Wild Card Sunday Recap: Josh Allen's Road Win, Patriots Defense Stands Tall and 49ers Get Seahawks Rematch

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where you should never pick against Josh Allen in the playoffs.

00:00:10
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosenthal.

00:00:11
Speaker 1: I'm here in the Chris Westleying podcast studio with my friend Patrick Claybrond, joined by my other friend Nick Shook. They're actually my only two friends in life, because I'm only friends with whoever is on NFL Daily with me at that very moment a moment, and that's these two guys.

00:00:28
Speaker 2: Tonight. What a weekend this has been.

00:00:31
Speaker 1: I feel like I haven't seen you in a while, Shook, How you doing fantastic?

00:00:34
Speaker 3: What a week of football we had? I mean, Yesterday was fantastic, Today was great. Even Sunday nights was entertaining enough.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: Okay, you know, the Patriots and the Chargers didn't really live up to what this wild Card weekend has been. It's funny, you know, right when they yank away the Super from Super Wildcard Weekend, we get an insane collection of games. I thought it'd be tough the top Saturday, but now that we're five games in, there has been twelve fourth quarter lead changes in this wild Card weekend.

00:01:08
Speaker 2: Patrick all in the first four games.

00:01:10
Speaker 1: That is double the amount of any fourth quarter lead changes in any entire playoffs in any season in NFL history. That's how many times like we have been in jeopardy of who is going to win this game and who's going to advance. But we know now nine teams are only left with a Monday Night or togace.

00:01:28
Speaker 4: Yes, and the teams that lost, despite them being in close circumstances with small margins, they're all bad. They have to get rid of them. Their seasons were all worthless. And that's the idea now that that people are going to have and it's all vapid. Not here though, like not on this program. We can be smarter than that. Except for the Greg Roman and the Chargers offense. Actually that was all bad. So yes, the Divisional Round is set.

00:01:53
Speaker 1: We don't know the exact times of the Divisional round games, but we do know the days. The forty nine Ers, despite Kyle Shanahan pleading to play on Sunday because it would be unfair to make them go on a short week for the third time in four weeks, they put them on Saturday. And we will get that forty nine Ers Seahawks rematch on Saturday, as well as the Broncos Bills. We will have the Patriots on Sunday going up against the winner of Houston and Pittsburgh. And how about the Rams and the Bears. Not a common matchup in the playoffs. It's been over thirty years since the Rams and the Bears have played, and so that's going to be our divisional round weekend. Really excited for that. But first, I'm even more excited to go through these games. Because of all these great games this weekend, I will plant my flag that the best was the Bills and the Jaguars.

00:02:49
Speaker 2: Let's go to Jacksonville.

00:02:52
Speaker 5: Empty set, Lawrence back to pass looking on an inbreaker, broke.

00:02:56
Speaker 6: It up and intercepted, picked up my tall Bishop second match.

00:03:01
Speaker 3: Buffalo's gonna win the wildcard game here at jackson Bill.

00:03:09
Speaker 1: I mean, Josh Allen played great, three touchdowns, just about a perfect game. But this might have been the trenevious White game. I mean, three passes defensed in a game, lockdown coverage and he tips the ball at the end when you thought maybe Trevor Lawrence had a little more magic in an outstanding game back and forth. Like I mentioned, four lead changes, touchdowns throughout the fourth quarter. But it is the Bills and Josh Allen and a resourceful, banged up defense that gets to win twenty seven to twenty four. They advance and they are heading to Denver. What stuck out to you most Patrick in this game?

00:03:49
Speaker 4: I it was the missed opportunities for when Jacksonville Jaguars, who were running the ball exceptionally well against the Bills defense that struggled to stop the run, making explosive plays on the ground and not capitalizing on those opportunities. They get the turnover on the Ray Davis fumble on the kickoff, not able to get any points out of that, and of course the play that we'll have a chance to talk about as we get into the game. But to me, ultimately deciding the game, Greg knew some biting on the Inburt Ooh and letting Brandon Cooks run free for thirty six yards and the time and the way things playing out completely change the complexion of the fund.

00:04:24
Speaker 1: You're tough on, Greg Newsom, I am okay, he did bite on it, but it was an outstanding play. If you're gonna, if you're gonna bring it up, let's just talk about it right now. If you're watching on YouTube, you can watch this video and I think the All twenty two really does it justice because when Josh Allen releases the ball, like Brandon Cooks is still ten yards behind them, and this is, you know, with under three minutes to go in the game, a deep shot to Brandon Cooks which ends up helping to set up the game winning touchdown. Wasn't a day of big plays Josh Allen and Brandon Cooks, but this was a massive one and I just thought Josh Allen really had this game calibrated.

00:05:09
Speaker 2: Well.

00:05:09
Speaker 1: I say you're tough on Newsome because some of the Jaguars reporters think that maybe the coverage indicated it should have been one of the safety's responsibilities. Antonio Hamilton, I'm not a coach. I don't really know, but Greg Newsom has been a problem and I do think the cornerbacks for the Jaguars were a problem today. And ultimately, I just thought Josh Allen played one of the best games of his career. And I threw out on you know, on Blue Sky or Twitter like that. I thought it was a perfect game from him, just about and I can't believe how much pushback I got from this. Tell me what you thought about Josh Allen going to Jacksonville, Nick and getting this thing done.

00:05:43
Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad that he exercised the whole Josh Allen can't win a playoff game on the road, demon, that's out of the way. That's one more talking point that we can throw in the trash and leave there forever, thank god, smash it like a compactor.

00:05:55
Speaker 7: But they're just gonna have another one that doesn't make any sense.

00:05:58
Speaker 3: I know it won the Super Bowl, well, Lamar still does have a playoff When we got rid of that one too, I was not too surprised to see the Bills have to turn to him to lead them to victory. I was surprised that he was able to do it, not because he's Josh Allen, but because he's banged up. He's got this foot issue. He was dealing with other issues in this game, and it's not like he was avoiding contact, and yet he found it within himself to get the job done with plays like that. By the way, that's that is Greg Newsom on that in that deep third cover three that he hesitated because Devin Lloyd looked like he was going to hit Josh Allen. That pass was never going to get there, but he forgot that he was playing coverage against a reigning MVP with an incredible arm that's going to be able to throw it beyond him. A nice moment for Brandon Cooks, who spent most of his season in anonymity in New Orleans before asking to leave and ending up with the Bills. Sometimes signings like that just work out great, and it was perfect for Alan, who spread the ball amongst so many guys. So you got kh Khalil Shakir, who was the big guy for him with twelve catches. He had Brandon Cooks, he had Keyon Coleman, Dawson Knox, Dalton Kincaid, gave Davis, Tyrrel Shavers. Everybody touched the football in the passing game. And that's all because of Allen's ability to distribute fine guys open consistently. Every time you thought, you know what, this is where it's going to end right there, they're going to get stopped right here, it didn't happen, and fittingly, could not be a more fitting moment then the Bills, the team with the coach, as you pointed out on social media, Greg that wanted to ban and campaigned against the Toush push, turning to the Toush push to score the game well set them up for the game winning touchdown.

00:07:26
Speaker 1: Yes, So they line up on a key fourth down late in the game and they go for the Toush push and it doesn't just get the first down. They get all the way down to the one yard line. It's about a minute ten seconds when they snap that ball at the eleven and Josh Allen, with a big help from Osiris Torrents, just pushes them over the defensive backs. I'm not sure why there wasn't more beef in the middle of that Jaguars line in that moment, But honestly, if you were looking for a weakness in this Jaguars team, I think the defensive tackles have sometimes been that weakness. Certainly not a lot of pass rush juice there, and sometimes we're vulnerable in this season and it gets them down to the one yard line. And while we're here, like, let's just get into sort of the game management of it all. If the Bills had given up a game ty and field goal because they gave the Jaguars so much time, Patrick, do you think that Sean McDermott should have taken any heat for not doing the Mic rabel which I was saying in the moment which was on first down, trying not to score because the Jaguars used their last time out when the ball got to about the half yard line there, there's about a minute and ten to go, and you could have you could have tried to do something where you have Josh Allen jump forward and he gets back to like the line of scrimmage basically to the one the half yard line, kill the clock down to about two twenty seconds here and not give the Jaguars a chance. If you're that confident in your running game, you have all your timeouts. You're laughing at me. You have all three timeouts and you're Josh Allen. I actually I didn't think it was that crazy to have tried to do that.

00:09:13
Speaker 4: I think even Mike rabel who famously Mike rabeled, would consider not Mike rabeling in this scenario in the postseason where you know, we'll have a chance to talk about the closing moments for the Philadelphia Eagles where Tom Brady's up there talking about, you know, if you don't want to score it too much, Tiff, yeah, you can also not score at all. And I think that that is in the books. And I recognize we're in twenty twenty.

