Week 18 fifth quarter: Lions pummel Vikings to take NFC, Bucs secure NFC South & Patriots fire Jerod Mayo
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On this episode of Football 301, we recap Week 18, the playoff implications, mostly NFC South, but we recap Vikings-Lions, Sunday Night Football-Lions taking the number one seed in the NFC. And what was a good game that kind of got out of hand in the end? But the rest of Week 18 storylines, Charles McDonald helps me recap all of it. Very fun show, as always. See you guys in a sec. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first. Well,

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Hello and welcome to Football 301. I'm your host, Nate Tice. We are recapping Week 18, including, as the game is actually just finishing up, Lions-Vikings. Lions pulled away in the second half to win 31-9, but we're also going to recap Week

Other week 18 plot lines, which were really just NFC South related because everything else shaped up exactly how we thought we would. To help me do that, to help me recap week 18, to help me recap lines of Vikings, my guy Charles McDonald. How you doing today, Chuck?

Doing good. This is the first late night or fifth quarter. Yeah, feeling it a little bit. Just a smidge. But hey, at least this game got so out of hand so fast in the second half that we were able to get on here a little early and start chatting about it. It's great.

It's great. Yeah, we're going to jump right into it. Yes, there's some NFC South stuff that we'll get to in the back half of the show. But this was the game we were geeked up about. This was the biggest game, really, of the regular season. The last game of the regular season to decide the number one seed in the whole NFC and to decide the NFC North champion between two 14-win teams. And it looks like the Lions are going to now go 15-2. The Vikings are driving right now, but, I mean, the Lions just...

took the reins of this. I mean, they really Aaron Glenn bringing pressure the entire day, entire night against Sam Darnold. You could feel it like that was really felt like the story of the game was Sam Darnold feeling pressured, feeling tight against this Lions defense and

And that was the game. Darnold was missing throws. Amik Robinson was taking it to Justin Jefferson. Ton of man coverage, ton of pressure. And then on the other side, the Lions, Jameer Gibbs went up for a bunch of yards, four touchdowns, a nice little super effect up for him. The Lions clenching home field is huge. Needed regain their health first off.

Really, this made me feel a lot better about where their defense stands right now with Alex Saloni back, who had a great game. Also, if you just heard how freaking loud Ford Field was, that's huge. And you get Jared Goff in a dome, guaranteed, the rest of the season. Even if you go to the Super Bowl, it's in the Superdome, so you're good to go. But no, I really thought that the Lions defense played their tails off tonight. They took the fight to the Vikings, took the fight to Sam Darnold.

Tons of blitzing, tons of pressure, ton of man coverage. They pressured him on 20 of 42 dropbacks, 60% pressure rate when they didn't blitz. You got the red zone, you got fourth downs. What did you think about this game, Chuck? I felt like the Lions, it was a really impressive performance by them. Yeah, it was really impressive. And it's kind of disappointing for the Vikings because they just

especially in the first half, like offensively, just so many missed opportunities. Like there was a point where they had run, well, like 14 plays, like within range of the goal line. And they came away with the field goal in that set. Like it's, it was just kind of bizarre to see, you know,

how out of sync they look, especially in the passing game. I remember we... What we talked about last week was... I mean, I don't have, like, blitz percentage numbers in front of me for this game. But we talked about last week, like, bro, if you sit back and just do your thing and man coverage, it might not go well for you. So why not just force the error and try to do something against Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and just blitz them? And see if you can force them to make some mistakes. And that's...

That's what happened tonight. Sam was way off of his game. And I felt a little bad for him to a degree because, man, this is the last game of the season. We all know what the top seed means for you after the season that you've had. Island game, biggest game of the season, and just kind of crapped his pants like the whole offensive line did. Not the offensive line necessary, but the whole offense did. They were out of sync.

Couldn't throw the ball with any kind of consistency. I think Detroit's defensive backs deserve some praise for some of the plays they're making on the ball today. That was just a pretty cohesive defensive effort. But I still think if you're Minnesota, you should probably feel like you should have played a little better tonight just based on the

the personnel advantage that you should have had come into the game. The Lions last time were, they just keep playing man coverage. They kind of tell you what they're going to do and they kind of dare you to beat it and feeling like the Vikings, they should know that. And they still didn't have answers. They were finding runs. They just kind of abandoned that and really just felt passing was

passing the ball that they were just playing this heavy, heavy man and they're winning up front. I mean, you can just feel Darnold just drifting back or getting hit as he was about to throw it. They had a couple times like they had a double move in the red zone. They ran Aaron Jones, I think, on a flatten up on Anzalone and Darnold got hit as he was throwing it and it would have been a touchdown. But like it just felt like they're just split like a hair short

I felt like Collinsworth missed a couple of times where Darnold was getting hit as he throws. And I was like, I don't know how he missed that one. I was like, well, you know, he was missing some, don't get me wrong, but there was something I was like, well, I could tell you what happened there. But yeah,

That whole red zone sequence, it just felt like red zone. And I mean, it felt like situational football. I mean, going into this game, it really felt like situations would matter, but red zone and third and fourth downs and made a whole big deal. And I won't shut up about about the Lions defense running their base defense with four DBs, three linebackers for line and for defensive linemen. And it was really what stood out to me was they're playing more nickel. Brian Branch and main coverage and slot is a little iffy and something I'm to keep an eye on in the playoffs.

