a team that plays the same season over
Speaker 2: and over and makes the same mistakes and sure everyone
Speaker 2: says it's not Tomlin's fault because it's the offense and
Speaker 2: what would you do with this roster and quarterbacks? And
Speaker 2: I just think, well, Tomlin keeps hiring these offensive coordinators.
Speaker 2: If he is unable to affect change on offense for
Speaker 2: a long period, that's on him.
Speaker 3: He's the head coach. He plays the same certain so away.
Speaker 2: I also think the way he attacks training camp and
Speaker 2: regular season practices should maybe be looked at because they
Speaker 2: are the team that has known more than any team
Speaker 2: to hit training camp harder. And you always you always
Speaker 2: get on the teams like the Bengals who don't do
Speaker 2: anything early and then they start slow. Well what about
Speaker 2: the reverse, Like this is a team that's always in pads,
Speaker 2: They're always a training camp, and they always stink in
Speaker 2: December Like this is this is a I know they
Speaker 2: won a few games in the in the past few years,
Speaker 2: but they've collapsed down the stretch a number of times.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's a one to one thing,
Speaker 2: but whatever he's doing isn't working. They they consistently play
Speaker 2: their worst when they even have a decent team late
Speaker 2: in the season. They did it during the Covid year.
Speaker 2: They did it this season, and I don't know, like,
Speaker 2: are you just fine with being the thirteenth best team
Speaker 2: in the NFL every year?
Speaker 3: Because that's basically I.
Speaker 4: Will take the issue with this argument. They did go
Speaker 4: two and six the year TJ. Watt got hurt to
Speaker 4: start the season, and then they're hot at the end
Speaker 4: of the year. I also think think a couple things
Speaker 4: that factor in there. Our strength of schedule. The Steelers
Speaker 4: played the hardest part of their schedule to finish the
Speaker 4: season this year. Usually the final few weeks of the
Speaker 4: year you're most likely to play your divisional games, and
Speaker 4: the Steelers play in a very difficult division, so I
Speaker 4: think you're playing stiffer competition late in the year. But
Speaker 4: I did think your point is valid this question of
Speaker 4: you know, is it should you be? Should you have
Speaker 4: higher aspirations than just being a ten and seven team
Speaker 4: and hoping you get in And the comparison I've seen
Speaker 4: people make as an argument to fire Mike Tomlin and
Speaker 4: we want Mike Tomlin is the comparisons to Andy Reid
Speaker 4: at the end of his time in Philadelphia, which is
Speaker 4: not good in terms of comparisons. Andy Reid was like
Speaker 4: four and twelve his final year when he got fired,
Speaker 4: he had made the decision to hire Wan Castillo to
Speaker 4: be his DC, which went over disastrously. And there's this
Speaker 4: like like like people have convinced themselves that Eagles fans
Speaker 4: were happy to let Andy Reid leave and left with
Speaker 4: goodwill and it was just time when Eagles fans have
Speaker 4: been trying to fire Andy Reid for like five years
Speaker 4: and been furious at any time anyone defended him saying
Speaker 4: he was never gonna win. I think with Mike Tomlin,
Speaker 4: like people have they've already taken like ready but defoeward
Speaker 4: Like there's already that feeling of oh, like, we're never
Speaker 4: gonna do it. And to me, I think that's probably unwarranted.
Speaker 4: He's already done it in the past. We've seen him
Speaker 4: win with a successful quarterback in the past. We're seen
Speaker 4: him make the playoff runs in the past. We know
Speaker 4: he can do it. To me, we're punishing him for
Speaker 4: being good at this job. Like the reason, and I
Speaker 4: would say the coaching element to me is this, how
Speaker 4: many times do you see a player leave the Steelers
Speaker 4: and play better? And how many times do you see
Speaker 4: a player join the Steelers and play better. Just think
Speaker 4: about this year. Just think about wide receiver. I mean,
Speaker 4: Mike Williams was a functional part of his offense were
Speaker 4: stretches after looking like he had never played football before
Speaker 4: the Jets. Giont Johnson left the Steelers and was a
Speaker 4: disaster in multiple spots this year. Wide receiver is maybe
Speaker 4: the most coherent example. But this is not a franchise
Speaker 4: where players are coming here and getting worse. And if
Speaker 4: you have a guy who absolutely love if you think
Speaker 4: Arthur Smith is the next great Steelers coach, should I guess?
Speaker 3: Go No, I don't.
Speaker 2: In fact, like he got way too much credit this year,
Speaker 2: Arthur Smith, Like this was a bad offense all year.
Speaker 2: This this their success rate running the ball was bad
Speaker 2: all year. They were winning on these these deep balls,
Speaker 2: which at no point did they have like a sustainable plan.
Speaker 2: And to be clear, I think that Mike Tomlin is
Speaker 2: a very good coach that should absolutely keep his job
Speaker 2: and that any speculation about it in terms of him
Speaker 2: getting fired is stupid. And any speculation on him getting
Speaker 2: traded is because of Mike Tomlin's agent. So like you
Speaker 2: can't you can't speak out of both sides of your
Speaker 2: mouth if you're Mike Tummlin, because this this trade stuff
Speaker 2: pops up every once in a while and he always
Speaker 2: gets a new contract out of it, and he likes
Speaker 2: getting new contracts.
Speaker 3: Why wouldn't you He just got an you just.
Speaker 4: Got a new contract with a no trade clause.
Speaker 2: But they but they threw that out there again, like it.
Speaker 2: It came out again, and it doesn't come out for
Speaker 2: no reason. It's maybe it's a waste of time to
Speaker 2: talk about, because I don't really believe that the Ruinies
Speaker 2: would ever consider giving him up, and they shouldn't. But
Speaker 2: I also think it's fair to point out if you're
Speaker 2: talking about the best coaches in the NFL, an organization
Speaker 2: that like loses in the same sort of way year
Speaker 2: after year in the playoffs and isn't competitive when they
Speaker 2: make it, and hasn't won a game in a long time.
Speaker 2: And in those six straight playoff losses bill that they've
Speaker 2: had the lot, they've trailed at halftime by an average
Speaker 2: of fifteen and a half points.
Speaker 3: I mean, so.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's not just it's not that they just
Speaker 2: make it and they don't win. It's that they make
Speaker 2: it and they're not competitive. And it reminds me of
Speaker 2: the end of this season Bill because they lost those
Speaker 2: three games against the best teams in the NFL ninety
Speaker 2: to forty and they lost this game twenty one and
Speaker 2: nothing at halftime, and yeah, the Bengals game was closer,
Speaker 2: but that's like an eight and eight team. That's just
Speaker 2: sort of who they are, and so that's got to
Speaker 2: be frustrating for.
Speaker 4: Their For them, I'm just picturing like the Saints, where
Speaker 4: their entire aspirations are to be the Steelers, like the
Speaker 4: idea of being a nine or ten win team that
Speaker 4: makes it to the playoffs every year and loses is
Speaker 4: exactly what their best case scenario is right now. I
Speaker 4: think we're both on the same page. I don't think
Speaker 4: we think it's Mike Tomlin. But let me ask you, Greg,
Speaker 4: let's try to be practical here. If you're not moving
Speaker 4: on from Mike Tomlin, if you're not trading away Mike Tomlin,
Speaker 4: what are you doing to break the cycle. What is
Speaker 4: the move the Steelers make Because they tried drafting Kenny
Speaker 4: Pickett that didn't work. That was clearly a let's try
Speaker 4: to get our franchise quarterback on the cheap and then
Speaker 4: we'll build around him with you know, more talent elsewhere.
