Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're all just thinking about what we were doing in January of two.
Thousand and six.
That was the last time the Washington Commanders, the Washington franchise, won a playoff game, and they've done it again. I'm here in the Chris Westling podcast studio for the first time since Tuesday, when these fires changed a lot of our lives here in Los Angeles, and I'm happy to be talking football tonight with three of my friends. Patrick Claybonn in the studio with me, Nick Shook as always
on remote from Cleveland, and for the first time ever. Yes, Kevin Patra coming at you in the Chris Westling podcast studio.
Welcome.
Yeah, you have it beautiful place.
It is a really nice studio, and I know you spent the day here just grinding on the computer and you're up here for a family wedding, and it's great to see him, my friend.
It's great to be here.
It's an interesting time to be out, yeah for you, but you know, life goes on.
It is an interesting time.
We'll put a button in that we'll see if I get stopped after I enter the evacuation zone. After curfew tonight, but it is great to talk about these games.
Patrick. We were adding up.
We have fifty years of NFL experience, NFL employee experience between the four of us tonight, So I think we'll be able to make sense of this insane Washington.
Yes, the survivors is what we are, and we'll celebrate the teams that did and look back at some teams that had some chances but did not.
Okay, no more for play Let's go to Tampa Bay where, yes, we're gonna.
Hear from Brim Weinstein at least one more time this season.
You could act for a.
Better script with this one here from thirty seven. In the left pass more, Tyler rots the snapper Trustway will hold Zane Gonzales lookie to send Washington into the divisional round. Step good, hold down, kicked on its way.
It is good.
The cardiac commanders or the clutch commander day do it again.
We'll see you in Detroit.
Can't say the talks to the second the playoff.
I love it, London Fletcher, he announces like he plays man.
What a game.
Commander's Buccaneers saving frankly a two.
Games slate where we just didn't have enough close games. We had a lot of good stories.
We set up some great games next week, but we needed a juicy game and this was it. Jamie Daniels does what he does, which is win the game in the final seconds with a late drive that included a screen pass that for a brief second I thought was gonna be a game changing interception by Yaya Diab but it wasn't. It was a completion, like so many of his passes, right on the money, and the Commanders get it done.
So much to talk about here, Shookie.
Let's start by giving the rookie his flowers, but before diving into what went wrong for the Bucks, who had a tricky fourth quarter. This is a wagon of an offense, and for the Commanders to hold them to twenty points, a lot needed to happen, self inflicted wounds and some good plays by the Commanders defense. But ultimately, on a night where Jaden Daniels throws for two touchdowns, he throws the ball thirty five times, he runs it thirteen times.
Not that effect of a couple of touchdowns doesn't make any big mistakes. He does it again, and he is the first rookie to win a road playoff game since Russell Wilson did it back in twenty twelve.
It is difficult to do.
Yeah, also in that group, Mark Sanchez, but that story is different this you know, it was about the big plays in key moments for Jane Daniels. Yeah, the rushing wasn't very effective, but when they needed a first down late, he was the guy who was able to kind of feel out the defense and then hit the edge and dive across the line to gain for a key first down.
He was the guy who was able to bounce back from failing and turning it over on downs on what probably should have been pass interference in the end zone but wasn't called. They get a second opportunity down there, and they find a way to convert throws a nice pass over the middle amid the rush and everything else. That is the type of moxie and experience and composure that you get from a veteran, not from a rookie.
And it fits this season. You know, they ran a little montage of all the last second wins they've had this season, and there's Dangles making a play, and there's Daniels making a play, and then he made another play tonight in the key spot to tie the game and get them down the field for that eventual game winning field goal the doint for the win, which was just perfect for this team that has done it so many times. But they wouldn't be here without him, and he rose to the occasion, right.
You put it really well that he does play like a veteran, and I think all the way back, I always like to think about how the games start. The very first third down of the game, they dialed up the perfect blitz Patra and they get a hit on Jayden Daniels and he just stands in there and hits a dime and a great catch by Terry McLaurin, and they had that seventeen play drive, And there is something
about him. Elijah Knsy almost had him down on that final drive where they could have forced the longer field goal or maybe not even a field goal and had more time, and he just gets out of the way. So many times tonight and so many times this season it felt like the other defense had the perfect play called and he just finds a way to beat it.
He he must be one of the most frustrating quarterbacks to play against because of that fact that you're right there Klaiza Kansy literally played flag football with his towel and then he kept it and kept running with the towel, which I thought was pretty funny. And then, like so many times during the game, you're like, oh, they're gonna get him on and there's gonna sack him, but he slides to his left and then finds Terry mccorn slides
to his right. Diami Brown's going off this game like he can get.
Out of the pocket.
He's slippery and you have to be worry of his his feet even if he though he didn't have a lot of yards today, he slipped out of tackles and he kept plays alive and extending plays against the defense. With a secondary that's battered, it makes all the difference in the world.
Yeah, the huge Dammi Brown game, and including that big catch on that final drive where it was Jayden's feet that had the Bucks defense so concerned, where it was a double spy, as Colin pointed it out on the call, their two guys end zone in the middle of the field watching Jayden Daniels allowing Theammy Brown to come free on this backside dig that was also kind of throwing past the defenders ear hole, by the way, on an offense that was eight to fifteen on third down, and
then you have to factor in that they went for it and got it three times on fourth down throughout the game, which is how this wagon of a Tampa Bay offense only ends up with forty four offensive plays.
Greg Because they they that tom.
Of possession was thirty five minutes to twenty four minutes in favor of the Commanders, they couldn't get back on the field, and when they did, they have to take advantage of those opportunities. And Baker had had a boot for the ages. Yes, that really cost me.
We'll get to that. And I am biased. I like this buccaneer offense. I thought it was a wagon. I liked watching it. But this was the perfect way to beat them, especially with a flawed defense, which I think we can say Washington have. It's a team that despite not really having a running game for a while, Brian Robinson.
Goes ten for sixteen today, run the ball just can't right.
Eckeler adds a little juice because he's good in the receiving game, and he made a couple plays, but he wasn't any better. And yet because of Jayden's threat, Like you think of the play to Diami Brown which set up an earlier score where he steps up and the two defenders kind of step up to him as he's approaching the line of scrimmage and he hits them deep. You think about just the small margins for error that
he had. You mentioned earlier, the fourth down played to McLaurin, which gave the Commanders the lead in the fourth quarter.
Let's listen to that fourth.
And two at the five ten minutes to go fourth quarter.
Daniels in the gun at quarto has left three wide receivers to the right, Cherry's to the left. Here's the step Daniels to throw for it, backpedaling into the end zone. Touchdown, touchdown, pa Fine to seventeen clutch.
Playing the lead.
Yeah, so that touchdown comes after the first major mistake from the Buccaneers in the fourth quarter. It was a fumble on a handoff between Baker and Jalen McMillan, and you, Kevin and Patrick, I mean and Patrick, you guys are trying to figure out, like do we know like what that was?
It was McMillan the whole way, Okay, I can't believe he tried to.
