January 20, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of Move the Sticks, Daniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks, and Rhett Lewis deliver an in-depth breakdown of all the action from the Divisional Round playoff games. After recapping the weekend’s biggest moments, the crew shifts their focus to the highly anticipated College Football Playoff National Championship, previewing the clash between Ohio State and Notre Dame.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to move the sticks, DJ, Bucky
Rhett with you guys. I got to say it was
fun yesterday. Not only a great games, incredible games, which
we're going to get into on today's episode, but it
was fun to actually be together read I don't know
the last time we were all together sitting there watching
(00:20):
a football game. That was fun.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, it's kind of been been some pieces of us here,
you know, throughout Thursdays and Sundays, and Bucky and I
have been on the desk for NFL Game Day highlights
throughout the playoffs on Sundays, which has been fun to
you know, kind of take one of the games and
then push it forward into what we're going to see
in the next one. And I think the one thing
that we all kind of you know, witnessed in that
Eagles Rams game was something that kind of was the
(00:43):
theme for the day, which were our turnovers really hindering
the losing team in this one.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
And we'll get into that throughout.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
But it was a good weekend of football, some good
hard football really all around.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
You know, it's funny to playoffs change, but the way
that you win doesn't.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
And the guys that don't make a lot of mistakes,
the teams that don't beat themselves are the ones that
continue to advance. And we saw a time and time
again we talked about turnovers being the number one deciding
factor and who wins and loses games. It's that is
blowing assignments, is silly penalties, things that you would tell
a little league team if you want to be really good,
if you just do these things, you have a chance.
(01:20):
And it's not so much teams winning games, is teams
losing games, and if you can avoid the implosion, you
have a chance to advance. And that's what we really
saw this weekend with all the teams that were able
to advance.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Buck, you'll appreciate this because you know that I like
baseball and I always bring stuff back to baseball. Red
hates baseball, so he's not going to participate in this
particular analogy. But I was watching those games, Yeah, I
was watching those games just thinking of the Yankees in
the World Series. Like you think about all the effort
it takes to get to this point, and then like
the simple things two hands on the ball, in the
(01:53):
pocket right when you've got a crowd around, you keep
your left hand on the football. When you catch the
ball in the middle of the field, you've got to
cover up because you don't know where defenders are coming from.
Like that's like Aaron Judge dropping a fly ball. That's
like them. Not that's not like Garrett Cole not covering
first base. Like these are things that you learn in
the earliest part of your football career and it's amazing,
(02:15):
and the biggest moments on the biggest stage buck that
some of that stuff is what caused you to lose.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I'm so glad that you brought us back to baseball
because one of my favorite quotes comes from Joe Madden,
who won the World Series with the Chicago Cubs, and
their theme that year they won it was do simple
better and literally in the postseason is if you just
do the simple things better than your opponent, you're going
to win. And you just talk about avoiding the unforced
eras the things that you really can control, because you
(02:42):
can control all those things. When it comes to ball security,
you understand winning the crowd, cover up to put two
hands on it, make sure you don't line up all
size all those other things, and it's just amazing, you know.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
And it'll take us to the kanc Chiefs.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
When we eventually get there, people get mad at the Chiefs,
but to me, the chief said, done what the Patriots
did when they had their run. They've learned how to
do those little things better than their opponent, and whatever
they need to do on a given day, they do.
And that's why they've been very, very hard to beat.
And that's why they also excelled in those one score games.
(03:16):
They don't give games away.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, you know, RTT. I want to get to you,
and we'll start here with the last game we saw,
which was Baltimore Buffalo, and we can jump into that.
But you kind of connected the two games with the turnovers.
So there's five turnovers combined for the teams that lost
and a clean sheet for the two teams that won
on Sunday. I'm talking about the Sunday games. So you
also had in that game, I believe, let's see Josh
(03:41):
Allen in terms of passing yard one hundred and twenty seven.
Jalen hurts one hundred and twenty eight. Like they are
not going to light up the stat sheet, but they
protected the football and that was enough. Their defense is
played great. But just starting with that one, Baltimore Buffalo,
let's start first of all on the Baltimore side of things. Look,
Mark Andrews, I don't know how we got to start there, right, Yeah,
(04:02):
I mean that's where you got to start.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Man, tough.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I feel for Mark Andrews, right, this is what a
roller coaster of a season. I remember it started out
he was, you know, kind of an afterthought, you know,
early in the year, and Isaya likely was catching and
then he caught fire and was a big reason eleven touchdowns. Yeah,
on the stretch and then just to see it, you know,
kind of come to an end right there on a
play like that that you know, I think you know
(04:28):
talking about on the broadcast he makes nine hundred and
ninety nine times out of one thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But look, it was a hard play.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It was not an easy catch, right, I'll say that
when you're off balance a little bit right and kind
of falling backwards. But that's a play Mark Andrews makes.
When you're an All Pro and Pro bowlder, that's the
kind of play your team, you know, needs you to make.
But again, you come back to it also like he's
also a reason why they're in that position. He also
had a fumble earlier in the game that was tough.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And resulted in three points going the other way. Those
five points on two plays is really.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, it's it's hard.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's hard to boil it down like that because obviously
you need to look at it in totality, but it's
hard to separate that from the fact that those two
plays were massive.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Yeah, you know the thing about it, the two point play,
And I wonder when you look at Lamar Jackson and
the wind up, it almost reminded me of.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Another baseball reference, a change up, you know what I'm saying.
So like you're sitting here waiting for you're you're ready
for the.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Fastball, and you get the change up or the knuckleball,
and it's a minor thing, but it's made you when
you're falling back and you anticipate maybe a little more velocity.
But I understand why Lamar Jackson did it, because he
didn't want to pull the stream. He didn't want to
blow the layup, and so in maybe trying to help
Mark Andrews, maybe Jackson hurt him by taking a little
(05:51):
off the ball.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Which is hard to say.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
We're gonna blame the quarterback for a drop pass.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, I wanted to go back. I haven't had a
chance to go back and see it yet, but you
guys remember their loss against the Steelers. They ran their
two point play with Lamar going left and then they couldn't.
They he couldn't. I don't think somebody could get out.
I think the tight end was trying to getut into
the flat. They couldn't. They blew it up and they
tackled Lamar getting out. I meant Herbig might be the
(06:18):
one who kind of blew it up, but then they
it was just kind of they got him on the move.
They got him on the move left and it got
blown up and it almost looked like it was going
to be a quarterback sweep, almost a tight play. But
I go back and look at that play. But in
this one, obviously they're going to the right, and I
almost felt like all eyes were on Lamar and they
kind of sold out as if Lamar was going to
run the ball. So you get him wide open, and
I've been and I've been in that situation, Buck exactly
(06:40):
what you're talking about, and it's like he's so open.
I don't want anything too firm, so it just it
just kind of pulls. It just kind of just kind
of pull it off a little bit. But he he's
got to catch the ball, man, he's got to catch
the ball. And it was a heck of a drive
by Lamar and getting them right down the field. We
were watching at the time. Buck, I don't know where
you thought about it, but I there was some There
(07:02):
was some conversation in the room when they had the
fourth down. Rosenthal, I see, if Rosenthal confesses this, you
tweet it. Rosental said he, oh, did he tweet it?
He said, oh, they should go they should go for it.
And I said no, no, no, no, no. If you go for it,
there's one drive you lose. You kick the field goal.
You have three opportunities left to win the game. You
(07:23):
hold them without a touchdown, you win the game. You
give them a touchdown, but you stop the two point conversion,
You win the game. You give up the touchdown, the
two point conversion, you still go to overtime with a
chance to win the game. Like that gives you three
opportunities to win the football game. You have to kick
that field goal.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
It is mitigating risks right in those moments is mitigating risks? Okay,
So even at their worst, as you laid out your
three scenarios, we still go to overtime. I understood it
because I sat there and I had to tweet compose.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
I couldn't get it out because I couldn't get my
thoughts together.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
But I was like, okay, a lot of questions on
third down before to get the third down, I was saying, okay,
are you approaching this with two plays to school because
the ball was at the two.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
They got to the one yard line too, Yeah, yeah, they.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Got to the one yard line.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Then I was like, okay, man, Josh Allen is unstoppable
on quarterback.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Power or whatever you go.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
But they lost yardage and at that point I was like, man,
you gotta kick it right. You got to you got
to take the eight point advantage, and you got to
say a defense go Now.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I didn't know that Lamar Jess was.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Right down.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That the other thing, you know, like there would have
been about a minute and thirty o'clock left for Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
By the way, after the point version. This was not
a foregone conclusion.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You might have had four opportunities to win that game.
Then if that's the case, because you could have won
it in regulation and overtime or stop a touchdown or
stop the two point. That was the right decision by McDermott.
And he said it after the game. He's like, look,
if we were right on the doorstep, I probably go,
but not when we're you know, two and a half
to three yards, Like that's that's too much. So I
thought that was smart on their end. Man, Derrick Henry,
(09:03):
they you know, he had a couple runs in the
third quarter, but Buffalo, I thought, you know, that's what
they had to do. They had to sell out to
try and take him away. And if you hold him
under eighty five yards, which they did sixteen for eighty four.
And I was kind of, you know, one of those
people I picked Buffalo to win, but I did think
Derrick Henry had a chance to dominate that game because
Buffalo is not real big. But man, they played big.
