Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we have finally arrived at
Speaker 1: the best weekend of football of the year. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's Divisional Round weekend. And to celebrate, to preview the
Speaker 1: best games of the year, we had to get on
Speaker 1: the best guests, and we decided to do it a
Speaker 1: little differently than we've done our preview shows in the past.
Speaker 1: We have one special guest for each game, and in
Speaker 1: some of the games it's guys who cover the team closely.
Speaker 1: But for our first game, and let's be real, it's
Speaker 1: the best game, it's Bills and Ravens. I had to
Speaker 1: get on my favorite football mind in the business. It's
Speaker 1: Brian Baldinger of NFL Network and so many other places,
Speaker 1: including my radio. When I'm driving around, I hear you there.
Speaker 1: To welcome Baldy, appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my pleasure. Greg.
Speaker 3: Good to be with you. It is your time of
Speaker 3: the year. It is the marquee game of this coming weekend,
Speaker 3: so let's dive into it. It's a rematch game. As
Speaker 3: we know going back to Week four, was it pretty
Speaker 3: for the Bills. But as everybody knows, I mean, these
Speaker 3: games can be different week to week, So let's get
Speaker 3: into it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny you mentioned that right off the top.
Speaker 1: Let's just get let's go. Then what do you think
Speaker 1: you can learn from that game, because you know, I
Speaker 1: went back and it was probably the Raven's best game
Speaker 1: of the season for the first twelve weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: Or what do you think specifically that that does have
Speaker 1: some carryover should give Ravens fans confidence in what the
Speaker 1: matchup worked for them that time around.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean they just finished off the Steelers, right, Greg,
Speaker 3: So they played the Steelers three times in eight weeks,
Speaker 3: Like you can't know what I don't even know if
Speaker 3: that's ever happened before, but three times division opponim. First
Speaker 3: of all, you see him on all the breakdowns all
Speaker 3: week long. You know that it's Derek Henray and Lamar
Speaker 3: Jackson run show.
Speaker 2: You know everything. You can go out there.
Speaker 3: To your walkthroughs and you can have all your car
Speaker 3: drill and you know that we got a readoption coming
Speaker 3: or we've got a misdirection coming off the readops. Like
Speaker 3: the Steelers actually, like they have not seen it these
Speaker 3: two guys before. They seen them three times in eight weeks.
Speaker 3: They you know, the touchdown by Derek Henry for forty
Speaker 3: four yards. I mean there's Patrick Queen, Mika Fitzpatrick, and
Speaker 3: Shaun Elliott all waiting for Lamar to go carry the
Speaker 3: ball like they're completely removed from the formation us to
Speaker 3: go Like, you can't make those mistakes, and so what's
Speaker 3: the carryover? So you know, first play the game, Week four,
Speaker 3: I mean, Derek Henry goes eighty seven yards on the
Speaker 3: very first play of the Ravens offense. It's a wham,
Speaker 3: patrickcard willams at Oliver and Dereck Henry's gets an alley
Speaker 3: and literally everybody kind of froze and he ran by everybody,
Speaker 3: and so you go, well, that can't happen again. Okay,
Speaker 3: that's I mean, you could start there. You go, you
Speaker 3: can't start the game down seven to nothing and give
Speaker 3: up the longest play from scrimmage the Ravens all season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a brutal, tone setting game. And if
Speaker 1: you remember back then, if you're watching, you know the
Speaker 1: Ravens started off with a couple of losses. So these
Speaker 1: games early in the season felt big to climb out
Speaker 1: of that hole. And I do think that gets to
Speaker 1: what the Bills defense needs to be at their best
Speaker 1: in this game and would concern me if I was
Speaker 1: a Bills fan like our producer Eric is that and
Speaker 1: you can tell me if I'm wrong. This Sean McDermott
Speaker 1: defense over the years, if they've had a weakness, they're
Speaker 1: very well coached. They're fundamentally sound. I think they're better
Speaker 1: in the secondary this year than people realize. But they're
Speaker 1: not a big defense just pounds wise, like they try
Speaker 1: to play physical. But you look at the Ravens offense,
Speaker 1: especially their offensive line. It's a big offensive line. You
Speaker 1: got a couple of you know, ridiculous guards in terms
Speaker 1: of their size, and you just think size is a
Speaker 1: big advantage for Baltimore. Do you think the return of
Speaker 1: Matt Mulano can help in it? He's not a big
Speaker 1: guy either. Do you think they can hold up physically
Speaker 1: just against this this Ravens front.
Speaker 2: They don't have enough fat guys.
Speaker 3: Is what you say they don't is three hundred and
Speaker 3: ninety pounds. You know, he's the right guard if Ed
Speaker 3: Oliver is there, you know, either in front of themart
Speaker 3: In the three gap or a one gap wherever he's at.
Speaker 3: I mean, he gets swallowed up pretty fast now, now
Speaker 3: you know, really I mean, it looks. It's not like
Speaker 3: people haven't stopped Derek Hennedy before they have. You got
Speaker 3: to get him before he gets you. You can't let
Speaker 3: him get started like he did in the first play,
Speaker 3: you know, and he gets that alley like you did
Speaker 3: the other day of the forty four yard touchdown. You
Speaker 3: can't let him get started because his speed and his
Speaker 3: ability is light feet even on a touchdown run. Greg
Speaker 3: I was just looking at his feet just getting to traffic,
Speaker 3: like he still has very light feet for a guy
Speaker 3: that big. It's just it's a rare combination. Well then
Speaker 3: you say, okay, now you're at a mesh point. Now
Speaker 3: you're worried about Lamar and anybody that saw Lamar last
Speaker 3: year and you see him this year.
Speaker 2: He's significantly lighter this year than he was.
Speaker 3: He wanted to be faster, he wanted to be quicker,
Speaker 3: and that's what he's been.
Speaker 2: He's been both. And so that's the dilemma is at
Speaker 2: that mess point.
Speaker 3: And it could be out of a one back, you know,
Speaker 3: with an option with you know, Derek neck jum or
Speaker 3: in a pistol, or it could be anywhere. At some point,
Speaker 3: the ball is going to be put into the belly
Speaker 3: of Derrick Henry and is Henry taking it, is Lamar
Speaker 3: keeping it?
Speaker 2: And it's a conundrum.
Speaker 3: You can walk through it, you can plug all the gaps,
Speaker 3: and if one guy's out of the gap or you
Speaker 3: put too many people up there and he gets through,
Speaker 3: he can go a long way. So there's a balancing act.
Speaker 3: But the big thing is you've got to get a
Speaker 3: lot of bodies at the line of scrivage and not
Speaker 3: let him get started. The problem is Lamar and if
Speaker 3: he sees that, like his ability to to pull it
Speaker 3: and go, or just even at a drop back pass
Speaker 3: grade where he dropped back to surveying the field and
Speaker 3: he just sees an opening and there's really nobody to
Speaker 3: detract him, like heki go along ways like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when he does drop back to pass. I'm
Speaker 1: curious what you've seen out of the Bill's pass rush.
Speaker 1: I thought von Miller had a good game last week.
Speaker 1: You know, Greg Russo, we're talking about physicality. He's a
Speaker 1: physical player, certainly, But I do think there's more vulnerabilities
Speaker 1: there for that Ravens offensive line, maybe maybe on the
Speaker 1: inside to get after Lamar Jackson. Do you think this
Speaker 1: Bill's pass rush is the group that could bother lamar
Speaker 1: it can.
Speaker 3: I mean, I thought von Miller could be a real
Speaker 3: X factor, But I watched Rosie Garden go up against
Speaker 3: TJ Watt last week and he pitched a shutout.
Speaker 2: You have any problem at all now? They helped fit shift.
Speaker 3: I mean, they did some things that would be a
Speaker 3: good game plan for any tap and not much less
Speaker 3: a rookie.
Speaker 2: But I thought he played really well against TJ.
Speaker 3: I've always I've been in not constant contact, but I've
Speaker 3: been around von a lot. I do a sack summing
Speaker 3: out in Las Vegas. I've talked to him over here.
Speaker 3: It was interesting. I was up in Rochester two summers
Speaker 3: ago and he was up there and I was just
Speaker 3: asking him, like, do you do sort of like a
Speaker 3: sack summit with you know, with Epinessa and with you know,
Speaker 3: Rousseau and all the Oliver and all the guys He goes,
Speaker 3: not really, he goes all those guys you know are
Speaker 3: good pass.
Speaker 2: Rushers in the wrong way.
Speaker 3: What I really try to convey to them is the moment,
Speaker 3: when is the moment where you've got to win? And
Speaker 3: I feel like von Miller unders he's one of the
Speaker 3: really rare guys that really understands the moment. It's a
Speaker 3: third down, it's the fourth quarter. We got to get
Speaker 3: off the field. The games in the bounce super Bowl
Speaker 3: three years ago, like the games in the bounds, this
Speaker 3: is when I got to shine. And I feel like
Speaker 3: Von constantly preaches that to his guys, and so I
Speaker 3: feel like if it does, the game does get played
Speaker 3: a lot closer.
Speaker 2: You know, can those guys.
Speaker 3: Win in a moment against against the Ravens when they
Speaker 3: got to have it and they got to get Yo
Speaker 3: Lamar either chased or to the ground.
Speaker 1: I love that point you make about von Miller, who's
Speaker 1: one of the all time greats that I've had a
Speaker 1: chance to watch, and his ability to get hot and
Speaker 1: to make plays at the exact right time. Going back
Speaker 1: so when he first entered the league, throughout the Broncos,
Speaker 1: even when he was having bad years with the Broncos,
Speaker 1: he just had a sense of the moment that was
Speaker 1: unlike anyone else. And that's what this team needs to have.
Speaker 1: They've been through it, they've been to the playoffs. These
Speaker 1: two teams are so similar in so many ways in
Speaker 1: terms of their quarterbacks wanting to get over the hump.
Speaker 1: Their franchises wanted to get over the hump. And it's
Speaker 1: gonna take guys like Von Miller, like a Matt Milana,
Speaker 1: who I thought looked really good last week, Veterans who
Speaker 1: have been around playing their best at the biggest moments.
Speaker 1: When you look at the secondary for the Bills before
Speaker 1: we flip kind of sides of the ball and think
Speaker 1: about when when the Bills have the ball. You know,
Speaker 1: Damar Hamlin has had a good season. You know Taylor
Speaker 1: Rapp got victimized a little bit. Christian Benford's an underrated player,
Speaker 1: but maybe not coming off his best game ever last week,
Speaker 1: at least to my eye. If Zay Flowers plays in
Speaker 1: this game, and we're not sure as we're taping this
Speaker 1: if if he will or not, is that an area
Speaker 1: you think Baltimore can get after there? It's the safety
Speaker 1: is maybe getting cheating up to the line of scrimmage
Speaker 1: and then hitting them for some big plays.
Speaker 3: Well, before I answer that, Greg, I just want to
Speaker 3: make one point about both these quarterbacks, and I was
Speaker 3: talking to actually Warren Sapp about it this weekend at
Speaker 3: hula Ball, and what you don't want either Lamar or
Speaker 3: Josh to be able to do is it get vertical
Speaker 3: you want them. That's to your point about Matt Mallana
Speaker 3: on his feet, Like if Lamar's coming out and he
Speaker 3: pulls the ball from Derek Henry and he's and he's
Speaker 3: going east west, you want him to keep going east west.
Speaker 2: As soon as he or Josh, as soon as they
Speaker 2: go vertical. They're so good and.
Speaker 3: They're so hard to tackle them, like that's when you
Speaker 3: get big chunk yards.
Speaker 2: But if you can flatten them, because Sap was.
Speaker 3: Telling me about playing Mike Vic and you never wanted
Speaker 3: him to go vertical once that option happened and he
Speaker 3: kept it, you wanted them to be able to flatten.
Speaker 3: And that's where speed Derek Brooks back in the Tampa days,
Speaker 3: that's where the speed like flatten him to the sideline.
Speaker 3: Don't never let him think that they can get vertical
Speaker 3: on you and go north south. That's one point I
Speaker 3: just wanted to make clear. But you know Lamar I
Speaker 3: said this a couple of weeks ago. Greg I said,
Speaker 3: Lamar might miss a pass, but he doesn't miss a read.
Speaker 3: Like his eyes and where he's supposed to go with
Speaker 3: the ball, like he's rarely wrong right now, the touchdown
Speaker 3: to a shot baitman the other day. There's a reason
Speaker 3: why you know, Hours has been their leading receiver two
Speaker 3: years in a row. He knows how to uncover even
Speaker 3: if he's not the opt you know, the primary receiver.
Speaker 3: Both tight ends are excellent at it. When the original
Speaker 3: excellent no plays is now you know over and now
Speaker 3: Lamar is out there, he's looking to throw first, run second.
Speaker 3: That's a shift from him a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3: He's really looking to throw it more than to run
Speaker 3: it right now. So that's a concern for that secondary
Speaker 3: of Buffalo is you know, you've got to make that
Speaker 3: decision plaster the receiver or go after Lamar, And you
Speaker 3: know there's you can't always be right, but at the
Speaker 3: same time, you have to be aware.
Speaker 2: Of the situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's it's such an amazing time for these
Speaker 1: two guys to be playing each other because what you're
Speaker 1: saying about Lamar not making the wrong read, that's such
Speaker 1: an awesome point and it also reminds me of how
Speaker 1: Josh Allen has matured. Ben Roethlisberger is always the quarterback
Speaker 1: I think of the most where he had his physical
Speaker 1: skills and at some point in his career. It actually
Speaker 1: was after they were making the Super Bowls. The mental
Speaker 1: side of it clicked in and he just became a
Speaker 1: totally different and more mature and better player. And you're
Speaker 1: seeing that with both these quarterbacks too, not that not
Speaker 1: that they ever were awful in those areas, but of
Speaker 1: course the experience there's so much better with their reads.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you've seen out of Allen's maturity. I
Speaker 1: thought that performance in the wildcard round was really typical
Speaker 1: of his season, not not always having to go for
Speaker 1: it by hitting the big play when it was there,
Speaker 1: and his decision making and deciding what to do has
Speaker 1: been on point all season long.
Speaker 3: Well, coaching maddis great. Coaching Joe Brady is an upgrade now.
Speaker 3: Joe Brady. I remember talking to Joe Burrow about him,
Speaker 3: and you know, he had him at LSU and they
Speaker 3: won a national championship.
Speaker 2: And what Joe wanted.