Yeah, I can't believe he tried to make that handoff happen because it just didn't look right.
He put it in his hip.
That's why I was I thought it was going to be a fake and a pitch to bucket going the other way. But but Bowl said after the game, as Patrick said that it was supposed to be as sweet like.
It just looked off And.
I don't know why Baker didn't aboord that because it wasn't gonna work.
He ended up tying for the league lead in fumbles. Didn't like lose a ton, but he had a ton of fumbles and they couldn't do much. The first three drives of the game. They only got three points out of him, while Washington is just holding onto the ball and you're just waiting for this game to kind of wake up. And they get the ball under two minutes to go, and they get a touchdown to go into halftime.
They get a touchdown the first time they have the ball the second half, and you think, okay, it's going.
They barely got any possessions in this game, only seven, So their next drive was that fumble, and it's just crazy shook to think that This Buccaneer season, which was led by a top five offense, ends on a failed handoff on one drive, and then the next drive they have a third and a foot just outside the ten yard line, and that was a some sort of botch snap situation where him and the center are not on the same page. Graham Barton snaps it the rest of
the offensive line and Baker seemed totally surprised. They lose a couple of yards on the play and decide to kick a field goal.
What a what a.
Weird and brutal way, I guess I would say for a season to end.
It was the worst possible time for the basic fundamentals to break down. That fumble on the handoff to McMillan, that's a snap count thing like that's all about timing and the Jets sweep. You have to snap the ball, turn around in time to hand it to him, put him in his stomach, and he didn't put it in
his stomach because the snap came too late. Then the snap comes too early on that play and half of Washington defense is in the backfield and they failed to convert in a huge spot, have to settle for three, which then gives Washington the opportunity to go down and kick the field goal. It was it was so uncharacteristic of this team. But also this game was uncharacteristic of the Buccaneers for the same reason that you guys just mentioned,
which is the time of possession difference. You know, they went tempo for a lot of that touchdown drive in the third quarter, and they had Washington on skates. They had no way to react, no idea what to do, and they went right down the field and scored. And I thought, they don't really do that that often, yet they feel the need to do it now to gain an advantage. It's like they were always grasping for small advantages, as if they knew we were only going to have
so many opportunities. And then in the fourth quarter win those opportunities arrive, they botched them. And then you see their expression on the sideline when they realized their season is officially over, and they're just stunned because they realized, we just let it slip through our hands.
This is so unlike us.
I can't believe it's over already when it was right there for the take.
Right And I can almost hear what commanders fans are thinking right now. If London Fletcher is out there, he's a big NFL Daily guy, and he's like, uh yeah, but we had to go win the game. It's true, there was a sense of inevitability. And yet when you look at it, that field goal that they kicked a tie was with four pin forty left of the game,
with three timeouts. That takes an awesome professional quarterback and offense to be able to end the game with the ball, and it takes a lot of confidence that the Bucks defense was not gonna come through. And it wasn't a great Bucks defense this year, and I think today they were hurt by a couple injuries. Jamel Dean go out in this game, Zion mccollin was in and out at various points, and their replacements, what was that guy Gino
Josh Hayes. Ye, Josh Hayes was weirdly in the crosshairs of a couple of big games this year when he came in as an injury replacement. Unfortunately, that was a big factor to it, But that was part of it that I just felt like the team's offenses had the big advantages tonight, which is why I ask you Patrick claibn my fourth down, Maven, should they have gone for fourth and three down twenty to seventeen under five minutes to go in the red zone after that messed up third in a foot.
Absolutely with the benefit of hindsight. According according to Nexten stats, Yes, Todd Bowles was perfect on fourth down on his decisions.
Okay today, that one the fourth and seventh.
In the with in the first it was a field goal by zero point zero four percent. That was very close. It was a full two point five percent to kick that last field.
Interesting, you you're down three, obviously you you your chance of losing the game if you don't pick that up is high. The one the one thing you would say is those numbers aren't about the matchup that you're in. And I just feel like if you go to the rule of like what you don't the other team doesn't want you to do. The Buccaneers offense ultimately had a huge edge on Washington's defense, and I think vice versa was true.
Like Dan Campbell's going for that saying.
Other than snapping the ball in the fourth quarter, the Bucks had a huge advantage on all of.
Them, right, right, But you gotta take your chance you got to go with the.
The They just had third in the foot right, and it was Todd for that.
Though that's not who he is. That's not who he is. Though, that's not who Todd Bowles is.
It's a great point you saying that dan Quinn would have gone for it, because dan Quinn went for fourth down for the touchdown twice in the fourth quarter of this game. The first time it doesn't work. It's funny how you end up remembering these games because Jane Daniels did play really well, Shookie, but that that sequence right near the goal line before Baker Mayfield fumbled the ball
was his worst sequence of the game. He chooses not to throw, he just gets a little hesitant on a wide open touchdown on first down, he throws what should have been an interception potentially on third down.
Was that Levante who had Jones is playing?
Yeah, big moment a snap in the regular season on defense.
Literally dan Quinn's guy for the Commanders. That wouldn't have been a revenge game. It just would have been Hey, Dan, remember me back in the NFC, Remember when uh that that podcaster Greg Rosenthal wrote five hundred words about me? And who was the other line background a team at halftime of Falcons Patriots, and I've told that story.
About seventeen Rodrick Campbell.
Deveandre Campbell, and then then they never used that word. It's just like we would have remembered. We would have remembered it much. Definitely he threw an incompletion on fourth down, but ultimately it didn't happen. There will be Bulls discussion after this one shook. What do you think I've been floating the idea that it's possible, depending on how the end of the season went, like if they didn't make the playoffs, for instance, that they would get rid of
balls to prevent Liam Cohen from leaving. If you were going to create a scenario where after making the playoffs, that could possibly happen.
This is pretty close to it, like a.
Frustrating close loss where people aren't happy with the game management, even though I don't think the game management in the timeout usage was was that close to like his worst game in that in that realm, Like it's not a strength of his but tonight I think you're picking knits a little too much.
Yeah, And it's kind of hard because playoffs, it's sometimes it can just be a weird thing like Cliff Kingsbury had a couple of terrible play calling sequences in the red zone when they got down there in the second half, and yet they come away victorious. So we all forget that. We remember this because Todd Bowles defense didn't stand up and get a stop late in the game. But if we think about the season in total, think about what
these Buccaneers have been through. They lost their two top receivers for a significant portion of the season, and yet they still managed to finish strong, win the NFC South, make the playoffs, have a home game, and be in a position to win.
Ultimately, they fell short.
Everybody wants to kill Todd Bowles for his clock management issues before the end of the first half, it ends up working out perfectly for them because of the playmaking of the Buccaneers and so like he's been in the
crosshairs for a while. My question is, like, where do you want to go as a franchise because you've been this team that since Tom Brady was on your team, and you had that title window that was there and closing, and you went and got one and you felt like you maybe could have tried to get another one.
He never did.
