Divisional Round Sunday Recap: Rams Escape Caleb's Heroics and Patriots Handle Houston

00:00:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where I don't think Caleb Williams is gonna make another life changing play again this season, but you never know, Like at this point, he makes the impossible possible. I'm Greg Rosenthal in the Chris Westling podcast studio. I'm with my friend Patrick Clayback.

00:00:24
Speaker 2: Nick Shook is joining us from Cleveland. The Divisional round was a banger. Conference Championship weekend is gonna have a lot to live up to, Nick Shook. We know what the championship games are gonna be, and yes, the Bears are not gonna be.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: Involved in it.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: And yet even though they lost in this game, I still can't like move past that one last Caleb movement that he gave us earlier tonight.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's only right that it ended that way.

00:00:51
Speaker 4: Of course, you don't want, you know, Bears fans to have their hearts broken, as they too often have, But it's only right that they had another miraculous play on a fourth for gotta have it situation that pays off and gives them one last thrill to basically put a caper on what was a thrill filled twenty twenty five season, The great debut for the Ben Johnson Era and plenty to look forward to for this fan base.

00:01:14
Speaker 5: In classic no No, No, No, Yes form where Caleb instantly starts to retreat and spins back and it's like, oh no, it's all gonna be for naught, and then magic that ultimately fizzles out. But living in those moments is what makes this whole enterprise.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: Yes so special, I know, And I got Eric Roberts, he's recovered. We love you, Eric from that that thing we won't talk about that happened on Saturday, involving your team yelling at me. It's like, we're gonna get to that play. We're gonna talk about the play. But sometimes plays and themes of a season we can't even wait to get into. And Caleb Williams and these plays that he's made at the end of these games.

00:01:52
Speaker 1: To me are like the number one theme of this season.

00:01:55
Speaker 2: And yet it was the Rams, resourceful as ever, who found a way to get it done in that cold for.

00:02:03
Speaker 3: The rookie Harrison Mivas on the hold of Eathan Evans. Here it comes to send the Rams to Seattle for the.

00:02:10
Speaker 6: NFC Championship game.

00:02:13
Speaker 7: It's good.

00:02:17
Speaker 8: To Rams win.

00:02:18
Speaker 3: It's twenty to seventeen in over time.

00:02:25
Speaker 1: A great call by our friend JB.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: Long, who's making that long flight back from Chicago on Sunday night with our friend Maurice Jones Drew, and they're going to be making another flight up the coast to Seattle for the NFC Championship game next Sunday.

00:02:45
Speaker 1: Harrison mevs.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: Before getting bleeped on NBC after the game that was controversial, finishes out a crazy game that had a little bit of everything, twenty to seventeen the Rams win. I'm going to do something different here, Patrick and Nick. We're each going to have one overarching thought, Oh my God, of this game, like a takeaway before we get into everything. I'm putting you on the spot, what is your takeaway from this entire affair?

00:03:18
Speaker 5: Okay, so around eighty plays for the starters on both teams, I think you altered the results on fifteen of those individual plays get a different end result. It's equal parts frustrating as well as fantastic because those are the stakes in a single elimination playoff game, and I hope, in our everlasting search, Greg are for that one particular.

00:03:37
Speaker 9: Thing to take away from the game.

00:03:39
Speaker 5: We pull back our focus and we're able to turn the resolution up and see that the forest is the trees, the individual aspects that make all of this.

00:03:48
Speaker 2: Well, that's why I'm getting three different takeaways to start, just three umbrella takeaways.

00:03:53
Speaker 1: As we get going, what about you shuk.

00:03:56
Speaker 4: This was a classic case of a football game that was included many phases. It included a first half in which the Bears didn't capitalize on what I thought was a better half of performance than their opposition, the Rams. Yet you're tied at ten. It's basically a slog of a third quarter, early fourth quarter. The Rams finally find their rhythm, get into the end zone, and it takes a miracle for the Bears.

00:04:16
Speaker 3: Naturally.

00:04:17
Speaker 4: I think that it was a perfect example of how football is truly a fourth quarter and sometimes extra period story and why it is the most popular sport in this nation.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the reason I started even with that, like mentioning that Caleb play was Yet, I mean, Roger Goodell has to be sad to see this. Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson team go. Because we've been doing this a while, there's never been anything quite like the end of this Bear season.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: Not really.

00:04:44
Speaker 2: I mean, if you go back to the Week sixteen game against the Packers and how that ended. I mean, first of all, he has the most you know, comeback fourth quarter wins in the history of the league, so literally that hasn't happened. But the combination of what he did in Week eighteen and then throughout these playoffs in Week sixty, like, I can't remember a ride we've ever been on like this. But my takeaway, so I guess that was kind of too. I'm jamming it in there.

00:05:10
Speaker 1: That's what you do as a host.

00:05:13
Speaker 2: My takeaway is that, like the Rams defense kept giving Matthew Stafford enough chances to eventually do the thing that Matthew Stafford does. And I think that gets to your point too, to both of your points that it is a fourth quarter, overtime game. It had so many swings, but we're gonna get to the Patriots Texans. I should have mentioned the AFC championship that happened is set as well, but I found some similarities here where the two leading MVP candidates both didn't play their best games on Sunday. But it is a team sport, and particularly for Stafford, who I think had his worst game of the entire season today, he was picked up by his defense like he's picked up his teammates and his defense so many times this season. And eventually the play calling in the fourth quarter from Sean McVay and then the execution, especially by Stafford in the overtime drive. They kept giving him chances and eventually he did the thing that Matthew Stafford does and he steals your soul.

00:06:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was great performances, especially the entire Bears secondary. Deshaun Wright had better coverage on Devonte Adams for almost the entire game for a crucial great throw and catch from Stafford to Adams on the game winning mevs.

00:06:24
Speaker 9: Excuse me MeVis field goal drive.

00:06:27
Speaker 5: I've been thinking about it all night and I loved it on the first try. But in terms of like the game by Jakwon Brisker, the game by Kyler Gordon, it was over and over again the Bears defense putting Stafford in these disadvantageous positions were you know, maybe throwing the balls not the right circumstance, but they're gonna dance with who brung him and he's been great all year.

00:06:52
Speaker 9: Just a great defensive performance tonight. They came up a touch shot.

00:06:55
Speaker 2: You made a face shook when I said I thought it was the worst Stafford performance of the of the season.

00:07:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, why do you disagree?

00:07:02
Speaker 3: You're wrong?

00:07:03
Speaker 4: His worst performance was in Atlanta at the end, near the end of the season. There was a terrible game they had that day. This was not close to that. But what this was a great example of why the playoffs are so captivating, and especially this year, because this game mirrored a lot of what we saw in Denver yesterday, which was coaches making adjustments and basically reacting to what one team dictating to the other and then then taking the power back. And in this instance, it was Dennis Allen blitzing Matthew Stafford off the edge with the defensive backs giving him looks that he wasn't accustomed to or wasn't comfortable with. They couldn't throw the football even though outside of their first early scoring drive, and they stuck to it. And then it's Sean mcvagh getting the halftime and almost listening to the NBC halftime show, and they're all sitting at the desk, Jason Garrett, Tony Dungee, and they're all just like, run the ball more.

00:07:45
Speaker 3: And what did you do?

00:07:46
Speaker 4: They come out, they run the ball more and they get back on track a chess match, a back while playoff football.

00:07:51
Speaker 3: So good, we.

00:07:52
Speaker 9: Got laid to the fourth course.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I think I don't know if he was watching the halftime live. Maybe they played it to him like right at the end of the third quarter or so, because it's it still took him a while. Yeah, there was like a seven drive sequence where they had eighty nine total yards on thirty one place six first downs in a seven drive sequence, and at that point of the game they had thrown the ball thirty four times, they had run it eleven times. Maybe he actually was on Blue Sky, because that's the moment where I sent out something of like, yeah, they've despite having like a fifty four percent success rate so far to that point in the game, it would been thirty four to eleven in terms of passes to runs after that point when I sent that out. Not taking credit, but you just never know, I mean, causation correlation.

00:08:41
Speaker 1: Who knows.