Speaker 4: They have talented dunk players on this roster. No question.
Speaker 4: They went very cheap the cheapest quarterback situation late this
Speaker 4: year that you know, got them back to where they were.
Speaker 4: What's the swing you're taking here a quarterback? What's the move?
Speaker 2: It's like a different mindset offensively. It's not hiring Matt
Speaker 2: Canada and Arthur Smith. I don't think Arthur Smith like
Speaker 2: was good for this team.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to blow it up necessarily because the
Speaker 2: offensive line I think started to finally make progress. Ye
Speaker 2: have invested a lot in in that and there.
Speaker 3: There was progress.
Speaker 2: Then again, they were one of the worst running games
Speaker 2: in the entire NFL. So I guess how good is
Speaker 2: their offensive line?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 3: They're their offense.
Speaker 2: Their their running game was basically based on their running
Speaker 2: backs being good and breaking tackles, but they didn't really
Speaker 2: have anything going in terms of the blocking scheme. I
Speaker 2: don't know we should we should focus more on these
Speaker 2: these ravens. I mean, you're getting you're getting Steve Simms
Speaker 2: and and Thailand Wallis and Anthony Miller out there.
Speaker 4: We're gonna have plenty of times talk about the Ravens
Speaker 4: in the weeks to come. I the thing that really
Speaker 4: took me out in the first quarter of this game
Speaker 4: was the broadcast when first drive of the game for
Speaker 4: the Steelers and say, yeah, you're gonna see more Jalen
Speaker 4: Warren today because Mike Tomblin said he has the hot
Speaker 4: hand for them and running back and I looked it
Speaker 4: up in Jalen Warren had six carries for twenty one
Speaker 4: yards and no catches the prior week, and that that
Speaker 4: was the hot hand for this offense was a running
Speaker 4: back averaging I think like three and a half yards
Speaker 4: of carry. It tells you sort of how dire things
Speaker 4: got for this offense here at the end of the season.
Speaker 2: I mean, the thing is they got like the most
Speaker 2: I could have expected out of Van Jefferson, in Calvin
Speaker 2: Austin and at times Russell Wilson and Justin fields like
Speaker 2: they were better.
Speaker 4: But but what you didn't answer my question? What's the
Speaker 4: movie you're making?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 4: I think it has to be taking a quarterback or
Speaker 4: is this something else?
Speaker 2: Well, sir, you have to always keep taking swings at quarterback,
Speaker 2: I think every year in the draft until you have one.
Speaker 3: So I didn't love this idea.
Speaker 2: I'd rather have gone with Fields, like we'll never know
Speaker 2: everyone that apologized after the move to Wilson. Ultimately, he
Speaker 2: was dead last in the NFL in the last five
Speaker 2: weeks in EPA per place. So I don't I don't know,
Speaker 2: like how whether it would have been better or worse
Speaker 2: in the end with with Russell Wilson or not. But
Speaker 2: it's it would have to be like having a totally
Speaker 2: different offensive, like modern mindset like that they just haven't had.
Speaker 2: They have this weird idea that hey, we're the Steelers,
Speaker 2: we want to run the ball. I think it plays
Speaker 2: play to our defense, be conservative and and that's it.
Speaker 2: And those are the types of guys he hired, like
Speaker 2: Arthur Smith sold them on that vision. But when was
Speaker 2: the last time Arthur Smith, like like had a consistently
Speaker 2: good running team, like in terms of the talent that
Speaker 2: he had, I don't.
Speaker 4: Know the year before. I mean to be fair, I
Speaker 4: think there is an element of the Steeler, significant element
Speaker 4: of this Dealers fan base that also wants that, Like
Speaker 4: I think the when Steelers fans think about what they
Speaker 4: want what their offense to look like, they wanted to
Speaker 4: look like Jerome Bennis. They wanted to look like sure,
Speaker 4: you know, Franco Harris. They wanted to be the teams
Speaker 4: that are running because they're thirteen and four and they
Speaker 4: have a great defense, and they are running in the
Speaker 4: fourth quarter. They want smash mount football. I think there
Speaker 4: was a subset that Caarac just wants to win, but
Speaker 4: I think ideally that is what they want. So I
Speaker 4: think they're sort of playing a element of fans service
Speaker 4: by hiring Arthur Smith.
Speaker 3: Fair.
Speaker 2: That's absolutely fair. And like I said, I don't think
Speaker 2: the Rooneyes are going to do anything. So we say
Speaker 2: goodbye to what I think was the worst team in
Speaker 2: the playoffs, the Steelers. When you lose four straight games,
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think it was. I think them
Speaker 2: and the Texans were the contenders coming into the day.
Speaker 2: They were not the contenders coming out of the day.
Speaker 2: And yes, shout out to all the Ravens who got
Speaker 2: the job done today, a da fe Aoway, even Nate
Speaker 2: Wiggans who is maybe in single coverage to George Pickens
Speaker 2: a little too often and was driving Patrick Claybond crazy.
Speaker 3: We were about it.
Speaker 2: Madam Buike had a nice game like they have a
Speaker 2: lot of players that are playing better on defense. We'll
Speaker 2: see if they're good enough next week. And you talked
Speaker 2: about the Steelers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you've.
Speaker 2: Talked about the Steelers defense not being prepared enough. This
Speaker 2: is the last time that we'll hear them this week.
Speaker 2: But like Kirk kerk Street like doesn't know who the like,
Speaker 2: how the playoff seeds work, and who's going to play
Speaker 2: each other in the playoffs. And it's just like a
Speaker 2: consistent it's a consistent pattern here.
Speaker 4: Get myself in trouble. No comment, No, yeah you can't.
Speaker 1: You can.
Speaker 4: Moving on all right?
Speaker 2: That is it from Baltimore, you know, before we take
Speaker 2: a quick break. Of course, we're here in southern California
Speaker 2: and in LA all heartbroken by the devastation and destruction
Speaker 2: from the wildfires.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 2: I was driving down the four or five pet pass
Speaker 2: some of it today and it's crazy, it's still happening,
Speaker 2: it's still horrifying, and families affected by these fires urgently
Speaker 2: need support. You can help the American Red Cross respond
Speaker 2: to and help people recover from these disasters by donating
Speaker 2: today at Redcross dot org slash NFL again Redcross dot
Speaker 2: org slash NFL we will be back after the break
Speaker 2: In Houston.
Speaker 6: Stroud gets under center fourth and one at the seventeen
Speaker 6: yard lot of the Charger. CJ hands off to mix
Speaker 6: some money left.
Speaker 3: How's the fifteenth ted? Nextit across the five, Next look to.
Speaker 2: The pilot, Next sit to the hud zone.
Speaker 6: Celebrate mix it on fourth down, Peter and the Texans
Speaker 6: have their lead extended.
Speaker 5: Seventeen yard touchdown run.
Speaker 4: I think you just started the h Town leap.
Speaker 2: That was Joe Mixon, that was Mark Vandermere and Andre
Speaker 2: ware On k I l t thirty two to twelve.
Speaker 2: A score of GOMI in the playoffs and.
Speaker 4: A scorey got me in a situation where it felt
Speaker 4: like if any team was gonna win thirty to twelve
Speaker 4: in this game, for most of the first half, it
Speaker 4: felt like the Chargers were going to be that team.
Speaker 3: It was absolutely crazy.