You've kind of just been trying to find a way to keep it afloat right and stay competitive. You lucked out when you got Baker Mayfield, and he thrived with Dave Canalis and now with Liam Cohen. If it comes down to whether you keep Liam Cohen versus Todd Bowles, you keep Liam Cohen, and you can point to all these issues in the past with Todd Bowles, But I just don't know if you get that much better without
Todd Bowles. Who else is out there that's going to elevate you to the point that you think you're supposed to be when in reality maybe it's a combination of coaching and personal And they still won the division, they still were really close to winning a playoff game. It's kind of a high standard.
Yeah, considering we just outlined the difference in this game, right, the ball goes past Yaya Dabi's thumb by a fraction of an inch, the kick two inches one way, it's bouncing back. Maybe they're still playing the game while we're having a discussion. Who knows Kelijah Canty grabs a flag Baker's fumble. If you're hiring and firing decisions come down to those moments, then you don't have a process at all. Everything is just vibes. And I don't think that's a
good way to operate a football franchise. And I'm sure people are frustrated by the outcomes, Okay, Like I just I don't see a reason to. But it's fire everybody you know saw McDermott almost got fired according to folks earlier this year, Like who cares.
Best case is that you return the coaching staff next year. But Patrick, if if you're in a situation where you have intel, the Jaguars are gonna make Liam Cohen you're you're their head coach. I think it's a serious consideration because I think they had a special season offensively, and he was an excellent play caller, and that combination of play caller and quarterback, to me is the most valuable thing that you can have.
And so it's a discussion, I believe.
But they already did that with Dirk Cutter. It didn't work out for him.
Yeah, yeah, And how often are good play callers good head coaches. It's like fifty like North Turner, you want to have North Turner as your head coach?
I wouldn't.
It was a you know, maybe maybe folks were saying last year it's like, all we gotta we gotta keep Canalis in there, Let's get get rid of Todd Bowles.
It doesn't necessarily make sense to me.
There's there's a lot of talented people who can orchestrate an off if they have the pieces. Jayla McMillan is going to be better next year. Mike Evans is still producing. Baker's maybe not going to lead the league in turnovers next year. That's a that's a slight on the offense at least fumbles.
Offensive line is awesome, katea and is sneaky good. Bucky Irving ran really well. They need to fix the d tonight, although when they didn't pick up that third and a foot, was that after the run that Bucky Irving stopped his feet. We're watching in the in the film room with MJD. And and he was absolutely right. I love watching the games with MJD because he has such a good feel of what the running backs do in a in a
giving situation. And yeah, on that first down, it's that it's that counterplay that Chris Collinsworth was talking about, where the blockers and it's just beautiful, and Bucky's been Bucky Irving has been amazing, running all night and he gets to the edge and to your point about small margins, and Latimore comes up to kind of force him to the inside, and Irving does what, to someone like MGD is a cardinal sin of a running back. I mean, you are running forward with all the momentum in the world.
This is a situation where momentum does exist, and there's two defenders coming up and he just chops his feet all of a sudden and he just completely stops.
And it was that set up the third and a foot.
And I'm not getting on Bucky Irving or saying that he is at fault for that, but it is those like little small margins in a playoff game where when they're watching the tape tomorrow, they're all gonna think the same thing that maybe nineteen times out of ten, if you put Bucky Irving there in that situation with that much room and a full head of steam, he picks up a yard and then it's a totally different game and we're having different conversations. It's just crazy, these playoff games.
That's why you love him though, because everything is so magnified.
The play before the center was the only person on his own individual snapcount. There was the Baker Mayfield like fake run to Bucky Irving.
Right before, so Bucky Irving was first down and then Baker was second.
So, yeah, if you're gonna fire Todd Bowles for that, go for it. I think that would be a bad move.
Our friend Ali Connelly, who I believe is going to join me on on a show this week, We're gonna talk a little bit about the hirings and the firings around the league. He really thought it sounded like they had a sneak called that that Baker bailed out of because of what he saw. He changed, you know, the signal on that, and he changed his cadence up a little, and everyone was on the same page of what Baker.
And this is just watching the tape, You're not for sure, but he believes everyone was on the same page of how he changed did up except for Barton clearly. And that's how it ends. But man, this Commander's ride just keeps going. They are the story of the season, absolutely fun, and they will be heading to Detroit next weekend. That is one matchup in the NFC let's go to Philadelphia to determine what the other one was gonna be.
Tack it down to the yard, Hurts takes the football he is gonna throw. He does in the flat, the nice catch by Goddard, the breaks the tackler cus the five touchdown Godard.
Piece he piece him.
He catches his simple Claire up Patton up into the flat mel and the quarterback is there and he just piece molds him, pushes him in the face, not once once and into the in zone.
That's Dallas Goddard.
That is Dallas Gotter, and then that is Meryl Reeves Mike quick on WIP when that play was happening and he stiff armed him for about twenty straight yards and got that third stiff arm in. I leaped up because I was like, we finally got a highlight a game that's just like not much was happening, and I felt like I knew who was gonna win, and probably by a couple scores, and that is what happened. Just it wasn't happening, and Dallas Goddard showed up for us when we needed it.
Twenty two to ten.
Eagles win a game in a way that I feel like they've won a lot of games where at the end of it people say, ah, that wasn't really like a great performance by the Eagles. That was the B minus Eagles and they still won easy. But is it really the B minus Eagles when that's what they do. They don't make mistakes on offense, and they're just an awesome defense that just squeezes the life out of you.
It happened to Jordan Love today and ultimately this defense is the biggest reason why they are gonna be tough to beat in the NFC.
They don't give up anything easy. There was nothing easy for Jordan Love all day. Those quick outs, the quick slants, nothing came easy. There's always guys in his face I haven't seen and we can get into the injuries on the offensive line, but like Zach Tom was getting worked over. Yeah, we've never seen him get worked over in a very long time. But the Eagles defense just won this game. And this is how they played. This is how they played all year. They played to their opponent and they're
a defensive team. I don't know why we expect them to be some offensive juggernaut when they haven't shown that all year. They're big runs by Saquon Barkley and their defense.
Yeah, and the potential for a big run by Saquon Barkley at the very end of the game, he decides to just slide down I think after only what seventeen yards or so.
Hell, let's listen to that call.
I'm curious how they handled what should have been a game ending celebrat Tory touchdown by Saquon hit a pistol.
Again, it goes to Barkley and again he's at the FORTI and he falls down.
He could have techned that home.
He was out in front of the world.
He could have techned that to this look.
But he said, I will do the genuinely thing. I will fall down and run.
Off the clock.
You know, he picked up seventeen yards, but he's beyond the entire defense.
Do is just keep right because you can't catch this guy.
But he said, I'll fly down and saved suth for next week.
Oh that was great, especially on the TV copy where they just show a beaming Howie Roseman on the sideline and yes, a Saquon said on the after the game, his teammates said, you could have gone further though, you could have just ran for a while and then slot like slid down. But now he's saving his mile age
and he did look fresh in this game. His very first carry was bad ass, but the Packers defense was up for It was hard earned yards all day for Saque and that's why it took so long for the game to really be over.
Yeah, they crowded the line of scrimmage.