00:09:34
Speaker 7: Six now, it's crazy. Yeah, we're playing numbers. This all sorts of games.

00:09:37
Speaker 2: It's not about the numbers. It's about just trying to win the game in this case.

00:09:42
Speaker 4: And I think scoring the touchdown worked out for them. I think most of the times, if I don't know when we're gonna get to the point where that particular touchdown, somebody's gonna have, well, my model says no, my model's gonna say score, it's probably till I'm in the To me.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: It's not about the model so much as you have, Josh Allen, that play has been unstoppable in the jack last year. Okay, okay, but you had three timeouts. It was unstopable in this game. And you know they used it a few times in this game. And Liam Cohen, you know, allowed the Bills to score the touchdown there.

00:10:17
Speaker 2: He told the defense let them.

00:10:19
Speaker 1: Score, because you know, the only chance they had to win was to let them score. And so, you know, sometimes you don't want to do the thing that the other team wants you to do. I meant to start this whole thing by throwing it back to this week Nick because I think it was really instructive. When Josh Allen spoke at the podium this week in his press conference, sometimes you really learn some things from this, and he said, you know, he did a big self scout with Joe Brady during you know, their their time preparing for this game, and he talked a lot about how much he had been missing, that he'd been taking way too many sacks, so he wasn't put you know, trying to make a big play, that he hadn't been taking the checkdowns. Actually there were guys open in the offense for short games that he just wasn't doing.

00:11:06
Speaker 2: That he was trying to do too much.

00:11:08
Speaker 1: And watching this game, I think he really felt that, like the completion percentage was was sky high, and he avoided making any mistake throughout the game. He kept the team on schedule throughout. And if you think about the plays after Brandon Cooks that set up that Toush push two twenty seven left in the game, the next three plays are a two yard throw to Dawson Knox, a four yard throw to Khalil Shakir, and a three yard throw to Shakir.

00:11:37
Speaker 2: Now, either one of.

00:11:38
Speaker 1: Those I did go back and watch them like the last two they could have broke loose and he was given his receivers a chance to maybe, but he was taking what was there and taking the percentage plays. And I think that combination of like really intelligent quarterback play today against a really good Jaguars defense and then doing the Josh Allen awesome things makes him when he does that, the best quarterback on Earth.

00:12:01
Speaker 3: It also makes up for a running game that wasn't really affects yesterday James Cook averaging under four I mean they're rushing attack as a total finishes under eighty yards. That's usually their bread and butter. The way they can really beat a team as if you can establish the run and lean on that and then let Josh Allen work from there. Instead, he basically created a pseudo running game with quick passes. Like you said, under two and a half seconds, he was sixteen to seventeen for one hundred and seventy three yards in a touchdown. So you're absolutely right. It shows up in the numbers. The way you felt when you were watching this game shows up in the numbers, and it also balances out an offense that again is missing that running game and the beauty of it too, is that you take those two three yard completions. If you can consistently do that, it becomes death by a million paper cuts because at the same time you are dominating time of possession. They win time with possession by like seven minutes in this game. That is the formula to win a road playoff game. Control possession, limit mistakes, make sure that you can put together long drives and cash in at the end. And that's ultimately save for that third quarter where neither team could really cash in. That's what they did and that's how they won this game.

00:12:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, and also you know, limiting the number of opportunities for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who did their own amount of limiting where Trevor Lawrence having those two interceptions, including the last one where you could see why some you know, Greg celebrates his friends but also takes shots at them for picking the Jacksonville Jaguars to win a home game.

00:13:20
Speaker 1: Here, what are you saying taking shots? Well, it took a shot at you, yes, No, I mean I was taking a shot at myself too. I picked the Jaguars to win this game too.

00:13:28
Speaker 7: Well, you know, we lose together.

00:13:30
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:13:31
Speaker 4: As to the Jacksonville Jaguars, because not just a herculean performance by Josh Allen doing all the things, battling multiple injuries, some of them coming in this game where he and Stafford on consecutive days bang up their throwing hand by hitting somebody on the follow through because they throw the ball with that much velocity.

00:13:50
Speaker 7: But where Trevor Lawrence just didn't necessarily make those plays.

00:13:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, made them during during the like aspects of the game where felt like the Jags were gonna win, but in those moments that the ball just didn't necessarily bounce the JAG's way and you thought you were gonna get like a deep shot, we didn't get deep.

00:14:10
Speaker 7: Brian Thomas Jr.

00:14:12
Speaker 4: All game was coming late, got possession BTJ in Parker, Washington, and as well as you know strange making plays in the past game ETM was great out of the backfield, but living up the middle where that's not really Trevor Lawrence. This game you want to see, like I understand during the stretch where he was hitting everything, completing all those passes over the middle. It was great for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but you want to see him extending the ball to the sideline, and it just it just never happened in this game. And it's a credit to Tradevius White, the resurgent Tradavius White.

00:14:44
Speaker 2: Yep.

00:14:45
Speaker 4: At some point Trey, Trey White and Brandon Cooks got to like raj all Ghoules, you know, Fountain and got in there and got all healed up because they were spectacular.

00:14:55
Speaker 1: So the Jaguars got nine passes defense and that includes the two interceptions of Trevor Lawrence. So they got their hands on Trevor Lawrence's passes nine times. The Jaguars didn't touch one of Josh Allen's passes, not a single pass defense. And if you look at their outside cornerbacks Jerry and Jones and Greg Newsom, maybe Jerry Jones was in the slot actually, and that they gave up. According to PFF's coverage stats, thirteen catches in fourteen pass attempts for one hundred and fifty two yards.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: That was a big difference.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: And you know you mentioned Trevor Lawrence, like, yeah, he had those two interceptions, and it's crazy who's getting it done for Buffalo. They lose Jordan Poyer early in this game, but it's Shaq Thompson making an interception. It's Tredavious White making plays. I know Joey bos is new to the Bills, but it's Joey Bossa. Matt Milano is out there in the biggest of moments. It's this old guard of the Bills getting it done. And to me, it was impressive. Let's actually listen to Sean McDermott, not talking about the defense, but talking about his quarterback after the game.

00:16:07
Speaker 8: Well, it trickles down from him in terms of the team's toughness. I mean, he's when your quarterbacks that type of warrior, that type of competitor. It just, like I said, from a leadership standpoint, it just goes through the whole team.

00:16:23
Speaker 1: The thing is, like I thought, Heinz Allen and Trayvon Walker had great games, and Eric Armstead had a pretty good game too, like they were getting after Josh Allen. I really did think it was kind of the difference was that, like Allen won so many plays before the snap. I'm thinking, like early third quarter some of those drives too, like where he knew exactly where the coverage was going to be, and Trevor Lawrence just made a couple mistakes. I think Trevor Lawrence played a good second half. He didn't play great in the first half, but he also led the team Shook to two fourth quarter touchdown.

00:16:57
Speaker 2: Drives absolutely nails.

00:16:58
Speaker 1: If we're talking you know, if his defense shows up like they have all year, we're talking about him with two clutch fourth quarter drives in a fourth quarter comeback in this game.

00:17:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, and emphatic touchdown drives that made me think, Okay, they have a real shot at this. You know, they score a touchdown, they fall behind, and they scored another touchdown, they answer and it's like, all right, well now it's on the defense, and I think you know, ultimately, in a playoff game, the margin just becomes for air, becomes so slim, and those two interceptions kind of compound the fact that you didn't turn that takeaway early in the game into points and ends up burning you by the end of the game. And that's the way playoff games go. And like you said, you know you're right about the front, the Jacksonville front. You look at their pressure numbers and we see five pressures for treyon Walker, four for josh heinz Allen, three for Devin Lloyd. Combined between all of them one sack. I mean, you're getting close, but you're not getting home. It's the slim difference there, and ultimately that's what what doomed them. And about Trevor's who, you're right, I feel like he overcame those earlier struggles, but everything was still really difficult. And that's not what we saw from the Jaguars down the stretch offense. They were a well oiled machine and they ran into a stiff challenge today and while they overcame it at times, the total product was not enough to win this game. And you know, it really bums you bet about the Jacksonville defense. I thought they had a really good plan for limiting James Cook. And maybe they had too much of a good plan for limiting James Cook because it allowed Josh Allen to pick them apart with those quick throws.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: That's a fair point.

00:18:22
Speaker 1: The Bills, you know, held to seventy nine yards on the ground, and I do think, well, let's give the Jaguars one more good highlight of the year. I'm gonna miss Frank Frangie. I do think Lawrence did show some of his growth in this game. Both of his touchdowns were two guys that were very clearly not his first three. So he's going one to two to three faster than he ever has in his career, including this touchdown to Parker Washington.

00:18:49
Speaker 2: Thanky Man also stick dropping us.