Speaker 2: I almost can't believe looking at the final scores and
Speaker 2: even the final numbers, where the Texans end up with
Speaker 2: four hundred and twenty nine yards and the Chargers end
Speaker 2: up with two sixty one, Like, I can't believe that's
Speaker 2: how it ended, because it just didn't feel that way
Speaker 2: for most of the game. And if you look at
Speaker 2: the success rates for the two teams, they're actually pretty
Speaker 2: similar for a lot of it. But that drive, and
Speaker 2: I wanted to start there, Bill, was one of the
Speaker 2: most surprising drives I've ever seen to see the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four Houston Texans. Maybe they're turning a new leaf
Speaker 2: like in the in the actual New Year, run the ball.
Speaker 2: I believe it was fourteen straight times to end that.
Speaker 4: Drive, thirteen so fourteen play. Drive it through the on
Speaker 4: the first play and then ran it thirteen consecutive times
Speaker 4: to finish up. So that's why they're not also in
Speaker 4: the thirteen for thirteen club. It was thirteen for fourteen, Right.
Speaker 2: I have not been more surprised by a drive all season,
Speaker 2: considering how in effective the Texans have been running the
Speaker 2: ball all year, And yet at that point it was
Speaker 2: like the Chargers defense, which were absolutely ready for this game.
Speaker 2: It was a good defensive game. They just sort of
Speaker 2: gave out and Houston was just much too much for them.
Speaker 3: And that place was rocking.
Speaker 2: And the Texans are going to the Divisional round for
Speaker 2: the second straight year.
Speaker 4: Yes, And you know, I think there was an element
Speaker 4: of being tired. They've been on the field so often
Speaker 4: because their offense was either scoring really quickly or turning
Speaker 4: the ball over really quickly or going three and out.
Speaker 4: And I don't know what the play disparity was in
Speaker 4: this game, and certainly the Chargers had a lot of
Speaker 4: plays early before the Texans then took over and sort
Speaker 4: of controlled the ball at that final drive at the
Speaker 4: end of the first half. We could also talk about
Speaker 4: as a you know, a season saving drive in some
Speaker 4: ways for the Houston Texans. I mean, this game was there,
Speaker 4: it was there for the taking for the Chargers. There
Speaker 4: is a a version of this game where instead of
Speaker 4: getting stuffed on third and one in the first drive,
Speaker 4: they convert. They score a touchdown when they've been moving
Speaker 4: the ball really effectively, Texans turned the ball over immediately,
Speaker 4: give them a short field, They score another touchdown, They
Speaker 4: get the ball back again after a Stroud they dropped
Speaker 4: a Stroud interception, and then they get a Strad interception,
Speaker 4: they have another short field, they score on that. It's
Speaker 4: twenty one to nothing. I mean, they could have taken
Speaker 4: over this game, and there's a lot of like, you know,
Speaker 4: a lot of me filling in the blanks for this offense,
Speaker 4: which is maybe undeservedly given that they really did struggle
Speaker 4: for the majority of this game. But we see this
Speaker 4: happen in games where you give a team a couple
Speaker 4: of short fields and the game's over, and you know,
Speaker 4: there would have been no thirteen play run, drive down
Speaker 4: twenty one nothing. I think that the Texans defense did
Speaker 4: such a heroic job of saving this game long enough
Speaker 4: for the offense to finally get going, and once it did,
Speaker 4: it felt like the Chargers didn't have many answers outside
Speaker 4: of the occasional turnover.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's all really well said.
Speaker 2: I want to blame the Chargers on one hand for
Speaker 2: having in their first ten drives of the game under
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty yards, with three interceptions and a.
Speaker 3: Fumble that they picked up the fumble.
Speaker 2: And one third down six points in the one of
Speaker 2: the field goals was a twelve yard drive that was
Speaker 2: just you know, set up by one of those turnovers.
Speaker 2: I want to blame the Chargers offense. But one of
Speaker 2: the reasons I actually thought this was a good game.
Speaker 2: It was obviously like a West of this game. That is,
Speaker 2: you know, for those who are new to the show,
Speaker 2: the early Saturday afternoon game, which our dear friend Chris
Speaker 2: Westling dubbed West of which is when Andy Dalton and
Speaker 2: the Bengals would traditionally lose, although at some point in
Speaker 2: there they started playing the Texans, and the Texans just
Speaker 2: took over that time slot and they've actually played in Yes.
Speaker 4: That was the jj WAT Pick six game. I think
Speaker 4: was the turning point.
Speaker 2: That was the turning point. I was at a game
Speaker 2: that brock Osweiler started against Connor Cook, which is in
Speaker 2: the mix for the worst starting quarterback com you know,
Speaker 2: matchup in the history of the NFL, certainly in the
Speaker 2: twenty first century, which is you know, more about passing.
Speaker 3: And they won that game.
Speaker 2: It was the first ever home victory by the Texans.
Speaker 2: At some point it switched to the Texans and they
Speaker 2: own the slot. They are now six and two.
Speaker 4: What why why were you at that game of all games?
Speaker 2: For like a year or two, my old boss at
Speaker 2: the NFL wanted me to get out on the road
Speaker 2: more and they were sending.
Speaker 4: Me to they to playoff games.
Speaker 2: And yes I was the Houston Texans or Cincinnati Bengals
Speaker 2: of NFL dot com column writers. I you know, I'll
Speaker 2: respect Jeffrey Chidia, Judy Batista. They deserve their spot in line.
Speaker 2: They were doing it, you know, all season long, and
Speaker 2: so I was fourth in line. Maybe it was wish
Speaker 2: as the other one, but yes, I would go to
Speaker 2: the worst games usually of the weekend, and they went.
Speaker 2: They won that game. There are now six and two
Speaker 2: in these games. And for all and I know I'm
Speaker 2: talking about here for although blame I want to put
Speaker 2: on the Chargers defense offense. I just think this was
Speaker 2: an incredible defense by the Texans, Like sometimes that really
Speaker 2: can't happen. And for a while, the Chargers defense was
Speaker 2: playing incredible this game. You mentioned the third and short
Speaker 2: that they don't pick up, Well, who's making the stop there?
Speaker 2: That was Kaylen Bullock, their young safety I believe was
Speaker 2: in on that stop. It's passes defense. Darryl Stingley ends
Speaker 2: up with five passes defense in this game. An incredible interception,
Speaker 2: Kamari Lassiter has an incredible interception. Autry is making plays
Speaker 2: all over the place. Will Anderson saved them early in
Speaker 2: this game. Like they all just were taking turns, making
Speaker 2: incredible plays, and they were just obviously better schematically and
Speaker 2: talent wise than the Chargers offense was on this day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's a surprise because the Chargers, whatever you
Speaker 4: want to say about their offensive abilities, are a well
Speaker 4: coached offense generally. But I think we saw a game
Speaker 4: plan that really hit the weaknesses of the Chargers hard,
Speaker 4: and that was a lot of twists with their star
Speaker 4: edge rushers, So not just rushing them one on one
Speaker 4: against these strengths of the Chargers their offensive tackle, a
Speaker 4: lot of them getting them inside, getting them against the
Speaker 4: offensive guards, getting them against the centers, getting them against
Speaker 4: the running backs. That worked really well. There was a
Speaker 4: lot of flush justin Herbert in this game. We saw
Speaker 4: a lot of doubling of lad Bakkonki. Derek Stanley did
Speaker 4: not travel in the slot with lad Bacconki. But this
Speaker 4: was you know, they didn't play a lot of man
Speaker 4: coverage in this game. They played a decent amount, but
Speaker 4: it wasn't like they were, you know, the twenty sixteen
Speaker 4: Patriots when he came to man coverage. But I think
Speaker 4: there was that element of the same filosophy of Okay,
Speaker 4: lad McConkie, We're going to try and double him with
Speaker 4: our guys in the interior, get him a safety over
Speaker 4: the top of La McConkie get a linebacker to help,
Speaker 4: and then we trust Derek Stingley is going to takeovers
Speaker 4: on his side of the field and shut them down.