00:08:42
Speaker 2: They only threw the ball twelve times, they ran it twenty times, and they had a classic Kyron Williams and Blake Korum drive that ended up resulting in a touchdown that also included the classic puka akua fourth down play. Let's actually listen to a question from the press conference after the game. How about our Jordan rod Rieg in the press conference room. He's not throwing away a questions, He's getting to the meat of the matter.

00:09:09
Speaker 1: Is there anything to take from tonight going so pass heavy in the elements against a really good Dakeasy g Yeah, you know what I think?

00:09:15
Speaker 10: What I I kind of mentioned it, I could have done a much better job. And then I did think once we were able to get some success, we settled into a little bit of a different approach, you know, being able to lean on the run, and then when we were throwing it, picking up the tempo a little bit, and I thought Matthew had a bunch of success keeping the ball in play and guys made their plays, and so I think overall, what I would say Jordan is I did not like the feel for the flow of the game that I had outside of the first you know series, where our guys did a great job defensively. It kept us in it in spite of how you know, poorly, you know, poor of a job I did for our group. But like I said, you know, I'm I'm really grateful for this group being able to find a way stick with it and be able to overcome some bad coaching by me tonight.

00:09:57
Speaker 5: You know, you'd like to have players who are coach and you know that you look at the history of Jordan Rodriy coaching up Sean McVeigh in the past. We had an opportunity to see that past success of paying off there and that is It's.

00:10:11
Speaker 2: True because I think you had a better question because it was Jordan asking him that question in that spot and he understood.

00:10:17
Speaker 1: It was a great answer.

00:10:19
Speaker 2: And yeah, they get the ball back in the start of the fourth quarter, like once again, their defense gets the ball back. As as much as I want to credit the Bears defense and Dennis Allen for having an incredible game plan getting pressure throughout, Kevin Byerd actually told Kimberly Martin of ESPN before the game, their whole plan was to make Matthew Stafford one dimensional and make him throw the ball forty or fifty times.

00:10:48
Speaker 1: That's what we want to do.

00:10:49
Speaker 2: He said that before the game, you know, publicly, and that is kind of what they made him do.

00:10:54
Speaker 1: But the Rams.

00:10:55
Speaker 2: Defense kept getting the ball back as well. They force upon after half time, they intercept Caleb Williams late in the third quarter two they force another punt. That's when the Rams get the ball back at their own nine yard line and go on a fourteen play ninety one yard drive that included a lot of runs, yes, but a couple a third down conversion on a third and six to Pukinakua, and then there was that fourth down. And we're sitting in the newsroom and if you're watching, you can see the fourth and one play to Pukinnakua where it's like it's it's the call that the Rams go to all the time on fourth and one that sort of end around that pooka Akua gets the ball. It's the same one. Jordan and I talk about it all the time, and Patrick called it even before they lined up. Oh, they're going to hand it off to Pukaakua on this play. But you know what, they run a different little variation of it where he goes in motion past Stafford, reverses his field, goes back the other way and then does a good job breaking the tackle on thirty one.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: Who is that?

00:11:59
Speaker 2: That's byered in a big spot and it's crazy if you look Schuck. Over the last few years of Rams football, how many big moments are those wide receiver runs. And it was an up and down game for the Puka and Akua Matthew Stafford connection, like a lot of their like automatics just were not happening throughout the game. But then you think about that third down earlier in that drive. You think about a third down where he replaces where the blitz is coming from in overtime to Puka Nakua, and then that fourth down too, like in the end, the Puka Nakua Stafford connection ends up taking them home and just getting them over the finish line.

00:12:43
Speaker 4: And that's another part that's just so beautiful about football. It so much could depend on tape study. How much have you studied your opponent what they like to do in certain situations, and how do they play off of that, Because later in this game, they try to run, they try to show as that they're going to run an end around to Pooka again on a third and short and they motion into the right. Then they run a toss to the left and it gets blown up in the backfield after Kyraen Williams, but he breaks an initial tackle and then gets taken down right, And so it's that, but it's also you know, I see people online immediately after they convert that third down in overtime to Pooka. Why are you playing off coverage, you know, eight yards off when it's third and five? Well, because they're blitzing and the rams are just replacing where the defender left with the receiver for the first down. It's the back and forth. It's the what do I think is going to work here? What do we like to go to? What am I anticipating that they're doing? And it's so great that Sean McVay caught up to himself in time, because at the end of that touchdown drive to take a seventeen to ten lead, they show a shot of him on the sideline and he's visibly fired up, like let's freaking go that sort of thing, and I'm like, you know what, he really is reveling in this moment right now, because he's proud of himself for getting out of a bad game, flow, calling a really good drive and finally getting a step ahead of Dennis Allen after you spent the entire game on your back foot because Allen was dictating to you It's just a great thing about football.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: That's why these games are so special.

00:13:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, the the picture dictates so much of what the Rams do.

00:13:59
Speaker 9: It's base on the look.

00:14:01
Speaker 5: And to take that particular flow back from Dennis Allen and say, well, why don't why don't we take an opportunity to dictate here, because to me, it freed up a little bit of Stafford in the passing game because these like Kyler Gordon had the second most pressures on the Bears. Like the Bears time to their pressure, Wow, a lot of them was was less than less than three seconds, Like it was getting to Stafford so quickly where you can see it in the statistics that. Yeah, mcveigh's right, the flow of the game and the play calling wasn't on inside until it was.

00:14:37
Speaker 2: And then and you think about in terms of going with tempo late in the game. They also had a good drive at the end of the second quarter to get a field goal and that was when they had to go tempo a minute and ten seconds left in that game. And so that's sort of what I was getting at when I said the defense kept giving them chances for Sean McVay to kind of get out of that rut because the last the last drive of regular the drive after the Rams scored that touchdown a bit of a fiasco. The first drive of overtime you just mentioned one of the final plays on it, the toss that gets stuff look like it might lose them the game because they're giving the ball back up and all the Bears need to do is get a field goal. They were all in that position though, because of the play. Let's actually listen. Let's set up once again. It's seventeen to ten. Rams allow the Bears to drive down to the goal line, but like for much of the day, the Bears struggled inside the five yard line. We'll return to that in a second. They get all the way to fourth down until Caleb just takes it into his own hands.

00:15:44
Speaker 11: And it's fourth and four at the Ram fourteen and then begun is the quarterback Tayleb Williams looks into the nickel, arms out stretched, fourth down and four fourteen of the Rams shotgun snap goes back four.

00:15:57
Speaker 9: Four man rush.

00:15:58
Speaker 6: He's chased, he's flushed, he's.

00:16:00
Speaker 9: Hold the way back to the forty.

00:16:01
Speaker 11: He's back pedaling and fills the pass and the girls caught touchdown.

00:16:06
Speaker 6: Touchdown Chandos kind of touchdown pass.

00:16:11
Speaker 11: Clift Cole come out open in the corner.

00:16:14
Speaker 6: If you hadn't seen it, you would not believe it. Eighteen seconds left. He's a tendanodio.

00:16:25
Speaker 9: That Soldier Field Stude's mad.

00:16:28
Speaker 3: It's a Marlond banger.

00:16:30
Speaker 2: Another one the best love Kevin Harlan And yeah, I could.

00:16:34
Speaker 1: I could watch that play forever.

00:16:37
Speaker 2: And and uh, look the way he kept running back on that play.

00:16:45
Speaker 1: It reminded me of flag football a little bit.

00:16:49
Speaker 2: Occasionally you'll see in these flag like middle school leagues there's the one kid who's just way more athletic and better than everyone, and that's the type of stuff that you can do. Also reminds me a little bit of techmost Super Bowl, if you haven't you know, a good quarterback, and you just start running backwards forever because you're you're faster.

00:17:06
Speaker 1: Than he could do.

00:17:07
Speaker 2: But he's doing that against Jared Verse and Braden Fisk and Kobe Turner and then turning around and Kobe Durant would have been sick if they lose this game because he loses comet at the last second. But for Caleb to throw that ball kind of blind but kind of knowing he's there and having the confidence to do it like that looked like it was plan a Patrick. That was kind of what he wanted to do.