(09:26):
They penetrated, and as we've said Buck, we've said this,
we're talking about Dereck Henry for years, like it's a
very simple formula. It's not easy to execute, but it's simple,
and that you must take that runway and you must
shrink that runway down because if he gets a runway,
you got no shot. And the only way you shorten
a runway is with penetration.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Yeah, and I would give Buffalo a lot of credit
because they played on the move their frontline. There's I mean,
it almost reminded me of watching like a college game.
You remember when TCU played Michigan and there was a
lot of conversation about Missigan was going to blow TCU
over because they're playing like, oh, a forty five or
three to three five defense.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
There's no way they can stop.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
And all the movement and the speed and the explosiveness
upfront created problems at times. However, the Baltimore Ravens had
it rolling and the fumble Andrews gave up that led
to three points that drive.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
I mean, they had him moving, they had.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Run the football, they were throwing it, they had balanced
in those things, and the Buffalo Bills made key plays
and key moments to halted drives. And that's ultimately the difference.
The three turnover margin is why the Buffalo Bills go
on and the Baltimore Ravens are packing it up.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah. Mantt. By the way, uh, Jay Flowers not being
in that ball game. I think that's a big deal.
I had some people get upset with me because I
said it on TV that like, gosh, they really missed him,
and I got the everybody has injuries comment, and I'm like, look,
we talked about it. Yeah, we said that Detroit missed Hutchinson,
like we've talked about people. I'm not saying that's the
(10:58):
sole reason they didn't win the game, but yeah, would
have been nice for him to have him out there.
But I thought that was that was legitimate.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, I mean, like this was when you take the
turnovers out of it, this was a hard fought game
on both sides. Like it was not just like a
and this was not the Ravens team that that forgot
about the run game.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
You know, in the postseason, they still ran the ball.
Justice Hill ran the they like.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You know what's interesting is it was really feast or
fan for the Ravens on offense.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
If it wasn't a chunk.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Play, it wouldn't happen both in the past game and
the run game.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Like all.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I mean because Anders had two, Derrick Henry had two.
It's just a lot of self inflicted wounds man.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it really was.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
And but the defense played phenomenal, like they keep the
Bills under three hundred total yards.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I don't think you could ask for much more than that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
No, Y, go ahead, Buck.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I would say this because there's always gonna be a
conversation about Lamar Jackson. I think we have touch on it,
like the narrative that goes on about Lamar Jackson in
the postseason. Now, I think from a personal standpoint, Lamar
Jackson will walk away from this game with confidence knowing
that he can play well in those big moments. He
hadn't played well in one of these divisional round AFC
championship games. I feel like after those early turnovers, he
(12:18):
played pretty well. Capped off at that final drive, I
think he has to figure out a way how to
calm himself down, because once he calmed down in the
floor of the game, he was able to play really well.
To me, is his emotional control at the outset that
they have to work on to allow him to get
past these moments.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, And I would just still last thing I would
say on this game, Like, to me, a lot of
the way this game ended up being played out was
what happened at the border line of the first and
second quarter. You know the interception. Yeah, it didn't end
up hurting them because Buffalo punted away after the pick,
but obviously it ruined an opportunity for you to go
down there and score. But then you know, they go
(12:58):
down and then on the next they fumble, right, you
get the fumble, Buffalo recover, scores a touchdown. Then on
the Ravens next drive they get all the way down
to the Buffalo eight and have to kick a field goal,
and then Buffalo comes back and scores a touchdown, and
you're sitting there in his twenty one points. And that
second quarter, that first is second quarter really kind of
(13:18):
determined to me the way that the rest of the
game ended up being played.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, that was crucial. Let's let's get to the other
game that we saw yesterday, which was another great game.
Came down to the very end with the Rams ball
in their hands, chance to go down there win. Let
me just ratt I'll tee you up on this one first.
But if I told you before the game, Matthew Stafford's
going to throw for three twenty four to two touchdowns,
no picks. Jalen Hurts is only going to throw for
(13:42):
a buck twenty eight with no touchdowns. Kyra Williams is
going to have one hundred and six yards on the ground.
Your defense is going to compile seven sacks. You sit there, think, gosh,
we got a pretty good shot at going on there
and beating the Philadelphia Eagles in this one. But the
problem being Saquon Barkley, major problem. Putting the ball on
the ground twice, major major problem, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Stafford once and then the Kyra Williams one is really tough
because you just got the safety right. You just sacked
Jalen Hurts, who looks like, you know, a wounded animal
back there. He can't move around with the knee or
whatever it was that ended up bothering him, and they
sack him down there. You get the ball back, you're
within a point, and now you turn it right back
(14:26):
over to them. They return it all the way deep,
you know, into your own territory, and the air just
goes out of the balloon for a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Now it came back.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It came back late, late, late, like a little bit
too late, you know, as you go under four minutes,
they made a heck of a push and really had
an opportunity there if not for Jalen Carr, who was
an absolute beast as he's been just dominating inside, sacking
Stafford on the third and two, turning it into a
fourth and eleven and then causing pressure again to force
a quick throw from Stafford that.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Ends up ending the game and ending the season. And
that's what it came down to me, like thinking about that.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Game for me, and obviously with the turnovers and that's
a turnover run downs there, but the car crash at
the ending, like it's fourth and eleven, you think you're
going to have a shot to go in here and
win this game and then pay him.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Play football is hard.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Yeah, No, I mean it is hard, and it's the
emotional swings that you must handle, like being able to
deal with the ups and downs and those things. And
if you're the la Rams, you certainly feel like you
let one slip out of your hands. You had it
the game under control, and it look you have the safety.
And after the safety, I was like, oh man, this
is all bad for the Philadelphia Eagles. You're now giving
(15:40):
Matthew Stafford the ball back. He has an opportunity to
go down the feeling the pressure that they would have
had Jalen Hurst being down at home, all that aks
and anxiety, But the fumble, you scoop it up and
push you in a position. But I'm would say this, man,
the Eagles have to learn how to cash in these
chances in the red zone. Like this was a game
where they had a chance to go in and just
punch in penalty, packed them up and just the field
(16:02):
goal fest.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
And at some.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Point you can't keep trading threes for sevens. You're gonna
end up on the store end of the stick. And
they were able to get away with it, but they're
not gonna be able to win in the championship game
if they don't cash in on those type ridson opportunities.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
You know what's interesting though about the Eagles, man, is
I feel like every week and it's not just you
know what our conversation is here, it's everywhere. I just
hear people, man, They just everybody hates the way the
Philadelphi Eagles win football games. And I'm sitting here going, well, okay, well,
if we throw out, if we throw out. Jalen Hurts
(16:37):
getting knocked out in the first quarter against Washington, right
and By the way, if if DeVante Smith catches the ball,
they still win that game. That the last time they
lost a football game was in September. So this this
team is not even clicking. They're not even clicking, so
they lose football games.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
So what you're saying, are they the NFC version of
the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
That's what I'm hearing.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, yeah, they were clean. They were cleaning this game.
They haven't always been clean, no, no, but in terms
of and things like that, but they don't.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
They know how to win games. They know how to
win games. If you leave it hanging in the balance,
they'll find a way to do it. And we can
talk about the dysfunction in the locker room and are
they all on the same page, But you're right, at
the end of the weekend, they always put a dub
in the win column.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
And that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Let me ask you this, Let me ask you this.
One of the things we've always said about the Kansas
City Chiefs, and we've said it about other teams, championship teams,
and we can go through all of them. Von Miller
notoriously with the Denver Broncos. What do we say about
those championship teams on defense, they have a closer. Oh
the Clods it up, Chris Jones? Is that you know what?
Jalen Carter closer? He closed that game?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Old Smith was part of it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Smith was j Carter that game he closed out?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
How about that? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
First with Jalen Carter, like Jalen Carter being everything that
we talked about, and it's one of the reasons why
we need to put the pencil down once we get
the calendar flips because everyone loved him the player at Georgia.
You're worried about the character, but the player on tape,
there weren't many questions about what it can be. He
has been exactly what he was at Georgie in terms
of a disruptive force at the point of attack. You've
seen Vic Fangio unleash him and the bigger the moment, the.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Better he plays.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
But how about Nolan Smith, Because there was a lot
of controversy about Nolan Smith being picked, where it was
picked and what the position was going to be. Give
the Eagles credit for having a vision for how he's
going to play, but really give Vic Fangio credit for
finding a way to really unlock the potential because Nolan
Smith has been terrific.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
He's really been great throughout this playoff runt.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I would just call up the tweet that Jackie and
Draid sent out and because a couple of guys right,
because it was Nolan Smith. Was I think DJ your
best value in the first round?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yes, yeah, in terms of where you had right that
was twenty twenty three. I'm pulling it up right now.