Speaker 4: And that was the key part of this game in
Speaker 4: a lot of ways, is that the Chargers repeatedly tried
Speaker 4: to go at Derek Stingley and time after time were rejected.
Speaker 4: I mean, not only did Derek Stanley have a couple
Speaker 4: of two interceptions in this game, one of which was
Speaker 4: on a Will Distey drop, the other one on a
Speaker 4: great play on a throw down field, But to me,
Speaker 4: one of the biggest plays of the game was that
Speaker 4: fourth down the Chargers went for where Lad McConkie is
Speaker 4: not open. The Chargers have seven in protection to send
Speaker 4: three guys out, and their only option was to throw
Speaker 4: a pivot route to Quentin Johnston against Derek Stingley, an
Speaker 4: all Pro cornerback, where not only did Quentin Johnston run
Speaker 4: a half yard route on fourth and two where even
Speaker 4: if he caught it, he would have been short of
Speaker 4: the sticks, but then he also did that complete catch
Speaker 4: and it was an incompletion as well. So just a
Speaker 4: you know, just a if you can get your best
Speaker 4: player against a wide receiver, three caliber receiver and on
Speaker 4: a fourth down that's say win for you on defense.
Speaker 4: So I think the Texans really gave the Chargers the
Speaker 4: answers they wanted them to take, and then exploited those
Speaker 4: answers with their best players.
Speaker 2: So Quinton Johnston, who had the best game of his
Speaker 2: career last week, it really was the Quinton Johnson's game.
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was. It was like eight
Speaker 3: for one, ninety seven or something. Insane. Didn't have a
Speaker 3: catch on five targets.
Speaker 4: Today.
Speaker 2: To go to the rest of the Chargers receivers for
Speaker 2: non lad mcconkee targets, they had forty five yards on
Speaker 2: eighteen targets. McConkie goes nine for one to ninety seven
Speaker 2: and one, including that incredible touchdown, And you can blame
Speaker 2: that completely on all the other receivers. Justin Herbert obviously
Speaker 2: bears funy of blame in this game, ends up with
Speaker 2: four interceptions. It's more than he had all season long.
Speaker 2: And yet I do think about that play. That's a
Speaker 2: good example. It's their lack of talent to win a
Speaker 2: one on one matchup. It's Quinton Johnston running a bad route.
Speaker 2: You can't really blame Herbert there for throwing it to
Speaker 2: him because he's got to assume his option right is
Speaker 2: making it.
Speaker 3: That said that where.
Speaker 2: You could blame him a little bit on that play
Speaker 2: maybe is you got seven into protect and I know
Speaker 2: he hadn't been protected great that game. He doesn't try
Speaker 2: to become a playmaker too often, like the ball was
Speaker 2: still out of his hands quickly and seeing the matchup
Speaker 2: that he had and there wasn't a lot of separation there.
Speaker 3: It's a split second decision. But what CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud did well in this game more than anything I
Speaker 2: thought was it was run the ball and make a
Speaker 2: couple of plays to help turn this game around. And
Speaker 2: when it's not going well for Herbert, that does stand
Speaker 2: out that he doesn't do a lot of playmaking. Though
Speaker 2: that's one pick you could knit here along with the
Speaker 2: four interception.
Speaker 3: It's a tough week out here for Herbert the Herbert Hive.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to be a tough six months.
Speaker 4: It was weird because he did do that more during
Speaker 4: the regular season. That was one of the welcome benefits
Speaker 4: of justin Herbert the shear was that he was we
Speaker 4: anymore and it felt like that was something that he
Speaker 4: was being encouraged to do by the Chargers, and I
Speaker 4: want to go back. You know, it's Saturday night. I
Speaker 4: want to go back on Sunday or more realistically maybe
Speaker 4: Monday and watch this game again and see if those
Speaker 4: opportunities were there. Figure they were. But the interceptions, Yes,
Speaker 4: the Will Disley pick is not on Justin Herbert, but
Speaker 4: I got three that are and that's the entirety he
Speaker 4: had of all season that were bad decisions, bad throws.
Speaker 4: I mean that first pick, every bit of a twenty
Speaker 4: nineteen Josh Allen. We're all laughing on social media. What
Speaker 4: is this guy doing? Pick after a interception from Justin
Speaker 4: Stratt for for CD Strat, excuse me? You have you
Speaker 4: know you're gonna take a shot. I understand that you're
Speaker 4: throwing across your body, you know, from the right side
Speaker 4: numbers to the left side sideline. No window is there.
Speaker 4: Like the best case scenario is that's going in complete,
Speaker 4: like just a bad decision, just the decision decision you
Speaker 4: cannot make as a great quarterback, as a quarterback, expecting
Speaker 4: me when a playoff game. And the disheartening thing is now,
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna go back to this regular season
Speaker 4: and people are gonna look at what Justin Herbert did,
Speaker 4: and his numbers are not great this year. I mean,
Speaker 4: he had a incredible interception rate, but his first down rated,
Speaker 4: sharts per attempt, everything else was okay, some above average,
Speaker 4: a little bit below average in some places. He took
Speaker 4: too many sacks, especially sacks that got him injured, where
Speaker 4: he wastly extending plays. There's going to be a real
Speaker 4: reflection on Justin Herbert. I don't think they're going to
Speaker 4: make any changes, obviously, but I think you know, there
Speaker 4: was a lot of good will built up for Justin
Speaker 4: Herbert over the course of this season.
Speaker 3: That was coming out hard. He's coming swinging for Herbert.
Speaker 4: What did I say here? That's crazy?
Speaker 3: This this man now he had four receptions.
Speaker 4: In the playoff. Can't be through the entire season. But
Speaker 4: this was in the shoe all year. That was that
Speaker 4: was propping him up all season was an incredibly low
Speaker 4: interception rate, and that's unsustainable. We know.
Speaker 2: I thought he managed games really well all year. Their
Speaker 2: offensive line was okay this year. Their running game was
Speaker 2: miserable for the most part, and was miserable in this game.
Speaker 2: One of the lowest success rates sixteen, yes, all season long,
Speaker 2: they had one of the lowest success rates in the NFL.
Speaker 2: And they couldn't run the ball today either outside of
Speaker 2: that first drive. And even that first drive it ends
Speaker 2: on a third and one that gets blown up.
Speaker 3: And it even.
Speaker 2: Reminded me of last week against like the Raiders, like
Speaker 2: they couldn't they couldn't get a third and one early
Speaker 2: in second and one third and one early in that game,
Speaker 2: and that that was them all season.
Speaker 3: And so the running game it's stunk. It's not.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that it's an excuse for Herbert, but
Speaker 2: they you know, Greg Roman without a running game is like,
Speaker 2: what do you got here?
Speaker 4: Right? That's not what I was going to say, is
Speaker 4: you know you bring in Greg Roman. That's what he's
Speaker 4: there for. That's what he's supposed to do, is fix
Speaker 4: your running game. And I understand this was not a
Speaker 4: running game that had a Lamar Jackson as an active participant,
Speaker 4: didn't have a Colin Kaepernick as an active participant, or
Speaker 4: a Tyrod Taylor. They didn't have the quarterback run game
Speaker 4: factored in. But Greg Rowman was still supposed to be
Speaker 4: able to build a coherent run game around the pieces
Speaker 4: he had, And I think We all love seeing JK.
