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January 19, 2025 • 65 mins

The nerds react to the Saturday playoff games in the NFL Divisional Round! They discuss the epic battle between Jayden Daniels' Washington Commanders & Jared Goff's Detroit Lions, then break down another playoff victory for Patrick Mahomes & the Kansas City Chiefs over CJ Stroud & the Houston Texans.

Timestamps

00:00:23 - Commanders

00:17:56 - Lions

00:34:57 - Chiefs

00:46:23 - Texans

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
No, Oh my god, how could he do that?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
What Charles Darwin?

Speaker 4 (00:20):
The nerves is where it's at.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome everybody back into Nerd Sash as always, I'm Carson
Breber and alongside me is Logan Camden. And oh my goodness,
do we have some thrilling Saturday Divisional round football to
talk about with you all? Logan Commander's Lions. We knew
that we were gonna get fireworks. We expected a high
scoring battle, but what I did not expect was a

(00:45):
multi score Commander's victory. And I've got two words for you, man,
Jaden Daniels, And then I've actually got three more for you.
Goat rookie quarterback, another incredible performance from him.

Speaker 5 (00:59):
What do you have to.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Say about the biggest upset that we've seen in the
playoffs so far in how Jaden and Washington pulled it out?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
I mean, yeah, do you guys believe Jayden is the
greatest rookie quarterback ever?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yet? Like, there were some people.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Carson that seemed almost annoyed at the notion that Jaden
was the greatest rookie quarterback ever on our social media's
and I didn't really understand the pushback. One are you
just annoyed that rookie quarterbacks seem to be better and
better every year? Like Stroud, I thought rightfully took the
throne last year with his efficiency and how he was

(01:33):
responsible individually for the team's success. But Jaden has taken
it to another level. And this is huge for Washington.
This is their first NFC title game appearance since nineteen
ninety one. What a big deal this is for their franchise.
Incredibly ironic that they do it in the first year
post Dan Snyder.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I find it very poetic.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Is that ironic or is that a classic instance of
cause and effec Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
You know what, Maybe that's it, man, Maybe that's the
way to dress it up. Yeah, you get Dan Snyder
out of the building and boom, you finally break through
the wall. Jayden Daniels is the sixth rookie quarterback to
reach the conference title game, joining the likes of Sean
King in nineteen ninety nine, Ben Roethlisberger in two thousand
and four, Joe Flacco in two thousand and eight, Mark

(02:20):
Sanchez in two thousand and nine, and Brock Purdy in
twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
And what I think is unique about Jaden.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Is how individually responsible he is to this team's success.
And that's why he is the goat rookie quarterback, right,
because you look at those names, right, the other rookie
quarterbacks that have achieved this level of playoff success. Jaden
is most responsible individually for his team success by far
out of those names, right, Sean King, nineteen ninety nine Bucks,

(02:49):
elite defense, dragging Sean There, Oh, four Steelers.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's a loaded team, right. The season previous.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
They go six and ten and so they take a
nine win leap, and Big has a lot to do
with that. That offense was incredibly more, you know, way
more dynamic with him making big time shot plays and
timely plays. But that team was way more based on
elite defense, line play, running the football between the tackles,
Flacco and the Ravens and Sanchez and the Jets. The

(03:17):
same thing the twenty twenty two nine Ers, Right, they're
just really talented top to bottom. This is jayde o'daniels
putting the team on.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
Can view it as simply as Jaden is the guy
who was drafted the highest, right, The only guy who's
even close is Sanchez was the fifth pick, but he
was carried by his defense, but all these other guys
are watching the ball, and that's the name was the
third overall pick and a team that's offensive personnel didn't
improve significantly around them.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I do.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
I do think they improved a lot, I especially I
think Washington improved in the offensive line category.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
In the trenches.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
I mean, they got the additions of be a dash
of ALLEGRETTI I think were massive for this team and
how they were able to run the ball.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
But it really is Jayden.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
And again, look at the other rookie quarterbacks that you
can even put in this conversation, CJ. Stroud, Andrew Luck,
Dak Prescott, right, guys that won games, that had successful teams.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
Jayden is the.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Reason this team is great. He is the offensive engine.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
And we have never seen a rookie quarterback step into
this kind of role and completely transform in offense like this.
And you see it all on full display tonight with
how the Lions couldn't stop the running game with the
threat of Jaden keeping the football or the guy or
him handing the ball off, Jayden getting into third and
fourth and shorts continually and Jayden just killing them again,

(04:38):
whether that's him scrambling or always finding in open man,
and I want to commend the Commanders for their aggressiveness.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
This is what the future of winning football games looks like.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
It is continued aggression. Look, I'm as old school as
it gets.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
I'm gonna take the points guy normally, right, but situationally
in a situation like this against a Lions offense that
has way more firepower than you in Detroit, you've got
to make the big plays. You've got to be aggressive,
you've got to put footston necks. And that's what the
Commanders did today. They wouldn't take no for an answer
every fourth and short. They were aggressive at pushing the

(05:18):
bill and it worked in their favor, finishing drives and
touchdowns and extending drives, keeping the ball out of the
Lions hands. I just got to commend them for their
continued aggressiveness. And I think that's what winning.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Football teams are gonna look like.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
You see what the Chiefs do routinely being aggressive in
situations like that, I just think it's gonna be what
it's smarter football.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
In my opinion, it's just.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Seven is obviously worth more than three. But again, in
high stakes, high leveraged situations, you can't play scared football.
Scared money, don't make no money in Washington. Wasn't scared today.
They were aggressive in all of those ways. And you
just got to give it up to Jaden. He's the
reason this team is great. He's the reason this team
won today. And inversely, I don't want to We'll get

(06:03):
into the Lions here in a minute. I don't think
you can be too surprised that this happened to this
Lion's defense. Down to Meek Robertson. You know, Brian Branch
gets hurt during this game, and it's just not that uncharacteristic.
They've been beat up for a very long time. They
allowed thirty one to the Packers, they allowed forty eight
to Buffalo, they allowed thirty four to San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Really good offenses.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Had no problem putting up points on this Detroit team,
and some other things didn't break their away.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
But you gotta tip your cap to Jayden.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
And outside a rookie conversation's Carson, you know you see
the chat talking about it. I do think we have
to start wondering where does Jayden rank among just the
best quarterbacks in the game today, point blank period.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
He ranks pretty highly man, but I do think that
he's kind of the undisputed goat rookie quarterback.

Speaker 5 (06:51):
I do think.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I don't even think it's closed, Carson.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
I don't think there's really a debate to be had, man,
Like you can talk about again a Cam Newton an
RG three as comparable regular season offensive engines, which with
what they did also is dual threats turning around their
team offenses that had been bad the year prior and
making them like top five kind of groups like Jayden
did this regular season as well. But then Jayden is

(07:14):
on a different level as a passer than either of
those guys were, and what he's done in the playoffs
just puts him over the top.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
Man, This has been an elite offense end to end
this year.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
There was a little bit of a lull in the midseason,
but I thought that that was actually overplayed. In totality,
a top five offense consistently and it's translated to the playoffs, Dude, Like, yeah,
Detroit has had their defensive issues, but I didn't expect
Washington to walk into Detroit and put up forty five
on him.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
They have a defensive touchdown there, but the offense was
unstoppable all day. Now.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
I did think that this was a good matchup for
Jayden because of how much Detroit loves to blitz as
much as anybody in football. And Jayden has been amazing
against the blitz all year. He was second in EPA
against the blitz this season, I think. And it just
didn't flush for him at all in this game. Detroit
had zero sacks. They never got all the way home.
He was so composed, he was so accurate, even under pressure.

