Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Daily, where we always catch our
Speaker 1: two point conversions. I'm Greg Rosenthal sticking the knife in
Speaker 1: and feeling bad about it in the Chris Westleying podcast studio,
Speaker 1: next to my friend Patrick Claybaugh, who's dancing through the pain,
Speaker 1: and my other friend Nick Shook, who wishes he could
Speaker 1: feel the pain of a difficult playoff loss as a
Speaker 1: Browns fan.
Speaker 2: Gents, how are we doing? Sorry? I don't know what's
Speaker 2: wrong with.
Speaker 3: Well, we all we all deal with it in different ways.
Speaker 3: It was a spectacular game. There's a reason that these
Speaker 3: things mean so much. And to get out there and see,
Speaker 3: you know, some of the best in the world. I'll
Speaker 3: go out there. It's always good. And with Jim and
Speaker 3: Tony on the call, great.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Shook, Uh, you know you're a You're an AFC North guy.
Speaker 1: Are you like Rudy against your your rival Ravens? Are
Speaker 1: you rooting for your friend Patrick here in this situation?
Speaker 4: I was? I mean, well, first off, I don't feel anything,
Speaker 4: so okay, so talking about the paint of a playoff loss,
Speaker 4: I don't feel anything, but no, I was on the
Speaker 4: Ravens span wagon. I was on the train. I had
Speaker 4: ten points in this game. I just didn't foresee them
Speaker 4: turning the ball three times.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you so you don't like our producer Eric
Speaker 1: who is who is trying to not celebrate he he's
Speaker 1: making quotes like he's on the team. Was like, the
Speaker 1: next one is the one one that really matters this
Speaker 1: this is just a true step, It's true. Sure, what
Speaker 1: about celebrating Toby Roberts there? Yeah, what is this? You're
Speaker 1: not the one happened at press conference. They've lost in
Speaker 1: this round three straight years until this one home, and
Speaker 1: the Chiefs are looming, guys, bigger problems. Yes, Horizon, thank
Speaker 1: you for leading me to what I should have started
Speaker 1: the show with. The Bills won this game against the Ravens,
Speaker 1: and we have our conference championship games set starting in
Speaker 1: the NFC. The Commanders will be headed to Philadelphia that
Speaker 1: game at three pm Eastern next week. The Eagles sweated
Speaker 1: it out, as you guys know, if you're listening, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that game in a little while. And yes,
Speaker 1: the AFC championship game. All season long, it felt like
Speaker 1: it was leading to either Ravens Chiefs or Bills Chiefs,
Speaker 1: and we found out in Orchard Park on Sunday that
Speaker 1: it was gonna be Eric's Bills.
Speaker 2: Let's go there.
Speaker 3: Jackson lines up in the SHOTGI, looks to his left,
Speaker 3: brings Likely in motion, takes the snap back the pass
Speaker 3: plenty of.
Speaker 5: Time again looking looking.
Speaker 6: Jackson now rolling to his right, still look much time,
Speaker 6: fires deep for.
Speaker 2: The end zone in his.
Speaker 6: Hot, hot diamond catch in the end zone by Likely Isaya, Likely,
Speaker 6: skidding across the end zone, holds it in and with
Speaker 6: one thirty three to go, it's a two point game.
Speaker 6: A twenty four yard touchdown the likely, and now the
Speaker 6: Ravens have a chance to time.
Speaker 7: Play clock down to five. Here's the snap, Jackson rolling right,
Speaker 7: looking to.
Speaker 8: Toss it and dropping the football in complete his mark andrews.
Speaker 8: It wasn't a well prone ball at all. It was
Speaker 8: behind Rays and he could not come up with it.
Speaker 8: Falling away from the pass, It's incomplete.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was the key sequence.
Speaker 1: Late in Sunday evenings, Bills Ravens AFC Division around twenty
Speaker 1: seven to twenty five.
Speaker 2: I personally agree disagree with Chris Brown there.
Speaker 1: On WGR The pass was fine, Andrew stumbled a little bit,
Speaker 1: dropped his third pass of the game, a nightmare performance
Speaker 1: for one of the all time great Ravens. Also had
Speaker 1: a lost fumble. We'll talk about all that. That was
Speaker 1: also Ryan Radkey on Westwood One. They asked Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: and to make a touchdown drive with the season on
Speaker 1: the line, and like he's done patrick for so much
Speaker 1: of the season, he delivered got them into the end zone.
Speaker 2: Maybe Sean McDermott was right not to have any faith in.
Speaker 1: His defense and kick that field goal to go up
Speaker 1: eight because Lamar delivered.
Speaker 2: He was getting time.
Speaker 1: They're winning up front, but they don't hit the two,
Speaker 1: and that is how the season ends for your Ravens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a story of the season for Baltimore that
Speaker 3: started with a drive like that in Kansas City. And
Speaker 3: that's what these Ravens have done consistently. They've scored that touchdown.
Speaker 3: They lose the game in Pittsburgh on a bobble two
Speaker 3: point conversion where the guards are running into each other.
Speaker 3: This game, you know, there's some snap mouth feasons on
Speaker 3: a play that leads to a fumble, But this is
Speaker 3: the moment that everybody's gonna remember. Ryan Radkey says, as
Speaker 3: bad past, I guess he wants Lamar to fire that
Speaker 3: thing to the sideline in nineteen degrees standard temperature. I
Speaker 3: don't even know what the windchill was like at that
Speaker 3: point in the game. That would have been tough for
Speaker 3: Mark Andrews to deal with. The ball was where it
Speaker 3: was supposed to be, but it's not round. Sometimes sometimes
Speaker 3: it bounces away. It did from Mark Andrews a couple
Speaker 3: of times here. But that's what this offense has been
Speaker 3: able to do. We saw them in the two drives
Speaker 3: before that, run the ball every single play have success there.
Speaker 3: Here they drop back and throw. I was thinking of
Speaker 3: Nick Shook when the Bills decided to rush three on
Speaker 3: that as Isaiah lankly passed where it's like, well, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's just give Lamar seventeen seconds to find an open receiver.
Speaker 3: And he does that and he comes through. But I
Speaker 3: think the reason that they're rushing three is because the
Speaker 3: offense was having so much success in every capacity of
Speaker 3: the game. You just got to throw the wall and
Speaker 3: see what sticks. And ultimately, the Ravens just didn't make
Speaker 3: the plays and the Bills did.
Speaker 1: Yes. And I sometimes get on coaches for not having
Speaker 1: a feel of their team, a feel of the game.
Speaker 1: In the moment, and in the moment, I feel like
Speaker 1: I was one of the few people who wanted McDermott
Speaker 1: to go for it when it was on what the
Speaker 1: three yard line, down up five, with you know, under
Speaker 1: four minutes to go, and instead they kicked the Tyler
Speaker 1: Bass field goal. And I thought it was a total
Speaker 1: lack of faith in his defense. But when you look
Speaker 1: at how the game ended, maybe as a defensive coach,
Speaker 1: he should have had a lack of faith in his defense.
Speaker 1: The way the Ravens were moving the ball. Don't forget
Speaker 1: like there are four drives in the second half field
Speaker 1: goal early where they did make a good play at
Speaker 1: the at the end, but then touchdown. They stopped the
Speaker 1: drive with the Mark Andrews fumble, but the Ravens were
Speaker 1: moving it and then of course they finished with the touchdown.
Speaker 1: So maybe he was right not to have faith in
Speaker 1: his defense. Shook, did you think that was the right
Speaker 1: decision at the moment?
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4: I think you have to make it an eight point
Speaker 4: game and force the other team to try to convert
Speaker 4: a two point conversion if they get down there and score,
Speaker 4: because they already failed at doing it once earlier in
Speaker 4: this game. You give your best percentages in best likelihood
Speaker 4: that you're going to win the game or at least
Speaker 4: tie it and send it to overtime by kicking that
Speaker 4: field goal.
Speaker 1: For what it's worth it, the models probably had it
Speaker 1: at as about a fifty to fifty maybe a slight
Speaker 1: lean to go. For me, it's more just like, you
Speaker 1: have Josh Allen on your team, so let's try to
Speaker 1: win the game multiple ways, one of which would be
Speaker 1: with your best player. But ultimately, obviously it worked out
Speaker 1: and I'm wrong.
Speaker 4: That also speaks to the Ravens play calling decisions on
Speaker 4: their two point conversion attempts, because on the drive in
Speaker 4: which they run the ball down Buffalo's throat the entire
Speaker 4: way down there, they go to call the two and
Speaker 4: I go, please don't throw the ball, And what do
Speaker 4: they do. They drop back and throw the ball and
Speaker 4: it gets tipped to the line of scrimmage incomplete same
Speaker 4: situation there they score, and I'm like, please don't throw
Speaker 4: the ball. Use one of your multiple runners and the
Speaker 4: many ways that you can attack on the ground and
Speaker 4: try to win it that way with your bread and butter.
Speaker 4: They roll out right, They force themselves into a third
Speaker 4: of the field and one throw, and that's what happens.
Speaker 4: It comes down to one throw and you lose the
Speaker 4: game that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a fascinating game because I don't think there
Speaker 1: are these massive takeaways that everyone's going to be hammering afterwards,
Speaker 1: unless you just want to go stupid with the Lamar
Speaker 1: legacy talk. Now, Lamar Jackson did not play his best game.
Speaker 1: I think the first half and his struggles and the
Speaker 1: interception that he threw, and certainly the fumble, and more
Speaker 1: than anything, I think the sack inside the ten yard
Speaker 1: line was a bad play by him really contributed directly
Speaker 1: to them falling in a hole that they couldn't get
Speaker 1: out of and that they lost.
Speaker 2: Even though they had seven.
Speaker 1: Point three yards per play, they outgained the Bills by
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty yards from sixteen to two seventy three.
Speaker 1: His struggles contributed, but so many things contributed to it, Patrick,
Speaker 1: and I can't just get past like the most basic
Speaker 1: thing of all, which is they turned the ball over
Speaker 1: three times and the Bills didn't. So they win a
Speaker 1: game where Josh Allen was sort of a supporting character
Speaker 1: and their running game overall was really strong.
Speaker 2: And that those were two important.
Speaker 1: Differences, But it kind of does come back to three
Speaker 1: turnovers in a game where these two teams had seven
Speaker 1: or eight possessions. That is almost impossible to overcome. And
Speaker 1: they almost did it, but they didn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, according to the next Gen stats, they lost thirty
Speaker 3: six point seven percent in win probability on those three
Speaker 3: play and so the Bills, Yeah, they had a conservative
Speaker 3: game plan. Josh Allen only attempted four passes that were
Speaker 3: longer than ten yards. But wow, when you have a
Speaker 3: defense that made plays like they did today, because that
Speaker 3: on that Lamar interception, Matt Mlonal gets pressure, Lamar has
Speaker 3: to get rid of the ball earlier than he wants.
Speaker 3: I can't get the ball to shot like the way
Speaker 3: that he wants to, and Rap makes a good play.
Speaker 3: There was Matt Milano tipping that ball in the two
Speaker 3: point conversion where you know Stanley can't see where Lamar is.