Speaker 3: He wanted five guys out every route and then tell me,
Speaker 3: teach me the agression based on coverage, based on front,
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff. Teach me the progression. And
Speaker 3: Joe's a magician. But I think Josh has gotten a
Speaker 3: lot better at it. In fact, you know, if you
Speaker 3: look at the touchdown to TDD Johnson last week, it's
Speaker 3: a fourth and two play, and you know, I mean
Speaker 3: Josh gets outside the pocket and ty Johnson. I mean
Speaker 3: it's it's a great throw, it's a great adjustment, it's
Speaker 3: a great catch by Tide. But there's also I feel like,
Speaker 3: as opposed to maybe early on in Josh's career and
Speaker 3: even up until halfway through the season a year ago,
Speaker 3: I don't know that he always had the answers to
Speaker 3: the test. When he started scrambling, he would scrambled because
Speaker 3: he was looking. But now I feel like there's more
Speaker 3: of a definitive pattern of where to go, Okay, where's
Speaker 3: my back, where's kinkaid? Okay, where's my secondary receivers that
Speaker 3: work part of the route?
Speaker 2: How are they?
Speaker 3: I feel like he now you know, it's like if
Speaker 3: you take that IQ test, and part of the IQ
Speaker 3: test is spatial relations, and you kind of take a
Speaker 3: snapshot of a picture and then you've got to remember
Speaker 3: where everything is. And I feel like Josh's snapshots right
Speaker 3: now on the move are very clear about where his
Speaker 3: people are are gonna be, and that's led to a
Speaker 3: lot less turnovers than what he had in his past years.
Speaker 1: That's why I would do bad on IQ tests. I
Speaker 1: just know it, Like why I that's that's where I'm
Speaker 1: a dummy. Like a lot of areas that'd be strong,
Speaker 1: but that wo'd be so bad. You're an offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: They were always very often they were the smartest guys
Speaker 1: in the room. So you'd probably do well in the
Speaker 1: IQ on the spatial awareness.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not my strength either, But I'm also would
Speaker 3: be terrible in jeopardy. I can't think that fast. Great,
Speaker 3: I know the answer, but I need time. So like
Speaker 3: the Bumzer goes off and I'm still you know, I
Speaker 3: need a little time to think it through.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: So it's good that that Josh doesn't have that struggles
Speaker 1: and Joe Brady doesn't. And yet, when you think about
Speaker 1: this team, one stat that as I was preparing really
Speaker 1: stuck out to me from last week. You know, Alec Anderson,
Speaker 1: who we've talked about on this show. They do six
Speaker 1: offensive linemen more than any other team in the league,
Speaker 1: and he's he's that sixth offensive lineman. And Dion Dawkins
Speaker 1: is sort of playing tight end for them when they're
Speaker 1: doing that, and they just smash you to bits.
Speaker 5: Once.
Speaker 1: That stuck out to me last week Alec Anderson only
Speaker 1: played five fewer snaps their six offensive linemen than Amari Cooper,
Speaker 1: Like if that and he played Mary Cooper also played
Speaker 1: less than the two tight ends. So they want to
Speaker 1: smash you, and they can. And they're diverse in what
Speaker 1: they do, and obviously Josh Allen adds a lot to
Speaker 1: what they do as a running game. When you're going
Speaker 1: up against this Ravens defense, though, do you think that
Speaker 1: is the most effective way to attack them? Because they
Speaker 1: are big up front and you want to be physical
Speaker 1: against the Ravens, but their strength has been in run defense.
Speaker 1: Do you think the Bills will be able to get
Speaker 1: what they need on the ground with James Cook and
Speaker 1: Allen when he needs to I do Aaron to.
Speaker 2: Coach of Week eight team. They've started every game together.
Speaker 3: You know, you go right across the board, Dion Edwards McGovern,
Speaker 3: you know, Cyborg, Spencer Brown, They've started every game.
Speaker 2: They're very very well coached.
Speaker 3: Dawkins took Benito, just took them right out of the
Speaker 3: game last week. Now, I mean they just they're up
Speaker 3: to any challenge. You know, they know Chuck Smith coaches
Speaker 3: the pass rushers in Baltimore, and we've seen incredible development
Speaker 3: from Oway, from Mattabeque, Travis Jones, Calvenham, they're all playing
Speaker 3: great football.
Speaker 2: They they have been able to press the quarterback with
Speaker 2: just their front four.
Speaker 3: But I don't think it's going to be as easy
Speaker 3: as it has been in some of these games. This
Speaker 3: is a very talented group. They're very well coached. Yes,
Speaker 3: Alec Anderson steps in there in his role. They don't
Speaker 3: try to fool you. If they want to run the ball,
Speaker 3: they want to run the wall. They want to get
Speaker 3: James Cook Gollings. He's an elite back with great feet
Speaker 3: and vision. This is a great it's a great matchup
Speaker 3: in the trenches between these two teams run in pass.
Speaker 3: You know, they they've got their run stuffers there in Baltimore.
Speaker 3: You know that can you know, just keep Rokwond free
Speaker 3: and all that stuff.
Speaker 4: But this is it.
Speaker 3: They like to pull their tackles more than anybody else
Speaker 3: in this leepe, and so that's their bread and butter play.
Speaker 3: They're gonna pull Spencer or they're gonna pull Dean and
Speaker 3: they're gonna start, you know, get an extra guy to
Speaker 3: outside of the ball and you know, try to play
Speaker 3: some power football with you.
Speaker 2: It's coming, can you stop it?
Speaker 3: And it's it's It's one of those you know games
Speaker 3: with any game that's going to take place.
Speaker 2: On Sunday night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then the Ravens just have so many different
Speaker 1: bodies that can throw at you out of Weeke and
Speaker 1: Travis Jones and Michael Pearson, A Dafay always playing really
Speaker 1: well as a pass rusher that that's where he does
Speaker 1: his work. So it's an incredible matchup. And I just
Speaker 1: would have a hard time taking the ball out of
Speaker 1: Josh Allen's hands. You want to in his hands as
Speaker 1: much as possible. And they do have so much depth.
Speaker 1: You know what I mentioned, Amari Cooper had those amount
Speaker 1: of snaps. He was fifth in the wide receiver room
Speaker 1: in terms of snaps. It was pretty close one through
Speaker 1: five and it's all close. They all have diferent roles
Speaker 1: and they can all play well in their roles. Do
Speaker 1: you think they have an advantage maybe against some of
Speaker 1: the Ravens secondary depth, Like where where do you see
Speaker 1: those kind of matchups? How Nate Wiggins has come along
Speaker 1: and Brandon Stevens and maybe that's where Buffalo can get
Speaker 1: it done on Sunday.
Speaker 3: Well, I think they're going to get Todd Johnson on
Speaker 3: some of the linebackers he's got. I remember when he
Speaker 3: was with the Jets, and you know, like the Jets do,
Speaker 3: they just let good players go. But he had elite
Speaker 3: speed and he was a third back in that all.
Speaker 3: He's got great speed. He's a great receiver. And so
Speaker 3: they played Detroit a couple of weeks ago and it
Speaker 3: was a shootout game, but they got you know, they
Speaker 3: had one of those backup linebackers off the street in
Speaker 3: Detroit and they got TYD Johnson matched off boon him.
Speaker 3: They got James Cook matched up on him, and they
Speaker 3: went to work on the linebackers. And so I think
Speaker 3: there's different ways to find matchups. It could be a
Speaker 3: back on a backer. It could be their tight end.
Speaker 3: You saw last week Dalton kin k you know, get
Speaker 3: vertical late in the game when they had the game one.
Speaker 2: But you know they got a.
Speaker 3: Thirty five yard pass against man coverage and you know
Speaker 3: he can run like a receiver. So they're gonna they're
Speaker 3: gonna find the matchups. They're gonna get to them, and
Speaker 3: so question them can they execute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's almost unfair when two teams this good
Speaker 1: play each other in the division round. I hate the
Speaker 1: narratives that are gonna come after this game because one
Speaker 1: of these two teams has to lose and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be really disappointing to me. There's five teams, it's these two,
Speaker 1: it's the Chiefs, it's the Eagles, it's the Lions. Where
Speaker 1: if they're holding the Lombardi Trophy at the end, that
Speaker 1: just would make a lot of sense to me. And
Speaker 1: they're all they're all pretty close where any team could
Speaker 1: win on a given day. I'm having a hard time
Speaker 1: deciding where to go. I picked the Bills before the
Speaker 1: season started, so it just feels like, why why go
Speaker 1: away from them? Now? They're a slight underdog in this game.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Ravens have been playing better lately and they've
Speaker 1: had the matchup advantage in this matchup over the years.
Speaker 1: But it's been a pretty magical Bills team. I got
Speaker 1: no questions about the quarterbacks. I think I think they're
Speaker 1: going to play well. Is there one thing that helps
Speaker 1: you lean one way or another. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: make you either pick it, but if you want to
Speaker 1: you can and if there's a matchup you're just looking
Speaker 1: at like whether it's Roquan Smith or Kyle whatever, it
Speaker 1: is that that you think gives one team an edge
Speaker 1: over another because they're just so they're so evenly matched.
Speaker 3: No, No, I mean you go back and forth all
Speaker 3: day long, right, I mean it's an analyst stream.
Speaker 2: You go to some of you go to the kicking
Speaker 2: game on.
Speaker 3: This one, Yeah, justin Tucker and the win is he
Speaker 3: can you trust him and versus you know, all the
Speaker 3: kicks that he was missed this year is the you know,
Speaker 3: a player on the down side of his career is
Speaker 3: getting played through it. I mean, you could go in
Speaker 3: so many different directions here. You know, both these coaches
Speaker 3: coach with Andy Reid at one point, can you go
Speaker 3: all the way back to the nest and where it
Speaker 3: all started And it's just a lot of different factors,
Speaker 3: and you know, ultimately, both quarterbacks know that they're going
Speaker 3: to be measured on winning Super Bowls and the MVPs
Speaker 3: are great and it's an honor and nobody's gonna, you know,
Speaker 3: not accept that award, but everybody's chasing mahomes and super
Speaker 3: Bowls and so one of them is just going to
Speaker 3: be left behind, going we got to wait another year.
Speaker 3: And it's just to your point, it's going to be
Speaker 3: incredibly disappointing for whichever one loses. And you know, it's
Speaker 3: always more than just a quarterback, but so much is
Speaker 3: put on both shoulders, especially if it comes down to
Speaker 3: a final drive.
Speaker 2: And who can execute that.
Speaker 3: And so Lamar had the heart ache of losing to
Speaker 3: the Chiefs last year, Josh has had that heartache of
Speaker 3: losing Mahomes before.
Speaker 2: You know, they don't even get a chance to get there.
Speaker 3: Whoever loses it, they don't even get a chance to
Speaker 3: maybe meeting meet Kansas City there.
Speaker 2: You know. Who know, I'm not writing Houston off, but you.
Speaker 3: Know, you don't even know if you to get that
Speaker 3: chance to go to go meet Mahomes and any reading that.
Speaker 2: So the loser is going to be.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be some real, some real teers.
Speaker 1: I know, because we just spent twelve months just to
Speaker 1: get back to this point. It's the same four teams,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't put the Texans in in
Speaker 1: their class, but it's just so hard to get to
Speaker 1: a super Bowl in the AFC. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: when Brady and Manning were there, you had to get
Speaker 1: through both of them. But now now there's three and
Speaker 1: there's Burrow, you know, sticking around and it's just brutal.
Speaker 1: I'm leaning Bills, but that's more to be real about
Speaker 1: just sticking with a preseason pick because why not, and
Speaker 1: because it's home. It is a little crazy to me
Speaker 1: that they're they're underdogs at home. I know it's only
Speaker 1: a point, but it is an advantage to be there
Speaker 1: in Buffalo, and they they have been as much as
Speaker 1: the Ravens have been through some playoff heartaches, certainly the
Speaker 1: Bills have played even even more of those games. A
Speaker 1: little our experience may maybe they get it done. And
Speaker 1: it is crazy that it could all be anti climactic.
Speaker 1: Either one of them could lose to the Chiefs in
Speaker 1: the end.
Speaker 2: Josh Allen overtime rule will come into effect.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I mean that rule was changed because Josh
Speaker 3: Allen never got a change in overtime to get the
Speaker 3: ball after Mahomes scored. So who knows. Maybe the Josh
Speaker 3: Allen rule will come into effect.
Speaker 2: In this game.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I can only hope so. Because this is
Speaker 1: the final game of the weekend it is Sunday evening.
Speaker 1: We're going to be heading into the studio to recap
Speaker 1: it all right afterwards. I can't wait with Ravens fan
Speaker 1: Patrick Claybond. But it's the best game, so that's why
Speaker 1: we had to start this show. You're the best, Baldy.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me, Bud, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you. And yeah, we're going to stick in the AFC.
Speaker 1: After the break. We are welcoming in Seth Pain. We
Speaker 1: had to have it back after I said last week
Speaker 1: was going to be the last time we talked to
Speaker 1: Seth Payin for the season because I thought the Texans
Speaker 1: were going to lose. He's back on the show, talk
Speaker 1: a Little Texans Chiefs right after this, back on NFL Daily,
Speaker 1: staying in the AFC, and I had to have our
Speaker 1: next guest on because I'm eating Crow. I welcomed him
Speaker 1: on last week saying this will be the last time
Speaker 1: we ever get to talk to Seth Payin. The Texans
Speaker 1: will never be relevant again. He's headbanging. You know him
Speaker 1: from six to ten Sports Radio in Houston where he
Speaker 1: does the morning show and at Seth Payne Show on YouTube.
Speaker 1: It's entertaining, and he's loving spiking the football on me
Speaker 1: because his Texans are in the divisional round.
Speaker 6: They're in the divisional round after against all odds somehow again,
Speaker 6: So what everybody thought was just the unwinnable game because
Speaker 6: there were three point underdogs. I'm still discussed Rex Ryan
Speaker 6: everybody else acting like, oh three point on nobody's ever
Speaker 6: pulled that off in the NFL. Oh single digit underdogs,
Speaker 6: not even the high single digits.
Speaker 1: No I fell for it. I really thought that Chargers
Speaker 1: would roll. Oh, like, how how could a team, uh
Speaker 1: you know name the Chargers possibly blow it in the playoffs?
Speaker 6: Yeah, Jim, Yeah, Jim Harbaugh had exercised all the demons.
Speaker 4: They just beat the Raiders.
Speaker 1: Greg Greg Roman in a spot against one of the
Speaker 1: best defenses in the league where the number two receiver
Speaker 1: is Will Disley, Like I don't know. No, I was surprised,
Speaker 1: and it was an awesome performance by the Texans. One
Speaker 1: of and well we'll flip it to this game very soon,
Speaker 1: but one of just the best defensive games. And you're
Speaker 1: a former Houston Texans defend defender, Seth, you must have
Speaker 1: loved seeing defensive football because I will defend that game.
Speaker 1: That was a good game. I know it ended up
Speaker 1: not being at the end, so it wasn't a great game.
Speaker 1: But I was like, this is actually great defensive football
Speaker 1: from both teams, and one of the best you know
Speaker 1: for a while, and then one of the best defensive
Speaker 1: performances I've ever seen by any defense in a playoff game.