(08:09):
The deep shot to Diamie Brown, Dude, I mean that
is a throw where there is just zero window. He
throws the perfect ball and then on top of that
he runs for fifty plus yards. Once again, he did everything.
He is truly one of the elite offensive engines. I
can put us on our back through the ground and
through the air in a way that is so special,

(08:30):
and from a rookie quarterback. Again, we've never seen when
you combine these physical tools with this level of composure
and accuracy as a thrower, this level of poise as
a decision maker. It's incredible and I love that they
stayed aggressive. When you convert on more than eighty percent
of your fourth downs, you better die on that hill man, Right,

(08:51):
you go out on your sword, but you believe we
put the ball in jail.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
Great hands in those spot.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Greatest fourth down offense ever.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
Right, incredible, Yeah, incredible, I see there.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
I think that they added something like fifty points in
totality over the year off of going for it on
fourth down. That's three points a week that you're adding.
So I love that they stuck with it. And you
see in a huge spot they get a fourth down conversion.
They don't even have to run the play because Detroit
has too many men on the field. Like, there's always
the possibility when you remain aggressive when you line up
to go that the other team jumps that they have

(09:22):
some sort of pre snap penalty and you just get
gifted the yardage. And I love that they were consistently
dedicated to going for it. So I don't see an
argument that Jaden isn't the best Rooky quarterback ever. When
you consider the regular season yardage, the regular season efficiency,
he's top five in like every conceivable category total yardage, total, touchdown,
passer ratings, limited turnovers. Completely turned around an offense, let

(09:46):
an elite offense in a way that we very rarely
seen but then to do this in the playoffs, that's
the kicker man. He's already second in playoff total yardage
by a rookie quarterback, and he's tied for second in
total touchdowns by a rookie quarterback in the play and
he's got another game and he's gonna shatter the yardage record,
and he could easily break the touchdown record too. So
to me, that conversation's over. We've been saying that he's

(10:09):
the best Ricky quarterback. This cements it entirely to me.
What's the argument that he is in a top seven
quarterback in the NFL today?

Speaker 5 (10:17):
Logan? Because I think he's there for me.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
I don't think there is one.

Speaker 5 (10:21):
I don't think there's a good one.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Like, obviously you have to have the big four, then
I think you still have to have Herbert and Stafford.
I know a lot of people are very low on
Herbert right now because of the playoff.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
I mean, there's definitely an argument for Jaden over Herbert.
The one thing I would say, I think I think
Jayden's offensive situation is probably marginally better.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
I would go significantly honestly.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
I mean, I lay calling is a lot better.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
I do want to give Cliff Kingsbury immense amount of
credit for what he's done this year in It's a
perfect Union, And this is all a lesson that I
think other teams need to take. You gotta find the
guy when you draft a young rookie quarterback. You see
this time and time again with bad organizations, use the

(11:10):
Chicago Bears for example, not setting Caleb buff for success. Sure,
you can give him all the weapons in the world.
The guy doesn't have an offensive line and he is
a bad offensive coordinator. Of course, he isn't gonna be
you know, elite, and Caleb had his flaws this year too,
but it's like, yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
When you find that guy.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
And I think Cliff did a really good job of
simplifying things for Jaden this year and making quick reads,
getting into a short you know, short yarded situations, making
sure that Jayden's not airing the hell out of the
ball and putting the ball in Harm's way AllGame.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
He deserves a lot of credit for that this year too.

Speaker 5 (11:46):
I totally agree.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
And also just compared to Herbert's situation, I mean, they
run the ball so much better in Washington. Of course,
Jayden really helps the run game, but like.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
And that's them. I think that's the argument that I
think he has for being Herbert.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
I think that as an offensive engine, right, if you're
just gonna say, hey, put replacement level guys around them,
who is best set up to transform an offense in
the regular season, I think that Jaden is probably top five, right.
He just stresses a defense in a way that like
only Lamar and Josh Allen do week after week. It
is so rare to have a dude who is this

(12:21):
sort of scrambler and is also as good a passer. Obviously,
Josh and Lamar multiple levels above Jayden, right, but I'm
just saying that's the sort of skill set that he
has that so few dudes in the NFL do. I
still think Herbert overall does an incredible job of elevating

(12:42):
a really bad offensive situation, right.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
I like Lad McConkie. He's not Terry McLaurin.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
He doesn't have a zach Ertzo's just a dependable, sort
of go to spot, red zone, third down kind of target.
I would still take Herbert. I think the body of
work with him is really impressive, even though I get
it it's a bad playoff game, but small samples big
reactions is what often happens when you do have a
bad playoff game. And then Stafford, for me, has just
been doing it for so long and is so dependable,

(13:08):
and I do still trust him more as a decision maker,
and the arm talent is so.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
Special with him.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
But outside of those top six who I think are stamped,
what's really the case for a Jordan Love, I mean,
Jade and Daniel.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I wouldn't even have Jordan Love. I think the next
guy would be CJ. And then I think you go
Jordan Love.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
I mean, I don't think there's an argument in the
world for CJ over Jayden.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
I'm not saying there is.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
I think the next guys I prefer Love to CJ. Still,
I think they've had a much better year overall.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
I'm there's a lot more dynamics in There's got to protect.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
A lot more explosive.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Love's got to protect the ball better, That's what I'll say.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Sid Don't get me wrong. CJ didn't do a perfect
job of it this year. There is more explosive this
But I don't know, man, I go between the the
recklessness pendulum, But I mean.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Jayden's over those guys.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Like, it's not close to me the with what he
did to transform a team offense, Like there's just a
different effect in the running game. There's a different level
of composure that Jayden has already. And everybody uses the
same adjectives and you know, stuff to but calm composed.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
He never looks rushed. Every time Detroit brought the house
on him tonight, he got the ball out so quickly
he was killing them.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, Jayden just gets it, man, Jayden gets it. And
I think there is an argument for him being top
five right now. I think i'd have him six.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
I think i'd have him above Herbert, behind Staff wow wow.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
I will say, also, I think you're being a little
unfair to jay Love. Stroud had five more turnovers than
him this year.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
It was bad in the playoffs, also played less games.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, okay, well Stroud still had more turnovers per game,
like Straut had a really rough year, and we'll talk
about his I know what CJ.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Stroud is.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
I think that CJ is very good.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
I just think that you're getting more explosiveness with Jordan Love,
and I think that we saw that in totality over
the year.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
I think that he's more of a.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
True playmaker, ceiling raising kind of guy obviously, just has
different level physical tools. I would have Jaden above him
both though, Yeah, I thought they were very close coming
end of the year. Jaden to me, he has more
dynamic playmaking than both of them. Obviously is a completely
different level as a runner. He's a different level creator
out of structure. In my opinion, he's the best out

(15:18):
of that group, and he takes good care of the
football right. He's not exact perfect in that respect, but
he's pretty good when you consider the offensive load that
he has to carry and that he's carrying as a rookie.
Him over Herbert, I just think Herbert is such a
crazy arm talent and is such a great pocket passer

(15:38):
and does have one of the worst receiving rooms in
football and bad play calling. Like I still think he
is very much in a bad situation. I know that
everybody's had enough with the Herbert excuses. He gets no
excuses for his playoff performance. I thought that he was
awful in that game. But big picture, there's a level
of consistency that I do believe in with him week
after week, and the floor that he can get you to,

(16:02):
but I also think that Jayden gives you really high
floor with what he is is a dual threat. So
he's somewhere in that top seven. I'm gonna have him
seven for now. But it's incredibly impressive because I think
that some people were expecting a falloff. You know, some
people are saying, oh, well, once you get more tape
on this guy, right, and he's dependent on site of
how you being ahead early in terms of down and distance.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
You feel that way after this entire body of work, Like.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, I'm talking more about like after the first five
weeks when he.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Came out rad hogh, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
I'm just saying, I mean after this year, Like I'll
pull it up right now, because I mean, fifth scoring
offense right in the regular season, number six, third down offense,
number one fourth down offense, number six red zone offense.
It's like, I mean, what more do you want the
guy to do? And now it's incredible again, first conference
title game since nineteen ninety one, six rookie quarterback ever

(16:54):
to reach a conference title game, and Jayden Daniels, if
he does, it would be the first rookie quarterback to
ever or in the Super Bowl. If he somehow was
able to win the NFC, which I won't put out.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
And also, this is.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Kind of the Commanders this year have also kind of
made me rethink a lot of my football theory on
just like winning games. H fuck defense, man, if I
can just can't exactly, dude, I'm gonna just blow you out, Like.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Who cares?