00:17:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, just wanted to get enough time to have his giant tight end match stuff with one of the smallest people on the field and to have a weight room moment in the back of the end zone where I get Techmo super Bowl, I get a little game breaker ninety eight. Yeah, with the way that all of Fisk and Verse and Young's animations were the exact same in Chason Caleb Williams reacting to his movements where it's I mean he's laying on his back at the logo comet. That's just this ball where there's it's perfect. It's a perfect moment.

00:18:05
Speaker 2: So this throw, you won't be surprised to know, was the furthest completion on a throw made like the furthest behind the line of scrimmage of any completion in the NFL since the NGS era started like he went back further and completed the pass more than any.

00:18:26
Speaker 1: Throw in the NNGS era.

00:18:28
Speaker 2: It also was the longest completion of any red zone throw. Not a surprise there in terms of air yards in the NNGS era. So that's just putting like a couple of numbers on seeing fantastic play and Ben Johnson called it just ridiculous afterwards. Now, in that moment, there's what eighteen seconds left and it's seventeen to sixteen, do you think that Ben Johnson should have gone for two shook?

00:18:56
Speaker 1: And did you think you would?

00:18:58
Speaker 4: I don't know if I would say I think that he should have. I thought he was going to. I definitely thought this is like the most aggressive coach in the NFL. He comes from the Dan Campbelltree, one of the most aggressive coaches in the NFL. But it was also a great example of how within the game how it can affect your decisions later because every time that they went for it, whether it was in a goal to go situation, they turned it over on downs twice in this game, and the fourth and goal situation they had earlier which led them to needing that throw. It was a call that you know, it's a quick fire pass and it gets broken up by Spates at the goal line, and you're thinking, if that's your best play call at that point, you probably have nothing left.

00:19:33
Speaker 3: So I understand why.

00:19:34
Speaker 4: You kick the pat you take it to overtime, you think you're gonna ride the wave of momentum at home into overtime and capitalize there. But I was a little bit surprised, just knowing who he was, that he didn't go for it, just because that's the type of coach he is.

00:19:46
Speaker 3: Totally understood why though. Don't disagree with it at all.

00:19:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd said to Greg before the drive that this is setting up for a two point conversion that we're gonna have a chance to talk about for years. But the explanation from coach Johnson makes perfect sense. It chooks all over it. The play had already been run if you go through like game winning two point conversion plays, considering the stakes of the game, whatever they would have run in that situation was probably already called.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: And it wasn't executed well. As he pointed out, he was just saying, look, they weren't clean. He wishes he had a better plan. Our goal to go plan just wasn't great. And if you're watching again you can see the video. By the way, I just want people to see this that Stacy Dale's shot of the Caleb touchdown, which might be the finest reporter on the sideline, just taping from their phone, hoping to get a little magic moment every maybe the number one of the genre. Cole Comette just swinging for the home run right into Stacy Dale's. He was like, I'm gonna score a life changing touchdown. Then I'm going to find Stacy Dale's and go right into her phone.

00:20:55
Speaker 5: If you're watching on Sunday Night Football, you're thinking, wow, co Comett went right to the Sunday Night Football camera and hit his home run celebration.

00:21:01
Speaker 9: No, that was Stacy. He was doing that celebration. App Yeah, just just off screen.

00:21:06
Speaker 1: Crazy.

00:21:07
Speaker 4: Also Stacy great master of the zoom feature on an iPhone, right, like the little pull your thumb up, pull it down, zoom and in, zoom out at the perfect time, he'll cook hit her up.

00:21:15
Speaker 1: Whole thing is crazy.

00:21:17
Speaker 2: And I certainly don't blame Ben Johnson for not going for two. And this is why press conference is, you know, asking for context is perfect. That all made sense, like his answer for and ultimately he got the ball back in overtime, his defense got a stop that might have played into it. He thought, He's like, I felt like, you know, we could go win it in overtime, and he was you know, he was right. He got the ball back, he gets all the way to midfield in overtime. And you do think about whether the fourth down decisions too earlier in this game, you know, impacted Ben Johnson. So the Bears go three for six on fourth down in this game. Now they get a touchdown in the first half because they go for it on fourth down and then they get stopped another time.

00:22:05
Speaker 1: You know that that's a net win. You get seven points.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: Seven's better than the two, it's greater than then you have a goal line stop of DeAndre Swift on third down. That was a really fascinating sequence. When the Bears are driving late in regulation, it's their second, it's their drive before that one. They get to the goal line and there's a back to back play sequence with DeAndre Swift trying to get in and then a stop on fourth down that that could have possibly like been a James Harrison type of play for Omar Spates. What were you thinking about, like what the Rams defense was going to do there? Just in general, like why was it, why was it? Why were they like what did the Rams do specifically? I guess if you saw anything in this game because their defense did a great job too, and deserves a lot of credit for slowing down this Bears attack on the ground.

00:23:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, the goal line, and this is a Bears team that runs pretty violently inside the five when they do commit to the run on the goal line, like it's worked against other teams in the past, and this time around, they kind of twist Swift down short of the goal line by I think two yards on second down. Third down, it looks like he's gonna make it with the toss, but the Bear successfully string it out. He tries to go for the hurdle, then he gets blasted. Quinton Lake flies in out of nowhere, so if you're watching on YouTube, you can see it right now. He gets strung out by Verse. He tries to hurdle over in next defender. Then Quinton Lake flies in out of nowhere and blasts him out of the air to send him down to the ground still short of the goal line. He's gained nothing there, and at that point you're thinking, Okay, if you're trying to commit to running the ball, you believe you can run the ball here into the end zone, You're probably out of options going unto fourth down, I don't know why kylem anun guy wasn't more involved. He's the more violent runner of the two. But you can always you know, Hindsight's twenty twenty. I thought the fourth down play was curious at best. It was it was basically like what you would call a spacing concept where you get you know, guys in kind of a bunch of formations. Somebody comes inside and runs a little like hitch on the inside, and you just fired in there in a tight window, but space was all over it. It's a great play by the Rams defense, and at that point you've exhausted all of the Bears goal line plays, including probably the two point conversion, which is why I had such a major effect on the outcome of the game, because then they get down there with the miraculous catch and they can't do anything to go win the game.

00:24:15
Speaker 3: They just have to settle for the pat which is perfectly fine.

00:24:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's one of those Particularly like the granular aspects of that play, because they pulled Jordan McFadden, the left guard on the other side on that shotgun hand off to Swift where maybe you think he can go inside of McFadden's block. He trusts himself to be able to get to the end zone. Then he's got Darius Williams. He can't see Quinton Lake coming on the backside. You know, in hindsight and looking at the broadcast forew you're thinking, well, if he takes Darius Williams corner to the pylon, I think DeAndre Swift gets there, but he sees the shortest route being there, not knowing that Lake was on the outside of his block in the first place, which is probably why he could have gone inside in the first way.

00:24:54
Speaker 2: It did feel like Detroit Lions DeAndre Swift showed up for one play because if he just didn't jump, he just lower lowered his shoulder like he's falling inside the one I think at the at the worst. But but the way they defended that, And yeah, there were so many defensive plays by the Rams during this game which kept him in it. But more than anything, it was the secondary like Cam curl gets an absolutely massive interception in overtime. Here is Cam Curle talking after the game. Uh, with NBC picks for.

00:25:30
Speaker 11: Your boy, Kobe Durant, how were you all able to read Caleb Williams so well tonight, man?

00:25:35
Speaker 1: You know, just just playing together.

00:25:36
Speaker 12: Man.

00:25:36
Speaker 1: We trust each other.

00:25:37
Speaker 13: Man.

00:25:38
Speaker 14: And you know we heard we had a little noise, you know in the win about our secondary.

00:25:41
Speaker 1: You know they were hating on us.

00:25:42
Speaker 15: But you know, we can't to show them what we can do.

00:25:44
Speaker 1: Man.

00:25:44
Speaker 9: We make plays back there.

00:25:45
Speaker 1: Man, we win games for the team. What'd you hear?

00:25:48
Speaker 12: Man?

00:25:48
Speaker 3: I ain't will and you don't give him no no airtime. But we heard it though, and that's why we played like that. We wanna continue to play like that.

00:25:55
Speaker 5: That's that's me. I'm sorry, Chicago. I motivated the Rams secondary to play extra hard. I thought maybe the Bears could exploit some size advantages, and considering the the Kobe Durant play with cool commit it appears that happened.