00:18:50
Speaker 9: Trevor looking looking, still looking now fires toward the back of the anzle tout off.

00:18:54
Speaker 6: I'm like God, touchdown taking the US off Parker Washington, Timmy Trevor stuff.

00:19:00
Speaker 2: Get in there, Parker coming in with a store. Hell good is that?

00:19:05
Speaker 7: Oh man?

00:19:06
Speaker 6: You want to talk about a tough catching a BB by the quarterback Christian Bentford is hanging over the back of Parker Washington.

00:19:13
Speaker 7: That's a heck of the catch.

00:19:15
Speaker 1: What a freaking season by Parker Washington catches seven passes for one hundred and seven yards. That's a great throw. Another couple of good ones on the touchdown drive that ended up with the Travis Etn touchdown as a receiver. But man, you do look back a little bit on some missed opportunities. You said, that's what stands out to you. I think the questions for me would be, you know, Cam Little, your big time kicker, misses a kick that felt like a miracle to even get because of a whole out of chicanery right before halftime after a big throw by Trevor Lawrence, and then Cam Little misses it. You know, like you need your best players to step up. He misses that kick which was under sixty yards, which for him is very makeable. You don't get the points, as as Shook mentioned after the turnover, because you go on fourth down and you come up like half a yard short, and then they kind of went away from the run. Do you think they should have run the ball more in this game? Like I'm a little torn on that because that maybe was true in the first half and the second half, like the offense was effective. They scored three straight possessions, but they didn't run a ton considering their success rate was through the roof and the Bills have struggled to stop the run all year.

00:20:27
Speaker 4: Well, in some of those some of those big rushing plays came on first down. It kind of skews the number, especially on that toot and drive where I believe he had back to back carries on first down that went for big games and so the rushing numbers.

00:20:40
Speaker 2: And then he only had one more carry the whole rest of the day after that drive.

00:20:42
Speaker 4: But as you mentioned, the offense was really humming towards towards the end of the game. It was really the Bills being able to keep possession of the football the limit those opportunities where the Jags just ran out of chances to run the ball, pass ball, do anything, because Buffalo was constantly staying on the field because they have a play that that's unstoppable, especially for the jag.

00:21:03
Speaker 1: That's the thing is, That's why if I'm a Jags fan, it's tough. I watched this game and it felt different than the other five games to me. I watched this game and I thought, these are two teams, and I know this is true for most of the teams that played this week, but I really believe with you, these are two teams that can win the Super Bowl, and they're playing like super Bowl level play on both sides. Both coaches are getting it done. I think goes a great game plan for Sean McDermott to limit as much as he could on his defense. He is still a very good defensive coach. Considering the personnel they have. This was a good plan and it was a complimentary game by his offense, and and the Jaguars were up for the challenge too. Liam Cohen, it's his first time in the playoffs. He was not afraid. I mean he's calling you know, direct snaps to Travis Etn On the final drive, he called a you know, a run to Parker Washington in the red zone on the last drive. It finishes with a touch down. If it didn't work, everyone would have been like, oh, you got too cute. But really the one criticism for Cohen after the game was, you know, do you regret going for it on fourth down early in the game.

00:22:11
Speaker 2: Here's what he had to say, regret.

00:22:14
Speaker 3: Not taking the points of field going on?

00:22:16
Speaker 2: Not at all, not at all, not even a close decision.

00:22:20
Speaker 8: It was all go for it on all the metrics, and you know.

00:22:24
Speaker 2: With where you're at down there that low, you gotta go for it.

00:22:28
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you're sick of the models that you believe don't even do anything.

00:22:32
Speaker 2: They just say go your thoughts, Patrick.

00:22:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just a big folder with a green construction paper that says, go on it. I think Liam Cohen, who's calling the plays, who's looking at the play that he wants to call, and he's the person who makes the decision. Yeah, Like, I'm good with that decision that it's really a patch of turf. Oh, that ultimately determines whether Trevor Lawrence ultimately gets that first down, as well as the rule about the quarterback going head first being giving yourself up, so he doesn't even need to be down by contact in that situation.

00:23:06
Speaker 7: No, I don't mind that.

00:23:07
Speaker 10: Go.

00:23:07
Speaker 4: I think the Jacks. You know, they lost a turnover battle, but they had a higher success rate. They almost doubled them up rushing the ball. They outgained them. The success rate was fifty one point nine. It was a good offense performance by the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's the nature of the game and the circumstances produced a loss.

00:23:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, there were there were seven trips to the red zone and that was the only one that didn't result in a touchdown. Every time these two teams got down there, they capitalized.

00:23:35
Speaker 2: And that's what I mean.

00:23:36
Speaker 1: There was great defense on other sides of the field and they were hitting. I mean, this was I love this game. To me, This was one of the best games of the entire season. Like it just high level stuff from both sides and they were hitting. I know that makes Nick Schuk happy watching this game.

00:23:51
Speaker 3: Oh of course, I love them. When football players get to the playoffs and just turn up to eleven, it's like it's almost like in the NBA when they're like, oh, suddenly we play defense, except in football you have to play defensive, play hard. It's just it seems like it's a higher intensity in the playoffs. But I also agree with you. Patrick has nothing to do with the models. For me, you go for it down there because it's an extra it's a bonus possession that you earned because of a turnover on a kick return. So that's already in your pocket, right, Like, oh, well, we weren't supposed to be here anyway, so why not try to maximize it. And the other thing is, when you get to the playoffs, why would you ever go away from your identity? You do what got you there. It was a good call Trevor Lawrence career high rushing touchdowns this year. Good call, slipped up a little bit short of the line to gain. If he converts that, maybe they score. Maybe we're talking about something different. We're not rehashing this at all. I'm totally fine with it. Stick with what got you there, and if you lose the game because of it, so be.

00:24:38
Speaker 1: It and again that was Shaq Thompson just kind of touching Lawrence there. I don't know if that made the difference of it, but it is crazy, like we'll get into the Bills all week, certainly, like if this is the team that gets them to the super Bowl, it would be remarkable because you know, they got I don't know, who's.

00:24:57
Speaker 2: That guy Handcock back there. I like, yeah, some players.

00:25:00
Speaker 3: Show some respect in Ohio State's Jordan Hancock.

00:25:03
Speaker 1: Jordan Hancock, they're just sticking it together. They got Brandon Cooks, who who he heard Sean McDermott loving up Jacoby Myers during the week and who turned out to be the free agent pickup, or rather the end season pickup that made the difference in this game.

00:25:18
Speaker 2: It was our guy, justified.

00:25:20
Speaker 1: It was our guy, Brandon cook Before we move on from this game, just a couple other little notes the Bills in the last two years this means something to me. I think have ended the Jaguars eight game winning streak, the Chiefs nine game winning streak a year ago, the Lions ten game winning streak a year ago, and the Patriots eleven game winning streak this season.

00:25:44
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know.

00:25:46
Speaker 1: What that means, but just they're streak stoppers and that that it means something. I feel for Jaguars fans, I do think for these teams that haven't been to the Super Bowl, you know, it's it's interesting in the AFC.

00:25:58
Speaker 2: Maybe this is just the fan side of me.

00:26:00
Speaker 1: There's something about how wide open this AFC is that I really feel five or six teams have such a good chance to actually make it that normally you just feel like, Okay, this is a building season. It was a great moment for the Jaguars, certainly, but I do think it was a missed opportunity too, because if the ball just bounces a little different today, or they make one or two more plays, there's absolutely a world where we're seeing Trevor Lawrence out there on Super Bowl Opening Night taking questions or winning the Super Bowl. I really think they were that good of a team this year, which is why, you know, I just think it's a painful, even you know, loss, even if they played pretty well today's show.

00:26:35
Speaker 3: It's also like Dan Campbell said when they lost the NFC Championship game to the forty nine ers a few years ago, it's hard to get back here. And I know it's only wild Card weekend, and I do think that they will be back and this is the first step in Liam Cohen's first year. But it's really hard to get back there, even to wildcard weekend, because you gotta stay healthy. You got to hit your stride at the right time, and they were hitting their stride at the right time. This was the team in the AFC that I felt the most confident in because of the way that they looked over the last month and half. So it's disheartening as a just a ball enjoyer, a football enjoyer to see the Jaguars end like this. But I'm not a fan of moral victories, but Jaguar fans can feel so much better about where their team is now than where they were even just a year ago. The future remains bright.

00:27:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know history in the way that we look at the playoffs and the postseason, you know they will be told that the Miles jack not being down team, the Saxonville team because they made it farther, was better than this team. I think this was the better Jacksonville Jaguars team. Is the circumstances led to a loss, and yeah, you're gonna get the player you traded up for in the top five back. I believe he will primarily play corner next year because I believe he's the best cornerback on the team and that's what they needed.