But once they got inside the 10-yard line, which was that whole sequence you're talking about, I broke down each play. The lines were matching no matter what the Vikings were in, except for one play, they matched with base defense. So even when the Vikings were trying out three receivers, they matched base. So they were saying, you're not going to run on us inside the five-yard line, inside the seven-yard line. We're going to make you throw the ball. And then they just kept running man coverage, kept running man coverage. And so they were just saying, we're going to make you run.

we're going to force your hand because I've talked about this before, but situations, personnel stuff, offenses can kind of get dictated or defensive can kind of get dictated on personnel matchups. Cause Oh, on math in theory, if you're going to have four defensive backs and three linebackers, if we try out three receivers, we can throw on you. And I mean, that's what, in theory, especially with Justin Jefferson and Jordan as and TJ Hawkinson, but,

They couldn't. And I think Darnold feeling pressure and Darnold missing throws was a big reason of that. Those two fourth downs that were both incomplete. Darnold misses Addison on both of those. He's missing Addison on both throws and they're both man beaters and he just doesn't throw it. Like it just felt like it was big. It was like as soon as he got pressured, it just felt like he kind of got discombobulated.

And I just feel like he never really recovered either. I mean, again, there was never because like the one thing that Sam was usually good for was like, oh, man, I up, but I'll forget about that. We'll just move on to the next play. Like it's what gets him in trouble sometimes. And it's what has made him good sometimes. But today it just felt like I don't know if it was like the weight of the moment. Like this is the accumulation of the whole season and like,

like the most important game he's ever played in his career by far with the stakes, not only for the postseason, but also the stakes financially for him after the season is over. Biggest goal is the Rose Bowl. No, seriously, seriously. In terms of what it means for what's next for him. Yeah, that's, that's, that's,

100% accurate. So I don't know if that was on his mind, but he just, he didn't seem to have like the normal, like, eh, all right, I messed up. Let's get back out there and try it again. Right. It just seems like all compound as the game went on. A spray happens. I've seen the greatest quarterbacks in the world miss like easy throws. It happens. I watched last week. My homes do it. I'll watch. I've watched every quarterback and ever do it.

Donald misses high and I noticed I was missing a few high, but when the on those key fourth downs, the fourth and go from the three and the fourth and go from the two, the fact that he stared at an open guy and concepts that I know are man beaters, their pick plays essentially. And then he just doesn't throw it. That to me is the whole like, oof.

Like that's where I, and I'll get on young quarterbacks about this. And this is why maybe I won't go as high on some guys. It's like, oh, they're passing up the throat that they should get, like go should go to. And it's kind of just like a little bit like, oh man, like if he pulls the trigger on one of those, it's a whole different ball game. But the fact that, I mean, the fact that he just doesn't even pull the trigger, like Darnold making a mistake and missing a throw, like he missed the first third and long, he misses Hawkinson over the middle.

All right. You missed those. All right. But at least you tried. You pushed the ball on third and long. Okay, cool. All right. At least you took a bite at the apple and there was a worm in it, you know? But at least on these, I don't know. I've never used that metaphor. That was a good one. I've never used it in my entire life. I don't know. But the fact that you just turn it on those throws is just like, that's scary because it's like, okay, is this what you just get blinders when it's a big moment? Like you turn blind basically. Cause I've, I've, I've seen it from quarterbacks. Oh,

All ages, all types of quarterbacks do that in big moments because in their head, they're like, I'm going to Jefferson here or I'm going to scramble here because that guy's not going to be open. They start kind of gaming it in their head and then miss throw or missed opportunity. So, but yeah, I mean, credit to the Lions, man. This is why they're so good. It doesn't matter who's out there. They played hard. Anzalone being back was huge, but I thought the defensive line played great. I thought they played great coverage.

I mean, really credit to the Lions defense. You have to feel so much better about this as a Lions fan watching this happen because this wasn't the other Week 18 games that we saw today, right? Right.

It wasn't like the Lions went out there and they're playing against the Vikings preseason squad. And they're like, oh man, we smothered them. But there's no caveats in this. You just beat up one of the best offenses in the NFL. Probably the best wide receiver, Tana, or top three in the NFL. And now you get a week off to kind of lick your wounds for a little bit before your first matchup in the divisional round. I think that this game, it's like...

it's soothing almost like for your soul if you're a Lions fan going into the playoffs and seeing this game because it felt like, man, we are trending down. It's obvious why we're trending down because we have so many injuries piled up on defense. We'll see what happens with Terry and Arnold. That was another one today. He hurt his foot, had to get carted off, couldn't put any weight on it. So, that's not what he wanted. I know, I know.

- Get Angelo back, you wanna get Montgomery back? Okay, see ya, see ya, Terry and Arnold, bye. - Yeah, so hopefully he's all right because I think that could probably just be too much. Dude, you beat down Carlton Davis, Raekstra, and Terry and Arnold, that was the point. - Three quarters you added. - Right, I think this is off-season. That's a big time trade, your first round pick and your second round pick, that might be a little bit too much to overcome once it gets actually rolling into the big time games, but you get a chance to rest.