Speaker 6: Honestly, it was midway through the second quarter when the
Speaker 6: store was somehow still six nothing because the tex the
Speaker 6: offense wasn't doing anything. The Texans defense looked awful on
Speaker 6: the first drive, but they came up big with a
Speaker 6: third and two stop. But I was thinking back to
Speaker 6: two thousand and two, the first year of the franchise.
Speaker 6: We won a game against Pittsburgh in which we had
Speaker 6: forty seven yards of offense and Aaron Glenn, future Saints
Speaker 6: head coach. Unless I've missed a hire or something, Aaron
Speaker 6: Glenn scored two touchdowns defensively in that game. We scored
Speaker 6: three defensive touchdowns. I thought, all right, well, maybe this
Speaker 6: defense can pull it off. But it was going against
Speaker 6: Justin Herbert, who'd thrown three interceptions all year long. Yeah,
Speaker 6: everything that the Texans have been able to do this
Speaker 6: year defensively, which is they're very opportunistic, they take the
Speaker 6: ball away lot. They came through big time there, But
Speaker 6: the offense clicking, the offense able to run the ball
Speaker 6: in the second half. We really haven't seen hardly any
Speaker 6: of that this year out of the offense. So the
Speaker 6: really encouraging thing is that, Okay, maybe something clicked. Maybe
Speaker 6: obviously the Chiefs are a completely different ball of wax
Speaker 6: than the Chargers, but at the very least maybe something
Speaker 6: clicked with CJ. Stroud in the offense that this can
Speaker 6: be a different version of the Texans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you guys got to be fired up before
Speaker 1: we even hit record. What did you call me a
Speaker 1: bourgeois Patriots fan that I.
Speaker 6: Like you were back in the day you used to
Speaker 6: describe the fan base. It sounded to me like kind
Speaker 6: of that bourgeois malaise of like, oh, I have everything
Speaker 6: I have ever wanted, and yet I'm still not happy?
Speaker 6: Why Why are ras Bostonians so angry all the time?
Speaker 4: It's yeah, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: I felt like I enjoyed it. I knew I enjoyed
Speaker 1: it at the time, and I knew it would never
Speaker 1: get any better, which is why when Brady left. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, what's the point. We already that that
Speaker 1: was the best that's ever going to be, and the
Speaker 1: Texans are not there. They're climbing. They've never been to
Speaker 1: it AFC Championship game, right, No.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they're the only team in the division the lofty
Speaker 6: and with all the lofty expectations at AFC South, they're
Speaker 6: the one team that hasn't reached a conference.
Speaker 1: And they're huge. They're huge underdogs this weekend and they
Speaker 1: should be because the Chiefs finished up this season. I
Speaker 1: know I'm falling to the trap again and I no, no.
Speaker 4: I mean this is different. This is different this week.
Speaker 1: And I think the I think they have a chance.
Speaker 1: I do think they have a chance. I don't think
Speaker 1: this is like there was one of those Texans Patriots
Speaker 1: divisional round games where everyone knew they didn't have a
Speaker 1: chance and they didn't have a chance, and then there
Speaker 1: was one. I thought they'd be close and they weren't. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: I think they have a chance in this game because
Speaker 1: we got to start on the defensive side. That's the
Speaker 1: fascinating matchup. When the Chiefs have the ball, when the
Speaker 1: Texans are on defense, this is best on maybe best.
Speaker 1: I think the Chiefs often started playing their best late
Speaker 1: in the season. Actually, in that Texans game, I thought
Speaker 1: Andy Reid did a lot of good things against Tamiko
Speaker 1: Ryans where it was a bit of a coaching game,
Speaker 1: and every snap, like Patrick Mahomes kind of knew where
Speaker 1: his receivers had the leverage and he always just kept
Speaker 1: hitting him. And I was like, Wow, this is the
Speaker 1: Chief's offense I was waiting to see all season. And
Speaker 1: the scary thing is they kind of did it again
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day and they finished out the season playing
Speaker 1: their best football in the Texans game was a big
Speaker 1: part of that. How do you think they can be
Speaker 1: different this time around in Texas?
Speaker 4: Well? I think, for one, the one good thing the.
Speaker 6: Texans did in that game at least is there weren't
Speaker 6: a huge number of explosive pass plays out of the Chiefs,
Speaker 6: and again, you know it's regular season Chiefs versus postseason Chiefs.
Speaker 6: I understand the difference there. The weakness for the Texans
Speaker 6: defense this year has been in allowing some of the
Speaker 6: explosive plays. Part of that's because of youth in the secondary,
Speaker 6: because they've man Kamari Lasted has been awesome, but he's
Speaker 6: also a rookie. Calen Bullock has been way better than
Speaker 6: I anticipated or expected. I thought he was going to
Speaker 6: be like a two or three year project, and he's
Speaker 6: played really, really well. They've gotten a boatload of interceptions,
Speaker 6: but they've also had glitches that have allowed some huge plays.
Speaker 6: We saw it in the Chargers game there with Lad
Speaker 6: McConkey in the second half. They just had a little
Speaker 6: bit of a glitch. There really should have been a
Speaker 6: PBu if they had played it right. That's what when
Speaker 6: it comes to Pat Mahomes and Andy Reid scheming and
Speaker 6: finding their opportunities versus guys like Xavier Worthy.
Speaker 4: That's that's the big concern.
Speaker 6: I think, down in and down out, they can limit
Speaker 6: and hold the Chiefs, you know, from being too explosive,
Speaker 6: because the Chiefs haven't been super explosive all year long.
Speaker 6: It's some of that the other On the positive side
Speaker 6: of things, they have a ziz al Shire this time,
Speaker 6: which they didn't last time, and I know, talking about
Speaker 6: a middle linebacker like that's going.
Speaker 4: To be the huge X factor.
Speaker 6: It's not going to be like the one thing that
Speaker 6: puts the Texans over the top.
Speaker 4: But they're a much different.
Speaker 6: Defense with a z's on the field than than when
Speaker 6: he's being unfairly, unfairly persecuted for playing football.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, by my boss's bosses, boss's boss. You know,
Speaker 1: we put him down three games. He know, he is
Speaker 1: that important I think in Demiico Ryans' defense. Not to
Speaker 1: oversimplify it, but the linebackers are the leaders in some ways,
Speaker 1: and he is that guy for them. And you got
Speaker 1: Christian Harris back to he's been healthy, right, and that matters.
Speaker 1: My son's favorite player, And weirdly, one of the reasons,
Speaker 1: well favorite player are the defense. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: why he likes the Texans is like the first or
Speaker 1: second ever football card pack he had, he pulled the
Speaker 1: Christian Harris rookie autograph card and that that helped him
Speaker 1: run the you know what's been a pretty good ride
Speaker 1: as a Texans fan the last two years. He can't
Speaker 1: complain in the divisional round the last two.
Speaker 4: Years except that, yeah, they do.
Speaker 6: The Texans have this history of they played really well
Speaker 6: in the wildcard round. You know, as much as we
Speaker 6: get to crap for always playing that Saturday three thirty
Speaker 6: game or four thirty Easter and whatever, they tend to
Speaker 6: with They've got a winning record in those games. Yeah,
Speaker 6: but the divisional round hasn't been so hot. Christian Harris,
Speaker 6: your son, Your son should be concerned about Christian Harris
Speaker 6: just because he's had this mysterious calf injury all year long.
Speaker 6: He only played seven snaps in the game against the Chargers, So.
Speaker 4: But I don't he's kind of weak to week.
Speaker 6: I think it's one of these injuries that it flares
Speaker 6: up and then it goes away. But that's that is
Speaker 6: a big factor. And just being able to line up
Speaker 6: and play a base four to three. They're really not
Speaker 6: able to do it without Christian Harris. They don't feel
Speaker 6: great about the other guys out there. So if Christian
Speaker 6: Harris is healthy and available and can play a lot
Speaker 6: of snaps, it could be a big difference.
Speaker 1: That I look at you. You found a way to
Speaker 1: turn my football card story into it still your child, joy.
Speaker 1: My My concern is Hunter and will Anderson. They just
Speaker 1: need to impact the game more than they did that
Speaker 1: first time. I know, I'm BASI lot on the first
Speaker 1: time round and I want to take what the Texans
Speaker 1: did last week and value that. But was it was
Speaker 1: so recent and it was so much part of I
Speaker 1: think the Chiefs team we're going to see in this game,
Speaker 1: which like their playoffs did start there. I think my
Speaker 1: theory is they kind of convinced themselves we got these
Speaker 1: three games in eleven days or whatever it was, our
Speaker 1: playoffs start now, and then suddenly they were a different team.
Speaker 1: If we can win these three games and we get
Speaker 1: this bye week, and suddenly Mahomes getting the ball out faster.
Speaker 1: I think the injury almost helped him, although he scrambled,
Speaker 1: you know, really well in that game, and the Texans
Speaker 1: have been bad against scrambles all year, and I kind
Speaker 1: of I think that's huge because I kind of doubt
Speaker 1: the Chiefs can run. That's one advantage I give the
Speaker 1: Texans defense. I don't expect Pacheco in that running game
Speaker 1: to get going because it really hasn't all year, and
Speaker 1: the Texans are pretty great at stopping that. So it's
Speaker 1: going to be Mahomes going through his reads like ultra fast.
Speaker 1: That's what makes him different than he was even five
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that I'm glad you brought that up because I
Speaker 6: had forgotten. You know, that was a big talking point
Speaker 6: after the game, was that Mahomes got rid of the
Speaker 6: ball as fast as he has all year. And I'll
Speaker 6: tell you what, My goodness, I made a little joke
Speaker 6: about Pat Mahomes being injured and still playing well, and
Speaker 6: I honestly just kind of met like, yeah, it's what. Yeah,
Speaker 6: he's got an ankle injury, but.
Speaker 4: Look at him. Chiefs. Fans are so sensitive right now.
Speaker 4: They largely I did the YouTube.
Speaker 6: Video and I said that My point was, yeah, he's
Speaker 6: done this before, he's had these ankle injuries.
Speaker 4: I was attacked.
Speaker 6: I set a record for numbers of dislikes on a
Speaker 6: video on YouTube.
Speaker 4: Just because they thought.
Speaker 6: They all assumed I was saying that he was faking
Speaker 6: the injury or something like No. Is he a little
Speaker 6: bit dramatic sometimes and letting everybody know about Sure, but
Speaker 6: he's definitely injured. He's just he always does this. It
Speaker 6: doesn't matter if he's hobbled, he's able to run.
Speaker 4: But he also got rid of the ball very quickly.
Speaker 6: The big thing about that game was the Texans were
Speaker 6: getting a good pass rush, but they just they couldn't
Speaker 6: get a hobbled Pat Mahomes on the ground, and.
Speaker 4: Like that can't be.
Speaker 6: You gotta figure out a way to keep him from
Speaker 6: just getting all that easy yardage that even when he's injured.
Speaker 6: I mean, and I say it's easy yardage. The touchdown run,
Speaker 6: he had both the setup to the touchdown and the
Speaker 6: touchdown itself. I mean, he kind of he kind of
Speaker 6: punked some Texans defenders, you know he does. He kind
Speaker 6: of bulldozed some dudes.
Speaker 1: They test you too with the quick throws of can
Speaker 1: you tackle in space? And Lassiter like Stingley, they're great
Speaker 1: at it. Maybe the safety position without Petrie, that's something
Speaker 1: you can attack more. I think Xavier Worthy really found
Speaker 1: his role late in the season, which was kind of
Speaker 1: the Rashi Rice roll from a year ago. They stopped
Speaker 1: asking him to do stuff. So that's where the big,
Speaker 1: the big place could go. You mentioned like being a
Speaker 1: little dramatic with the injuries. Now your old teammate you
Speaker 1: were Wait, were you teammates with JJ Wattu?
Speaker 4: No? No, no, no, I'm much old with you know,
Speaker 4: I lose track of the No. No, that's I know.
Speaker 6: No, I'm just laughing at how old I am.
Speaker 1: I did have a theory in that Steelers Ravens game
Speaker 1: that like there's like there's a little bit of that
Speaker 1: with TJ Watts Hett.
Speaker 6: Oh really, I gotta you know, I gotta go back
Speaker 6: and watch because I okay, real quick.
Speaker 1: It's like a little extra a little aj. JJ used
Speaker 1: to get a little grief for that, which you know,
Speaker 1: he's one of the all time greats. Still people talk
Speaker 1: about Aaron Donald as the best defensive player of this century,
Speaker 1: and I still say, I think JJ Watt's peak those
Speaker 1: three years was actually the best defensive player I've personally
Speaker 1: ever seen.
Speaker 6: That four game, that four year stretch where JJ won
Speaker 6: three defensive MVPs. His his averages various categories like TFLs
Speaker 6: and other things like that, Like his averages over those
Speaker 6: four years were higher than any number that any of
Speaker 6: those guys like Aaron Donald and Aaron Like, I don't
Speaker 6: I don't want to turn this into like JJ Watt
Speaker 6: is awesome and Aaron Donald suck.
Speaker 1: Now they're the two best. I think they're the two best.
Speaker 6: His averages were higher than like numbers that Donald had
Speaker 6: ever attained in a single season.
Speaker 4: It was just it was, it was.
Speaker 6: It was just freakish how productive he was as a
Speaker 6: defensive lineman.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know I'm getting a way off topic here.
Speaker 1: I do think they can win those matchups against the tackles,
Speaker 1: they can get a little quicker pressure. I think they
Speaker 1: can prevent the run, force the Chiefs maybe into some
Speaker 1: more third and longs, which obviously Patrick Mahomes is good at,
Speaker 1: but they do have a couple of cornerbacks that that
Speaker 1: could make that difficult on them. Even if he finds
Speaker 1: the matchups, I think it'll be more of a might
Speaker 1: be more of a Kelsey and a Juju and in
Speaker 1: de Hop when he's over the middle type of game.
Speaker 1: But I just feel like they're gonna have to They're
Speaker 1: gonna have to be special because I think the best
Speaker 1: you can hope out of the offense is good enough.
Speaker 1: So you just got to hold the score to one
Speaker 1: or twenty three, or you're gonna need to force two turnovers?
Speaker 1: Am I wrong? Thinking like they in the playoffs? I
Speaker 1: just feel like your strengths have to be extra strong
Speaker 1: and you got to somehow win that matchup to give C. J.
Speaker 1: Stroud in the offensive champs because you can't. You can't
Speaker 1: just think that the offense is suddenly gonna put up
Speaker 1: twenty seven points.
Speaker 6: No, No, they just haven't consistently been able to do it.
Speaker 6: And even in that game with the Chargers, the offense
Speaker 6: clicked with that ninety nine yard touchdown run, but it
Speaker 6: was because, like the game was only in reach because
Speaker 6: the defense had played so well up to that.
Speaker 1: Right, that was their seventh drive of the first half.
Speaker 1: You never get that many drives, you know.