00:26:08
Speaker 2: But we've been talking about the Rams dbs being especially the cornerbacks, being potentially their achilles heel all season. I do want to show that Cam Curle interception in overtime because I think it's going to be a controversial, you know, play for a long time in Chicago. After the game, Caleb Williams said that it was a miscommunication that he thought DJ Moore was going to flatten out the route a little more, but more went vertical. Some other people shooky saying Dj Moore kind of quiet quit on a route at the biggest spot in overtime. What was your your read on that? Just a fantastic play by the way by Curl like that often is the difference in these games is like a defensive back or defensive player just like making the damn play. But it was not a great Dj Moore moment and probably the last moment of him in a Bear's uniform.

00:27:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I think this is that both things can be true situation because let's think about it from DJ Moore's perspective, You're running that route, it's a deep over and you're thinking, all right, this safety is here. I'm covered, Like I'm not gonna get the ball because I'm covered, Whereas Caleb's thinking flatten out, adjust to where the dB is. He doesn't, so he does kind of quit on the play. But also it's a great play made by the defensive back, and it's just a bit of a misunderstanding between quarterback and receiver.

00:27:26
Speaker 3: And sometimes that just happens. It's just that it happened to be the.

00:27:30
Speaker 1: It happens with.

00:27:31
Speaker 2: It happens with DJ Moore a lot it really is probably why he's gonna be gone. Yeah, it's it's unfortunate because look, that's I am more amazed by quarterbacks and wide receivers being able to cite a just just as a regular part of that's just how the NFL is played, like on an every down basis. I'm more amazed by that than almost anything, Like even more than all the athletics. It seems insane that that works. It's always worked, so, like I I get it that it's it's a high degree of difficulty situation.

00:28:04
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, I think Caleb had it read, you know right.

00:28:07
Speaker 2: And it's interesting because they get the ball back there in overtime after a pretty regrettable drive by the Rams, and they get it all the way to midfield.

00:28:15
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams is scrambling.

00:28:17
Speaker 2: Later in the game, Caleb Williams is making a lot of really great, high level throws. They're at midfield at this point. I think Rams fans are thinking, like, this game's probably over. They need one first down to get in Cairo Santos's field goal rent and instead they're kind of big game hunting, and that's how the Rams end up moving on.

00:28:37
Speaker 9: Yeah, and Caleb's aggressive.

00:28:38
Speaker 5: That's that's why, that's why they were in this part in this game in the first place. You know, it has happened a lot with DJ Moore. I feel like the fact that it was you know, route number fifty eight for DJ Moore and the accumulation of you know, DJ is not a smallish wide receiver to be you know, playing that that volume of play, not to make excuse for it, but just to highlight, you know, some of the factors that go into that where he's, like you said, he's not necessarily looking. If he's looking, I think it's a little bit different. But didn't didn't see the ball, saw something different than Caleb did. And this is a couple of plays after Caleb runs directly into Landman on a first down run where you know, he's like t bow powering it down the field for the Chicago Bears. And I know, you know, hindsight being absolutely flawless as it always is going to be. Folks wanted some more runs there, but people wanted runs when they were passes. It's we could find me everything. We had a tom machine.

00:29:35
Speaker 1: Caleb was even though he threw three picks.

00:29:39
Speaker 2: I just have so much more confidence in him than I even did six weeks ago. I think he was just improving on a week to week basis. Some of the hole shots in this game, there was the one to a Donze late in the fourth quarter that that he hit, but there were there were a couple like that.

00:29:54
Speaker 1: On that one actually, Colston Lovelin.

00:29:56
Speaker 2: By the way, Ali Connelly texted me to point, make sure you give Colston Loveland his credit for block and Jared Verse.

00:30:02
Speaker 1: One on one.

00:30:03
Speaker 2: Sometimes tight ends can block the defensive end. It's not always a problem, and it's true on that play, and Caleb had a few plays like that to Adunze, to Moore, who did have five catches in this game, including a touchdown to Loveland. But I did think like a problem from them in this game was like the Bears receivers weren't always making the plays for him. I think there were two to three clear drops. Loveland definitely had one or two, and then there was probably like four or five more that would have been tough, but you could have made the play for him. We'll talk about the Patriots in a second. Their receivers were making plays. The defensive backs for the Rams were making plays. Kobe Durant with two of them. They weren't easy ones. And yeah, like I'm not going to like attribute it to anything magical other than they just made it happen in the end in a game that could not have been any closer. And I think to your point in the I think for a lot of the game it almost looked like the Bears were the better team in the snuck it out.

00:31:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is kind of what it felt like. But I also think that you're right in that they could have made some plays. I think about a deep shot to Luther Burden that gets broken up by a great play by a Rams defensive back, and you think, oh, maybe a bigger receiver or more experienced receiver, a stronger receiver makes that play and that changes, you know, the course of the game.

00:31:15
Speaker 3: But it's also this game.

00:31:16
Speaker 4: You know, on Caleb's three interceptions, we just talked about the last one, but there was also one earlier where it felt like maybe there was another misunderstanding. And it's a feather in the Kapa Krushula, the defensive coordinator for the Rams, for the way that he disguises coverage. They come out showing man coverage across the board and it looks like the receiving corps and Caleb both believe that it's man coverage, and instead he goes to the corner route to Luther Burton and Kobe Durant's right there drifting back in zone coverage to pick it off and take away the idea of a possible whole shot because you think, all right, Burden's running the corner rout, he's got the advantage on outside leverage over the safety, but he never sees Durant back there because he thinks Durant's running with the receiver who cuts inside from the outside, and he's.

00:31:54
Speaker 3: Never going to be there.

00:31:54
Speaker 4: And that's why it's beautiful that the Rams can get away with things like this, or at least accomplished things like this defensively. It's just to Feather and the Kappa Chris Shula and an example of why football is so much of a chess match in such an in game reaction thing. And for Caleb, being a second year quarterback, done so many great things you talk about over the last six weeks. I go all the way back to the Raider game, way back in Week four, when he led them back. That was the first step in him becoming this clutch player. He did it so many times this season, but it is another example of why we have to remind ourselves he is only in his second year and he will learn from things like this.

00:32:23
Speaker 5: There was a moment in the game where Collinsworth was maybe speculating that Loveland runs the wrong route on the adjustment there and could have taken up more space vertically to occupied Durant so that there's more freedom to get that ball to.

00:32:38
Speaker 9: Luther Burden.

00:32:39
Speaker 5: But a great play, a great call by defense of as you said, Greg, one team made plays when the ball was in the air and the other did.

00:32:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: And look, I think Colston Loveland ended up suffering a concussion in this game. He did not finish the game. Ben Johnson did confirm that afterwards. You hate to see that. Just shout out to Kevin Dotson and this running game in this offensive line that you know, we'll have all week to talk about what they need to do in Seattle. But the running game, Look, it's it's not as easy as just saying you got to run the ball more and then and then it works like you got to have the players to actually execute that. On a day where they almost use no heavy personnel. They were basically in three wide receivers the whole game, almost treating Jordan Whittington as a tight end and or you know, sometimes it was Mumpfield.

00:33:32
Speaker 1: But they did not go heavy.

00:33:33
Speaker 2: And for what it's worth, the few plays that they did, it did not go very well for them. And when they needed to run that, their offensive line really road graded. And just we're getting four five yard chunks. Let's let's wrap. Actually, just given the Rams some credit and by listening to Sean McVay talk about what they were going up against today, and.

00:33:56
Speaker 10: That's what it's about. You know, there's no style points. It's about being able to survive in advance. And we were able to do that in a tough, hostile environment.

00:34:02
Speaker 1: And it was coldish today, and uh, yeah, they got they got through.

00:34:09
Speaker 2: Uh the West Coast team, they can they can win in the cold. Uh probably won't be as cold in Seattle next week.

00:34:16
Speaker 1: Whew, let's uh, let's take a break.

00:34:18
Speaker 2: I mean, the most surprising thing all Sunday for me was not the moment that Caleb Williams uh through that pass. It was the moment that Eric got in my ear and told me we've already gone twenty five minutes.