You get a chance to reflect. This is a big win to actually just shut them out with like your third string corners and blitzing like that. That was really cool to see. And then Gibbs just went absolutely nuclear on the back end. I mean, every time he gets the ball now, it feels like he's going to score. If they can build the alley, if they can build the runway for him, he's out the gate, man. It's crazy to see from him.

He had a third down on the first drive, I think it was, where it was a check down and he converts it. I mean, he just has plays like that all the time where he's just like, it should be two yards and he's getting 12. It's...

He's so electric. I will say, though, the Vikings did have a little thing where they didn't really mention this in the difference in the first matchup was no David Montgomery pass protection. And Gibbs has gotten so much better. But the Vikings tested it. And that's what happened on the play. That should have been a safety.

that they didn't call. Gibbs got blown up on it, but oh yeah, I know that was, even when the rules analyst was like, yeah, that should have been a safety. It was kind of like, it looks like a safety, smells like a safety, should be a safety kind of moments. Right.

But that one and then the interception got through. Mattel has kind of got a little pressure on the running back with the running back protection, too. And then also another play he got beat on to like were the running back in protection. So that was something I noticed, too, that the Vikings were trying to test. So I'm curious what happens in the playoffs, too. But Gibbs, man, it's just like Montgomery might come back because he's seeking what is fifth or sixth doctor.

So you might get this extra week and come back. But Gibbs is just such a needle mover for this team. I mean, even they're talking about Laporta just going like, hey, we have so many miles to feed. I don't know what you want me to do. I'm not going to get certain amount of touches in this. So, man. But all right, let's get into the rest of the week. 18 games. The Broncos took care of business. I mean, really took care of business. Locked up the 7C in the AFC. They won 38-7.

to zero against the chiefs backups we got some we got some cars and weds in that game also got 26 of 29 bow nicks for four touchdowns 321 yards 47 yards rushing the touchdowns were a little underwhelming there were some nice throws in there i thought it was a nice encapsulation of this of a good broncos day on the on the offensive side you know really good screen designs and a couple nice shot plays and that that bow nicks delivered on and man they just

I thought this would be a little more entertaining in the first half, but Broncos, like I said, took care of business. There was no Coy Detmer magic that we wanted from this game. But did you even check out any of this game? My attention moved elsewhere. What about you, Chuck? I watched a little bit of it early on because I was just like, eh, weird things have happened with the Chiefs. And then this game went probably as it should. If you're the Broncos...

You shouldn't be messing around losing to Chiefs backups. You're just too good of a team for all that. I guess the only thing that came into my mind during this game was like, wow, at one point, Carson Wentz was like the highest paid quarterback in football. Not too long ago. Good God. Good God. That has gone south in a hurry for him. I think he had 97 yards passing, but he was sacked four times for a loss of 22 yards. Four times on nine pressures.

Yeah. Four times on nine pressures. Oh God. Yeah. And then the, the, I could be able to do Chris, uh, a lot of Coon. He came in, uh, he had zero passing attempts on one drop back. He was sacked. Uh,

So, yeah, it looked like the Chiefs were putting out a preseason roster while the Broncos were not. And I think that's the case. It felt like week 18 was the preseason for the postseason. That's kind of how this day went. Yeah, Wentz wasn't pretty. I knew Wentz with the backup offensive line against a really good Broncos defense, at the very least a good Broncos defense. Yeah, it was with no real receiving power.

Like advantages as well, going against Sertan and all that. It was just not going to end up well for Carson Wentz and the Chiefs offense. The Broncos are going to play the Bills next week. The look ahead line on that was eight and a half when I glanced at it, but it's already moved up to seven and a half. Bills are seven and a half point favorites. I thought I said this a minute ago, but I thought that was just like, I mean, Sean Payton was on his stuff today.

I thought that Marvin Mims touchdown on the screen was so cool. Like it was a jet sweep. We had to end around on it, which is a fake or a ghost, which is a fake end around. So fake reverse. And then on it, Michael Burton, the fullback who Andy Reid always called the sausage was lined up.

As the lone receiver. And I just thought that was hilarious that he was the lone receiver on that play. You know, like the corner for the Chiefs is just like, all right, sure. But a nice little design there. What were the stats for Nick's? Nick's went 10 of 10 for 107 yards and two touchdowns behind the line of scrimmage. And throws of 20 or more air yards, three of three for 111 yards. So like I said, that's like the perfect balance for this offense. Really well-designed stuff underneath. Marvin Minns is a stud.

Really enjoying watching him. Also enjoyed watching the Broncos throwback uniforms, which. Oh, so good. Right. Yeah.