Speaker 4: Dobbins have a great start to the season, but he
Speaker 4: had two one hundred yard games to start the year
Speaker 4: and didn't have another one the rest of the way.
Speaker 4: I mean, they were very inconsistent running the football and
Speaker 4: that led to a lot of ways to drives and
Speaker 4: in this game, Herbert misthrows. He made mistakes, got some
Speaker 4: really good throws of course as well. It's not like
Speaker 4: he was completely terrible, but you know, it felt like
Speaker 4: they did not have the ability to rely on the
Speaker 4: run game when they needed it.
Speaker 2: No, but the numbers, the numbers are crazy. Now if
Speaker 2: you go through the four inner sevens. Yeah, that first
Speaker 2: that first pick, terrible decision, but an awesome play.
Speaker 3: Out a Lassiter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like these Texans cornerbacks, it's the best young secondary
Speaker 2: in the league by far. I mean, that might be
Speaker 2: the best cornerback duo in the league. It's in the
Speaker 2: mix right now, Lassiter intingly, just just because just because
Speaker 2: Stingley is that that good right now? Like they're in
Speaker 2: the mix. But in terms of a young secondary, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's fair the Steelers, but I'm including Jalen Petrie, who
Speaker 2: is awesome this year and he's out he's out, and
Speaker 2: I think is he out for the season.
Speaker 3: He's He's not gonna but Callen.
Speaker 2: Block's been great and like that reminds me of another
Speaker 2: play from recent weeks, Like when he has a chance
Speaker 2: to make the catch, he makes it. Now, you got
Speaker 2: the Eric Murray pick six. That was more of just
Speaker 2: Herbert's a little rushed, a little crowded in the pocket,
Speaker 2: throws it a little high and it and it goes
Speaker 2: through Maconkey's hands, but it's a high throw.
Speaker 3: They were forcing him to try to make touch passes.
Speaker 2: That really wasn't one of them, and that's not like
Speaker 2: something he does that well. And the other interception, what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to say is sometimes you have opportunities to
Speaker 2: make an interception and you don't make them. Those weren't
Speaker 2: the easiest ones ever, and they did make them. Whereas
Speaker 2: the Chargers, for instance, as you mentioned, like second drive
Speaker 2: of the game, they drop a potential Stroud interception. I mean, hell,
Speaker 2: the Chargers did turn the ball over three times. The
Speaker 2: first freaking play of the game is a fumble that
Speaker 2: they force on a short catch like and it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: The Texan defense just was ready for all of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, yes, there was pressure in Justin Herbert's
Speaker 4: lap on that overthrow for the pick six. It's also
Speaker 4: a throw into the flat, Like you can dirt it,
Speaker 4: you can put it in a place where it's not
Speaker 4: going to be that they're going to be a short
Speaker 4: catch or an incompletion. There's lots of things you can do.
Speaker 4: What you cannot do is sell it over your wide
Speaker 4: receiver's head. And this is not you know, this is
Speaker 4: not Bonicks, this is not year one. Let's see what
Speaker 4: this guy does. It's not Caleb Williams. This guy is
Speaker 4: in what his fifth sixth is as a pro, like
Speaker 4: he's on a second contract. He is getting the hype
Speaker 4: as a superstar quarterback. Like, you can't make that throw.
Speaker 4: You cannot miss that throw under any circumstances. That is
Speaker 4: a like that that I cannot think of another quarterback.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you'll sure someone clip for me tomorrow, but like,
Speaker 4: that is a throw you cannot make as a franchise
Speaker 4: quarterback in that situation, Like you have to be able
Speaker 4: to either escape that pressure or be smart with the
Speaker 4: football and smart with your placement. And he was not,
Speaker 4: and it it basically ended the game as a contest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, out of playoff games. I think it was your
Speaker 2: friend Seth Walder right that he put it out that
Speaker 2: out of two hundred and fourteen playoff it was it
Speaker 2: Shield that put this out that Justin Herbert was two
Speaker 2: hundred and thirteenth in EPA per play So it's gotta
Speaker 2: be a rough offseason. I think he's a top ten quarterback.
Speaker 2: I think he played like a top ten quarterback this season.
Speaker 2: He's absolutely fair through five seasons to think that the
Speaker 2: promise of his rookie year that he was going to
Speaker 2: be right there with the top guys in the league,
Speaker 2: He's obviously not with the top guys in the league.
Speaker 2: Can can he get there eventually? Yeah, Like it's possible,
Speaker 2: but he obviously is not in that top tier group.
Speaker 2: And yet despite all this, Bill like, this was absolutely
Speaker 2: a game that I still thought the Chargers were going
Speaker 2: to win when it was six to nothing late in
Speaker 2: the second quarter. Let's take back. Let's think about where
Speaker 2: the Texans were. They had the ball pretty much coming
Speaker 2: out on their own goal line. Were they on the
Speaker 2: two yard line? Everyone thought they were probably gonna like
Speaker 2: take a safety there. Everyone's making the same joke like
Speaker 2: here comes the safety CJ.
Speaker 4: Stroud, there was almost an intentional grounding call, right.
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to say, like, oh sorry,
Speaker 2: that call to me or non call was almost as
Speaker 2: big as the third and sixteen play where Stroud scrambles.
Speaker 2: After that, he you know, trails after a bad snap
Speaker 2: and hits the third and sixteen play to kickstart that
Speaker 2: two minute drive. He is flushed, he's in the pocket.
Speaker 2: He throws it out of bounds and when they showed
Speaker 2: that replay, at least from that angle, it looked like
Speaker 2: he was in the pocket to me, but it was close.
Speaker 3: Those are tough calls to make.
Speaker 2: They didn't make the call, but that would have made
Speaker 2: it eight nothing with under two minutes to go, and
Speaker 2: then clicking out instead, they get another chance. He has
Speaker 2: a third and sixteen play and it's just like a
Speaker 2: scramble play, and it was almost like that moment Bill CJ. Stroud,
Speaker 2: like he couldn't think because he's just running after a
Speaker 2: ball and the game is about to end. He's running
Speaker 2: after it and he's just finally just makes a play
Speaker 2: and gets a big first down, and after that it
Speaker 2: was like he locked in and he was the CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud for the most part that you would want to see.
Speaker 2: There were a couple of little blips, but like he
Speaker 2: starts hitting a ton of inbreakers.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I actually went and looked at it on next Gen.
Speaker 4: I tried to, like, you know, chart it out, and
Speaker 4: I think it was the right call. I think it
Speaker 4: was good to hear. It was either the right call
Speaker 4: or it was close enough that I cannot fault them
Speaker 4: for not making the call. And my first instinct was
Speaker 4: that it was grounding. So I feel like not going
Speaker 4: to put the refs down too much for that. But
Speaker 4: I see what you're saying, and I don't disagree to
Speaker 4: one extent. But when it's eight nothing and you're getting
Speaker 4: the ball back, your instant goes, Okay, we can score
Speaker 4: a touchdown and make it fifteen nothing and then we're
Speaker 4: we're in great shape. But nothing the Chargers. Did you
Speaker 4: think that they were going to score? That's that's the
Speaker 4: only part that I find difficult to believe is that, Okay,
Speaker 4: if it was going to be a defensive touchdown, maybe
Speaker 4: that would have gotten a fifteen. But it felt like
Speaker 4: even when they got short fields in this game, they
Speaker 4: were not able to do anything with them, and so
Speaker 4: to me, you know, the defense was gonna have to
Speaker 4: win this game, and once, like you said, one Stroud
Speaker 4: hits that play. It felt like so much of what
Speaker 4: the Chargers were doing was just taking away stuff over
Speaker 4: the top. I think they were playing, you know, very
Speaker 4: conservative shells on defense. I think they wanted their pass
Speaker 4: rush to get home and to be the focal point
Speaker 4: of the defense. They did lose Denzil Perriman early in
Speaker 4: this game, but there's not a great, you know, coverage linebacker.