00:34:30
Speaker 1: I was like, what, I feel like we've all been talking for like five it started minutes.

00:34:35
Speaker 2: Let's take a quick break and we're gonna come back and we're gonna talk about the AFC matchup between Drake May and that Texans.

00:34:44
Speaker 15: Defense steps us over the right guard.

00:34:55
Speaker 14: Here comes a four man washed By stands and throws a long bull if he's on the right supper King Shawn.

00:35:00
Speaker 12: We unders Patriots. I'm coming after we has regained a two score league?

00:35:13
Speaker 8: What's up? How's the hell of the problem sorted for? They walk Henderson up, they're telling the Touxis we're flowing it. Trek Masons, I don't care.

00:35:28
Speaker 2: Poor Zolac. I mean, Eric's just sick of hearing him. He's like, that's enough, Solac, that's Bob Socie. That's the final score in a twenty eight to sixteen Patriots victory. New England is moving on to the AFC Championship game in Denver. It was all building up to the Jarrett Stidham revenge game all along.

00:35:55
Speaker 1: What a sentence. We can talk about that later in the week. First we got to talk about this game.

00:36:03
Speaker 2: Similar to how Matthew Stafford's defense kept getting the ball back to Stafford.

00:36:09
Speaker 1: The Patriots defense kept getting it back with turnovers. CJ.

00:36:13
Speaker 2: Stroud and the Texans turn it over five times. And you can only keep this Patriots big play offense down for so long. They did throw three touchdown passes, first quarterback all season to do that against the Houston Texans. It wasn't pretty shook on a play by play basis, but I was impressed by May and the receiver's ability to make something big happen in Spurts, you know what I mean, Like they just needed someone to make big plays in Kashan Boody and Stefan Diggs and May in Spurts made enough of them to get out of there in just an ugly game there in the cold rain and the snow.

00:37:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we're establishing a bit of a theme with the Patriots postseason journey because that was kind of the story of the Charger game as well, is the throw to Hunter Henry to get the touchdown to essentially seal that victory. And we got that three or four times today, which was the throw to Booty that you just heard that we just played there. But it was also an earlier throw to Booty on third down where he forces it in a tight window for a game of seventeen or eighteen, that sets up the tight window throw to Stefan Diggs in the end zone for a touchdown.

00:37:26
Speaker 3: And yes, May is not lighting up the stat sheet.

00:37:28
Speaker 4: He finishes with one hundred and seventy nine yards passing sixteen to twenty seven. But with those three touchdowns, you don't have to when you get short fields because your defense is playing better than it has all year. It's very opportunistic and outside of your own stripsack issues against a couple of good pass rushes who are totally taking the advantage of a rookie at left tackle and Will Campbell, you're not committing, you know, egregious turnovers that are costing you the game, and you're capitalizing on the most of the opportunities that you're getting, and that's what's gotten them now to the AFC Championship game. The question is, well that formula stand the test of another week. We'll find out, But through two games hasn't been stellar, but he's been good when he's needed to be good, and that's what's mattered most.

00:38:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard to evaluate because look, he fumbled the ball four times.

00:38:07
Speaker 1: Drake made today and lost it twice.

00:38:10
Speaker 2: I think two were really on him and two you know, the pressure's pretty quick there from the blind side. The reason I kind of started with that play was Ultimately, this game was insane. First of all, I mean, there are eight turnovers in the game, and they all happened. You know, I think in the first three quarters, in those five turnovers, how many points do you think the Patriots scored off those off the how much the offense scored off the turnovers.

00:38:38
Speaker 9: I believe it was zero points zero.

00:38:42
Speaker 2: They got to pick six, but an offense, they didn't do anything with any of them. The three touchdowns that they got were actually like full field normal drives where they just suddenly popped up for like a sixty five seventy year old drive, which against his Texans defense, you'll take. Ultimately, I think what people are going to remember more from this game is what happened on the other side of the ball with CJ.

00:39:03
Speaker 9: Stroud.

00:39:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, just just say a cataclysm of errors where you wonder about the early you know, we've had every single quarterback I feel like in the playoffs injure their hand on a follow through at some point. It happens early for CJ Stroud. There was the wintry mix, there was the notable absence of Nico Collins coming into the game out with the brain injury, and then they lose Dalton Schultz, who was apparently the entire plane was constructed game plan wise out of Dalton Schultz, and combined with the worst CJ Stroud game since last week's worst c J Stroud game, it all led to this just kind of a waste of a great defensive performance by the Houston Texans because you talk about all three of those touchdown passes, if I'm not mistaken, other than the Kaishawn Booty one hander, because that was the only place anybody was going to get a hand on the ball. The Texans got hands on both of those touchdown passes. Bullet got a full palm on the ball that was caught by Pop Douglas, where he makes a great adjustment late to catch that ball that was deflected, not like a full deflection, but enough that we bothered some people. So he goes into the end zone there and you could see Stefan Diggs's fingers impressing on the football because he's able to hold on to that touchdown pass where that was the level of difficulty that was required for the Patriots to score points today. And then you know Hunter and Anderson. I get like the frustrations with Will Campbell and the Patriots front. They're getting everybody, but they're doing up everybody at this point. And that's gonna happen with Drake May. He's gonna have deep drops and look down the field and try to make plays. Maybe not the team that you want to do that against, but they kind of checked that.

00:40:41
Speaker 2: Down late in the second right, they started just getting the ball out of his hands on some of the third and longs. I hear what you're saying. But here's just a little stat from next Gen stats. Will Anderson and a Dafeoe are the only two players in the history of the postseason to get three sacks and two forced fumbles in the same game. And they do have, uh a commonality, which is a you know this, Campbell and May are the two kind of problem And look, mate, there might be a little bit of like a we might be on hand size in the cold weather watch a little bit with Drake May.

00:41:12
Speaker 1: You're rolling your eyes.

00:41:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, if you get Bobbin out there or maybe Wimby, Yeah, and have them hold the ball with giant hands and have de Neil Hunters sweat like it's not necessarily gonna go.

00:41:23
Speaker 2: No, it's if you were gonna get on the hand side stuff. Maybe maybe it's when he fumbles it rushing earlier in the game that that was.

00:41:32
Speaker 9: You know, there was a they were playing in a slushy mo.

00:41:34
Speaker 2: Either way it was it was tough to make plays there on offense. Certainly, you mentioned that Douglas fourth down play. Let's actually listen to that because I think that was a big early moment where Josh McDaniels and Mike Freebele decide to go for it on fourth down. Instead instead of just you know, quote unquote taking the points against a great defense, they decided to go for it on fourth down.

00:41:58
Speaker 14: To what to receivers Jovin White, including Douglas. He's looking that way. He's throwing Douglas next catch the touchdown.

00:42:08
Speaker 8: I just say, no, buddy, on punf Douglas, I get it great, So you get it in bad coverage he comes to blitz. Think of cover with fourth and one.

00:42:18
Speaker 9: Patiently your quarterback.

00:42:20
Speaker 8: They pick here waits, Douglas clears the underneath coverage, and then it's off to the racist. He's been nowhere this last month. The buck doesn't just get you on the court early.

00:42:33
Speaker 1: Uh again.

00:42:34
Speaker 2: Uh So, why do you gotta say he's been nowhere this last month? I mean he's he's been in Foxborough practicing with the Patriots, but.

00:42:43
Speaker 9: You know he's he's like like taking a shot at Foxboro the.

00:42:46
Speaker 1: Fourth wide receiver.

00:42:47
Speaker 2: I thought the game management like it wasn't perfect by the Patriots, but I do think like the kind of routine that that Josh McDaniels got in on a couple different drives going for it there on fourth how they handled kind of the end of half situation, different situations compared to how Damiko Ryans and the Texans handled a lot of their decision making and their ability to kind of stay composed and timeouts and pre snap penalties things like that that I think that was a difference. And I was kind of thinking about how Mike Grabel said going into the year, like the first thing we got to do is find out how to not beat ourselves, like let the other teams beat themselves. And I did feel like at times on Sundays Shook that the Texans were beating themselves.

