Transcript
Speaker: What's going on everybody welcome back to another episode of the Passing Downs Podcast.
Speaker: I'm your host Rahul and I'm here with my co-host PD.
Speaker: PD say what's up?
Speaker: What's up?
Speaker: Alright and today we're back with another one of our recap videos.
Speaker: These are getting more and more important as things go on because, well, it's the playoffs and now we're going to be recapping the divisional round and giving a little bit of a preview of the conference championship.
Speaker: as we've done throughout the year with all of our other weeks.
Speaker: But before I jump into that, just a quick shout out to our socials.
Speaker: Follow PD at PD34 underscore, me at RealRahulPotty2.
Speaker: And if you're enjoying this episode or any of the other pods we've done throughout this season, please go ahead, like, follow, subscribe.
Speaker: Do what you can on the platform you're listening on or watching on to help out.
Speaker: And with that being said, let's jump right into Divisional Weekend, which gets starts off with not the best of games, but still a pretty exciting one.
Speaker: I'll let you get started with Ravens, Texans, PD.
Speaker: Yeah, so let's start with the winning quarterback in each of these matchups so that we can discuss the loser in some detail with some offseason talk like we did last time.
Speaker: Let's start off with the Ravens with Lamar Jackson beating the brakes off the Texans.
Speaker: And Lamar was very, very good in this game.
Speaker: Started off on the first drive with a field goal drive.
Speaker: Lamar scrambling, picking up small chunk gains.
Speaker: Made a nice pass to Odell for a 12-yard gain, but stalled out on the Texan side of the field.
Speaker: Ended up taking a long field goal.
Speaker: The next drive, the Ravens couldn't really get much going.
Speaker: Lamar scrambles out of the pocket on a third down, but can't hook up with Zay Flowers, puts it a little behind him.
Speaker: That's after two consecutive runs, which kind of put them behind the chains a little bit.
Speaker: The next drive, they end up getting their first touchdown.
Speaker: Lamar with a number of great explosive plays, a nice scramble for a 23-yard gain, and then a nice pass on a deep out-breaking route to Zay Flowers.
Speaker: Really, really nice throw there.
Speaker: They kind of continue to chunk their way down the field until a third and five at the 83 or Houston 17-yard line.
Speaker: Lamar scrambles for a 15-yard gain at the two, and then he hits Nelson Aguilar for an easy three-yard touchdown.
Speaker: A very, very nice drive there from the Ravens.
Speaker: And then the Ravens can't get anything going on their next offensive drive, end up punting.
Speaker: Lamar can't hook up on back-to-back plays on second and third and seven.
Speaker: Can't find Nelson Aguilar after a throwaway.
Speaker: And then next drive, Lamar takes back-to-back sacks on first and second down.
Speaker: One of these was his fault, in my opinion.
Speaker: One of them wasn't.
Speaker: And then on third and 32, they end up running...
Speaker: just a run play with Justice Hill and then punting.
Speaker: So not a very inspiring first half for the Ravens offense, I'll say, but that changes dramatically in the second half.
Speaker: So in the second half, Lamar started generating explosive after explosive.
Speaker: So it starts off with a short pass to Isaiah Likely for a 19-yard gain in the third quarter on their next drive.
Speaker: And then after chunking their way,
Speaker: Down the field, Lamar scrambles for a 15-yard rushing touchdown.
Speaker: Another good to great run for Lamar.
Speaker: The next drive, a really long touchdown drive.
Speaker: This was very impressive from the Ravens offense.
Speaker: Lamar hits Rashad Bateman for a 21-yard gain.
Speaker: And then after chunking the way down the field, he hits Isaiah Likely for a 15-yard touchdown.
Speaker: And the next drive, another touchdown drive.
Speaker: Lamar scrambles up the middle for a 10-yard gain.
Speaker: and the Ravens kind of chunk their way down the field on the ground.
Speaker: Lamar hits a flowers for an 11 yard gain on a third and seven, and then rushes for another touchdown for eight yards.
Speaker: And then their final drive, they didn't really involve Lamar, just some ground game stuff.
Speaker: So Lamar with an absolutely dominant day on the ground.
Speaker: One thing I should say is that he had a turnover of the play, a dropped interception in the red zone.
Speaker: which I thought was kind of bad.
Speaker: So that kind of detracts from his passing performance.
Speaker: But man, he was absolutely unbelievable in the run game in this one.
Speaker: And so in my opinion, that comes out to a pretty solidly good performance.
Speaker: Very, very impressed with Lamar in this one.
Speaker: Yeah, I want to repeat that same sentiment.
Speaker: Also very, very impressed.
Speaker: And I like that you talked a lot about the rushing game because that is what particularly interested me about this matchup.
Speaker: I think we've talked multiple times on the pod throughout the year about how
Speaker: This year, it doesn't seem like Lamar is relying on his legs as much.
Speaker: There are multiple games throughout the year where him rushing was kind of non-existent, to be honest.
Speaker: And he was really playing more as a pocket passer.
Speaker: And towards this end of the season, and especially in this playoff game, we've seen him lean on it even more.
Speaker: It's made him even more of an elite high-level dual-threat quarterback to the point where in that second half, it felt like
Speaker: there was nothing you could do to stop this guy because you didn't know what he was going to do with the football.
Speaker: He was able to tuck it in and make passes left and right.
Speaker: And because of all the attention to his rushing ability, guys were getting left open because the Texans defense was forced to be so compressed.
Speaker: And we just kind of haven't seen as many of these dominant rushing performances for Lamar recently.
Speaker: And I had said early in the year that I would like to see more of it, but...
Speaker: I think the Ravens did a phenomenal job in how they've managed it.
Speaker: They've got Lamar Jackson healthy deep into the season, obviously going into AFC Championship now, which they hadn't done for two years prior to this year.
Speaker: They have Lamar Jackson looking as fast and explosive as he would be at any point in this season this late in the year.
Speaker: And he's able to really punish defenses now because of it.
Speaker: And on the flip side, he was also elite passing.
Speaker: I also felt like that turnover where the pass did detract from his game a little bit, but still outside of that very, very accurate, mostly easier passes.
Speaker: He was throwing mostly easier passes.
Speaker: But like I said earlier, it was a lot to do with the fact that they really had to commit to stopping Lamar's legs and it opened things up.
Speaker: Overall, very, very big game from him.
Speaker: And I also had it as probably a little bit higher than you.
Speaker: I thought it was a very good game because I thought he was able to do so much on both sides or both aspects of his game to make up for that one turnover or the pass.
Speaker: But I could understand where you detract from him for sure.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And moving on to the other side, the Ravens defense was absolutely dominant in this one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The one touchdown that the Texans had was on a punt return.
Speaker: So three points for the Texans offense and just watching it play by play from a passing standpoint, pretty clear to see why they just really couldn't get anything going.
Speaker: And this is not even to say that CJ Stroud played bad.
Speaker: I thought he was kind of okay, but yeah, just a dominant outing from the Ravens defense.
Speaker: So let's get it started with the first drive.
Speaker: So Stroud can't hook up with Nico Collins on his first pass attempt and then scrambles on third down, but not really enough to get the first down.
Speaker: Next drive, another punt.
Speaker: Stroud kind of chunks his way with a short pass to Singletary that gets the first down and then a short pass to Nico Collins and then makes a great throw on a third and eight.
Speaker: Pushed out of the pocket, scrambling to his right, and hits Devin Singletary down the sideline for a 26-yard gain.
Speaker: But the drive ends up stalling out because of a Stroud intentional grounding and then a false start and then Stroud can't hook up with Nico Collins on third and 21.
Speaker: On the next drive, this is their only scoring drive.
Speaker: Stroud hits Nico Collins for a nice intermediate gain and then hits Dalton Schultz for a 21-yard gain, but can't make the third and 13 completion to Nico Collins, and they end up kicking a field goal.
Speaker: The next drive results in a punt as well.
Speaker: Stroud hits Devin Singletary for a short gain, but they can't convert on third and one with a rush attempt, so they end up punting there.
Speaker: And then after getting the punt return touchdown,
Speaker: The Texans get back into scoring position actually so they get end up getting a field goal attempt off on this job makes a couple of really nice throws first one a really deep dig.
Speaker: To Nico Collins for a 29 yard gain awesome awesome throw and then he hits Nico Collins for a 16 yard gain get into scoring position but Kami fairbaring can't hit the 47 yard field goal.
Speaker: In their next drive which comes after halftime.
Speaker: The Texans can't get too much going.
Speaker: Stroud chunks for short and intermediate gains, but on third and 15, he kind of just checks it down to Dalton Schultz for just a one-yard pass, and they end up punting.
Speaker: The next drive, Stroud can't get anything going.
Speaker: A short pass to Dalton Schultz is all he can get.
Speaker: The next drive, a turnover on downs.
Speaker: Yeah, Shroud can't hook up with Dalton Schultz on a fourth and six.
Speaker: And on their final drive, which ends up ending the game, Shroud hits Nico Collins, but it's garbage time.
Speaker: There's no impact here.
Speaker: So Shroud makes two really impressive throws, the one down the sideline to Singletary and the deep dig to Nico Collins.
Speaker: Doesn't put the ball in harm's way, but man, the Ravens defense just really, really came to play.
Speaker: Taking away all of his options in the passing game, it didn't look like anyone was really open when I went back and watched the film.
Speaker: It was a tough, tough day for the Texans offense.
Speaker: They tried everything at one point, calling a couple of trick plays in a row.
Speaker: They just exhausted every option and it didn't matter.
Speaker: The Ravens defense just shut them down.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely lockdown performance from this Ravens defensive unit.
Speaker: And I think that's what makes them so scary moving forward, which we'll talk about soon.
Speaker: But I thought on every level of the field in the matchups between the Texans offense and Ravens defense, the Ravens just looked far overmatched.
Speaker: This is one of those games we talk about throughout the year where...
Speaker: where just like the units were just too far off in terms of talent for anything to happen, because that's what it felt in this game.
Speaker: Everything that we had talked about in the preview in the episode prior on how the Texans could maybe make things work based off like certain things happening, like Marlon Humphrey being out or maybe them being able to exploit certain matchups.
Speaker: All of that got shut down pretty for the most part.
Speaker: Baltimore completely controlled the line.
Speaker: And in the front seven, they really got nothing going.
Speaker: Their run game was non-existent.
Speaker: And I feel like that put a lot of pressure on Stroud to go out and throw themselves out of this mess.
Speaker: And even with Marlon Humphrey out, this Baltimore team was...
Speaker: Amazing in the secondary.
Speaker: It didn't feel like that slowic offense that was getting guys open downfield left and right.
Speaker: Even last week versus a good Browns defensive unit, nothing was open in this one.
Speaker: And the Texans had kind of had to settle to play a completely different brand of football than they had all year.
Speaker: where you knew they were going deep, you knew they were going to attack and be aggressive.
Speaker: That's not how they played in this one.
Speaker: And I think a lot of that had to do with their receivers just not getting any separation, no one getting open downfield, the secondary just controlling things.
Speaker: And even when they did try to play in the trenches, it didn't work.
Speaker: I also didn't think Stroud was particularly bad because there weren't really a lot of mistakes he was making, but he also didn't do much to elevate his team out of the situation.
Speaker: Like Petey mentioned, only two high-level throws, a lot of very simple conservative passes, and I know that might have been the game plan, but especially when you're down at some point, you kind of just have to let loose and try to keep up with that Ravens offense.
Speaker: I think in the first half, the way they played was fine because the game kind of
Speaker: kept close, but once it gets out of hand, they kind of just have to go at it a little bit more.
Speaker: And they did try to do everything they could possibly in the playbook, but
Speaker: still simply wasn't enough.
Speaker: And for that, it was a mediocre game from Stroud.
Speaker: Definitely nothing too concerning moving forward because of how much I feel like the talent was different.
Speaker: And I do think you need to support Stroud with a lot more receiving help and rushing help if you do want to compete against these elite defenses, but still not the best showing.
Speaker: All right, so let's get into some mild offseason talk with CJ Stroud.
Speaker: and kind of how the season stacks up collectively.
Speaker: So in the context of this Ravens game, I don't really think this Ravens game changed my opinion of Stroud too much long-term.
Speaker: I have been...
Speaker: Thoroughly impressed like everyone else with CJ Straub's performance.
Speaker: He looks like someone who could have been in the argument for making a Pro Bowl this year.
Speaker: He has been absolutely mind-numbingly efficient for a rookie, making explosive play after explosive play.