Speaker 6: The time of possession was so lopsided it was it
Speaker 6: was bad. So yes, and I agree with one hundred
Speaker 6: percent to go back to the old Patriots teams. I mean,
Speaker 6: this is an oversimplification, but I think it's it's true
Speaker 6: those Giants. The reason the Giants were able to beat
Speaker 6: the Patriots and turn them into a mortal team was
Speaker 6: because they could get a four man pass rush. And
Speaker 6: I think that that's what the Texans are going to
Speaker 6: be able to have to do, which they did in
Speaker 6: the Chargers game, especially in the second half. Is that
Speaker 6: the pass rush, which was really humming. They were getting
Speaker 6: really good rush out of the defensive tackles as well
Speaker 6: as the ends, Like you gotta be able to allow
Speaker 6: guys to sit back and coverage and you got to
Speaker 6: get there and it got better. They they started leaning
Speaker 6: on the four man rush more in the second half
Speaker 6: as it kind of heated up, but that's an absolute
Speaker 6: essential and then they'll have the opportunities for their turnovers.
Speaker 6: And Demiko, you know, of all the playoff performances, I
Speaker 6: was looking at some of the grades of when teams
Speaker 6: were in man coverage. Demiko played man as little as
Speaker 6: any other team on wild Card weekend, but they were
Speaker 6: the most defective in man coverage. And a lot of
Speaker 6: that just comes back to Derek Singley and Kamari Lassiter.
Speaker 1: They were so good and they can mix it up.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you mentioned the interior pressure Deniko Autry, like
Speaker 1: you a lifer in the vision that America forgets at
Speaker 1: a monster game.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and just like I thought you were talking about
Speaker 6: the pass rush monster part of me like that. He
Speaker 6: was definitely more than that. You know, the whole thing
Speaker 6: about Denico Autry is that he originally the timeline was this.
Speaker 6: I know everybody watching was dialed in on the Texans
Speaker 6: offseason acquisitions, but Denico Autrey was signed basically to be
Speaker 6: the edge rusher opposite of Will Anderson. And then they
Speaker 6: found out that Daniel Hunter was interested and that was
Speaker 6: an option and they said, all right, well, basically, Denko
Speaker 6: rushes from the inside really well we'll go ahead and
Speaker 6: we'll sign Daniel Hunter to a two year contract and
Speaker 6: moved Denico Autry down inside when Daniel's out there, and
Speaker 6: and he had some really good snaps at defensive tackle
Speaker 6: in that game. That's the the whole four man pass
Speaker 6: rush includes. You've got defensive ends that rush well from
Speaker 6: the tackle position.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shout out to Nick Asario. You know some of
Speaker 1: the ex Patriots building guys do well. It's just the
Speaker 1: front office guys. The coaches don't ever do well. But
Speaker 1: the mitchdrafted well and Atlanta Jason light is a former
Speaker 1: Belichick guy in Tampa. He's done well. Let's slip to
Speaker 1: the offense. And I know, I know Chiefs fans will
Speaker 1: be like, oh, this is such a Texans leaning podcast.
Speaker 1: Where's our time. You've got enough to do it. You've
Speaker 1: had all the time.
Speaker 4: Your time.
Speaker 1: It's probably coming up. I don't want to doubt the
Speaker 1: Texans again. It's probably coming up.
Speaker 6: I'm a very quick message to Chiefs fans again about this. Listen, listen,
Speaker 6: you guys have won three Super Bowls, all right, You're like,
Speaker 6: this is what comes with I know, Look, I personally
Speaker 6: don't buy into a single bit of any of the
Speaker 6: officiating controversy or anything.
Speaker 4: But this is the stuff that comes with wearing the crown.
Speaker 6: You're never gonna I don't know at what point people
Speaker 6: think that, like, oh, once we get really good, that's
Speaker 6: when we'll get universal praise and admiration. That's not how
Speaker 6: human beings work. Just enjoy the enjoy the scrutiny, enjoy
Speaker 6: the frankly, the delusional conspiracy theorything.
Speaker 4: It's just this is what comes with success.
Speaker 1: Well, plus, your offense used to be one of the
Speaker 1: most fun offenses I've ever seen, and it's just not.
Speaker 1: It's efficient and it's great, and it's the same reason
Speaker 1: why I would get another. You know, people complain in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, like that Patriots team, the last one that won.
Speaker 1: It's like by then it wasn't as fun to watch.
Speaker 1: I got it, Like just visually, it's not. I think
Speaker 1: Mahomes can get back there if they get they get
Speaker 1: the right people around them. Of course it's not about Mahomes,
Speaker 1: but they're just grinding it out and that maybe keeps
Speaker 1: Houston keeping the score relatively low. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: Texans offense before we go, because you know, one thing
Speaker 1: in that first game, and yeah, I clearly went back
Speaker 1: to watch it, and so I'm really I'm really leaning
Speaker 1: into that of like, hey, I did the homework and
Speaker 1: because I think it's I think it's relevant. I thought
Speaker 1: they actually picked up Spegnola's blitzes pretty well. I thought
Speaker 1: CJ threw with anticipation. I know, the Tank Dell injury
Speaker 1: is kind of what we remember and it fell apart
Speaker 1: from there, But overall CJ's so streaky as a quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he played particularly well overall in
Speaker 1: the wild card round. I think he did in this game,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what it's going to take because
Speaker 1: they're just going to send those rushers and the offensive
Speaker 1: line played decently well. I thought actually against the Chiefs
Speaker 1: the first time around, he took a lot of hits
Speaker 1: in the end, but a lot of those hits he
Speaker 1: was making completions with anticipation, and that's what you need
Speaker 1: out of him. You just need him to be a
Speaker 1: real dude for four quarters, not for two or three,
Speaker 1: which is kind of what he's been for a lot
Speaker 1: of the second half of the season.
Speaker 6: No, and I think that's exactly if you think about
Speaker 6: the Chiefs this year where the first half of the season,
Speaker 6: they're winning all these close games and you're, you know,
Speaker 6: you're kind of thinking like, well, I mean, this is
Speaker 6: the experience they have. They're good in the fourth quarter
Speaker 6: all that, but you didn't know for sure. And then
Speaker 6: they just kept winning and kept winning. And in that
Speaker 6: Texans game, I think it was the perfect representation of that,
Speaker 6: which is the Texans were hanging in there. Tank Dell
Speaker 6: was having a great game until he caught that touchdown
Speaker 6: and his knee got blown out on the same play.
Speaker 6: But even after that, the Texans drove down into the
Speaker 6: Chiefs territory, into the red area. But then CJ made
Speaker 6: a couple of bad mistakes, took asack he shouldn't have,
Speaker 6: there was a procedural issue and like that, and then
Speaker 6: the Chiefs came and just had just a clock draining drive,
Speaker 6: all those things that, yeah, the really experienced veteran championship
Speaker 6: caliber teams do. It was it was the way they
Speaker 6: operated in the fourth quarter. I mean, it was as
Speaker 6: stark as could be. The team that wasn't The Texans
Speaker 6: just not ready to be in that moment versus the
Speaker 6: Chiefs just very comfortable in that moment. So the whole
Speaker 6: fourth quarter aspect of it, and exactly what did the
Speaker 6: Texans do in the fourth quarter? Did they genuinely take
Speaker 6: a step forward With CJ? I think the really encouraging
Speaker 6: thing that happened in the Chargers game was he It
Speaker 6: just felt like after the the fumbled snap that turned
Speaker 6: into an exab your Hutchinson reception, it seemed like you
Speaker 6: let the game come to him a little bit more.
Speaker 6: You know, He's he's gotten better as the season's gone
Speaker 6: along at doing that very Pat Mahomes site thing of
Speaker 6: like taking the checkdown when that's what's there, doing the
Speaker 6: smart things like that. It's taken CJ a while to
Speaker 6: get comfortable with that. But then he also he started
Speaker 6: running the ball when there was easy yardage. And it's
Speaker 6: you know, Greg, I blame our generation for giving these
Speaker 6: young quarterbacks good advice, which is, listen, you want to
Speaker 6: be a pocket passer. You know, you just want to
Speaker 6: be sure you don't rely on your legs all the time.
Speaker 6: But the game has changed, and I feel like guys
Speaker 6: like us have been telling these young quarterbacks for years like, yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, don't let them typecasts. Yeah you're a passing quarterback,
Speaker 6: show me the awesome quarterbacks anymore who aren't also running
Speaker 6: quarterbacks like Pat Mahomes runs really intelligently and really effectively,
Speaker 6: and it helps the passing game, it helps the game management,
Speaker 6: all of that, and nobody's acting like, Wow, he's not
Speaker 6: a pure pocket passer. I think CJ is starting to understand,
Speaker 6: and Joe Mixon's been trying to tell him this all
Speaker 6: year long.
Speaker 4: Take those yards.
Speaker 6: You're athletic enough to do it and run for it
Speaker 6: when it's there, and I think it's starting to it. Really,
Speaker 6: at the very least in the second half of that
Speaker 6: game last week, it looked like that part of it
Speaker 6: really clicked for me.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, when he made that scramble in the drive
Speaker 1: to end the first half and Demico starts yelling, that's
Speaker 1: what I'm efing talking about. You could you could almost
Speaker 1: tell it was from the like I'm a defensive player
Speaker 1: point of view, like that's what that's what we need
Speaker 1: a little more of. Yeah, it's funny. You just made
Speaker 1: a point that I heard It was me to Kaims
Speaker 1: of Show with Dominique Foxworth too, and they were getting
Speaker 1: on Jordan Love for the same thing that it's so funny.
Speaker 1: Now we've gotten to the point with these quarterbacks. And
Speaker 1: Herbert was similar in his game where we're actually saying, no,
Speaker 1: you got to run more, bro Like, you guys are
Speaker 1: so athletic, it's hard to Like twenty years ago, you
Speaker 1: never would have thought that we would have said that.
Speaker 1: But I think there is something to that with Siege.
Speaker 1: He is a good playmaker and that play that he
Speaker 1: made at the end of the first half, maybe that
Speaker 1: is how you're gonna be able to beat Kansas City
Speaker 1: because if they have a weakness on defense, and this
Speaker 1: wasn't a great Chiefs defensive year. It was very good
Speaker 1: most of the year, had a dip and then mostly
Speaker 1: got it back during that three game streak and they
Speaker 1: kind of looked like the Chiefs that we expected. And hell,
Speaker 1: they got a lot of pass rush even in that
Speaker 1: game without Chris Jones that was on well Christmas against
Speaker 1: the Steelers. Like so they are scary and I think
Speaker 1: probably playing their best, but they weren't as good this year.
Speaker 1: They have some weaknesses in terms of their slot position.
Speaker 1: It's Shamari Corner out there really their second you know
Speaker 1: cornerbacks out there. I think if the Texans were a
Speaker 1: better running team, it could be a Joe Mixon game.
Speaker 1: But Joe Mixon is running so damn hard that as
Speaker 1: a defensive player he must be someone like he's got
Speaker 1: to be one of the toughest guys to tackle in
Speaker 1: the entire NFL.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's really, I mean.
Speaker 6: And there's times this year too, as the run game
Speaker 6: has struggled to get going, there's times where it looks
Speaker 6: like Mixing has done a little bit of what CJ's done,
Speaker 6: which is, man, you know that you need a big play,
Speaker 6: so you're trying a little too hard for the big play.
Speaker 6: But because they can't trust the blocking in front of him.
Speaker 6: So that was where the really encouraging thing in the
Speaker 6: second half was, is that all right?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 6: He had actual holes to run through. He actually had.
Speaker 6: They were actually getting some easy yardage. They had a
Speaker 6: game ceiling drive. The offensive line for the Texans has
Speaker 6: just been shuffled around and improving in some ways as
Speaker 6: the season's gone along.
Speaker 4: But when they moved Titus.
Speaker 6: Howard to left guard because all the left guards got injured,
Speaker 6: I think it's been good this time around. Titus hasn't
Speaker 6: been good as a guard in the past. This time
Speaker 6: it feels like he's really embraced it, and he still
Speaker 6: he has blemishes, like you can tell he's playing out
Speaker 6: of position. But there's a certain factor. There's a certain
Speaker 6: part of just having a guy his size and with
Speaker 6: his athleticism that allows them to get some movement that
Speaker 6: they really weren't getting in the run game before. So
Speaker 6: if they can lean into that a little bit, there's
Speaker 6: gonna be some bad plays, But I think that there's
Speaker 6: just more of a chance that they can have more
Speaker 6: successful runs than they were able to have for most
Speaker 6: of the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they've they've had a lot of negative runs
Speaker 1: and you mentioned the negative the penalties in the sack.
Speaker 1: They just can't be taking those that That was the
Speaker 1: game where they kept throwing these bubble screens and getting
Speaker 1: negative threes and everything, and they they just can't. They
Speaker 1: just can't take those negative plays. You can't let like
Speaker 1: George Carloftas and Mike Dana beat you. There was a
Speaker 1: little more of that when I said they handled the
Speaker 1: blitzwell in that game, they did, like the communication was
Speaker 1: good and everything, but the chiefs for man rush actually
Speaker 1: got home a decent amount. And that's what I mean
Speaker 1: about like winning with your strengths. They I think CJ
Speaker 1: took eleven QB hits in that game, and Mahomes, who
Speaker 1: had gone through a stretch of getting battered and bruised,
Speaker 1: only took four. And if it's that lopsided, the game
Speaker 1: will be lopsided. They'll cover the number. I'm not, you know,
Speaker 1: going full you know, upset here, but I'm going there
Speaker 1: covering the number that it's like a six point game
Speaker 1: or something, and they make them sweat.
Speaker 6: I think that's the part of it too, that I
Speaker 6: rarely get insulted by what basically what Vegas and the.
Speaker 4: Computers are saying.
Speaker 6: But it did open up as a seven point spread,
Speaker 6: and now it's moved up to nine. I feel like
Speaker 6: that's America, America saying that, you know, they're just okay,
Speaker 6: this is the playoff Chiefs and it's going to be
Speaker 6: the same old Texans. So I'm insulted by those two points.
Speaker 6: I think that I can it's one hundred percent valid.
Speaker 6: The Chiefs are a different team in the playoffs than
Speaker 6: they are in the regular season, even in the years
Speaker 6: where they're really good offensively in the regular season. I
Speaker 6: think the fact of the matter, though, is that it's
Speaker 6: not like they've been blowing teams out this year. It's
Speaker 6: rare that they score more than thirty points in a game,
Speaker 6: so the I feel confident it's going to be a
Speaker 6: better game than maybe people are expecting.
Speaker 1: Maybe a little vibes of the Deshaun Watson Texans game
Speaker 1: against the Chiefs where they had in the playoff that
Speaker 1: was a division r right with Bill O'Brien, and they
Speaker 1: get out to like I'll never forget I was sitting
Speaker 1: next to our friend Chris Westling for that game. And
Speaker 1: they get up twenty one nothing or.
Speaker 6: Fortwenty four or twenty four nothing, twenty four, there's twenty were.