I thought coverage was good in toil because we saw that Dallas Goddard touchdown which got things going. Jalen hurts that twenty eight yards passing or before that drive, then he hits DeVante Smith for twenty eight yards. It hits Davante again for nine yards, and then Dallas Goddard Stiff's Valentine all the way into the end zone for that score, where they started to get some production there from the
passing game. But you worried about the Eagles there for a while because he went I believe a couple of possessions without a completion, and they really couldn't do anything on offense. The defense carried this team for significant portions of the first.
Almost two full quarters without a completion.
Yeah, at one point, at one point he had had his last completion, like with five minutes left in the first quarter and we were mid to late third quarter. I think it was seven straight incompletions and maybe even jumped up after that when when I rode.
Dropbacks, I think seven incompletions and he got sacked twice and he scrambled for a negative yard.
And yet they were never really in trouble in this game because of the defense and because Jordan Love threw three interceptions. And look, Schook, we're gonna have some annoying discourses about quarterbacks.
I guess that's just what happens in the offseason.
And Justin Herbert is on the AFC side, and I think Jordan Love is going to be on the NFC side. And it was an uneven game and an uneven season for Love, and.
This kind of typified it.
And you give him some asterix though, because Romeo Dobbs goes out with a concussion at one point, Jayden Reid then goes out in the second half, that there was a lot going on in this game injury wise for Green Bay and they just were not ready to stand up to it.
Yeah, concussion suffered on a ball to the end zone too. Like considering situation, you know, just another loss in a terrible spot. He also didn't have Christian Watson in this game to begin with because of his knee injury, So yeah, they're.
Not operating with a full cover.
But you want to talk about typifying his season, I mean, this is a guy who suffered an injury to his knee in Week one and missed a couple of games. It just felt like he never was afforded really an opportunity to get on track. He had some great moments this season. That Saints game, that blow out win in
primetime was one of them. But when we went into this season coming off of that, you know, incredible back half that he had last year at going into the playoffs and what they did in the playoffs, you expected more and maybe we shouldn't have expected as much once we saw him getting hurt in Week one and it ends in anker. Now he's not the only Packers quarterback that ends up being a legend in Green Bay that's had a clunker of a playoff game. Farm did it,
Rogers did it. Like it's nobody's perfect. It's just that for this team, it was all too fitting for how they've looked in the last couple of weeks. And against the defense like this, you can't afford to make these mistakes, even if the score is still close, because Philly's offense can't get it going. You just can't afford to make these mistakes. So that's what they're gonna come away with a sour taste in their mouth and some questions about him. But I think if any franchise is going to stay
the course, it's the Packers with Jordan Love. It's just one of those experiences that he's gonna have to learn from.
Yeah, I'm I think the panic button should not be being pressed in Green Bay. It's one advantage of us where we're just not fit. Like you're laughing, and I even purposely sent a tweet out about it afterwards. It's like, this team is really young, they're in a great situation. They won two more games than they did a year ago. Their point differential actually went up by eighty ninety points a year ago. But I just knew, and then I started seeing it like Packers fans who want Lafleur fired.
Ridiculous, and like I mean that that's.
Ridiculous, but like, but just like making this out to be some huge disappointment, and Love is a total bust. It's like Love had an eight week stretch here where he was averaging nine adjusted yards per attempt. Multiple things can be true, though, and he wasn't fighting with a full deck. He also did not play well today. The first interception was just an overthrow. One throw really sticks out to me. A fourth down to Malik Heath where he just he just missed the throw, and that is
something that happens with Jordan Love. He just kind of misses throws in a way you don't totally want.
But you also see the other side of that where there was the throw down the sideline to Malik Heath. Yes, with pressure in his face, he goes up and gets that ball away from I believe it was Red Blankenship, a great back shoulder throat. They had spots where you've seen that those outs to Romeo Dobbs on the goal line where when that's Malik Heath right, it was.
It was a tough.
Completion for the Packers and and Elton Jenkins going down. That was a big part of this game. Keishawn Nixon absolutely recovered that fumble. I yes, no idea how that was not a clear recovery, but he's laying on the ground being touched by a defender holding a football with two hands.
There's I was confused of how they never gave that a bear.
Yeah, so their explanation the panic button situation for Green Bay was preposterous.
A very good Eagles team on the road. What are we doing?
Yeah, you're talking about the fumble on the very opening kickoff. The Eagles recover it, massive hit. Good job by Oron Burks, Who's going to have a big role down the stretch here for the Eagles. Unfortunately, Nakobe Dean left with what looked like a serious knee injury, was carted off, and Oron Burks ended up mostly stepping in for him. But yeah, three plays later, after a Saquon run, a couple of runs, a nice one, Jalen Hurts drops back to pass and
you know he still might be in that pocket. I don't think we have that highlight, but it was just amazing to me how long he was just sitting back there. It was a reminder, like, man, this offensive line, not that they were perfect tonight, but they should have a better passing game considering he gets such great pass protection in the receivers at the half.
It's it's he.
He looks like he's overthinking and like he started out hot, he started out six for six and then he can't hit the broadside of the barn. And I have an issue with whether it's Kellen Moore, whether it's Nick Sirianni. They don't give him enough easy throws or maybe he just doesn't take them. Because here when they started getting the quick to DeVante Smith and that got got heard.
Where was that?
For a quarter and a half they got it going and then they scored a touchdown in four plays. Boom boom boom boom boom. Quick outs, quick quick slants. They just don't I don't feel like they give him enough easy reads or he's not taking them right off the bat.
Yeah, when he holds it, usually good things that happen. He's such an interesting player because he's so good at what he does well. Even as a runner, it's very similar. It's like he is almost as good as any running back in the league. And I'm even rowing Lamar in this at just downhill runs, like in terms of downhill power as a quarterback and he just has to kind of move to the side or you know, run over a guy. And when he's decisive, he's as good as anyone.
And yet when he starts going horizontal, the play's over. Yes, like it's he it never works out. Well, he's such a fascinating player. Are you concerned at all? I guess shook that on a day where they end up going plus four in the turnover margin, And yes, that that one touchdown that they had, which which stood for a while, was off, you know, a very short drive.
Are you concerned that?
You know, they only get twenty two points up, They didn't get three hundred yards. They only hit two third downs in this game, sixteen first downs overall, like it was.
It was not a great offensive performance overall.
No, it wasn't.
It's funny because when they get that turnover and then they score in like three plays, I'm like, all right, here they go.
They're off to the races.
Here we go.
I know they had a short field, but they may look relatively easy.
I think he held the ball for six points seventy five seconds before that touchdown pass did Johan Dotson, and then they just disappeared like we just described. I would be more concerned against a lesser team, but Green Bays defense has been sneaky effective, and they found their way through. I mean, I think it's perfect that they scored their their longest touchdown pass of a low scoring game was on a swing pass to a tight end who then just runs over a guy for a touchdown. Like that
would just that fit the day for them. They're gonna run into more challenges, but I think this often still starts a Saquon and if that is rolling early, then it opens everything else up. I also think you saw a little bit of the russ. Jalen hadn't played in a few weeks. Saquon didn't play in week eighteen. I think that had something to do with it as well. So maybe they have some things to correct on the tape before they go into next week. I'm not panicking again.