Speaker: Just really, really impressive combination of touch, anticipation, and aggression pushing the ball down the field and into tight windows.
Speaker: The accuracy is one thing that I think I disagree with consensus.
Speaker: like the short accuracy kind of lags behind his deep and intermediate accuracy pretty significantly in my opinion.
Speaker: So in large sample, when short passes are the most commonly thrown passes in the NFL, his accuracy
Speaker: is less impressive than I think some would think and it's actually kind of reflected in the completion percentage funny enough.
Speaker: I think long term for Stroud, one thing that I would like to see is that the Texans build up their offensive line.
Speaker: They're really lacking in terms of their ability to show different looks in the run game and I think that
Speaker: If they add more offensive line help, they'll be able to run more passing concepts where it's straight drop back and you're able to hold the ball a little longer.
Speaker: Their offense is kind of quick hitting at times.
Speaker: And the way that they mitigate the offensive line issues is by running a lot of high level play action concepts.
Speaker: So I really think that adding more offensive line help, getting Tank Dale back, and then Stroud
Speaker: Improving more on the short accuracy is the checklist for the offense.
Speaker: But yeah, Stroud, I am like, if he gets that short accuracy thing to fix itself, combined with his anticipation and his aggression down the field when things are available, man, I'm in love with his style of play.
Speaker: It's awesome, awesome to watch.
Speaker: And really leads to high-level offense when you surround him with
Speaker: like high level receivers, high level pass protection scheme, whatever you want.
Speaker: So yeah, really, really impressed with Stroud and I don't really have many issues going forward.
Speaker: Yeah, this game also doesn't necessarily move me in terms of where I see Stroud long term.
Speaker: In fact, I'm somewhat impressed and feel like he overperformed to even be at this position.
Speaker: If we looked back at this team at the start of the year, there were still a lot of question marks about this Texans offense.
Speaker: I think
Speaker: The offensive line was already a question mark.
Speaker: And then when you combine it with all the injuries they've had to deal with throughout the year, that's been a mess completely for the Texans.
Speaker: They also started the year expecting Damian Pierce to be their guy.
Speaker: They had to rely on Devin Singletary for a lot of the season rushing the ball.
Speaker: And in some games it's worked, but when it has mattered against bigger time defenses like this Ravens team,
Speaker: It's been an issue and he's also had to deal with losing tank Dell, not really a lot of depth in that receiving room and still played very well, played at a very high level, showed elite levels of accuracy, showed high levels of ability to throw the ball downfield and high level accuracy downfield as well.
Speaker: I do agree with you that the short level accuracy and even intermediate to a certain extent needs improvement.
Speaker: But to me, I think a lot of that ties into the offensive line.
Speaker: I feel like we even saw it in his tape at college when he is kind of rushed, thrown off his mark by pressure and his footwork is messed about.
Speaker: He does struggle with his accuracy more so than a lot of quarterbacks with those off balanced or maybe off platform throws.
Speaker: And he does tend to have issues with that.
Speaker: And I think the offensive line weakness has really
Speaker: given him a lot of pressure in his face all year long, rushed him with those short passes.
Speaker: When they kind of tend to go deeper, they block a couple extra people.
Speaker: Like you say, sometimes go off play action.
Speaker: It gives a lot more help and a lot more time for Strau to set his feet and just launch one, which seems counterintuitive because it's a longer developing play.
Speaker: That is kind of how the Texans have run things.
Speaker: And I think with the improving offensive line, that accuracy will improve because he's just so accurate downfield that I feel like at some point it will translate, even though it's obviously different aspects of the game.
Speaker: And I'm with you on the fact that I love his play style.
Speaker: I love his game.
Speaker: I love his kind of balance between going aggressive downfield, but still being able to
Speaker: for his age and for a rookie quarterback, be able to put the ball out of harm's way.
Speaker: And I think that will only improve.
Speaker: I think he definitely could have been even better at that this year.
Speaker: But
Speaker: I think that's some things that will come with him being in the league longer.
Speaker: I think he did have some stinker performances, as do all young quarterbacks.
Speaker: And I expect that to go less and less as he continues to rise into that elite tier.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm also still very high on Stroud.
Speaker: And I think him and the Texans are looking good going into next year.
Speaker: All right, so let's move on to the next matchup, which is Potties, 49ers against the Packers.
Speaker: Let's get into the winning side with Brock Purdy first.
Speaker: Purdy was not good in this game.
Speaker: I hate to say it, but it was, it seemed very difficult for him to just grip the ball properly.
Speaker: I remember one play in specific where he missed a throw.
Speaker: He, um,
Speaker: He just was wiping his hand in the middle of the play on his towel and it caused him to be late by like a full second on the route.
Speaker: The route broke open and he was just not ready to throw it.
Speaker: Very bizarre game for Brock Prudy.
Speaker: Just adding a little bit more evidence that he's not comfortable in the rain with the Cleveland game.
Speaker: But yeah, let's get into it.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: The first drive, the Niners end up punting.
Speaker: Purdy hits Debo for a 15-yard gain on a short pass, and then Debo again for a nine-yard gain.
Speaker: Takes a sack on third and sixth.
Speaker: Didn't really think this was on him, but they end up punting because of it.
Speaker: The next drive, a touchdown drive for the Niners.
Speaker: Purdy hits Kittle for a nine-yard gain, and then hits Juwan Jennings for a 16-yard gain.
Speaker: Really, really impressive pass into a tight window here.
Speaker: getting absolutely crunched, but doesn't matter.
Speaker: He hits for a 10 yard gain and then makes a really impressive throw a third and five hits George Kittle for a 32 yard touchdown.
Speaker: The next drive, the Niners don't end up getting points, but they do end up getting in scoring position.
Speaker: Pretty not able to do too much.
Speaker: This drive hits McCaffrey for a short nine yard gain.
Speaker: And then Juwan Jennings for a five yard gain.
Speaker: And then McCaffrey again for
Speaker: an eight yard gain.
Speaker: And then the next drive for the Niners, another punt drive, pretty hits Rari McLeod for a seven yard gain and then can't hook up with Brandon Ayuk.
Speaker: Next drive, another touchdown drive for the Niners.
Speaker: Pretty hits George Kittle wide open for a 32 yard gain.
Speaker: After hitting McCaffrey on a short pass, McCaffrey takes it for a long rushing touchdown.
Speaker: The next drive,
Speaker: Purdy is able to hit McCaffrey for a short four-yard gain, but unable to hook up with Juwan Jennings.
Speaker: On next drive, which ends up with a field goal, Purdy, very impressive pass to Brandon Ayuk for a 12-yard gain in kind of a tight window, but can end up making a play on third and 10.
Speaker: Jake Moody hits a long field goal.
Speaker: Next drive, the Niners can't get anything going again.
Speaker: Brock Purdy, another really impressive pass.
Speaker: This went deep over the middle to Juwan Jennings in a tight window, puts it over the linebacker in front of the safety while getting hit by multiple defenders.
Speaker: One of the more impressive throws of the season, honestly, considering time situation and the window he was throwing into just incredible touch and toughness to make that play through the contact.
Speaker: But the Niners can't get anything going on their
Speaker: second and third and tens in Green Bay territory.
Speaker: This was where the play happened where I was referencing Purdy wiping his hand on a towel mid play.
Speaker: That ends up throwing it off on third and ten and they can't end up converting.
Speaker: The next drive,
Speaker: The Niners end up scoring a touchdown.
Speaker: They needed it.
Speaker: Purdy chunks his way down the field on a third and five, tight window throw to Brandon Ayuk over the middle.
Speaker: Really, really impressive anticipation.
Speaker: The ball's a little bit low, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker: And then they kind of end up chunking their way down the field.
Speaker: Christian McCaffrey punches in for a six-year touchdown.
Speaker: So Purdy, impressive final drive.
Speaker: A couple of impressive tight window throws, both on that final drive and before that.
Speaker: But man, he missed so many throws in this game.
Speaker: Plus, I forgot to mention,
Speaker: First drive, Purdy throws a turnover-worthy play right in the hands of Darnell Savage, which could have ended up being a pick six, but Savage drops it.
Speaker: So that's going to end up detracting from his game for me, plus all the missed throws.
Speaker: I didn't think he played all that great this game, but it doesn't really change my image of him as a player.
Speaker: I already believe that he couldn't play in the rain, so it doesn't really do much to move that for me.
Speaker: Yeah, unfortunately, as the resident Niners fan, I have to agree with this.
Speaker: Purdy was not at his best in this game.
Speaker: He was, I'd also agree, playing at a mid-level, very slightly below average performance.
Speaker: The thing that confuses me, though, is why he's getting so much shtick for it, because I think it was pretty evident the conditions were not...
Speaker: good for quarterback play with all the rain.
Speaker: It messed up both quarterbacks that we'll talk about in a second with Jordan Love.
Speaker: And it makes things difficult to throw.
Speaker: We already knew Brock Purdy is not the type of quarterback who's going to play well in the rain.
Speaker: He doesn't have that type of arm talent.
Speaker: He doesn't have that type of power.
Speaker: And unfortunately, that just is what it is in certain weather.
Speaker: But we already knew that about Brock Purdy.
Speaker: That isn't something we're discovering in this game.
Speaker: And as with most quarterbacks, when it's in the rain, you rely on your playmakers and you rely on guys taking the ball in space and making plays to help out your quarterback in order to win those games because...
Speaker: Obviously, it's not easy to throw downfield in those conditions.
Speaker: I do agree that that interception honestly didn't have much to do with the rain or the pass that should have been an interception.
Speaker: If anything, he got a little bit lucky that it was raining.
Speaker: It feel like it almost slipped out of Savage's hands because of how wet it was.
Speaker: But the rest of the game aside from that interception, I feel like a lot of the misses, not that I'm excusing him for it, but I do understand why he had a higher percentage of them than he would in every other game.
Speaker: And I'm not looking at him much differently long term because I know in the rain he will play in this sort of manner.
Speaker: and not in the rain where his arm isn't as dragged down by the water, he will be able to make those big plays.
Speaker: The one thing that gave me a lot of hope and a lot of hope moving forward with Purdy is that final drive.
Speaker: Despite not having the best game, at that point, honestly, I would have rated it a bad game for him.
Speaker: And despite all of those things, the conditions, he was still able to put it together for one very important drive, moving his team forward there.
Speaker: Despite playing bad the rest of the game, he was able to put that aside for one drive.
Speaker: And he made a lot of big time throws on that one.
Speaker: The corner out to Chris Conley was huge.
Speaker: The other pass to Jennings at the start of the drive was huge.
Speaker: Even the pass on the previous drive that you were talking about, Petey, the pass over the middle to Jennings, that looked like it should have been intercepted with how tight of a window it was, and yet he's still able to fit that in.
Speaker: Great catch by Jennings as well.
Speaker: He made a lot of big time throws at the end of the game to put his team over the top.
Speaker: Does that take away from how the rest of the game went?
Speaker: No, that's why it's still a mid-performance overall for me.
Speaker: But it is very, I guess, good to see Purdy...
Speaker: still perform despite not having the best game altogether, still be able to put that aside and have one huge drive to win this, win his team the game essentially.
Speaker: And that's going to be huge moving forward for them in the playoffs as well.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So let's go to the other side of the ball where Jordan Love did not fare much better, unfortunately.
Speaker: The first drive, the Packers end up getting a field goal.
Speaker: Jordan Love, Chunky is way down the field.
Speaker: A big defensive pass interference on third and six puts them in scoring position, but they can't capitalize.
Speaker: End up having to kick a field goal.
Speaker: The next drive, turnover on downs.
Speaker: This one, the refs kind of get in the way of the flow of the game.
Speaker: But Love hits Romeo Dobbs deep for a 38-yard completion.
Speaker: Nice throw there, but Dobbs broke wide open.
Speaker: Love hits Emmanuel Wilson on second 11 for an 11-yard gain.
Speaker: And then on fourth and one,
Speaker: QB sneak.
Speaker: It looks like the refs give him a pretty horrible spot.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: And that ends up being a turnover on downs.
Speaker: The next drive, another field goal drive for the Packers.
Speaker: Jordan Love, chunky his way down the field.
Speaker: On third and seven in San Francisco territory, though, he makes an insane throw.
Speaker: Rolling to his left, and he just stuffs the ball in a tight window down the left sideline for Dobbs.
Speaker: 22-yard pickup on there, and he earned all 22 of those yards.
Speaker: Their next drive after halftime ends up scoring a touchdown.