I'm pulling it up right now. Yeah. So Nolan Smith
I had is my thirteenth player and he was the
thirtieth pick.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Yep, you know who My.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Comp was, ironically sweat Yeah, nice stand up, juicy change
of direction, he's got risk control, he can bend and
close plays with burst. I've made a point in here
about just like an effort thing, which you know I
always think is a big deal. That had a fake
punt called by Auburn and when I was watching that
(19:24):
game and he freaking stuffed it, which was like, Okay,
this guy's this guy's got all this athletic ability and explosiveness,
but he's also an instinctive football player. He's needed to play,
he's need to get out there. He'd missed some time
with injuries, and now you're seeing a chance that he's
got to play more and more and more. And he's
he's not the biggest guy in the world, but he
is a savage man.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
And then was the other one, Yeah yeah, yeah, one
of the last picks of the draft, and yet you
had him in a like right around one hundred, So
they got some good value there.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
What is what does juicy mean? I've never used that
in what is juicy su? I've never used I've never
used juicy. It's a new term for me. So I
just need to figure.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Out how you say if yeah, if you say like
a receiver's got juice, Like there's an explosiveness, but like
everything that no one Smith does, like as someone in
the front seven, everything's just got a lot of juice
to it. Like there's just speeding, twitch and explosiveness. No
matter where he's going, he's just got juicy. Dude, Like,
you know what you've been doing.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
You've been hangling those baseball scouts for too long. I'm
gonna restrict you from texting.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
With I need more words. I just sit here. I
feel like understand.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
I feel like our guys from way back would be
like DJ, you know we've never used that in the report.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
No, I'll tell you what I'm always I'm always looking
for new ways to say this. I'll be honest with you,
Like just to nerd out for a second, Like, there's
there's lots of scouting phrases that I've heard and picked
up since I left as a scout, like two of
my favorites over the last ten years. This is totally
off topic, but uh, stopping power as a tackler. I
(21:00):
ever used that when I was writing, but I heard
it for the first time. I was like, I, when
I hear a term and I know exactly what it
looks like, that's a great that's a great scouting term,
stopping power. And then the other one was and this
I think might have been from less Snead was he
he said that with the Rams, they focus on guys
who are grounded through the catch and that's Puka, that's all.
(21:20):
That's all. They're guys that they've brought in, which buck
is someone who's played the position. When you hear that,
you're like, oh, yeah, because the guys are confidence in
their hands, they run through the ball, they don't leave their.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Yeah, try try and create.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah. Yeah, And guess.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
What grounded through the catch point a little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
There go there you go, Yeah, I guess what you're Also,
you're also way more likely to break tackles when you
have your feet in the ground. So but anyways, those
are those are nerdy scout topics. There anything else on
that game, Buck, you want to hit on before we
take a break?
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Here, No, we're good on that one.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
All right, let's take a break, we come back. We'll
hit on these Saturday games right after this. All right, well,
let's uh, let's work from that Saturday night game, probably
the most surprising outcome of the weekend. Uh rhtt I
gotta tell you, man, I got This is what happens
(22:13):
with Bucky. He goes out and he makes strong takes.
He doesn't, he doesn't. She's not shy. He puts a
strong opinion out there. And I think he ranked I
don't even know what he ranked quarterbacks somehow, and he
had Jade Daniels up high in staid ranking. So so
I get hit. I get to go get your boy.
Your boy doesn't. He's crazy, He's lost it. What is
(22:35):
Bucky saying? And I'm like, I have no idea what
you're even talking about what is going on, and then
I finally started doing some homework, investigative work. I'm like, oh,
Bucky Jayde Daniels is legit, and Bucky put it out there,
and then all of a sudden, Jade Daniels goes and
does his thing, and Rhett, you'll be surprised to know
none of those same people had the were telling me
to get my guy anymore.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
So so rhtt to take you back.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
So DJ was out, it was Lance and I hosting
the pod, and we did a thing called Playoff Tiers
with the quarterbacks and so Tier one are your elite guys,
and so it was Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson,
and then if.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Through Jaydon Daniels and there now you know, yeah, spice
it up a little bit, so like yeah, listens like.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Whoa this is before the playoffs start and people are like,
how can you put him in Tier one before he
even plays a playoff game? Well that's the fun and
projecting like if I want to wait after seeing him,
like anybody can do that like that, that's what we're projecting, like,
And so the thing is, and I'll say this like
he is even beyond and It's also funny, like when
(23:43):
you go back in your notes and you recall certain
conversations that you had with people before and they gave
you a different answer on Jaydon Daniels, and then you
talk to him now at Arizonunderstated, They're like, oh, yeah,
we always doing I'm like, oh, they celebrated when he left,
they celebrated, and now he's He's the one doing the celebration.
I will say his boys, his confidence, his composure, on
(24:06):
top of the skills that he brings, he epitomizes what
you look for in a franchise player. And I can
only relate it to my time in Green Bay when
Brett Farr was in the middle of his three MVP
run and how on defense we felt when we had
number four on the team.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
We're like, if we can just get the ball back,
he'll figure it out.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
And the conversations that you hear from the Commander's players
are very similar to that. He gives us hope, we
believe we can win because that dude is special. When
you have veteran players like Bobby Wagner and older players
saying that about the young guy, that's when you buy
in because the players will tell you real quickly. If
a guy has it, he definitely has the if factor
(24:45):
that you need.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I hard argue with that, and I just I think
truly when you look at that team and you look
at the way that he has elevated everyone around him
as such, I mean, this is that is a.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Team that they have. They're good defense. Dan Quin's a
heck of a coach.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I think Cliff Kingsbury has been a really nice job
of kind of managing the ebbs and flows of offensive production.
Whereas when he was with the Cardinals, it felt like,
man second half, like you started falling off the cliff
and they didn't find that plateau again.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
But it felt like this this.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Year, this team has found that plateau and like you
look at you know, personnel.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I mean we talked about the offensive line a bunch.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I mean, Terry McLaurin, I love, but I mean like
they are Dami Brown has come alive, like they are
finding ways, and I think Jayden.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Is the catalyst there.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
He is that good to where he is truly, you know,
the rising tide that is lifting all ships here in
this Washington Commander's franchise, and I think he deserves a
ton of credit for that beyond you know what his.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Special play is. I think it's I think it's inspired
for those guys. That's a tangible thing to me.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I went back and was just trying to go back
to the college stuff when he because it was just
I didn't have words for what he was doing, like
the way he was playing and the way he's played truthfully,
of just the poise, uh to go along with that,
like the ball placement, the accuracy he is processing. Like
to me, I think I tweet out i'd' understeen body
process that fast, that young, like he's got like some
(26:11):
Joe Burrow type processing stuff, which I don't say that lightly,
which is incredible. And so I was going back through
and I'm like, it's just so weird. He's played so
much football in college. And we talked about that with
him and Bo Nicks both having great years because they
both played so much. But it wasn't like it wasn't
like this just steady Eddie climb. It was okay, okay,
(26:33):
then that his his first year at LSU a little
bit better, and then all of a sudden just explodes
in his in his last year. And I was thinking
back and I don't know you know, because we're all
somewhat of similar age. Like when we used to have
to mow the lawn. We had an old lawnmower, and
you know you had to you had to pull it right,
so you got to pull that string and then so
you might have to pull it three or four times
(26:55):
it doesn't start, and then finally, like that fifth time
you pull it it starts. Works great. But I think
I was thinking of that as an analogy with these players
because they don't get much chance to fail in the NFL.
We move on. They're done. They're not good enough. So
it's like, man, in college, playing all those snaps, all
those years in college, you got time to get the
lawnmower started, and once it starts, it's good. And it's like,
(27:17):
that's the value in guys staying and playing extra time
in college is that, man, Man, they figured out because
once you figured out, you're good. But it's hard to
figure it out at the NFL level. Man, that if
you haven't had time to do that. That's my point book.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
No, I'm with you and the experience of being able
to go through those ups and downs, and we'll talk
about Jane Dames, but I think you always have to
include bo Nicks in that conversation because he's another one
who had all of that time at college. You find
his game, go through the ups and downs, and then
find his way to the other side. And we saw
the success that he was able to have as a rookie.
(27:53):
We've said this and read I think you've been on.
We said it like we kind of like our quarterbacks
to come into the league with some scuffs on them,
Like we don't want to bring new shoes that are
just completely polished and they don't have any I need
them scuffed up a little bit because it's going to
give me a chance to maybe get through the adversity
in the first year a little quicker. And for Jade Daniels,
he was able to get through that lo that go
(28:13):
outside with his rears being hurt. But he got through
that period and he is being great when they needed
him to be great.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, and look, I think that again like his.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
What we're talking about in being a player that elevates,
you know, you look at other rookies that have gone
to where he's taking this team to the championship. Brown,
I mean like they had dominant defenses and Washington's good
they're not.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
They're those quarterbacks. Those quarterbacks on that list that we
have on our chat right now were not the driving
force of their team. They were not the lead actor.
They were supporting characters. And this is a totally different deal.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
This is done like anything we've seen, truly, because none
of us would sit here and say, if you look
pound for pound, player for player on that Washington roster,
while they have played well together, that did not look
like an NFC Championship game roster.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
No, just just to be fair, No, No, it's incredible.
And look you took down the number one seed on
the road and did it convincingly. Just and and again.
Part of the story of the week, Buck is turnovers.
You know, that's it's been the it's been the theme,
uh through a bunch of these games. You get the
turnover margin, I don't know, five to nothing. That seems
(29:21):
like that's gonna be problematic if you're like, when you
turn that, but do you do you? We talked about
this because it looks like they're both gonna get head
coaching jobs. Ben Johnson OC is gonna get one and
Glenn's gonna get one, and they're both fantastic coaches. Fantastic candidates.
But we had said on here that look, you might
think there's I'm not distracted at all. There's no issues here.
(29:43):
You the way that these these organizations and buildings work
like it is an obsession. They work long hours to
get ready each and every week. You can't tell me
that doesn't have an impact. Man, When you're having to
do interviews for you know, your your dream jobs, the
job you've coveted it since you were a kid. How
could you not be a little bit distracted on that stuff?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Oh yeah, you can't. You can't fully focus.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
I don't care what you are because you're playing different
scenarios in your head. Who am I bringing with me?
