Colin Cowherd’s Instant Reaction - Wild Card: Raven/Bengals, Giants/Vikings, Dolphins/Bills

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quarterback back instead of Lamar Jackson. You know, fourteen point swing on that goal line quarterback sneak where they were about half a yard to a yard too far out. I didn't think that was a brilliant play call by the Ravens staff, and it was a fourteen point swing. And there's your ball game right there. I talked about this last week on the volume. When you ask a team even if it's a superior team, and the Bengals with Burrow are clearly the better team. They were favored

by nine and a half. Ravens covered, but Bengals big favorite. You're gonna get close games. I mean, Miami. I'll get to that in a second. I thought out played Buffalo again even though they were out man, even though they were on a third quarterback. So these AFC North games are so competitive. Let's talk Cincinnati. I've had Cincinnati ranked number one in the league for about a month and a half, four or five, six weeks you know, they're not the same team now because of Lyle Collins, the

tackles out, Alex Kappa, the interior lineman's out. Jonah Williams, a tackle got hurt during this game. So they're down three starting offensive lineman. You're not going to win the AFC missing three starting offensive linemen. So they're a little bit in flux right now. And really how that slows you down. Burrow's going to have less time to throw, so that's going to take away a lot of the vertical passing game for Joe Burrow. He's not going to get,

you know, to pound the football back. There a couple of pomps three and a half seconds, that's over. That's the downside. You won't run the ball quite as effective. It'll take away some of your over the top stuff with Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins. You'll do more short passing underneath routes. You can be effective. You can move the ball, move the ball, but that's Cincinnati likes to occasionally with Burrow, go over the top. So Cincinnati got

dinged in this game, losing another offensive lineman. And let's face that they had a couple of players hurt because the games with the Ravens are so damned physical. So Cincinnati limped and wobbled out of this thing with aub We'll check on their injuries throughout the week. But they got dinged. They got dinged in this game. It was like every game this weekend. A very unique game. I thought Tyler Huntley played his butt off. You know, he's

a backup in this league. Total gamer. Played his college ball at Utah. Watched him there, but you know he's a pro. He's a gamer. We've seen it with Taylor Heineke. You see it with Tyler Huntley. Athletic guys undersized, not going to build a franchise around him. But in a one game setting, anything can happen. So Cincinnati goes on to win. Dinged up. Will update you, everyone will throughout the course of the week, but they have been weakened

because of these offensive line injuries. Let's move to the Giants win. I guess it's an upset over the Vikings, although it didn't feel like that. You know, I can hear all Giant fans now, the owner Mara said, we're back. Well kind of. This league overwhelmingly is about two things. Find the right coach, the Giants have and find the right quarterback kind of You know, a lot of the downfield statistics are not great for Daniel Jones. Some of

that is it's a pretty anemic receiving corps. They're going to go have to go out fix the interior O line. I would go out if they couldn't get another tight end, get another wide receiver. This offense needs a lot of work. It's kind of a classic Giants team. You can go back to Jeff Hostetler, Phil Simms, the Eli Manning teams.

It feels like the Giants always have a good, solid running game, a better than average quarterback though not super athletic, good defensive front, and they've when they've had the right coach Parcels, Tom Coughlin and now Brian Dable, they can win playoff games, especially on the road. Daniel Jones now is pretty athletic, and there's a fundamental advantage in the NFC. You don't have the Burroughs. Send him the Homes and

the Josh Allens. You know, Daniel Jones, with his legs, his size, with that run game, he can stack up pretty much in the NFC. This is not the AFC. He doesn't have to win by a shootout. I mean when I'm watching Daniel Jones against Kirk Cousins, Daniel looks bigger and stronger than he did a year ago. He's much better athlete than Kirk Cousins. He probably has a stronger arm, and I thought he played with more confidence than Kirk Cousins. It was very telling late in the game.

Not only did Kirk Cousins on a fourth and eighth throw underneath, but the previous drive the Viking staff had him throwing screens. Brian day Bole has unleashed Daniel Jones over the last four or five games. He's really unleashed him. He's throwing the ball down the field, He's taken shots, He's letting him move. I think it's a great if you're a Giants fan, that this coaching staff has gained trust in Daniel Jones. He looks more confident. He's always been a big kid. He looks a little bigger, a

little more willing to run. Not only do they design running place for him, but he's more confident and willing to run. So I do think there's this ceiling right now with this Giants team. But if I told you before this season with the Daniel Jones, we had seen, Hey, they'll get into the playoffs, go on the road and win a playoff game. You would have taken that in a New York minute. So much of this league is

coaching quarterback, and Dable is a home run. I have my reservations big picture with Daniel Jones, but with this quarterback, they're only going to get better in the draft. Tight end, another receiver, clean up the interior O line. Pretty interesting for people in Minnesota veter at wits end with Kirk Cousins. This is who he is, you know, one o'clock window. Kirk Cousins. He's not a playoff guy. He's not a

big play guy. Is it frustrating? Yes, But as Greg co Sell has often told me, there's only five or sixth great quarterbacks in this league. Somebody's got to have Kirk Cousins right, He's going to need to be surrounded by more. But I mean listen, throwing underneath to a tight end in man coverage is useless. A corner on a tight end underneath is useless. Kirk should know better, but I think he plays with his teeth clenched and he plays scared. In big spots, and I think it's obvious.