Speaker: Packers kind of chunk their way down the field.
Speaker: Aaron Jones makes some nice gains on this drive.
Speaker: And then Love hits Bo Melton for a 19-yard touchdown.
Speaker: this Bill Milton touchdown.
Speaker: So it's a fake screen.
Speaker: Love pump fakes the screen as you do.
Speaker: And he throws another pump fake, which I think kind of gets the safety to fall.
Speaker: Um, I don't know if it was coincidence that he just kind of hit a wet spot on the field while he was running or the Jordan love pump fake caused him to fall over, but, um, impressive play nonetheless from the Packers offense.
Speaker: Uh, the next drive favorable field position after a Keyshawn Nixon, big time kick return.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Love hits Romeo Dobbs for a 15 yard gain on a really, really impressive intermediate pass.
Speaker: Um, and then hits Tucker craft on a pretty simple, uh, two yard touchdown.
Speaker: Um, and then Aaron Jones with a two point conversion.
Speaker: Um, the next drive ends up with an interception for Jordan love.
Speaker: So, um, love hits Christian Watson for an 11 yard gain, then can't hook up with Tucker craft.
Speaker: Um, and then again, trying to go to Tucker craft, he puts the ball behind him while bounces off craft and ends up in an interception.
Speaker: Uh, the next drive, uh, a punt for the Packers offense, a couple of short gains, but he can't hook up with Aaron Jones on third and two, uh, the next drive, infamous missed field goal.
Speaker: Um, Aaron Jones picks up a 53 yard game, uh, on their first play of the drive.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And then Love and the Packers offense kind of stall out.
Speaker: Third and nine, he can't hook up with Wicks.
Speaker: And then Carlson misses a 41-yard field goal, which would have given the Packers a touchdown lead.
Speaker: The affirmation touchdown drive that we talked about, the Packers end up surrendering the lead.
Speaker: And then the final drive.
Speaker: So Love hits Romeo Dobbs for an eight-yard gain.
Speaker: Um, and then Luke Musgrave for a three yard gain.
Speaker: And then he pulls, uh, the Brett Favre versus the saints.
Speaker: This isn't Detroit, man.
Speaker: This is the super bowl.
Speaker: Um, I could hear the call playing in my head while I was watching the play love rolls, right?
Speaker: Push, uh, tries to stuff the ball in a tight window to Christian Watson.
Speaker: Um, he's just not open at all.
Speaker: Um, there's two defenders there, um, between Dre Greenlaw and Fred Warner.
Speaker: And yeah, um,
Speaker: Love ends up with an interception on that play.
Speaker: Bad, bad turnover that you play.
Speaker: One of the worst throws of the season.
Speaker: Very, very bad play there.
Speaker: So that's the end of the game for the Packers.
Speaker: Love made a couple of impressive throws in this game, but that play at the end, combined with a few other missed throws throughout the game, yeah, it puts a cap on his impact for the game to me.
Speaker: And while I was generally impressed with his physical ability, some of those mistakes just end up costing them in this game.
Speaker: And I think this performance was in the below average category for me.
Speaker: yeah i would agree there and honestly much like with brock purdy i also will give love the same sort of leeway or liability here with the rain it definitely wasn't conditions that were good for a quarterback play however jordan love did strike me as the type of quarterback with his size and arm strength to maybe be able to play through that as we'll talk about a cold weather later in this there are some freaks of nature that are able to just play through it and have it not matter
Speaker: And I thought Jordan Love may be able to do that maybe at some point in the future because in this game, clearly it affected him massively.
Speaker: Those two mistakes, two turnover-worthy plays like Petey mentioned, essentially lose them the game.
Speaker: And the final one was very, very Brett Favre-esque.
Speaker: Hopefully that's something in his game that he doesn't keep going forward long term.
Speaker: But it just confused me why he'd be rolling right, tries to throw it back in the middle of the field.
Speaker: His team still has a chance to go downfield, tie this game up, maybe even win it before even the time runs out.
Speaker: And he just forces a throw for no reason on an early down.
Speaker: He could have thrown it away.
Speaker: He could have gone somewhere else.
Speaker: It just made no sense.
Speaker: And even the previous interception, it's a little unfortunate where the ball ends up going, but he misses massively behind the Tucker Craft there.
Speaker: It's just, you can't be missing and being that inaccurate at this stage, no matter how bad the rain is, no matter what
Speaker: what is going on with the weather because the situation is very high, a lot of high stakes.
Speaker: And his mistakes end up costing them pretty much the game.
Speaker: And throughout the rest of the game, if you do kind of ignore the mistakes and look at the game that way, he didn't play too terribly.
Speaker: There was a little bit of inaccuracies, but you will expect that in a game where it's raining.
Speaker: And that's just not too, that's not the biggest of a deal.
Speaker: But when you are turning the ball over,
Speaker: that's what ends up kind of ruining games.
Speaker: And that's what happened to Jordan Love in this one, unfortunate.
Speaker: All right, so let's focus on some Packers offseason talk.
Speaker: And I don't think that we need to discuss too much.
Speaker: The kind of flaws in Jordan Love's game have laid themselves out through his play.
Speaker: He needs to be more consistent with his accuracy, or at least show us that the accuracy improvement that he made in the second half of the season is more real.
Speaker: And that's really the biggest thing that there is to it.
Speaker: I think he does a good job with his aggression gauge, not too many turnover the plays, but puts the ball in enough tight windows to where, you know, he's making, he's trying to make those high leverage throws.
Speaker: And additionally, I think that the Packers offense is really, really well set up with their skill position players.
Speaker: The number of guys that they have that can probably be guys who,
Speaker: I think are part of a championship level offense is pretty crazy.
Speaker: And they're all first and second year players.
Speaker: So Romeo Dobbs, I can see being like a number three, number four on a high end offense.
Speaker: Jane Reed can be a nice complimentary piece.
Speaker: Christian Watson can be a nice complimentary piece.
Speaker: Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft both look like they can be very, very good tight ends.
Speaker: They just have an incredible amount of depth in this past catching group.
Speaker: I didn't even mention Don Tavion Wicks, but he has emerged as a guy I think could be a really nice complimentary piece.
Speaker: And so they don't really have too many weaknesses in their receiving core.
Speaker: And additionally, on top of that, Green Bay, just not in this game, but usually, and for good reason, are known for their pass blocking.
Speaker: Just really, really good in terms of assembling good offensive line talent.
Speaker: And the man at head coach and their play caller,
Speaker: in Matt LaFleur, I trust him more than most coaches in the league.
Speaker: He has been fantastic for years.
Speaker: And this year is no exception.
Speaker: When the Packers started running his offense correctly and not running into each other and running the wrong routes, the offense just looked absolutely fantastic.
Speaker: So yeah, the expectation for the Packers going forward, it is positive.
Speaker: The one thing that does concern me though is that these types of opportunities
Speaker: Don't present themselves too often where you have a chance to knock off the favorite in the conference and you don't do it.
Speaker: Kind of like little things like that where you end up being the favorite and you just get upset.
Speaker: Those types of things happen a lot.
Speaker: It takes a lot to win a Super Bowl and with an opportunity to win the Super Bowl right now in front of them, in my opinion, they didn't take advantage.
Speaker: So
Speaker: The path for the Packers moving forward is very clear.
Speaker: They have draft capital to continue to add depth along their roster.
Speaker: The problems on this team kind of lie on the other end, which we don't really discuss too much on this podcast.
Speaker: But yeah, I think the Packers are very well set up moving forward.
Speaker: Yeah, personnel wise, I absolutely agree.
Speaker: This offense is not only looking like one of the better offenses in the NFC already, but like you mentioned, it's a very, very young offense.
Speaker: I think one of the youngest in the league and for them to overperform to this extent this early is very, very good for their future.
Speaker: Obviously, we know what Jordan Love is.
Speaker: But that offensive line played incredible this year, too.
Speaker: And like you said, aside from this game where they obviously went against one of the better defensive lines in the league, they were very good pass blocking.
Speaker: I thought they were incredible run blocking even in this game.
Speaker: And I expected Eric Armstead to kind of be able to step in and
Speaker: slow down that rushing game and I was very wrong this team opened up holes all day long and Aaron Jones was bursting through them it was a huge part of their offense when Jordan Love wasn't really able to get it going because of the rains so I'm a huge fan of those guys I also like the receiving core however one thing I do think is missing is them having a true receiver one I feel like in certain games you could have guys like Dobbs, Watson,
Speaker: go missing and you do need someone who can consistently get separation every single week, week in, week out.
Speaker: I think that would take Jordan Love's game to another level as well.
Speaker: And I'm hoping they could get that.
Speaker: Like you mentioned, they have a ton of draft capital.
Speaker: I do believe they have a solid amount of
Speaker: Salary cap space as well because of all the small deals from all their younger guys.
Speaker: So there's definitely a lot of upside there.
Speaker: However, not to kind of propose a doomsday situation for them because they are all obviously very young.
Speaker: But like you mentioned.
Speaker: situations like this don't come around very often when you have the two seed obviously the Packers destroyed them but they played it incredibly poorly and not like a two seed would the Niners played much worse than their levels and we're handing the Packers the game for a lot of this game and if you look at them going in the next week
Speaker: they probably were favored over the Lions going into that game after having beaten the 49ers and Cowboys.
Speaker: And if you look at Jordan Love, obviously he is only a first year starter this year and you're looking at all the potential that could happen.
Speaker: But
Speaker: because he sat so long.
Speaker: You did use the first three years of his rookie deal.
Speaker: You lost three years of his age because now he's going to be 26 going into year two.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, after next season, he is likely going to demand a lot of money because this is a franchise quarterback on your hands, or at least it's looking like that right now.
Speaker: And once you do pay a 26, 27-year-old Jordan Love,
Speaker: I'd be a little worried about whether they will still have enough cap space, enough room to build a team around him outside of this.
Speaker: Because right now, I don't think they have all the pieces they need to be a championship team.
Speaker: They have a lot of it, but they still do need a couple of final pieces to put the team together.
Speaker: And I think their window is very small because of the way they handled love.
Speaker: I know this whole situation with...
Speaker: Sitting Rogers and having him play and then sitting love and having him play a lot of people are talking about how great it is for the Packers but.
Speaker: One thing people don't remember is this Packers team one their only Super Bowl in the Rogers era during his rookie deal when the team was at its best and once he got paid for a decade straight they're unable to.
Speaker: create a team around him and never win again.
Speaker: Now granted this front office is looking like they're making a lot better moves than that one was in surrounding Jordan Love with talent, but all of that just goes to show these situations don't come about often.
Speaker: They fumbled a very good opportunity.
Speaker: And with Jordan Love's kind of situation with this contract, I'm not sure how many times it will come about.
Speaker: But like I said, they're very young.
Speaker: I don't want to be too doomsday with them.
Speaker: But definitely something to consider looking forward with this team.
Speaker: So let's move on to the other NFC matchup.
Speaker: And that's going to be the Bucks against the Lions.
Speaker: So let's start off with Jared Goff.
Speaker: Goff was pretty solid in this game.
Speaker: He ended up having a turnover with a play in there that wasn't punished for, but made another game where he had a number of intermediate throws that were impressive.
Speaker: And yeah, I thought he played an okay game overall.
Speaker: So let's start off on the first drive.
Speaker: Can't really get anything going.
Speaker: A couple of short passes, but can't hook up with Almonerar St.
Speaker: Brown on third down.
Speaker: They end up punting.
Speaker: The next drive, they do get into scoring position.
Speaker: Goff slowly chunking their way down the field.
Speaker: Nice pass to Jameson Williams.
Speaker: for an 11 yard game.
Speaker: And they end up kicking a field goal on fourth and four.
Speaker: I was, I was like very confident they were going to go for it.
Speaker: And they didn't next drive touchdown drive for the lions.
Speaker: They're slowly chunking their way down the field.
Speaker: Goff hits Amon Ross and Brown for a five yard gain on third and two, and then hit Sam Laporta for a 13 yard gain on third and four.
Speaker: And then finishes it off with a touchdown to Josh Reynolds.
Speaker: From nine yards out.
Speaker: The next drive, the Lions offense stalls again.
Speaker: Goff hits Sam Laporta for a four-yard gain but can't hook up with Amonra St.
Speaker: Brown on third and ten.
Speaker: The next drive, another drive where they stall out.
Speaker: Goff ends up getting sacked on a third and one and then they end up punting.
Speaker: The next drive, after halftime, Lions offense stalls again.