Make it permanent. Permanent, right? Yeah. No, they're 10 out of 10. Yeah, so just kind of one of those days. Broncos took care of business. Sean Payton's a good coach. He was going to have those guys ready for it. They did not let that slip away. Because of that, they rendered the Bengals win on Saturday, 19-17 over the Steelers. 9-8, Bengals did finish with a winning record. Should tip of the cap of that for everything they went through this year. Mitigating all that defensive leakage as well as

I mean, their third round receiver pick just missing a game doing what he's doing. Oh my God. Help Jermaine Burton. I don't know what the hell is going on with him, but you're clearly there's, there's something going on a lot bigger than football behind the scenes. When, when the rumors were like his teammates, uh, Jermaine Burton receiver for the Bengals, when his teammates at Bama and elsewhere were not fans of him. And

And that's like saying something kind of like, oh, really? They tolerate a lot. And they're just kind of like, no, screw this guy. And then all of a sudden, that's how he's in the NFL. But anyways, Bengals and Burrow did his thing. Even with T. Higgins getting banged up. Pepper Jamar Chase for 10 catches, 96 yards. Burrow finished with 270 yards, a touchdown, and a pick. Finishes the season leading the NFL in yards and touchdowns.

It's nice to see the touchdowns cracking 40 again. Jamar Chase finishes with the triple crown, leads the NFL in receiving and yards and touchdowns. A nice, also one of those averages over 100 yards a game and a touchdown a game seasons, which is always sick. Randy Moss had one of those, an 0-3, I think, which was fun. I always love those types of seasons. But that game was fun. Did you watch this one at all? Yeah, I watched this one. Steelers kept it close in the second half.

They did keep it close. I don't know what the hell got into George Pickens yesterday. Oh, my goodness. Not his best game, to say the least, I think. Like, that was...

That was pretty sloppy. And that's alarming because we knew if they don't have him on the field, as we saw in the Eagles game, they don't really have anything. But if he's out there and it's not going the way it's supposed to for him, that's just as bad. So to average 3.3 yards per play...

against a defense this bad 36% success rate minus 5 total EPA for the game minus almost .5 EPA per drive like this it's just not it's not sustainable and they're the playoff team right they're the playoff team in this matchup and I know like

Before you get to that game and the Ravens have already won right before you kick off, so you know that you're locked into traveling for the wildcard round, but you still played your starters. It should still look a little better than this. So, man, everything that we've thought about the Steelers since...

They lost to Philadelphia, and they have not won a game since then. They're 0-4 over the last month. They haven't scored more than 17 points since their game against the Bengals six weeks ago, seven weeks ago. Since then, their point tolls are—oh, excuse me, sorry. They scored 27 points against the Browns five weeks ago. Since then, their point tolls are 13, 17, 10, 17. And now they are headed to where for the first round?

Baltimore? Yes, they have the Baltimore. Yeah, nice little battle. I don't see that offense scoring on Baltimore with how both the spots look right now. They're just trending in opposite directions and it just kind of feels like

This keeps happening to the Steelers where it's like, oh, we got off to such a hot start. And then we run into a wall late in the season that we're one and done in the playoffs. I mean, it's a testament to always be there, always be in the spot where you can say we're a playoff team. And through November, we're one of the best teams in the league. But clearly still missing some personnel. This is a firepower that's going to get them across where they actually want to go.

Yeah, they need another receiver, another pass catcher at the very least. The whole line's coming together. Yeah, maybe two. Yeah. I don't know. You don't like the Friar Muth. I know. And then also, this is just what it is with the...

the quarterback situation. They're trying to bandaid it with Russell Wilson and the quarter, a few games adjusted fields. And then you see how the end game, the end of the game went with Russ there at the end. It was just like, Oh yeah, this is sometimes unless we complete some of these go balls, this is tough sledding that this was the bangles second best game of the season in terms of success rate allowed. Uh,

The only other game that had better was against the Browns, like when Sean Watson was playing, I think. So in week seven. So obviously that was pretty easy to bet. You know, obviously that one's going to be a little bit better for this defense for the Bengals. But yeah, this is this. This is kind of just how I feel about the Steelers. The run game can be decent. Sometimes Najee Harris is not my favorite back, you know, taking some carries. I got to rather than go to Warren or somebody else next year.

but I do like the bones of the offensive line and the run game. And then the passing game, it's like Pickens, but you, it's like, all right, our whole passing game is dependent on Pickens. And then it was like, and this Pickens is showing that he's not entirely dependable.

And again, this team, they lost and they're going to the playoffs and this is how we're talking about them. So now they're playing the Ravens who we know the Ravens have a good run defense. They've had a good run defense the entire year. They can match them for size, but then also their past defense has been, I mean, we have both found stats the last couple of weeks are like,

Ravens Pat defense has been what top five ish basically for the last month and a half month worse. Yeah. So, I mean, the Ravens are playing as good as football as anybody, and then they're going there. And again, it's, they play each other twice.

Steelers have some good answers. We can preview this game. We're going to preview it in a few days, but, but it's just, it's kind of like, you know, I was hoping to feel that the Steelers often to have be in the upswing with Pickens coming back from that injury. And that's just been like, actually it's felt worse since he's come back. And yeah, I don't want to put it all on him. There's other issues at it, but it's just like that passing game is so dependent on go balls. And if that's what you're going to live and die by, oof, that's just, that's just tough sledding. The other game that the Broncos played,

made made for not was the dolphins and jets you know aaron rogers going out this week saying this is his last game then uh he comes out there and they're throwing double passes around i was like ah click off that's a lie that's a lie it was one of my multi-view screens so i did watch a little bit i got a chunk of it actually but yeah that was that was that was not much uh tua of course was not playing for the dolphins they were

Doing some things on offense. A-Chain got ran down. I was actually surprised by that on the one play. Did you watch this game at all? Any notes on this one? No, I was only boycotting this because I think the past month, I've been locked into these awful multi-view options due to the New York sports market. If you ever listen to a Bomati Jones podcast at the right time, he always makes good points about

Watching football is great. NFL is great. It's not great when you live in the market with the Giants and the Jets. It's not always great because they're bucketed. That's two teams right there. So if you're CBS Fox, if you want to watch multi-view, you are guaranteed to almost have to watch one of them. So even...