Speaker 4: He's more of a run plucking linebacker. So I don't
Speaker 4: think that made a big difference. But like you said,
Speaker 4: Nico Collins just got open over and over and over
Speaker 4: again on in breaking rounds. They had Christian Fulton covering
Speaker 4: him a lot, and it felt like Fulton was not
Speaker 4: up to the task necessarily. But I think in the
Speaker 4: big picture, the thing I would say is just this
Speaker 4: is a very top heavy Texans team. They have some
Speaker 4: very mediocre, play meaningful roles. They are some guys who
Speaker 4: have been banged up because of injury were playing more
Speaker 4: than they should because of injuries. Like they have their stars,
Speaker 4: they have Collins, they have Stroud, They have the defensive
Speaker 4: ends with Hunter and Anderson, they have Stingley, and then
Speaker 4: to a lesser extent, they have maybe maybe not to
Speaker 4: a lesser extent, but they have Lassiter and they have
Speaker 4: Bullock in the secondary, and all of those guys were
Speaker 4: awesome in this game. And that is the difference. The
Speaker 4: Texans were able to attack the weakest parts in the
Speaker 4: Chargers roster, and so many times the Chargers were stuck
Speaker 4: trying to attack the strengths of this Texans team and
Speaker 4: were not able to do so.
Speaker 2: Will Anderson ended up with six quick pressures in this game.
Speaker 2: So that's under two and a half seconds. Like, that's wow,
Speaker 2: that's just like an epic performance. Seven overall, both Daniel
Speaker 2: Hunter and Deniko Autry both had five pressures in this game,
Speaker 2: and three for Hunter were quick.
Speaker 4: So do you remember in the two plays before the
Speaker 4: crazy Mconkee touchdown?
Speaker 2: Okay, let's play it. So this is one of the
Speaker 2: crazy four play sequence. Our producer Eric had some fun
Speaker 2: putting this together. Just sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 6: Empty packfield for Herbert first down from the charge with
Speaker 6: her Ause, these looks like he's coming.
Speaker 4: Three receivers to.
Speaker 6: The left side, watched out of the field as these
Speaker 6: drops back. Here comes well co terminator with a second
Speaker 6: Herbert second and seventeen from the charger.
Speaker 4: Twenty three. Here's Herbert in the backfield again. Mario cuts
Speaker 4: back there. They brassed Herbert for another sack.
Speaker 3: Back to back.
Speaker 6: This is an onslaught by the Texans defensive front third
Speaker 6: and forever, third.
Speaker 3: And twenty six down, twenty three to six. Herbert the
Speaker 3: throne steps up in the pocket.
Speaker 5: Mclakey with a grab and mccaukey in the race is
Speaker 5: fifty forty mccaukey thirty twenty ten touchdown. Chargers on a
Speaker 5: third and twenty six eighty six yard touchdown Dicker.
Speaker 6: The kicker between the hashes with the spot Jake K.
Speaker 6: Scott will hold as the Chargers get the block. Kick
Speaker 6: here and it's patted down by Ticker.
Speaker 4: The Texans are.
Speaker 3: On the move with it.
Speaker 6: It's still alive, being brought back across the thirty twenty
Speaker 6: ten DiAngelo Russ all the way to the house as
Speaker 6: the Texans get too.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Yes, that was the four place sequence sack sack.
Speaker 2: It's twenty three to six, by the way at this point,
Speaker 2: like early in the fourth quarter, long Maconkeye touchdown that
Speaker 2: was for eighty six yards, A great throw by Herbert.
Speaker 2: I mean, it could have gone either way, but it
Speaker 2: got through Maconkey's so freaking good.
Speaker 3: He ends up nine for one ninety seven. And then yes, the.
Speaker 2: Blocked extra point, which I don't know how the Nickelodeon
Speaker 2: crew was on it, but I think it confused the
Speaker 2: regular CBS crew of like, wait does this count?
Speaker 4: Confuse the players.
Speaker 2: As to either And I think if it gets past
Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage it doesn't count. But it doesn't
Speaker 2: matter because it's blocked before the line of scrimmage and
Speaker 2: then they return it and it would have been a
Speaker 2: ten point game. Like you said, I don't think the
Speaker 2: Chargers defense was gonna come back enough in this game.
Speaker 2: But that's about as wild a four play sequence as
Speaker 2: you will ever see.
Speaker 4: That was fun, Yeah, And I think it's an example
Speaker 4: of everything you might want to confirm about the Chargers offense.
Speaker 4: I mean, first two plays, two just immediate sacks. I mean,
Speaker 4: just no protection whatsoever. I would guess the first is
Speaker 4: on Justin Herbert. It looks like he's hot off the
Speaker 4: right side there. Again, I want to see what the
Speaker 4: tape says, but it looks like there's three people coming
Speaker 4: to that side, so he should be hot. Doesn't have
Speaker 4: an answer. It takes a sack immediately from Will Anderson.
Speaker 4: Second play, nobody blocks anybody. It feels like four people
Speaker 4: break through. And then just In Herbert saying, screw it.
Speaker 4: I'm just throwing it as hard as I can to
Speaker 4: the only receiver I trust, and either he's gonna come
Speaker 4: down with it or I'm gonna throw a pick. But
Speaker 4: I don't want to get hit on this play. And
Speaker 4: then the Dicker play, which Dicker is going to get
Speaker 4: a ton of criticism for knocking the ball down. If
Speaker 4: you see JK. Scott on this play, he sees the
Speaker 4: Texans recover it and does not break into anything more
Speaker 4: than the lightest of jobs. I think he thought the
Speaker 4: play was over. I think other players on the Chargers
Speaker 4: team thought this play was over. It was like, what
Speaker 4: did it?
Speaker 1: Was?
Speaker 4: The fair kick? What did they run a couple of
Speaker 4: weeks ago.
Speaker 3: Yes, the Chargers where they had the free kick free
Speaker 3: kick kick?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes, they felt like the opposite of the
Speaker 4: free kick, where like the free kick was. You know,
Speaker 4: these Chargers are geniuses. The special teams were so well prepared.
Speaker 4: This was the exact opposite. It felt like they were
Speaker 4: not prepared for the situation whatsoever, and it came back
Speaker 4: to bite them and cost them two points at the
Speaker 4: worst possible time.
Speaker 2: Yes, and they didn't do anything when they got the
Speaker 2: ball again anyways. And they also couldn't get off the
Speaker 2: field as the Texans are just.
Speaker 3: Running the ball over and over and over.
Speaker 2: I will say I thought of a camp today for
Speaker 2: Ladi McConkie, just in terms of how people talk about him.
Speaker 2: I was convinced after Nico's kind of breakout year that
Speaker 2: like coming into this year, that he was still weirdly undervalued,
Speaker 2: that that contract was one of the best contracts in
Speaker 2: the entire NFL. And because he's like a top ten
Speaker 2: type of receiver, and I don't think people quite saw
Speaker 2: him that the way that Texan's knew and he is.