Don't leave the case on the panic button here. The Eagles one, they're moving on.
It's fine how they win. But yes, yeah, it's kind of how they win. I mean, but they were so quiet on offense.
A J.
Brown olands up with one catch for ten yards and mostly makes news for just reading a book on the side. I mean, shout out to book Sky. You know I'm on Blue Sky. I'm checking out the book content there. I sent out some books to Graham content of my top ten favorite reads. So I just love you know. AJ Brown on the sideline reading this book.
So AJ Brown, well, we're figuring that out.
He he's a little frustrated, obviously he hadn't seen too many balls that he's going to read a little passage here.
I haven't seen too many people read books, but I've seen a quarterback.
Eat a hot dog Mark Sanchez.
Certainly not in the playoffs.
That's that's cool, calm and collective.
I was like worried for Tom's kids, you know, and he's like, I haven't seen too many people read a book, but it was on brand. A. J. Brown did tweet about it after the game, and he gave a shout out to the book Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy, and he said the game's ninety percent mental, ten percent physical, brings it to every game.
I read some excerpts, okay, and I will say there's some in that audio that we heard. Marshall Mather's lyrics for Lose Yourself are a little more impactful than the words that I read.
Wow, which is why I will be dropping for you.
I will be dropping my book subterranean winning coming out. If any NFL players would like to hear my thoughts on success in the highest levels of competition.
Wow, I mean one thing I noticed when he's flipping an open and you can see it on the tweet too, that was dog eared, it's underlined, It's highlighted.
Highlighted and underlined the same passages. Interesting move.
I mean, I love it.
I want to normalize just breaking out a book in any situation. The funniest thing about it was I couldn't believe people were like this is crazy. Not in it, it's it's different behavior, but the idea that people are saying this was somehow divash behavior or that it was like distracted. I was like, this man is trying to center himself so that he can do his best for the team. So it works for AJ. I mean, if that's what is helping to create this season, he.
Said, he brings it every week though. I have a hard time believing nobody had ever seen it before. Though, because even the beat where they were like, we've never seen this, How was it never caught before?
They asked herts about it in the post game, he said, yeah, I've seen him. I've seen him open it. I haven't seen him reading it.
Oh, it's like Lebron He's always reading the first page of a book in the locker.
Perhaps, and I'm team book. I just you know, Greg's got some great lists of books. We can get some folks some books. The self help genre is a little overdone. Yeah, a little bit.
I hate to criticize something I haven't really tried, so it does okay, Yeah.
I don't think it would help me to each there.
We know one thing.
A J.
Brown's poems were not sweaty, his knees were not weak, and his arms were not heavy.
Yeah, there you go.
Look, Philadelphia love this team, and I and I do want to just before we go, sort of member of all the football we watched this weekend, and there's been some ugly football. It kind of reminds me a Week one and two when everyone's like, oh his offense gone again? Is defense taking over? And then that went away offense was great? Then you know, for most of the season,
defense is back. And I really did think watching these games, specifically the Texans and then specifically the Eagles today, like Nolan Smith that sack on Tom for instance, the way Dean and Bond were bouncing off of each other. Zach Bond's interception just everything Zach Bond does, just if you just watch him all game, it's really fun.
The interception by Slay was that's beautful. That's a great play.
That's what I've seen all year.
Yeah, right, And Quinjon Mitchell, I think he was thrown at six times.
He gave up ten yards. He had that long PI that was me embellishment in my voice. Which was one of Jordan Love's worst throws. It landed about twenty yards out of bounds, Like that was uncatchable to me. And Jalen Harder was an absolute beast. They were physical as hell, Shookie, Like, this is one of the better defenses that we've seen. I always say it's so hard for a defense to be really difference making in the NFL. They are the best defense in the NFL. I feel like that's safe to say, right.
Yeah, And it actually is what's given me great confidence in their chances to make the Super Bowl in these playoffs. Like I know we're talking Lions, I know we're talking vikings On, talking Eagles. Because of that defense, playing simple, they can have a game like this against anybody that they play and I think they're gonna be a challenge for whoever they run into as long as they're still you know, eligible to play and haven't been eliminated.
Right, And we don't know who they're gonna play.
It's gonna be against the Monday Night football winner, and they will be playing on Sunday, So it'll be a shorter week for whoever wins on Monday Night, but you know, not the shortest week possible if they had to try to turn it around on Saturday. But they they get another home game. Shout out to Josh Jacobs for a great performance all season long. That near touchdown he had was awesome and then he cashes it in right after that. He just had a great season, but a frustrating end
for the Packers. I have not seen this video, so I am hoping it delivers. It is Matt Lafleur knocking over a Gatorade bottle on the podium after the game.
Like I said, they played mostly some coverage the entire game, so.
You know, it's just.
Right now, nice, that's about that's about par for the night right there.
So he did knocket over it just it just fell over on its own.
Appears too so I didn't have like a time code for that happening. So I watched the whole conference, and I'm watching that bottle the whole time, just shake, shake, shake, I'm waiting for it to happen. And that's the back end of like a forty five second answer where he's like in deep, like what went, and it's just he and and right after you can hear the pr pers like two more, let's get out of here.
I made of tom stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I thought it was a coffee mug.
I watched part of that press conference to Eric, and I couldn't find like a an easy clip or that would be perfect because it was just him speaking. And this is what I wanted to coaches, just him speaking off the dome for like five minutes, opening statement, uninterrupted and just feeling it, just feeling the loss, so upset, frustrated, everything possible, the end of a tough season, but a good season overall for the Packers ends around though before
last season, let's take a quick break. We have one AFC game to talk about on Sunday. We hit the two on Saturday. Yeah, if you're if you're wondering, how come uh, how come you guys aren't talking those Saturday games.
We already did a podcast on that.
Go check out the podcast with me and Bill Barnwell that we taped Saturday night. After the break, we will head to Buffalo.
Pre receivers to the right, one to the left, and now Ty Johnson retreats to the backfield.
Here's the snap. He's gonna go.
Back to pass Alan rolling out to his right.
Looking for somebody open.
Nobody is has to throw it to the end zone for Ty Johnson, who makes a sliding catching the end.
Zone for a touchdown. Well, who would have expected that?
Talk about stretching the playout to.
The last possible second.
A twenty four yard touchdown strike from Allen to Ty Johnson and with that touchdown pass, Josh Allen passes Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the most touchdowns in team history in the playoffs.
Wow, good nugget there by Chris Brown on w g R. Bills would roll after that another touchdown pass to go break that record some more. Curtis samuel I had a fifty five yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
It was off to the races.
Bills win thirty one to seven in a game that the Broncos led seven to nothing, that the only trail that halftime ten to seven. I thought this thing might go down to the wire and it didn't. Why didn't it, Patrick, Well, we.
Just saw that that was the highest leverage play of the game.