00:27:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great call. They could have used him today. I was surprised.

00:27:47
Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated by Patrick's emotions because he's an intellectual guy. He doesn't carry his his emotions on his sleeves.

00:27:55
Speaker 2: What and you said that this one hurt you more than you expected.

00:27:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, because a good team and they've been feel good and I know that the way that we talk about football teams and all this stuff, and that's why I kind of lamented at the top of the show, everybody lost is bad. Yeah, you don't deserve to have any good memories from the team. This was a good football team and it's it's rough for the folks and Jacksonville. You know, they steal home games from them every single year. That they deserve this team to be better.

00:28:18
Speaker 1: They're not even going to play home games in a couple of years. They go to Orlando for a year, don't you Don't you have affection though, for our great producer Eric Roberts. Yeah, and all the Bills fans out there. Congrats, Eric, how was your experience? Thank you for watching this.

00:28:32
Speaker 2: It was great.

00:28:32
Speaker 11: Had the family over, It got a nice time slot for me. So living room full of Roberts, enjoyed the day and came into work happy and onto the next one.

00:28:43
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that was Josh Allen in the locker room too.

00:28:45
Speaker 1: After He's like, this one means, Like all it means is we got the right to play another one that was fired up, and I was so they don't.

00:28:52
Speaker 4: They don't even enjoy it, folks, and Jacksonville feel pretty great if they got to win.

00:28:55
Speaker 9: I know.

00:28:56
Speaker 1: And I was looking at that locker room and I was like, yeah, they do need a new stadium, because it was like you couldn't even have like half the team in one area of the locker room, like everyone's just in like a hallway.

00:29:05
Speaker 3: Basically, be surprised. You'd be surprised the state of some of the visiting locks.

00:29:09
Speaker 2: Sums in thee some of the old ones.

00:29:10
Speaker 1: Sure, So you know, Patrick, I liked the sentiment there, and that generosity of spirit was actually shared by a member of the media in Jacksonville today.

00:29:22
Speaker 2: Let's let's wrap this game.

00:29:23
Speaker 1: Just listening uh to a comment slash question to Liam Cohen, how.

00:29:29
Speaker 12: You doing today, Lynn Jones, Jacksonville Free Press News. I just want to tell you congratulations on your success, young man. You hold your head up, all right. You guys have had a most magnificent season. He did a great job out there today. Would you just hold your head up?

00:29:42
Speaker 3: Okay?

00:29:42
Speaker 12: And ladies and gentlemen, duvall you don't one all right when we got another season, okay, take care of much continued success to you and the entire team.

00:29:51
Speaker 1: I love how Liam Cohen meets her in the eyes and he's emotional and he appreciates that in the moment, and I saw that right away and I was like, I haven't seen that before. That that was that was different, and it's like a nice way to go out on the game. And then, because it's twenty twenty six, it became, surprisingly enough to me, like one of the biggest stories on social media throughout the day, which is a reminder like, don't stay on social media because it's like every super strident, serious journalist who said that was an abomination to everything that the press room should be about.

00:30:28
Speaker 2: It's like, let's calm down here.

00:30:30
Speaker 1: But also, you know, you know, maybe the other side of things saying like this was such a beautiful just just let the moments happen. We don't have to comment on everything.

00:30:39
Speaker 7: I will say on Blue Sky.

00:30:41
Speaker 4: I did not see any of that criticism that may have been on the site that's currently distributing nonconsensual revenge.

00:30:48
Speaker 7: You know, I hear you. We made skew towards people who.

00:30:53
Speaker 4: Might not necessarily like that particular attitude from the front that personally asked the question.

00:30:58
Speaker 1: That might not argue in good faith. Look, when he has a fair point, you got to recognize it. Let's let's take a break from this game, one of the games of the year. Let's come back with one of the games that wasn't one of the games of the year. It was a Patriots victory. You will hear Bob Sochy on the other side of this.

00:31:15
Speaker 8: Break.

00:31:24
Speaker 2: To fourth and nine for LA two minutes to go. Herbert drops back. He's president, Milton Williams.

00:31:30
Speaker 9: You go to sack back of the forty five long up the sixth sack by New England and the guy who'll get to the quarterback was one of the stars of last year's Super Bowl. Men for Philadelphia, A big ticket free agent and poyus Milton Williams delivered for the Pats this season.

00:31:49
Speaker 1: A fitting final offensive play for this Los Angeles Chargers that was one of eleven quarterback hits on du Justin Herber as you heard they from Sochi and Scott Zolec on WBZ, one of six sacks by the Patriots. New England wins a game sixteen three that was reminiscent of their last playoff victory as a franchise in the Super Bowl thirteen three over the Rams. By the time Mike Rabel got bloodied up at the end of the game because Milton Williams headbutted him on the sidelines, Like I was kind of thinking, Mike Rabel loves this more than anything.

00:32:29
Speaker 2: Shook.

00:32:30
Speaker 1: It was a game that a season really where Drake May and the offense has carried this team and I think in terms of building up where they're going to go just this season and maybe in the future, I think he'd loved seeing his defense come out and just have a dominating performance like that.

00:32:46
Speaker 3: Let the record reflect that. On this day, January eleventh, twenty twenty six, Mike Rabel was officially canonized as the Patron Saint of football guys for that moment right there, getting bloodied by his own guy and just dive completely and then wearing the bloody lip all the way to midfield to shake Jim Harbaugh's hand at the end of a triumphant and dominant defensive performance. For all the love that we give the New England Patriots and Drake May the favorite win MVP, which he did make a couple of plays more than a couple of players that were deserving of that recognition. Tonight today, this game in primetime was all about Rabel's defense and the Patriots doing what they used to do with Bill Belichick back when I was in middle school, dominating a game on the defensive side of the battle school.

00:33:29
Speaker 4: And Mike Rabel contains multitudes because while he's the same, yes, I'm bleeding my own blood and the postgame quote was, we talked about being willing to spill blood out there, and Milton took that to heart and so like that.

00:33:40
Speaker 7: That's Mike Brabel, consummate football guy.

00:33:43
Speaker 4: But he's also cerebral clock management Mike Vrabel. Where the Chargers wanted to, you know, get the ball up and down the field, but they kept wanting to substitute, so he's sitting in full line change clock so much as he possibly.

00:33:56
Speaker 1: He was literally telling the guys to slow down as they were running off the field, and.

00:34:00
Speaker 4: So like, get you a coach who can do both, and Mike Rabel clearly like the game plan was spectacular. On the other side, the Greg Roman situation has reached the point, the same point that we've been at for years, and perhaps Jim Harball will recognize that Greg.

00:34:16
Speaker 1: I think it could be the end of watching Greg Roman in major games. It just feels like he's been such a massive part of our lives as football fans for a while because those Harbaugh teams with Kaepernick and Alex Smith were so exciting, and then the Lamar Jackson teams obviously now Herbert. He's just been associated with these teams that are right in the center of the NFL. And when I've gotten a Chargers games like that, Eagles one stands out In this game too, there's nobody open, there's no formational diversity when you know the man coverage is come and shook, and the blitz was insane. The Patriots are not a heavy blitz team in general, but they were not getting home with four early in this game, and they sent the house. They had eight blitzes of six or more in this game. They had you know, they had another zero blitz like was seven in They blitzed almost half the snaps, which was not really their style this year, but they basically realized early, oh, like we can blitz, They're not gonna communicate well to protect Herbert and they're not gonna get anyone open because they're not running any man beaters. It was great performance by the defense, but also like you want to see some adjustments by the Chargers in their coaches.

00:35:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, what the timing of those blitzes, which were just repeated in the fourth quarter of this game. It kind of signaled two things. Does the immense respect for Justin Herbert in the fact that they didn't do it early because they were worried about him capitalizing on having less men in coverage, and also the immense lack of respect for the Chargers' ability to adjust and the ability to pick up any stunts. I have not seen an offensive line get beaten that badly by stunts and by free rushers in a playoff game in a long time. And we shouldn't be surprised. This is a Chargers line that has had a billion different combinations. They don't have their starting tackles. We can acknowledge all of that. It's not an excuse, but it is reality. It was surprising to me that it took the Patriots that long to then capitalize on it. But I think at that point they realized, oh, you know what, they're not going to make us pay. Look at what they're doing here going to a huddle. They're taking four yard games. There's less than four minutes left in the game. This is as fast as they can go, and we're also successfully slowing them down by substituting guys. So it was just a clear advantage I think on the part of the Patriots coaching staff that they knew they had the Chargers exactly where they wanted them. And again speaking about Greg Roman, it's so it would be so perfect if this was his last moment in a big game that his quarterback finishes as his leading rusher ten carries for fifty seven yards for Justin Herbert. Because there is nothing doing on the ground game for the Chargers of Marion, Hampton only has a couple of snaps before his ankle injuries clearly holding him back. Kamani Vidald does the best he can, but we see a limited Chargers offense, the same Chargers offense that was limited throughout most of this season, and they had to turn games into rock fights. This was a rock fight. They just forgot to bring rocks to the fight.