Speaker 1 (17:25):
I mean, if I can just dunk on you every possession, dude,
let's just do that. Like, I just think it's way
better for the modern era of football and how it's played. Man,
you got to have that explosive all. It's just way
more valuable.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
I do think though, in a game like this that's
going to be a shootout, and we knew that coming in.
What is important is not just that you can score
every time down. It's also that you don't make those
big mistakes. And that was a huge difference in this one.
The Commanders did not make any of those mistakes. They
took care of the football. You look at the Lions, man,

(17:57):
and although their defense was totally outmatch in this game
and was super shorthanded right, and they couldn't cover and
they couldn't get home when they're blitzaing. That's another big thing, dude,
when we're talking about where these quarterbacks rank, right, how
do you handle pressure? I think the Jaden handles pressure,
handles the blitz the best out of him love in CJ.
I also think that Love is very clearly clear of

(18:18):
CJ though there, especially in his ability to avoid taking
sacks in negative plays. But they shredded the Lions defense.
That's always been a big concern for Detroit, but those
self inflicted errors were just as big a problem for
the Lions. You have GoF getting strip sacked in field
goal range. You come away with no points from a
good drive. You have the goth pick six. He just

(18:39):
sailed that ball, could have taken a check down, but
instead he tries to force it. You have the goth
pick in the end zone when he's targeting Jamison Williams
and he underthrew him on the post. Also, no effort
from Jmo to fight back to that ball. That was
just another bad play. When they're in scoring position, they
come away with no points. You have on the other
side of the ball, as we mentioned earlier, too many
men on the field on the fourth and two pivotal spot.

(19:02):
You have to have the awareness to get out of
that spot to call time out. I know that you
want to keep it, but you cannot essentially give them
a touchdown when you are trying to stay within striking distance.
And then the Jamo trick play the pass that gets intercepted.
I love Ben Johnson, man. I think Ben Johnson is brilliant.
I think he is as creative as they come. And
I think a lot of people are going to overlook

(19:24):
how much value he's still added.

Speaker 5 (19:25):
Within this game with his creativity.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Right that he schemed up a sixty plus yard trick
play touchdown to Jamison Williams on the reverse, and then
that he had the pitch into the shovel pass that
goes down inside the five for amina. Right, there are
a couple of massive trick plays that he schemed up successfully.
I just don't know if I want to put the
ball in Jamison Williams' hands as a thrower in that spot.

(19:51):
Do I want to put the ball in the hands
of the second year guy who thirty minutes ago was
thrusting into the ground after a touchdown, Like it just
feels like a very demanding spot that you have to
put a very mature veteran player in, and like you
have to have drilled into him countless times. Dude, if
it's not there, you don't try to fit it in danger.

(20:12):
If it's not there, you are not a quarterback. Okay,
you are not gonna needle in some tight window. Throw,
don't chance it, eat it. Try to just run back
to the line of scrimmage and we'll start again on
second down. And obviously he throws a terrible interception. Like,
I thought that that was a bad call, and I
thought that that was also really really bad execution.

Speaker 5 (20:33):
It was a poorly coach.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Game by Detroit man, it was, and Goff is a
big part of the self inflicted errors. But yeah, I
think that this is a great coaching staff, but I
thought that they were not good when you consider the
situational stuff. When you consider the defensive game plan. I mean,
they did what they do and they were just outmatched,
but they certainly weren't able to mix it up and
do anything to make the offense uncomfortable. But also GoF

(20:57):
really really cost them with those three first half. So
if you think about what have been the two questions
about Detroit defense golf, are those two aspects super bowl caliber?
And obviously they didn't have their real defense. But this
is the defense that we've seen down the stretch, and
it was just a really rough performance from them in
both those categories, and their achilles heels very much bit

(21:18):
them well.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
I mean, what was the last key that we mentioned
we were talking about this game, Jared Goff poops's pants.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
That's exactly what happens.

Speaker 5 (21:26):
Pat me the Commander's victory.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Like you said, dude, when you're the better team, when
you're at home, when you're the high seed, not beating
yourself is so critical in just putting games away. Like
you mentioned, the fumble in the red zone catastrophic. You
gotta get points on You're up in that game at
that point, right, Just pad the lead a little bit,
don't kill yourself. You're marching at the end of the

(21:50):
first half. It is vitally important on this drive that
you generate points because the Commanders.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Are coming and they're coming, and they're coming, and you
give that way.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
And I've put that on Golf and Jamison Williams both Golf.
I didn't think through that one hard enough. It just
kind of floated up in the air a little bit. Also,
great cutback. I think that was Sandra Still who made
that interception, and like you said, too, Jamison Williams has
got to go get it. In big spots like that,
you can't wait for the ball to come to you.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
And the Jamison Williams interception is h I get it.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
You had a lot of good trick plays that game.
It was just a really desperate, feeling play call. And
it's a really disappointing end of the season for Detroit.
You know, you saw all the numbers during the broadcast.
This is the most wins they've had in a single season.
This is the best point differential this team has ever had.
I mean, it was dominant. And now there's a lot
of questions that come into play about Detroit's future, primarily

(22:51):
are you going to be able to retain both of
these coordinators? You know the rumor mill across the NFL.
Aaron Glenn is a really highly touted prospect as an
NFL head coach. The same thing goes for Ben Jonson.
Both of these guys we saw Philadelphia, for example, exceptionally talented.
When they lost both of their coordinators last season, there

(23:12):
was a falloff. It happens with every NFL team, and
Tom Brady brings it up at the end of the broadcast.
Every single season is different, right, with injuries to guys,
with changes in turnover and coaching staffs.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
You got to capitalize on every year.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
And I felt like Detroit was the best team top
to bottom.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
And unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
You leave this season not only disappointed, but you have
major questions about Jared Goff and if he can get
it done and if he can cut it in big
games again, and you really worry about retaining these coordinators.
And it just sucks that you go down in this way, Carson,
in my opinion, to a team that's so similar to
you in sense of where they are right now, an

(23:53):
offensive oriented team.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Their defense is depleted and they beat you.