You know, they drafted a quarterback Texas Han m a few years ago. If I was the Vikings, I would draft a quarterback every year, third, fourth, fifth round. See if I'm yet lucky. Kirk Cousins was a fourth rounder. But for the time being, they won their division. They want a lot of one score, close games. What you don't want to be in the NFL is chaotic at quarterback.

You're not with Kirk Cousins. But going into this weekend, a lot of people, myself included, had a strong feeling about the Giants winning the game, and one of the reasons was Kirk Cousins and that Vikings run defense. And in both instances you saw the weakness up close and personal. All right. First game of the day was Buffalo in Miami. Surprisingly close. So I talked about what concerns me about Cincinnati. They've been dinged with the injuries to the offensive line.

I think something that's very obvious now as Brian Dayble has cleaned up the game of Daniel Jones, completions up, turnovers down. Josh Allen has gotten in the second half of the season increasingly turnover prone and sloppy, missed open receivers, missed wide, missed high made poor decisions, bad choices, especially

in crucial times. This Buffalo team is really talented. I've compared them multiple times to Mike Tyson, not the early Mike Tyson, who had a little bit of a jab, had custom Atto as a trainer, was really an ascending boxer with a lot of weaponry. At the end, Tyson was sloppy, didn't have much of a jab, wasn't no it was in the greatest shape, but he still had

knockout power. Buffalo does a lot of things poorly. I felt for the second time Mike McDaniel, with a significantly less talented quarterback went into Buffalo and out coached Sean McDermott. No doubt in my mind, back to back. I think McDaniel's got a great future. Whether they bring back two or not. There's a report earlier today they're bringing back Ta. That's fine. I don't think in a division with Josh Allen.

If the Jets went out and got a Derek car or a better quarterback or Ryan Tannehill, I think there's limitations to Ta physically athletically be that as at May, I think McDaniel's an excellent coach. It's hard. There was a couple of things situationally, I didn't love with Miami, but he's clever. I thought he outcoached McDermott for the second time in two meetings. I have grave concerns about

Buffalo's ability to play clean football. You're not beat in Kansas City right now, and it feels like it's getting worse. You know, I've said throughout the course of the season, they tend to bail on the run game. They need Josh Allen too much in their run game. Stefan Digs is excellent. Gabriel Davis had a little bit of a showing today. Dawson Knox the one headed touchdown catch. That've got the weapons. It's not a lack of talent, but they're sloppy a lot often. This game should have been

over several times. So, you know, my takeaway throughout the course of the weekend is number one. Not only was the comeback by Jacksonville startling, the second half domination by Brock Purdy's offense in San Francisco was startling. This was a great wildcard weekend. I don't remember anything like it. Every game was unique. Brock Pretty as a rookie, had one of the great second halfs ever for a rookie quarterback in the playoffs. The Chargers blow a twenty seven

nothing lead. Keep your eye on Sean Payton for that job. All of the Spanosas may not want to pay that kind of money. Buffalo gets a real scared by outmanned Skyler Thompson and the Dolphins. The Giants, Daniel Jones looked like a significantly better quarterback to me than Kirk Cousins. Have they found their guy. Probably they're going to keep him for a while. And Baltimore on a fourteen point swing,

was a play away from potentially beating Cincinnati. So I just thought, from top to bottom, it was an outstanding Wildcard weekend. I said, going into the weekend, I worried that you put in a couple of years ago another playoff team Seattle in Miami, and I said, cross your face, is one of these teams going to get knocked out? Is a star player from a team the Niners who should have a buy or the Bills who should have a buy going to get knocked out? Crossed our fingers.

Everything went sort of kind of as planned, I don't really count Jacksonville as an upset in that space. If I'd have told you going into the weekend, one team will blow a twenty seven nothing lead, it would be the Chargers. Would it not be the Chargers. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and there was always sort of a running joke with the Washington State Cougars Kugnet because they just had a way of blowing games, and chargering is a term used in the NFL. I have

said this multiple times. I think Brandon Staley's smart, but I don't think he's created a consistent identity for this team. If you go and look at second half stats offensively and defensively for the Chargers, they struggle to adjust on both sides of the ball. They're a bad second half defense and a bad second half offense. I don't know what to tell you. I think Sean Payton is the answer. Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley feel like they're wasting some

of Justin Herbert's inexpensive years. But the Spanos family historically go look at their coaching hires. They don't pay big money. You'd have to buy out a couple of years from Brandon Staley, Sean Payton's going to cost you twenty million dollars a year. Do I think it's worth it? Yes, for a franchise that would sell tomorrow for four or five billion dollars. Do I think paying the second most important person on a football team quarterback one coach too?

Do I think he's worth twenty billion dollars? Yes? And I believe it's the only job Sean Payton has truly ever wanted. He would go back to the Saints if he could get a star quarterback, or the Chargers and Justin Herbert. It's a really good roster. I think they have a smart young coach, but he's not a great coach, and Sean Payton is. That's our Sunday night instant reaction from a fabulous and tense and dramatic and weird NFL

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