Speaker 3: If he finishes the block on Matt Milano, then yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's an easy two point conversion. And maybe they're
Speaker 3: still playing the game while we're having this discussion, but
Speaker 3: it's when a team executes so well like they did
Speaker 3: in the run game and that one drive, it's just
Speaker 3: we expect to see them duplicate that over and over again,
Speaker 3: all eleven guys, and when one or two guys don't,
Speaker 3: it just goes hilariously and horribly wrong for the Ravens.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's tough because, like you said, they outgained them,
Speaker 4: like they were moving the ball well, and I hate
Speaker 4: to boil it down to the turnover situation, but it
Speaker 4: literally comes down to that. It comes down to the
Speaker 4: Mark Andrews fumble on a drive in which they had
Speaker 4: all the momentum going in their favor.
Speaker 9: I mean, they were moving the ball really well at
Speaker 9: that point too.
Speaker 4: That was the drive that they were supposed to finish
Speaker 4: off and really make this an interesting game, and instead
Speaker 4: they put themselves in a hole where they then have
Speaker 4: to go down the field and score that touchdown and
Speaker 4: try to get the two just to have a chance
Speaker 4: at overtime. Like self inflicted wounds, I basically described this
Speaker 4: entire game in like one sentence, which is the Bills
Speaker 4: are celebrating a victory that they know they got away
Speaker 4: with one kind of the AAFC championship game, which is
Speaker 4: often the playoffs in a nutshell, and the Ravens are
Speaker 4: gonna fly back to Baltimore, just kicking themselves for all
Speaker 4: the missed opportunities and the opportunities that they wasted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's fair.
Speaker 1: I think you got to give Trell Bernard credit on
Speaker 1: the force fumble in the fourth quarter on Mark Andrews.
Speaker 1: Now Andrews made a weird cut. Let's actually listen to
Speaker 1: that play, Henry to the right of.
Speaker 7: Jackson is the shotgun play clock down to five on
Speaker 7: second and eleven. There's the snap fakes, the handoff back
Speaker 7: to pass as time looking deep over the middle, wide.
Speaker 10: Open, his Andrews gets away from the tackle of the
Speaker 10: balls out and Terrell Bernard forces the football and scoops
Speaker 10: up the football.
Speaker 2: Take away number three for Buffalo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just such a big, big play in that game,
Speaker 1: especially after Andrews's dropped earlier in the half killed another drive.
Speaker 1: He starts going backwards, which you just don't want your
Speaker 1: tight end to do here, And that is kind of
Speaker 1: the matchup when these two teams face off on defense.
Speaker 1: The Bills are lighter, and they did a good job
Speaker 1: stopping the run for the most part in the first half. Patrick,
Speaker 1: but they kind of need to create some big plays
Speaker 1: and change things up. And this is where I am
Speaker 1: going to give Sean McDermott some credit. He used to
Speaker 1: be a coach that would just run what he runs,
Speaker 1: and he's changed that where he's become much more of
Speaker 1: a game plan type of guy. I would still say
Speaker 1: they lean more towards a run what they run type
Speaker 1: of defense. But in the first half of this game,
Speaker 1: they were blitzing and playing man at a higher rate
Speaker 1: than they had in any game in three years now.
Speaker 1: It didn't work the whole game, and they started getting
Speaker 1: run over in the second half. But you look at
Speaker 1: the numbers against so in defense, Lamar went ten for
Speaker 1: eleven with two touchdowns for one hundred and twenty two yards,
Speaker 1: and against man he was eight for fourteen one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty two yards against the blitz and man coverage,
Speaker 1: and they mixed enough up to get a few extra
Speaker 1: stops and some big plays against the best offense in
Speaker 1: the league, and in a playoff game like that ended
Speaker 1: up being enough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's enough. It doesn't have to necessarily work
Speaker 3: the whole game. Yeah, These games come down to so
Speaker 3: few possessions, even conversion attempts right where you don't need
Speaker 3: to have the plan work the entire game. You forced
Speaker 3: Baltimore to adjust, which Today eventually did. But they're never
Speaker 3: going to get that time back from those first half drives.
Speaker 3: It's just not coming back. And when Buffalo had the opportunities,
Speaker 3: you know, they just took advantage of it. And I
Speaker 3: know it's very easy that you don't toll in the
Speaker 3: ball over and you win, but you still need Bernard
Speaker 3: to poke that ball out. You still need Tamar Hamlin
Speaker 3: to grab Lamar's ankle and Von to pick up the
Speaker 3: fumble like you still need Buffalo to make those plays,
Speaker 3: and they ultimately did.
Speaker 1: Since he just mentioned it, let's listen to that turnover.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, this is like going through a house of
Speaker 1: horrors for you. It's Tatrick.
Speaker 5: It's fun.
Speaker 2: You're a professional. Here's a stab. Oh it almost went
Speaker 2: over his head.
Speaker 10: Jackson has it, but he's wrapped up around the angles.
Speaker 2: Pretty fumbled the football. It's scooped up by.
Speaker 10: Von Miller coming the other way thirty and he's tackled.
Speaker 10: Had the twenty three yard line by just as Hill.
Speaker 10: DeMar Hamlin forced the fumble.
Speaker 1: Wait a moment there for Damar Hamlin in a huge game.
Speaker 1: Just another catrun. What's been a great season for him.
Speaker 5: And the TV angle doesn't do that snap justice. It's
Speaker 5: not that the snap was high.
Speaker 3: The snap was to Lamar's extended left hand, almost as
Speaker 3: though if he were standing a full person over and
Speaker 3: it was high and it was coming fast, and so
Speaker 3: that started the playoff down a bad road. But those
Speaker 3: are the margins, like those are the margins in these games.
Speaker 3: But you know, to the chagrin of Mark Andrews, everybody's
Speaker 3: only going to remember that one last play.
Speaker 5: But that's not how things work. It's a cumulative football
Speaker 5: game show.
Speaker 4: There's also another margin that I think we might overlook
Speaker 4: in the whole sequence of everything, and it's that last
Speaker 4: drive right before halftime, in which the Bravens appear to
Speaker 4: get a third down stop and then there's a late
Speaker 4: flag thrown for a pass interference penalty on a play
Speaker 4: that could have gone either way. Lean call me kind
Speaker 4: of shoved the defender down, But I thought that was
Speaker 4: a bad on for it was. It was a bad call,
Speaker 4: and that sets up a touchdown.
Speaker 1: That was a more important call and less questionable than
Speaker 1: anyone I saw a weekend.
Speaker 4: I thought, yeah, yeah, and it produced a touchdown. That
Speaker 4: gave him a twenty one to ten lead right before half.
Speaker 4: I'm in forced Baltimore to really try to race back
Speaker 4: into it, and to their credit, they almost did. If
Speaker 4: Andrews doesn't bubble on that drive, they'd probably go down
Speaker 4: there and score and take the lead. We can play
Speaker 4: the what if game all day, but these little breaks,
Speaker 4: these little shifts in playoff games, end up mattering so
Speaker 4: much between two teams that are so evenly matched that
Speaker 4: it doesn't you know, everybody's going to remember the two
Speaker 4: point conversion of the drop right, but it doesn't just
Speaker 4: come down to that.
Speaker 9: It's just that that happened to be the last play
Speaker 9: in the sequence of the entire.
Speaker 2: Game, right.
Speaker 3: And when we talk about the defensive pass interference call,
Speaker 3: none of us are saying, oh, the Bills won because
Speaker 3: of that. That's not what we're saying. We're me personally,
Speaker 3: I am invested in these games, especially this one, and
Speaker 3: the outcome. And we have the benefit of high definition
Speaker 3: cameras and replay. We have an opportunity to get these
Speaker 3: calls right and allow the players on the field to
Speaker 3: determine the outcome of the game. And until we prioritize
Speaker 3: getting the calls right. People are going to feel cheated
Speaker 3: in these situations.
Speaker 2: You do want to bring back replay for pass interference, I.
Speaker 5: Would like to act try it this time, Greg, Yeah,
Speaker 5: because being a disaster. Yeah, instead of it's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: we're looking at this all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have to have literally all of the evidence
Speaker 3: in the world and still not overturnner. I would like
Speaker 3: a legitimate attempt to try to get the calls right,
Speaker 3: that's all. And it shouldn't take twenty minutes. We sit
Speaker 3: here and spend all Sunday watching these games. Anyway, let's
Speaker 3: try to get them right right.
Speaker 1: And one of the things, and many of the listeners
Speaker 1: didn't love it, They're thinking, I'm like a company man
Speaker 1: defending what happened in the Chiefs game yesterday. But my
Speaker 1: greater point was mistakes are going to happen because these
Speaker 1: are humans, yes, and they're going to continue to happen.
Speaker 1: So you can decide how you want to operate as
Speaker 1: a as a fan. You can get really frustrated. There's
Speaker 1: no conspiracy to help the Chiefs. There is a league
Speaker 1: wide push to help quarterbacks, and Patrick Mahomes certainly takes
Speaker 1: advantage of that in the way that he plays.
Speaker 5: Or as a called number eight did not get here
Speaker 5: on Sunday, jan nineteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was another miscall.
Speaker 1: I thought there was a this I thought was the
Speaker 1: worst officiated game of the weekend, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1: I thought there was a holding call against the Bills
Speaker 1: that killed the drive that that was bad early. What
Speaker 1: was that on Dawkins? The late hit on Lamar seemed
Speaker 1: pretty obvious in this game. And my point isn't that
Speaker 1: like you can't be mad at bad calls, just like
Speaker 1: that it is part of the game. And what Patrick
Speaker 1: is proposing is to try to reduce that being part
Speaker 1: of the game to review. I'm not so against it,
Speaker 1: but I don't think there's a lot of.
Speaker 2: Support for that.
Speaker 1: I do think they'll start reviewing some plays like face mask,
Speaker 1: and they'll they'll add a little more to that. Let
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the good things that the
Speaker 1: Bills did in this game in the first half, because
Speaker 1: it was a very strange game. Like I said, only
Speaker 1: seven drives for the Bills and you get twenty seven
Speaker 1: points on the board. So even though they didn't have
Speaker 1: many yards in this game, and they had some pedal
Speaker 1: yards and it's two hundred and seventy three yards.
Speaker 2: They actually did play pretty efficient offense.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking I was a lot of short fields,
Speaker 1: and then I look at it and really it was
Speaker 1: just that one short field after the interception that Lamar
Speaker 1: threw that they took advantage for the touchdown. Otherwise, like,
Speaker 1: they moved the ball well and they scored twenty seven
Speaker 1: points on only seven drives.
Speaker 2: That's a good job by them, Shook.
Speaker 1: We talked about their running game all year, and if
Speaker 1: I had to just pick one other thing that stood
Speaker 1: out to me in this game about the Bills other
Speaker 1: than the turnovers, it was that they are now built
Speaker 1: for games like this. They just won a game where
Speaker 1: as Patrick mentioned, he only Josh Allen only threw the
Speaker 1: ball pass the line of scrimmage ten yards four times.
Speaker 1: He only threw for one hundred and twenty seven yards
Speaker 1: in this game, averaged under six yards per attempt, and
Speaker 1: he didn't run the ball that well. But what did
Speaker 1: it for them on offense was a fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: success rate with James Cook, Ty Johnson and Ray Davis.