Speaker 5 (23:57):
How you get that defense started? Well, yeah, Furt's defense
got depleted. Washington has never had the dudes.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
But to lose in this style of a game, you
know what I mean. It's a shootout and you would go, oh, well,
this is Taylor made for Detroit to win there. They're
great at answering punches and they're great at just you know,
winning track meets, and they just come up short. It's
a really, really disappointing end to Detroit season.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
It is telling, man like, no matter how high powered
your offense is kind of the opposite of what you
were saying about Washington, But I'm talking about holding them
to a different standard. If your goal is to win
the Super Bowl, you have to be able to get stops,
and Detroit couldn't get stops in this game, and they
couldn't be perfect like they needed to offensively. I think

(24:43):
that Ben Johnson is going to be gone. I just
don't see him not getting a head coaching job with
the number of vacancies that we have. I think that
he is too brilliant. I still think that he is
a total elevator with his play calling. Aaron Glenn, I
think probably will. I mean, this was a rough performance,
right because they just got shredded blitzing and they got

(25:03):
shredded in man. They stuck to their principles that have
worked for the most part all year and again, it's
just like when you're down this much personnel and you're
against an offense as good as Washington's and a quarterback
as good as Jaden's, and you're missing two crucial run
defenders on your defensive front and they're running the ball
at will against you. Like it definitely wasn't a good
performance from Aaron Glenn. I don't know how much of

(25:25):
that you can put on him, but that does matter, dude,
because Dan Campbell, I think, is a great culture guy,
but we know that he's not an x's and o's guy, right,
he is a philosophy guy. I'm gonna get the fellas
fired up. I'm gonna establish that we're gonna be aggressive
on fourth down. Right philosophically, this is a Dan Campbell organization.
But he still does need those really good x's and

(25:45):
o's guys, and that's what they've had in Ben Johnson
and Aaron Glenn. That big picture has been such an advantage,
but in this game wasn't so much. I still think
that Detroit is going to be very much in the mix.
I mean, they've got some dudes who are up in
terms of free agency, right, Kevin Zeitler is a free agent,
Carlton Davis is a free agent, Dan Skippers a free agent. Like,

(26:07):
there are some dudes, but they're still so stacked offensively,
and his defense at full strength was pretty good.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
Man.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
That's no no, no, no, no, no, no no no not.
I mean I think that's disrespectful to Detroit.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
I think they were like a really two scoring defense
deep end of the season.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
I mean, you're missing a defensive Player of the Year
caliber guy in your defensive line and Aiden Hutchinson. You
have another defensive player of the Year caliber guy on
the back end and Brian Branch He's one of the
best safeties in the league.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
Joseph the best safety town.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, Kirby Joseph led the NFL and interceptions this year.
A Meek Robertson was awesome when he's healthy. You anticipate
these young corners getting better. Terry and Arnold, Hopefully Rakestraw
comes along and develops in the middle of the field.
Alexandeloni is a game changing coverage guy and he's good
against the run. Alee McNeil like, this defense is loaded.

(26:59):
I don't think this team is going anywhere because of
their talent. I really think it's gonna be a Philadelphia
esque situation. I still look at the landscape and don't
get me wrong, the draft is gonna change things.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
That's what I love about the draft.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Because there's seven rounds and because you can get so
many picks and so many players teams can you can
swing how your season looks in one offseason. If you
really really crush your draft. But as it stands right now,
I really have a hard time envisioning another team leapfrogging
Detroit or Philadelphia. I just think they're way too talented,

(27:33):
and so I think it's gonna be like Detroit, like
Philadelphia last year into this year, replacing those guys and
finding the right coordinators. And you just hope that there's
somebody either in the organization in the building right now
that has been learning underneath Aaron Glenn or Ben Johnson
that it can step in and fill their shoes, or
you just hope that Dan Campbell has that connection somewhere.

(27:56):
Right He's coached a lot of different places. Ben Johnson
has always been underneath him every step of the way,
even back to Miami, right Aaron Glenn has been under
him every step of the way. You're hoping that somebody
else is out there, But I don't know, man, I
don't I'm not ready to guarantee that these guys are
gonna leave.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I think Aaron Glenn is gonna get a job somewhere.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
You think he's more likely than Ben Johnson.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
The only reason I say that is I just think
Ben Johnson the most likely place to me is Chicago
just because they have Caleb Williams. It sucks going in division,
but I think Chicago wants to make a big swing
at a head coach this offseason, so I thought they're
going to throw a ton of money his way.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
That's gonna be hard to turn down.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
But I also think Ben Johnson understands the privilege of
his situation with all of these weapons. You know, Detroit
is comically voted offensively, and they've got a great infrastructure
in place. So I just wonder if he thinks is
that worth giving up?

Speaker 2 (28:53):
You know?

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Mm hmm, Well, I do think that although Ben Johnson
means a lot to this in terms of talent, I mean,
this is one of the most rec replicably elite offenses
in football right because the line is so great, they
have an A plus number one receiver, they have an
A plus backfield, and Jamier Gives, by the way, is
the highlight of this game for Detroit because he was

(29:16):
still just absolutely phenomenal and is so dynamic every time
that he touches the football and they get Montgomery back,
that's a great pairing. Jamison is such a dynamic weapon
in the passing game. He really emerges a really good
number two. Like, it's hard for me to see how
this team can't pour thirty a game on you again
next year. Right, maybe they take a little step back
without Ben Johnson, but I still think this is the

(29:38):
ideal situation in all of football for a Jared Goff.
It's gonna come down to their defensive ceiling, which yeah,
I do feel pretty good about considering how they looked
earlier in the year. And then the big question, man,
is just is GoF gonna be consistent enough for a
three to four game postseason run for you to get through,
Because that's the thing that's what you have to ask
for both them and Philly, who I think we can

(29:59):
agree and have a great all year. I know he's
getting fifty five million next year and he's locked up
for the next two years after this, so they're committed.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
But that's the question.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
There's been no doubt about who the most talented two
teams in the NFC are and really in football, right,
it's obviously been Detroit and Philly, But you have that
question for both of them of what level can the
quarterback be at consistently through a playoff run? And this
was a game where GoF failed that test. Man in
a lot of ways, he cost them this game.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
I agree, we got another game to talk about, so
I don't want to beat this one too much.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
But the one thing.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
That's so frustrating to me about the Jared Goff experience
more than anything else, man, is.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Just the seemingly.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Lack of situational awareness he has sometimes man like the
first fumble, it happens, but like he doesn't feel the pressure,
and that's frustrating. The most frustrating to me was the
one you were talking about earlier where he just doesn't
throw it to Laporta in the flat.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
And it's like you just, yeah, yeah, you just can't
throw that football.

Speaker 5 (31:01):
Man.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
That's like it feels like a rookie mistake, you know,
and and Golf is just playing. He has played way
too much NFL football to make that mistake.

Speaker 5 (31:09):
Man.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
You just think that a veteran guy like this would
be would be smarter than that.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
But unfortunately, as.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
It is right now, Man, Golf's the knock on him
is that when the pressure is on, when the big
game is on, when the pressure is bearing on him
in the pocket, he tends to collapse and he's got
to get that monkey off his back.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Man.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
It's it's not gonna get any easier, man.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
I do think also that maybe they got a little
bit too pass heavy, a little bit too quick. Like
I get it, they were trailing, but they averaged nine
yards to carry this game.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
I think that end of the first half possession really
see yeah, Fate, I think they had to get a
touchdown right there.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
I think they had to at least get points because
then obviously Washington starting with the ball out of the half.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
But you just think.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
About on that final drive right like when it's third
and three and they're like, oh, we don't want to
give the ball back to Washington, so we'll just run
it here and Jamior Gibbs just like easily spills forward
for like ten yards like they were doing that at will.
The average nine yards per carry, and Jamier Gibbs had
fourteen carries. That is a little bit frustrating that although
we know this team has been able to kill you

(32:15):
through the air and on the ground, we know that
where they are absolutely dominant is on the ground.