Speaker 1: Is this really gonna happen? And it's funny the Chiefs
Speaker 1: are so good on offense back then that even then
Speaker 1: you were like, well, they got a lot of time.
Speaker 1: We'll see, but it's like, is this really gonna happen?
Speaker 1: I don't think it'll be like that, but I do
Speaker 1: think there's something. We'll see what the rest, I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's a long time to not be playing football. I
Speaker 1: could see like a Texans thirteen to six lead midway
Speaker 1: through the second quarter and the Chiefs fans are sweating
Speaker 1: it out, or maybe it's a halftime lead something like
Speaker 1: that before the Chiefs pull away. That's my final prediction.
Speaker 6: There's there's no cushion that will make any Texans fan
Speaker 6: feel comfortable.
Speaker 4: It could be with the.
Speaker 6: Final score that game ended up being fifty one to
Speaker 6: thirty one, I think.
Speaker 4: I mean it was the Chiefs.
Speaker 6: The Chiefs ran out of gunpowder to fire the cannon
Speaker 6: in the end zone.
Speaker 4: That was.
Speaker 6: That was the only bad thing that happened to the
Speaker 6: Chiefs that day. Once they started their comeback, and then
Speaker 6: the Chiefs went on to that was the year they
Speaker 6: came back from double digit deficits in every single game,
Speaker 6: I think to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: Yeah, first, and we got it started.
Speaker 1: That was their first Super Bowl run. We'll see if
Speaker 1: the Texans can can end their their bid on a
Speaker 1: three p. I hate to say, Abot, I don't thing
Speaker 1: we're gonna see you anymore.
Speaker 6: This I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get insulted by it.
Speaker 6: This time around. I was deeply insulted.
Speaker 4: I couldn't. I thought about it all week, but.
Speaker 1: Sure you did. Production value, by the way over at
Speaker 1: Seth Payne Show. His YouTube channel is fantastic. I don't
Speaker 1: know how many people you have working with you like
Speaker 1: the editing and you throw and the jokes are like
Speaker 1: on point. I don't know if this has taken a
Speaker 1: lot of takes or what Minor Bosa, there was just
Speaker 1: a lot going on there.
Speaker 6: I like, I constantly like the little different. I do
Speaker 6: everything myself. I've just learned that's my thing that I'm
Speaker 6: trying to learn to stay mentally sharp. Video editing, which
Speaker 6: I've learned, is one of those things that it doesn't
Speaker 6: matter how much you improve, it's going to take the
Speaker 6: exact same amount of time because there's just always nine
Speaker 6: million things you can do to improve it. And I'm
Speaker 6: still I'm like, I think I'm up to maybe like
Speaker 6: a sixteen year old editing on his phone level.
Speaker 4: I'm all like, I'm right there.
Speaker 6: I just want to get up to maybe like freshman
Speaker 6: graphic design major and I'll be then I'll start farming
Speaker 6: it out.
Speaker 1: No, it's good, it's good stuff. We are asking all
Speaker 1: of our listeners go go subscribe, Go check out Seth
Speaker 1: on YouTube. We will see you next time. We're not
Speaker 1: even going to take a break here. That's it for
Speaker 1: the AFC. Those games were fantastic. We're going to go
Speaker 1: to the early Sunday morning game Eagles and Rams. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm throwing it to myself with bo Wolf. We are
Speaker 1: all heartbroken by the devastation and destruction from the raging
Speaker 1: wildfires across the Greater Los Angeles region. Families affected by
Speaker 1: these fires urgently need support. You can help the American
Speaker 1: Red Cross respond to and help people recover from these
Speaker 1: disasters by donating today to support relief efforts by going
Speaker 1: to Redcross dot org. Slash NFL all right back on
Speaker 1: NFL Daily didn't really go anywhere with my friend fo
Speaker 1: Wolf from the pH l Y Eagles podcast. The Eagles
Speaker 1: are his business, and business is booming. It's a perfect
Speaker 1: Eagles season. You guys are dominant, your heavy favorites in
Speaker 1: the divisional round, and no one in Philadelphia is happy.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's exactly what you would want.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right, It's just how you want it. And
Speaker 5: I do have to say at the top, I was
Speaker 5: confident that the arc of history would make it worthwhile
Speaker 5: for me to take jul Fonseca in the tenth round
Speaker 5: of my own Maker's draft with my brother this year.
Speaker 5: But I didn't think it was gonna off this quickly.
Speaker 5: I'm happy to be here on courts of Thunder.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yes for the seven people listening that
Speaker 1: get that. Wow, I had a I had a podcast
Speaker 1: about tennis and I loved it with my my friend
Speaker 1: Glenn Clark. Maybe it'll come back someday. And yes, bo
Speaker 1: Wolf an eye for Talent picked maybe the next big
Speaker 1: thing in tennis. I'm not gonna say he's the next Alcoraz,
Speaker 1: but I think he's gonna be the next something we're
Speaker 1: going to be watching for a long time. And he's
Speaker 1: making some big noise at the Australi you know.
Speaker 5: But yes, let's get let's get to The vibes in
Speaker 5: Philly are are exactly as you would expect, you know.
Speaker 5: They they were Saquon Barkley not you know, taking a
Speaker 5: knee or sliding down at the end of that game
Speaker 5: away from winning by like three touchdowns. And everybody's furious
Speaker 5: because the passing game just cannot seem to get to
Speaker 5: get unstuck. So wit is it really curious? Is overstating it,
Speaker 5: but it is. It is hesitancy. There is there is
Speaker 5: reticence because everybody think that if this team is going
Speaker 5: to get to where they want to go. The passing
Speaker 5: game is going to have to improve.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: They've been up and down all season. At times they've
Speaker 1: actually been very efficient and played their part very well.
Speaker 1: At other times, Jalen hurts his numbers haven't passed the
Speaker 1: eye test. When he holds on to the ball a lot.
Speaker 1: This is something you guys talk about on your podcast.
Speaker 1: I think it's right on. You said you see it
Speaker 1: a trading cap when he holds the ball for a while,
Speaker 1: Like good things often don't happen. The positive here is
Speaker 1: you look back at that first Rams game and you
Speaker 1: think about the matchups. They're one of the few teams
Speaker 1: that made the Rams pass rush look mortal because they
Speaker 1: have the tackles to do it. Like Jared Versus just
Speaker 1: totally erased in that game by I think it was
Speaker 1: my lot and most of the time, and the matchups
Speaker 1: on the outside with I know that should have been
Speaker 1: true last week too, But AJ Brown and DeVante Smith
Speaker 1: against a Kellaweb their spoon and Darius Williams, Like you
Speaker 1: would think that would really really work, Like why hasn't
Speaker 1: the passing game working?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: Now I'm caught in your web. We're going negative at
Speaker 1: the beginning.
Speaker 5: It's a good question. So to first talk about that
Speaker 5: first matchup, that was the Eagles' best offensive performance of
Speaker 5: the season by by all the advanced metrics. They were
Speaker 5: They were awesome in that game. I mean, Saquon Barkley
Speaker 5: had three hundred yards from scrimmage. It was it was
Speaker 5: an insane rushing performance. But AJ Brown also had over
Speaker 5: one hundred yards and they didn't have Davante Smith in
Speaker 5: that game. So you do think matchup wise that it
Speaker 5: should favor the Eagles offense. AJ Brown has sort of
Speaker 5: owned a Kello Witherspoon over the course of their career.
Speaker 5: They've played several games against each other. But AJ Brown
Speaker 5: had won catch last week, and AJ Brown and DeVante
Speaker 5: Smith are both a little bit banged up. You know,
Speaker 5: they missed some practice time last week. The problem with
Speaker 5: with the offense is that so often, you know, the
Speaker 5: Eagles went on Sunday, then you watch the Monday night
Speaker 5: game and like the things that the ram and Vikings
Speaker 5: are doing on offense to just creatively get guys open,
Speaker 5: they're absent from the Eagles offense so often. It is
Speaker 5: the same route concepts that they run all season long,
Speaker 5: and there's you know, it's hard to disentang go what
Speaker 5: is Jalen what is the offensive scheme? But in week
Speaker 5: eighteen when they played with Tanner McKee, like you saw
Speaker 5: the under center play action game, you saw these things
Speaker 5: that have been absent from the passing offense. And so
Speaker 5: it's a little bit of both. Obviously everybody shares in that.
Speaker 5: One of the things that's confounding to me is when
Speaker 5: this team is so run heavy and you know they
Speaker 5: only have like twenty to twenty five drop backs a
Speaker 5: game in the ideal script that they have. The less
Speaker 5: volume you have of passing plays should mean that you
Speaker 5: can be less predictable. That like, just why are we
Speaker 5: running the same route concepts? And one thing that has
Speaker 5: really been absent from this passing game shockingly so, because
Speaker 5: one of the things that Jalen Hurts does best is
Speaker 5: throw the ball deep. They do not throw the ball
Speaker 5: deep right Nowlast week the only ball day through downfield
Speaker 5: was the fake push push that was incomplete to aj Brown,
Speaker 5: that to me is like you just think about it philosophically,
Speaker 5: like if you know that this team faces loaded boxes
Speaker 5: more than anybody else in the league, and you're pounding
Speaker 5: Saquon Barkley into the line of scrimmage. Why can't we
Speaker 5: just pop a couple balls deep. It's it seems so silly.
Speaker 1: Well this is this is funny. I mean we really
Speaker 1: are just talking about what they're struggling up, and yet
Speaker 1: it's all true. I mean, I don't need to disentangle
Speaker 1: it that much more. Maybe you guys need to be
Speaker 1: more sensitive, you know, because you're local and Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: is a serious man and a good football player and
Speaker 1: has had a lot of success. It always looks this,
Speaker 1: It's always looks like the Jalen Hurts offense. So maybe
Speaker 1: that's it, you know, because you bring in Kellen Moore
Speaker 1: and they have the same passing dvoa as a year
Speaker 1: ago or right around the same. It's it's close to
Speaker 1: the middle of the league, the strengths and weaknesses, and
Speaker 1: it looks similar. And then yeah, you bring in the
Speaker 1: back up and suddenly it looks like the Kellen more offense.
Speaker 1: So Hurts has his strengths, he has his weaknesses. I
Speaker 1: think if you lean into those strengths in the right matchups,
Speaker 1: you can go win a Super Bowl. Especially with this defense.
Speaker 1: I mean, this defense is better than it's ever been.
Speaker 1: But I think you're right. In this game against this secondary,
Speaker 1: you got to push the ball a little bit more
Speaker 1: down the field. And they are a different offense when
Speaker 1: they have got her, DeVante Smith and AJ Brown on
Speaker 1: the field together.
Speaker 5: So they've only had for four games this season, including.
Speaker 1: Right and they have it and I'm willing to accept
Speaker 1: the idea that they didn't need it the offense that much.
Speaker 1: Last week, little game Managy and it was Hurts coming
Speaker 1: off of a long layoff that that was almost there,
Speaker 1: like get into the playoffs type of game. You guys
Speaker 1: kind of threw out that idea and maybe you'll see
Speaker 1: a better version of the offense this week.
Speaker 5: I think that's reasonable at least to hope for with
Speaker 5: some degree of confidence. And listen, the last game, the
Speaker 5: last full game that Jalen Hurts played before he got
Speaker 5: injured in the Commander's game before this playoff game was
Speaker 5: against the Steelers when he had his best passing performance
Speaker 5: of the season. This was coming on the heels of
Speaker 5: AJ Brown saying you know what's wrong, and he said
Speaker 5: the passing game. And they came out the next week
Speaker 5: and we're sort of bombs away and they had a
Speaker 5: great first half throwing the ball, and so like oftentimes
Speaker 5: we talk about the egos organization as being sort of
Speaker 5: rabbit eared and like whatever, whatever the big conversation of
Speaker 5: the week is, they tend to sort of address it
Speaker 5: with their game script early on. And so I actually
Speaker 5: do kind of think we're going to see some early
Speaker 5: shots downfield, just just because that's what people have been
Speaker 5: talking about. And again, I know that it's ridiculous that
Speaker 5: we're like complaining about a team that is a six
Speaker 5: and a half point favorite away from going to the
Speaker 5: NFC Championship game, but the stakes are the stakes.
Speaker 1: Well, everything else is so great on this team, and
Speaker 1: that is why it is ridiculous that there is a
Speaker 1: path to them being the twelfth best offense passing the
Speaker 1: ball in the league and winning the Super Bowl. If
Speaker 1: you're the best running team and you're the best defense,
Speaker 1: like that's a winning combination and your special teams don't
Speaker 1: blow it. And there's every.
Speaker 5: Joke of there's the joke of because Jeffrey Lurry is
Speaker 5: you know he wants a pass heavy offense, that is
Speaker 5: the joke, right, And so like they're at the Super
Speaker 5: Bowl parade, Jeffrey's like thanks, Nick, for winning the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: But that's that's not how I wanted to do it. Like, well,
Speaker 5: we'll see you next year, you know, hiring a new coach.
Speaker 1: It is hilarious to look at the all time like
Speaker 1: winning percentage records of coaches in history, and like there's
Speaker 1: Nick Sirianni right near the top, like he's been win
Speaker 1: loss is a coaching record, you know, is a coaching
Speaker 1: stat and his his win loss record is incredible. And
Speaker 1: now you know this is this is second chance to
Speaker 1: make a Runny obviously had the one and done's a
Speaker 1: couple of times in the playoffs, but four playoff appearances.
Speaker 1: And I know we're not talking too much about the
Speaker 1: Rams here. I think if the Rams defense before we
Speaker 1: flip to the other side, is gonna win this game. There,
Speaker 1: they're linebackers have to hold up in the running game.
Speaker 1: I think they looked a little small last time around.
Speaker 1: That was an eye opening game. Our co host Jordan
Speaker 1: Rodriege of The Athletic talked about that this was a
Speaker 1: front that was maybe feeling themselves a little bit and
Speaker 1: that was a humbling game for them. It kind of
Speaker 1: was the bottom of a decline that they had in
Speaker 1: terms of their young pass rushers and especially holding up
Speaker 1: against the run, and they have bounced back pretty well
Speaker 1: since then. Now that might just be a matchup thing
Speaker 1: where they got beat by a better team because Saquon
Speaker 1: I mean, in that game, of course, he has some
Speaker 1: crazy stats, but it's only a handful of times in
Speaker 1: the next Gen stats era has a player had over
Speaker 1: seventy five yards before contact in a game and one
Speaker 1: hundred yards after contact in a game. So all the
Speaker 1: Eagles numbers in terms of before contact are best in
Speaker 1: the league. And this is a Rams front that you
Speaker 1: can kind of push back and then say was also
Speaker 1: too physical a lot of times for this Rams defense.
Speaker 1: So to me, they're just going to have to show up.
Speaker 1: And it's trite, but they're gonna have to be more
Speaker 1: physical like the Eagles defense was last week. Like they're
Speaker 1: going to have to come out hitting and somehow make
Speaker 1: up that that poundage gap that that we see in
Speaker 1: a lot of these games this week. Bills are way
Speaker 1: lighter than the Ravens, uh and I think the Rams
Speaker 1: are way lighter than the Eagles, And.