Speaker 1: And that is very different, I think than the teams
Speaker 1: that the Bills were losing with the last few years.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and that that's a good way to counter a
Speaker 4: team that had a fifty five point four percent success
Speaker 4: rate in the Ravens offensively. That's how you match it
Speaker 4: right there with the running game. But it goes all
Speaker 4: the way back to last season when the Bills ran
Speaker 4: the table to get into the playoffs after they changed
Speaker 4: offensive coordinators, and a massive tip of the cap is
Speaker 4: due once again to Joe Brady for balancing at this offense,
Speaker 4: emphasizing the run and then within the flow of the game,
Speaker 4: calling the plays at the right times, going forward at
Speaker 4: the right times, taking the risks at the right times,
Speaker 4: and knowing this is the situation in which we try
Speaker 4: to impose our will on you on the ground.
Speaker 9: And we don't just use James Cook.
Speaker 4: We used Ray Davis, we used Ty Johnson, we used
Speaker 4: Josh Allen a little bit once they got inside the
Speaker 4: red zone today. That's why part of the reason why
Speaker 4: I was a little bit surprised they didn't go for
Speaker 4: it in that final possession before the Ravens final drive
Speaker 4: at the end of the game is just because they
Speaker 4: had been winning and succeeding upfront in those situations in
Speaker 4: the red zone on the ground, it makes them a
Speaker 4: very tough team to play against, even when they only
Speaker 4: have seven possessions. When they have that type of balance,
Speaker 4: you never really know what is coming. And they're really
Speaker 4: hard to bring down. And there was a few situations there,
Speaker 4: especially in the second half, where they're gashing them.
Speaker 9: They're getting big games.
Speaker 4: They're just winning with James Cook being patient or James
Speaker 4: Cook getting through the line and breaking a tackling very
Speaker 4: hard to go down, and that makes them a tough
Speaker 4: team to play against.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you bring up that drive after the Andrews fumble,
Speaker 1: Alan hits mac Collins. I like that they started out
Speaker 1: with the pass on that drive and then after that
Speaker 1: it's short passes to Coleman and Johnson and it's them
Speaker 1: able to run the ball with Cook and they get
Speaker 1: down to what the two yard line, it's third and two,
Speaker 1: and you think they're just gonna go QB sneak there,
Speaker 1: the Josh Allen Toushbush type of play, and instead he's
Speaker 1: in shotgun and it's a quarterback run. And those have
Speaker 1: been effective for them. He didn't, you know, have a
Speaker 1: ton of yards in this game, but they were effective
Speaker 1: for him. But he gets held up and for a
Speaker 1: second he's held up and he looks backwards, and I
Speaker 1: just want to know Eric, like, were you clocking that
Speaker 1: in the moment and what was going through your mind
Speaker 1: at that moment?
Speaker 11: I yelled, He's gonna later relate. Chris is sitting there
Speaker 11: watching with me because you see him shuttle it. I
Speaker 11: got a phone call from my brother watching at his home.
Speaker 11: He knows I'm at work. He called me moments later
Speaker 11: he's like, did you see his hands? Yeah, he was
Speaker 11: totally thinking about latering it was. Cook was standing there
Speaker 11: and Cook kind of gave a little hesy like and
Speaker 11: there was like eight arms on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at all eight were owned by Madam, but he
Speaker 2: totally was.
Speaker 1: It is funny, and I don't want to get caught
Speaker 1: trapped in in what the conversation could be or wouldn't be.
Speaker 1: But it's like mattab Weeke ultimately helped the Bills out
Speaker 1: there because if we had had a Josh Allen throws
Speaker 1: a bad fumble there in the moment, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I could have lived with like the narrative after that.
Speaker 1: I know they still would have been up five at
Speaker 1: that point, but it just would have been a preposterous
Speaker 1: ad to that game and Josh defense.
Speaker 5: If you go back and look at it, Okay, it's Cook.
Speaker 3: Mac Collins and Keon and there's just there's just for
Speaker 3: Davious White over there. If he if he rolls that
Speaker 3: thing to James Cook, Okay, he probably walks into the
Speaker 3: end zone.
Speaker 1: That would be another fun way to end the game too.
Speaker 1: Then it actually works, that would have been that would
Speaker 1: have been fun. But if he's got made Weekway's arm
Speaker 1: just grabbing him as he's doing, who knows.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a little pucker there, guys.
Speaker 5: And also you know, the.
Speaker 3: Referees could blow the whistle when somebody is being dragged
Speaker 3: down by five people and nobody's going anywhere.
Speaker 1: They do have the option to stop the play, yes,
Speaker 1: and they did not, So they were they were fired
Speaker 1: up after the game. I love what Josh Allen said
Speaker 1: about Lamar Jackson, about just the respect that he had
Speaker 1: for him. They had a nice embrace at midfield. Let's
Speaker 1: actually listen to Sean McDermott after the game, a little
Speaker 1: spicier that I would have expected. They heard it all
Speaker 1: week long.
Speaker 11: We're not we're not big enough, we're not strong enough,
Speaker 11: not talented enough, not fat, whatever it is, they heard it.
Speaker 5: I don't do the social media things, but I think.
Speaker 4: Josh did this too in the post game where the
Speaker 4: people did you hear yeah they're not fat enough? In fact,
Speaker 4: when when they when he said it, when Josh said
Speaker 4: on the field after what I said, oh, shut up,
Speaker 4: like we don't need this narrative.
Speaker 1: You're a good football team. But this is not a
Speaker 1: ton of doubters. This is this is just how it goes,
Speaker 1: like the Chiefs do. This is like Novak Djokovic is
Speaker 1: over there in Australia. He refuses to do post post
Speaker 1: match interviews right now because one guy like made a
Speaker 1: joke about not liking him, and you just it's these
Speaker 1: great players they did and coaches apparently they need to
Speaker 1: find enemies.
Speaker 5: No, they'll do it.
Speaker 3: Sean McDermott needs to ingratiate himself to the people in
Speaker 3: Buffalo who call for his job when they don't have
Speaker 3: postseason success. So saying this maybe does that. It maybe
Speaker 3: makes him a little bit safer. I think it's a
Speaker 3: solid place.
Speaker 2: I feel like he should be apply safe.
Speaker 1: Although you're right, if they had lost this game, who
Speaker 1: knows people people would would not be happy with him.
Speaker 1: I like I said, I'm impressed how they have mixed
Speaker 1: it up in terms of being able to run the ball,
Speaker 1: and in terms of the defensive approach, they didn't have
Speaker 1: much of a pass rush.
Speaker 2: We'll get into that.
Speaker 1: Next week talking about the Chiefs, because I do think
Speaker 1: that's a problem for them that maybe he recognized when
Speaker 1: deciding to kick that three that their four man passwords
Speaker 1: just isn't great and that's why they needed to blitz today.
Speaker 1: But ultimately they do force the mistakes, and Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: spoke about that after the game.
Speaker 12: The first half, I had two Casey turnos, me not
Speaker 12: holding the safety, me just knowing the covering, me knowing
Speaker 12: it was man through a BS in the session, Gabe,
Speaker 12: it was seven seven at the time.
Speaker 5: I believe they scored after that bad or bad fumble.
Speaker 12: It's not trying to make something happen and couldn't though.
Speaker 12: It was like a RPO place, so I couldn't really
Speaker 12: throw the ball likely with the office line down the field,
Speaker 12: so I was trying to make something happen. Try to
Speaker 12: sweeze the ball, stood up, my hand, picked it up,
Speaker 12: got some yards that led to points for them. So
Speaker 12: it's a team effort out there. You know, he's been
Speaker 12: busting his behind making places happened out down that field
Speaker 12: for us. UH came up short. And like I've been
Speaker 12: saying all season, every time we have situations like this,
Speaker 12: turnovers play a factor.
Speaker 5: Pennanties play a factor.
Speaker 12: Today, Well tonight the turnover. You know, that's why we
Speaker 12: lost the game, because as you can see, moving the
Speaker 12: ball wonderfully is hold on to the I'm sorry for
Speaker 12: my labor room annoying.
Speaker 5: How to fill up?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's there's an instinct I think to.
Speaker 1: Talk about because it's going to be annoying obviously for
Speaker 1: the Ravens and frustrating in in this aftermath and for
Speaker 1: their fans and for the next six months until we
Speaker 1: do this again.
Speaker 2: It's just it's just how it works.
Speaker 1: But I want to resist the urge to talk about
Speaker 1: the legacy of it all and the long term view
Speaker 1: of it all, because I just have been around enough
Speaker 1: to see how it just is always changing. Lamar and
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning, who I think have a lot of similarities,
Speaker 1: just as in terms of their individual career and their
Speaker 1: success and not playing their bet Like Lamar really has
Speaker 1: had some of his worst games in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I don't think this was one of them.
Speaker 1: But he did have the mistakes in the first half
Speaker 1: of this game that he obviously regrets, but otherwise we
Speaker 1: saw what made the Ravens great. But there are a
Speaker 1: lot of similarities with Manning. I'm old enough to remember
Speaker 1: that Manning was always the guy who couldn't win the
Speaker 1: big game. He was always the guy that couldn't win
Speaker 1: the big game until he wasn't. And then it actually
Speaker 1: flipped so far that he was the greatest of all
Speaker 1: time and it actually was kind of done and dusted
Speaker 1: at that moment, which is funny to think about now.
Speaker 1: On NFL dot Com the morning of the Seahawks Broncos
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, it said, greatest of all time? How Peyton
Speaker 1: Manning can cement like his tie with one more win
Speaker 1: over the Seahawks. They got in this game and they
Speaker 1: lose forty three to eight, And it's funny to think
Speaker 1: about now. And now people make their top fives and
Speaker 1: people don't even talk about Manny, which I actually I
Speaker 1: think they should, like he should be in that mix.
Speaker 2: But it's just it's just stupid. It's all stupid.
Speaker 5: It's the same people. Greg.
Speaker 3: We let them off the hook every single time, whether
Speaker 3: it's Andy Murray, Phil Mickelson, Lebron James Michael Jordan, they.
Speaker 5: Just say it and then the person wins, and then
Speaker 5: they say it.
Speaker 3: About the next person, and we never take the time
Speaker 3: to mute and block these people and take the microphones
Speaker 3: out of their damn hands.
Speaker 5: It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 3: You win the game and then everything is great, But
Speaker 3: if you don't, there's only two outcomes that can happen.
Speaker 5: There's only two outcomes that can happen. So the idea
Speaker 5: if you don't win, that you can't win. It's asinine.
Speaker 3: And if you love football, if you love sports, then
Speaker 3: you should hold people that you communicate with to a
Speaker 3: higher standard where they don't say dumb shit.
Speaker 5: Doesn't make any damn sense.
Speaker 4: It's also imply reductive. In a team sport, it's eleven
Speaker 4: on eleven. You have to stay healthy. Things the ball
Speaker 4: that's not round has to bounce your way. You have
Speaker 4: elements that you play in, especially in playoff games that
Speaker 4: are played outside, some things can go wrong. It's not
Speaker 4: always down to one player, no matter how important the
Speaker 4: position is. Yet, because we reduce everything down to the simplest,
Speaker 4: most easily understandable, form for talk shows, which a podcast
Speaker 4: is a talk we are airtime on TV on Monday morning.
Speaker 4: It ends up being that. And then you go to
Speaker 4: the barber shop or the locker room and they all
Speaker 4: say the same things.