Speaker 5 (32:21):
And they didn't get to unleash that in this game.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
As much as I'm sure that they would have wanted to,
and a lot of that is Jaden put pressure on
them because he kept on putting up points. But also
it's like when they put the ball in Goff's hands,
he kind of took them out of the game. There
were good plays, but there were some really bad plays
that you just couldn't afford in this game. I feel
like we've covered this one sufficiently. Shout out to the Commanders, though, dude,
story of the season, story of the season. At this point,

(32:46):
Minnesota probably gets the story of the regular season. But
what Washington has done translating this to playoff success is incredible.
And they have found their guy that goes without saying,
they have found one of the young stars in this sport,
one of the best quarterbacks in this sport already and
as we said, the best rookie quarterback that we have

(33:06):
ever seen. All Right, we're gonna take a quick break
for some words from DraftKings. After that, we are going
to talk about Chiefs.

Speaker 6 (33:12):
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Speaker 5 (34:15):
The Crown is yours.

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(34:39):
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Speaker 5 (34:56):
Logan.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
I have to flex for a second here. I predicted
the e Zach's score of Chiefs Texans correctly. I had
this twenty three fourteen. It ended twenty three to fourteen
on a deliberate safety the classic punter runs out the
back of the end zone, tete as much time as possible,
and after that, I'm not gonna lie to you. I
kind of thought that I might exactly nail every score
for the rest of the weekend, and then I didn't.

(35:17):
Obviously it wasn't even close with the second game, but
I was really feeling myself. I thought I might have
been the least on Al gay Eve and the quitzat
Tarak and the Mahdi and Wadib, but I was not.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
Nevertheless, slogan.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
You know, it's probably the easiest thing to predict in
sports that the Kansas City Chiefs are going to go
to the AFC Championship game.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
They've done it. Seven straight seasons.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
In every season that Patrick Mahomes has been the starting quarterback,
they have made the AFC Title Game. They do it
yet again. What was your biggest takeaway from this game?

Speaker 5 (35:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (35:46):
I mean, the Chiefs are like the sun coming up.
The Chiefs are like God coming through. The Chiefs are
like the mailman with their packages. They just always deliver.
It is so damn reliable.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
This game is unique.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Been solac for this stat According to ESPN Stats and Info,
Houston is the first team in NFL history to outgain
their opponents by one hundred plus yards, not turn the
ball over and lose in the playoffs before this.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Wow, forty nine to zero.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Now, obviously a part of that is the catastrophically bad
special teams performance. We got two missed field goals, a
missed extra point, and a badly muffed punt.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
The kicks are obviously much more important.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
You just leave seven points on the board there.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
One shout out Arrowhead.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
I think it is the toughest place to play in
all of football, and the win was wicked today. But
the Chiefs are so reliable, and you're right, this was
just so predictable. Guys just step up whenever you need
the Mahomes is now second in career playoff victories when
they needed it.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Guess what he was scrambling and getting out of the pocket.
He was finding guys open.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Travis Kelcey, who those were two of the big keys
that I mentioned coming into this game. You gotta keep
my Homes in the pocket. Don't let him kill you
scrambling outside. The other big one, Travis Kelcey, you gotta
slow him down. And one thing we did a TikTok
video a while back, Carson, you said that you thought
George Kittle was the best tight end in football. I

(37:20):
I disagreed. I still think it's Travis Kelcey. I don't
really care about the blocking. I don't call it, Yeah,
I don't. I don't care about the regular season production.
There were so many people, even my boy Angelo shout out.
I know he's probably inconsolable now with the Lions game.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Oh, Kelsey's washed. Kelsey's washed, dude.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
I don't think Kelsey's washed.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
I just don't think Kelsey is as dynamic of receiving
he's weapon as he was at his peak. And I
think closer than it is between them as blockers because
Kittle is a monster blocker. I mean, I think Travis
Kelsey is the goat tight end. Bro.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
Like, you're not gonna hear me arguing.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
That, But today I think he's got the most one
hundred yard playoff games ever for a player game, for
a big scenario.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Travis Kelcey just understands how to grow, don't.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
I don't. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Kelsey knows how to get open. I just think it's
more valuable he.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Is just he's seven to eleven, He's always open.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Like, I just love watching him run routes, especially with Mahomes.
Not only do they have this tremendous chemistry that you
can only build by playing years and years and years together,
but Kelsey will run his route whatever it is right. Say,
for example, it's a post in this game, and then
he will just deliberately run to the open space between
the two defenders. He just makes it look so damn easy.

(38:39):
So Mahomes comes through. Travis Kelcey comes through the defense
every big spot in this game, because Houston moved the ball.
But in big spots, third downs in enemy territory, guess
who came through. It was this pressure, It was this
defensive line, It was Chris Jones and George Carl Laftus.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
It was Trent McDuffie with big pass breakups. I really
love the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
I'm not a Chiefs fan, but I look at the
Chiefs like I do the Warriors. It's a treat to
watch them play. It is a treat to watch such
a perfect organization.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Hate this take.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
I'm so jealous.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Like when I get to watch Steph Curry and Draymond play,
even you know, past their prime, it's like they just
get it.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
The Chiefs just get it. Man. Andy Reid wins his
three hundredth the game.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Man, You've got a crazy, a top three to five
coach of all time. You've got the best quarterback ever.
I think you've got the best tight end ever. The
Chiefs are just perfect, man, They just they they always get.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
You.

Speaker 5 (39:42):
Really not compare them to the Warriors.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
Like, and what I'm asking about is not in terms
of the inevitability of their greatness. As a viewer, you
enjoy the product of these Chiefs, not the twenty nine
Gees Chiefs, because then I'd be with you that football
that was high flying Tyreek and Kelsey and putting me.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
I enjoy I enjoyed Chiefs Texans as much as I
enjoyed Lions Commanders.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
I enjoyed it too. I enjoyed the defense.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
I love I love watching. I love watching great football
organizations fully execute.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
And a part of that you hated Tom Brady more
than anybody I've ever met.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Tom Brady broke my heart every year. The Steelers aren't
The Steelers aren't good enough to have my heart broken
because I don't have any a My cards are there,
I'm already folded.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
But it's just it's they always come through, like Spags
and his timely blitzes and the creativity top to bottom.
They've just got it all figured out. Man. Yeah. I
love watching the Homes play. I love watching Kelsey play.
I love watching the Chiefs play. They play, they play
ethical football, although this was a.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Horribly affect ethical football.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Chosen that was bad today. I didn't like that. That
was soft.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
That was some of the softest stuff I've seen on
a football field. And this was a really badly. There
were some bad reffing moments in both of these games.
The Lions game, the worst one was that phantom face
mask and then this hornerable I don't know, there was
play after play in this game that was infuriating. The
Mahomes had the two most infuriating plays.

Speaker 5 (41:21):
I will say that I guess we can just get
into that now.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
I didn't want to really start with officiating because ultimately
I don't think that officiating really played a role in
deciding this game, and I do think there are a
lot of people who go to the place of this
is rigged, which I do not think is the case. However,
if you are somebody who is a believer that the
Chiefs are heavily favored by the FS, I mean, this
is the game that is going to get you to

(41:45):
writing on the walls and writing letters to Goodell, like
this was really really bad. The first roughing the passer
on will Anderson I thought was a really bad call.
I thought that that was a clean sack. It's also
just situationally so brutal. When it's third and long, you've
done everything necessary to get a stop, get off the field.