I looked at it and I was like, I just don't want that on my screen. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to deal with any restrictions that come with it. So I kept it off. I did see that Aaron Rodgers hit the 500 touchdown club today. Yes, but he did also fail Joe Burrow. Well, no, no, no, no. Joe Burrow didn't get failed because he did ask Aaron to beat the Dolphins, which they did, but it just didn't matter because the Broncos absolutely disrated the Chiefs back.

up so yeah it was fun because i think it was like the marvin mims touchdown i was like oh god and then as soon as that happened i was like oh champagne's on his

this is over when they got the touchdown where it hit off like three different guys and they'll call it in the back of the end zone toe drag I was off my screen get off now this is done this is done I know preseason week five baby

yeah i know that's oh man that's what it felt like you know teams working out the kinks was throwing some gadget plays in there yeah dolphins threw what they could at it and it felt like we'll talk about the fc south after the break but we'll talk at uh

You could see the teams get defeated or feel defeated once the scores start trickling in. And that kind of, you know, it's a very human sport, the game of football, where effort really matters, especially with tackling in cold weather. And you kind of feel that, oh, I'm out with some teams as those scores come in. I forget which game it was last week. Oh, it was the Steelers-Chiefs game when they played...

was that i think when they played on black friday um and there was like a final drive where the game was out of hand the steelers had the ball and they're driving down the field and nachi harris is picking up like 20 yards like every single carry because the offensive line isn't even engaging with each other like they're not even trying to tackle him and that's like what happens in like the fifth

if you have five minutes left in the fourth quarter between two teams like aren't making the playoffs and they haven't been able to make the playoffs for weeks at a time it's like an unspoken agreement where it's like hey come on don't kill me man I won't kill you let's get the vacation let's get to the game it's kind of pro bowl-ish a little bit yeah and I understand it like dude I'm not gonna get myself killed two seconds before the offseason starts got some money to make

It really is though. Yeah. The, the tackling, that's why it's like, you can tell which teams are so committed and hard fought. And actually I'll talk about a team that fired their head coach after the break too. But talking about like, you can just see,

the buy-in a lot with blocking and tackling. And so that's the thing too, is like, when you see that trickling off, you know, something's up either game situation or team situation. All right. We're going to take that first break and then we'll talk about that coach firing and the NFC South and everything that entailed with the NFC South today.

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All right, we are back. Moving on to the NFC South and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the winners of the NFC South. They beat the Saints in an ugly, ugly game. That was kind of the tale of two halves. Mike Evans, this was hilarious on the final play, tying Jerry Rice for 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons. Baker Mayfield had a tale of two halves. He finished with 221 yards, two touchdowns, a pick,

and 68 rushing yards. I'll talk about scrambling in a second to Bucky Irving. Does thing a nine yards and a touchdown. Mike Evans, of course, finished with 89 yards and over a thousand for the season. Jalen McMillan. Very nice day, 74 yards and one touchdown on a beautiful touchdown grab. And also a penalty right before that on another fun grab. But yeah,

This game, Charles, we'll get into this one before we pull out the dagger of the other game that happened in the NFC South. But Bucks, Saints, what were your thoughts on this one? It was cool. I did watch most of the game because the Falcons, the Falcons, Panthers going at the same time. That was actually kind of interesting until it wasn't at the end. So, yeah.

I thought Spencer Rattler played well for the Saints. That was probably his best game of the season. A lot more composed. Less panicking. Less plays where it's just like you pull a pin on a grenade and you're just sitting there watching it count down in your hands. That was encouraging. The Baker scrambles were pretty damn funny. The best part of the game was the last play because I think... I thought the last play was really cool because

I think people can get into, like when you're removed from some of this stuff, you're just spectating. I think people can get removed from like, I guess how hard these guys work and how meaningful, like even like just a landmark like that is to someone like Mike Evans. So yeah, if you're not a Bucks fan or you don't really care about counting stat records like that, then you can probably say, oh my God, like why are they chasing this? Why does it matter? But then when you get to the playoff,

to play where it happens. You can see why it matters so much. Like, like Mike gets, he gets the five yards, gets three more yards, falls down and just like explodes on the field. And basically the whole team is running over to celebrate with him. Right. Right. Right. So I'm like, that's a, that was a really cool moment where you can just see like, Oh man, like this, it accomplished perspective for you. Like,

This guy's worked his whole life and he just got 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons tying Jerry Rice. Is anyone saying he's as good as Jerry Rice? No. But his name gets to stand next to him right there for the rest of time. Can't take that away from him. Cool moment for him. And for it to happen against the Saints, I'll take it, even though the Falcons did need the Saints to win today. But I'm not going to do that.