Speaker 9: And guess what.
Speaker 4: Football is a much more complex sport than that. It
Speaker 4: is like dance and jazz. That's corey and raft at
Speaker 4: a high speed with massive humans all playing at once,
Speaker 4: and sometimes it's slippery and cold out there.
Speaker 9: It is not that easy and it's not that simple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I like what you said to me Patrick
Speaker 1: before the show is something that you don't want the
Speaker 1: conversations around this game to.
Speaker 2: Impact how you feel about the game.
Speaker 3: No about this particular team, because the twenty twenty three
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four Detroit Lions and Baltimore Ravens were very
Speaker 3: good football teams with very good and notable stories that
Speaker 3: should be remembered and celebrated, but because ball bounces and
Speaker 3: things didn't ultimately go their way, were forced to relegate
Speaker 3: them to.
Speaker 5: The back of our minds in history. But they were
Speaker 5: still very good football team.
Speaker 2: They were very good, but they did ultimate results.
Speaker 1: They ultimately didn't play their best game, which is what
Speaker 1: they needed to go through the playoffs, and I do
Speaker 1: think that's where it's not about legacy, it's about the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four Ravens. That this was a really good
Speaker 1: Ravens teams. They've had some before. I think the way
Speaker 1: they came into the playoffs, and I think you saw
Speaker 1: today their defense wasn't perfect, but I think it was
Speaker 1: good enough, and I think their offense was special. That
Speaker 1: it was a missed opportunity. It's a loaded AFC with
Speaker 1: three major superpower but they had a real opportunity and
Speaker 1: if they had gotten through this game, it would have
Speaker 1: been really tough. Next week in the super Bowl would
Speaker 1: have been tough too. But I think I'll think of
Speaker 1: them a little similar to the twenty twenty two Bills
Speaker 1: that lost in overtime or twenty twenty one Bills. It's
Speaker 1: so hard to con this Bills team is always knocking
Speaker 1: on the door, Eric, but that team, i'm'll always be convinced.
Speaker 1: If they had just gotten through that game, I think
Speaker 1: they would have won the Super Bowl. And this Ravens
Speaker 1: team was that kind of team and they didn't get
Speaker 1: it done. And so that that hurts because we've been
Speaker 1: around long enough to know they're not going to have
Speaker 1: that team every year, you know, and Lamar has years
Speaker 1: left in his prime, but you can't guarantee that they're
Speaker 1: gonna have that good of an offense going into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say healthy, but relatively healthy is the word.
Speaker 1: I really think they missed Zay Flowers in these last
Speaker 1: two games, and that's that's just how it goes.
Speaker 5: He saw a cross or to Miller, Yeah, and it's like, wow,
Speaker 5: the Miller game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would be nice, but everybody's dealing with injuries,
Speaker 3: and all credit to a Bill's team, Eric smokes.
Speaker 5: Nobody get mad at me. They played great, good luck
Speaker 5: against Kansas City.
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 1: I think they're such a good team and they're so
Speaker 1: diverse that they played their B minus game, not a
Speaker 1: bad game or a B game, Eric, Is that fair
Speaker 1: to say? And they won a divisional round game against
Speaker 1: a really good opponent.
Speaker 11: Yeah, And these conversations would have been the exact same thing.
Speaker 11: If Lamar goes down and wins, then we're talking about
Speaker 11: Josh Allen never getting over the hump.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was a doomed matchup from the start.
Speaker 11: The loser is gonna sit and dwell in it for
Speaker 11: six months, whatever it is, and the you know, now
Speaker 11: what's on to case.
Speaker 2: It sucks.
Speaker 11: You know, I would have much rather this have been
Speaker 11: the AFC Championship game, but then we would have been
Speaker 11: having the same conversation next week instead of right now.
Speaker 2: You know, selfishly, I just wanted like.
Speaker 1: Twelve percent more fireworks, or like seventeen more percent more fireworks.
Speaker 1: Like I wanted Andrews to make that catch, and I
Speaker 1: wanted them to go back and forth in overtime. Or
Speaker 1: I wanted to see what would happen with Josh Allen
Speaker 1: with the ball there. I wanted to see what happened
Speaker 1: with Josh Allen going for it on fourth down there.
Speaker 1: I wanted to see these two great players do even more.
Speaker 2: But they did. They did plenty. They've entertained us.
Speaker 5: Us all.
Speaker 2: Let's let's go and talk about the NFC.
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break after I let you know
Speaker 1: that you can still donate and support the Red Cross
Speaker 1: at Redcross dot org slash NFL. The devastation, the destruction
Speaker 1: from the wildfires in the LA region has died down
Speaker 1: over the last week, but it also is really becoming
Speaker 1: a difficult time. You know, we all have people close
Speaker 1: to us in this city that are starting to rebuild, and.
Speaker 5: Just the.
Speaker 2: Day to day.
Speaker 1: Practicalities of now what they're doing like that, that's where
Speaker 1: they're going to need help. And some people have more
Speaker 1: resources than others, certainly, but it's difficult for everyone. And
Speaker 1: the Red Cross is out there trying to help. And
Speaker 1: we're worried about this wind event and the heat that
Speaker 1: it's coming over the next couple of days.
Speaker 2: So we hope for the best there.
Speaker 1: But you can help all the families in the Red
Speaker 1: Cross respond to and help these people recover from these
Speaker 1: disasters by donating today at Redcross dot org slash NFL.
Speaker 1: We will be back on the other side and you
Speaker 1: will hear from the Philadelphia Eagles radio crew.
Speaker 2: It's fourth and eleven.
Speaker 13: If the Eagles stop that right here, if they keep
Speaker 13: them shy of a first down, they win the game.
Speaker 13: Stafford lines up, he's in the gun. Both shut on
Speaker 13: their sign, Stafford, but he's looking. He puts on the
Speaker 13: air and it's in complete. It's in complete. The Eagles
Speaker 13: check over domes. Hello, they are heading fully NFC Championship game.
Speaker 2: Put your porter. That was Merril Reese.
Speaker 1: I'm w ip fitting that the Eagles defense had to
Speaker 1: finish the game like they did much of this season,
Speaker 1: with a little help from Saquon Bark a lot of help,
Speaker 1: Let's be real.
Speaker 2: Twenty eight to twenty two.
Speaker 1: The Eagles get it done, although when Matthew Stafford hit
Speaker 1: Pooka Nakua down the sideline in the snow their second
Speaker 1: drive in just the last couple of minutes, that ends
Speaker 1: up getting close to the end zone. I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, Shook, but I thought this improbable Rams season
Speaker 1: was going to continue.
Speaker 2: I really did.
Speaker 4: I said out loud, this is why I don't start
Speaker 4: writing at length in close games like this until it's over,
Speaker 4: because they're about to blow up everything I've written so far.
Speaker 9: And they didn't, but they made it really interesting.
Speaker 4: What was funny, I think to me is in the broadcast,
Speaker 4: Collinsworth with like three and a half minutes left is like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, they're finally moving the ball. They decided to
Speaker 4: go up tempo and it's working, but they just went
Speaker 4: to it too like speaking in the past tense is
Speaker 4: if the game's over, and I said out loud, then Chris,
Speaker 4: they got all three timeouts in three and a half minutes. Low,
Speaker 4: This game is not over and it almost clearly wasn't over.
Speaker 1: Although to be fair to Chris and I agree with you, Nick,
Speaker 1: you were right in that scenario, the drive that Stafford
Speaker 1: put together, the hurry up that he's talking about after
Speaker 1: the Saquon Barkley one play seventy eight yard drive which
Speaker 1: put them up twenty eight to fifteen with four and
Speaker 1: a half minutes to go. First of all that the
Speaker 1: offense was not plentiful in this game, and you figured
Speaker 1: it was over, but they won ten plays in a
Speaker 1: minute forty eight. That was some badass gunslinger. Only of
Speaker 1: a couple quarterbacks, veteran quarterbacks are gonna be able to
Speaker 1: pull that off. That took three, four, five really nice
Speaker 1: throws by Matthew Stafford and great decisions, and then he
Speaker 1: hits that Puka throw and I'm thinking that's the Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan throw to Julio Jones in the Super Bowl, and
Speaker 1: it kind of will be remembered that way. A great throw,
Speaker 1: that's for not But man Stafford had a great kind
Speaker 1: of final case. Our friend Jordan Rodrieg got emotional right
Speaker 1: in this last game of the season for this Rams team,
Speaker 1: and they put it well in their headline. If the
Speaker 1: Rams like improbable season had to end. Stafford got a
Speaker 1: last word and it was not a perfect game from Stafford,
Speaker 1: but all the things that you love about him.
Speaker 3: He put the fear of God in the link, not
Speaker 3: just the ball to Puka, but it was another classic
Speaker 3: Stafford playoff no look on touchdown to Parkinson where it's like,
Speaker 3: don't give none the ball back. I mean we now,
Speaker 3: the Eagles played most of this game. I think Quiyon
Speaker 3: Mitchell only got six snaps of pass coverage before he
Speaker 3: left the game hurt. So the Eagles were man down
Speaker 3: in the secondary, but Jalen Carter was getting pressure all game,
Speaker 3: and the season long narrative was, hey, you get to
Speaker 3: Stafford a few times, the offense is gonna slow down.
Speaker 3: But the Rams offense it kept coming. And even though
Speaker 3: it happened late we talked about earlier, these points are
Speaker 3: cumulative and this Stafford gives the Rams this puncher's chance
Speaker 3: that that really isn't duplicated almost anywhere else when you
Speaker 3: look at the guys. Of course, Pooka and Cooper Cup
Speaker 3: provide a thing that not a lot of folks have.
Speaker 3: But the plays that were made DeMarcus Robinson right, great catch,
Speaker 3: takes the ball away from a defender. He puts these
Speaker 3: guys in position to make plays where these balls might
Speaker 3: not even be thrown by a lot of other very
Speaker 3: very good quarterbacks. And that's why it's if this is right,
Speaker 3: because we talked about the potential end of the Stafford
Speaker 3: era like to take away this coronation from Tom Brady
Speaker 3: to steal that Super Bowl to ruin the first season
Speaker 3: of Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow like to come in
Speaker 3: and be this Babba yaga, right, Like this man is
Speaker 3: the John Wick of the NF And even when you
Speaker 3: know all the tools might not be available, you could
Speaker 3: still scare a really good thing. The Eagles could win
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl. They could have also lost tonight.
Speaker 1: Right, And their offense has not been good enough passing
Speaker 1: the ball through two games in the playoffs to win
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl. But they've gotten through these two games
Speaker 1: and they can get better. They actually have one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty six net yards passing combined in the two games,
Speaker 1: which is outrageous. They average two point five yards per play.
Speaker 1: And I feel like the preview that we did with
Speaker 1: bo Wolf was so Eagles focused, and here we're starting
Speaker 1: in a similar way where we're going negative Eagles, even
Speaker 1: though they won the game, But I do want to
Speaker 1: start at the end and work our way backwards because
Speaker 1: the reason the Rams had the ball there not only
Speaker 1: is Stafford's great quick drive where they go and hurry up.
Speaker 1: And yes, the Eagles decision really all season.
Speaker 2: Not to rotate their four down linemen.