Speaker 5 (42:03):
I think that.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Roughing the passer is a horribly officiated penalty, and I
think that we need to reconsider it. And I do
think that we need to consider situation and intent and
things like that. But also, like I didn't think that
was helmet's helmet. I thought the helmet made contact with
the chest. First obvious lowering of the head will Anderson
the first one.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah, I mean he didn't.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
And the thing to me was he didn't hit him
hard and he didn't put his body weight on him.

Speaker 5 (42:25):
It's like no body weight.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
And you've said this in our group chat, and I thought,
you hit the exact nail on the head, like it's
the spirit of the game.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
It's like, dude, these guys are going to war. The
quarterback is gonna get hit, and yeah, it's because it's
Mahomes and because he cried and threw his hands up
and won.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Is it a dangerous malicious play? No, absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Don't make it a game altering call, which that one
was because it extended a drive that the Chiefs ultimately
got points on when they.

Speaker 5 (42:51):
Were dead in the water on that drive.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
The next one was less consequential, but was far worse.
And something seriously needs to be about quarterbacks sliding in
situations where you are just at that point a runner
and you have to be treated as such.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
Bro, Mahomes is.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Literally bobbing and weaving behind his blockers like he's a
running back. He's reading blocks, he's evading defenders, then he
runs towards multiple defenders, runs into traffic, and at the
very last second slides.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
You can't do that.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
You cannot do that, and you certainly can't do that
and then expect to get a call and get a
call like.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
People are talking about, oh, there's contact in the helmet.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Bro They're diving on a player who is suddenly sliding
right in front of them at the very last second
when he has been evading defenders as any other runner.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Carson, you don't get it.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
When Mahomes has the ball pass the line of scrimmage,
you're just supposed to disperse and open up like an
open walkway to the end zone.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I just don't understand how you're supposed to deal with
a running quarterback if that and he uses he exploited it.
He exploited it, And I just think that that sucks.
And then the flop that you're talking about, that was
just the cherry on top like quarterbacks flop man Josh
Sell's calls when he gets hit late like it was
just so bad on the heels of the fact that

(44:10):
there had already been two egregious calls before that. But
like I said, I don't think that really had an
impact on this game, but it did for a while,
just like make everything less fun, like Mahomes has that
incredible touchdown pass as he's falling down to Kelsey. But
I'm kind of just like, damn, it sucks that you
have to think about officiating.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
I hate talking about refs.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
I hate talking about officiating, but there's sometimes they should
just can't ignore it.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Stop ruining games.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
That's my stop being so bad, broo.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
We should be able to use replay assists and let's
throw a flag that is egregiously wrong.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
That's what I don't understand. And I've had this take
all year long. I don't understand. The worst one to me, well,
because I'm a Steelers fan, was that catch that wasn't
a catch in the Chiefs game. How for some games
we have replay assist right there and they just immediately
buzz down and say, hey that's not a face mask

(45:04):
or hey that's not a catch, and we immediately fix it.
And then other times we just don't even I just
don't get the inconsistency of when we use it and
when we don't. And I've said always, let's get a
couple of guys in a booth, they rewatch every play
real quick, they give the go ahead. You know, if
it's that simple, and why aren't we applying it to

(45:25):
one hundred percent of plays? Why are we only doing
it for this I don't understand that part of it.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
And to me, it's pretty simple because I could see
the NFL making the argument of, oh, we don't want
to open up the Pandora's box because when it comes
to penalties, right, there's so much going on on any
given play. I do not think that you should be
able to call a penalty retroactively via replay assist because
at that point it's like, yes, you could call a
million different things on any play that could bog down

(45:53):
the game so much it's just not feasible. But when
you have thrown a flag a face mask and it
is blatantly obvious that there was no contact to the
face mask, and it takes five seconds to see that,
you don't even have to slow down the game. You
just say, go up to the booths, Oh we were wrong,
we'll pick up that flag. Why would you not do that? Like,
there's no downside to that. It's very clear that that's

(46:14):
something that the league should do. We have this technology,
using it selectively to me.

Speaker 5 (46:19):
Is just strange.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
So yeah, there were some very bad calls today, but
the Texans had some trouble outside of that. Now that
being said, I thought that Houston played quite a good
football game for three quarters. Like they were the better
team for the first three quarters of this game. They
dictated things on the ground. They were running on over
fifty percent of their downs through the first three quarters,
and they were getting over five yards per carry. Nixon

(46:42):
was good. They were getting more push upfront than we're
used to seeing from them, and CJ. Stroud was really composed.
He was picking apart the zone. He was using his
legs on third down very effectively when they needed it. Situationally,
he never put the ball in Harm's away. In those
first three quarterbacks had double the Chief's time of possession.
Like it was just easy. They were in control, they

(47:04):
were getting what they wanted. They were the better team.
They were still down one because of the missed kicks,
but they were in a good spot. They had played
very well then though, things really did unravel in the
fourth quarter, and a lot of that was just spags
going demon mode man, and you're talking about the Chiefs
and how they're the greatest thing that you've ever seen
and one of the seven wonders of the world. You know,

(47:25):
the chief who, to me far and away, really had
his fingers all over this game. His fingerprintss Kelsey obviously, No,
I'm talking about the great Chiefs, the dudes who have
been pillars of this dynasty since the first Super Bowl.
Kelsey was amazing. But Spags Man, Spags was just cooking
because they really weren't blitzing Stroud much in the first half,

(47:46):
and he was comfortable. He was sitting back in pretty
clean pockets and he was putting in work and his
receivers were getting some free releases off the line. Then
they dialed up the pressure and on the final three
drives for Houston, Kansas City had five sacks.

Speaker 5 (48:01):
It started on.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
The third to last possession. They had free rushers on
both second and third down. Then Houston is at fourth
and ten, they're just outside field goal range. They decide
pretty late in the play clock to go, so they're
kind of rushing to get the playoff, and then it's
another blitz and you get a loss of sixteen and
it's just another devastating play. Like their aggression sending extra

(48:24):
rushers just devolved the Houston offense into chaos. They pressured
CJ on more than half of his dropbacks in this game.
They blitzed him on seventeen dropbacks in eight different times
in this game, Logan, they had a free rusher going
at CJ. Stroud and CJ has struggled in those situations
this year. He was twenty fifth in EPA versus the blitz.

(48:45):
He was thirty first in EPI under pressure. Like I
had the expectation, if you really heat him up, you
will have success. And nobody is better at doing that
then spags, especially when you need it most. And he
saved it for the fourth quarter, but it was over.
And of course the bigger thing here is not CJ.
It's just the offensive line couldn't hang. They weren't picking
up the blitz. Is it's a bad offensive line. They

(49:08):
were putting CJ in some really untenable situations. That's where
this game was decided. Like the Chiefs defense, specifically their
pass rush specifically with the blitz, just overwhelmed Houston's offense late.
But you didn't play bad football game. I mean you
mentioned the stat for Houston. You had one hundred and
twenty four more total yards, You had one more yard
per play on average. You ran the ball way better

(49:29):
than Kansas City. You were ten of seventeen on third down.
Kansas City was four of eleven. Your pass rush was awesome.
Your coverage on everybody but Kelsey was really really good.
You had no turnovers. You checked a lot of boxes
in this game. You just missed some key opportunities. You
lose seven points on miss kicks. You give Kansas City
three points with the long kick returned open this game.

(49:51):
And you were way more penalized, two fifty three more
penalty yards and some of those are bad calls, but
also that's just too many free yards for the other team.
Even if you take out the thirty egregious yard that
we're talking about, they still had almost double the penalty
yardage and they just got out executed and out coached late.