Speaker: Goff ends up hooking up with
Speaker: Josh Reynolds for a 25 yard gain, but they end up calling it back because of a David Montgomery block.
Speaker: And then he hit Sam Laporta for a seven yard gain on third and 17, but not enough to get the first down.
Speaker: Next drive, the Lions offense is able to score a touchdown.
Speaker: Goff hits Amonara St.
Speaker: Brown for an 11 yard gain.
Speaker: And then they go for it on fourth and one end up punching in with the run game after a few missed Goff throws.
Speaker: The next drive, another touchdown for the Lions offense.
Speaker: Goff hits Josh Reynolds for an 18-yard gain after hitting Jameer Gibbs for a 12-yard gain.
Speaker: And then Gibbs has a monster run for a 31-yard.
Speaker: It's an impressive play from him there.
Speaker: And then their last two drives ending in a touchdown and a punt.
Speaker: So the second-to-last drive, Goff was very impressive.
Speaker: He does take a sack for a six-yard loss, but makes up for it big time with a short pass to David Montgomery for an 11-yard gain, but then a great pass to Jamison Williams for a 24-yard gain, a pass to Amarov St.
Speaker: Brown for a 16-yard gain,
Speaker: A short pass to Jameer Gibbs for a 20-yard gain.
Speaker: And then a touchdown to Amon Rao St.
Speaker: Brown from 9 yards out.
Speaker: Final drive for the Lions offense.
Speaker: They end up stalling out.
Speaker: Goff hits Amon Rao for a 15-yard gain.
Speaker: And then a short pass to David Montgomery that loses yardage but can't hook up with Amon Rao for a punting situation for the Lions.
Speaker: And that's their final drive of the game.
Speaker: So very, very...
Speaker: Impressive performance from the Lions offense, but like I mentioned, turnover-worthy play for Goff that he wasn't punished for.
Speaker: Going to end up detracting from him.
Speaker: If he didn't have that turnover-worthy play, this would have been very much in the good category, but yeah, I thought the Lions offense was great.
Speaker: Goff was okay in this game, in my opinion.
Speaker: Yeah, I have very similar thoughts in this one.
Speaker: I feel like Goff was a bit of a passenger in this offense as well.
Speaker: And I don't know if you mentioned the turnover worthy play.
Speaker: If you're thinking of the same one, it was that first drive where it was in the red zone and he completely throws the ball at a defender.
Speaker: It would have been a very costly pick, but like you said, he gets away with it.
Speaker: And we saw a lot of Goff playing similar to how he has been all year.
Speaker: A lot of over the middle stuff, a lot of quick routes, a lot of in-cutting routes.
Speaker: I felt like he wasn't the most accurate he could have been in this game.
Speaker: More misses than I would have expected.
Speaker: A couple of crucial drops as well, too, where Goff could have looked even better in the stat sheet.
Speaker: But overall, I feel like that kind of balanced out a lot of the misses he had as well.
Speaker: I feel like the sacks he had, both of them were a little bit on him, both
Speaker: were more him holding the ball too long and kind of getting sacked off coverage basis.
Speaker: And they really had to rely on the run game.
Speaker: Jameer Gribbs was incredible in the short amount of runs he had and a lot of influential runs there as well.
Speaker: But overall, I think it was just a very simple game for the Lions.
Speaker: They played very similar to how they did throughout the year.
Speaker: Not very many explosive plays, but they kept it simple.
Speaker: A lot of quick passes, a lot of short runs, and didn't necessarily force Jared Goff to make incredible plays to win them this game.
Speaker: And for that reason, it's not anything that's going to put him over the top.
Speaker: It wasn't an incredible game.
Speaker: But he didn't make very many mistakes outside of obviously a pretty costly turnover with the pass.
Speaker: But the rest of the game, not very many mistakes to hang my hat on.
Speaker: And that brings it down to below average to maybe average performance.
Speaker: But not too much out of Goff for sure.
Speaker: Nothing that you would expect to warrant 31 points.
Speaker: I think he was kind of just in a very fortunate situation, which I wouldn't say about the opposing quarterback.
Speaker: Yeah, so let's talk about Baker Mayfield in this one.
Speaker: Baker, of course, bad turn of worthy play at the end.
Speaker: Ends up throwing it right to a linebacker to end the game, but gets unlucky on one of his interceptions.
Speaker: So I guess that's a little bit of retribution.
Speaker: First drive for the Bucs, Baker...
Speaker: Hits Rashad White for an eight yard gain on a short pass, gets sacked.
Speaker: Oh, I should mention, so Baker in this game took a number of really bad sacks.
Speaker: So that's going to end up dragging his overall performance down for me.
Speaker: But this one, first sack, not really on him.
Speaker: He hits Mike Evans over the middle, but Mike Evans doesn't want to be hit.
Speaker: So he just lets the ball go through his hands and straight to a line's defender.
Speaker: So that ends up with an interception.
Speaker: Positive play from Baker, but it ends up as an interception in stats.
Speaker: Next drive, they end up getting a field goal.
Speaker: Baker chunking his way down the field, hits Palmer for a 23 yard gain after hitting Evans for an 18 yard gain.
Speaker: Does take a sack on first and 10 that I thought was pretty bad.
Speaker: And the lines are, yeah, the lines end up getting a stop on them and forcing the field goal.
Speaker: The next drive,
Speaker: Bucs stall out.
Speaker: Baker hits Chase Edmonds for a short pass, but it ends up getting called back for offensive pass interference.
Speaker: And then on third and 15, Baker short pass to Chase Edmonds, gets 14 yards, but can't pick up the first down.
Speaker: Next drive, the Bucs get into scoring territory, but end up missing the field goal.
Speaker: Baker hits Rashad White on a short pass for a 10-yard gain, and then another short pass from Gaydon for a 14-yard gain.
Speaker: But then, like I said, they end up missing the field goal.
Speaker: Baker also made a really nice 23-yard pass to Mike Evans on this drive.
Speaker: The next drive, the Bucs end up scoring.
Speaker: Baker hits Palmer for a 9-yard gain and then scrambles on a 3rd-and-1 for a 14-yard gain.
Speaker: Hits Evans on a really nice pass and a catch for a 27-yard gain and then another one for a 29-yard gain.
Speaker: And then punches it in with a touchdown to K-dot.
Speaker: And really, really nice drive from the offense and Baker specifically in that one.
Speaker: The next drive, so Baker throws a short pass to Godwin for a 12-yard gain, and then another one to Evans for a five-yard gain.
Speaker: And then on third and four, he takes a bad sack.
Speaker: So this one was a loss of nine yards.
Speaker: I think Collinsworth on the broadcast said that this sack was on the offensive line, and it looks like that the offensive line made a mistake.
Speaker: But if you look at it, they're sliding left, and Baker is hot off the right side.
Speaker: So he should probably –
Speaker: have a plan for that or have like a way to avoid that, but it just looks like he doesn't like recognize it at all.
Speaker: So a plan from the offensive line that Baker doesn't follow and he ends up taking a sack for it.
Speaker: Next drive, another punt.
Speaker: Baker can't hook up with Kate on or Mike Evans on second and third and 14.
Speaker: Next drive, they end up scoring a touchdown though, making up for it.
Speaker: And Baker hits Kate, Kate Otten for a short pass on two consecutive plays for a nine and 13 yard gain.
Speaker: And then a deep one to Kate Otten for a 27 yard gain.
Speaker: then he hits rashad white for a 12 yard touchdown beautiful call um a screen pass to beat the blitz always very aesthetic when that works next drive um bucks end up punting again baker can't hook up with white or kate otten um and then a short check down to rashad white but he can't pick up the first down on third and ten uh the next drive they end up getting a touchdown but can't pick up the two-point conversion going for it going for two down eight um baker
Speaker: trying to go deep for Chris Godwin on third and 14 gets broken up, but then he hits Mike Evans on an impressive pass for a 24 yard gain.
Speaker: Then he hits David Moore for an 11 yard gain on first and 10.
Speaker: Chris Godwin for a 17 yard gain and then hits Mike Evans for a touchdown.
Speaker: Goal line fade though, on the two point conversion attempt.
Speaker: And it ends up getting broken up predictably.
Speaker: And then on his final drive of the game, he hits Mike Evans for a short pass and then tries to force it to Kay Doughton.
Speaker: And there's a linebacker right in front of Kay Doughton.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: that ends up ending the game.
Speaker: So, uh, Baker, a couple of bad sacks in this one, uh, one turnover where they play one unlucky interception, but yeah, I think collectively he made a number of really impressive throws that kind of put the Bucks offense in scoring position a number of times.
Speaker: So, um, very, very nice game from Baker, in my opinion, um, or, or overall he played a nice game, um, in what was a very, very nice season, in my opinion, incredible bounce back.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: Yeah, I'll let you get your thoughts in about this game, and then we can talk about Baker in the offseason.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I feel like Baker's game also was very much overlooked because of the result of the game and him obviously losing the game on an interception.
Speaker: But throughout this game, if you watch back the tape, Baker was throwing dimes throughout this game.
Speaker: And every time it felt like the Lions were just the superior team and we're just going to run away with this game.
Speaker: They were obviously more prolific offensively in this game once again.
Speaker: Baker would come back with a huge drive with back to back to back large chunk passes and he's single handedly dragged this offense through this game, even with being set back very early in the game.
Speaker: That first interception, I'd also agree was thrown right at Mike Evans and he pops that up for an easy interception for the defense.
Speaker: Unfortunate for Baker, but
Speaker: Not really indicative of his play and the rest of the game from that point on until the very last drive.
Speaker: It felt like Baker was on a tear.
Speaker: Obviously, he did have those four sacks, but I feel like a lot of that had to do with the fact that he was constantly on go and had to.
Speaker: force plays make it happen throughout and occasionally he did a bit too much it led to sacks he was abandoning the pocket uh too early on a couple of plays but when you're that far down he kind of was forced into that role and i think in a normal game we don't see that as much out of baker that's not something i think will recur and be a problem with him moving forward
Speaker: However, in this game, it definitely did take away a couple of drives, a couple of opportunities.
Speaker: And the final interception, it is very unfortunate.
Speaker: It kind of mars a very good, good game from Baker.
Speaker: Throughout this game, he was hitting Mike Evans on corner routes.
Speaker: There was crossers going to Evans.
Speaker: He was hitting hole shots to Evans.
Speaker: Otten over the middle was huge for him.
Speaker: And just in that end, I feel like he was forcing too much to happen.
Speaker: They obviously needed eight points on that drive.
Speaker: They needed it fast with it being, I believe, a less than two-minute situation, like a minute and a half left.
Speaker: But you simply can't throw the ball to Otten there when there's a linebacker right underneath him right there to pick the ball off.
Speaker: It was a very bad read, but I feel like the rest of his game throughout so many chunk plays kind of makes up for that.
Speaker: And obviously, situationally, that pick is...
Speaker: is a little bit, he's forced into that situation, making throws like that, obviously, and being more aggressive, given the situation.
Speaker: Still a solid game from him, despite all those mistakes, solid to even slightly above average, because of all the big throws he was making.
Speaker: And I'll kind of jump right into the overarching theme of Baker Mayfield here, because I also agree, there's nothing to hang your hat on with this season, because
Speaker: I think Baker Mayfield is finally getting back to that level of quarterback that we saw a couple of years ago in Cleveland where he wasn't injured and he was leading these Browns teams to a lot of wins and the playoffs and whatnot.
Speaker: And that looked like one of the more explosive offenses in the league.
Speaker: We're finally getting to see that Baker Mayfield again because I thought his accuracy and level of aggression in this game was very reminded me a lot of that version of Baker Mayfield.
Speaker: And I think at this point, we know Baker's not the type of guy who's going to raise a team that's bad overall and take them out of that situation and make them solid.
Speaker: But he is the type of quarterback where given a lot of big name receivers who will get open and given a lot of deep threats, he's going to be able to spread the ball out.
Speaker: get into these high-level guys like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and he's going to do it with a lot of aggression.
Speaker: He's going to play with a lot of moxie.
Speaker: And you see it working for the Bucs here.
Speaker: I mean, this is a guy who we thought was going to be a bridge quarterback.
Speaker: And even to a certain extent on the other side of the field with Goff, when he was first coming over Detroit,
Speaker: We thought these guys were going to be bridge guys, and now they've kind of established a name for themselves, being a key cog in great offenses.
Speaker: And I think Baker really proved that in this game.
Speaker: He showed, I think, throughout this season that he's a guy that the Bucs should invest in moving forward, can build around.