Speaker 1: That's just what Fangio does and for the most part
Speaker 1: it's been fantastic. It seemed to catch up up on
Speaker 1: to him late in this game. They were getting tired,
Speaker 1: the Rams going to hurry up.
Speaker 2: That was a problem.
Speaker 1: But the bigger problem shook was they need one first
Speaker 1: down to win the game, essentially just about win the game.
Speaker 1: Oh God, and they get a four yard run I
Speaker 1: think from Saquon on first down and Jalen Hurts is
Speaker 1: not moving well. He suffers I believe a knee injury
Speaker 1: early in this game. He's in the medical tent for
Speaker 1: a while. We think we might get Kenny Pickett. It
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, but he's compromised and he doesn't do a
Speaker 1: lot of passing after that, and they call a rollout
Speaker 1: to his left on second down with the season on
Speaker 1: the line, and he smartly just gets sacked by Kobe
Speaker 1: Turner on a play he really had no chance and
Speaker 1: there was an open receiver if you look at the dots,
Speaker 1: like DeVonta Smith was open. If Kobe Turner had taken
Speaker 1: the cheese. Kobe Turner did not chake take the cheese, shook,
Speaker 1: and we would be talking about the coaching decisions by
Speaker 1: the Eagles if Stafford had finished out this game.
Speaker 2: There. Wow, that sequence to me drove me crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it was indicative of a game at which
Speaker 4: one point I described it as Kellen Moore as having
Speaker 4: a twenty twenty three AFC Championship game Todd munkin day,
Speaker 4: where like he's just not going to his strength, like
Speaker 4: he just actively went away from Saquon for a portion
Speaker 4: of this game. And yes, it's predictable to hand it
Speaker 4: off three times and you're trying to salt away the game,
Speaker 4: but also don't outsmart yourself and get your quarterback out
Speaker 4: on the move when he clearly hasn't been moving well
Speaker 4: the entire second half. They're putting deep drops on him
Speaker 4: in his own end zone. He gets sacked for his safety.
Speaker 4: Like the play calling in terms of situation and the
Speaker 4: state of your quarterback and where your strengths lie on
Speaker 4: a day in which it's snowing like crazy the entire day,
Speaker 4: and to the point where that to super impose the
Speaker 4: numbers on the field on the TV broadcast because you
Speaker 4: can't see him in real life.
Speaker 9: They're still making strange decisions.
Speaker 4: So you have to like thank the defense for coming
Speaker 4: away with one last stop to win this game, because yes,
Speaker 4: it very much has been a game that they lost
Speaker 4: in epic fashion. And like uh Patrick said, the fear
Speaker 4: of God was in the link because all the Eagles
Speaker 4: fans felt it happening. As soon as they went three
Speaker 4: and out with that second down play call, they immediately
Speaker 4: were like, oh God, they're going to get the ball back.
Speaker 4: We're really gonna have to sweat this out all the
Speaker 4: way to the end. And luckily they came away on
Speaker 4: top of man, not without some nervous moments.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: That was a minus twelve sack for Kobe Turner. These kids,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't call them kids, I mean, they're large men.
Speaker 1: We had some of them on the podcast before the season,
Speaker 1: including Kobe Turner, but especially Turner and Verse in this
Speaker 1: game were just awesome. I saw someone comp first to
Speaker 1: Khalil Mack on Twitter today and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's kind of perfect a young Khalil Mack. They win
Speaker 1: in the same sort of ways. They're just so freaking strong.
Speaker 1: He made Jordan mylotta like who outweighs him by one
Speaker 1: hundred plus pounds. Okay, maybe that's not true, but it.
Speaker 2: Looks like it.
Speaker 1: Like maybe it might be if it's lifted, if it's
Speaker 1: listed that way, maybe not, but like he made him
Speaker 1: look small, and he had a monster day with a
Speaker 1: couple of sacks and and all these pressures, and then
Speaker 1: Turner and they lost Brayden Fisk early in this game.
Speaker 2: Was it was definitely a factor.
Speaker 1: But then so on third down they give the ball
Speaker 1: to Saquon that the Rams get the ball back, they
Speaker 1: have a throw to Cooper Cup with probably his last
Speaker 1: game as a Ram. They have that throw to Puka
Speaker 1: down the field. But yes, I think after Stafford and
Speaker 1: the offensive line made a couple mistakes, like Dotson takes
Speaker 1: a false start to back them up, but then Stafford
Speaker 1: gets the ball to Pooka again to set up a
Speaker 1: third and two. Really, the biggest play of the game
Speaker 1: to me was Jalen Carter's sack where I don't.
Speaker 2: Know if it was a mental error from bow limmer the.
Speaker 4: Please do, please do okay, So then I think this
Speaker 4: is what won the game for the Eagles. Defensively, Vic
Speaker 4: Fangio on the second half started deploying these stunts because
Speaker 4: he realized that Stafford was, you know, trying to push
Speaker 4: the ball down the field, and what he was doing,
Speaker 4: like every arter back does, is he was stepping up
Speaker 4: into the pocket. And essentially what he created was a
Speaker 4: lie for Stafford to see. It was a falsehood right
Speaker 4: in front of him in which they would stunt the
Speaker 4: interior guys away and it would create this space that
Speaker 4: Stafford thought, okay, I can step up into that, and
Speaker 4: as soon as he'd step up into the pocket, a
Speaker 4: guy would come around on the back side of the
Speaker 4: stunt and drill him from his blind side. And second,
Speaker 4: that's why they ran up their sack total and why
Speaker 4: they got after him in the second half. So on
Speaker 4: that last drive and in that key spot, they see
Speaker 4: Jalen Carter there and what they try to do. At first,
Speaker 4: I thought they were sliding. I went to look at
Speaker 4: the end zone angle, I realize, oh, they're not sliding.
Speaker 4: He hits, he puts a hand on him, and as
Speaker 4: he puts a hand on him, he looks to his
Speaker 4: left because he's anticipating a stunt that never shows up.
Speaker 4: And Carter does a great job of faking as if
Speaker 4: he's going to come in he's going to crash inside
Speaker 4: the other guy's going to twist around behind him, But
Speaker 4: he doesn't twist around behind him because he makes the
Speaker 4: fake and then goes the opposite direction and leaves Alan
Speaker 4: completely in the dust and has a free path to
Speaker 4: the quarterback. I thought it was a great example of
Speaker 4: how constant stunts can get in the heads of linemen
Speaker 4: and in the biggest, high pressure moments, they can force
Speaker 4: mistakes like that.
Speaker 1: And that's a great pass rush move by Jalen Carter.
Speaker 1: And this game was why you draft a defensive lineman
Speaker 1: as early as you can when he's as talented as
Speaker 1: Jalen Carter. There are a lot of teams that wish
Speaker 1: they took Jalen Carter. Bears fans are probably thinking, man,
Speaker 1: we could have Jalen Carter and Jared Verse. I know
Speaker 1: that's wishful, thy just say just saying like this game
Speaker 1: was elite six pressures. He was double teamed on twenty
Speaker 1: six snaps in this game, so most of the snaps
Speaker 1: that he was out there, he was double team And
Speaker 1: that's what I thought for a second to Limmer think
Speaker 1: like he was getting help there because there weren't many
Speaker 1: one on one passing situations for him. And despite the
Speaker 1: all those double teams, six pressures, two and a half sacks,
Speaker 1: three quarterback hits, five tackles, a forced fumble, and a
Speaker 1: pass breakup. So Carter just a massive performance. He had
Speaker 1: that punch out on Kyron Williams, which was such a
Speaker 1: big part of this game. If I had to pick
Speaker 1: just like a sequence that made the difference in this game,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of them. It was a really
Speaker 1: fascinating game. But the back to back turnovers that the
Speaker 1: Eagles offense had, so you had one by Jalen Carter
Speaker 1: and then you had the other by Nolan Smith on
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford, So it.
Speaker 13: Was so tempick the toy bullocks are gonna be coming,
Speaker 13: becks Stafford.
Speaker 5: He looks up, he's big chase.
Speaker 2: He cast the ball, backed.
Speaker 13: Out of the towns. He fucked out of the tent,
Speaker 13: had covered up with a bowl of Smith played a
Speaker 13: head Bowland, Smith, Hill.
Speaker 1: Duck covered, Zach Bond was all over the place in
Speaker 1: this game, and I just thought it was two good teams.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like it was a terrible offensive line performance
Speaker 1: by the Rams. And Nolan Smith has just improved throughout
Speaker 1: the course of the season. I thought this game the
Speaker 1: guys without Quinn Mitchell being there, that you've seen step
Speaker 1: up in big moments all season for them. Bond with
Speaker 1: massive plays, Nolan Smith with massive plays, Darius Slay with
Speaker 1: massive plays, and of course Jalen Carter like that.
Speaker 2: It was kind of the the reason that the Eagles got.
Speaker 1: This far despite not having like a great passing game
Speaker 1: like that, the defense got it done today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Isaiah Rogers stepped up, yeah, and had a
Speaker 3: huge target on his back and made plays now when
Speaker 3: he needed to make plays. It was such a great
Speaker 3: way that Shouk pointed out how Carter makes that that
Speaker 3: sad play by kind of going Jordan versus Byron Russell
Speaker 3: and just you know, it's the crossover allows the move,
Speaker 3: but the push feels like it's a push, but he's
Speaker 3: he's running over there to catch the stunt anyway, and
Speaker 3: it's that union, right because we talked about this hypothetical
Speaker 3: Bears defense that they could have all this talent, you
Speaker 3: still need to put the guys in position to make plays.
Speaker 3: And I was I was doubtful of vig Vangio. I
Speaker 3: didn't necessarily believe. You made me believe, Greg when you
Speaker 3: talked about this Fangio effect of designing defenses that have
Speaker 3: had lasting impacts in the league. And to see it
Speaker 3: work with this particular unit when and I know that
Speaker 3: he came in as the consultant that didn't work against
Speaker 3: the Chiefs at all in the Super Bowl. It was
Speaker 3: the categorical failure across the board. But to see it working,
Speaker 3: I believe now because this group which is very young. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a very young group, and they're making plays together
Speaker 3: like cohesively in the way that we see like a
Speaker 3: Brian Flores defense with guys with like thirty years of
Speaker 3: combined experience between three guys.
Speaker 5: These guys are all young and they're doing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, there isn't an interior defensive lineman I'd
Speaker 1: rather have on my team than Jalen Carter, Like he
Speaker 1: would be the number one pick in terms of you're
Speaker 1: talking about like the next three years five years, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. Then I was even thinking, like, even defensive linemen,
Speaker 1: you could make an argument that if you were choosing
Speaker 1: one defensive lineman to have for the next five years,
Speaker 1: Jalen Carter's on that list, you could make different choices
Speaker 1: if you wanted. But uh, like that's a totally reasonable case.
Speaker 1: And yeah, they got they got a bunch of them.
Speaker 1: They got Kunya Mitchell, they got Cooper de Gene. I
Speaker 1: don't think they're gonna have Zach Bond unless they want
Speaker 1: a franchise tag them that that's a conversation for the
Speaker 1: offseason because some team like the Patriots or the Titans
Speaker 1: are gonna give him like thirty five million dollars a
Speaker 1: year to just be like stupid money.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if yes are gonna be willing
Speaker 2: uh to pay that money.