00:37:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, their defense, I think played an excellent game, and we'll get to that. But you mentioned the running game. Yeah, they have thirty rushing yards outside of Herbert. They only had one hundred and twenty net passing yards in under three and a half yards per play throwing the ball, and I think Herbert missed some throws.

00:37:18
Speaker 2: There was a couple we were.

00:37:20
Speaker 1: Watching the game together times in the game where I thought Herbert maybe had a checkdown on like a couple third downs where he didn't necessarily take it and he went for bigger play.

00:37:30
Speaker 2: So that's on him.

00:37:32
Speaker 1: And then I don't know if it's him not protecting himself or him just needed to make a play, or the offensive lines playing terribly or all of the above. But man, he took some hits, including a strip sack in the early portions of the fourth quarter that really felt kind of like when this game ended Herbert again from the.

00:37:52
Speaker 2: Shot field trips to the whiteside. What he dropped back, he stands an, he's pressure, he's.

00:37:56
Speaker 7: Hit, he stays out of his faint running's on.

00:37:58
Speaker 2: How many goes down trips recovery just un holy crap.

00:38:15
Speaker 1: That yeah, we should have led with that's a banker. That's unreal.

00:38:23
Speaker 4: But the the circumstances on that sack, you go back and look, they they come up in trips eventually when Herbert hits the top of his drop. I'm not being hyperbolic here. Between Keenan Allen and Lad McConkie, they are two yards away from each other. They are immediately next to each other. One defender is occupying two Chargers receivers. So Herbo comes off of that. By the time he comes off of that, there's there's no there's nothing for him to do, like to try to escape and make the play. And it's this constant balance where you talk about him taking the four yard games. The four yard games were the only option on some of these plays down the stretch where it's just you would like to give the quarterback some options, you would like to protect him. The Chargers were incapable of doing any of that. And I know ver Shawn Slater and Joel are great players. I don't know that having them on the field tonight would have necessarily changed so much of the circumstances for Justin.

00:39:16
Speaker 7: Herbert clearly would have helped.

00:39:18
Speaker 4: But considering that this is the product for the Chargers, I don't know what they could have.

00:39:24
Speaker 1: Done in two playoff games. They've scored a total of one touchdown on twenty two offensive possessions, been outscored. You know, if you're combining those two games forty eight to fifteen, and you know it just was tough to watch. You sent out the dots of the final fourth down play too, where it's just like every Chargers receiver is somehow double covered even though there's two or three guys coming three through the through the offensive line. It's crazy. But also give credit to the Patriots. I thought Christian Gonzalez his best game of the season. Five targets his way, zero catches. I don't think he's been at his very very best this year. He was awesome in this game. Carlton Davis with some big sacks, Christian Ellis at linebacker was the spy all game, and I thought played really well, Marcus Jones. You know, they are one of the best tackling teams, if not the best tackling teams in the NFL. And I've been down on the Patriots defense all season. That's one thing that they do really well. They don't allow yack. They don't allow you know, run after contact either. They have the fewest miss tackles in the league. And you really saw that they were swarming tonight. Let's talk a little bit about the Patriots on offense, because look, the numbers will say that they moved the ball all game, like they did. They get over four hundred yards, No, not quite, not a ton of possessions, but you know, they get close to four hundred yards. They moved the ball all game, but they couldn't capitalize.

00:40:44
Speaker 2: Nick.

00:40:44
Speaker 1: What did you see out of Drake may in his first playoff game?

00:40:49
Speaker 3: A mix. There were moments where he took off for positive games with his legs, which is what we've seen him do. In the second half, I thought he got more comfortable with pocket navigation and making plays. He obviously had the biggest player of the game to give them the only touchdown of the game, but early on it felt like the pressure of the moment was maybe a little too big for him, a little bit of like Jalen Hurts to him, where he was almost trying to make the perfect play and you could just see like this, not the speed, but just like the gravity of the moment. He had to settle in. But he did settle in, and he was able to keep them going. The run right before halftime was obviously just like vintage him. I can't can he say vintage about a guy in his second year because I'm going to do classic Drake May where he's just running down the middle of the field untouched to get them into field goal range. So overall we give him a good grade, and he finished very strong. He looked good in the second half. Just not one of his best games. But that's perfectly fine. You're in a playoff game and which your defense is playing fantastically. You don't really have to do that much. And when the time came for him to do the most important things, he did.

00:41:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, he ends up running for sixty six yards. Remandre was very efficient with fifty three yards on the ground.

00:41:52
Speaker 2: They ran it pretty well.

00:41:53
Speaker 1: They didn't run it that often in the game, which surprised me. I think if May has above this year, it's it's the sack fumbles. Sometimes he's a lot of times he's recovered them, but in this game, you know, he has one in the fourth quarter where he gets absolutely blasted. There's another one where Will Campbell, Uh, let's your guy dafe Oway beat him, and that one I don't really put on May too much. He holds on the ball a little long, but like you know, Campbell also gets beat behind him, and so you know, three turnovers is not ideal. The first one is on a tip interception. All of them you can kind of find, you know, context for, but otherwise there were a lot of a lot of dots in this game. And you give the Chargers defense credit, like I think Jesse Minner had a game.

00:42:37
Speaker 2: Winning plan and a game winning performance.

00:42:39
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, you know, there's other aspects to the game and they're they're they're great defense This year was it was kind of for.

00:42:45
Speaker 4: Not yeah, and you really didn't have to Uh, clearly, the Patriots could have protected the ball a little bit better, but they didn't necessarily need all the punching power considering that the performance the defense was putting up there and in Drake May it's it's gonna take some sack, like, yeah, there a guy that takes you know, shots down the field like that is going to give up some opportunities for the defense. But in terms of the way that he played, I think in the way that the Chargers approached this game a solid a solid game by Drake May where you know, the doubters are going to lean in and be like, oh, look we told you something like come on.

00:43:21
Speaker 2: And the doubters by that you mean MJD coming back. Oh my god. You know, he goes by me in the news. This is your MVP. This is your MVP.

00:43:29
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, three turnovers, sure, but did average over nine yards per attempt and was the game's leading rusher and in a lot of like moments that I thought, you know, didn't make that our highlight reel, he was money. There was a third and ten coming off his own goal line where he fires one into Hunter Henry to get that touchdown drive going, and that's like a very Drake made type of throw.

00:43:58
Speaker 2: There was a fourth down play before they get the field goal.

00:44:01
Speaker 7: Uh.

00:44:01
Speaker 1: After you know, they run a very curious trick play on third down, uh, and he hits Kyle Williams on the sideline, trusting his rookie to make him play, trusting you know, their full back Jack Westover to make a playton Chism made a play in this game. And these were all great balls of deep ball, the case on Boody. So there were a lot of good moments and there was the nice touchdown to Hunter Henry. Now, the worst throw May had all game was was the miss to Austin Hooper. They could have won, you know, kind of put this game away a little earlier, but they settled for a field goal there. But again he sees one of his tight ends streaking open late and he hits it right when.

00:44:34
Speaker 9: The extra tight end out there with the play fake drank on a deep dropper, he slides to.

00:44:44
Speaker 2: Touch down. I'm talking about the back fo Hunter Henry on a little little f shuh. We get we get another week of that chuck.

00:45:07
Speaker 1: They will be hosting either the Texans or the Steelers.

00:45:11
Speaker 2: Oh look at this, what's happening?

00:45:13
Speaker 3: Welcome to Scott Zolax Club of you four in which you can't comprehend. The Gillette Stadium is packed with so many Rockets Patriots fans. That was the throw of the game, folks, drag may open it in the bucket the hunter Henry right over the defender. That's the play that you want to look for in the high highlight reel when he becomes NFL MVP and we're gonna celebrate it with some crazy less For those of you not watching.

00:45:36
Speaker 1: On YouTube, I mean, people don't know. Sho is a man who can do many things. He can write, he can podcast about F one and he can twitch stream. And this is what These are your Madden lights. When you score a touchdown in Madden.

00:45:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, these are big play lights. These are anytime you got a big play. It could be a turnover, blockfield goal, pick six, when you jump a bubble for a touchdown, any of those moments.

00:45:58
Speaker 2: Why you hold it out? Why are you holding on? Who's you back here?

00:46:02
Speaker 3: I just brought it back right now.

00:46:04
Speaker 7: Let's go.

00:46:04
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.

00:46:06
Speaker 4: Do you think he strikes Bob all those situations, so many.