Speaker: Maybe he'll never become that championship-level quarterback unless it's a really, really good supporting cast around him.
Speaker: But to run a high-level team, I wouldn't see why not to get a guy like Baker Mayfield, who is very accurate a lot of the time, traditionally doesn't put the ball out of harm's way.
Speaker: Most of the time is solid in the pocket.
Speaker: We don't get much playmaking out of him, but in terms of pocket passing, he was very good this year and definitely proved a lot of people wrong after that down Panthers year where he got cut and kind of bounced around teams.
Speaker: So two things here that stand out to me, bouncing off what you said.
Speaker: So Baker, I think he has a little bit more out-of-the-pocket stuff than you give him credit for.
Speaker: And I think almost I would say that he did too much of it at times when he was at his worst.
Speaker: Leaving the pocket too early, footwork being absolutely horrible in certain times in his previous stints.
Speaker: Like the accuracy is a clear area where that suffered.
Speaker: And his sack rate was another area where you can look at.
Speaker: Baker just running into sacks, just not giving him his offensive line a fair shot with the dropback angles and dropback depths.
Speaker: That stuff was cleaned up pretty heavily this season.
Speaker: He hit a high end point for his accuracy.
Speaker: If you look at the past three years, I would say this year was clearly the best accuracy season of his career.
Speaker: And he was in a situation where it was very comfortable for him to operate a lot of play action, a lot of
Speaker: deep or a lot of touchdown to check down type of reads.
Speaker: And I think that his synergy with Mike Evans, Rashad White, Kate Otten, those type of guys was a big driver in his success.
Speaker: Now, I think that it's important to remember that he was quite poor in these past couple of years before he got here.
Speaker: So that sample still exists, but it's definitely something that you might want to discount because of how horrible the situation was in both LA and Cleveland.
Speaker: in Carolina as well, obviously.
Speaker: So a little bit of a mixed bag here going forward.
Speaker: I think that Baker probably performs something like this next year if he's able to get a good coach to replace new Carolina Panthers head coach, Dave Canellis, as offensive coordinator.
Speaker: And I would really like to see them
Speaker: continue to build on the principles that they had this year with the touchdown to check down stuff with the play action.
Speaker: If they were able to get like a better run game, that would help their offense as well.
Speaker: I don't know if Baker's ever going to be a guy you can rely on on traditional drop back stuff though.
Speaker: With some of his inconsistencies with footwork and accuracy and his timing overall, I think that Baker probably is like a play action type of quarterback.
Speaker: And it's not like he has like
Speaker: some sort of in the pocket playmaking trait where he just overcomes like to draw like a parallel between like him and when Ryan Tannehill was at his best a few years ago, like Ryan Tannehill's,
Speaker: ability to stay strong in the pocket and make hits or make throws through contact.
Speaker: That's the type of thing that you say is like outer structure or unexpected type of stuff.
Speaker: And Baker is kind of like, I hate this phrase, but he has a lot more of like true system quarterback to him.
Speaker: Um, so I think that's acceptable and totally fine to have, um, assuming that you don't, uh, take away a bunch of his supporting cast and keep the offensive coordinator situation strong.
Speaker: But, um,
Speaker: I think what I'm getting at here is like, don't be, don't be surprised when Baker gets not a particularly huge contract this off season.
Speaker: He kind of needs that kind of supporting cast and a structure around him to succeed.
Speaker: But yeah, I am.
Speaker: I'm so impressed with the way he played this season.
Speaker: I'm really, really happy for him.
Speaker: He looked like an average to above average quarterback again this year.
Speaker: It was very, very impressive to see.
Speaker: Yeah, and real quick before we move on, I think the narrative around Baker would look completely different if this sort of season did happen before he like bounced from team to team, if he did stay in Cleveland and figured it out.
Speaker: I think because he's been a bit of a journeyman and you're seeing this season on a different team that
Speaker: people aren't really remembering that he did have a lot of good seasons when he was surrounded by the right type of supporting cast.
Speaker: And real quick to touch on what you were talking about, I do also agree that he has been great off the play action and maybe he isn't a traditional pocket passer, which I agree with.
Speaker: It's just like you were saying, he doesn't have that ability to play make out of the pocket and make things happen.
Speaker: And that's kind of what I was hinting at.
Speaker: He's not the best at, but in terms of playing out of structure within the system, I do think he absolutely did a great job of that this year through play actions and whatnot.
Speaker: But I agree when he was able to clean up all those times where he was doing too much and played a lot more in the system like this year, he looked at his best and good for him.
Speaker: But moving on from that game to what was easily the game of the weekend.
Speaker: I'll let you get started with that one, Petey.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So let's talk about Bill's chiefs, um, start off with the winning side and not much to say here because Patrick Mahomes just put up another masterclass and.
Speaker: Incredible.
Speaker: It was like borderline fall of stuff.
Speaker: It was, it was unbelievable.
Speaker: And he needed it.
Speaker: He damn sure needed it because on the other side, the Bills were playing really, really a high-level style of football that could have won them the game if not for some receiver mishaps, let's say.
Speaker: So we'll get into that in a minute.
Speaker: But the Chiefs in this game, very, very impressive on offense.
Speaker: Mahomes started off his first drive with a short pass to Rasheed Rice, scrambles out of the pocket and makes the throw.
Speaker: Good play there.
Speaker: And he hits Kelsey for a 15-yard gain.
Speaker: And then after a short pass to Clyde Edwards-Hilaire, he can't hook up with Justin Watson.
Speaker: On third and five, they end up kicking a field goal.
Speaker: The next drive, another field goal drive, Mahomes, impressive throw to Travis Kelsey in a tight window for a 29-yard gain.
Speaker: And then after a couple of short passes, Nicole Hartman fumbles.
Speaker: We'll get a sequel to that a little later.
Speaker: But Mahomes can't hook up with Travis Kelsey and Marcos Valdez-Scantling, both missed throws.
Speaker: two of the only throws that he missed the entire game.
Speaker: The next drive, touchdown drive, Mahomes, he hits Noah Gray for a 12-yard gain, and then he hits Travis Kelsey for the 22-yard touchdown.
Speaker: The next drive after halftime,
Speaker: Another touchdown drive for the chiefs, my homes makes a really, really impressive throw to Marco's Valdez scantling in a tight window for a 30 yard gain.
Speaker: And then on second and seven, my homes makes one of my favorite plays from him of the season.
Speaker: Just absolutely tricks the defender sticks the wall out.
Speaker: Like he's going to throw it over him and then just runs around him for a 24 yard scramble.
Speaker: Very, very impressive pass there.
Speaker: And then hits as an Pacheco and Travis Kelsey for a 14 yard gain and then a short touchdown.
Speaker: The next drive, another touchdown for the Chiefs.
Speaker: Mahomes hits Travis Kelsey for a six-yard gain and then makes a really impressive throw again to Marcos Valdez-Scantling for a 32-yard gain.
Speaker: And then the Chiefs end up punching it in after a short pass from Mahomes to Rice with an Isaiah Pacheco touchdown.
Speaker: Next drive, Mahomes...
Speaker: hits McCall Hardman on a shovel pass, and McCall Hardman fumbles out of the end zone for a touchback.
Speaker: One of the worst plays I've seen from a receiver all year.
Speaker: The next drive ends up with a punt, the only real stop that the Bills got in the second half.
Speaker: Mahomes hits Rasheed Rice for a six-yard gain.
Speaker: And then on the second and third downs, Mahomes can't hook up with Marcos Valdez-Scantling after a throwaway and then scrambles for a one-yard gain on third and 10, but that's obviously not enough to get the first down.
Speaker: So Mahomes really in this game missed a couple of passes, got let down by McCole Hardman on that critical play, which probably should have put the game into heavily in the Chiefs' favor.
Speaker: But, you know, McCole Hardman is, McCole makes life hard, man.
Speaker: So you could do with that what you will.
Speaker: Yeah, Mahomes was making throws in tight windows, hitting open receivers.
Speaker: No sacks in this one, just like he missed a couple of throws this entire game and the rest of the game, he was borderline flawless, like I said.
Speaker: So yeah, just the best quarterback of this generation making or putting another masterclass to his name.
Speaker: That's all that there is to it in this one.
Speaker: Yeah, and you might even be able to remove the disgeneration part of that sentence the way he's been playing recently, man.
Speaker: Soon that might come, but in all seriousness for a second, Mahomes was very incredible in this game.
Speaker: Aside from the very first drive where I feel like he missed Kelsey on a little bit of a corner route.
Speaker: and MVS on another pass in the end zone on back to back plays and it ended in a field goal.
Speaker: And even those are a little bit nitpicky in terms of how tough the coverage was and it being a very tight window.
Speaker: But aside from those two missed those, I feel like the rest of the game, Mahomes pretty much didn't make a bad pass or bad play practically the rest of the game.
Speaker: And it's very surprising.
Speaker: And I think I this game answered my own question.
Speaker: about why guys like Purdy and Love get so much stick for not playing well in conditions like those.
Speaker: It's because freaks of nature like this guy Mahomes and Alan, who we'll talk about in a second, play like this in what should have been not great weather.
Speaker: and are still able to make plays at the rate they were.
Speaker: It was incredible to watch and particularly the Chiefs game plan.
Speaker: I was very surprised because we'll talk about the Bills game plan in a second.
Speaker: I expected the Chiefs to be passing a lot more closer to the line of scrimmage.
Speaker: a lot of quick hitters, stuff we've not only expected in bad weather, but stuff we've seen them do throughout the year because they don't necessarily have the best talent around Mahomes this season.
Speaker: This is probably the worst iteration of the Chiefs offense they've had since Mahomes has been there.
Speaker: This game, they decided they're going to sling the rock, and Mahomes did an incredible job of that.
Speaker: The pass where he scoots up in the pocket and just launches the ball while on the run, deep to MVS, I believe, for 30-plus yards was incredible.
Speaker: Kelsey looked like the Kelsey of old in this one.
Speaker: He was getting wide open, and Mahomes was delivering it to him on the money.
Speaker: Rasheed Rice was huge, as he is always in that short to intermediate kind of range of the field.
Speaker: uh for mahomes and he had a splash play as well uh it was just an elite elite accuracy game and i think for whatever reason the chiefs waited until this part of the year to use their best game plans and use their best plays because it seemed like more than any game of the year mahomes finally had guys open he what even though he did have some passes where he was fitting in the tight windows and whatnot
Speaker: It wasn't a lot of the game that he needed to do that.
Speaker: A lot of those Travis Kelsey throws, a lot of those passes to other guys shorter were pretty open and he just had to make the throw, get them in position for the extra yards after the catch.
Speaker: And he did a fantastic job of that.
Speaker: If it wasn't for that Meikle-Hardman fumble at the one, he probably would have led another scoring drive, which would have put this game completely out of the picture.
Speaker: And he went a whole game without punting the entire game.
Speaker: I think that alone goes to show how incredible this offense was, how incredible he was.
Speaker: And I think him having a huge game from Isaiah Pacheco as well was very helpful to him.
Speaker: This wasn't a high volume game from Mahomes either.
Speaker: And in the small amount of passes he made, he was incredible in that.
Speaker: But he was a little bit different.
Speaker: He did benefit a lot from the situation, how good his supporting cast came to play in this one, because I was not expecting this out of Kelsey.
Speaker: I was not expecting this out of Pacheco.
Speaker: Guys like me, Cole Hardman, did make things difficult for them a little bit, but...
Speaker: Overall, I think he got a good game from his supporting cast and it felt like Mahomes was waiting for this all season because he took that game and absolutely took advantage of it.
Speaker: He finally got like decent level supporting cast play and I guess kind of ran with it.
Speaker: Yeah, he got better support from his supporting cast than the Bills gave Josh Allen in my opinion, which is a crazy thing to say.
Speaker: But as we get into it right now with Josh Allen, we'll see why.
Speaker: So
Speaker: first drive for the bills, they end up scoring a field goal.
Speaker: Um, Allen hits digs for a four yard gain digs fumbles on the first play, which, which is a precursor to what happens later.
Speaker: Um, but on second and 17, Allen can't hook up with digs.
Speaker: Um, and then on third and 17, he, uh, as a four yard gain and then laterals it to tie Johnson for a 12 yard gain, incredible creativity from Allen.
Speaker: And then on fourth and one, he ends up picking it up on Kiwi draw.
Speaker: They end up chunking their way down the field.
Speaker: Allen with a very impressive throw to Dalton Kincaid for a 14 yard gain on third and four.