Speaker 1: But as we continue to kind of go backwards in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, the Eagles settled for a field goal
Speaker 1: after those turnovers. Like the Rams defense, despite giving up
Speaker 1: a bunch of big plays in this game, I think
Speaker 1: played really well overall, and they kept holding on and
Speaker 1: forcing three points and getting the ball back for the
Speaker 1: Rams until they didn't.
Speaker 2: That was the Saquon fourth quarter run twenty two yard line.
Speaker 7: That's what'll still it all if you opens up handoff,
Speaker 7: gets perfully, running.
Speaker 1: To the left, portly, gets done everything.
Speaker 2: Sha Kwon Barkley is gone Tuxtown on a snowy Sunday.
Speaker 2: Berkley just dominated for the Eagles.
Speaker 1: Yes, that was iron Eagle. Love to have them on
Speaker 1: the show from Westwood One. And I'd like to apologize
Speaker 1: to Saquon Barkley. We've made it this far into the
Speaker 1: proceedings and having brought up like the whole reason why
Speaker 1: the Eagles are.
Speaker 2: In the NFC Championship. Not the whole reason, but like
Speaker 2: the biggest reason. Let's be real.
Speaker 1: He had two hundred and five yards in this game
Speaker 1: on the ground, more twenty seven more through the air.
Speaker 1: Add that up for me, Shook. That's two thirty two
Speaker 1: out of a total of three hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 1: Where Saquon and just a magical season. He has six plays,
Speaker 1: six touchdowns over forty yards this season.
Speaker 2: Four of them are against the Rams.
Speaker 1: Like poor Chris Shula and this Rams defense are going
Speaker 1: to be seen Saquon Barkley long runs in their nightmares
Speaker 1: all off season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know it's not really representative of the entire
Speaker 4: game because other than those two long touchdown runs, I
Speaker 4: think the remaining sixty five rushing yards camon is the
Speaker 4: other twenty four carries, so math wizards can tell you,
Speaker 4: I think that's like under three yards an attempt, right,
Speaker 4: So they did a good job at bolling him up,
Speaker 4: but it was the big plays and really what it
Speaker 4: comes down to is the cohesiveness of this entire offense.
Speaker 4: It's the offensive line getting to second level on that
Speaker 4: run and catching everybody that was in the box in
Speaker 4: the wash so that Saquon was never interrupted on that
Speaker 4: touchdown run. Like it's the way they all play together
Speaker 4: so well, and they have such a special athlete and
Speaker 4: a special back in Saquad that can take it from
Speaker 4: a big gain to a touchdown run. That makes this
Speaker 4: offense so special, And especially on a day in which
Speaker 4: they are not throwing the ball well, the elements are
Speaker 4: not in their favor, they can lean on a guy
Speaker 4: like that and bust one big open right there down
Speaker 4: the sideline for a touchdowns. It's a magical thing to
Speaker 4: see happen to a guy who had struggled so much
Speaker 4: because of the situation he was dealing with.
Speaker 9: In New York. It's like freeing. It's like dreams do
Speaker 9: come true.
Speaker 2: Guys, He's ruined other running backs for me.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys do this, but when
Speaker 1: I watch other games now, I think, oh, Saquon would
Speaker 1: have housed that one like when like it's like a
Speaker 1: like a twenty yard like mix and run against the
Speaker 1: Chiefs or whatever, and I was like, actually, that hole
Speaker 1: would have been a Saquon touchdown, and like, no one
Speaker 1: else other than Saquon is doing that. And yes, you're right.
Speaker 1: They didn't have a crazy high success rate. It was
Speaker 1: like forty percent today, which is just average. But he
Speaker 1: had a sixty two yard run on a three play
Speaker 1: drive for a touchdown in the first quarter, and Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts in the first drive of the game had a
Speaker 1: forty four yard run. So those those long rushing plays
Speaker 1: were so massive. They are a big play rushing offense.
Speaker 1: And it's the combination of Saquon and Jalen Hurts today
Speaker 1: and the offensive line. They are like a big play
Speaker 1: offensive line because it can't be perfect every play, but
Speaker 1: sometimes with those guys when it's all lined up, they
Speaker 1: had that on that Hurts run, Like my lotta didn't
Speaker 1: even have anyone to hit. It's just so perfect that
Speaker 1: it's like a big play. It's like a seventy yard throw.
Speaker 1: Except that's how good this whole offensive line and operation.
Speaker 3: And that's why it's hard to go specifically carry by
Speaker 3: carry and be like, oh, they did a good job
Speaker 3: on this play, right, because it's always there, like the
Speaker 3: big bat is always there and the ball could leave
Speaker 3: the park at any time. And I don't know why
Speaker 3: Derek Henry's the only back that we say like, oh,
Speaker 3: you got to get him early or he's going to
Speaker 3: be gone, because that applies to twenty six as well.
Speaker 3: And even when you do make those plays and get
Speaker 3: to him in the backfield, he's so creative in short
Speaker 3: space because that ability to pull away is always going
Speaker 3: to be there, and the explosion is separation.
Speaker 5: And it's so glad that the idea that, oh, if.
Speaker 3: You put a replacement level player in then he's still
Speaker 3: gonna No, it's not the same. If somebody's going to
Speaker 3: get the ball twenty six times on the ground, you
Speaker 3: would like that player to be better than other people.
Speaker 5: He's better than almost.
Speaker 1: Everyone, he really is, and he is the number one
Speaker 1: reason it is interesting to think about the economics of
Speaker 1: the game with all of this, because it's crazy that
Speaker 1: he's making less money than Dward's Armstrong, who said a
Speaker 1: nice season.
Speaker 2: For the Commanders.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to I didn't want to pick a
Speaker 1: guy who was like a free agent bus last year.
Speaker 1: I actually want to pick someone who I think has
Speaker 1: had a good season for the money that he made.
Speaker 1: But Armstrong actually got a better deal overall than Saquon
Speaker 1: did in the offseason, and he's actually lived up to it.
Speaker 1: So what is Saquon really worth? He's he's really worth
Speaker 1: wide receiver one money.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's It's a clear and easy case.
Speaker 3: And I think when he and Derrick Henry and Josh
Speaker 3: Jacobs were having those off season conversations when they all
Speaker 3: weren't getting the compensation that they were rightfully due, they
Speaker 3: all knew that ultimately there's nothing they could do for themselves.
Speaker 3: But hopefully in a few years, Jamiir Gibbs, Bjon Robinson,
Speaker 3: Ashton Genty will have opportunities to actually be properly compensated
Speaker 3: because these guys have proven if you have a difference
Speaker 3: maker back there again, if you're going to give the
Speaker 3: ball to a particular person. It makes sense that you
Speaker 3: should invest well in that particular person if you're giving
Speaker 3: it to them more than anybody else.
Speaker 1: All Right, still a lot to get to with this game.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break and we'll be
Speaker 1: back in just a minute. Okay, let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about Jalen Hurts, who after the game answered a
Speaker 1: series of questions about the status of his knee, and
Speaker 1: the headlines coming out of the press conference were that
Speaker 1: that he said he's okay to play next week. But
Speaker 1: that was after three questions, and the final question was
Speaker 1: whether he's confident he'll play, and he said yeah. Before that,
Speaker 1: they also asked him about the injury, and he says,
Speaker 1: I was able to finish the game. We'll see how
Speaker 1: the week goes. They asked, what does that mean your
Speaker 1: status is uncertain? He said, great question, No, just seeing
Speaker 1: how the week goes, see how the things will progress.
Speaker 1: He was limited in this game took in terms of
Speaker 1: his movement, but they've been pretty limited in terms of
Speaker 1: their passing game.
Speaker 2: Even before he had that injury.
Speaker 1: He was holding onto the ball a lot and taking
Speaker 1: sacks and not making great decisions. What is your confidence
Speaker 1: level with their passing attack going forward on potentially like
Speaker 1: a compromise.
Speaker 2: Jalen hurds, I'm worried about it.
Speaker 4: He has the average time a third night, it was
Speaker 4: actually only two point eight one seconds, which is way
Speaker 4: lower than.
Speaker 1: Usually, but that's because it doesn't count the sacks like
Speaker 1: those sacks also right, those sack plays, I feel like
Speaker 1: we're an average of like five seconds for those sacks.
Speaker 4: And the problem is is he can hang onto the
Speaker 4: ball and extend the play and make plays when he
Speaker 4: can move. When he can't move, that all falls apart
Speaker 4: and breaks down, which puts more of the onus on
Speaker 4: Saquon to rip off a few big plays to keep
Speaker 4: this offensive float. So that's what I'm concerned about. I
Speaker 4: don't know if I evaluate the passing effectiveness today, you know,
Speaker 4: with the same by the same scale as some other games,
Speaker 4: because the conditions were bad and the flow of the
Speaker 4: game just didn't really call for it necessarily, like if
Speaker 4: you put him in a dome as he completing more passes.
Speaker 9: AJ Brown. AJ Brown had like two drops.
Speaker 4: He snapped the streak of a ton of games in
Speaker 4: which he hadn't gone with a drop, and he had
Speaker 4: a couple of drops so like it was tough to
Speaker 4: catch the football. So they'll probably be better if the
Speaker 4: you know, conditions are better. But overall, this passing game
Speaker 4: hasn't been great for a while. I shouldn't we none
Speaker 4: of us should be very surprised by that. It's just
Speaker 4: that we should be more concerned if he can't move
Speaker 4: and they're gonna go out there and take the same
Speaker 4: approach and oh, by the way, go away from Saquon
Speaker 4: for periods of the game.
Speaker 9: Inexplicably they can't do that. They have to learn from
Speaker 9: this game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he's just got to get and I know,
Speaker 3: like you want people to get rid of the ball quicker.
Speaker 3: But there's moments where we've seen Jalen Hurts make those throws.
Speaker 3: The safety play it was a delayed route by Dallas
Speaker 3: Goddard where yeah, pressure gets to him in three seconds,
Speaker 3: but there was an option to throw the ball from
Speaker 3: his end zone.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: This isn't like where Lamar was explaining, you know, he
Speaker 3: gets an RBO. There's nobody in the middle of the field, right,
Speaker 3: like everybody's running the sideline. He has to make a play. No,
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts had an option there for some reason. He
Speaker 3: just stared it down. He did that like four or
Speaker 3: five times today, and it's you don't want to speculate
Speaker 3: and look back to the concussion a few weeks ago,
Speaker 3: but there were opportunities for him to get rid of
Speaker 3: the ball where he just didn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's listen to that play from our friend JB.
Speaker 2: Long missed this guy.
Speaker 14: Second down in six of eights, thirty five seconds left
Speaker 14: in the third quarter. Play clocket two Hurts calls for
Speaker 14: the snap, Rams coming after with full from his end zone.
Speaker 2: Pressure's there. They got him.
Speaker 14: It's a safety to bring the Rams within one. Neville
Speaker 14: Gallimore got there first with the flex. The defense does
Speaker 14: it again.
Speaker 2: Shout out to JB. Shout out to Neville Gallimore.
Speaker 1: Nice pass rush, nice performance actually down the stretch as
Speaker 1: it kind of a situational pass rusher for them. But
Speaker 1: out outstanding point there by Patrick, because I think you
Speaker 1: got to be able to throw over the middle of
Speaker 1: the field and throw with anticipation to be a top
Speaker 1: ten quarterback, to be on QBI.