What do I want? What am I looking for? You
have to have some knowledge of the other roster. I mean,
if you have multiple interviews three or four other rosters
and how you would build those teams, that's a lot
of brain space that's being occupied when you really need
to be focusing on the game plan. It's unfortunate that
(30:27):
they didn't play at their best, but it has to
play a small part and why maybe those teams on
both sides of the.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Ball didn't look the way they've looked the entire season.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, by the way, I think rap sheet just was
talking about Aaron glenn Is interviewing for the second time
in person with the Jets, and then he's got the
Saints right after that.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Feels like, yeah, he's getting one of those he's getting
one of those gigs and good friend, he's a good
football coach. But does this feel I don't want to
say window closing. I think that's a little early on
that one. But you also have your time when this
is your best shot, when you have home field advantage
all the way throughout, when you have continuity on your
coaching staff. I know the defense had been besieged with injury,
(31:07):
but man, that was still you know, this is a
This is.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
That you got to be.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You needed to beat a rookie quarterback, and then you
wouldn't You would have been at home against a hobbled
Jalen Hurts for a chance to go to a Super Bowl.
I mean that it's hard to see them having a
better opportunity than the one that they had this year,
which you know sucks for the Alliance.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, you can almost make the argument that you feel now,
look offensively, they've got a great young core and and
that's the kese in. You know, a young, young ish
quarterback in the prime of his career.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
You feel pretty good about that.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
But like you can almost make the argument that the
you know, you look at where the Rams are and
like they're feeling pretty good about that young group, especially
on defense that they've got, that they're going to continue
to get better in terms of window, you know, being open.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
The problem is, you know, how much longer are they
going to go with Stafford. I think it is obviously
the biggest difference there.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I would say also Detroit has a bunch of
good players on for on rookie deal too. They haven't
had to pay yet, so they're still talented. You know,
they got to make sure they filled the right spots. Here.
What the coaches are getting ready to lose Buck Houston,
Kansas City. We've touched on it a little bit earlier,
but it's just it's a clean brand of football. Man.
(32:16):
It's not always the most aesthetically pleasing, but the defense.
This is a defensive team. And that's why I've said,
I this used to be an explosive offense with an
opportunistic defense. Now it's an explosive defense with an opportunistic offense.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Yeah, and we can talk about the defense a sas
George gott Loftis and company really being able to get
after c. J. Stroud disrupt the rhythm dominated the game.
On that standpoint, Old coaches always talked about this. I'm
sure you got the we all played coming up where
the coach would say, hey, they're three phases in the
game for us to win, you got to win two
of them.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
And the Kansas City Chiefs won two phases. They won defense,
and they won special teams.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
As much as I want to talk about their defense
playing lights out, they won the game because of their
special teams and what they were able to do three
yard kickoff return right out the gate. They then benefited
from a miss field goal, a miss pat they blocked
the field goal. I mean, all the things that Dave
Toe and his units do. They they win in the margins,
(33:16):
and we've seen this time and time again.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
They understand what's required.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
To win and they're willing to make those plays in
those areas to win the game. Hass off to the
Chiefs continue to do what they do win.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And it's still, though, feels like this is a team
that's vulnerable like this is a I mean, this is
a team. While as sound as they are, you know,
in some of those areas that we're talking about, the
simple areas like if the team on the other sideline
can also do those things, it feels like more often
than not, they're gonna have a chance.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
To beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
The Houston Texans had every opportunity to beat the Kansas
City Chiefs. I mean, like, obviously, don't let up a
seventy five yard kick return on the opening kick and
special teams was a big reason why they were unable
to get it done. You know, miss field goals, I
get you know, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna you know,
bash Kamy Fairbarn too much for missing a fifty five yarder,
but extra point you know one that's a little lock
(34:14):
start block you got.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
You gotta find I get it. The other stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
It's tough conditions, but it's tough on the other side too.
But ultimately, like this was not a game where the
Texans were all classed even very short handed. Je I
just I didn't I didn't see it that way with
the way this thing ended up.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah, I mean, I it's just a The thing about
the playoffs is it always and I saw what the
Chargers doing their game against the Texans, is that your
warts have a way of appearing at the worst time.
And when I studied that Texans team getting ready for
that first playoff game, man, I'm like, gosh, if they
get behind, they they are awful at communicating games, twists
(34:54):
and blitzes up front like they they get more. And
it was like, well, here we are, and Buck, I
don't I don't want to. I hate it when we
do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. So yes,
you blanket statement, blanket statement. Here we go, blanket statement.
How many times have we seen the Shanahan offense when
they get down and there's no illusion of run and
(35:16):
it's dropped back past, they're done it.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
It's a big problem, and it's one of the things.
They always play from ahead. The offense is built to
play from ahead where they can dictate the terms, where
they can get you seduced by the run action and
then throw it down the field. We have seen that
time and time again, and when they are behind, they
don't have a true drop back component to the passing game.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
And so not that it's a narrow path to victory
for them.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
But the game plan in the game mode, the game
script can't go a rid because it's really hard for
them to climb their way back into it, just because
the playbook isn't built for them to be from behind.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
So it's something that they have to talk about, something
they have to work on.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
It's certainly something that's popped up not only in Houston
but with other teams to run iterations of this offense.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Guys, four of their eight sacks came in the final
four minutes of the game. You want to talk about closers, Yeah,
talk about the blitz being on CJ Stroud like that.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
To your point, DJ not being able to stuff is
coming front.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, Obviously, credit credit to Bags for understanding and taking
advantage of some of those weaknesses that you're talking about.
But CJ didn't have a chance on a couple of those,
like Justin Reids in the space mask like this, you know,
I mean it was that's there's no there's no winner
on that.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah. I think that's why it's also very important. And
we'll we'll get into tomorrow's episode, we'll start previewing the
the games going forward, but just one thing on that
is to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, I think you
have to get on them early and hang on. I
think that's that's the way to beat them. I don't
think you want to be in a trail position with
Spags and Chris Jones and all these different blitz packages
they're gonna throw at you. And Carl Loftus has really
(36:54):
started to merge and be a really good player. So
Kansas City they might just ugly their way to a
you know, fourth super Bowl here. I mean, that's that's
what they're doing. Man, there's something to be said for it.
I always just come back to Bucky's favorite line, you know,
winners win. I mean that's they just find a way
to get to the winner circle. Yeah, that's again it's
(37:17):
crazy to do it. All right, Well, this is fun
looking back on these ball games. We have another episode
coming up tomorrow where we will look ahead at the
conference championship games. I want to also real quick before
we get out of here, as we went along on this,
uh just a quick give me thirty seconds on how
in the world Notre Dame shocks the world tonight.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Rtt go ahead, Well, they don't they don't allow Ohio
State's defensive line to wreck shop like they've been doing throughout.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
The entire college Football Playoff.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Like I know, we look at you know, Jeremiah Smith
and Will Howard and Traveon Henderson. But to me, it's
j T Twee Molollow, it's Jack Sawyer, it's Ty Leek,
it's Ty Williams, that whole crew. If they are the
dominant position group in this game, Ohio State wins going
out because that means Jeremiah loves not run the ball
all over the place and Riley Leonard's getting pressured and
sacked and hit and that's going to be a recipe
(38:06):
for disaster. So to me, it's about a lot of
State's defensive line up front, which has been absolutely dominant
throughout the course of these last three games.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
To them. Yeah, for me, I may be the long
whoopingness because I actually like Notre Dame chances of pulling
this off. And I think the experience that they've had
in playing Notre Dame playing Ohio State before. I remember
they played Marvin Harrison junior and they were one of
the few teams at the time they played man demand
against Ohio State. I don't believe they're going to fear
Ohio State like some teams do. I think they're gonna
match up, They're gonna line up, and they're gonna try
(38:33):
and make this a Will Howard game. They're going to
dare the quarterback to make enough big plays to win,
and if Notre Dame is able to just cobble together
a similns of offense where they can control the game
and just get it to the fourth quarter, I feel
pretty confident that they're gonna be able to lock up
and play on the outside.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
I'm pretty confident.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
How many carries if Notre Dame wins the ballgame? How
many carries for Riley Leonard in this ball game book?
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Oh, I think we used them like a like this
is a.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
This is a tip. I was gonna say twelve to fifteen.
Speaker 5 (39:05):
Oh, this is this is uh and we've seen this
because it was funny. He is going to take the
direct snap, and he's going to power in iso and
all those things. I think you need no stone unturned. Yeah,
I think fifteen plus is what we're shooting for.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah. I think I think they got to turn Will
Howard over to win the ball game. Though, I think
they've got to turn him over a couple of times,
and maybe that's what they do. Maybe they just go
nose to nose, lock him up and uh and they
make play.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
Either they're gonna blow us out, but we're gonna win it.
But like playing zone and letting will Howard have whatever
he wants, that's not the recipe, No risky, no biscuits.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
That was the line. I think it was I remember
who did the report, but it was maybe it was
Jay Glazer in the pregame, but he was talking about
talking to Dan Quinn and he's like, how do you
feel about today? And he's like, we're going to take
our swings. I'll tell you that much. I was like, okay,
and they did. They were going for it on four
downs and just like there is no fear in this ojo.
We might lose, but we aren't going in there to
(40:02):
be towed and scared. It's all right, looking forward to
that ballgame. We'll recap that later on a week as well.