Speaker: And then they can't hook up or he can't hook up with Latavius Murray on third and eight in Kansas city territory.
Speaker: So they end up kicking the field goal.
Speaker: The next drive, touchdown drive for the bills chunking their way down the field.
Speaker: Allen hits Ty Johnson on a short pass for a 14 yard gain.
Speaker: And then,
Speaker: Allen scrambles left for the five-yard touchdown once they kind of chunk their way down the field with the run game.
Speaker: The next drive, the Bills end up punting Allen with a short pass to James Cook for an eight-yard gain.
Speaker: And then Allen goes deep to Trent Shurfield.
Speaker: Incredible, incredible throw here from Allen.
Speaker: But Shurfield's arm is getting grabbed.
Speaker: his right arm is getting grabbed and this is the type of throw that we would say the ball catches him like Allen puts it in the one spot that trencher field can actually make a play with one hand, but he can't end up making that play.
Speaker: Draw pass to Kalusha here on third and eight, but that doesn't end up picking the picking up the first down the next drive touchdown drive again.
Speaker: The bills are able to get their run game going Allen hits digs for a 15 yard game.
Speaker: And then a couple of short passes to Latavius Murray for 21 yards total there.
Speaker: And then in Kansas City territory, Allen with an incredible scramble for an 18 yard gain.
Speaker: And then with the two yard rushing touchdown to cap off the drive.
Speaker: The next drive after halftime, this is where the game starts to get really entertaining.
Speaker: Allen with the short pass to Deontay Hardy and then kind of chunks his way down the field.
Speaker: Allen with a three yard scramble and then a short pass to Kalisha here for a five yard gain and then Ty Johnson picks up the third and two.
Speaker: And then on third and 13 this is one of Allen's better throws of the game after delay of game Allen jukes out the defensive lineman and then.
Speaker: Fires a laser to Khalil Shakir for a 13 yard touchdown.
Speaker: Incredible play.
Speaker: Physical tools on display on that play.
Speaker: Next drive, this is where it starts to get wonky for the Bills.
Speaker: So Allen picks up eight yards on the ground.
Speaker: And then can't hook up with Stefan Diggs on third and five after James Cook loses three yards.
Speaker: And then on fourth and five, instead of just leaving the offense out there to actually play offense, they instead end up going with a fake punt.
Speaker: And DeMar Hamlin cannot pick up the first down predictably.
Speaker: The next drive, a punt for the Bills.
Speaker: This is where things start to get really bad for Josh Allen's luck.
Speaker: So second and 14.
Speaker: Allen hooks up with Kalisha here with a short pass, but Shakir gets injured on that play.
Speaker: And so they end up subbing in Trent Shurfield.
Speaker: On third and 12, Allen fires a bomb of 40-plus yards to Shurfield.
Speaker: Kind of a tough catch.
Speaker: He would have had to survive the ground to make that catch.
Speaker: But I think I'm going to end up categorizing this one as a drop.
Speaker: He has both hands on it.
Speaker: is able to get into a secure catching position, but the ground ends up forcing it out.
Speaker: So incredible throw from Allen there, but doesn't get rewarded.
Speaker: The next drive, the final drive of the game for the Bills offense.
Speaker: So Allen on first and 10, oh man, he can't hook up with Diggs.
Speaker: Diggs with a legendary all-time drop.
Speaker: So Allen fires an absolute dime 60-plus yards down the field from where he's standing, drops it in the basket for Stephon Diggs.
Speaker: He doesn't track it too well and does not use his hands, so the ball just kind of bounces off his chest.
Speaker: And then after the play, he has the balls to go up to Allen and say, that was on you.
Speaker: Very funny from Stephon Diggs.
Speaker: So the Bills kind of end up chunking their way down the field, a short pass to Dalton Kincaid and then Dawson Knox, and then another one to Kincaid.
Speaker: And then Allen picks up the first down with his legs.
Speaker: And then another couple of incompletions to Diggs.
Speaker: And then on a third and 10, critical, critical play for Josh Allen.
Speaker: So he kind of scrambles to the right for a six-yard gain, but then fumbles the ball.
Speaker: And he gets really lucky that Buffalo ends up recovering this one because this is one of the worst plays of the season for many one.
Speaker: Critical clutch moment, and Allen just ends up fumbling there.
Speaker: Fourth and three, though, those come back.
Speaker: and pick up a 10 yard gain with Shakir, and then continue to dink and dunk their way down the field.
Speaker: On second and nine, Allen,
Speaker: trying to go deep in Kansas City territory for Shakir.
Speaker: He gets open behind the defense, but I need to go back and look at this play closely because I think that this one might have been an option route from Shakir.
Speaker: Allen ends up patting the ball twice, which he could have thrown with anticipation if he knew what route Shakir was running.
Speaker: So I would have to know by being in the quarterback rooms.
Speaker: But since I'm not, I'm just going to guess that it's not.
Speaker: or that it is an option route.
Speaker: And so Allen ends up holding the ball, pats the ball twice.
Speaker: And as he's throwing, he gets hit by Chris Jones, who's driving Deion Dawkins into his lap and the ball ends up coming up short.
Speaker: Maybe you want to say if, if that route isn't an option route, that that should have been a touchdown for Allen.
Speaker: But then third and nine, he ends up throwing it away, scrambling outside the pocket and Tyler Bass ends up missing the field goal.
Speaker: And that's the end of the game for Bill.
Speaker: So yeah,
Speaker: Yeah, just a combination of horrible luck from the receivers not being able to catch the ball for Allen.
Speaker: Gets bailed a little bit with that fumble not being a turnover, but man, he was let down more, in my opinion, by his supporting cast than he got lucky with those negative plays not being overall negatives for the team, in my opinion.
Speaker: So yeah, just another season where the Bills get unlucky at the very end after putting together a really, really high-end team.
Speaker: And Allen played very, very well in this game.
Speaker: no matter what you think about the lock and whatnot.
Speaker: Yeah, just another disappointing end to the season for the Bills.
Speaker: We'll get into off-season talk because that's probably going to take a while, but I want to get your thoughts on it first.
Speaker: Yeah, real quick before I jump into the game though, Diggs complained about that drop and said it was Allen's fault.
Speaker: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So if you go back and watch the film, when you go back and watch the film, so Allen throws that pass, it goes off Diggs' chest, and then he goes and points to Allen as if he missed it by a little bit instead of pointing to himself.
Speaker: Very, very funny play there.
Speaker: That is ridiculous.
Speaker: That is crazy from Stefan Diggs, especially given how he ended that year.
Speaker: That's embarrassing for sure.
Speaker: I did not know that.
Speaker: But jumping from that into Allen's game, there's some sentiments which I agree with and some sentiments which we've talked about already with Josh Allen before even hopping on that I do disagree with.
Speaker: But
Speaker: As much as I may be labeled a Josh Allen hater and whatnot, even watching this game, I feel for him because this was another brutal loss, I think, going into this game with it being in Buffalo, with this being the worst version of the Chiefs that the Bills have faced, and things kind of looking good for them compared to the Chiefs as opposed to other years where it would be in Arrowhead and you had a much, much tougher matchup.
Speaker: Things were looking up for the bills here.
Speaker: And I think this was their opportunity to kind of take advantage and get to that AFC championship once again.
Speaker: And unfortunately, things went wrong, especially towards the end.
Speaker: But before I get into that,
Speaker: Josh Allen was incredible for a large, large majority of this game.
Speaker: One thing that almost confused me or surprised me in the Bills game plan, kind of like I mentioned with the Chiefs, the Chiefs were very, very confident in going downfield.
Speaker: And despite the weather being what it was, they didn't really care and just played a very different style of ball.
Speaker: the bills played an even more conservative version than we've seen all year which was a very conservative version of this bill's offense but i believe there was a point where like a half or over half of josh allen's completions were behind the line of scrimmage and to me that is a little bit of a little bit questionable in terms of play calling i think despite that josh allen was still able to overcome it but
Speaker: We all know Josh Allen's most kind of dangerous aspect of his game as opposed is one, maybe his legs, but most obviously his arm and the deep threat ability.
Speaker: And clearly, as we saw later in the game, that deep threat ability may have just not been used because the receivers weren't up to par.
Speaker: But it did very much surprise me how they weren't really going further downfield than that.
Speaker: I think Allen's shown many, many times that he's able to play in this weather.
Speaker: His play style absolutely suits the weather.
Speaker: And I think if they had put a little bit more confidence in him and let him do more, you're looking at a completely different game and you're looking at a lot better of a situation for the Bills.
Speaker: But first and foremost, I think Josh Allen was incredible, incredible in the rushing game.
Speaker: I'll say it every time I talk about his rushing game.
Speaker: It's to the point of something I haven't seen.
Speaker: Like even Cam Newton, when he was that physical type of running presence, you would see him get injured often.
Speaker: You would see him take a lot of the brunt of the force and it ended up not being as effective where Josh Allen, he's able to
Speaker: continue to play this physical brand of rushing football up the middle, a lot of option plays, scoring plenty of touchdowns, and he's still able to just get back up and throw dots left and right.
Speaker: I think his legs are huge in this game, especially given the weather.
Speaker: And I think some of the throws he made in this game were phenomenal.
Speaker: I mean, that pass at the front pylon for a touchdown, I believe it was Shakir.
Speaker: That was incredible.
Speaker: One of the best throws I've seen in the year.
Speaker: him even being able to kind of shimmy out of that pocket and on the run just fired that laser and two of his maybe even better throws of the day where as pd mentioned dropped that shakir pass on the second to last drive or sorry third to last drive down the sideline that was on the money there was not much separation between shakir in that corner there wasn't much space because they were kind he was kind of getting pushed to the sideline
Speaker: And Allen still dropped that in right where it needed to be.
Speaker: He probably could have even continued on further if he caught that.
Speaker: And not even to mention that digs throw.
Speaker: My God, I think Yuma said 60 yards.
Speaker: I think that was maybe even closer to 70, 75 yards.
Speaker: downfield if you include how far he was beyond the line of scrimmage and it was on the money digs had didn't even get that much separation either maybe a half step and alan needed to be perfect and i don't know how he managed to
Speaker: deliver that ball with such accuracy downfield, that's something maybe he's the only one in the league that can make that pass.
Speaker: But because we don't see plays like that kind of connect, it looks like a very conservative game for Madeline, which it was in general, however, not as much as the stats say it is.
Speaker: The place where we disagree and the place where not really my problem, but
Speaker: kind of my disappointment with Allen's game lies is that final drive.
Speaker: And admittedly, I am very much nitpicking with him.
Speaker: But when you get to this tier of quarterbacks where we see with Mahomes and Allen, you need to be damn near perfect to end up completing what you set out to do.
Speaker: With Mahomes, like we mentioned, he was perfect.
Speaker: And in order to keep up with that, unfortunately, Allen had a lot more bad breaks.
Speaker: So I think he had to do even more to keep up with it.
Speaker: But I think in that final drive, I would like to see more.
Speaker: And I think a couple of points, you were a little bit more lenient on Allen in that final drive, at least, and I think he deserved to be.
Speaker: First and foremost, I think you were equally as harsh on him about the fumble.
Speaker: I think that fumble kind of gets swept under the rug because the Bills obviously fumble.
Speaker: But on a drive to potentially tie or win your team the game, fumbling in the middle of the field is very, very bad.
Speaker: And it was a pretty bad fumble too.
Speaker: He wasn't really protecting the ball, running right down the teeth of the Chiefs' defense.
Speaker: It's just not something you could do.
Speaker: And if Chris Jones isn't just crawling about on the field, they'd probably recover the fumble and end the game right there.
Speaker: And not to mention, I felt like the previous drive, he got away with a little bit of an interception-worthy pass.
Speaker: It was a little bit to the defender.
Speaker: Diggs doesn't run the best route, but it still was right to the defender's hands, and it falls incomplete.
Speaker: I felt like borderline like one and a half turnover where the plays maybe if you put extra emphasis on the fumble, maybe two whole turnover where the plays on that drive.
Speaker: And to end the drive, I think in between he has a bunch of huge throws that pass on for down to Shakira was huge and a great play.
Speaker: But that last set of downs once again, he disappointed me a little bit.
Speaker: I think that second and nine you gave him too much credit for.
Speaker: I feel like yes, Chris Jones was there but
Speaker: He wasn't literally hitting Allen.
Speaker: He was in the vicinity.
Speaker: And I think at that point, it's not enough pressure to where you can excuse a pretty blatant incompletion for Allen.