Even in a season like this, oh, don't worry, on Good Morning Football last week, I basically declared, I turned heel on the Vikings, which I would mean to, after I predicted that they're going to win the game. But just talking about it, yeah. But even with Mike Evans, too, is that he missed time this year. And so I was like, okay, it might not be the season for it. And so he just rallied and, you know, finishing with 97 yards last week, 69 the week before that, 159 the week before that.

Like getting that, he had 14 targets today. So they were trying to get it to him. That last play was hilarious. Just a motion bubble, you know, flat. You better block for his ass. And he was fighting for those yards. He was going to get those no matter what. So it was cool. Like you said, and, and there were, for, for a split second, I did want to see if he gets like two yards, do they hurry up? Cause they were at a timeout.

Like, do you hurry up and just run another play real quick, another screen? That would have been funny. That would have been really funny. I just love that, too. It's like, it wasn't like, you know, they were 7-9 and this game didn't matter. They were trying to win the division. Like, they still could have lost the game. Right. What if you fumbled and they returned it back, you know? Everything should have said, take a knee there and just get out of here and win the division. That's what makes it actually kind of like a fun little human moment. Mm-hmm.

In contrast, remember last year when James Winston went rogue on a knee situation against the Falcons? Remember that one? Yeah, so sometimes the human side comes in. Good and bad. But watching Evans on that one, too, it's like, yeah, like you said, just the reaction afterwards, just the human element of all that. They dialed up the cheapy play.

The second half for Baker, he finished with 60.9% dropback success rate. So 14 of his 23 dropbacks in the second half were successful. First half, he was 5 for 17, 29%. So a tale of two halves for him. And he also had six scrambles in the second half.

26% scramble rate in the second half. That's like double Jane Daniels scramble rate. The season Baker Meebles is running around. He had a 28 yard around third and 14 had some huge moments, but that Jalen McMillan, there's a completion on fourth and eight.

And then he gives the first down signal and he does, he does this, you know, the gun signal, but it wasn't a gun signal. He's just pointing first down, but there's time, you know, cracking down on that. So he gets that, they get the big penalty that knocks it back 15 yards. But I just thought Adrian Hill's crew, the reffing crew, they took like a legitimate 10 minutes, like to sort out that play. It took forever.

where even like the rules analyst on, I think it was on Fox was just like, yeah, I can tell them exactly what they should be doing here. Like they were actually like talking crap, which they like never do. So I thought that was pretty funny too, but no, it was, but a big day for, I thought the Bucks offense,

Top five, man. They just keep finding answers. Liam Cohen keeps finding answers. Kate Otten was out this game. And I mean, it doesn't matter. It's Jalen McMillan. It's it's it's McMillan. It's Mike Evans. It's whoever it's Bucky Irving. They always just find an answer there. You want to you want to talk about your side? Yeah. The losers. OK. OK. Well, the Bucks did end up winning this, but it was getting a little wonky for a while there. There is one sequence where there was a botched punt by the Bucks as the

The Falcons were also missing a field goal, which turned out to be very significant as the Falcons lose 38 to 44 to the Panthers in a shootout between Bryce Young and Michael Penix. Panthers end up season five and 12. The Falcons eight and nine picking in the teens somewhere. I think it was 16 when the last time I checked. All right, Charles.

Thoughts on this game. I really don't care about losing this game because...

Okay. Let's say you sneak into the playoffs. You're playing the winner of Minnesota, Detroit. Come on. We've gotten absolutely throttled. Like, yeah, I don't, I really don't need to see Mike Penix's first playoff giving it to Brian Flores defense or, or even just this defense. Yeah. Right. Right. Or, or this defense against the Detroit lions offense. I'm good. I don't need to see that. Um, I thought, but I thought today, like how they lost was just incredibly embarrassing. Um,

Like they let one of the worst offenses in the league just steamroll them. Absolutely steamroll them. Because I mean, we talked about it last week, even with the improvement from Bryce Young over like since he had started, they were still 27th in dropback success rate. It's a bottom five passing games in terms of like what you're getting on down and down bases. And they got destroyed today. Bryce Young, he finished the game with a QBR of 94.3. And I think it was earned, like just how efficient they were.

He was big boy throws on the second half. So, yeah, it was real. And then there are times where they just met with no resistance. So, you know, Bryce Young, 25 for 34, 251, three touchdowns, no picks, no sacks. They ran for 155 yards on only 30 carries and three touchdowns. Just a total lack of playmaking by Rock's defense.

Yeah, they have so much work to do on defense, which is what's been said forever. But to me, the idea that no one gets in trouble for this season is baffling. But I think that's probably where we're headed because that's Arthur Blank's mantra. You can fail a couple times before maybe we start thinking about what's next. Unless you're Sark, then you just get canned immediately after Sark.

you know, saving the offense and getting things stabilized and headed back in the right direction. Narrative steamrolled. Dude, that was crazy. And they put, they brought Dirk Carter in and everything just fell apart immediately. And like, what'd you guys think was going to happen here? Yeah. Stark's doing a pretty dang good, dang good job. He's getting most of Quinn Ewers right now. I don't know, man. That was, that was bad. And Penix, I feel like on the other side, he looked like how you, how he was, how he thought he was going to look. Yeah. Um,

The first quarter was really rough. A lot of misthrows. A lot of clean pocket misthrows. In the second quarter, he kind of caught fire a little bit. And in the second half, there were some good throws. He's been exactly what I think we thought we were going to see.