That's going to do it for I appreciate you guys
hanging on with us, See you next time. Right here,
onto the sticks,
And now Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to move the sticks, DJ, Bucky
Rhett with you guys. I got to say it was
fun yesterday. Not only a great games, incredible games, which
we're going to get into on today's episode, but it
was fun to actually be together read I don't know
the last time we were all together sitting there watching
(00:20):
a football game. That was fun.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, it's kind of been been some pieces of us here,
you know, throughout Thursdays and Sundays, and Bucky and I
have been on the desk for NFL Game Day highlights
throughout the playoffs on Sundays, which has been fun to
you know, kind of take one of the games and
then push it forward into what we're going to see
in the next one. And I think the one thing
that we all kind of you know, witnessed in that
Eagles Rams game was something that kind of was the
(00:43):
theme for the day, which were our turnovers really hindering
the losing team in this one.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
And we'll get into that throughout.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
But it was a good weekend of football, some good
hard football really all around.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
You know, it's funny to playoffs change, but the way
that you win doesn't.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
And the guys that don't make a lot of mistakes,
the teams that don't beat themselves are the ones that
continue to advance. And we saw a time and time
again we talked about turnovers being the number one deciding
factor and who wins and loses games. It's that is
blowing assignments, is silly penalties, things that you would tell
a little league team if you want to be really good,
if you just do these things, you have a chance.
(01:20):
And it's not so much teams winning games, is teams
losing games, and if you can avoid the implosion, you
have a chance to advance. And that's what we really
saw this weekend with all the teams that were able
to advance.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Buck, you'll appreciate this because you know that I like
baseball and I always bring stuff back to baseball. Red
hates baseball, so he's not going to participate in this
particular analogy. But I was watching those games, Yeah, I
was watching those games just thinking of the Yankees in
the World Series. Like you think about all the effort
it takes to get to this point, and then like
the simple things two hands on the ball, in the
(01:53):
pocket right when you've got a crowd around, you keep
your left hand on the football. When you catch the
ball in the middle of the field, you've got to
cover up because you don't know where defenders are coming from.
Like that's like Aaron Judge dropping a fly ball. That's
like them. Not that's not like Garrett Cole not covering
first base. Like these are things that you learn in
the earliest part of your football career and it's amazing,
(02:15):
and the biggest moments on the biggest stage buck that
some of that stuff is what caused you to lose.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I'm so glad that you brought us back to baseball
because one of my favorite quotes comes from Joe Madden,
who won the World Series with the Chicago Cubs, and
their theme that year they won it was do simple
better and literally in the postseason is if you just
do the simple things better than your opponent, you're going
to win. And you just talk about avoiding the unforced
eras the things that you really can control, because you
(02:42):
can control all those things. When it comes to ball security,
you understand winning the crowd, cover up to put two
hands on it, make sure you don't line up all
size all those other things, and it's just amazing, you know.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
And it'll take us to the kanc Chiefs.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
When we eventually get there, people get mad at the Chiefs,
but to me, the chief said, done what the Patriots
did when they had their run. They've learned how to
do those little things better than their opponent, and whatever
they need to do on a given day, they do.
And that's why they've been very, very hard to beat.
And that's why they also excelled in those one score games.
(03:16):
They don't give games away.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, you know, RTT. I want to get to you,
and we'll start here with the last game we saw,
which was Baltimore Buffalo, and we can jump into that.
But you kind of connected the two games with the turnovers.
So there's five turnovers combined for the teams that lost
and a clean sheet for the two teams that won
on Sunday. I'm talking about the Sunday games. So you
also had in that game, I believe, let's see Josh
(03:41):
Allen in terms of passing yard one hundred and twenty seven.
Jalen hurts one hundred and twenty eight. Like they are
not going to light up the stat sheet, but they
protected the football and that was enough. Their defense is
played great. But just starting with that one, Baltimore Buffalo,
let's start first of all on the Baltimore side of things. Look,
Mark Andrews, I don't know how we got to start there, right, Yeah,
(04:02):
I mean that's where you got to start.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Man, tough.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I feel for Mark Andrews, right, this is what a
roller coaster of a season. I remember it started out
he was, you know, kind of an afterthought, you know,
early in the year, and Isaya likely was catching and
then he caught fire and was a big reason eleven touchdowns. Yeah,
on the stretch and then just to see it, you know,
kind of come to an end right there on a
play like that that you know, I think you know
(04:28):
talking about on the broadcast he makes nine hundred and
ninety nine times out of one thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But look, it was a hard play.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It was not an easy catch, right, I'll say that
when you're off balance a little bit right and kind
of falling backwards. But that's a play Mark Andrews makes.
When you're an All Pro and Pro bowlder, that's the
kind of play your team, you know, needs you to make.
But again, you come back to it also like he's
also a reason why they're in that position. He also
had a fumble earlier in the game that was tough.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And resulted in three points going the other way. Those
five points on two plays is really.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, it's it's hard.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's hard to boil it down like that because obviously
you need to look at it in totality, but it's
hard to separate that from the fact that those two
plays were massive.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
Yeah, you know the thing about it, the two point play,
And I wonder when you look at Lamar Jackson and
the wind up, it almost reminded me of.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Another baseball reference, a change up, you know what I'm saying.
So like you're sitting here waiting for you're you're ready
for the.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Fastball, and you get the change up or the knuckleball,
and it's a minor thing, but it's made you when
you're falling back and you anticipate maybe a little more velocity.
But I understand why Lamar Jackson did it, because he
didn't want to pull the stream. He didn't want to
blow the layup, and so in maybe trying to help
Mark Andrews, maybe Jackson hurt him by taking a little
(05:51):
off the ball.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Which is hard to say.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
We're gonna blame the quarterback for a drop pass.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, I wanted to go back. I haven't had a
chance to go back and see it yet, but you
guys remember their loss against the Steelers. They ran their
two point play with Lamar going left and then they couldn't.
They he couldn't. I don't think somebody could get out.
I think the tight end was trying to getut into
the flat. They couldn't. They blew it up and they
tackled Lamar getting out. I meant Herbig might be the
(06:18):
one who kind of blew it up, but then they
it was just kind of they got him on the move.
They got him on the move left and it got
blown up and it almost looked like it was going
to be a quarterback sweep, almost a tight play. But
I go back and look at that play. But in
this one, obviously they're going to the right, and I
almost felt like all eyes were on Lamar and they
kind of sold out as if Lamar was going to
run the ball. So you get him wide open, and
I've been and I've been in that situation, Buck exactly
(06:40):
what you're talking about, and it's like he's so open.
I don't want anything too firm, so it just it
just kind of pulls. It just kind of just kind
of pull it off a little bit. But he he's
got to catch the ball, man, he's got to catch
the ball. And it was a heck of a drive
by Lamar and getting them right down the field. We
were watching at the time. Buck, I don't know where
you thought about it, but I there was some There
(07:02):
was some conversation in the room when they had the
fourth down. Rosenthal, I see, if Rosenthal confesses this, you
tweet it. Rosental said he, oh, did he tweet it?
He said, oh, they should go they should go for it.
And I said no, no, no, no, no. If you go for it,
there's one drive you lose. You kick the field goal.
You have three opportunities left to win the game. You
(07:23):
hold them without a touchdown, you win the game. You
give them a touchdown, but you stop the two point conversion,
You win the game. You give up the touchdown, the
two point conversion, you still go to overtime with a
chance to win the game. Like that gives you three
opportunities to win the football game. You have to kick
that field goal.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
It is mitigating risks right in those moments is mitigating risks? Okay,
So even at their worst, as you laid out your
three scenarios, we still go to overtime. I understood it
because I sat there and I had to tweet compose.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
I couldn't get it out because I couldn't get my
thoughts together.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
But I was like, okay, a lot of questions on
third down before to get the third down, I was saying, okay,
are you approaching this with two plays to school because
the ball was at the two.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
They got to the one yard line too, Yeah, yeah, they.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Got to the one yard line.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Then I was like, okay, man, Josh Allen is unstoppable
on quarterback.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Power or whatever you go.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
But they lost yardage and at that point I was like, man,
you gotta kick it right. You got to you got
to take the eight point advantage, and you got to
say a defense go Now.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I didn't know that Lamar Jess was.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Right down.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That the other thing, you know, like there would have
been about a minute and thirty o'clock left for Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
By the way, after the point version. This was not
a foregone conclusion.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You might have had four opportunities to win that game.
Then if that's the case, because you could have won
it in regulation and overtime or stop a touchdown or
stop the two point. That was the right decision by McDermott.
And he said it after the game. He's like, look,
if we were right on the doorstep, I probably go,
but not when we're you know, two and a half
to three yards, Like that's that's too much. So I
thought that was smart on their end. Man, Derrick Henry,
(09:03):
they you know, he had a couple runs in the
third quarter, but Buffalo, I thought, you know, that's what
they had to do. They had to sell out to
try and take him away. And if you hold him
under eighty five yards, which they did sixteen for eighty four.
And I was kind of, you know, one of those
people I picked Buffalo to win, but I did think
Derrick Henry had a chance to dominate that game because
Buffalo is not real big. But man, they played big.
(09:26):
They penetrated, and as we've said Buck, we've said this,
we're talking about Dereck Henry for years, like it's a
very simple formula. It's not easy to execute, but it's simple,
and that you must take that runway and you must
shrink that runway down because if he gets a runway,
you got no shot. And the only way you shorten
a runway is with penetration.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Yeah, and I would give Buffalo a lot of credit
because they played on the move their frontline. There's I mean,
it almost reminded me of watching like a college game.