Speaker 2: I mean we saw that again when he's on the
Speaker 2: field this year. He is absolutely electric. There's nothing that
Speaker 2: he can't do. He ends up with seven for one,
Speaker 2: twenty two and one. He can do it all. I
Speaker 2: think lad McConkey is going to be a top ten
Speaker 2: NFL receiver. There's this weird thing because he's so small
Speaker 2: that people just immediately like, Oh, as long as you
Speaker 2: get someone with him, he'll be fine. What doesn't he do?
Speaker 2: He wins on the outside, He wins contested catches. He
Speaker 2: is electric in terms of his short area quickness, but
Speaker 2: he has long speed. If you watch the second half
Speaker 2: of this season, there's so many catches like that where
Speaker 2: he is leaping. He's not mossing guys because of his size,
Speaker 2: but he's winning at the catch point. As long as
Speaker 2: he stays healthy, and he stayed healthy this year year,
Speaker 2: I don't see why he isn't a guy that can't
Speaker 2: put up even better numbers than he did this year
Speaker 2: and they were absolutely electric, and you can build a
Speaker 2: passing game around him. It's just you need more than
Speaker 2: just one guy. You need like Nico needs this year.
Speaker 2: His guys are hurt. You need to get more guys
Speaker 2: around him. But Lad McConkey is that good. He's one
Speaker 2: of the better like rookie receiver seasons we've seen in
Speaker 2: a while. That the problem is he's surrounded by all
Speaker 2: these other great rookie receivers.
Speaker 4: That's a tough part, though, is that he did this
Speaker 4: with nobody around him this year, and that's the big
Speaker 4: off season project for the Chargers is getting more playmakers,
Speaker 4: whether it be a running back, whether it be a
Speaker 4: tight end, whether it be hopefully at wide receiver. It
Speaker 4: stinks because you're basically riding off the first round pick
Speaker 4: the prior regime used on Quinton Johnson and sort of
Speaker 4: not relying on him.
Speaker 3: They tried to make it work this year.
Speaker 4: He was he was okay, you know, he had some
Speaker 4: terrible games. That Ravens game I think was really awful.
Speaker 4: I don't think you want to run it back next
Speaker 4: year needing Quentin Johnson to be your wide receiver too.
Speaker 4: I think if he's in Nicks, it's fine. But I
Speaker 4: think they so many teams are going to try and
Speaker 4: get t Higgins, but they need somebody else who could
Speaker 4: win on the outside. So Talkie can be you know,
Speaker 4: poor man ceed Lamb on the inside.
Speaker 3: Sure. And but because yeah, that's a fair comparison.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's obviously not going to be as physical,
Speaker 2: and maybe it is the size and maybe because he
Speaker 2: struggled staying healthy at Georgia and it felt like every
Speaker 2: game he was kind of limping to the sideline this year.
Speaker 2: But then you look at what he actually just did
Speaker 2: and I couldn't be more impressed. I would absolutely take
Speaker 2: him in a redraft over Marvin Harrison Junior, Roma Doonzi.
Speaker 2: It's not even close because this tape matters more and
Speaker 2: to me, he showed wide receiver one NFL tape. I
Speaker 2: would still take Brian Thomas over him, Like I love
Speaker 2: Brian Thomas. My Lak Neighbors is awesome. So whatever you could,
Speaker 2: you could choose. But like he's He's that's not bad dude.
Speaker 4: Being being right up there with Lak Neighbors and Brian
Speaker 4: Thomas is not exactly any.
Speaker 2: Right, And I wouldn't argue, like if you were like this,
Speaker 2: this guy fits what we want to do. Like he
Speaker 2: he is absolutely a dude. So is Nico Collins, so
Speaker 2: is CJ.
Speaker 3: Stroud.
Speaker 2: I hope, I hope he locks in a little bit.
Speaker 2: One thing that really struck me was a really key
Speaker 2: sequence at the end of the first half after the
Speaker 2: Texans scored their first touchdown. They're hitting all those Nico
Speaker 2: Collins in breakers. They get one for a touchdown, the
Speaker 2: Chargers get the ball back. They're trying to The Chargers
Speaker 2: actually took what I thought was a smart time out
Speaker 2: late in the in the Texans drive to try to
Speaker 2: save themselves time and it paid off. They have a
Speaker 2: decent amount of time, but they go three and out
Speaker 2: and they give the ball right back to the Texans
Speaker 2: who get a field goal. That was really keyed by
Speaker 2: a CJ. Stroud scramble, and that was the first big
Speaker 2: scramble and he never scrabbles, and Demico Ryans was shown
Speaker 2: on the sideline at that point yelling, that's.
Speaker 3: What I'm f and talking about.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm ef and talking about, and he was
Speaker 2: so happy that Stroud just finally ran because he's so
Speaker 2: just loath to run all season. And then the second
Speaker 2: half after the game, he really ran a lot. The
Speaker 2: dude can't slide. I don't know what's up with that,
Speaker 2: but it was a big part of this game, him
Speaker 2: picking up first downs and then just kind of like
Speaker 2: falling forward in a way that made him look like
Speaker 2: he was going to get hurt.
Speaker 4: Still counts, still counts. So you don't break your ankle sliding.
Speaker 4: It's good. I mean, that's never going to be the
Speaker 4: focal point of his game, but it gives you the
Speaker 4: opposing team something to think about. I guarantee the Chargers
Speaker 4: did not come into this game thinking Okay, we have
Speaker 4: to be prepared for the possibility of spying CJ. Stroud,
Speaker 4: like we can control them in the pocket. We're good.
Speaker 4: That never came up and it absolutely mattered. And now
Speaker 4: whoever they play next week has to be prepared for that.
Speaker 4: They have to think, okay, like CJ. Stroud's going to
Speaker 4: go if we don't have eyes on him. That's going
Speaker 4: to change the way they rush the passer, are going
Speaker 4: to change the way they play coverage. It opens up
Speaker 4: a lot of things. There's the reason that a lot
Speaker 4: of the best quarterbacks in football are devastating scramblers because
Speaker 4: it is a button you can press that picks up
Speaker 4: easy yards, helps you convert third and longs, and you know,
Speaker 4: changes the way people cover you. On defense, What did.
Speaker 3: What did you think?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: Overall?
Speaker 2: Does this give you optimism that the Texans offense specifically
Speaker 2: could play well enough to win another game because the defense,
Speaker 2: this is one of the best defensive performances you could
Speaker 2: possibly have to ask this again is too much, but
Speaker 2: they could. They could be the best defense left in
Speaker 2: the playoffs if they just went on a tear.
Speaker 3: I'm not expecting them to be.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, like We've seen that happen a defense
Speaker 2: gets really hot. Now can the offense do you think
Speaker 2: play well enough to give them a real chance to
Speaker 2: beat these better teams.
Speaker 4: They prove that they could do it for a half
Speaker 4: or for a little over a half of football. They
Speaker 4: were incredible on offense. Outside of the turnovers, which they
Speaker 4: lost the fumble and they nearly threw an interception to
Speaker 4: Derwin James. They tried their best. It was more of
Speaker 4: a good play by Derwin James and a throw by CJ. Stroud.