Speaker 5 (50:07):
This is how the Chiefs win games. Man.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
It's not always pretty, it's not always impressive wire to wire,
but big spot, they out execute a team like Houston,
and that's what they did.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
But this was not a bad showing from Houston, dude.
It wasn't. It's not at all getting beat by a
better team at the end.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
I think it's a really encouraging season for Houston, and
primarily it's just because they have so many great players
at the most important positions in the NFL. You have
the quarterback, you have the defensive pieces, right. I mean,
that is a transformative draft class from Houston, what they did,
getting c J. Stroud, getting Will Anderson junior, immediate impact

(50:43):
guys that just change everything for them, Derek Stingley on
the outside, right, Kamari Lassiter, you've got the head coach.
You've got tomko Ryans, I mean to me. And also
the offense moved the ball too. Without Diggs and dell
Nico Kollin, he found a lot And there were some
spots in this game where I'm like, damn, dude, if

(51:04):
the starting wideouts are out there, like it makes a
difference right where you know, Hutchinson has a couple of
plays that he can't come up with, and I just
felt that would have made.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Away Lips coming out of his break at one point.
The receiver play was not good for Houston in this game.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
It wasn't. And so you look at what this team needs.
It's offensive line.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
I mean, I'm putting all of my resources this offseason
into building that up.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
The defense is elite, the quarterback is top ten.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
You have the.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
What do you build on? It starts with a great foundation.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
I think the Houston Texans have as great a foundation
as any other franchise in the NFL, any.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Of these young ascending teams.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
I think the Texans are as good, you know, like Washington,
like Green Bay. I look at you know, these young
ascending teams. I think the Texans are as good as
any of them. Again because they have elite players, some
of the best at there at the most important positions
in football, and they've got the coaching staff Like I
don't think the Texans that far away.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
The AFC, And that's why I think it's so funny
anytime people will talk about the AFC playoffs.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Four quarterbacks have.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Represented the AFC in the Super Bowl. I think that's
a number since twenty eleven or twenty ten, maybe even
further back than that. Like it's always been Brady, it's
always been Peyton, It's always been been it's always been Mahomes.

Speaker 5 (52:30):
While Burrow has also made the one.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Well, and then you've got Burrow and you've got flaccoas
the one offs. But the point is.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
There's always gonna be elite qbs. There's always going to
be dragons to slay. It's about putting that one run together.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
It's not.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
The AFC is cutthroat every year. That's why Mahomes is
on this pedestal. You gotta beat Mahomes, you gotta beat Lamar,
you gotta be Josh. But the Texans, to me, it's
such a weapon when you can put pressure on the
other quarterback the way the Texans can. That is the
two biggest components to me in winning playoff games. Having
the star quarterback, having the ability to put pressure on

(53:05):
the other quarterback.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
And if you check both of those boxes, I give
you a good chance to win any playoff game you're in.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
It's true, man, And I do leave this playoff run
feeling better about Detexans than I did, because once we
got to the midway point of the season, I was like, guys,
I think that the Texans are frauds. They had been
unimpressive and then they just got more injured. Their offense
just got more unimpressive. And I didn't think that they
were going to win a playoff game, but they obviously
won a playoff game convincingly, and then they were very

(53:34):
much in this game against the Chiefs. And the foundation
of all that is the defense. Right The offense was
twenty fourth in points per drive this year, and the
offense was okay across these two playoff games, but it
wasn't great. CJ was better though, than he was down
the home stretch of the regular season, but it's just
the ability to keep any offense in check or in
the case of the Chargers game completely overwhelmed them. And still,

(53:56):
I mean, the pressure that they got in this game
was pretty excellent. And Will Anderson and it is just
an absolute freak, dude. I love what you said, dude.
At key positions, they've got great football players. The secondary
is awesome, the corners are great. The pass rushing duo
it's one of the best in football. And CJ is
really good overall this year. I'm lower on CJ than

(54:16):
I was after last year because last year was so impressive,
and again, I really don't think the fourth quarter is
on him that much. But there were a couple spots
whereheld the ball a little bit too long, not often,
but he didn't have high end receiving talent in this game,
and you get back this elite receiving trio and CJ
will look better next year. Do I think he's like

(54:37):
a future top five guy? Probably not, because the top
five is also just so damn good. And I do
think that there are young guys emerging who have higher ceilings.
Jade and Daniels obviously, who I think is already better.
I think that Drake and Caleb both have higher ceilings. Honestly,
I think that quarterback class is going to be insane.
But CJ's a really good starting quarterback, and they have

(54:59):
their receiving one, and they have the elite defense.

Speaker 5 (55:01):
The future is bright.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Like you said, they just need to really really figure
out this offensive line.

Speaker 5 (55:06):
That is far and away the biggest priority for this
team for Kansas City.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
This wasn't a very good offensive game, right, It wasn't
a pretty win for them Texans. The Texans got a
lot of pressure and Joe Tooney was getting cooked. He
was getting cooked by Will Anderson. And this is a
tough matchup, right, This is really testing him at that
tackle spot, and he's obviously not as good as he
is on the inside, but he's okay.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
I mean, I think the fact they were scaring me early.
I'm not gonna lie with him.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
It got better in the game on a long for sure.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
But that's what I was just gonna say is I
feel like the Texans had the best answer at that position,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
I think that's probably the biggest challenge, the hardest face
at the edge spot.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
And like this is no disrespect to Buffalo's got good guys,
Baltimore's got I think Will Anderson is the best of
the bunch.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
And Denil Hunter is better than any ed rusher that
Baltimore or Buffalo had.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
It's a really, really tough dual. I agree on that front.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
I do think that they are susceptible to facing those
elite pass rushes, but like you say, they're not going
to see another one in the AFC at least, and
the Eagles pass rush is quite good, it's not Texans level.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
There's a difference there.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Obviously, the commander is not close, so might not really
get tested like it did in this one.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
And again, you know, credit Buffalo and credit Baltimore. They're
great in those areas too.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
But I think Houston arguably has maybe the best secondary
out of that group too.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
When you're looking at the top end Buffalo and.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Baltimore, Buffalo is pretty close.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
But I don't know if you're going to see the
receiving room be this limited again in the playoff run,
because I mean, it was just Kelsey today.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
It was you know, it was just Kelsey.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Were at a couple of plays, you know, like, but
it was mostly.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Hollywood had the shot play that just got knocked out.

Speaker 5 (56:50):
Of his hand. That was a catch. That was a catch.
I didn't think so. I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
His knee is I didn't think he controlled that ball
to the ground.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
When his knee hits that ball is not moving.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
I thought that was another really bad call from the
refs in this game.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
I didn't think that he controlled that one of the ground.
But you talk about the receivers being limited, they also
couldn't run the ball at all in this game. They
was like two point two yards per carry, they were
four point two yards per play, and they didn't have
their usual third down magic in this game. They were
four of eleven. You got like one great Mahomes scramble,
but overall they weren't very good. There and they weren't
good in the red zone. They had good field position,

(57:24):
they won the special teams battle convincingly, and they had
a couple of really good drives. But I do think
you continue to see that this offense has real flaws
that we haven't seen from previous Chiefs offenses. Last year, right,
you could say it is better.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
I think it's better than last year's.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
I think it's a better offense than last year's.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
I do, but I don't think the defense is quite
as good as last year's, which was a truly incredible defense.
But I think again they could be susceptible to some
of those elite pass rushers. They have to be more
efficient running the ball. But Kelsey was a monster in
this game. He picked up a lot of the slack.
He had more yards after misstackles in this game, Logan

(58:00):
then he had all season, which is absurd. He literally
just stops.