Speaker 5: I think the Eagles will will lean into that physicality
Speaker 5: on both sides of the ball. They want to be
Speaker 5: the team that is that is punching the other team
Speaker 5: in the mouth. I mean, it's it's not a nice
Speaker 5: thing to say, but they not. I mean they knocked
Speaker 5: out like three Packers from the game last week to
Speaker 5: to wide receivers and Elton Jenkins, which changed the game
Speaker 5: because the Packers could not hold up in pass pro.
Speaker 5: So I think the Eagles would in their minds welcome
Speaker 5: that fight.
Speaker 1: Right and I think the Rams defense has gotten better
Speaker 1: and better. Verse winning with power doesn't necessarily match up
Speaker 1: as well with.
Speaker 5: There was the one player from that game where he
Speaker 5: sort of ran over Jordan Mailatta. It was like a
Speaker 5: highlight play. But other than that, he was held quiet.
Speaker 1: I think that was literally his only pressure. It was
Speaker 1: his quietest game of the season. But you do it.
Speaker 1: It's it's a four man front. You have Kobe Turner,
Speaker 1: you have Brandon Fist, it's a young group. You have
Speaker 1: Byron Young who's been sneaky awesome all year. I just
Speaker 1: think their only chance of winning this game or creating
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure and forcing Jalen Hurts to hold
Speaker 1: the ball get confused. They got a little more creative
Speaker 1: last week with some of their disguised pressures, late blitzes.
Speaker 1: They really haven't been much of a creative defense throughout
Speaker 1: the season. But I think they saw what the Lions
Speaker 1: did and it's a darnold and copied it and maybe
Speaker 1: maybe that can work against Hurts too, who tends to
Speaker 1: hold the ball a little bit.
Speaker 5: And take sacks. And to the conversation from before, what
Speaker 5: is a little bit disappointing of the Jalen Hurts experience
Speaker 5: is that for a guy who is as athletic and
Speaker 5: mobile as he is, it is true that the longer
Speaker 5: the players go on it is he has a lower
Speaker 5: success rate, which is a little bit surprising. He does
Speaker 5: not make a lot happen unless it's a scramble, you know,
Speaker 5: the longer heels onto the ball, so he takes a
Speaker 5: lot of sacks. And I do think that the Rams
Speaker 5: are going to be doing a lot of like rotation
Speaker 5: post snap to try to money the picture, because there
Speaker 5: was a lot of concern last week like how how
Speaker 5: rusty is Jalen Hurt's going to be? And I think
Speaker 5: that some of that plays out a little bit more
Speaker 5: in like what he's seeing than necessarily the way that
Speaker 5: he's playing as a as a thrower, although there was
Speaker 5: some inaccuracy last week, which was a little bit atypical.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, he usually is on on point, I would
Speaker 1: say with the ball, and I will point out though
Speaker 1: I listened to your recap pod, I believe it was
Speaker 1: and it was before you guys knew the opponents and
Speaker 1: you were talking about all the different opponents that you
Speaker 1: could face. I think there were three possibilities at the time.
Speaker 1: He didn't know if it could be the commander's rand.
Speaker 5: The overwhelming reaction was people wanted the rams.
Speaker 1: Yes, that that is that. Maybe it's just because of
Speaker 1: the experience the first time around, Sean McVay. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're a big NFL Daily guy. I think
Speaker 1: there's some other people within the RAMS that are NFL
Speaker 1: Daily listeners. There's your there's your poster to put up
Speaker 1: O P H O Y.
Speaker 5: They all want responds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's better than Dan Campbell just telling Kevin
Speaker 1: O'Connell will see you in two weeks. That was the
Speaker 1: most ridiculous bulletin board material ever. I mean O'Connell didn't
Speaker 1: even say. O'Connell was probably thinking, oh, yeah, I'm not
Speaker 1: getting through another game with Sam Darnold.
Speaker 7: Like this.
Speaker 1: This this guy's turned into a pumpkin. So you got
Speaker 1: your wish, you got your Rams, and yet like this
Speaker 1: is a rare offense that the Rams are running when
Speaker 1: when it's clicking, they have the better quarterback in this
Speaker 1: game when it's when it's clicking. He's been a little
Speaker 1: up and down, but on balance he's been better and
Speaker 1: certainly at his best, I think he's better that then
Speaker 1: Jalen hurts and it's a passing attack that you know,
Speaker 1: maybe could give this Eagles defense and problems.
Speaker 5: Yes, and so the big concern for the Eagles this
Speaker 5: week is the loss of the Kobe Dean who suffered
Speaker 5: a torn penteller tendon in that Wildcard round game, and
Speaker 5: he's probably going to be replaced by Oron Burks, who
Speaker 5: replaced him in that game. Vic Fanjo said this week
Speaker 5: that Jeremiah Chrotter Junior, the fifth round rookie, might rotate
Speaker 5: in there as well. But that's going to be the
Speaker 5: weak spot that I think everybody in Philadelphia is worried
Speaker 5: that Sean McVay is going to pick on and Zach Bond,
Speaker 5: who has had this unbelievable all pro season. Vic Fangil
Speaker 5: likes to sort of rotate Zach Bond down to the
Speaker 5: line of scrimmage and sort of change the math of
Speaker 5: the fronts. And if you do that, then all of
Speaker 5: a sudden, Aaron Burks or Jeremiah Trotter Junior is left
Speaker 5: alone in the middle of the field. And that's not
Speaker 5: going to be an ideal matchup in terms of having
Speaker 5: to cover anybody with the misdirection of the Rams offense.
Speaker 5: And so I think that is the big concern. And
Speaker 5: in that first matchup, you know, there's there's so much
Speaker 5: said about the history between Vic vanjo and Sean McVay, right,
Speaker 5: and how it's sort of changed the landscape of the
Speaker 5: NFL for a few years. I know Jordan has covered
Speaker 5: that better than anybody.
Speaker 1: Yes, back in the in the in the the Heastriots
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl when the Bears put that five
Speaker 1: in front, and yes, Zach Bond. That's why I think,
Speaker 1: man if I had a vote, he really might have
Speaker 1: been like valuable. He really might have been the most
Speaker 1: valuable because he was the guy who kind of unlocked
Speaker 1: their ability to flip between defenses like that twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: Bears team was able to do.
Speaker 5: Yes, and he's also been really good in the middle
Speaker 5: of the field, like you saw his interception of Jordan
Speaker 5: Love last week, and he talked about how like he
Speaker 5: had to sort of earn the Vic Fanjo trust to
Speaker 5: be able to freelance a little bit like that. So
Speaker 5: I'm curious to see what Fanjo does in the middle
Speaker 5: of the field. But even though Fanjo has has mostly
Speaker 5: gotten the better of Sean McVay that first matchup, you know,
Speaker 5: it looked like a blowout, but there were three three
Speaker 5: and outs in the middle of that game. But other
Speaker 5: than that, like the opening script, the Rams went down
Speaker 5: the field, no third downs, went right down the field
Speaker 5: into the Eagles red zone, and then Kyen Williams FuMB
Speaker 5: with the ball away. Next possession, went right down the field,
Speaker 5: scored a touchdown without even needing a third down, and
Speaker 5: they moved the ball in the second half as well,
Speaker 5: And so this was not quite as demonstrative a blowout
Speaker 5: on that side of the balls as it might have
Speaker 5: looked in the stats.
Speaker 1: No, the success rates of the two offenses were very even.
Speaker 1: And there is there is something about Stafford that is scary.
Speaker 1: He kind of just goes into this fu mode and
Speaker 1: he is a streaky quarterback and he can beat good coverage.
Speaker 1: Now that they're a team that does more motion than
Speaker 1: just about any team in the league. The numbers say
Speaker 1: that the Eagles are the best at handling motion. They're
Speaker 1: the best that they don't chase it, they just they
Speaker 1: play their keys right. So they're very disciplined, like they're well. Coach,
Speaker 1: how has been coach covering Vic Fangio. I feel like
Speaker 1: he's made less way less headlines this year.
Speaker 5: He's a dream. Yeah, why because he's He's brutally honest.
Speaker 5: He doesn't worry about, you know, the obfuscation of like, well,
Speaker 5: I don't know, we had to decide. We haven't made
Speaker 5: that choice yet. He'll tell you exactly the truth. I mean,
Speaker 5: Bryce Huff, the guy who they signed for like seventeen
Speaker 5: billion dollars, played one snap last week, and you know
Speaker 5: he was asked about that. He's like, well, we were
Speaker 5: good with our three men rotation. We didn't need him.
Speaker 1: Like he's fine, Yeah, they should be good. They got
Speaker 1: Nolan Smith who's playing like at a pro Bowl level.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I cannot remember ever covering someone who I feel like
Speaker 5: has improved in season as much as as Dylan Smith
Speaker 5: has this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have him, you have Josh Suat who's
Speaker 1: been very effective. I do think that that Eagles game
Speaker 1: with the Rams is interesting to look back on because
Speaker 1: it really changed the Rams season. They were just getting
Speaker 1: their offensive line back, they thought for the first time
Speaker 1: and healthy, and they played so poorly in that game
Speaker 1: that they actually went back to the undrafted rookie bow
Speaker 1: Limmer at center every game since and benched. Now I'm
Speaker 1: blanking on his name, not ragnow bench their big free
Speaker 1: agent pickup from the Lions, and they've gone with the
Speaker 1: same offense. Jonah Jackson right and played center that game.
Speaker 1: They've had him on the bench. He's making like twenty
Speaker 1: million dollars a year, very similar to Bryce Huff. He's
Speaker 1: not playing. They're going with the undrafted rookie at center.
Speaker 1: You get Avula over at guard, and they've played quite
Speaker 1: well in terms of protecting Stafford and especially running the ball.
Speaker 1: Since then, they've they've had one of the highest success
Speaker 1: rates in the league with Kyrien Williams. And I still
Speaker 1: do think that's ultimately the way to get at this
Speaker 1: Eagles defense is just be patient and get foward of
Speaker 1: five yard runs and be diverse doing it. And I
Speaker 1: think actually the Rams about as much as any team
Speaker 1: in the NFL, are set up to do that, to
Speaker 1: try to go on some twelve play drives where Stafford
Speaker 1: doesn't make mistakes and it's very run in play action based,
Speaker 1: and so I think that could be a concern. And
Speaker 1: I'm almost shorten't in the games as an underdog.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think the fewer possessions in this
Speaker 5: game the better for the Rams, no doubt about it.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 5: I think the Eagles run defense. They feel very good
Speaker 5: about their run defense. I mean, if it is the
Speaker 5: kind of thing where it's three yards of pop and
Speaker 5: they're just converting third and shorts, you know they'll they'll
Speaker 5: have to do that. But I don't worry about the
Speaker 5: Eagles getting run over really in the running game. I mean,
Speaker 5: Josh Jacobs had that great run last week, and to
Speaker 5: be fair, there were a few more mistackles last week
Speaker 5: from the Eagles than we have been used to seeing
Speaker 5: the second half of the season. But upfront, I think
Speaker 5: I think they feel very confident about it about winning.
Speaker 1: Them Well, They're good at everything, so there's no like
Speaker 1: particular weakness. They're they're deep in the secondary, they're healthy
Speaker 1: right now, right every everyone's practicing in the secondary.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Sleigh was a little bit nicked up in that game,
Speaker 5: but he's not going to miss this.
Speaker 7: Game, right.
Speaker 1: So the matchups are fascinating what you do to try
Speaker 1: to take out Pukakua and it's tough because he's in motion.
Speaker 1: Because there is no more offense in the league that's
Speaker 1: that's more focused than one player than the Rams are.
Speaker 1: Which is why I think Tyler Higby showing up last
Speaker 1: week and they say he's going to play this week
Speaker 1: after he was spitting up blood and went to the hospital,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, yeah, he's playing this week. He looks fine.
Speaker 1: Football football is insane that he is important for them
Speaker 1: because Cooper Cup's not really a two anymore. He's just
Speaker 1: like a rotational kind of receiver. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: say he's Johan Dotson, but this is probably his his
Speaker 1: last game as a RAM. You know, if they don't.
Speaker 5: Win, it interesting and you know, you talk about how
Speaker 5: the Ram season was changed. Eagles defense was sort of
Speaker 5: changed after the bye when Cooper Degen took over as
Speaker 5: as their nickel corner and they've been so much better
Speaker 5: and what he's allowed them to do is stay in
Speaker 5: nickel personnel and still defend the run really really well
Speaker 5: because because of his willingness to be to be physical.
Speaker 1: M how are like, where are you leaning for this?
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to pick against the Eagles in this game,
Speaker 1: but you have do you have them covering the spread?
Speaker 1: I was a little surprised that they were so heavily favored,
Speaker 1: uh in this game.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I'm leaning towards towards the Eagles covering
Speaker 5: the spread, but uh, the fact that I'm living, I mean,
Speaker 5: it's a it's a typical thing. I'm leaning that way.
Speaker 5: So now I'm worried that it's going to go the
Speaker 5: other way. But I do I think the offense, I
Speaker 5: think the passing game is going to bounce back a
Speaker 5: little bit. I think the Rams will be able to
Speaker 5: move the ball better than the Packers did last week.
Speaker 5: But but I'm expecting, you know, uh, just a frothing
Speaker 5: Eagles crowd. Uh, you know, it might it might snow.
Speaker 5: Now for this game, it's gonna be twenty degrees and
Speaker 5: so I'm gonna I'm gonna just tilt tilted towards the Eagles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Rams history of of going east, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 5: I can also see the you know, I can I
Speaker 5: can see the the Jordan postgame story about how Sean
Speaker 5: McVay has finally slain the vic Fangio Giant, and like,
Speaker 5: you know, this is this was this was how many
Speaker 5: years coming.
Speaker 1: Look, it would make it would make the women in
Speaker 1: my house happy. You know, they're they're Rams fan I
Speaker 1: and I thought this going into the game. I picked
Speaker 1: the Rams and I thought they might win. You know,
Speaker 1: I think I had them by six or something like
Speaker 1: that against the vik I just thought that was going
Speaker 1: to be their moment, that that was going to be
Speaker 1: their emotional It's been a lot out here. They were
Speaker 1: personally affected. It's indoors, you know, against this Vikings team,
Speaker 1: who I personally think they wanted to play that They
Speaker 1: literally were like looking at the matchups and thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: I hope we get the Vikings and felt good about
Speaker 1: And now it's a short week and it's not I
Speaker 1: know it's the playoffs, but it is a short week.
Speaker 1: You're on the road, it's cold. You put a lot
Speaker 1: into that, and you look at these two teams, they're
Speaker 1: not even like over the course of the season, they're
Speaker 1: not even That's what the numbers are telling you. They're
Speaker 1: telling you that the Eagles are one of the very
Speaker 1: best teams in the league, and that the Rams offense
Speaker 1: has come and gone, and that the defense has been
Speaker 1: opportunistic considering what they have. But they're a little uneven.