You remember when TCU played Michigan and there was a
lot of conversation about Missigan was going to blow TCU
over because they're playing like, oh, a forty five or
three to three five defense.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
There's no way they can stop.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
And all the movement and the speed and the explosiveness
upfront created problems at times. However, the Baltimore Ravens had
it rolling and the fumble Andrews gave up that led
to three points that drive.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
I mean, they had him moving, they had.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Run the football, they were throwing it, they had balanced
in those things, and the Buffalo Bills made key plays
and key moments to halted drives. And that's ultimately the difference.
The three turnover margin is why the Buffalo Bills go
on and the Baltimore Ravens are packing it up.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah. Mantt. By the way, uh, Jay Flowers not being
in that ball game. I think that's a big deal.
I had some people get upset with me because I
said it on TV that like, gosh, they really missed him,
and I got the everybody has injuries comment, and I'm like, look,
we talked about it. Yeah, we said that Detroit missed Hutchinson,
like we've talked about people. I'm not saying that's the
(10:58):
sole reason they didn't win the game, but yeah, would
have been nice for him to have him out there.
But I thought that was that was legitimate.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, I mean, like this was when you take the
turnovers out of it, this was a hard fought game
on both sides. Like it was not just like a
and this was not the Ravens team that that forgot
about the run game.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
You know, in the postseason, they still ran the ball.
Justice Hill ran the they like.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You know what's interesting is it was really feast or
fan for the Ravens on offense.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
If it wasn't a chunk.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Play, it wouldn't happen both in the past game and
the run game.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Like all.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I mean because Anders had two, Derrick Henry had two.
It's just a lot of self inflicted wounds man.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it really was.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
And but the defense played phenomenal, like they keep the
Bills under three hundred total yards.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I don't think you could ask for much more than that.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
No, Y, go ahead, Buck.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I would say this because there's always gonna be a
conversation about Lamar Jackson. I think we have touch on it,
like the narrative that goes on about Lamar Jackson in
the postseason. Now, I think from a personal standpoint, Lamar
Jackson will walk away from this game with confidence knowing
that he can play well in those big moments. He
hadn't played well in one of these divisional round AFC
championship games. I feel like after those early turnovers, he
(12:18):
played pretty well. Capped off at that final drive, I
think he has to figure out a way how to
calm himself down, because once he calmed down in the
floor of the game, he was able to play really well.
To me, is his emotional control at the outset that
they have to work on to allow him to get
past these moments.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, And I would just still last thing I would
say on this game, Like, to me, a lot of
the way this game ended up being played out was
what happened at the border line of the first and
second quarter. You know the interception. Yeah, it didn't end
up hurting them because Buffalo punted away after the pick,
but obviously it ruined an opportunity for you to go
down there and score. But then you know, they go
(12:58):
down and then on the next they fumble, right, you
get the fumble, Buffalo recover, scores a touchdown. Then on
the Ravens next drive they get all the way down
to the Buffalo eight and have to kick a field goal,
and then Buffalo comes back and scores a touchdown, and
you're sitting there in his twenty one points. And that
second quarter, that first is second quarter really kind of
(13:18):
determined to me the way that the rest of the
game ended up being played.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, that was crucial. Let's let's get to the other
game that we saw yesterday, which was another great game.
Came down to the very end with the Rams ball
in their hands, chance to go down there win. Let
me just ratt I'll tee you up on this one first.
But if I told you before the game, Matthew Stafford's
going to throw for three twenty four to two touchdowns,
no picks. Jalen Hurts is only going to throw for
(13:42):
a buck twenty eight with no touchdowns. Kyra Williams is
going to have one hundred and six yards on the ground.
Your defense is going to compile seven sacks. You sit there, think, gosh,
we got a pretty good shot at going on there
and beating the Philadelphia Eagles in this one. But the
problem being Saquon Barkley, major problem. Putting the ball on
the ground twice, major major problem, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Stafford once and then the Kyra Williams one is really tough
because you just got the safety right. You just sacked
Jalen Hurts, who looks like, you know, a wounded animal
back there. He can't move around with the knee or
whatever it was that ended up bothering him, and they
sack him down there. You get the ball back, you're
within a point, and now you turn it right back
(14:26):
over to them. They return it all the way deep,
you know, into your own territory, and the air just
goes out of the balloon for a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Now it came back.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It came back late, late, late, like a little bit
too late, you know, as you go under four minutes,
they made a heck of a push and really had
an opportunity there if not for Jalen Carr, who was
an absolute beast as he's been just dominating inside, sacking
Stafford on the third and two, turning it into a
fourth and eleven and then causing pressure again to force
a quick throw from Stafford that.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Ends up ending the game and ending the season. And
that's what it came down to me, like thinking about that.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Game for me, and obviously with the turnovers and that's
a turnover run downs there, but the car crash at
the ending, like it's fourth and eleven, you think you're
going to have a shot to go in here and
win this game and then pay him.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Play football is hard.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Yeah, No, I mean it is hard, and it's the
emotional swings that you must handle, like being able to
deal with the ups and downs and those things. And
if you're the la Rams, you certainly feel like you
let one slip out of your hands. You had it
the game under control, and it look you have the safety.
And after the safety, I was like, oh man, this
is all bad for the Philadelphia Eagles. You're now giving
(15:40):
Matthew Stafford the ball back. He has an opportunity to
go down the feeling the pressure that they would have
had Jalen Hurst being down at home, all that aks
and anxiety, But the fumble, you scoop it up and
push you in a position. But I'm would say this, man,
the Eagles have to learn how to cash in these
chances in the red zone. Like this was a game
where they had a chance to go in and just
punch in penalty, packed them up and just the field
(16:02):
goal fest.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
And at some.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Point you can't keep trading threes for sevens. You're gonna
end up on the store end of the stick. And
they were able to get away with it, but they're
not gonna be able to win in the championship game
if they don't cash in on those type ridson opportunities.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
You know what's interesting though about the Eagles, man, is
I feel like every week and it's not just you
know what our conversation is here, it's everywhere. I just
hear people, man, They just everybody hates the way the
Philadelphi Eagles win football games. And I'm sitting here going, well, okay, well,
if we throw out, if we throw out. Jalen Hurts
(16:37):
getting knocked out in the first quarter against Washington, right
and By the way, if if DeVante Smith catches the ball,
they still win that game. That the last time they
lost a football game was in September. So this this
team is not even clicking. They're not even clicking, so
they lose football games.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
So what you're saying, are they the NFC version of
the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
That's what I'm hearing.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, yeah, they were clean. They were cleaning this game.
They haven't always been clean, no, no, but in terms
of and things like that, but they don't.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
They know how to win games. They know how to
win games. If you leave it hanging in the balance,
they'll find a way to do it. And we can
talk about the dysfunction in the locker room and are
they all on the same page, But you're right, at
the end of the weekend, they always put a dub
in the win column.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
And that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Let me ask you this, Let me ask you this.
One of the things we've always said about the Kansas
City Chiefs, and we've said it about other teams, championship teams,
and we can go through all of them. Von Miller
notoriously with the Denver Broncos. What do we say about
those championship teams on defense, they have a closer. Oh
the Clods it up, Chris Jones? Is that you know what?
Jalen Carter closer? He closed that game?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Old Smith was part of it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Smith was j Carter that game he closed out?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
How about that? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
First with Jalen Carter, like Jalen Carter being everything that
we talked about, and it's one of the reasons why
we need to put the pencil down once we get
the calendar flips because everyone loved him the player at Georgia.
You're worried about the character, but the player on tape,
there weren't many questions about what it can be. He
has been exactly what he was at Georgie in terms
of a disruptive force at the point of attack. You've
seen Vic Fangio unleash him and the bigger the moment, the.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Better he plays.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
But how about Nolan Smith, Because there was a lot
of controversy about Nolan Smith being picked, where it was
picked and what the position was going to be. Give
the Eagles credit for having a vision for how he's
going to play, but really give Vic Fangio credit for
finding a way to really unlock the potential because Nolan
Smith has been terrific.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
He's really been great throughout this playoff runt.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I would just call up the tweet that Jackie and
Draid sent out and because a couple of guys right,
because it was Nolan Smith. Was I think DJ your
best value in the first round?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yes, yeah, in terms of where you had right that
was twenty twenty three. I'm pulling it up right now.