Speaker 4: But this offense has been so inconsistent and so frustrating
Speaker 4: all season. They've been stuck in third and long so
Speaker 4: many times, and eventually they're going to hit a couple
Speaker 4: third and longs, and they did in this game. But
Speaker 4: to me, they were They were so bad ely in
Speaker 4: this game, like they could have thrown a couple interceptions,
Speaker 4: they lost a fumble, They looked like they weren't on
Speaker 4: the same page. Like Stroud's throws. Nobody was even near
Speaker 4: them early in this game.
Speaker 2: He seems as streaky as any quarterback in the league.
Speaker 2: That he can be in his own head where he
Speaker 2: just can't think straight and then like something happens, and
Speaker 2: then he clicks in and he's CJ. Strouded again for
Speaker 2: the rest of the game or for a couple of quarters,
Speaker 2: and they have some good drives, but I still have
Speaker 2: my doubts. I mean, even during that second half run
Speaker 2: where they were coming back, you know, they had the fumble,
Speaker 2: they had a second and forty situation which you don't
Speaker 2: see too oft. They also had a second and one
Speaker 2: at the four yard line where they ended up settling
Speaker 2: for a field goal. That was a four play, one
Speaker 2: yard drive where they go backwards. That was like, so
Speaker 2: even during this run, I don't know, it's hard. It's
Speaker 2: a little hard for me to see this offense getting
Speaker 2: it going. But you have a quarterback that you have
Speaker 2: a chance.
Speaker 4: But I had no faith in them being good on
Speaker 4: offense heading into the postseason, and now I'm still skeptical.
Speaker 4: But at least I saw them be good for a half.
Speaker 4: That's a half more than I had seen from them
Speaker 4: for the vast majority of this season against good football teams.
Speaker 3: And the vibes are good.
Speaker 2: Let's actually listen just quickly to uh Will Anderson post
Speaker 2: game with Omar Ruiz.
Speaker 5: Congratulations Will that one game season continues, yes, sor it does.
Speaker 4: Thank you, let's go take.
Speaker 2: I love a little bit of that. I also love
Speaker 2: the locker room, which we dote have clearance for that.
Speaker 2: Demico Ryans comes in and one of the first things
Speaker 2: he's as to the team is how about that bye week?
Speaker 2: In reference to Rex Ryan. A lot of the players
Speaker 2: were talking about some comments that I wasn't even aware
Speaker 2: of until then that Rex Ryan said it was gonna
Speaker 2: be until recently, yeah, that that was going to be
Speaker 2: a bye week. But that was that was a rallying
Speaker 2: cry for this team. The the dismissal from your colleague.
Speaker 2: I know you can't you can't talk.
Speaker 4: I would never I would never comment on that. I mean,
Speaker 4: we saw the who was at the Vikings and Lions,
Speaker 4: the Rams have the the Kevin O'Connell. We're going to
Speaker 4: see you in you know in two weeks.
Speaker 2: Dan Campbell is the one who said it, what is this?
Speaker 2: What is this second hand like trashtock that I've never
Speaker 2: heard of, like secondhand trash like Rex Ryan.
Speaker 3: I get, it's just like someone from the media. You
Speaker 3: can yell at the media, people.
Speaker 2: Do that, but this was Dan Campbell that said see
Speaker 2: you in two weeks, but somehow that they're they're mad
Speaker 2: at Dan Campbell.
Speaker 4: It feels like we're finding very innocuous stuff to push
Speaker 4: back on or even even coleneral damage, like like you know,
Speaker 4: I I can ended up as bull to more material
Speaker 4: for a different team. I trace this back to the
Speaker 4: Tom Brady everyone says we suck comment where it turned
Speaker 4: No one could possibly find anyone saying the Patriots sucked
Speaker 4: that year, but I'm sure there was like someone on
Speaker 4: Reddit saying that they sucked and that was enough for
Speaker 4: Tom Brady.
Speaker 2: Well, they'll have plenty more people to find as doubters
Speaker 2: going into next week. Before we get out of here,
Speaker 2: Let's let's at least we'll hear from Justin Herbert. I
Speaker 2: fear for this tall, handsome man's off season.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's tough. You know, I let the team down
Speaker 7: and you can't turn over the ball like that and
Speaker 7: expect to win and put the team into a tough
Speaker 7: position there with four turnovers like that. So you know,
Speaker 7: the defense hung to off. They got some turnovers, they
Speaker 7: gave us opportunities. But I just have to be better. Nope,
Speaker 7: you know, it's just for me to protect the ball
Speaker 7: and be better about that you know, it was aggressive
Speaker 7: downfield and you got to do a better job of
Speaker 7: getting the ball out throwing it away or better ball placement.
Speaker 4: So that's on me.
Speaker 2: Some of the numbers just crazy, like over ten yards,
Speaker 2: six for seventeen against pressure.
Speaker 3: He started out one for ten, He started.
Speaker 4: Out one of eleven. The eleventh was the pick six. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, he's a I don't want to be
Speaker 4: part of this justin Herbert culture war. I have felt
Speaker 4: the same about him for several years. I think he
Speaker 4: is very talented. I think the results are not always there.
Speaker 4: I think he has the ability to be a franchise quarterback.
Speaker 4: He has never had a season as good as many
Speaker 4: of his peers in that draft class. It's not make
Speaker 4: him a bad quarterback, but we have been sitting here
Speaker 4: for many years now waiting for him to have an
Speaker 4: MVP caliber season and he's never really come close. And
Speaker 4: that's fine, but I think we have to be realistic
Speaker 4: about what the guy is versus what I think we
Speaker 4: want him to be or hoping he's going to be.
Speaker 3: Not herbobeast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the Jim Harbaugh initial season for the Chargers
Speaker 2: somehow ends up feeling a little more similar how a
Speaker 2: lot of Chargers seasons ended.
Speaker 4: You take it if you were a Chargers fan this
Speaker 4: time last we said you're going to the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Of course, they won a couple games at the end
Speaker 2: of the season. The game against the Broncos was great.
Speaker 2: I mean it was a step forward. The schedule was easy,
Speaker 2: and we'll we'll get harder. But they definitely took a
Speaker 2: step forward. They were a disaster last year and so
Speaker 2: to make the playoffs at all is a big step.
Speaker 2: But they were road favorites here and they did not
Speaker 2: get it done. You were one of my favorites.
Speaker 3: Bill.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you coming on for the first time we've
Speaker 2: ever done this like a Saturday night playoff recap, and
Speaker 2: appreciate everyone who came into the chat. A lot of
Speaker 2: people watching live got to check out the Bill Barnwell podcast.
Speaker 2: Where else A You're going to be this week around
Speaker 2: the NFL? I mean around the Horn?
Speaker 3: Oh there there's a forty in slip.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'll be on around the Horn this week, probably
Speaker 4: talking about Justin Herbert some more, probably Sports Center this weekend.
Speaker 4: We will see plenty of plenty of stuff to discuss here.
Speaker 2: And in the ESPN plus everyone.
Speaker 3: Sure, as I say, it's worth it just for Bill.
Speaker 2: You just it's worth it for Bill and the Australian
Speaker 2: Open like Court fourteen Ky Query match that I'm I'm
Speaker 2: gonna watch if he's still playing, although he was down
Speaker 2: two sets when I went into this.
Speaker 3: Let's get out of here. Thank you, Eric.
Speaker 2: We will be back on Sunday Night recapping those three games.
Speaker 2: It will be with Patrick Claybonn, Nick Shook maybe a
Speaker 2: special guest. Thanks again as always to Will Barnwell. Yes,
Speaker 2: when the Chargers are charging right out of the playoffs,
Speaker 2: you know football is back.
Speaker 3: See a Sunday