Speaker 2: And that's a play where I.
Speaker 1: Think a veteran quarterback knows where his guys are and
Speaker 1: they throw that pass with anticipation that they know God
Speaker 1: it's gonna be there, and they get to that read
Speaker 1: a little quicker, or they throw it before he's out
Speaker 1: of his break. And there were a lot of There
Speaker 1: were a lot of plays like that. He took seven
Speaker 1: sacks in this game, and he just hasn't looked confident
Speaker 1: with what he's seen. And I don't know what the
Speaker 1: fault of that is, but it's a big problem. I
Speaker 1: really think it's gonna be a big problem for them.
Speaker 13: Now.
Speaker 1: The Commanders are, you know, a different matchup, maybe not
Speaker 1: as good of a pass rush, but when you look
Speaker 1: at the numbers, the Rams actually didn't have that many
Speaker 1: quick pressures on the day, only four, which is under
Speaker 1: two and a half seconds, which is crazy. And so
Speaker 1: a lot of it was was Hurt holding the ball.
Speaker 1: I do like that from what I saw after the game,
Speaker 1: Hurts was in a celebratory mood, joking a little bit.
Speaker 1: Let you know, maybe it was a little bit of relief.
Speaker 1: He's always just so serious. I don't know, maybe that
Speaker 1: speaks to me that maybe he's not as hurt. Hopefully,
Speaker 1: like he was enjoying the moment. I expected like a
Speaker 1: dour Jalen Hurts after that performance, and actually he seemed
Speaker 1: like appropriately enjoying that they just won a playoff game
Speaker 1: in our one game away from the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Maybe his biggest smile I've seen was the was the
Speaker 3: cutaway after Sakuon gos On that seventy six yard touchdown
Speaker 3: run with Jalen just beaming. Now, of course things got
Speaker 3: rife with terror after that when Stafford went into grim
Speaker 3: reaper mode. But still they're gonna have an opportunity to
Speaker 3: play next week against the team that it's given them
Speaker 3: some problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's funny because it really it wasn't all
Speaker 1: on Hurts at all. Offensively. They look they got the
Speaker 1: job done in the end. But you mentioned the Hurts drops.
Speaker 1: Shook one just killed the drive. It was on maybe
Speaker 1: Hurts his best throw. Actually, both drops that aj Brown
Speaker 1: had were on very good throws by Hurts. The deep
Speaker 1: ball where maybe that's on the snow and this was
Speaker 1: an ultimate snow referendum game. We'll talk about that in
Speaker 1: a second, but like that was a dime, Like how
Speaker 1: different is this game if Brown just catches that ball,
Speaker 1: and I think they would have been up what twenty
Speaker 1: to seven at the time, maybe going into half up
Speaker 1: twenty to seven, Like in his numbers would be totally different.
Speaker 2: It'd be a different game.
Speaker 1: And actually the second drive of the game, he had
Speaker 1: a nice anticipatory throw on second down where he did
Speaker 1: kind of make the read that Patrick and I are
Speaker 1: asking for and a J.
Speaker 2: Brown kind of alligator armed it.
Speaker 1: And then the offensive line, which has been good all year,
Speaker 1: obviously fell short. In a couple of big moments, Makay
Speaker 1: Beckton had a mental error on a couple plays, a
Speaker 1: blown block, a penalty, and then Lane Johnson moves when
Speaker 1: they're third and inches on the goal line. If Lane
Speaker 1: Johnson doesn't flinch there, that's another four points. Like, they
Speaker 1: made a lot of errors that usually get your beat SHOOKI.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we're overlooking them because they had the explosive
Speaker 4: plays for touchdowns. When Lane Johnson flinched, his like butt
Speaker 4: came up in the air, and I thought he was
Speaker 4: actually trying to like dig his feet in for more
Speaker 4: leverage on first like view, and then I saw the
Speaker 4: replay and I was like, oh, no, he just fall started.
Speaker 4: He clearly he fall started so bad that when they
Speaker 4: actually snapped the ball, he didn't move for a half second.
Speaker 9: Then he's like, oh, we are playing to play.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they made the mistakes like McKai Beckton's illegal man
Speaker 4: downfield wiped out a great screenplay that would have set
Speaker 4: them up for a great scoring opportunity.
Speaker 9: And I came away from those two.
Speaker 4: Takeaways in the second half where they only got field
Speaker 4: goals out of both of them, I'm like, oh, you're
Speaker 4: gonna regret that. You know, you really should have cashed
Speaker 4: at least one of those in for a touchdown. But
Speaker 4: in the grand scheme of this entire game, when you
Speaker 4: count all those mistakes and everything, you look at it
Speaker 4: now and you're like, Okay, well, they still won the game.
Speaker 4: They definitely have things to iron out offensively, and the
Speaker 4: matchup next week is very different from this one.
Speaker 9: But luckily they have a week repair.
Speaker 1: Great teams have multiple ways to win games, and they
Speaker 1: have a chance to be a great team. And I
Speaker 1: get I'm glad we talked this through because I think
Speaker 1: I thought there were the Rams were gonna win after
Speaker 1: that Pooga catch, just because I've seen so many games
Speaker 1: like this where the team that in theory should have
Speaker 1: won makes all the sort of mistakes that the Eagles
Speaker 1: make and then they end up losing the game. But
Speaker 1: it didn't happen that way, and that's happened a couple
Speaker 1: times for the Eagles this year of frankly, like where
Speaker 1: the defense just kind of bails them out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like we saw in the in the AFC Divisional
Speaker 3: game on Sundin, Right, the Eagles made those mistakes and
Speaker 3: that's how small again those margins can be. Going back
Speaker 3: to that AJ Brown drop, right, because Jalen goes through
Speaker 3: his reads perfectly, he holds Cam Curl in the middle
Speaker 3: of the field.
Speaker 5: Dallas Goddard threatens.
Speaker 3: Jalen throws a great ball, but you don't you don't
Speaker 3: execute at the catch point something. Aj Brown is one
Speaker 3: of the absolute best in the NFL. At Puka had
Speaker 3: a drop today, you know it's it's.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, the ball was was slick. Okay, let's talk
Speaker 1: about the weather. I was not a fan of the
Speaker 1: weather in this game.
Speaker 9: It's spoken like somebody's lived in LA for a long time.
Speaker 1: No, it's spoken by someone who likes the biggest football
Speaker 1: games to ultimately be decided. I'm of two minds. I
Speaker 1: do kind of like it, but this was too far.
Speaker 1: Like the Bills game, it didn't feel like it affected
Speaker 1: as much. Although there were some slippery pass Like some
Speaker 1: of the biggest players in this game, Matthew Stafford just
Speaker 1: drops the ball while handing it off. We're getting drop
Speaker 1: after drop by AJ Brown and Puka Nakua in big situations.
Speaker 1: Stafford the ball seemed to slip out of his hands.
Speaker 1: I mean, we know this guy's built for it, he's
Speaker 1: played well in Elements before, but it's just the ball slippery,
Speaker 1: like Hurts Missus one of his throws by like twenty feet,
Speaker 1: even that last throw by Stafford, Like, I don't even know,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to. I think that the elements
Speaker 1: had this big of a factor. Before I get your
Speaker 1: thoughts on this, let's listen to Sean McVay after the
Speaker 1: game talking about the elements.
Speaker 2: I think you saw.
Speaker 15: I mean, there was some times where some uncharacteristic things
Speaker 15: just in terms of the ball handling. You know, we
Speaker 15: had two turnovers that probably don't necessarily occur in different elements,
Speaker 15: a couple drops you could see, you know, when Sakuon
Speaker 15: got to the second level, similar to the first game,
Speaker 15: but there was some different layers that we did have
Speaker 15: in our defense. He was able to pull away, but
Speaker 15: you know, they had to play in it too.
Speaker 2: We had to play in it.
Speaker 15: We had every opportunity to be able to win that
Speaker 15: game at the end there, Sarah, And we're a couple
Speaker 15: of plays away from me being a lot happier right now.
Speaker 2: Good perspective, Schuck, What do you think about the whole
Speaker 2: weather the weather discussion.
Speaker 4: I'm a throwback and I as a former offensive lineman.
Speaker 4: It loves the run block, I love the elements. Baby,
Speaker 4: let's muck it up, Let's make it dirty, Let's make
Speaker 4: it nasty. Let's go winn the trenches. But and by
Speaker 4: the way, Landon Dickerson had an awesome game today. He
Speaker 4: was throwing pancakes left and right, just second guys into
Speaker 4: the snow. It was the beauty in the essence of
Speaker 4: football at its core. But I also thought it was
Speaker 4: an interesting test of a kicker in Jake Elliot, who's
Speaker 4: been very up and down this season, very inconsistent. Miss
Speaker 4: is an extra point earlier before the elements really set in,
Speaker 4: and then they're clearing snow for him, Like it's Adam
Speaker 4: Vinati against the Raiders in the playoffs in two thousand
Speaker 4: and one, just for him to make a kick and
Speaker 4: he drills two clutch kicks and snow so I think
Speaker 4: it's a test of both sides of the game. You know.
Speaker 4: I think that you can find greatness in guys who
Speaker 4: are able to overcome it. It's also a convenient excuse
Speaker 4: when guys drop passes. But I think it is the ultimate.
Speaker 4: It levels the playing field. I think sometimes it levels it.
Speaker 1: I agree it does probably level it because it just
Speaker 1: adds more randomness and luck to the proceedings. But I'm
Speaker 1: glad you mentioned Jake Elliott coming up big in a
Speaker 1: big spot. Justin Tucker hit a big kick in a
Speaker 1: big spot in a tough situation. So shout out to
Speaker 1: some great kickers over the years who had bad years
Speaker 1: who stepped up in the playoffs. Your thoughts, Patrick, Let
Speaker 1: me let me just give you a Josh Sweat quote
Speaker 1: where I do that.
Speaker 2: This was Josh.
Speaker 1: Sweat's comment on on the field in this situation. He said,
Speaker 1: y'all just see me cleaning my damn clee every step.
Speaker 1: I'd rather play on that Brazil field again before playing
Speaker 1: on that again. That field was ass.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Jefs. Sweat.
Speaker 3: That's your own crew like that, that's your own you know,
Speaker 3: field management team, our grounds crew.
Speaker 2: What can they do?
Speaker 5: Wait?
Speaker 1: It also was going from like hail to wintry mix
Speaker 1: to heavier snow.
Speaker 4: It just was.
Speaker 2: It was a lot to deal with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's nasty, and I've said it where we've had
Speaker 3: some quick quick change, like playoff postseason college football games
Speaker 3: at State Farm Stadium where they get a new field
Speaker 3: in there. I saw Oregon and Auburn play where Cam
Speaker 3: Newton had that Heisman season where he could do anything.
Speaker 3: They were playing in mud. I was down there shooting
Speaker 3: the game. It was like six inches of mud. It
Speaker 3: didn't add to the at all. And I understand if
Speaker 3: folks like the elements, they like it aesthetically. The only
Speaker 3: beef that I have is is the idea that like
Speaker 3: because I liked the game between the Lions and the
Speaker 3: Commanders and they determined it on the field right, that
Speaker 3: like the air conditioner didn't fall on anybody and I
Speaker 3: could see the whole game. It doesn't make me less tough,
Speaker 3: right or whatever. I like to see people have full
Speaker 3: use of all ten of their fingers. I don't want
Speaker 3: to see Saquon running to the sideline because he took
Speaker 3: a helmet straight to the bone in cold weather and
Speaker 3: I'm sure it sent like shockwaves through his entire body.