Speaker: And in terms of the route, maybe you could say it was an option route, but where Allen threw it, it would have been less of an option route and more of a dig because of how much he missed it.
Speaker: And to me, it seemed more like a post or even like just a,
Speaker: in breaking kind of go.
Speaker: And I think Shakir was in the right spot.
Speaker: He beat his guy.
Speaker: He was in the back of the end zone, pretty open.
Speaker: I think nine out of 10 times or maybe eight out of 10 times Allen delivers that throw and scores a touchdown, especially given how he played that game.
Speaker: But he missed that one.
Speaker: And I think that has to be on him.
Speaker: And the very next play, I think the third and nine is one play that people seem to forget.
Speaker: There were two in-breaking routes underneath, both of which likely would have got him a first down, particularly
Speaker: the route to Kincaid I thought was and instead of passing it there he kind of rolls right doesn't really take any chance there and throws it away and to be quite honest this was pretty clearly his only bad drive of the day and he was incredible the rest of the game
Speaker: Even though this drive was crucial and you made a lot of big mistakes on this drive, in my opinion, I still think he played a very elite game.
Speaker: However, I think with Josh Allen, the conversation is right now, how's he going to get to that like next step with Mahomes?
Speaker: I think right now, Mahomes has kind of taken over as the number one quarterback of the generation and Josh Allen has the ability.
Speaker: And I think even to some extent, the team to be in that conversation.
Speaker: And I think in these big games, he needs to unfortunately play flawless because that's how Mahomes played.
Speaker: Even though he was really, really, really good and probably would have beat a lot of other guys.
Speaker: At the end of the day, if you're trying to make a Super Bowl run, you're going to have to win one of these games.
Speaker: And if Mahomes was the one that made the mistake, they would have lost there too.
Speaker: And we would be talking about the same thing on the flip side with Mahomes needed to be perfect.
Speaker: And I think Allen just on that final drive,
Speaker: Did let the team down a bit.
Speaker: Nowhere near as bad as the team let him down.
Speaker: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker: Diggs was terrible in this game.
Speaker: Cook didn't do much in this game.
Speaker: Even his other receivers outside of Shakir really and maybe a little bit of Kincaid.
Speaker: Honestly, they weren't doing much.
Speaker: And him, he was huge in the rushing game as well.
Speaker: He did a lot.
Speaker: But that final drive, I would have liked to see him, at least on one of those situations, do a bit more.
Speaker: Because that was like four or five plays on a single drive where I felt like he didn't meet the mark.
Speaker: And I think that's too much when you're in the divisional playoffs at home trying to go for a tie or at least a win.
Speaker: And I think you can't really put that field goal.
Speaker: Obviously, Bash should hit that.
Speaker: But I think because of all the other times he got lucky in that drive, that field goal kind of is what it is.
Speaker: And you also left because you didn't hit that third down.
Speaker: You left way too much time for Mahomes.
Speaker: He likely with a minute 45 left in multiple timeouts, likely gets at least three points given how he played that game.
Speaker: So ultimately, I think it was Allen's plays on that final drive that ended the game for them.
Speaker: However, if the rest of the team played to their standards, they wouldn't have even been in that spot.
Speaker: Yeah, so...
Speaker: Quickly touching on that option route thing and then jumping into offseason talk.
Speaker: So what you said there made me more convinced that it was an option route actually, because the way that I'm imagining it is that if it's a single high safety, you would have to run a dig route to cut in front of the safety.
Speaker: And if it's a middle field open, you would run a post to take advantage of that.
Speaker: And because it's middle field open, he probably does that.
Speaker: And
Speaker: The result of that being an option route would be Allen holding the ball, not where he threw it.
Speaker: Where he threw it is more a result of him feeling the pressure and missing the throw.
Speaker: But regardless, let's get into offseason talk with the Bills.
Speaker: Man, this roster is in bad shape, man.
Speaker: They need a lot.
Speaker: They're way over the cap.
Speaker: They have a lot of good defensive pieces, but they don't have many superstars.
Speaker: The guy they paid to be a superstar, Von Miller, has fallen off a cliff.
Speaker: It's a roster construction style that I would be very, very fond of for the Bills.
Speaker: Because I think Josh Allen is the type of quarterback who supports a bad offense by making it good, like he's done for multiple years now.
Speaker: And this year specifically, good example of it, where the offensive line is solid, but the receiving group with Stephon Diggs regressing doesn't have many options, especially with the Gabe Davis injury.
Speaker: The injuries that they suffered in this game, like the likes of Trent Shurfield, like really, like you should not be giving Trent Shurfield a number of targets like they did in this game.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So Allen, very strong evidence of floor raising.
Speaker: And I think that that's something that you want to tap into.
Speaker: I just don't know how many more resources they could pour into the defense and just watch them get injured every single year.
Speaker: It's crazy to see with the Bill's defense for the last four years consecutively.
Speaker: It's pretty ridiculous.
Speaker: I think we can say Diggs is potentially declining.
Speaker: He's shown stretches like this in the past where he's been wildly inconsistent.
Speaker: You go back to 2021, showed some significant inconsistency.
Speaker: And of course, in Minnesota, when he was a worse player, these types of things would crop up.
Speaker: But I think you should invest in receiver.
Speaker: And if Diggs comes back in his 2022 self or whatever it is, you get the added benefit there.
Speaker: Gabe Davis is a free agent, so even more reason to invest in receiver.
Speaker: The Bills, I think, have done a pretty excellent job with what I would do with Josh Allen along the offensive line.
Speaker: Don't really need much of an elite offensive line unless you want to transition to Allen becoming...
Speaker: a deep shot play type of guy off uh play action and power run game type of thing which i don't think is really his style i would prefer that he gets a ton of plays and the offense runs through him um so the average offensive line type thing is fine um i would prefer they don't do things that they did down the stretch this year um i don't i'm not a fan of
Speaker: running the ball as much as they did in this game.
Speaker: I know that it was successful for large chunks of it, but when it doesn't work, you're really putting your defense in a bad spot by just punting and letting the Chiefs kind of walk down the field.
Speaker: So moving forward, they need to draft better.
Speaker: They've drafted solidly by getting something like expected value on their picks, but they have not hit home runs
Speaker: their draft capital aside from trading the first round pick for stevon diggs and that's that's the one move that has kept this offense very much afloat um alan has alan is obviously incredible um and i think they need to take another swing at receiver and i don't even know what know what you need what you do about the defense just just pray at this point with the defense it's it's just an ir list every single year so
Speaker: Yeah, not too many crazy moves to be made on offense, but some tweaks here and there.
Speaker: I think they should definitely address receiver and such.
Speaker: Yeah, real quick, I forgot to mention it with the game and you just mentioned it here.
Speaker: I also agree that they absolutely overran the ball.
Speaker: I think in that first half, they got too happy with how well it was working, both with Allen and Cook.
Speaker: And then eventually the Chiefs adjusted and it just put the Bills in a lot of disadvantageous positions and Josh Allen in a lot of disadvantageous positions that contributed to it massively.
Speaker: But moving from that on to what they want to do long term, I think the kind of fall off of Diggs, and I think I will call it a fall off because I did chuckle a little bit at the maybe, maybe might be declining because I think he has.
Speaker: And I think this time around, it looks different than his other levels of inconsistency.
Speaker: And maybe I'm reading into it too much.
Speaker: But this time around, it seems like
Speaker: He's got a lot more frustration.
Speaker: It seems like his stinker games are even more low end than it has been in the past.
Speaker: I think the dropping problem, obviously there's the key drop, but if you even look at his other games, there were a lot more crucial drops than we've seen throughout Stig's career where he's been pretty sure handed for the most part.
Speaker: you wouldn't really expect much of those from him.
Speaker: And even in terms of route running, which is Stefan Diggs specialty, I think kind of that burst that we saw, that quick change of directions that Stefan Diggs has kind of built his career off of.
Speaker: It seems like with age, that's declining a bit.
Speaker: And I think this...
Speaker: fall off or however whatever you want to call it with digs has put the bills in a very rough spot i think long term they were expecting to kind of have this same sort of setup because they thought they had another two three years of a elite level of digs and if they don't have that i think this entire formula falls apart because this whole offense is built around the success of allen and digs and we saw when that didn't work or in other even in other situations where
Speaker: That top duo does not work like even with Mahomes and Kelsey for a lot of this year.
Speaker: Offensively, things can fall apart.
Speaker: So I absolutely agree.
Speaker: I think they do need to make a big swing on receiver.
Speaker: I think Gabe Davis has shown for multiple years now that he is purely an occasional deep threat guy and he's not a true number two.
Speaker: He goes way too much in games.
Speaker: I do think they have a little bit of a gem in Shakir.
Speaker: I think he has developed a lot faster than I expected.
Speaker: And I think if they do get a true number two and Diggs comes to maybe half of what he was in between the first half and second half of the season, I think this receiving unit can still be solid.
Speaker: But they do need another high-level guy who can make up for Diggs.
Speaker: this newfound digs inconsistency or maybe even him just being worse in general.
Speaker: I think Kincaid and another returning healthy Knox is going to be huge for their receiving game as well, especially as they transition into this more run slash tight end pass heavy offense, which even if it's not what we think is best for Josh Allen, what makes him play the best,
Speaker: It looks like that's what they're moving towards.
Speaker: And those guys are going to be huge in that situation.
Speaker: I think the way they used Allen this year in the run game has been incredible.
Speaker: I hope they continue to do that.
Speaker: And I think that adds an aspect to Allen's game that no other rushing version of Josh Allen is
Speaker: I think they've let him loose a lot more.
Speaker: And in previous years, you only saw him in tight situations.
Speaker: And I think his change of direction and agility at his size is amazing to have in the open field.
Speaker: And you really don't have many corners and safety that can bring him down in those situations.
Speaker: So I do like some of the pieces that they have moving forward, but they absolutely need one more big time playmaker.
Speaker: And I think we said this before the season.
Speaker: We've said this for multiple years with the Bills.
Speaker: They desperately need one of those.
Speaker: And I don't know whether it's going to come in the draft, probably not free agency because of the cap situation you mentioned, but
Speaker: You need those home run picks to become a championship level offense.
Speaker: And they need to figure out a way to do that, whether it's with a high level running back or a high level receiver, I think both would serve the same purpose in this offense.
Speaker: They just need one more playmaker to relieve some of the pressure from Josh Allen.
Speaker: I think they try to do that with the schematic change this year and
Speaker: I didn't love it.
Speaker: I don't think you loved it either.
Speaker: I think they need to do that from a personnel standpoint.
Speaker: And then just like Josh Allen cook, kind of like we've seen in previous years.
Speaker: Cause like I was mentioning with this game,
Speaker: I think we have a lot different of a situation if they kind of let Josh Allen loose earlier in the game and we saw more of those digs passes and Shakir passes downfield earlier and maybe those guys catch one earlier in the game and it's a whole different situation.
Speaker: So that's, I guess, my thoughts on the Bills moving forward.
Speaker: All right, so let's move on to our previews for the week with conference championship weekend coming up and
Speaker: man do we have an awesome awesome game here with chiefs and the ravens two extremely good teams a powerhouse in the ravens against an all-time great quarterback it's it's it's as good as it gets i think um probably one of the better games that we're going to see in a while um and what i'm really looking for uh in this game i'm gonna do it again like we did last weekend we got burned for it predicting a low scoring game but
Speaker: Both of these two teams have really, really, really good defenses with the Chiefs having one of the best pass defenses in the league and the Ravens having one of the best defenses I've seen ever, I think.
Speaker: Just everything.
Speaker: So really on the Chiefs side of the ball, one thing I'm looking at is can they just kind of weather the storm with the run game and take shots with Travis Kelsey, with Marquez Valdez scaling, with Rashida Rice?
Speaker: Because if you really look into the Ravens,
Speaker: They don't really have many weaknesses at all.
Speaker: They're really, really strong in coverage.
Speaker: They have a ton of very good players in coverage.
Speaker: The interior pass rush is very, very good.
Speaker: Their linebackers are amazing.
Speaker: They just like, it's every level of the defense.
Speaker: They're stacked with good talent and they have stars like a Kyle Hamilton and such to really top it off.
Speaker: They're incredible.
Speaker: So I think the way to go about beating them is through the run game.
Speaker: That's the one area they've been slightly weaker than other areas.
Speaker: along their defense.
Speaker: And yeah, just kind of see if you can get them to, or not necessarily just the run game, but even if you want to do it through short passes, like try to see if you can get them at least playing out of their standard coverages.