I'm pulling it up right now. Yeah. So Nolan Smith
I had is my thirteenth player and he was the
thirtieth pick.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Yep, you know who My.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Comp was, ironically sweat Yeah, nice stand up, juicy change
of direction, he's got risk control, he can bend and
close plays with burst. I've made a point in here
about just like an effort thing, which you know I
always think is a big deal. That had a fake
punt called by Auburn and when I was watching that
(19:24):
game and he freaking stuffed it, which was like, Okay,
this guy's this guy's got all this athletic ability and explosiveness,
but he's also an instinctive football player. He's needed to play,
he's need to get out there. He'd missed some time
with injuries, and now you're seeing a chance that he's
got to play more and more and more. And he's
he's not the biggest guy in the world, but he
is a savage man.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
And then was the other one, Yeah yeah, yeah, one
of the last picks of the draft, and yet you
had him in a like right around one hundred, So
they got some good value there.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
What is what does juicy mean? I've never used that
in what is juicy su? I've never used I've never
used juicy. It's a new term for me. So I
just need to figure.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Out how you say if yeah, if you say like
a receiver's got juice, Like there's an explosiveness, but like
everything that no one Smith does, like as someone in
the front seven, everything's just got a lot of juice
to it. Like there's just speeding, twitch and explosiveness. No
matter where he's going, he's just got juicy. Dude, Like,
you know what you've been doing.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
You've been hangling those baseball scouts for too long. I'm
gonna restrict you from texting.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
With I need more words. I just sit here. I
feel like understand.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
I feel like our guys from way back would be
like DJ, you know we've never used that in the report.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
No, I'll tell you what I'm always I'm always looking
for new ways to say this. I'll be honest with you,
Like just to nerd out for a second, Like, there's
there's lots of scouting phrases that I've heard and picked
up since I left as a scout, like two of
my favorites over the last ten years. This is totally
off topic, but uh, stopping power as a tackler. I
(21:00):
ever used that when I was writing, but I heard
it for the first time. I was like, I, when
I hear a term and I know exactly what it
looks like, that's a great that's a great scouting term,
stopping power. And then the other one was and this
I think might have been from less Snead was he
he said that with the Rams, they focus on guys
who are grounded through the catch and that's Puka, that's all.
(21:20):
That's all. They're guys that they've brought in, which buck
is someone who's played the position. When you hear that,
you're like, oh, yeah, because the guys are confidence in
their hands, they run through the ball, they don't leave their.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Yeah, try try and create.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah. Yeah, And guess.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
What grounded through the catch point a little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
There go there you go, Yeah, I guess what you're Also,
you're also way more likely to break tackles when you
have your feet in the ground. So but anyways, those
are those are nerdy scout topics. There anything else on
that game, Buck, you want to hit on before we
take a break?
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Here, No, we're good on that one.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
All right, let's take a break, we come back. We'll
hit on these Saturday games right after this. All right, well,
let's uh, let's work from that Saturday night game, probably
the most surprising outcome of the weekend. Uh rhtt I
gotta tell you, man, I got This is what happens
(22:13):
with Bucky. He goes out and he makes strong takes.
He doesn't, he doesn't. She's not shy. He puts a
strong opinion out there. And I think he ranked I
don't even know what he ranked quarterbacks somehow, and he
had Jade Daniels up high in staid ranking. So so
I get hit. I get to go get your boy.
Your boy doesn't. He's crazy, He's lost it. What is
(22:35):
Bucky saying? And I'm like, I have no idea what
you're even talking about what is going on, and then
I finally started doing some homework, investigative work. I'm like, oh,
Bucky Jayde Daniels is legit, and Bucky put it out there,
and then all of a sudden, Jade Daniels goes and
does his thing, and Rhett, you'll be surprised to know
none of those same people had the were telling me
to get my guy anymore.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
So so rhtt to take you back.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
So DJ was out, it was Lance and I hosting
the pod, and we did a thing called Playoff Tiers
with the quarterbacks and so Tier one are your elite guys,
and so it was Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson,
and then if.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Through Jaydon Daniels and there now you know, yeah, spice
it up a little bit, so like yeah, listens like.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Whoa this is before the playoffs start and people are like,
how can you put him in Tier one before he
even plays a playoff game? Well that's the fun and
projecting like if I want to wait after seeing him,
like anybody can do that like that, that's what we're projecting, like,
And so the thing is, and I'll say this like
he is even beyond and It's also funny, like when
(23:43):
you go back in your notes and you recall certain
conversations that you had with people before and they gave
you a different answer on Jaydon Daniels, and then you
talk to him now at Arizonunderstated, They're like, oh, yeah,
we always doing I'm like, oh, they celebrated when he left,
they celebrated, and now he's He's the one doing the celebration.
I will say his boys, his confidence, his composure, on
(24:06):
top of the skills that he brings, he epitomizes what
you look for in a franchise player. And I can
only relate it to my time in Green Bay when
Brett Farr was in the middle of his three MVP
run and how on defense we felt when we had
number four on the team.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
We're like, if we can just get the ball back,
he'll figure it out.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
And the conversations that you hear from the Commander's players
are very similar to that. He gives us hope, we
believe we can win because that dude is special. When
you have veteran players like Bobby Wagner and older players
saying that about the young guy, that's when you buy
in because the players will tell you real quickly. If
a guy has it, he definitely has the if factor
(24:45):
that you need.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I hard argue with that, and I just I think
truly when you look at that team and you look
at the way that he has elevated everyone around him
as such, I mean, this is that is a.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Team that they have. They're good defense. Dan Quin's a
heck of a coach.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I think Cliff Kingsbury has been a really nice job
of kind of managing the ebbs and flows of offensive production.
Whereas when he was with the Cardinals, it felt like,
man second half, like you started falling off the cliff
and they didn't find that plateau again.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
But it felt like this this.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Year, this team has found that plateau and like you
look at you know, personnel.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I mean we talked about the offensive line a bunch.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I mean, Terry McLaurin, I love, but I mean like
they are Dami Brown has come alive, like they are
finding ways, and I think Jayden.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Is the catalyst there.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
He is that good to where he is truly, you know,
the rising tide that is lifting all ships here in
this Washington Commander's franchise, and I think he deserves a
ton of credit for that beyond you know what his.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Special play is. I think it's I think it's inspired
for those guys. That's a tangible thing to me.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I went back and was just trying to go back
to the college stuff when he because it was just
I didn't have words for what he was doing, like
the way he was playing and the way he's played truthfully,
of just the poise, uh to go along with that,
like the ball placement, the accuracy he is processing. Like
to me, I think I tweet out i'd' understeen body
process that fast, that young, like he's got like some
(26:11):
Joe Burrow type processing stuff, which I don't say that lightly,
which is incredible. And so I was going back through
and I'm like, it's just so weird. He's played so
much football in college. And we talked about that with
him and Bo Nicks both having great years because they
both played so much. But it wasn't like it wasn't
like this just steady Eddie climb. It was okay, okay,
(26:33):
then that his his first year at LSU a little
bit better, and then all of a sudden just explodes
in his in his last year. And I was thinking
back and I don't know you know, because we're all
somewhat of similar age. Like when we used to have
to mow the lawn. We had an old lawnmower, and
you know you had to you had to pull it right,
so you got to pull that string and then so
you might have to pull it three or four times
(26:55):
it doesn't start, and then finally, like that fifth time
you pull it it starts. Works great. But I think
I was thinking of that as an analogy with these players
because they don't get much chance to fail in the NFL.
We move on. They're done. They're not good enough. So
it's like, man, in college, playing all those snaps, all
those years in college, you got time to get the
lawnmower started, and once it starts, it's good. And it's like,
(27:17):
that's the value in guys staying and playing extra time
in college is that, man, Man, they figured out because
once you figured out, you're good. But it's hard to
figure it out at the NFL level. Man, that if
you haven't had time to do that. That's my point book.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
No, I'm with you and the experience of being able
to go through those ups and downs, and we'll talk
about Jane Dames, but I think you always have to
include bo Nicks in that conversation because he's another one
who had all of that time at college. You find
his game, go through the ups and downs, and then
find his way to the other side. And we saw
the success that he was able to have as a rookie.
(27:53):
We've said this and read I think you've been on.
We said it like we kind of like our quarterbacks
to come into the league with some scuffs on them,
Like we don't want to bring new shoes that are
just completely polished and they don't have any I need
them scuffed up a little bit because it's going to
give me a chance to maybe get through the adversity
in the first year a little quicker. And for Jade Daniels,
he was able to get through that lo that go
(28:13):
outside with his rears being hurt. But he got through
that period and he is being great when they needed
him to be great.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, and look, I think that again like his.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
What we're talking about in being a player that elevates,
you know, you look at other rookies that have gone
to where he's taking this team to the championship. Brown,
I mean like they had dominant defenses and Washington's good
they're not.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
They're those quarterbacks. Those quarterbacks on that list that we
have on our chat right now were not the driving
force of their team. They were not the lead actor.
They were supporting characters. And this is a totally different deal.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
This is done like anything we've seen, truly, because none
of us would sit here and say, if you look
pound for pound, player for player on that Washington roster,
while they have played well together, that did not look
like an NFC Championship game roster.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
No, just just to be fair, No, No, it's incredible.
And look you took down the number one seed on
the road and did it convincingly. Just and and again.
Part of the story of the week, Buck is turnovers.
You know, that's it's been the it's been the theme,
uh through a bunch of these games. You get the
turnover margin, I don't know, five to nothing. That seems
(29:21):
like that's gonna be problematic if you're like, when you
turn that, but do you do you? We talked about
this because it looks like they're both gonna get head
coaching jobs. Ben Johnson OC is gonna get one and
Glenn's gonna get one, and they're both fantastic coaches. Fantastic candidates.
But we had said on here that look, you might
think there's I'm not distracted at all. There's no issues here.
(29:43):
You the way that these these organizations and buildings work
like it is an obsession. They work long hours to
get ready each and every week. You can't tell me
that doesn't have an impact. Man, When you're having to
do interviews for you know, your your dream jobs, the
job you've coveted it since you were a kid. How
could you not be a little bit distracted on that stuff?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Oh yeah, you can't. You can't fully focus.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
I don't care what you are because you're playing different
scenarios in your head. Who am I bringing with me?