00:46:11
Speaker 3: Arm punches, so many shoulders, he's.

00:46:13
Speaker 4: Still bove to look at look at this place like we're listening all the radio, Scott, you're.

00:46:21
Speaker 1: The crowds uh. I mean, I guess it can't be like a surprise, but it has been a trend. I think for some of these crowds in the playoffs, they haven't had a lot of home playoff football. In a minute, the Jacksonville crowd was awesome. The Carolina crowd was absolutely incredible. And I know people will be like, wow, wow, the Patriots haven't, but you know, it's still been what seven years since a playoff win. They were happy to have another home game in Foxboro and they were they were ready to go.

00:46:50
Speaker 7: I did it. They did it.

00:46:51
Speaker 1: They overcame Greg No, no, I'm not saying they overcame him, just saying they they had a good time.

00:46:57
Speaker 2: Uh let's uh, let's say goodbye to this Chargers team.

00:47:01
Speaker 1: Ultimately, they overachieved, and people got a little mad of like Jim Harbaugh, you know, going back and forth of like, well, he didn't go for fourth down on the Patriots side of the fifty early and punted and that was conservative like he is. But then he did go for it inside the ten and they didn't get it, and you're like, oh, Jim Harbor is never going to go for it again, and he didn't. He kicked the field goal inside the ten later in the game. That ultimately wasn't what was gonna matter in this game. They just got physically dominated, and I think it's going to have him look in the mirror and think about his play caller and what they're going to do next. Or no, well we'll have to find out. Let's take one final break. We're gonna come back with another coaching staff who was going to be facing some heat after the events of Sunday.

00:47:56
Speaker 5: Forty nine Ers showing heavy, heavy pressure.

00:47:59
Speaker 2: Let's see if peel.

00:48:00
Speaker 6: Out they back out her shotgun snap, her step up, meddle not to lay by Eric Kendricks.

00:48:06
Speaker 2: The forty nine Ers takeover on downs. Do you believe in this team?

00:48:12
Speaker 5: What a play the defense has time and time again.

00:48:16
Speaker 6: Two interceptions thrown by the forty nine ers, George Kittle's devastating injury in the second quarter, and now the offense comes out of the field and they can put this thing away here in Philly.

00:48:27
Speaker 2: To the exits they go.

00:48:30
Speaker 1: Great call there by Guy Haberman on k n b R, because he not only called the play, but he gave the context of everything that this forty nine Ers team has overcome, including yes, playing two linebackers one in Eric Kendricks who made that play, who were not on the active roster a month ago and played over seventy snaps in this game, and they hold the Eagles to nineteen points. Forty nine Ers win twenty three to nineteen. I think it's been a great coaching job this season by Kyle Shanahan and an even better job by his players to step up. Patrick, I'm gonna start talking about actually the offense because I know it's like, you know, Brock through a couple interceptions in this game, but the Eagles in the Vic Fangio era have been so good on defense. This forty nine Ers team actually that had the highest success rate of any team against the Eagles in any game against Vic Fangio's defense, And I was impressed ultimately without George Kittle who leaves with an achilles injury in the second quarter, and without you know, Ricky Piersall and obviously Brandon Ayuk hasn't been there all year, like, they still just find a way to get it done and get enough on offense against a great Philadelphia squad on the other side.

00:49:51
Speaker 4: And you can see it also in those interceptions where Brock perty was not afraid to challenge Quinnon Mitchell. He got away with it early on in the game, but that was continue throughout the course of the game, including Brock getting first downs and moving the sticks with his legs as well, where this team, whoever's available, is executed to a high level all season long.

00:50:13
Speaker 7: I think this was a classic Rock Party game.

00:50:16
Speaker 4: And I know the numbers eighteen to thirty one, two touchdowns, two interceptions, like kind of hides that fact when Juwan Jennings comes in and you know we have a chance to celebrate Tennessee quarterback Juwan Jennings, Oh yeah once again and making a great on a great play call, great execution by he as well as Christian McCaffrey in the entire team where when you see when it works, this forty nine ers team is such a well oiled machine and there was every opportunity for it to fall apart with Jalen Carter having a decent game getting the pressures. Just considering the stakes, in the circumstances and what was up against Brock Party, I think this was a great I agree.

00:50:55
Speaker 1: Actually it reminds me a lot of the Drake May game where yeah, there were a couple like real big mistakes, but most of the plays were absolutely excellent and he kept firing despite mistakes. The second half kind of was classic like Rock Purty era forty nine ers. If you knew nothing else other than just looking at the drive chart, it's just kind of classic. Interception three and out, touchdown, interception touchdown, It's just like but ultimately, that's two fourth quarter touchdowns. And I thought he played a really good first half, which that you know, completely ignores in terms of being very calculating, kind of being like the Josh Allen from today, making all the right decisions.

00:51:38
Speaker 2: And then he.

00:51:39
Speaker 1: Got got a couple times by a really good performance by Quinnon Mitchell in the second half. But ultimately, like you're winning the game where you're leading receiver by far as DeMarcus Robinson, that's your number one, and your number three after Christian McCaffrey is Kyle Yuschek, who like he's having to throw to his back shoulder because there's like very little open space in this Philadelphia defense and they're completing difficult catches. And maybe this season doesn't continue after next week.

00:52:10
Speaker 2: We'll see.

00:52:10
Speaker 1: I think they got a chance against Seattle, but I think it's an achievement for this team to have made it to the final eight.

00:52:17
Speaker 3: It is an achievement. And while I agree that their ceiling is lower because of everybody that they've lacked and because of injury and everything else, it also kind of makes them dangerous because they've spent so much of this season without their key guys. Like I thought about the George Kittle injury today, most teams that had George Kittle all year would be devastated by the loss of that guy as central figure in your game plan. They wouldn't know where to turn. Luckily, the forty nine ers have spent a good chunk of games this season without George Kittle, and that's how we got to learn who Jake Tungus was. And he makes a catch in the second half, and as soon as he makes that catch, I'm like, oh, they've been here, they know what to do without him, They'll be fine. And the same thing goes to their receiving corps with DeMarcus Robinson with a long catch and run, and after that drive, they didn't move the ball for a while. It was very much a story of explosives and lulls and then putting a cup together a couple of key drives late by just chipping away. But that really exhibits the resilience of this football team that has already been through so much just to get here, and it also is another demonstration of Kyle Shanahan's ability to craft up a fantastic game plan called the right plays in the right moments and finish the job with a quarterback who is very sneakily elusive and was a problem for the Eagles who got home a lot of times and didn't finish the job. And Perty's ability to both slip sacks and then find the pocket and find the soft spots and deliver throws. That's what helped elevate them. So yeah, I think that ultimately, well, probably wouldn't be surprised if they lose next week. But I also wouldn't be surprised if they made a run all the way to the super Bowl, because hey, why not? Why not? They've already had been behind the eight ball with a hand tied behind their back this entire season. Why not?

00:53:49
Speaker 1: Well, while we're here, let's actually listen to Juwan Jennings after the game with our friend Mike Gariffolo.

00:53:56
Speaker 2: Do you know who you're playing next week? I think I hope a Seattle Will. It is Seattle.

00:54:04
Speaker 7: Layers go, I can't wait. That's what we want.

00:54:06
Speaker 2: It onto the divisional round. Go celebrate this one.

00:54:08
Speaker 3: Man.

00:54:08
Speaker 2: I appreciate job.

00:54:09
Speaker 9: Man.

00:54:10
Speaker 2: I just like that. He said, that's who we want, That's why who we wanted.

00:54:13
Speaker 1: We wanted Seattle again and they will get that rematch. Yeah, this was a game where it's sixteen to ten after the Eagles have what was their most successful second half drive to that point, which was a ten play, twenty three yard drive that took five minutes.

00:54:32
Speaker 2: If you want to know what the.

00:54:33
Speaker 1: Eagles offense looked like in the second half, it looked like the Eagles offense in the second half from the entire season. It's absolutely ridiculous. And they go up sixteen ten, and yet at that point you still were wondering, maybe the Eagles defense is just going to be too good and they can get away with settling for these field goals and not really doing anything on offense. But like in so many of their losses this year, ultimately that stagnation did come back to haunt them. But we didn't really know it until they gave that men Juwan Jennings the ball, but not as a receiver.

00:55:06
Speaker 2: Christian McCaffrey behind him sky Moore in motion. It's a trick play. They give it to more now flip to Juwan Jennings.

00:55:12
Speaker 3: And round Jennings throws it to McCaffrey.

00:55:14
Speaker 2: Time please cut out.

00:55:15
Speaker 6: McCaffrey cut it for the touchdown.

00:55:19
Speaker 5: Touchdown forty and that is the forty nine Ers own Philly Special. McCaffrey speech the ball into the ground and the forty have tied the game.