00:43:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's an identify your strengths going into the game and try to lean on that sort of situation for both of these teams. And if you're the Patriots, you're looking at that opportunity early and you're thinking, how many times are we going to get down here and really have a real shot at scoring a touchdown against this defense? Probably not very often, even you know, we talked about how they didn't cash in those turnovers for points. That's kind of an example of what they expected. But in that moment, early enough in the game, you feel yourself having a little bit of strength forth and one, We've got to get the right call, and you just narrowly get it past Kaalen Bullock and ends up producing a touch down. That's the risk that you take in a playoff game and you hope that it pays off. And it did for them there. But you're right, and I thought it was most telling in the fourth quarter not to speed ahead to that point. But there's like four and a half minutes left in the game and the Texans are down twelve points, and Demiko Ryans is like I'm gonna punt because much like the Steeler game proved itself to be, the Texans defense probably had a better chance of scoring than the Texans offense did at that point because he knew that was their strength, their defense, and it's it is unfortunate because this is a defense that, had they gotten all the way to the Super Bowl, had an opportunity to go to go down among some of the best of this century. Like I'm thinking two thousands, the two thousand Ravens, the two Buccaneers, the thirteen Seahawks, the fifteen Broncos. That could have been this Texans defense. But because the offense was so bad, none of it ends up really being really mattering, ends up being a footnote in the greater picture.

00:44:47
Speaker 2: This is unfair, but I think if they were those defenses, they would have been one of those defenses, you know what I mean, Like, that's okay, you're talking about the greatest defenses of all time. Yeah, that's an unfair The bar was so fa had to be one of those defenses, I think to go on this run. But I think if they were one of those defenses, they would have been one of those defense kind of you know, it's like, yeah, the line from the if if you were the one that invented face, just remembering those defenses, if you were the one that wo had invented Facebook, you would have invented Facebook. Like they still gave up, They still gave up the three like touchdowns.

00:45:22
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?

00:45:22
Speaker 4: Yes, but also consider the flow of the game and the fact that their offense was getting them nothing and they were constantly on the field, Like time possession was only five minute different about four and a half minute difference. But if you when we watched this game in real time, it felt like the Texans were constantly finding themselves trotting back on the field tasked with doing the same thing you just got off the field doing, which was stopping a Patriots offense that had the potential to put points on the board.

00:45:42
Speaker 2: I totally agree with you. The bar was like insanely unfairly high. And one of the big reasons the Patriots won this game was fumble luck that when Daniel Hunter stripsack Drake May near the goal line early in the game, he didn't fall on it, like he was so close. That could have been seven points. When Will Anderson had a strip sack in the third quarter. He didn't fall on it, and that's just that's more luck than anything. And so maybe that's a fair point that it's complimentary, but it's not like they were on the field playwise that much. Actually, the Texans had more plays. The Texans made it to the red zone four times. The Patriots only did it once. The problem was, as you mentioned, Shook, that when they hit plays like they kind of hit him in a row and they hit big plays. We actually have like a shot of you know, Kayshun Booty dusted Derek Stingley Junior. You know, I wouldn't say he dusted him for this touchdown, but his very first touchdown for Drake May in his entire career was from basically the same spot on the field, little in front of the forty and he beats Derek Stingley clean and he scores a touchdown there. Kamari Lassiter got beat off the line of scrimmage. They didn't hit that shot to Kyle Williams, I mean Kyle Williams in this game, but Stingly had another pass interference penalty. It's the bar was like so unfairly high that they just had to like shut them down but they didn't force field goals is kind of what I'm getting at, like that they needed to force field goals and not give up touchdowns.

00:47:06
Speaker 9: Yeah, and they got got.

00:47:08
Speaker 5: You know, good defenses can get got, especially when they're put in disadvantageous situations where there's the accumulation of dealing with what they were having to watch, the amount of times they were having to run immediately back on the field. Great plays by Drake May and this Patriots team. I think it's a little more difficult now to have because we talk about those defenses of old. I think that the game has changed to a capacity we're probably never going to see that level of defense and as well as keeping teams. We talk two thousand Ravens going through that playoff runhe I don't think anybody got twenty points.

00:47:45
Speaker 9: I don't know that we're getting there.

00:47:46
Speaker 2: Again, that's fair, and the Patriots defense did score in this game. As we mentioned earlier. Let's actually listen to the pick six by Marcus. I think this was the biggest play in the game because, you know, to bring it back to this point that the Texans are winning at this point, you know, CJ. Stroud did put together a pretty good touchdown drive to go up ten to seven. So they had scored ten points unanswered. They had, they really had. Drake May looking rattled early in this game. But they get the ball back the Texans too, and that is time for the tech the Patriots to score.

00:48:20
Speaker 15: CJ scrubb in.

00:48:21
Speaker 14: A tight formation two by two, so he well baptist chuck playfake whould like is an nearside receiver.

00:48:26
Speaker 1: Held out and scrub throws it up in the air finascepted. Marcus Jones ride twenty fifteen to ten.

00:48:31
Speaker 6: Jones just tackled by Hundredson takes him to the pummel one chuck shot up, takes a head tracks, look at it.

00:48:37
Speaker 1: It's nuts again, look on it nuts, I do come love it.

00:48:42
Speaker 8: Prush her off the edge contact and the ball goes pumped up right in here and finally we get it off the deflection. There's been three times in the first quarter balls have gone up deflected and all the crowd.

00:48:56
Speaker 1: Joe picks it up and rept his history.

00:48:59
Speaker 2: Does the burn old decision by Stroud one of four for first half interceptions, you know one of them.

00:49:05
Speaker 1: The throw is a little high. Who was that off of Higgins?

00:49:09
Speaker 9: Yeah? No, it was Hutchinson.

00:49:11
Speaker 2: Hutchinson like that one was kind of you know a little on both of them. The others were more about the decisions rather than the execution. But it didn't seem like he had a lot of open receivers in this game. I play like that though, and you got to you gotta find a way to dirt it or just take the sack.

00:49:28
Speaker 5: Yeah, But it's also a microcosm of the Texans twenty twenty five season on offense where the operation was weird. You have you had Bryant in because Schultz had already gotten hurt at this point, He's coming across in motion.

00:49:42
Speaker 9: The tackle steps back, trips him, so he goes down.

00:49:45
Speaker 2: That there was Stiln Williams kind of pushed it. He gets a little bit of an assist.

00:49:48
Speaker 1: On that play.

00:49:48
Speaker 5: Yet, but there were just so many plays in this Texan season where the balls being snapped and bounce passes to CJ. Stroud, where their spin move handoffs to the wrong person, the defensive toe guys getting weird touchdown opportunities were This was something that is happening all season for the Texans, and the Patriots were able to take it.

00:50:07
Speaker 2: What he marks ran for seventeen yards on fourteen carries. They also had the Texans classic, an illegal formation inside the five yard line that took a touchdown off the board on I think the first drive of the game, like there were you.

00:50:21
Speaker 9: Have a defensive tackle at fullback.

00:50:23
Speaker 2: So so it was And you mentioned the injuries to Schultz and Nico. Don't forget Trent Brown, who's been so important for them, was inactive for this game. He got hurt last week. I was a little bit surprised he was inactive. And then Titus Howard, who was helping to replace him. I mean, he's a starter, but they moved the whole line around. He gets hurt in this game too, so they're down a couple offensive lines, so there was a lot going against him. Let's actually listen to Demico Ryans asking or asked after the game about, you know, backing his quarterback that the man that he entered Houston with no c J is our guy.

00:51:01
Speaker 9: I believe that.

00:51:04
Speaker 7: He could come back out in the second half and flip it. I believe that he could play better, and he did that in the second half. He did play better. We had some positive drives there in the second half. Is I believe that he would do that, and he did that.

00:51:20
Speaker 1: H Let's also listen to CJ. Stroud after the game after one of his if not most most difficult nights as a pro.

00:51:30
Speaker 13: I'm a pretty self confident person. I think, you know, when they started to pile up, I try my best to you know, stay you know, locked in in the spirit and you know, realizing I you know, I just got to be there for my teammates and they encouraged me a lot through it. So I'm really appreciative of this team and you know, them doing that because they don't have to. But yeah, it was it was, you know, not not easy and something that I'm learned from and you know, you know, just grateful what my teammates are picking me up.