Speaker 1: They're very front loaded in the in the back seven
Speaker 1: can be taken advantage of. But who knows, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: this Eagles passing game. To go back to what we
Speaker 1: talked about, they're not the team to take advantage and
Speaker 1: they can keep it close. I'm leaning on the Eagles covering. Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe Jill.
Speaker 5: You know, Jalen Hurts hasn't turned the ball over, and
Speaker 5: maybe he turns the ball over. I think the Eagles
Speaker 5: need to lean into being the bad guy, like being
Speaker 5: in the playoffs, because I mean, everybody, every neutral person
Speaker 5: is going to be rooting for the Rams. I would be,
Speaker 5: given everything that they have gone through. If the Eagles
Speaker 5: get then get to the NFC Championship game, I mean,
Speaker 5: everybody's going to be rooting for the Lion.
Speaker 1: I mean even more so than the Rams, as much
Speaker 1: as I'm sure everyone has simple.
Speaker 5: And if they get to the Super Bowl against the
Speaker 5: Bills of the Ravens, if it's one of those teams.
Speaker 5: I mean, in twenty seventeen, the Eagles were the plucky underdogs.
Speaker 5: Everybody's rooting for him against against your Patriots. You know,
Speaker 5: everybody thinks, like Nick Sirianni jawing on the sidelines is
Speaker 5: like a hatable thing. They've got CJ. Gardner Johnson and
Speaker 5: Carter john and people. I think they need to lean
Speaker 5: into being the big bad like, you know, yeah, some
Speaker 5: real stuff.
Speaker 1: I've loved the Chauncey Gardner Johnson I don't know, want
Speaker 1: to say revival, but he wasn't that good this year
Speaker 1: for a lot of the season, and suddenly at the
Speaker 1: end of the season he's in the middle of everything.
Speaker 1: He's making plays, he's gying like he's getting thrown out
Speaker 1: of games. This is perfect, Like I want this playoff run.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely like right, lean into it. The only way
Speaker 1: that doesn't work is if there's a Chiefs rematch in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, which I don't is the matchup that
Speaker 1: no one really wants a we've seen.
Speaker 5: It b it includes.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs, and then see it's like, yeah, the Eagles
Speaker 1: are just the team compared to the others. You're absolutely
Speaker 1: right that just like, yeah, it's like, Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's no more there's no more national juice. I think,
Speaker 5: given given the fun stories of all the other real contenders.
Speaker 1: They're juice. It's just like, why, why why do the
Speaker 1: Eagles fans got to be so hate heable? I love them,
Speaker 1: I love you guys, but just like enjoy enjoy your life,
Speaker 1: you know, enjoy your team. You're the envy of many
Speaker 1: other teams, Like we should be getting Alec Halby your
Speaker 1: assistant a job out there. And the only interview I
Speaker 1: can get is with the Jets like him in fifteen.
Speaker 5: Others and the interview like seventeen guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at this roster. They're like a dynasty
Speaker 1: with sirianni as their coach. You know how good you
Speaker 1: have to make that.
Speaker 5: You know what I was actually I was actually looking
Speaker 5: something up on that. On that point. The Eagles are
Speaker 5: the only team. So if you if you start in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty when they flamed out had and Doug Pearson
Speaker 5: gets fired, they won four games, so twenty twenty to
Speaker 5: twenty twenty four total wins, and then also draft pick
Speaker 5: like value based on the trade charts that they've used
Speaker 5: over that time. Given all the moves that they've made,
Speaker 5: they're the only team that's in like the top ten
Speaker 5: of both of those things based on like all the
Speaker 5: things that they have done. You know, there was the
Speaker 5: Carson Wentz trade, the Saints trade, and that doesn't even
Speaker 5: factor in the AJ Brown acquisition, and so, I mean,
Speaker 5: they really have done something unique over the past four
Speaker 5: years with being able to win and have all that
Speaker 5: draft equity with their roster.
Speaker 1: They're the best in the league. They really are. The
Speaker 1: problem is it's a quarterback league, and of the eight
Speaker 1: quarterbacks remaining, the only one I'd put Hurts over right
Speaker 1: now is C. J.
Speaker 4: Stroud.
Speaker 1: And that's just how they're playing right now. And even
Speaker 1: that's like long term, I'm definitely taking Stroud And if
Speaker 1: you told me this week he plays at like his
Speaker 1: ceiling is probably higher even this weekend than maybe Hurts
Speaker 1: his is. And so that's that's just like a small
Speaker 1: little thing to overcome. But they are a juggernaut. I
Speaker 1: want to see him in the NFC Championship game ultimately,
Speaker 1: because I think that will be an awesome game as
Speaker 1: long as it's not Eagles Commanders. But I want to
Speaker 1: see that Lions.
Speaker 5: I have felt all year long like it was headed
Speaker 5: towards that game. I'm going to feel robbed if we
Speaker 5: don't get to actually see Eagles Lions. Yes, yes, I
Speaker 5: think we for that game all year.
Speaker 1: I want to see it, and it's it'd be good
Speaker 1: for your business. It's going to be good for your
Speaker 1: co host, Zach Bermans.
Speaker 5: I might, I might, I might kidnap Zack and will
Speaker 5: do a road trip to Detroit. I'm kind of like
Speaker 5: threatening him with that possibility.
Speaker 1: That would be amazing. Check out bow Wolf. You can
Speaker 1: get see him on all the socials. He's on Blue Sky,
Speaker 1: He's on Twitter, but most importantly, go check out the
Speaker 1: Pha Why Eagles podcast. Like Fran Duffy on that show,
Speaker 1: you got Vinnie Curry who adds a lot of spice
Speaker 1: to it, a lot of voices, we will see you
Speaker 1: and yeah, good luck because I know it's good for business.
Speaker 1: Now you have to root for the home team.
Speaker 5: I would never do that, but it would be good
Speaker 5: for business.
Speaker 1: Will be back after the break. We're gonna wrap up
Speaker 1: our previews, talking a little Lions and Commanders. Right after
Speaker 1: this back on NFL Daily, wrapping up this supersized divisional
Speaker 1: round weekend, preview with the man from ESPY Nation, JP
Speaker 1: Acosta with me to talk a little Commanders Lions. JP
Speaker 1: one of the sharpest football minds out there. He's he's
Speaker 1: on Blue Sky, which I appreciate posting heavily like myself.
Speaker 1: But he's on Twitter too, and yeah, you can check
Speaker 1: out his Established the Fun column every Wednesday, I believe it.
Speaker 1: It comes out and it's awesome. JP is a really
Speaker 1: smart young minds, but not as young as you were
Speaker 1: the first time he came on JP. What's up?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 8: Actually, I feel good that I'm not the youngest this
Speaker 8: time person. This time I have grown, but I have also,
Speaker 8: like you said, right and established fun every week. I'm
Speaker 8: really excited for this divisional round playoff visual round the playoffs.
Speaker 8: I kind of did this last week where I was like,
Speaker 8: I don't know what I want to talk about, so
Speaker 8: I'm just gonna talk about everything. So this week, I
Speaker 8: was like, I don't know what I want to talk about,
Speaker 8: so I'm just going to talk about everything.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. We're going to talk about everything. I'm
Speaker 1: narrowing you down related to this game. And yes, for
Speaker 1: the other guests we had on JP, we're kind of
Speaker 1: team specific guests. But I know you can talk ball
Speaker 1: about anything, so that that's a compliment to you. You're
Speaker 1: not directly connected with this Commander's team or this Lions team,
Speaker 1: and yet there's so many fascinating ways to look at it.
Speaker 1: I want to start. Let's talk about Jayden and the
Speaker 1: Washington offense first. When you look at this matchup, you
Speaker 1: think about what the Lions defense likes to do. It's
Speaker 1: so man coverage heavy. They kind of do what they do.
Speaker 1: They blitz like crazy. They blitz even more and more effectively.
Speaker 1: You know, over the last half of the season, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't figure it's going to change up too much because
Speaker 1: they don't change up what they do against anyone. And
Speaker 1: yet Jaden Daniels very good against the blitz, a good
Speaker 1: decision maker in general. Kind of how do you think
Speaker 1: that chess match with the pressure is going to play out?
Speaker 8: So I think this matchup is so interesting because of
Speaker 8: how largely the Commander's offense is Jaden Daniels centric. It
Speaker 8: operates on Jadeen Daniels scrambles. You're able to move the
Speaker 8: ball because Jayden can run it and his growth as
Speaker 8: a passer. I think for the Lions. I'm not sure
Speaker 8: if I would blitz him as much because you're leaving
Speaker 8: those lanes open to scramble, but I kind of talked
Speaker 8: about it for a established fun This is going to
Speaker 8: be a big game for Jack Campbell and Alex Azeloni,
Speaker 8: who are the two perfect guys that you want for
Speaker 8: the situation. I think they kind of play off each
Speaker 8: other really well. I think Angeloni will take more of
Speaker 8: the zach Ertz matchups in past coverage, and I think
Speaker 8: Jack Campbell will have the unfortunate duty of trying to
Speaker 8: spy Jay and Daniels. But this game is going to
Speaker 8: be so interesting because there are so many different variables
Speaker 8: at play for this Lions defense. Because the Commander's offense
Speaker 8: is built to take advantage of teams like these that
Speaker 8: are a little undermanned at corner. You're a little undermanned
Speaker 8: up front, so you gotta blitz a lot, and you
Speaker 8: just worry about leaving the door open for the Jay
Speaker 8: and Daniels.
Speaker 1: Terry McLaurin goball right with you. You mentioned it's just
Speaker 1: built around one guy in such a unique way. I
Speaker 1: think Cliff Kingsbury has had his best year as an
Speaker 1: NFL coach you know, coordinating this offense and just at
Speaker 1: the moment you think thought it was getting Staley. They
Speaker 1: added some new wrinkles late in the year and he's
Speaker 1: looked really good. And you know, if you get into
Speaker 1: a situation where it's a single high safety like he's
Speaker 1: thrown to McLaurin, you said, it's like so based around
Speaker 1: one guy. I wrote a very similar note that I
Speaker 1: just can't remember a good offense being so much about
Speaker 1: two guys that it really is McLaurin. And last week
Speaker 1: we saw kind of the deep crossers. He can do anything,
Speaker 1: but that hasn't been as big a part of their offense.
Speaker 1: And you start the game with the big shot down
Speaker 1: the field. It really does come down to that. And
Speaker 1: even on like the RPO kind of slant game, you
Speaker 1: just could see them feeding McLaurin like that. What do
Speaker 1: you think the matchup there is to try to slow
Speaker 1: down scary Terry because it's been tough.
Speaker 8: I think you tell a Meek Robertson that Terry McLaurin
Speaker 8: wears eighteen like Justin Jefferson, and you just you just
Speaker 8: let him go. I think this team, they are so
Speaker 8: built in who they are and what they are. It's admirable,
Speaker 8: but I also think they have guys who can thrive
Speaker 8: in these situations. They have a guy like a Meek
Speaker 8: Robertson who they signed off the street and immediately became
Speaker 8: their CB one as.
Speaker 7: Carlton Davis went down.
Speaker 8: I think, like I said, having Jack Campbell and Alex
Speaker 8: Angeloni back will help shore up some of the middle
Speaker 8: of the field issues. I don't think some of that
Speaker 8: access over the middle of the field will be the
Speaker 8: same like the Commanders had against the Buccaneers. But I
Speaker 8: think for the Lions to win this game, something that
Speaker 8: I noticed with Jane Daniels is he's still a little
Speaker 8: bit of boom or bust when it comes to pressure.
Speaker 8: He has a great touchdown rate, really really explosive, but
Speaker 8: he also has a high sack rate and also a
Speaker 8: higher interception rate. But that's the variance game you play
Speaker 8: when you have a guy who can throw the deep
Speaker 8: ball and can scramble as well as Daniels. So something
Speaker 8: that I've always wondered with the Lions against these types
Speaker 8: of quarterbacks is do you just lean into the variance
Speaker 8: game and say, hey, if you want to beat us
Speaker 8: running around and throwing the ball, like insane, like we'll
Speaker 8: throw our hands up, we'll tip our cap and say
Speaker 8: that that's fine, but we're not going.
Speaker 7: To change our game in the most important time of
Speaker 7: the season.
Speaker 1: That's a really interesting point. And yeah, his scrambles, according
Speaker 1: to next Gen by far led the NFL. He had
Speaker 1: more than six hundred yards in scrambles, So it actually
Speaker 1: wasn't a ton on design runs in terms of where
Speaker 1: he got his production. You're right, takes a lot of sacks.
Speaker 1: And yet I do think he's a good game manager.
Speaker 1: He seems to know have that innate sense that very rare.
Speaker 1: Do you see this out of a quarterback, out of
Speaker 1: a rookie quarterback? Almost never Joe Burrow maybe had that,
Speaker 1: although you know he was injured for part of his
Speaker 1: rookie year. Is just he seems very calculated in when
Speaker 1: to go for things, when not to go for things.
Speaker 1: And I am curious how patient he'll be in the
Speaker 1: pocket in this game, because like he left, he leaves
Speaker 1: early a couple of times, you know against Tampa, and
Speaker 1: I think the matchup's kind of similar that I think
Speaker 1: they'll they'll he'll have time because most quarterbacks do have
Speaker 1: time against Detroit, So it's when does he want to
Speaker 1: pull it and go? When does he want to hang
Speaker 1: in the pocket, And like he had with the touchdown throw,
Speaker 1: where he had all the time in the pocket, and
Speaker 1: that'll be really important. And even though he's a rookie,
Speaker 1: I got a lot of faith in him to kind
Speaker 1: of figure it out. Even if he makes a bad
Speaker 1: decision or too, he usually calibrates it so well. It's
Speaker 1: very veteran.
Speaker 8: Like it's very like you said, calculated. Even with the scrambles,
Speaker 8: it never feels frantic. It feels like, Okay, there's nothing there.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna go get enough dyne for first down and
Speaker 8: I'll step out of bounce or it's a okay, there's
Speaker 8: a free runner. I'm just gonna run right around him
Speaker 8: and then I'll get the first down. It never feels
Speaker 8: like he's doing any of this without the intention of Okay,
Speaker 8: nothing's there, I gotta go, rather than a lot of
Speaker 8: young quarterbacks kind of kind of tense up and kind
Speaker 8: of panic at the side the pressure.
Speaker 7: He gets the pressure, he's like, Okay, I know where
Speaker 7: I'm going with this.
Speaker 8: I know that this offense has it built in that
Speaker 8: I can just go if I feel the pressure and
Speaker 8: I can and I can get that first down.
Speaker 1: It's funny you mentioned Campbell before. I don't know if
Speaker 1: we've talked much about Jack Campbell on this show. The
Speaker 1: Lions get a lot of pop for surprising people with
Speaker 1: that Jamir Gibbs pick and the Campbell pick got criticized.