Speaker 3: I just I would like to see guys being able
Speaker 3: to execute. And it's frustrating to watch an entire season
Speaker 3: of football and guys managing injuries and all of this,
Speaker 3: and then it kind of come down to randomness, which
Speaker 3: is always going to be play.
Speaker 5: I would just prefer not to have, and.
Speaker 1: It's adding a different X factor that isn't always there
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. And my thing is people
Speaker 1: like to say, well, that's football weather. It's football weather,
Speaker 1: all right, show me all your five star recruits that
Speaker 1: are coming out of Buffalo and Massachusetts. No football is
Speaker 1: played at the highest of levels in Texas and Louisiana
Speaker 1: and Florida. And I know you got some people out
Speaker 1: there at Ohio, Shookie, it's football weather there. But if
Speaker 1: you're just counting up the numbers between the warm weather
Speaker 1: states California, all of them like the best football and
Speaker 1: the best football players are coming from where the weather
Speaker 1: is better because it's more favorable to football.
Speaker 5: The states devote more resources to football there.
Speaker 9: You go there, you go to the higher population, more
Speaker 9: tax dollars.
Speaker 3: Nobody, nobody's, nobody's getting magical powers due to their place
Speaker 3: of birth.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's call you.
Speaker 3: What California quarterback that won for the Buffalo Bills today
Speaker 3: didn't acquire snow powers there?
Speaker 2: Okay, you win point for point for Patrick the dome.
Speaker 1: My point is, it's football weather and flo it's football
Speaker 1: weather at Georgia, it's football weather in Louisiana. It's football
Speaker 1: whether anywhere that football is playing. Not more football weather
Speaker 1: where it's cold. When you can't tell me, oh wait,
Speaker 1: you know what football weather in Texas. Okay, let's get
Speaker 1: the opposite of this.
Speaker 4: How do you feel about it when it's one hundred
Speaker 4: degrees out and players are roasting in the sun in
Speaker 4: Miami in September?
Speaker 9: Because that's also the elements on the opposite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't love that either. I don't want
Speaker 2: but there's not a lot of that. There's not a
Speaker 2: lot of that.
Speaker 1: That's the thing is all those teams, for the most part,
Speaker 1: are played in domes other than Miami.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I will take seventy two with a breeze coming from
Speaker 3: the Vince. I'll take that all day if that makes me,
Speaker 3: you know, whatever, that's me.
Speaker 5: I'll watch it.
Speaker 9: Optimal condition.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, optical condition because it doesn't have to be about
Speaker 1: the weather. There will be Eagles fans and players that
Speaker 1: will hold till their deathbed that they lost that Super
Speaker 1: Bowl to the Chiefs in part because the field. You
Speaker 1: know what, you know, both teams, both teams had to
Speaker 1: play on it, and so that it was in bad weather.
Speaker 1: But that was bad conditions, and I just don't like
Speaker 1: the conditions having such an impact. And those conditions I
Speaker 1: think had an impact in the Eagles Chiefs. It hurt
Speaker 1: the Chiefs pass rush too. It's not like it just
Speaker 1: hurt the Eagles. That's all I mean is I want
Speaker 1: it to be decided by the excellence.
Speaker 2: Of the player.
Speaker 3: I think back to the Broncos Panther Super Bowl right
Speaker 3: where you have tackles sliding six seven feet. It's easier
Speaker 3: for people to under understand when it's the field conditions,
Speaker 3: because I don't think anybody likes that. And so if
Speaker 3: you could take that, if you disagree with me and
Speaker 3: Greg about snow and extrapolate that to the whole kind
Speaker 3: of dome aspect of the game, like totally, I think
Speaker 3: you start to understand where we're coming from.
Speaker 1: Okay, so before we move on, we're not going to
Speaker 1: preview next week. But I do just want to have
Speaker 1: a little thought on these teams that lost today. What
Speaker 1: do you think Ravens wise is their biggest off season.
Speaker 2: Push? Like question worry. It's funny.
Speaker 1: They are a team that always feels like they're in
Speaker 1: pretty good cheap But what do you think.
Speaker 3: The offensive line got better as the year went on?
Speaker 3: People thought Zach Orr was a mistake. Since Week eleven,
Speaker 3: they have the best defense in football. As long as
Speaker 3: eight is upright, you're gonna have an opportunity and they
Speaker 3: can get better at corner. They can get some more
Speaker 3: depth at receiver where everything isn't relying on Rashad Bateman.
Speaker 5: You know you mentioned Cooper Cup. You know Coop what's up?
Speaker 1: That is such a that would be such a Ravens
Speaker 1: signing if the Rams do cut them in. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a good segue. I think it's fair to say the
Speaker 1: following Rams are not guaranteed to be back. Oh, Cooper
Speaker 1: Cup be a little surprising if he was back. Tyler Haigbee,
Speaker 1: Rob Havenstein because of the contract, and then Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 1: Let's actually listen to Stafford after the game. Believe this
Speaker 1: question came from our very own Jordan Rodrieg.
Speaker 16: To get to this point. You know, anytime you play
Speaker 16: like this and get into the playoffs and get a
Speaker 16: win and keep it moving, you know, it's anytime you
Speaker 16: come up short, it's it's it's even tougher, you know.
Speaker 16: And so that's that's difficult, but so proud to be
Speaker 16: associated with this group. And you know, as far as
Speaker 16: my future goes, I mean, it's thirty minutes after the
Speaker 16: last game, so I'll take some time to think about it.
Speaker 16: But I feel like I was playing some pretty good ball.
Speaker 1: You got football left in you?
Speaker 16: Sure feels like it.
Speaker 2: Mmm.
Speaker 1: I think that's pretty close to definitive on whether Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford will be playing football again.
Speaker 2: Shook. I happen to listen to the post game. JB.
Speaker 1: Long did such a good job wrapping up this Rams season.
Speaker 1: The Rams are really lucky to have him. And then
Speaker 1: they threw to kind of more like the local postgame
Speaker 1: show that's not officially from the team or anything, and
Speaker 1: they're talking about Stafford as if most slightly him and
Speaker 1: Cup are gone, And.
Speaker 2: I don't know, are you sure you want to do that? Rams?
Speaker 2: Are you sure? I don't know?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, that's the thing is, what's your backup plan? Is,
Speaker 4: Jimmy Garoppolo your backup plans? Like, are you gonna get
Speaker 4: in the market when it's what I'm saying, like, they
Speaker 4: don't have a clear succession plan here because that guy
Speaker 4: doesn't exist on that roster. So in the name of
Speaker 4: salary cap and the way the contract is structured, you're
Speaker 4: just gonna part with him when he's still playing football
Speaker 4: good enough to nearly lead you back to a divisional
Speaker 4: round win on the road in the snow. Like it
Speaker 4: just feels like it's a little too business minded for
Speaker 4: me without considering the football aspect of it. And also,
Speaker 4: if he became a free agent, I could count five
Speaker 4: or six teams right now that would be like, let's
Speaker 4: go sign him immediately, like fly him in. He's our
Speaker 4: guy for the next two to three years because he
Speaker 4: can still play football. Well, yeah, he was up and down.
Speaker 4: We've talked about this at length. He's been the hardest
Speaker 4: quarterback to pin down this year. Very volatile in performance,
Speaker 4: but when the lights shine the brightest, he came through
Speaker 4: in two games. Yeah, he lost one of them, but
Speaker 4: he's still played much like the stafford we knew and
Speaker 4: I think that's worth something when he still has a
Speaker 4: desire to play football.
Speaker 1: Yes, and as Chris Rose and Daniel Jeremiah walk by
Speaker 1: after doing the NFL Network show, that's a sign that
Speaker 1: we should be almost done.
Speaker 2: We've been honking for a while.
Speaker 1: I think that's well said, and I think it's important
Speaker 1: for them to realize they have one of the best
Speaker 1: young cores in the NFL, especially if they can have
Speaker 1: another good draft. They've had two great drafts in a
Speaker 1: row that's really helped their lines. Pukainakua a true number one,
Speaker 1: still on a rookie contract, So it can kind of
Speaker 1: flip in reverse that you want to take advantage of
Speaker 1: all these great young players on a rookie contract, and
Speaker 1: you don't want to waste a year with a unless
Speaker 1: you really love a Sam Darnold or like a third
Speaker 1: round pick or maybe a first round pick. We'll see
Speaker 1: the way they structured Stafford's contract, you know, they would
Speaker 1: save a lot by post June first cutting him, and
Speaker 1: they would absolutely find a trade market which is much
Speaker 1: more likely, and save like a little bit of money
Speaker 1: by tradium, and then they could use that to refill
Speaker 1: the position.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but why right, Why not draft.
Speaker 3: Why do all that, all those machinations when you have
Speaker 3: that young core that you talked about where you'll be like, oh,
Speaker 3: we're a quarterback away, why why send them out of
Speaker 3: the door?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I would, And how far back, how far removed on
Speaker 4: me from the whole talk of Sean McVay walking away
Speaker 4: to a broadcast job, like he still win now while
Speaker 4: he's here?
Speaker 2: Well, fair, that's a that's a good point.
Speaker 1: He seems very in it, as they would like to
Speaker 1: say where their feet are, and he seems very motivated.
Speaker 1: And that's not a question for them, but that's a
Speaker 1: great point, Like why not try to win it? You
Speaker 1: better have a good plan if you thought you're going
Speaker 1: to get rid of him. I came into the season
Speaker 1: thinking kind of like, all right, well that's just a
Speaker 1: tea to be continued, Like decide based on the evidence
Speaker 1: that you get during the season. And I think based
Speaker 1: on that evidence, I would keep Matthew Stafford and start
Speaker 1: drafting quarterbacks, either in the first or the second or
Speaker 1: even the third.
Speaker 2: Just give it a shot to use one of those picks.
Speaker 2: Do something a pleasure guys on this day.
Speaker 1: Some other news out there, Sam Cosmi, the Pro Bowl,
Speaker 1: guard for the Commanders is out for the season. You know,
Speaker 1: that's something to keep in mind as we look ahead
Speaker 1: to the NFC Championship game. Unfortunately suffered a torn a
Speaker 1: cl Jeff Ulbrick of Jets interim head coaching fames he's
Speaker 1: freet No, he's well, he's not free.
Speaker 5: He got a job, That's what I'm saying. He's out.
Speaker 1: Yes, he got the Falcons defensive coordinator job. So the
Speaker 1: wheel keeps turning. Our wheel will continue on Tuesday when
Speaker 1: we get Jordan Rodrieg back in the studio with Colling Wolf.
Speaker 1: But you two, the these Sunday nights have been a
Speaker 1: treat and we have we have one more to get
Speaker 1: to before the Super Bowl. Fun Sunday, fun weekend. I
Speaker 1: think the divisional round you delivered in a way that
Speaker 1: the old card round for me did not.
Speaker 2: And uh yeah, we reached the end of the road.
Speaker 1: When there's only three games left in this NFL season,
Speaker 1: you know football is back.