00:51:54
Speaker 1: I'm always a CJ. Stroud believer. He's gonna have to wear this.

00:51:58
Speaker 2: This offseason shook kind of where are you at with with Stroud after this third season and especially like how it ended these last two weeks.

00:52:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you have to look at his career in totality from this point because of how good he was as a rookie, and you have to think what changed last year. They had a terrible offensive line, he had over fifty sacks taken, and that was obviously a need for them. Going to the offseason, they felt like they had improved it and it showed in the sack numbers. They cut that in half. But Stroud was still a little inconsistent when it came to just delivering. And we saw in some games like the late season game against the Chargers, where they were good for the big play, like if he had time to throw, he'd find a guy downfield and you know, produce explosives, and they did that a lot down the second half of the season once Stroud came back to replace Davis Mills. But ultimately, once you lose a couple of guys in a playoff game, you see the same offensive line regress back to where it was last year. And he has been under pressure for so long now that I feel like they've kind of broken him a little bit mentally, and he needs an offseason to kind of reset. He needs to be told that I can trust this often of line and I don't have to go be the hero and make the superhero play that results in saw all the turnovers we saw against Pittsburgh, when we saw against New England today, So I think that's a big part of it too. But also I'm a little concerned about his accuracy over the long term, like to the point where Akman's like his hands got to be hurt or something. Because even on the touchdown pass he throws to Christian Kirk in this game, it's on the wrong shoulder, like he was missing placement all game, and he'd been doing that for a little bit, you know, against Pittsburgh as well. He had some bigger throws in that game. But it makes me think that is your greatest attribute is your accuracy. That's what made you special coming out of Ohio State. That's what made you special as a rookie. If that's gone, you got bigger problems at hand. And unfortunately the season ends in this fashion and now all he's going to have to try to tune out for the entire offseason is is he the future the Texans need to look somewhere else when maybe he just needs an offseason to reset. But yeah, it's not nearly as encouraging as it was two years ago, and I understand why people would question his outlook now.

00:53:51
Speaker 2: Look I don't I'm shocked that Texans fans are jumping off. I mean, I guess I shouldn't be shocked every fan jumps off the quarter back when they struggle big time.

00:54:02
Speaker 9: There were't a lot of people calling for Mitch Rubisky.

00:54:04
Speaker 2: Yesterday, right, CJ go is twenty for forty seven in this game. The context of what happened, especially last year, is important, and certainly this year it hasn't been perfect either, but he's also just become an erratic quarterback in a way that like I believed he was like real deal truth, and I still think he can because I one thing I'll always believe if you show that level at the NFL level, you can do it, like.

00:54:36
Speaker 1: You can you can get back to that.

00:54:38
Speaker 2: But there have been a lot of times this season when the situation actually I think has been fine, like within a game, certainly within plays, and that he has done things that have been confounding. That he's just been more erratic on a play to play, drive to drive, quarter to quarter, game to game basis where I'm I'm never quite sure like where it's coming, and sometimes he'll get in a rhythm and you'll be like, damn, that's one of the best thing is that's one of the best quarterbacks in the league because he does the hard stuff really well, but sometimes and I know the weather I think was a huge factor in this game. I think the Patriots defense has gotten way better as the season's gone on, and they were a huge factor in this game. But they need to go back to the drawing board because I don't think it's I don't think you can just put it all on everything around him. There's some there's something that was going on this year. I think, even in good situations, that almost concerned me more than than what happened last year.

00:55:39
Speaker 14: I think.

00:55:39
Speaker 1: I think on balance it was a little more unsettling. But for the Texans, they're not They're not gonna question anything, like they're gonna pick up his fifth year option. He's he's contract extension eligible.

00:55:50
Speaker 2: What what it might do is it just might prevent them from giving him his monster contract now, which frankly I think is like that that's the breaks. It's a five you're a rookie contract. You don't have to get the contract after three years. But they might they might try to save some money on giving it to him now, Like that's not to decide right now, and.

00:56:07
Speaker 5: I think that'd be preposterous at this point, and I just like, I think the folks calling for Davis Mills in this game, we're a touch preposterous considering what CJ has been able to do.

00:56:20
Speaker 9: I think, like, looking at the evidence, what.

00:56:22
Speaker 2: Do you think it's preposterous? Though, I mean, he it's a five year rookie contract. As long as you pick up that fifth year option. I don't think it's preposterous to just be like, okay, go players, I think you're.

00:56:30
Speaker 9: To get cute with it.

00:56:31
Speaker 5: You can save the money and go ahead and sign him to a deal after after a bad playoff performance, right versus saying, oh, all right, well we're gonna we're gonna play hardball here. Take this all the way at the end. And you you look at a quarterback circumstance league wide and you're like, oh, well, this CJ. Stroud guy is pretty effective. And now you're you're a year behind the sticks and and everything. Where like we we saw, you know, Jerry do that with Dak. We've seen that with with a couple of quarterback contract situations where I want to just go ahead and get it done, especially in a situation where late in this game, you have Hutchinson on spa lane, and he's opened by four yards, there's nobody around CJ. Stroud, and he leaves the ball six yards short. Like I think you could take like this was especially bad. Yeah, And I think we can just jump this and trash it and not say that this is evidence to the long term viability of CJ.

00:57:23
Speaker 9: Stroud as a football player.

00:57:24
Speaker 4: I think if you're going to get that deal done, though, you have to do so with the intent to try to improve the situation around him, because we also need to consider the fact that they made Bobby Slow their scapegoat last year and changed offensive coordinators and didn't I mean, I guess they acknowledge that their offensive line was bad and they tried to improve it, but I don't think they got any better play call Jim mark Kley in his first year. Like that's not enough, right, So if you're going to do that, you got to marry it, and you got to also understand that I think he's dealing with some residual effects from what he went through last year, and you got to bring him back to like reset and get back to who he is if you're going to give him that contract. But you could buy low coming off of this game, which could help your franchise in the salary.

00:57:58
Speaker 1: Cap for the long term, but that's fair.

00:58:01
Speaker 2: But he does have two years left to be clear, so it's not like they're taking They would be taking it down to the wire. We'll probably be hitting on this during the offseason. The crazy thing is looking at the next gen stats right now, it's like they actually had a slightly higher success rate than the Patriots in this game.

00:58:15
Speaker 9: Now.

00:58:16
Speaker 2: Obviously Drake Mango's for way more yards for attempt because he hits. He hits some big ones, but they were both were going up against good defenses. I think kind of the takeaway is like, look, the Patriots also forced these these turnovers, they forced the field goals. And I do think Demiko is such a good coach in so many ways, such a great defensive coach. You got to have answers on how to help your offense, and you've got to have better answers in game management. Like they blew and this is on the entire operation, not necessarily just him. They blew two timeouts in the second half. They did that punt that you mentioned, which was the worst surrender punt I've ever seen.

00:58:52
Speaker 1: So someone went and checked you're making a face.

00:58:56
Speaker 5: No, I think show's right. I think the opportunities for will Anderson the top.

00:59:01
Speaker 3: No, No, it's true. It's true. It's just depressing, but it's true.

00:59:05
Speaker 2: It's fourth and eighteen, so the game's over like either way, but you're down twelve points with under four minutes to go. Someone looks for similar punts in a under five minutes to go in a playoff game down score two scores. They found one example actually, which I found hilarious. Ron Rivera punted with two minutes and six seconds left down twelve in the Super Bowl on fourth and twenty eight. He was just like, asker it, I'm getting out of here, like on his own six yard line or something like that. He was just like, fourth and twenty eight, I'm not bothering, which is basically what he did. And you know, of all the moments though, like Marx's fumble, I thought was maybe the biggest play in the game, yep, because Marx fumbles as they're potentially going in, you know, they're at that point they had cut it already to what five points, it's twenty one to to No, it's twenty one to thirteen at that point, and their kind of roll no offense and Marx fumbles in the you know, in the red zone. So uh, let's let's give some just quick shoutouts because I want to say goodbye to this Texans defense, and I just want to give some love to like Will Anderson and daneil Hunter and Henry Totoe who is awesome down the stretch this season, and Kamari Lassiter today with three pass breakups. He gave a one catch on seven targets.