It's fourth and one at that point, and we talked about Jalen Hurts having six point seven five seconds, same number for Josh Allen on that play, except the difference is the ball travels forty three yards in the air Josh Allen off his back fractions of an inch, fractions of a second from Todd Johnson's leg being out of bounds, where if I like, the game plan for Vance Joseph was to make Buffalo drive, make them earn it, not give up the big plays, and get something from the offense,
and they got that early, but it was just too much to overcome. They didn't hit their high leverage plays. They had will Let's miss a field goal right at the end of the first half. And it's just one of those things where it was discussed on the call
of the game. You're an underdog on the road and you're gonna have to have everything go right, and eventually those things just I didn't right, especially the passing game for the Broncos, which was kind of janky and segmented after that second half started right.
The Bills are such a different team this year.
I know they've won in the wildcard round sometimes buy a lot before, and yet I think this game really showed how much more mature they are as a team, just like they can beat you any sort of way. And I was really impressed Kevin how early they were so patient with the running game. Fans Joseph was saying, like, beat us this way. The Bills are like, okay, we'll
put our six offensive linemen out there. The run to pass ratio in the end was forty four runs twenty eight passes, which is like, okay, it was a laugher.
You must have got out of control late.
No, there was twenty two runs twelve passes early and they kept sticking with it, and more importantly, they can do it really well against a good defense.
Well, it made the Broncos adjust their defense because they kept pounding it and Allen was like, are you gonna play two shell? I'm just gonna keep handing up. They had one hundred and twenty eight yards rushing at halftime. Josh Allen had sixty nine yards passing in the second half. He flipped it because then the Broncos were like, we got to bring some blitzes. And then Josh burned him with four deep shots, two of them for touchdowns, and he he ended up with two hundred and seventy two
totally passing yards. So you do the mass two hundred yards on the second half because they just got those openings because they were patient early. And if he's such a more mature quarterback this year than in any other year, it's not just the not taking sacks and not just the avoiding bad turnovers. It's him understanding like, Okay, you're gonna do this to me, I'm fine with that.
I'm not gonna force it.
I'm gonna just hand the ball off to James Cook and we're gonna run for one hundred and twenty yards.
That's exactly what I mean.
Even the sack that he did take in the red zone before they kicked the field goal of the seven to three, that was one play. As he was stepping up, I had visions of like bad Josh Allen plays in my mind for a second, like, oh, how is this gonna go They've got him totally surrounded and you could see for a second and then he just took the sack.
And I don't want to be the guy who's like rewarding.
The guy for you know, at a boy, you took a sack like you devoided the negative play. But for Josh Allen, I think this performance Nick did show a lot. And you gotta love a team that goes out there and they put six offensive linemen on the field on almost a quarter of their snaps. They led the league in doing this during the season, and they did it way more in this game than they usually do. And yeah, Allen ends up with forty six, but Ty Johnson goes
nine for forty four. They put him in for a drive and they're electric and Cook gets one twenty and one. It's just a crazy combination to have all of those guys and Josh Allen running the ball.
Yeah, it's indicative of this entire Bills season. I think because they went into the offseason they lost to Fon Diggs via trade and they had to kind of reformulate who they were and all the questions came, who are they going to throw it to? Well, they didn't really need to figure out who they were going to throw it to. They were just going to change who they were and not be so aggressive. Instead, take what defenses give them, be aggressive when those opportunities arose, but don't
force it. Just like you said, that's how you end up winning the time of possession battle forty one minutes and forty three seconds to eighteen seven. Sure, you're gonna make us work for it. Guess what you're not going to see the football. The Broncos end of this game with eight possessions, four in each half, and if you're not capitalizing on all of those, the Bills are just
going to squeeze you to death. They're gonna squeeze you into submission like a bowl constrictor, and it's going to look like a laugher when it really kind of wasn't that case until probably after that touchdown pass to Ti Johnson we just talked about it. I mean, that's a play that takes the life out of an opponent when you're playing well enough to keep it close and then they hit a fourth down like that, and that displays
the maturity that you just spoke of. This is a Bills team that understands the goal ahead and the task at hand, which is win this game and get the next. You don't have to be flashy to do it, just win the game and move on. And then they end up being flashy as a result.
They had eight different players have at least two targets in this game.
One player had six. That's Khalioshakir caught all of them.
Everyone else had either two or three, and you were like, who are you gonna throw it to? The answer is mostly not Amari Cooper, who is fifth on the team in snaps at wide receiver. Patrick isn't that crazy.
And one of those two catches was like a screen ball where it's like, this is not what you get Amari Cooper for it.
He ran eleven routes and the snaps are distributed pretty evenly where it's not like a huge gap between one and five. But he is fifth, and it's lower than the two tight ends too, so technically it's like seventh among possible pets catchers and it's fine, And it kind
of was a sneaky one sided game. I guess it's not that sneaky the way the second half played out, but I couldn't believe this stat that I saw from Jay Skersky of I believe the Buffalo News the yardage differential in this game four seventy one to two twenty four. That's a two hundred and forty seven yard differential. That was the biggest in any playoff game since Cam Newton started a game against the Arizona Cardinals. Right, And I want you guys to guess who was the starting quarterback
for the Cardinals in this game. I mean, I would give you guys so much money.
Chilton wasn't.
This wasn't the NFC championship game.
This is this is I believe the wild card or divisional round, that.
One where they had leg gone like through the three quarter.
That's absolutely right, and why it's a tough answer, that's that's not right. He was I think their backup that year. It was Ryan Linley And it was, Yes, the worst.
It was the worst.
Yeah, didn't they throw?
Yeah, it was the worst performance I've ever seen by any playoff team.
It was I don't know what that yardage one was, but it was like off.
It was absolutely looking across at Thomas Davis and Luke King, it was.
It was troubling.
Josh Norman.
It was a game that was over with it about like six minutes, which you just don't see too often. This one gave us a lot more entertainment, in part because the Broncos offense had a great first drive. Bo Nicks rips a third and long on his very first you know, third down of the game, first throw of the game, and then has a beautiful touchdown pass and the rest of the game, I felt like there was a couple of drops in there.
I don't think bo Nicks played that bad.
There were a couple of times where he didn't see the field well and maybe panicked a bit, But I felt like it was kind of a full team just we're not good enough versus like a bad Bonicks game.
Yeah, there was the Courtland Sutton drop.
Yeah, I think doom to drive the drive at the end of the first half where there was a twelve yard Bonnicks scrambled and he hit Courtland Sutton I believe, for twenty one yards before Lutz missed the field goal.
Just in spots.
But then when the opposition is the juggernaut that's handled them all off a lot running the ball the way they did, they just had to execute better, and it just it felt like there was something missing a running game all season.
Really, Yeah, they can't run the ball.
I felt like the Bills and McDermott knew exactly who they were going at and they were gonna make Bonix get try to get to his second and third read and knew he couldn't do it under pressure. He did not play well. This was like, I think, the most he's been pressured in a game all season, and he just didn't play well. I don't think he played poorly, because like you said, there was those drops, but he couldn't execute at a level that I think in two or three years he will be able to.
Yeah, they were it was all. It was a lot of just misses.