Like not always going to take a bunch of chances trying to get out the pocket. He did have a nice scramble touchdown today. But what he's going to do is fling that thing down the field and he's going to try and get some big plays. Drake London had absolutely monster game today. Hopefully that continues. But man, it's just kind of hard to get excited about any of that stuff when they give up 44 points to the Panthers and it never feel like they have a chance to stop them or slow them down or get out the end zone.

Yeah, it's just that it's the third goal for the season wasn't this. So that's why I can grade I can grade them on a different scale, you know, than than other teams. I could be harsher on this team than I am on other teams or, you know, more bullish and all that. Like they as soon as they bench cousins, it was like the season's already off the rails. Like, this is not what you were planning on. So you can't say this is what you guys wanted. No, but I agree with just starting with panics is that this is kind of the game.

This game and the last game is kind of how I pictured him more as a rookie. He's going to kind of have that with some of his footwork stuff. Just how his steps and everything can kind of cause misfires if he's not throwing in rhythm. But like you said, he had the bender to Drake London.

And it was just beautiful. And it's just like, that's the thing. It's like, he's exciting at least as a thrower, even if he's not as much of a creator as I would like, he's going to at least try. He's not, you know, a coward with the quarterback, which is always what I want. I want more quarterbacks trying stuff. And that's like on the other side, just Bryce young. When I was kind of like, you know, when he was kind of mediocre and everything, it was just,

I kind of was like, all right, well, he's got to push the ball a little bit. You got to try some of these things and seeing him today. And yes, the Falcons defense. So caveat, but still is at least he's trying some stuff. He had the whole shot to Sanders to TV on Sanders on like first and 25. I think it was in the third quarter, fourth quarter is the second half, but he hit that one. And then he had the scramble TD on that. And I was like, oh shoot. All right, there we go. We're actually like,

doing some stuff. I thought some of the throws earlier he made in the game were getting a little overhyped on Twitter. And it was just, all right, all right, all right, chill out. And then he had some real throws in the second half. So I was like, all right, that's cool. But same with Penix. He's trying stuff too. Yeah. Bryson was definitely better.

Much better. And credit, I mean, Canales did a good job this year. And so did Joe Cooper. They did a good job on offense. Dude, the touchdown at Tommy Tremble, that play was sick. That was sick. That was one of the plays where I'm like, I don't know why we're talking about Bryce Young on this play. That was Canales. That was kind of what I was thinking of. And you know what I've noticed? It's like, especially once you get to like,

like 25, 35 yards out from the end zone and teams start calling those designer shot plays, I feel like people need to start recognizing that those are designed to only call one time. In the Georgia-Northern game last weekend, when they tried to throw a shot play to Dylan Bell and it hit him right in the face and he just dropped it. And then the second one, they came right back to another one one or two plays later and they scored a touchdown with a running back.

And I was like, okay, I hope you got some more of those because it's not like that's something you can just get to. It's something you have to just, all right,

Go for it. And the Panthers got him today. But I really think people need to recognize those for what they are. Because it's not like when you see them look for the wheel route and then they're just coming back and there's someone wide open in the middle of the end zone. They're never going to throw the wheel. They're just waiting for that guy to get open in the back of the end zone. And it's a touchdown. Yeah. But still, he played well today. Jimmy Lake, Raheem, you guys got to look in the mirror. That was really, really embarrassing today.

What do you think they need? Obviously, they're going with Pennix. They need a new defensive coordinator. They need a new front seven, basically. I would love to see them just invest that linebacker and see if you can make something shake there. I'm tired of watching this slow-ass defense. Obviously, Troy Anderson is not going to be able to stay healthy.

I don't think you can really count on that anymore. I mean, it's the same thing they always need. They need pass rushers. They need linemen. They need linebackers. They need at least two more cornerbacks. It's all bad. It's all bad. But hey, this is what it's been for 15 years. You have a couple guys who are talented trying to just glue together what is not a good defense.

right and then the offensively oh bijan was sick at least oh my god today bijan was amazing today uh he had a play on third and one where he ran 40 yards to gain one yard game but yeah actually i looked up induction stats it was 40.9 yards to gain the one yard it was so so awesome uh oh man you felt just short just short of 2,000 total yards damn oh

Man, he's such a good player. And then Algiers is good too. The run game was so fun. That at least was one consistent measure. And Drake London's sick. Jalen Walker I think would be a fun little match there. I mean, anyone that runs like a 4-4.

All right. We're going to grab up some headlines that happened today. Rough one. New England Patriots fire Gerard Mayo after his first and only season as the Patriots head coach.

joining an illustrious list of coaches that were one and done. Frank Reich last year, Lovie Smith the year before that, Nathaniel Hackett in 2022 as well, David Coley, Urban Meyer, Freddie Kitchens, Steve Wilks, Chip Kelly, Jim Tomsula. Oh, man, we got Mike Malarkey, Hugh Jackson. Those are the coaches since 2010 that have been one and done. I want to hear your thoughts here. They won the game today behind some Joe Milton players,

hero plays that Drake may kind of want one series and done. Uh, but what are your thoughts on the Patriots parting ways with Mayo? Oh, it's embarrassing. I think, um,

I mean, I understand there's reasons to be upset about the performance that they had this year. But the way that I think he's been covered this year has legitimately been embarrassing for a good chunk of Boston media, a good chunk of people who pride themselves on trying to do a good, complete job. Like, you guys obviously failed here. Because...