00:55:32
Speaker 4: A rough, rough period of time for Reid blanken Ship, Yes, in this one. He was able to get run over for a first down at one coverage bust earlier in the game, and in that one he's looking at Jawan Jennings on the reverse, but his teammates are there and CMC is really the only threat and he gets past him. And it's a nice play to kind of hesitate and give Blanketship something to think about by Juwan Jennings and then throwing that late, so late in fact, that Jalen Carter gets a rough in the past penalty on the wide receiver throwing the ball. But it's just you gotta tip your cap at a certain point in that execution. Because even even if blanket Ship carries with CMC like Jennings may put that ball over the top of his head anyway, And.

00:56:12
Speaker 1: That actually came before a big read Blankenship penalty which preceded the CMC touchdown that we'll listen to in a sect. But before we move on, you that was from Perdy, not from Jennings. Before we move on from that play though, that is dual threat quarterback Juwan Jennings.

00:56:34
Speaker 2: As you mentioned.

00:56:37
Speaker 1: Drew Christensen, our great producer and former researcher in the NFL, like he was popping in in our forties in Free Agents episode during the Week Live and pointing out when we were talking about Juwan Jennings and his great quarterbacking skills that this was a man who was once ranked a four star recruit as the number five dual threat quarterback in the entire NFL that year, just ahead of Sam Darnold, who hilariously was called a dual threat quarterback as the number six. I mean, I know he's athletic. I guess for high school. I guess for high school. Yeah, you could imagine number six was Donald, number seven was Joe Burrow, and number nine was Lamar Jackson. So I mean, that was a hell of a draft class and dwant Jennings was on.

00:57:23
Speaker 2: Top of it.

00:57:24
Speaker 1: And he's now got more playoff touchdowns than Sam Donald because he hit that Super Bowl one to CMC back in the chief Super Bowl too, So what a what a moment, And that was kind of the moment was like, Oh, the Eagles aren't going to lose this game. It really felt like that.

00:57:37
Speaker 3: It was a perfectly executed trick play too, not only because of jennings throw, which, by the way, he throws that on the run off one foot and it's an absolute dime to the outside shoulder to McCaffrey, who makes a Willie mainstat catch in the end zone to get the job done. They couldn't have executed this any better. Rock Perty even hung in to pretend like he was gonna bo just now, oh wait, there's Brock Purdy pretending I may chip somebody. Probably not, but I might. And guess what, he didn't have to, because Jennings is athletic enough to get the throw off perfectly off one foot, McCaffrey making a spectacular catch, and if you needed a moment in which the momentum of the game shifted permanently in favor of the forty nine ers. It was right there.

00:58:17
Speaker 1: Okay, what but before we get to the dissection of the end of the Philadelphia Eagles season and their chance at defending things, let's listen to someone I thought we weren't gonna hear, you know, in terms of being a play by play guy again this season, Will Gavin of Talk Sport. They sent my guy Will across the pond to go announce this game for talkSPORT, And I thought the party throw to CMC and that drive was a really great evidence of Purdy's maturation because a lot of times in that drive he was getting to the second and third read. It wasn't the obvious throw. He wasn't forcing the ball in the biggest spot, even though I know he had the those two interceptions. He bounced back and he made some money throws, including this score.

00:59:06
Speaker 10: Purdy in the gun, McCaffrey alongside him, three receivers right in Jennings, Kendrick Paughn, and DeMarcus Robinson. One receiver to the left is his tight end. He sends Born in motion, stumps his foot, gets the ball, looks to his right hand side, steps up in the pocket, close left and said touchdown.

00:59:22
Speaker 2: Niners.

00:59:24
Speaker 13: Christian McCaffrey wrights on the g of the Eagles in the.

00:59:27
Speaker 7: End zone, and.

00:59:28
Speaker 13: In the fourth quarter they retake the lead. San Francisco up four twenty three nineteen, and they battered, bruised and banged up San Francisco team just won't take it lying down.

00:59:42
Speaker 2: I love it.

00:59:42
Speaker 1: It Will's a forty nine Ers fan. I don't think he'll mind that being a public information.

00:59:48
Speaker 7: Out at him.

00:59:49
Speaker 1: Yeahdox, I'm sure he wasn't saying that on that particular broadcast, but.

00:59:53
Speaker 2: Anyone who follows them he knows.

00:59:55
Speaker 1: And yeah, what a performance and what a great coaching job too by Robert sal And doing it with this defense. And as we kind of transition here, Shook, I did think like maybe this was the perfect matchup for them.

01:00:09
Speaker 2: I mean, it's easy to say in hindsight.

01:00:11
Speaker 1: Because they're not a team that is gonna get much pressure, and they still tried to blitz Jalen Hurts a lot, but Jalen hurts and this passing game is maybe one of the few ones in the playoffs that it's not necessarily about like the pressure, Like they have not shown an ability necessarily to beat you, even if Jalen Hurts is protected and certainly not over the middle of the field where I think the forty nine ers were most vulnerable. And I don't think it's a coincidence. Like literally that's how the game ended, was Jalen Hurts being like a beat late to the middle of the field in area where just historically he hasn't really made hay as a quarterback.

01:00:54
Speaker 3: It's an interesting note about the matchup because I think going into this game, like I picked the forty nine ers in a three point win the job, and I thought about it from both sides, which is okay, let's think about their last game against a good defense. They could do absolutely nothing against Seattle. That's concerning. But if there's one team that you want to play and you know that you're gonna have to score points to beat them, and that's your advantage because their offense is going to be stuck in the mud for most of the game, it's the Eagles because they can't figure out how to use the copious amounts of talent they have on that side of the ball. And we saw it again. It wasn't until the final drive of the game when they're going no huddle where they're starting to actually move the football consistently through the air. Everything was so difficult for them. I think about an early Saquon Barkley run where he cuts it back and because I think it was one of the defensive backs lost contain. He gets a big run, you don't hear anything from him for the rest of the game because they don't run the ball well. Tank Bigsby runs it a little bit better, but ultimately they could not get into a rhythm, which is the story of their entire season. And it's not just Jalen Hurts, it's the entire scheme. Hurts plays a part in it. Of course, they don't block as well as they did last year, but this operation is not creative. They have terrible calls on key downs. The fourth down that you know seals the victory for the forty nine ers that we play at the start of this recap. It was a great example of it where you're just running guys in the into the middle of the field into traffic and Jalen's forced to make a quick decision. He's also a little responsible for breaking clean pockets sometimes. Like just the whole operation is not good and I think that it is far too telling from what this team has been all year. This is none of this is surprising. This is the exact frustration that sent Aj Brown to talk about it when he was streaming on Twitch playing Madden one time. This is this is what fueled the drama on that side of the field. And I would be stunned, absolutely stunned that if Nick Sirianni remains a coach, if he doesn't get rid of his offensive coordinator, Kevin Batoulo. It just did not have a grip on the offense all year and what to do with this talent. And this is how their season I think properly ended.

01:02:51
Speaker 4: But the thing that I keep coming back to is if you have to keep finding head coach level offensive coordinators to make it work, then I think you've already found what a major part of the issue is. Because everything has shook pointed out that has gone wrong for the Eagles did go wrong. We had Jalen Lea leaving a pocket early, which is something he's always done consistently, even even in the Super Bowls that he played spectacularly, and uh, there was a drop by Aj Brown on that final drive that late one of the final Saquon plays that we got in the game because he got hurt. Tank Biggsby came in and relief, he worked it out on this isline coming back in, but you have Dallas Goddard blocking Bryce Huff and getting absolutely washed to the extent where Saquon tries to cut back and he ends up rolling up on himself and he has to leave the game. And then we have the most inexplicable time out I've ever seen in a football game, where they want to make the play call better. The play call has been bad all season long. They want to get a they want to get into a better play and talk about it more. Meanwhile, they could have had three timeouts to get the ball back. Instead, they chose to have a discussion where it's like this is this is the Eagles twenty twenty five season writ large, and what a perfect way for it to end, the same way it was the whole.

01:04:06
Speaker 1: So on brand Nick Sirianni racing to AJ Brown on the sideline, you know, right before halftime because he wanted AJ Brown to get off the field because they were about to punt, and I guess Brown was moving slowly and Brown, you know, getting back in his face, and this is always something and I know it's I know, it's sports. And AJ Brown had a rough game. He had a drop in the first half too, and it was very windy there, and I think that really affected the passing game, especially the deep passing game. There was a deep shot that Jalen Hurts is usually great on that you could tell got taken. But AJ Brown had had two drops and you have to wonder if this is going to be it for him. Here's Nick Sirianni talking about his relationship with his receiver after the.