Now he had a couple just missed an interception, so it could have gone the other way too, but just a pass off.
Here or there. They didn't get the running game going all year.
Uh.
Sean Payton just talked about how look, we couldn't we couldn't do anything on third down and we couldn't win their first downs at all. They were living in like second in four all year. And you wonder if the Broncos, who have a really good defense but they're so light that then you might want to add like a little bit of size, Greg Russo, von Miller, Matt Malano played almost every snap, so some good signs I think for the Bills defense. Who uh oh boy, Like, let's get going, Shuky,
we got we got it. This is one of the better divisional round games I can remember. I guess it's too early. We shouldn't already be previewing next week. Actually, let's hear from Sean McDermott before we hear from Nick Schuck talking about next week.
Yeah, I mean this is what this is what everyone's been waiting for, right, So it'll be it'll be a nice week and everyone will be looking forward to it. And you know they're a great football team, right, I mean the they handled us pretty good the first go around, and you know they're they're certainly playing well, well coached. John's want to won a super Bowl and comes from great pedigree. So it'll be a big challenge for.
We don't need to preview the game next week. But I don't know, Shuk, Like, how do you see this? Like the discourse is going to be annoying, but how do you think it's gonna be very annoying? But how do you think like they set themselves up kind of where they are now maybe versus where they were early in the season.
The Bill's best chance of victory is to follow the same approach that they had today. The question is can you run the ball as effectively against the defense that has more weight to it? That is probably coming You know, they're coming together really well in Baltimore down the.
Back half of the season.
Zach Or has really figured out how to use this defense to his advantage. And at what point when you have to shift to ask Josh Allen to make plays? You know, at what point in the game does that arrive?
Is it early? Is it often?
Because if it's early and often, then you're gonna be in a hell of a battle if you can't lean on the run game early.
But it's gonna be quite a matchup.
And we already know what Baltimore's offense, which looks like one of the best units in the league, can do. Obviously we'll spend all week talking about it, but it's gonna be a great game.
Yeah.
I like for them that Milano was able to play more snaps and on third down. I like that Vaughn had two of the team's three quick pressures, but there are five pressures overall, and yeah, I had a couple quick ones, so he's coming around at the long time. I also think their short yardage package has now past the Eagles as the best short yardage, don't you think, because they do the Josh Allen push and that's never
stopped ever. But they also mix in the like on the third and one where they knew they had the fourth and one to go to, where he kind of boots out and it's defended perfectly and he makes you miss on the edge in a way.
Maybe Jalen hurts. Probably they can do they can do anything in those short yardages.
Well, yeah, snapping the ball to Josh, I think is always going to help. I do know a Rams team over across the street that had success against the Josh Allen quarterback sneak fair, especially late fair. I'm not going to put them on the level of the Eagles in that situation because I think it's fundamentally different the way they approach it. I mean, the Eagles were able to to run a trick playoff of it just because of the certainty right today that that they were going to
get it on fourth down. I don't know that the Bills necessarily have that luxury, and and and with the the game and the stakes and the abilities of the team, I don't how many fourth downs are we going to see?
Wow, that's fair. How are How are you feeling?
Patrick?
I was hoping because that's the Sunday afternoon game, it's the last one. It's Tony Romo, it's Jim Nance, It's it's the entree of this weekend. And so generally we would be here in the in the office, like are you going to watch it in the theater with us, with all us common folks.
Primarily I will be watching the football game by myself. Okay, I will be I will be loud. There will be a lot of swear words one way or the other.
M M.
Probably won't be looking at Twitter. I'll be pacing back and forth and yelling obscenities at the screen. So I'll keep it, keep it.
I kind of feel for you because it having been there with the pay you don't want the game.
You want the game to be on Saturday.
If you're doing like a Sunday night show, you want like the twenty four hours to kind of like calm down your emotions. Maybe good or bad from it, you know, just you don't want to be raw coming into the studio after a loss.
But the listeners hopefully will like it if that happened.
Yeah, I mean everybody, anybody that puts up with me anyway, you know, I appreciate it regardless. But it's yeah, during is tough. It's tough to be around. I mean, having to listen to to Herbie is enough.
Oh yeah, last night was was not great. Let's listen to Let's listen to Sean McDermott again. I want to hear him talk about that Ty Johnson touchdown, which really was the biggest play of the game in an incredible play by Johnson.
What I saw, well, probably like you on the on Ties touchdown, I was going, oh, come on, come on, oh yeah, yeah, good.
Good, Yeah, that was yes, his yeah, his version of that exactly. Great job by the Bills and a great season for the Broncos considering what people thought about that team coming into the season. I know our friend Cynthia Frielan had that as her favorite over under the year as an over five and a half.
But good for her, you know, but that was five and a half.
Like, I mean, they shed some veteran dous on defense, and this defense was still good. That's a credit Defanse Joseph for sure.
I think they have a really solid foundation to build from because they have a great play caller, an offensive line that is clearly coached well and they can tweak if they need to, and plenty of talent on defense, maybe the defensive player of the year. They're gonna need to get better because the schedule is going to get harder. You know, they really didn't beat any good teams this year.
They've kind of made it through the whole season without basically beating a good team that was trying to win. So they need to get better, but they can't get better. That division suddenly looks very good. Okay, that's it for the games we have the schedule. I haven't gone through them all in a row yet, so we will be starting. Yes, Houston Tech's and love that Saturday afternoon window. Now they're almost undefeated, six and two and west ofvis but that's only wild Card weekend.
It doesn't it doesn't.
The magic doesn't work on Saturday afternoon, and that's when they'll be in Arrowhead.
That is the ESPN Troy Aikman Game.
That night is the Fox game Tom Brady back in our Lives, Lions and Commanders, expect a lot of points there Sunday morning, or rather after noon. Now they got the noon Pacific three pm start. You have the winner of Rams Vikings who will be heading to Philadelphia surely as an underdog, and then yes, Ravens and Bills as the capper starting at six point thirty eastern.
Ooh, it's gotta be fun. My favorite week D of the year.
And yet I can't feel like we can look forward that much, Nick, because we have a Monday night recap to do tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to that as well. Before we get out it feels a little off topic. But the New England Patriots hired ahead. Oh how about that? As the person Nick that resembles Mike Rabel most physically
on the show, I'll let you go first. Talk me out of this being like a vaguely annoying higher because it just feels like more of the same, going back to the same, well, no fresh ideas, that sort of thing. I feel like I'm on an island here among Patriots fans who are generally loving this.
I'm also the person who grew up like five minutes fromhere. Mike Rable went to high school.
But that's there, you go. It is he.
It's like what you were going for with Gerrod Mayo, except he has proven head coaching experience, has earned an AFC's top seed before with the Tennessee Titans, He's won the division. He's at least got a track record of doing it and being able to handle it, which, unfortunately, in Girod Mayo's first season, we kind of learned that he just was inexperienced at being a head coach and having to deal with the media or whatever else might be the ups and downs of coaching a bad team.