01:00:24
Speaker 1: He was that dude.

01:00:26
Speaker 2: Jalen Petrie was really active in this game. Togy. I, Uh, you're right. I was being a little harsh on the Texans earlier. This This was a special defense.

01:00:35
Speaker 1: They deserved better.

01:00:36
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you.

01:00:39
Speaker 2: Listen to one more Texans highlight. Why not Eric cut it? Let's get our money's worth.

01:00:44
Speaker 8: Texans flaffing at the mouth on defense.

01:00:46
Speaker 9: I'm this stirddam situation.

01:00:48
Speaker 12: May calls for the ball, here's the rush, Here it comes Will, the.

01:00:51
Speaker 8: Ball is out, The Texans have it hus these falls on it take away for the Texans.

01:00:58
Speaker 1: The terminator strikes again.

01:01:01
Speaker 3: I know it doesn't matter now, but in that moment, I was like, oh wait they might actually come back.

01:01:05
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I thought they were. I thought they were coming back because that defense is just scary. That was Mark Vandermuir for the final time on Kilt. But yeah, on the other side, to give some that out there too, calebon Chase on four quarterback hits in this game, forced forced a turnover. You mentioned that Milton Williams and Christian Barmore, they were living in the backfield. There were a lot of tackles for lost in this game. Christian Gonzales fifteen targets. He was targeted fifteen times in this game, which is outrageous. Only gave up sixty seven yards on those fifteen targets eight catches, but they were for short. Carlton Davis who left with a brain injury, two interceptions, four passes defense, and then how about Zach Kerr not allow of Zach Kerr love the defensive play caller a good couple of weeks here, you know wherever Zach Kerr goes like everyone is just questioning the quarterbacks after the fact, you know, controversy.

01:01:58
Speaker 9: Oh wow, it's like the grim Reaper. I don't know.

01:02:00
Speaker 5: The Carlton Davis Dick game, by the way, those two dicks were low probability and he got both of them.

01:02:06
Speaker 2: It's sort of what I was getting at too, like like sometimes it is about making those plays if you think about the plays on the ball, like Stefan Diggs, Booty, Carlton Davis. They just they made the plays on the ball in a difficult situation. Stephan Diggs with a great quote. He was asked how did he catch that missile from Drake May and he said, with my hands.

01:02:28
Speaker 9: He also credited May for the past, but he's worked, He's worked on the hands a lot. It was.

01:02:34
Speaker 1: It was an incredible catch up first thoughts, just very quickly.

01:02:38
Speaker 10: UH.

01:02:39
Speaker 1: Patriots playing at Denver in the AFC Championship game next week. That's going to be the earlier game.

01:02:48
Speaker 2: It's the same schedule as this Sunday in terms of timing, so it's a three pm Eastern noon Best Coast Patriots at Broncos. Bringing back some bad memories of the Broncos taken down New England and the AFC Championship a couple times in the Tom Brady Peyton Manning era. I think they're zero and three in Denver all time, UH. In the playoffs and then the trilogy will be completed. I feel like no offense to the AFC. But it feels right that the Rams and the Seahawks are finishing the day because I think these have been the best two teams in the NFL all season. It almost didn't happen, but I think we've been leading here all season and they will face off for probably the right to be the favorites for whatever that's worth, in the Super Bowl in Santa Clara in a couple of weeks. I'll give you the floor shook of, just like just some quick thoughts. We'll obviously be talking about it during the week.

01:03:42
Speaker 4: Well, my takeaway was going to be shout out to the schedule makers, Mike North, everybody else in the NFL office the three four five part, because you got it right. You put the better game of the two in the later windows.

01:03:52
Speaker 3: Thank you.

01:03:53
Speaker 1: They don't have a choice. They go back and forth every year, so it's like it'll be a.

01:03:58
Speaker 3: We're going to throw all that aside. Take.

01:04:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, the take is I can't wait to see Ram Seahawks part three, just because if you look at the way they played this season, I feel like the Rams stile the first one, the Seahawks stole the second one. We're going back to Seattle Place is going to be raucus in Matthew Stafford find a way to continue to sling in against this great defense that seems to be peaking. The Seahawks look like the best team in football. Are they going to complete their run of the Super Bowl or Stafford gonna play the foil?

01:04:22
Speaker 3: We'll find out.

01:04:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, a lot of attention being paid understandably to Sam's oblique where I think that will be a factory.

01:04:31
Speaker 9: I think he will need to play better.

01:04:33
Speaker 5: I don't think he'll actually need to play it didn't even really need to play against the forty nine ers.

01:04:37
Speaker 9: And you know, we'll see what Stitty has.

01:04:40
Speaker 5: What Stitty has in store for us, because it feels like the universe kind of robbed of an opportunity to see the high variance version of bo Nicks, who could absolutely beat this Patriots team. He could absolutely lose this Patriots team, but man, it will be fun to watch.

01:04:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, Nick Foles, you know, still enjoying that Super Bowl victory as should did send out a note for the Broncos and their fans that it's been an emotional twenty four hours. He feels for bow and the team, and he's sending prayers for a strong recovery. But a positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup quarterbacks in championship type games.

01:05:18
Speaker 1: Good job there, Nick Foles.

01:05:20
Speaker 9: He brings it all back to the old old Nick.

01:05:24
Speaker 2: I mean, why not just twist it in? Why not know it's a good job. And I look, I'm higher than Jared Stidham than consensus. I have always been for what it's worth. It was that one game against the Raiders like four years three years ago.

01:05:37
Speaker 1: Now that's good.

01:05:39
Speaker 9: Doesn't even care about Jaredson.

01:05:41
Speaker 1: Well, everyone thinks he's just a total joke.

01:05:44
Speaker 3: It feels like you're positioning yourself for I told you I was right. Situation now now, No, I.

01:05:49
Speaker 2: Think the Patriots should be favored by a little or whatever you know because of that. But I as backup quarterbacks go, I'm trusting Sean Payton. He gave this man two con tracks. He's a Day one signing. And uh, I'm going back to that preseason tape because I remember it, Schucky, I don't.

01:06:06
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember. We were we were hitting some preseason reached.

01:06:10
Speaker 3: The preseason quarterback of the year.

01:06:12
Speaker 2: We call them preseason MVP this year. Yeah, that's why you tune in in August. Patrick, I love it.

01:06:19
Speaker 9: I'm dialed up.

01:06:19
Speaker 5: Are something that Jared Stillham sitting on the throne wearing his Patriots jersey. Uh, picture that we'll be looking at all week. I'm gonna love it. I can't wait.

01:06:27
Speaker 4: You go watch that tape against the Niners. By the way, that's where the super Bowl is gonna be played. Maybe he'll be back there.

01:06:31
Speaker 10: Yeah.

01:06:32
Speaker 9: Yeah.

01:06:32
Speaker 2: And if you think bo Nix is a high variance quarterback, wait till you see Jared stead Of. That's a big arm athlete who's uh. I think he's gonna go down swinging. It's either gonna go great or go tear.

01:06:45
Speaker 5: Quarterbacks available Auburn transfer quarterback?

01:06:49
Speaker 3: Why not just stack them all up?

01:06:50
Speaker 9: What's doing?

01:06:51
Speaker 1: Man? Uh?

01:06:53
Speaker 2: Not the game that we expected, But I feel somehow like the game that this version of the AFC in this just totally weird wide open season kind of deserve So the Patriots, the Broncos, the top two seeds.

01:07:06
Speaker 9: Yeah, the committee got it right.

01:07:08
Speaker 1: Get to the end this year. We will be back, not on Monday night, back in the feed.

01:07:15
Speaker 2: Actually, I think the next thing you'll Hear from Us is a forties and free Agents episode where we go through all the AFC teams and what they need to do this offseason. I'm enjoying this exercise and kind of just just a quick look at the free agents, all that sort of stuff, and then back in this studio with the CEEU next Tuesday crew Colleen Wolf and Jordan rod Ray. On Tuesday, Big Week Ahead Championship Week, coaches are getting hired. Shuck's gotta go right, Patrick's taking his tie off. We're getting out of here.

01:07:49
Speaker 1: We're down to four teams, three games. See you Monday,