Speaker: Because when they're comfortable, when they're playing with a lead, they just are very, very difficult to stop.
Speaker: Their pass defense is incredible.
Speaker: So just kind of get them out of their most comfortable situation and see how it goes from there.
Speaker: I just, I'm really struggling for answers against this Ravens defense, but I'm sure that like their, that Mahomes is scramble.
Speaker: or out of the pocket playmaking will cause some linebackers at the second level and their safety is to bite.
Speaker: And that's how they end up making plays.
Speaker: So hard to predict when that'll happen and how that'll happen.
Speaker: But just the one strategy I would use is to try to make them a little bit softer in the way that they're playing.
Speaker: And then on the Ravens side of the ball, you just really want to attack the Chiefs with the run game.
Speaker: And the Ravens have the personnel and the quarterback to do it.
Speaker: The Chiefs have been a lot weaker
Speaker: the run game than they have um as a passing defense so yeah definitely try to attack them on the ground um and then kind of try to dink and dunk your way down the field the ravens have the personnel to kind of dink and dunk and get yards after catch so that would be a good way to do things just don't surrender explosive plays at all so you can kind of say goodbye to that but if you force them out of their comfort zone you you can maybe maybe get a couple of explosive opportunities and you have to capitalize on them
Speaker: So that's what I think about both sides of this game.
Speaker: Yeah, I think the game will go.
Speaker: I agree with a lot of your points on how each team needs to stop the other.
Speaker: But I'm going to be the one to not get burned this week, hopefully, or maybe we'll see what happens.
Speaker: But I think this game is going to be a little bit high scoring.
Speaker: And I think that is a little counterintuitive because both of these defenses have shown that
Speaker: that they're elite, especially that Ravens defense.
Speaker: And I guess even the Chiefs defense playing relatively well back to back weeks against very, very high level offenses this season.
Speaker: But for whatever reason, and normally we don't say things like this because we want to look at things more analytical.
Speaker: But for whatever reason, this Chiefs offense, when it gets to these sort of games, they just figure a way out to score a lot of points.
Speaker: And even last week going into that matchup, I thought cold weather against this Bills defense, it's just not going to happen.
Speaker: and the supporting cast absolutely turned up for Mahomes.
Speaker: And I'm not sure if that's something that they can replicate or if it just was a one game thing.
Speaker: But for whatever reason, I feel like we're going to see that a lot more.
Speaker: I think one thing that's been a little bit slept on is kind of the emergence of Isaiah Pacheco and this running game.
Speaker: I think what really put away that Bills defense last week was how they were able to control the game
Speaker: down the stretch when they had the lead with Pacheco and get those six, seven to even eight, 10 yard carries somewhat consistently.
Speaker: I think he ended the game averaging six yards a game.
Speaker: And like you were saying, the path to beating this Ravens defense is through the middle.
Speaker: They have elite level linebackers like Roquan Smith.
Speaker: that have been probably the best in the league at stuffing the run.
Speaker: But even if those runs are not seven, eight yards like we saw in those Bills games, if they can still get a couple of consistent yards and then let Mahomes work with shorter, more advantageous downs,
Speaker: and not force them to do as much, that's going to be huge for their offense.
Speaker: And passing wise, I agree with you.
Speaker: This secondary is very lethal.
Speaker: And I think this is one of the best teams that could match up with the Chiefs.
Speaker: I think Kyle Hamilton's a great matchup for Kelsey.
Speaker: I think both of the, all the corners they have were excellent coverage guys.
Speaker: And Kansas City simply does not have the receivers to keep up with that.
Speaker: I think their offense is heavily going to rely on just letting Mahomes do his thing.
Speaker: Like you were mentioning, playmaking.
Speaker: I think we're going to see him out of the pocket a lot in this one, especially with the pressures, the Ravens bring.
Speaker: I think we're going to see a lot of broken plays, stuff like traditional Chiefs ball where we see him run out of the pocket, find Kelsey somewhere, find MVS somewhere.
Speaker: find Rasheed Rice in the flats.
Speaker: That's the only way I can see the Chiefs consistently move the ball here.
Speaker: And I think with most teams, you can say that's not very, that's not a good offense.
Speaker: That's not successful, a successful form, something you can rely on.
Speaker: But I think with the Chiefs, for whatever reason,
Speaker: They've made it work time in and time out.
Speaker: They set up solid game plans to combat these high level defenses.
Speaker: And unless Mahomes has a bad game, which I don't expect him to, I think they can execute on that and find a little bit of holes in this Ravens defense, put up something like in the high 20s in terms of points.
Speaker: And I think the Ravens have a much, much easier path in making this a higher scoring offensive game.
Speaker: And I'll piggyback off what you said.
Speaker: It does come in the run game.
Speaker: I think aside from Chris Jones, there's really not much run stuffers.
Speaker: This is a more passing oriented front seven.
Speaker: And with the heavy packages, the Ravens run with how dominant that offensive line has been.
Speaker: And most importantly, with how good,
Speaker: the Mar has looked with his legs in these last couple of weeks.
Speaker: I think they're going to be able to completely control the game that way.
Speaker: I think they're going to try to keep my homes off the field as much as possible by controlling the clock.
Speaker: And that's something the Ravens are very good at.
Speaker: being able to just hold the ball for long periods of times, score off those drives too.
Speaker: And because of that, Mahomes just won't have as many opportunities to come down and score and match what the Ravens are going on.
Speaker: I do think their receivers will struggle.
Speaker: This is a really, really good Chiefs secondary and much like the Chiefs receiving core with the Ravens defense.
Speaker: I don't think the Ravens have that many receivers that are gonna get much separation versus the likes of Lageria Steed and Trent McDuffie.
Speaker: who have played really good this year.
Speaker: So I think it will rely a lot on the run game on Lamar's legs in his situation, maybe even attacking the middle of the field with Mark Andrews coming back healthy, because I think the only skill position mismatch the Ravens may have is Mark Andrews.
Speaker: And even then, I think the linebacking core and safeties are solid enough to deal with injured Mark Andrews.
Speaker: So I'm very interested to see how things play out, but I do think this is going to be a solidly scoring game or solidly high scoring game, I should say.
Speaker: A lot of back and forth, but I think not in the traditional sense.
Speaker: I don't think we're going to see a lot of clean football with Mahomes and Lamar hitting guys, sitting in the pocket and hitting guys like that.
Speaker: I think we're going to see a lot of backyard football.
Speaker: with Lamar and Patrick Mahomes making a lot of incredible plays in that sense.
Speaker: And I think that's what we're going to be talking about when the game's over and we're looking back at it.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely could happen, but hard to predict like out of structure stuff.
Speaker: All right, so let's go to the other conference where I think it's a little bit more cut and dry.
Speaker: about what each team's strategy should be.
Speaker: The Niners run defense all season.
Speaker: We've been pointing it out as weaker than their past defense.
Speaker: And yeah, the Packers just kind of showed why.
Speaker: They ran the ball extremely successfully.
Speaker: And the Lions are pretty incredible rushing offense.
Speaker: So that's the way they find success.
Speaker: Using that, combining that with the play-action game, that's the way to go.
Speaker: The Niners' past defense is very, very good, though.
Speaker: So
Speaker: You know if if the line if the Niners can build up the lead I think it's it's kind of a little bit of a wrap.
Speaker: And on the other side of the ball with the Niners off and so the lines have been very, very good at stopping the run, but their corners and their past defense in general very, very poor so.
Speaker: Yeah, look for Brennan Ayuk and George Kittle to kind of have strong games.
Speaker: Debo's health status is a question mark in this game.
Speaker: So we'll see what happens with that.
Speaker: I think even if he plays, he probably won't be full health.
Speaker: But even without Debo, I think Ayuk and Kittle are good enough to take advantage of a leaky Lions pass defense.
Speaker: And yeah, I think that's the path for each team.
Speaker: Yeah, this game obviously and our matchup is very near and dear to my heart being a Niners fan been waiting for this game all season.
Speaker: And like you mentioned, the thing that scares me the most about the Niners defensively is how Aaron Jones absolutely tore this defense apart.
Speaker: And the team that's coming in is a top five, six rushing team in the league has multiple guys who can kill us in different ways.
Speaker: and it's going to be tough.
Speaker: This Lions offensive line has been an incredible blocking unit all year, especially in the run blocking scheme, or I guess in both pass blocking and run blocking, they've been incredible, and Gibbs and Montgomery are the exact type of duo that gives the Niners a lot of trouble.
Speaker: I think Gibbs' game is very similar to Aaron Jones with the
Speaker: Being able to make quick cuts and whatnot while still running in between the tackles and in the open field being really hard to stop.
Speaker: I think that sort of running back is exactly what has been killing the Niners all year long in the running game.
Speaker: And then you have a guy like David Montgomery who honestly can push through and get those few tough yards every time because the interior of our defensive line has been pretty weak at stopping the run, even with Eric Armstead coming back, which I had predicted would solve some of these issues.
Speaker: I guess for whatever reason, whether it's him not having played so much or Chase Young being not particularly as good as people have advertised,
Speaker: stuff like that has massively become a downfall to this Niners rush defense and the lions absolutely need to focus on that because as we've talked about for two weeks in a row,
Speaker: Jared Goff hasn't been that particularly impressive.
Speaker: I don't think he's done much to put his team over the top.
Speaker: I don't think the Lions have had to rely on him in a situation.
Speaker: And I think we're going to see a lot more of that in this.
Speaker: Not because the Niners are going to stop the run, but because I expect the Niners to score a lot of points.
Speaker: And in order for the Lions to keep up with that,
Speaker: They're going to have to lead on Jared Goff.
Speaker: They're going to have to lead on Amon Rossin-Brown.
Speaker: And to be quite honest, I don't think Jared Goff's play style lines up well against this team.
Speaker: I think this team is one that is able to consistently get pressure without blitzing.
Speaker: Goff is one of the worst quarterbacks in the league at dealing with
Speaker: pressures and blitzes and the when the Niners do blitz they hit home even when they don't they hit home a lot of the time.
Speaker: Goff's gonna be a lot under a lot of duress.
Speaker: He's gonna have to make a lot tougher throws.
Speaker: I think that's gonna lend to more mistakes which Goff hasn't done much this year and I think
Speaker: When playing from behind, when playing with mistakes like that, I think Goff's going to struggle a lot more.
Speaker: But if the run game is just so good that it doesn't matter what Goff does, that could be a recipe for success for the Lions.
Speaker: And I think it's pretty evident they have to lean on that run game.
Speaker: And when we're looking at the Niners side of the field, I also agree.
Speaker: This Lions defense in many ways, but most importantly, the passing defense has looked very leaky.
Speaker: And this Niners offense has a lot of talent.
Speaker: Aside from Aiden Hutchinson, there aren't many elite players.
Speaker: Elite pass rushers on this Lions defense, and I expect Brock Purdy to have a solid amount of time throughout the day.
Speaker: And when you don't rush Brock Purdy, he does tend to pick apart teams with bad defenses.
Speaker: I know you mentioned Debo's health and him being...
Speaker: Not 100% coming into this game.
Speaker: But as we saw with that Eagles game, when Debo talks, he likes to come in and back it up, or as people would say, stand on business.
Speaker: And CJ Gardner Johnson and him have been going back and forth all year long, I think.
Speaker: Despite his health, they are going to lean on Debo because he has a point to prove.
Speaker: I think Ayuk's going to be huge as well because there's no one on this Lions defense that can keep up with him one-on-one running routes.
Speaker: And Kittle, I'm sure, will have good points here and there too because the linebacking core also lacks a little bit of...
Speaker: receiving help.
Speaker: I think this matchup isn't the best for the Lions defense.
Speaker: I think they also haven't been the best so far in this playoffs.
Speaker: And the Bucs did a solid job versus them last week.
Speaker: The Rams did a solid job versus them the previous week.
Speaker: And I think we'll see a little bit more of that this week.
Speaker: I just don't expect the Lions offense to keep suit because of just the matchup concerns with the Niners defense.
Speaker: All right, that'll wrap it up for us.
Speaker: Make sure to like, liberate, and do what you need to do on whatever platform that you're listening on.
Speaker: Make sure to follow us at pd34 underscore and at RealRawfulPotty2.
Speaker: That'll be all for me.
Speaker: That'll be all for Potty.
Speaker: We'll see you guys in the next one.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: Yeah, we could be superstars.
Speaker: But a great shot time is over.