What do I want? What am I looking for? You
have to have some knowledge of the other roster. I mean,
if you have multiple interviews three or four other rosters
and how you would build those teams, that's a lot
of brain space that's being occupied when you really need
to be focusing on the game plan. It's unfortunate that
(30:27):
they didn't play at their best, but it has to
play a small part and why maybe those teams on
both sides of the.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Ball didn't look the way they've looked the entire season.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, by the way, I think rap sheet just was
talking about Aaron glenn Is interviewing for the second time
in person with the Jets, and then he's got the
Saints right after that.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Feels like, yeah, he's getting one of those he's getting
one of those gigs and good friend, he's a good
football coach. But does this feel I don't want to
say window closing. I think that's a little early on
that one. But you also have your time when this
is your best shot, when you have home field advantage
all the way throughout, when you have continuity on your
coaching staff. I know the defense had been besieged with injury,
(31:07):
but man, that was still you know, this is a
This is.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
That you got to be.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You needed to beat a rookie quarterback, and then you
wouldn't You would have been at home against a hobbled
Jalen Hurts for a chance to go to a Super Bowl.
I mean that it's hard to see them having a
better opportunity than the one that they had this year,
which you know sucks for the Alliance.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, you can almost make the argument that you feel now,
look offensively, they've got a great young core and and
that's the kese in. You know, a young, young ish
quarterback in the prime of his career.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
You feel pretty good about that.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
But like you can almost make the argument that the
you know, you look at where the Rams are and
like they're feeling pretty good about that young group, especially
on defense that they've got, that they're going to continue
to get better in terms of window, you know, being open.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
The problem is, you know, how much longer are they
going to go with Stafford. I think it is obviously
the biggest difference there.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I would say also Detroit has a bunch of
good players on for on rookie deal too. They haven't
had to pay yet, so they're still talented. You know,
they got to make sure they filled the right spots. Here.
What the coaches are getting ready to lose Buck Houston,
Kansas City. We've touched on it a little bit earlier,
but it's just it's a clean brand of football. Man.
(32:16):
It's not always the most aesthetically pleasing, but the defense.
This is a defensive team. And that's why I've said,
I this used to be an explosive offense with an
opportunistic defense. Now it's an explosive defense with an opportunistic offense.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Yeah, and we can talk about the defense a sas
George gott Loftis and company really being able to get
after c. J. Stroud disrupt the rhythm dominated the game.
On that standpoint, Old coaches always talked about this. I'm
sure you got the we all played coming up where
the coach would say, hey, they're three phases in the
game for us to win, you got to win two
of them.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
And the Kansas City Chiefs won two phases. They won defense,
and they won special teams.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
As much as I want to talk about their defense
playing lights out, they won the game because of their
special teams and what they were able to do three
yard kickoff return right out the gate. They then benefited
from a miss field goal, a miss pat they blocked
the field goal. I mean, all the things that Dave
Toe and his units do. They they win in the margins,
(33:16):
and we've seen this time and time again.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
They understand what's required.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
To win and they're willing to make those plays in
those areas to win the game. Hass off to the
Chiefs continue to do what they do win.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And it's still, though, feels like this is a team
that's vulnerable like this is a I mean, this is
a team. While as sound as they are, you know,
in some of those areas that we're talking about, the
simple areas like if the team on the other sideline
can also do those things, it feels like more often
than not, they're gonna have a chance.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
To beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
The Houston Texans had every opportunity to beat the Kansas
City Chiefs. I mean, like, obviously, don't let up a
seventy five yard kick return on the opening kick and
special teams was a big reason why they were unable
to get it done. You know, miss field goals, I
get you know, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna you know,
bash Kamy Fairbarn too much for missing a fifty five yarder,
but extra point you know one that's a little lock
(34:14):
start block you got.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
You gotta find I get it. The other stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
It's tough conditions, but it's tough on the other side too.
But ultimately, like this was not a game where the
Texans were all classed even very short handed. Je I
just I didn't I didn't see it that way with
the way this thing ended up.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah, I mean, I it's just a The thing about
the playoffs is it always and I saw what the
Chargers doing their game against the Texans, is that your
warts have a way of appearing at the worst time.
And when I studied that Texans team getting ready for
that first playoff game, man, I'm like, gosh, if they
get behind, they they are awful at communicating games, twists
(34:54):
and blitzes up front like they they get more. And
it was like, well, here we are, and Buck, I
don't I don't want to. I hate it when we
do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. So yes,
you blanket statement, blanket statement. Here we go, blanket statement.
How many times have we seen the Shanahan offense when
they get down and there's no illusion of run and
(35:16):
it's dropped back past, they're done it.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
It's a big problem, and it's one of the things.
They always play from ahead. The offense is built to
play from ahead where they can dictate the terms, where
they can get you seduced by the run action and
then throw it down the field. We have seen that
time and time again, and when they are behind, they
don't have a true drop back component to the passing game.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
And so not that it's a narrow path to victory
for them.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
But the game plan in the game mode, the game
script can't go a rid because it's really hard for
them to climb their way back into it, just because
the playbook isn't built for them to be from behind.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
So it's something that they have to talk about, something
they have to work on.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
It's certainly something that's popped up not only in Houston
but with other teams to run iterations of this offense.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Guys, four of their eight sacks came in the final
four minutes of the game. You want to talk about closers, Yeah,
talk about the blitz being on CJ Stroud like that.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
To your point, DJ not being able to stuff is
coming front.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, Obviously, credit credit to Bags for understanding and taking
advantage of some of those weaknesses that you're talking about.
But CJ didn't have a chance on a couple of those,
like Justin Reids in the space mask like this, you know,
I mean it was that's there's no there's no winner
on that.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah. I think that's why it's also very important. And
we'll we'll get into tomorrow's episode, we'll start previewing the
the games going forward, but just one thing on that
is to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, I think you
have to get on them early and hang on. I
think that's that's the way to beat them. I don't
think you want to be in a trail position with
Spags and Chris Jones and all these different blitz packages
they're gonna throw at you. And Carl Loftus has really
(36:54):
started to merge and be a really good player. So
Kansas City they might just ugly their way to a
you know, fourth super Bowl here. I mean, that's that's
what they're doing. Man, there's something to be said for it.
I always just come back to Bucky's favorite line, you know,
winners win. I mean that's they just find a way
to get to the winner circle. Yeah, that's again it's
(37:17):
crazy to do it. All right, Well, this is fun
looking back on these ball games. We have another episode
coming up tomorrow where we will look ahead at the
conference championship games. I want to also real quick before
we get out of here, as we went along on this,
uh just a quick give me thirty seconds on how
in the world Notre Dame shocks the world tonight.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Rtt go ahead, Well, they don't they don't allow Ohio
State's defensive line to wreck shop like they've been doing throughout.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
The entire college Football Playoff.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Like I know, we look at you know, Jeremiah Smith
and Will Howard and Traveon Henderson. But to me, it's
j T Twee Molollow, it's Jack Sawyer, it's Ty Leek,
it's Ty Williams, that whole crew. If they are the
dominant position group in this game, Ohio State wins going
out because that means Jeremiah loves not run the ball
all over the place and Riley Leonard's getting pressured and
sacked and hit and that's going to be a recipe
(38:06):
for disaster. So to me, it's about a lot of
State's defensive line up front, which has been absolutely dominant
throughout the course of these last three games.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
To them. Yeah, for me, I may be the long
whoopingness because I actually like Notre Dame chances of pulling
this off. And I think the experience that they've had
in playing Notre Dame playing Ohio State before. I remember
they played Marvin Harrison junior and they were one of
the few teams at the time they played man demand
against Ohio State. I don't believe they're going to fear
Ohio State like some teams do. I think they're gonna
match up, They're gonna line up, and they're gonna try
(38:33):
and make this a Will Howard game. They're going to
dare the quarterback to make enough big plays to win,
and if Notre Dame is able to just cobble together
a similns of offense where they can control the game
and just get it to the fourth quarter, I feel
pretty confident that they're gonna be able to lock up
and play on the outside.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
I'm pretty confident.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
How many carries if Notre Dame wins the ballgame? How
many carries for Riley Leonard in this ball game book?
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Oh, I think we used them like a like this
is a.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
This is a tip. I was gonna say twelve to fifteen.
Speaker 5 (39:05):
Oh, this is this is uh and we've seen this
because it was funny. He is going to take the
direct snap, and he's going to power in iso and
all those things. I think you need no stone unturned. Yeah,
I think fifteen plus is what we're shooting for.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah. I think I think they got to turn Will
Howard over to win the ball game. Though, I think
they've got to turn him over a couple of times,
and maybe that's what they do. Maybe they just go
nose to nose, lock him up and uh and they
make play.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
Either they're gonna blow us out, but we're gonna win it.
But like playing zone and letting will Howard have whatever
he wants, that's not the recipe, No risky, no biscuits.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
That was the line. I think it was I remember
who did the report, but it was maybe it was
Jay Glazer in the pregame, but he was talking about
talking to Dan Quinn and he's like, how do you
feel about today? And he's like, we're going to take
our swings. I'll tell you that much. I was like, okay,
and they did. They were going for it on four
downs and just like there is no fear in this ojo.
We might lose, but we aren't going in there to
(40:02):
be towed and scared. It's all right, looking forward to
that ballgame. We'll recap that later on a week as well.
That's going to do it for I appreciate you guys
hanging on with us, See you next time. Right here,
onto the sticks,
Hosts And Creators
Daniel Jeremiah
Bucky Brooks
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