And Rabel I don't think is going to come in and transform this team because this is a personnel thing, but I think it brings them the stability and familiarity that they're seeking.
Now.
Is the whole Patriot Way thing going to re emerge here? No, I don't think it's going to. But at least he understands the franchise and knows how to win.
They just need to improve the roster to really see that through.
I mean, his whole Tennessee tenure got blown up when Aj Brown got traded and his whole issue with John Robinson back then, So I don't hold that against him, but it felt like the most obvious higher we were going to see in this cycle.
So at least it's out of the way.
Your thoughts on the Patriot Way, Patrick Claiban, Oh.
The Patriot Way is the reason that Mike Rabel is the head coach. The Patriot Way had nothing to do with anything. It's a myth. The Patriots had good players, and.
It isn't it.
Bill Belichick, to Patrick's credit, always says there is no such.
Thing like Mike Rabel stepped up to the microphone, he answered, he didn't do a Belichick impersonation. He wasn't weird that there weren't like scoldings over what the media was wearing, like one former coach, that there wasn't any of the weird Josh McDaniel's tenure. Mike Rabel was Mike Rabel, And so I think this isn't a step backwards. It's actually a step forward to what the Patriots probably could have been, you know, for that's fair.
And if dealing with the media was a weakness for Mayo, if anything, I feel like Rabel's too cozy with the media. Maybe that's part of the thing that annoys me.
In Tennessee.
Yeah, I mean, can you be too cozy with the media there.
Maybe it's like it's that's fair, they'll support him if that's the case.
Maybe it's we've seen how can go.
It's more the media that that annoys me when they play favorites. Like there's just always those coaches that play the media game behind the scenes and it's just so transparent. Jeff Fisher was was the king at it. Cliff Kingsbury is a strong guy at it, certainly, and Rabel is that guy. But doesn't mean he's a bad guy. Certainly doesn't mean he's a bad coach. I think they were
very good on the details. The thing that I worry about is you always want I would like to have a coach with a clear schematic advantage that he brings to the table something defining. Now we're seeing a lot of coaches that are really succeeding that aren't in the play caller model, like John Harbaugh and Dan Campbell, And so that's a fair point. Even Mike Tomlin, in a way, maybe his best juice is running the entire organization. Although I think Mike Tomlin kind of combines both, which is
what you want. Mike Rabel, I don't really know, Like his defenses were up and down.
It's stunk.
When I was a coordinator in Houston, some of his offenses were great and efficient with Tannehill, But he also hired Tim Kelly and Todd Downing as his last two offensive coordinators, so that I don't know what you're getting. But in terms of running an entire organization, kind of being a little more detail oriented in terms of game management and stuff like that, you're the players and the coaches. I feel like he'll raise the floor quite a bit for them.
I don't think there's any question that he's going to bring a more just the mentality that he brought. I just thought the drowd mail from the start just dropped the ball with some of the comments he's making in the preseason, and then it just kept going downhill from there, and I think.
That's where they're trying to look.
I thought it was interesting that three days they fired Mayo, three days after Rabel interviewed with the Jets.
Yeah, oh, this was just little Jeb there right, Oh yeah, this was to go there.
This was all choreographed, which is frustrating. I think if you want the Rooney Roll to be respected, if even as a Patriots fan, like you want them to consider all possible options, like a Ben Johnson even like I think Ben Johnson was like a sham interview, Like it's just which is too, Like it was just from the reporting that was there, and it's from really strong people, Greg Badard, Tom Kurrn. They were saying things like ninety
plus percent the whole time. They were saying that literally before any of this was happening, So it was always happening and maybe maybe it'll be good, it'll definitely it just should definitely help their twenty twenty five like win loss record, which is the idea. Maybe I shouldn't be whiny about it. I want to see what the offensive coordinator is. If it winds up being Josh McDaniels, I'm not gonna be happy.
Let's get Josh McDaniels back in there, get the gang back together. Greg, what's Bill?
What's Patricia doing?
The only he's down with Bill? Right, That's what I think.
So thank you, that's gonna go great.
Yeah that is too and yeah, do you already hear that he's bringing in his GM candidate that isn't necessarily gonna be the GM because Elliott Wolf will still be there, but maybe he'll be over Elliott Wolf.
And so this is that was a problem for Vrabel back there.
And I don't want all this like palace intrigue and source offs and.
All of that, but palace intrigue in New England.
And exactly before we go and uh, yeah, we appreciate everyone and listened to two shows with us this weekend. I do want to let you know how you can contribute to the American Red.
Cross relief effort.
Obviously, it's been a really difficult week with the wildfires across the Greater LA region. Families affected by those fires do need support, and you can help the American Red Cross respond help people recover from the disasters. Donate today to support the relief efforts by going to Redcross dot org slash NFL. And yeah, I know people because I know they've reached out in my life wanting to know.
And it's so crazy how quickly everything changes, you know, and how this fire is going Saturday, it was moving like down the four or five is moving east and is moving south. It was moving away basically from where I was, and the strength of this fire was it changed dramatically between Thursday and Friday night was getting to be really scary. And then Saturday, like is my son's birthday this weekend, and we wanted to go up to take him to his favorite card store and go buy
some cards. And I'm driving back on the four or five past the end. It's a crazy world we're living in, and you can just see this incredibly huge fire right to your right, and everyone else is just like going about their day because they say it's safe to drive there. And then by Sunday it was I think the most positive day that we've had this whole time. The Palisades fire is under better control than it's been this whole time, and things are really looking up in the in the
short term, so that is really good. But Tuesday is supposed to bring like more more wind, like a crazy wind event, and it could all start up in different places in the city, and it's been it's been a lot to deal with Patrick obviously stressful for so many people that are affected much more than we are.
Yeah, and absolutely, and there's there's resources gonna put some out if you're listening. You'll scroll back on Blue Sky Twitter. Still some volunteers needed if you're looking in the LA area. Several different spots as a Google Google dot going around
that will be able to share. But just the thanks going out to all the firefighters, including the thirty percent of them are incarcerated out there with shovels digging literally to prevent fire spread, and you know, rescue workers just by name, everybody out that's bringing clothes, food, finding places for cats and dogs.
Really just our little adopted hometown here kind of.
I know. I love I love La And it's such a big place it's hard to put your arms around it, and yet it can feel almost small in a situation like this. And everywhere I go here I see a lot of like lines to donate around me because I'm in Santa Monica, which is you know, right next to the Palisades there and a lot of people trying to help and coming together as a community. And yeah, I liked, you know how, shout out to Mexico for sending up a bunch of virus fighters. Like I saw him, I
saw him go by. I was like, there we go like we're we're getting it. We're getting it done like and uh, as we move forward into this week, we can just only hope that that it continues to get better and everyone stay safe and uh yeah, we're.
Just we're just hoping for the best. It's it's all we can do.
And and Shook, I'll be back with you on Monday night.
Thank you, Kevin.
Patra, thanks for having me stop and by this, I'm natural ye just fly out just for this silver.
Silver fox here. Look well we're.
Down to only one game left and wild card weekend.
You know, football is back. Give us a good one, Bikings and Rams.