Speaker 5 (58:06):
Being an old man come playoffs.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
But he is still an old man. He is still
an old man. He's like the slowest dude after the
catch I've ever seen, and you're still racking up yards.

Speaker 5 (58:14):
After the catch.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Taylor swift power.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
He's just the definition of a playoff performer man in
his career goes from sixty nine yards per game in
the regular the second greatest eighty eight in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
He's the second greatest playoff receiver I think ever, just
behind Jerry he.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Is, and it's pretty close, dude, Like, Kelsey has been
that amazing in the playoffs and just has such incredible
feel with Mahomes and that touchdown was special. I think
ke also, like Ausha here, just kind of lost him
a couple of times in the zone. Touchdown included, forty
plus yard catch included.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
I think Kelsey would have to have like a really
great Super Bowl performance to like make me make any
you know, big declaration between him and Jerry.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Like, I think he'd need a Super Bowl MVP.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
I mean what Jerry did in back to back postseasons
in eighty eight and eighty Dude, keep in mind these
are both three game runs four h nine yards and
six touchdowns in eighty eight, three seventeen yards and five
touchdowns in eighty nine. Kelse's run though, Man, yeah they are,
but they're not that guy, and he's.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Got three of them that are insane and he could
build well, Kelly another one.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Well, Jerry's third Super Bowl run. Three games again, two
thirty three yards, four touchdowns. Pretty insane for those to
be your three.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Seas run with the Raiders too. I felt like he
had made maybe. I mean, obviously he did forty.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
But yeah, he had two good postseasons with them. Dude,
Jerry's just insane.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
But Kelsey's in those conversations, man, And really, I thought
this game was about the defense from Kansas City. I
thought that Spags was great. I thought that mcduffy was great.
He had three pvus in this game. I thought that
Carlaftis and Chris Jones were great. I thought that the
blitzing linebackers Bolton got multiple pressures in this game.

Speaker 5 (59:52):
So they did what they had to do to win.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
I do think for Kansas City, the bar against Baltimore, Buffalo,
whoever they see an AFC title game is a lot,
and I still think it remains to be seen. Logan,
if this offense can reach the necessary level to get
through those teams, I know that you'll probably scoff and say, oh,
the Chiefs are gonna win no matter what. They're inevitable.
I don't think that that is necessarily the case this year,
as I've been saying I think that they're vulnerable. I

(01:00:16):
especially think that Buffalo is a tough matchup for them
because of their past defense. And they really fared pretty
well against Kansas City in their first matchup defensively and
obviously won that game by two scores.

Speaker 5 (01:00:28):
And the Chiefs just don't have the level of explosiveness
that those teams do.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
But I definitely think that they can throw a better
punch than they did today offensively, and I do think
we saw the offense trending up with Hollywood Brown getting
back healthy. But I mean, I've said it many times,
if they see Buffalo on picking Buffalo, we'll see who
gets out of it regardless it's another Chiefs win seven
straight AFC title games is just an unbelievable accomplishment and
their professional winners, and that's where they pulled apart late, right,

(01:00:55):
This was a team that didn't have the highest end
talent in huge and uh, they just got out executed
when it came down to winning time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Sun came out, I went and bought a drop top.
Mm hmmm, party on the block. Yeah, looking like a
car a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
Uh, she went a whole lot.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Sun came out right, You know, Gunn is talking about
his day to day right stuff he does every day.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Chiefs win. They just do it every times.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Kaitlyn Clark discourse in the chat, I'm not gonna lie.
I felt nervous for Kaitlyn Clark. I was like, damn,
she's a young white woman. This is probably her lifelong
dream to chill with Taylor Swift would just like fuck
it up and say some weird shit.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
And Taylor Swift looks like they're gonna be besties. Where
they kind of fired me up.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
It fired me up, But I also like had some
sort of anxiety and pathetic butterflies for you know, I'm
just such a Swift.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Was probably a little bit in like she probably also
got butterflies going.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Man, I'm sitting with the best women's basketball player of
all time.

Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
I kind of doubt it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
I feel like there's a pretty clear power and bouncer.
I mean, Kaitlyn Clark's probably been a fan of Taylor
Swift's for you know, her life. But now they're gonna
be He Swift just learned about who Kaylen Clark is
two years ago, maybe.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
But they're gonna be besties. Bron I think that's awesome.
For the sport of football and their personal relationship.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
I was happy that Travis had a good game, so
Kaylen wasn't feeling some sort of weird, hostile energy in
the booth. I was looking out for her, shout out
to her. Good day of football, man, good day of
football tomorrow. I gotta say, I'm even more excited for
because obviously we've got the game of the weekend on paper,
my Bills against the Ravens. It's gonna be huge, going

(01:02:39):
to be huge, logan, and we will be back after
those games tomorrow evening.

Speaker 5 (01:02:44):
Can't wait for that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:46):
Anything else you want to say on today's action before
we wrap this puppy up, You don't know, Jim, Oh,
look at that.

Speaker 5 (01:03:00):
I'd flop, Jim.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Look at that technique that touchdown. I did let that out.
I elicited a Mahomes when he was hitting the falling
down to.

Speaker 5 (01:03:07):
That was nasty. That was nasty. That was the play
of the day. That was vintage stuff. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
That's what I want to see more of from the
twenty twenty four Chiefs, Like.

Speaker 5 (01:03:19):
I don't think there was fun of a watch as
they used to be at all.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
I mean, you're talking about them like they're the prime Warriors. Man.
The twenty nineteen, twenty twenty twenty eighteen Chiefs were crazy
fun to watch. Yeah, but he's not as fun to
watch as Josh or Lamar.

Speaker 5 (01:03:32):
He's not close. Not close, No, bro. Those guys do
way more thrilling stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
But Mahomes kills you every time.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
Josh is gonna kill him this next week if he
gets there. I'm more scared about the Ravens, as I've
said many times over, and that game's coming tomorrow. Plip
that clip, that clip, that quip that get ready to
run that as part of the celebration.

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
When the Bills head to the super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
Well again, not gonna get ahead of myself, even though
I am getting ahead of myself because tomorrow is a
massive game and.

Speaker 5 (01:04:07):
Makes me nervous. Got a lot of respect for the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
Weather's coming, too, man, The weather's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Yeah, the weather is coming. The weather outside is frightful.
But the what is so delightful?

Speaker 5 (01:04:20):
Smile Josh Allen.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Josh Allen is so delightful. That's what it is.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
See you guys tomorrow. Appreciate you tuning in.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
If you want more of our content, it's all here
on our YouTube channel. If you're watching this live, you
can find all of our full shows about the NFL
and NBA, and you can find our film breakdowns and
video essays that we do.

Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
I apologize.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
Some dude commented in our last show that if the
next video we posted wasn't a three hour of men
Thompson Glaze, Feski was gonna unsub Unfortunately, this is the
next video that we're posting, so hopefully he doesn't see it,
and then we'll get to the mn Glaze early in
this coming week. But that is all on our YouTube channel.
You can listen to our show across all audio platforms,
and you can follow us us social TikTok gone probably

(01:05:02):
just for a couple of days, it looks like, and
then it seems that it's gonna come back for another
ninety but for now gone, so forget about following us there.
But you can follow us on Instagram at nerd Session,
Twitter at nerd Underscore Session. You can join our discord
if you want to chat with the gang. The link
to that is at the link tree across our social
media bios. You can also check out our merch that
is linked in our link tree and is at breakingtea

(01:05:25):
dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:05:25):
So with that, as always appreciate you guys. I've been
Carson

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Braber, I've been Logan Camden, and this was nerd Sash
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