Speaker 1: Where are you at with some Jack Campbell right now?
Speaker 1: Because it's funny you say that like that. He would
Speaker 1: be the spy and he is kind of a perfect
Speaker 1: person to do that stuff for any linebacker to have
Speaker 1: that athleticism. But that is good for his role, Like
Speaker 1: do you do?
Speaker 2: You do you?
Speaker 1: Where do you think he is in his development as
Speaker 1: a second year linebacker?
Speaker 8: I think I think the best thing for Jack Campbell
Speaker 8: was losing Angeloni to that broken arm earlier in the season,
Speaker 8: because he stepped into the mic role and he took
Speaker 8: on a little bit more responsibility. I think he's a
Speaker 8: hammer in the run game. He does so much when
Speaker 8: it comes to both inside and outside the tackles, and
Speaker 8: he's so much quicker to the ball this season, and
Speaker 8: he's he's a good blitzer. I mean early in his career,
Speaker 8: they had him rushing off the edge because they had
Speaker 8: at that stage in his career. But now that he's
Speaker 8: playing off ball, you can kind of use him in
Speaker 8: a lot of different ways. And he and Angelone play
Speaker 8: off each other really well. Whereas Anzeloni's a little bit
Speaker 8: more coverage, a little better in coverage. You can have
Speaker 8: Jack Campbell be sort of the hammer on all of
Speaker 8: these stunts in all the games that Aaron Glenn's gonna
Speaker 8: want to play, or if you want to just sit
Speaker 8: back and kind of let him spy or play a
Speaker 8: little or play a little bit of an aggressive spy
Speaker 8: against Daniels, he can do that as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting they missed Angeloni so much, and they
Speaker 1: also missed Derek Barnes, who was a really nice presence
Speaker 1: for them at linebacker. But Campbell's gotten better and better.
Speaker 1: That's this is why JP's the best. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know for he's got thirty two teams to cover.
Speaker 1: I don't know for sure if he's got a great
Speaker 1: Jack Campbell answer. But he comes, he comes prepared, he
Speaker 1: comes ready. I ultimately think this is a good matchup
Speaker 1: for the Lion's defense relatively, because I do. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is I guess this is true for any defense.
Speaker 1: But I think like a diverse deep receiver crew with
Speaker 1: a real deal quarterback that can spread around is probably
Speaker 1: the offense that's going to give them the most amount
Speaker 1: of problems. And then when you flip it to the
Speaker 1: other side, it does feel like Washington's gonna have to
Speaker 1: try to keep up in a shootout.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: They won a high scoring game against Philadelphia, it took
Speaker 1: them a while to get going. That's happened a few times.
Speaker 1: They want to shootout against Cincinnati. It is a route
Speaker 1: that they could be competitive and win a game with.
Speaker 1: But I do think that that's going to have to
Speaker 1: be the route because flipping to the other side. I
Speaker 1: know I've sort of dismissed this Commander's defense at times
Speaker 1: this year, and they've played hard and they're pretty sound,
Speaker 1: I think, but just talent wise and answers and where
Speaker 1: they at are at and Dan Quinn's first year versus
Speaker 1: Dan Campbell's fourth that other side of the ball. I
Speaker 1: could be wrong. Feels like the biggest mismatch of Divisional
Speaker 1: Round weekend is Lions offense versus Commanders defense.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I especially if David Montgomery is healthy. They said
Speaker 8: he was a full participant and walks through if he plays,
Speaker 8: you just worry about them having too many answers for everything,
Speaker 8: something that Washington is not that great in past coverage.
Speaker 7: But what they do is.
Speaker 8: They hit people really hard up front, and they will
Speaker 8: all they'll always be attacking, and they try and force
Speaker 8: the issue on you and try and speed you up.
Speaker 8: That way, they kind of take some of the pressure
Speaker 8: off of their coverage that isn't that good. This year,
Speaker 8: Dante Fowler Junior has been really good in this defense.
Speaker 8: Of course, you have John Allen, Deron Payne, and then
Speaker 8: you just get all these guys. Franky Louvu will also
Speaker 8: rush off the edge and they just try and hammer
Speaker 8: you game play in play out. But I worry about
Speaker 8: that for from a Washington perspective, because Detroit's offense can
Speaker 8: just take those little yards that you'll give them by
Speaker 8: being so aggressive upfront, and they'll turn it into explosives.
Speaker 8: I think until Tampa completely fell apart in their last
Speaker 8: drive of the game, they had some success rushing along
Speaker 8: the edges.
Speaker 7: Of the defense.
Speaker 8: They were getting a lot of outside zone, a lot
Speaker 8: of toss plays with Buck Irving. And now you face
Speaker 8: Jamir Gibbs, who is really good at that and they
Speaker 8: have so many different ways of getting into it.
Speaker 7: I worry a little bit about this Washington defense.
Speaker 8: Wearing down upfront, and if they're wearing downfront, they.
Speaker 7: Can't get pressure.
Speaker 8: And if you can't get pressure, that coverage is going
Speaker 8: to fall apart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good point about them hitting hard, because
Speaker 1: I do think this is a game where on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball, they're gonna force the secondary to
Speaker 1: make tackles on short throws. Washington's offense, I'll do that too,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be important, like just tackling. But
Speaker 1: you get to the running game, and this is where
Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine. The Lions have the most explosive
Speaker 1: runs under center by so much it's preposterous. They have
Speaker 1: fifty six explosive runs from under center this year. The
Speaker 1: next closest team is thirty two. And this is where
Speaker 1: you know our friends at next gense. That helps me
Speaker 1: out because it passes the eye test. Washington gives up,
Speaker 1: you know, the highest success rate to runs under center,
Speaker 1: one of the highest explosive run rates, one of the
Speaker 1: highest yards before they make contact. And it's been a
Speaker 1: theme on this show. You're following in the footsteps of
Speaker 1: Greats here JP, Brian Baldinger, Seth Payne, but Wolf from
Speaker 1: phl Y in his podcast, And it keeps being a
Speaker 1: pattern all these games. One of the teams, maybe except
Speaker 1: Texans Chiefs are just way bigger than the other. And man,
Speaker 1: it just feels like the Lions are gonna be They're
Speaker 1: they're well coached, but they also can just lean on
Speaker 1: this Washington team in a way that I just have
Speaker 1: a hard time seeing them hold up for four quarters.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll be wrong, but that's what I see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just.
Speaker 8: Worry about Washington's defensive line having to constantly get hit
Speaker 8: in this game. With the run game, that's the best
Speaker 8: way you can slow down a pass rush, is it
Speaker 8: If you hit them really hard in the run game,
Speaker 8: force them to think about the run, and then you
Speaker 8: can get the play action, which is basically what the
Speaker 8: Lions offense wants to do. They want you to think
Speaker 8: about having to defend the run, and as you're trying
Speaker 8: to defend the run, boom you hit.
Speaker 7: The over route to Laporta.
Speaker 8: Then you get a'man Rossaint Brown involved and you're opening
Speaker 8: up the entire part of that offense. So I just
Speaker 8: worry about for the Washington defense them being so focused
Speaker 8: on playing the pass on the way to the run
Speaker 8: that the run is going to come first, and they're
Speaker 8: just gonna give up explosives and if they can, just
Speaker 8: if the Lion's just gonna lean on you and golf
Speaker 8: doesn't have to make all these complex reads or decisions,
Speaker 8: and you don't have to and you can't blitz them
Speaker 8: out of it. You worry about this game becoming a
Speaker 8: Detroit Like speed, a Detroit Lions speed run.
Speaker 1: Game right right, because it's very similar to the Bucks
Speaker 1: have a really good offensive line. Baker had good pockets
Speaker 1: in that game. So many play in that game. No
Speaker 1: one even got close to Baker. And if you give
Speaker 1: Goff that sort of time, he's an even better version
Speaker 1: of a pocket quarterback. And you know, Seth, we were
Speaker 1: talking about the evolution of quarterbacks and some of these
Speaker 1: athletic quarterbacks like Jordan Love and Justin Herberts who don't
Speaker 1: run enough. And he was asking, like, who left in
Speaker 1: the game doesn't run? That's great, And there's one answer.
Speaker 1: It's Jared Goff. And he's playing I think the best
Speaker 1: football of his career, and I think he'll be able
Speaker 1: to pick out some of these mismatches, whether it's Wagner
Speaker 1: or Chin or Marshaun Lattimore who came back last week.
Speaker 1: He's had the hamstring injury. They basically benched Benjamin Saint
Speaker 1: Juice Lattimore had a rough game. I know it was
Speaker 1: against Mike Evans, but the Lions got great, great receivers too.
Speaker 1: I include Jamison Williams in that group, and if he's
Speaker 1: if he's a little cooked in this game, there's just
Speaker 1: too many mismatches for the Lions to go after.
Speaker 8: Yeah, there's too many options here. I worry so much
Speaker 8: for Washington about the Jamison Williams of it all because
Speaker 8: Jamison Williams is a really weird receiver where like some
Speaker 8: plays you might not know what he's going to do,
Speaker 8: but the other play is going to be an eighty
Speaker 8: yard touchdown, and you just worry about the explosive aspect
Speaker 8: of this offense with Jamison Williams on the field, and
Speaker 8: that opens up so many more problems to where you're
Speaker 8: so worried about the run game, so you think you
Speaker 8: have to come up to defend the run and Jameson
Speaker 8: Williams goes flying past your corner in safety for a
Speaker 8: touchdown and now you're like, oh, no, we have to
Speaker 8: defend the explosive pass and that opens up Amanra and
Speaker 8: Sam Laporta over the middle of the field. They just
Speaker 8: have so many answers and so many layers to this
Speaker 8: offense that again, if you can't if Washington cannot get
Speaker 8: any negative plays, it's a very dan Quinn defense. They
Speaker 8: are built on sacks and turnovers and tackles for loss.
Speaker 8: If they can't get them behind the sticks or getting
Speaker 8: negative plays, I worry about this flow.
Speaker 7: Of the game going really bad for Washington very quickly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they could. We just need to see more.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Allen hasn't looked like his peak self since coming back.
Speaker 1: Doron Payin is a talented player. You know Newton in
Speaker 1: the middle. They have players, And if you're gonna try
Speaker 1: to find a weakness in the Lions offensive line, it
Speaker 1: would be on the interior. And so it's absolutely possible. Also,
Speaker 1: you've always got the X factor of like the Frankie
Speaker 1: Luvu cheap shot. I know you watched the film. It's
Speaker 1: like every week, man, there's something.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: He had one against Mike Evans last week. He has
Speaker 1: won like every week, which it just gets some people going,
Speaker 1: maybe he gets someone kicked out of the game for
Speaker 1: a fight. So I don't know if that's a strategy,
Speaker 1: but I kind of feel like something weird has to
Speaker 1: happen like that for this Washington defense to hang in
Speaker 1: this game.
Speaker 8: They need the signature Frankie Luvu like ECW Pro wrestler
Speaker 8: chair Shot. They need Frankie Luvu to be like the
Speaker 8: peak like WCW wrestler that brings in the Kendostick. They
Speaker 8: need to be staying man or something. He's got to
Speaker 8: bring chaos to this game. And that's something that Frankie
Speaker 8: Luvu does really well. He brought chaos to this defense
Speaker 8: and for them, like I said, to create those negatives
Speaker 8: and get an offense to so regimented off balance, you
Speaker 8: have to have the chaos.
Speaker 1: I like to take a step back when I'm looking
Speaker 1: at these matchups, and it doesn't mean you're going to
Speaker 1: get it right, obviously, but this is year four of
Speaker 1: the Campbell era. He said in that locker room last
Speaker 1: week last year when they lost that game, there's no
Speaker 1: guarantee we're going to get back, and they've come back
Speaker 1: this season and handled being the favorites so well. And
Speaker 1: that's what the Commanders want to be. And they've got
Speaker 1: a really inspiring coaches getting more out of them than
Speaker 1: you would expect. But they're in one year one. They're
Speaker 1: way ahead of where the Campbell lines were in year one.
Speaker 1: And I look at these two teams at the level
Speaker 1: where they're at, and this is the game that you know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do my picks against the spread with Cynthia.
Speaker 1: We post that show on Friday mornings, but this is
Speaker 1: the game I feel most confident, and I don't care
Speaker 1: how many points it is. I do think the Lions
Speaker 1: will get there, and the Commanders could still score twenty four,
Speaker 1: but or twenty nine or something like that, but it
Speaker 1: could be forty to twenty nine or something like that.
Speaker 1: That's ultimately how I see. I don't need to make
Speaker 1: you make a pick, but if you want to, let's
Speaker 1: go for it. JP.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I feel like this is gonna be a Lions win.
Speaker 8: I feel like this offense just has too many problems
Speaker 8: and has shown. Like I said, for the Washington defense
Speaker 8: to win, they have to try to try and get
Speaker 8: Jared Goff off schedule, but Jared Goff has actually, like
Speaker 8: I feel like Derek Goff has. I've gained a lot
Speaker 8: more respect for Jared Goff this season in terms of
Speaker 8: how he operates, how he works in that offense, and
Speaker 8: how much he's grown since he first really started with
Speaker 8: the McVeigh offense and at the peak of their powers.
Speaker 8: So I feel like this is gonna be the perfect
Speaker 8: game to show that Jarreck Goff is really good, but
Speaker 8: also that this Lions team has been here before. Even
Speaker 8: though they don't have all their stars, they have been
Speaker 8: in this situation. They get a home game in front
Speaker 8: of their crowd and they can just lean on them.
Speaker 7: So I think I think as a Lions.
Speaker 1: Went, yeah, I'm sorry to cut you off there. Like
Speaker 1: people forget thirty year olds in the NFL, they can improve,
Speaker 1: they can keep getting better. I know it as a
Speaker 1: Patriots fan, Like Tom Brady really was better at thirty
Speaker 1: four than he was at twenty eight. People remember the
Speaker 1: seven season and stuff, but like overall in terms of
Speaker 1: his quarterback, like, he got a lot better at thirty four,
Speaker 1: thirty six, thirty eight. I mean even though, and Jared
Speaker 1: Goff wins in a similar sort of way, and I'm
Speaker 1: totally with you. I think he is significantly improved even
Speaker 1: from last year where he was already improved. So we're
Speaker 1: both on the lions. Let's play the music, Eric, This
Speaker 1: was This was a banger. It was a long show here. JP,
Speaker 1: appreciate you.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be as long until you come on again.
Speaker 1: You killed it.
Speaker 2: That's all.
Speaker 7: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Man, JP Acosta. Check them out at SB Nation. We
Speaker 1: will be back, like I said on Friday with Cynthia
Speaker 1: Friedland and the Picks and yeah, when we're counting out
Speaker 1: the Commanders once again, you know football is back. We'll
Speaker 1: see a Friday