01:04:58
Speaker 14: Game of Aj. I think he knows how I feel about him, have a special relationship with him. We've we've probably went through every emotion you can possibly have together. We've laughed together, we've cried together, We've yelled at each other. You know, we're both emotional. I was trying to get him off the field, and you know, you never want you know that happens in this game. That happens in this game.

01:05:22
Speaker 7: And but I love him.

01:05:26
Speaker 2: I get it, But no I don't.

01:05:29
Speaker 3: I don't because here's the thing. Control your emotions. There's no there's nothing good about you running down and telling you one are your best players to get off the field because you're frustrated keep it controlling.

01:05:38
Speaker 1: He said, like we're both super Bowl and he's like, hey, we're both emotional guys.

01:05:42
Speaker 2: But it's like, yeah, but that's that's your writer receiver. You're the coach.

01:05:45
Speaker 7: Yeah, invest that.

01:05:46
Speaker 4: Energy elsewhere, like like in terms of decision making and coaching and being on the sideline. Why is that energy not being invested elsewhere other than sprinding down the field to get a J Brown when like there's there's other folks that are need to get off the field at the same time too.

01:06:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like.

01:06:05
Speaker 1: The yelling at aj thing is is more of a symptom. The things that really bother me more is the timeout which you mentioned, the give up plays. There was a second and nineteen run. I'm so sick of the Eagles with these like second and nineteen runs that go nowhere. There was also a third and thirteen Jalen Hurts quarterback run.

01:06:25
Speaker 2: I believe that might.

01:06:26
Speaker 1: Have set up that field goal to go up sixteen to ten. It's like it's almost not even trying and that happens all the time. And then it's just the continuous second half anti adjustments where they just have these stretches every single week where in this drive in this game. You know, if you go back to the last drive of the second quarter, it was a five drive sequence where they gained a total of forty nine yards. And it just happens. It happens every week. And you mentioned Shook if he's the coach, I have never witnessed a spicier moment in the coaching carousel. Then we're in right now, eight eight coaches available, eight coaches available. And why I think it's spicy is just the uncertainty where we are today because we don't know what Harbaugh is going to do, right, but we don't know what's going to happen with Matt Lafleur. He met with the media on Sunday. He says he's going to meet with you know, Team president ed Policy. Adam Schefter pointedly did a whole you know, quote unquote report on Sunday morning that basically was what we talked about on Thursday on our show, that Hey, you know, Bob Harlan's son happens to represent John Harbaugh, and wouldn't it be interesting, you know, John Harbaugh lives in the Northwest, and that would be interesting if maybe he would like that would be a job that he would really like the Packers.

01:07:57
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, me too.

01:07:59
Speaker 7: It's nice to one.

01:08:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, but Adam Schefter isn't just throwing it out there willy nilly.

01:08:04
Speaker 2: It's for a purpose. It's either to put some heat.

01:08:06
Speaker 1: It's well for John Harbor to make more money, but maybe for John Harbor to get that job, you know, either to create leverage. But it's interesting the little fir thing is hanging out there. The Dolphins are in this whole mix. Could the Eagles possibly get in this mix? Like it's almost a game of chicken. I don't think the Packers would would want Matt Lafleur to get out there if they thought maybe maybe he would end up in Philadelphia or maybe you know, maybe you know, that's.

01:08:36
Speaker 2: It's a whole triangle.

01:08:37
Speaker 1: And do you think that the Eagles could get in the mix here because you know John Harbor people went remember like he came up in the Philadelphia system.

01:08:46
Speaker 2: It's just a lot, it's spicy.

01:08:48
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised if phone calls have already been made from somebody's limo Well they were home, so well maybe still taking a limo car service home from the game from Lincoln Financial Field, Uh to uh, kick the tires on some potential candidates out there. I thought you were going to pivot toward what would happen if Nick Sirianni got fired and just threw a powder keg into the whole coaching Garret.

01:09:05
Speaker 1: I am. I'm saying, like, what if he gets fired and they bring in harbar or.

01:09:08
Speaker 2: Something or the coach.

01:09:10
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about him getting a head coaching job somewhere else and blowing that up. But fine too, how about this, though, I think that we deserve this uncertainty and potential chaos scenario because what did we talk about with this coaching Garris all this whole off season? Oh, I don't know. Do you make the fight? You get rid of the coach because the geanets out there aren't too strong? Well, suddenly we might be chock full of big time candidates and it could get really interesting.

01:09:35
Speaker 7: I wanted to get super spicy.

01:09:36
Speaker 4: I would like an agent to tell somebody, to tell an insider that an agent's going to prevent somebody from getting a job, as opposed to saying, oh, well, agents who definitely have value provided to their customers are helping somebody get a job they maybe shouldn't but because the agent is under contract, then that's why you should hire this person.

01:09:56
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I do think the agent sometimes.

01:09:59
Speaker 1: Use the media No Two what make their clients more money From aging businessmen whose whole life hasn't been football and maybe aren't the best at evaluating the right things, who to give all their money to and why to give all their money, that they actually really listen to these reports that that does have some function.

01:10:23
Speaker 4: So instead of just telling them themselves, I don't know, they tell somebody else to tell everybody.

01:10:28
Speaker 1: I think there are ownership who value like what chefter and rappaport, and everyone's saying more than the people inside their own building.

01:10:40
Speaker 3: I know of the agent connection between somebody who's a higher up at a few organizations getting a few lower level coaches hired. This is definitely a real thing. Definitely a real thing. So, I mean, you guys are right.

01:10:52
Speaker 1: There's no other way to explain the fact that you're proud. Baltimore Ravens like weren't ashamed enough to not send out the tweet that said Matt Naggy interviewed Friday. Why is Matt Naggy getting five interviews? It has to be it's got to have a great agent, Like what is happening?

01:11:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just think it's the Yes, the thing is happening. Should the thing be happening?

01:11:17
Speaker 2: Well?

01:11:17
Speaker 7: Is a is a part of it?

01:11:19
Speaker 2: And I just you know, that's a good thing to pint out.

01:11:22
Speaker 7: I would I would like to know. I'd like to know all of the wise, all the wise.

01:11:26
Speaker 1: I mean that that is a great question for this entire Eagles season, all the wise. There everyone was kind of holding out hope this whole time, like maybe they just pressed the button then, like we just would see playoff play, you know, Jaylen and in a different game, like they could have escaped this game.

01:11:44
Speaker 4: But this is a Niners team that hasn't been able to rush the passer, yeah, for for ten weeks. Yeah, this is this is a nasty loss, Like there's something has to change.

01:11:55
Speaker 2: It's a good point.

01:11:56
Speaker 1: They had I think, I like one of the lowest success rates of the entire season for the Eagles and it happened against this lower tier defense. And yeah, you mentioned Saquon He had four for sixty five on that first drive, first touchdown drive. They always look good at the beginning. In the next twenty two carries, he had in this game. He gained a total of forty one yards, and it felt like every other snap in the fourth quarter was like a run for negative three.

01:12:22
Speaker 2: Man.

01:12:23
Speaker 1: What a wild card weekend and it's not over yet, you know, as as Tony Romo would say, ah, here we go, Jim. But now it's like sentient Romo, did you notice the thing today? I don't know if you were locked in Like he was like too self aware because he was about to say that in the right moment of the game for the Jaguars, but then he sort of said it in a voice that was like making fun of Tony Romo, while Tony Romo was saying it like he was audibleling on the fly because he knows everyone makes fun of him for it. And that Tony Romo kind of makes me even sadder, you know what I mean?

01:13:01
Speaker 3: Oh all right, I mean he's done it a few times late in close games of the season where he does it like I'm leaning on my catch traps. So instead of being like, here we go with full exuberance, he's.

01:13:10
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, oh, that's not that we need.

01:13:17
Speaker 15: We need the full Tony experience bringing back I'm excited and look I've been picking a Rams Seahawks NFC championship game all year, saying that they're the best two teams, and it was looking for a while like that was impossible.

01:13:33
Speaker 2: We were going to get that as a divisional round game.

01:13:35
Speaker 1: But no, now that the forty nine Ers pulled off this upset, it'll be the forty nine ers going back to Seattle, and yeah, the Rams will be in Chicago. We will finish the AFC field on Monday night. A treat on Sunday night here with my friends Patrick and Nick, my only two friends in the world for this eighty minutes. But no, there's other great people in my life, I promise, other than football.

01:14:01
Speaker 2: Please.

01:14:02
Speaker 1: I've been waiting for that music to hit. Eric likes to hang me out to dry. Why do you as a friend, He's already playing mind games ahead of Bill's Patriots potentially.

01:14:12
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know if the Patriots are gonna get there.

01:14:14
Speaker 1: We'll find out if the Texans are going to Foxboro Monday night live on YouTube for the last time on a Monday night.

01:14:22
Speaker 2: I'll season see then