They finished with the same record as last year, right? 4-13. And we've talked about all... Not all last season, but for the past three seasons about how this guy was potentially the future of the Patriots. He got interviewed by a bunch of teams every season and then opted to go back to New England. So this has been the plan for such a long time. And just to bail on it after one year, when you had the same record as last year and you have a quarterback...

I think that that's pretty rash. And what's been really disturbing, honestly, since he's been fired is there's just been this avalanche of unnamed sources just using reporters as fountains to just spout whatever they want to say with no recollection or looking back on what happened like a year ago. Like there was one report today that said,

the Patriots knew that this was going to happen or people within the organization knew this was going to happen, then why the hell would you hire him in the first place? If you knew that things were going to go so bad a year out that you would be firing him, why the f*** would you waste time hiring him in the first place? What are we talking about here? So it's just, if you're paying attention and you're not blocked by like all this rosy, you know, Patriots lore, Boston culture nonsense, it's so easy to see what happened here.

They feel like they messed up, but no one wants to take any accountability for it. So they're just piling it all on him after he's out the door, after they get a win in the final game of the season. I think it's horrible. I think a lot of beyond the football aspect of it, which seems pretty rash to me.

I mean, Christian Barmore missed most of the season with a heart problem. Your best linebacker was hurt. And the rest of the defense was old, like just deteriorating. So the fact that they were bad this year, it shouldn't really be surprising to anyone. And the way that they're just using them to meet shields for their failures this season and how many reporters are letting themselves get used.

as meat shields for the Patriots, uh, failures this season, stand up for yourself, do a better job. And hopefully they get it right this next time, because this looks like a dysfunctional situation for someone as talented as Drake may. Like this doesn't seem like anyone there has a good grasp on what's actually coming next because, uh,

Because you're going to tell me Gerard Mayo chose every single player that was going to play for the Patriots this season? Elliott Wolfe, you have some responsibility here for what happened too. So everyone's just hiding back in the background. We always knew it was going to be this bad. Then you should lose your job too because you just punted a year of one of the best quarterback prospects that we've seen in quite some time. I think it's a pure radiant childish, honestly, the whole thing. Yeah, it just felt like he got real – like just the messaging was just so –

stark about what I kind of felt as a neutral observer. And then when I stick my head in to every team's hurricane, because everyone has a different size hurricane around it. And there it just felt like every week I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, what the hell? You were so mad about something that shouldn't be surprising. Anything that, any mistake he made as a head coach, and I'm not saying how Mayo and the Patriots played this year was like all the way redeeming or where I was just like, oh, wow, you guys got to see this, the silver linings.

I talked to Matt about it. I was hoping to see more like Dan Campbell's first year or Kyle Shanahan's first year where those teams sucked, but then they were actually like playing hard and keeping games close. And it's like, okay, at least they only lost by 10. They only lost by seven. They only lost by four as opposed to getting blown out week after week. It just felt like to me that like all the support system just went, okay, nevermind. But like, as opposed to like trying, it just like you're saying, it just kind of,

There's just all just everyone backed away and said, this was my choice. And I was just like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wasn't he the handpicked guy? I felt so weird. Wasn't this the Patriot guy? Like this was it, right? I thought this was you guys were going to segue into this. And it just seemed like others were using Mayo as kind of just

A character for their own arguments. You know, he was, as opposed to just like what he was doing and helping him out is more like they're using their own agendas and using how Mayo was doing to get their own agendas across, which is just, I mean, yeah, I just feel it wasn't great. It wasn't pretty and everything, but I just felt like it was just, there's no support about this at all. And so now you're starting about zero.

And to some reporters, please do your job and stop being used as a stenographer. You are not a stenographer. You are a human being with actual brain and thinking power, I hope. So when someone texts you, oh, it wasn't our idea, this hasn't even been a full year where he's been the head coach. Think, please. Do your job. Okay? Don't just be a mouthpiece. Think. And if it's going to be Vrabel, which seems like the likely favorite, why didn't you hire him last year? That's what I don't get. Also, how is that different, really?

Well, you know, I variable did have like his teams played hard. I will say that in Tennessee, I get that and everything, but also it was just like, aren't you, are you selling me Patriot way again with another defensive coach?

All right. Like, I don't know. Like, what's your selling point? Because he's done it before. All right. Then why didn't you hire him last year? I just don't understand. Like, what? That's why that choice is weird to me. You know what I mean? Like, what did sitting out one year do for him? The Browns, he worked for the Browns. The Browns sucked this year. It wasn't like he was working with the Vikings this year or working with the Rams this year or working with some staff where I'm like, oh, that's interesting that he's working with them. He worked for a team that stunk.

And then it wasn't, he's a defensive guy and the defense stunk. The offense stunk. Like, I don't know, like just, just weird to me. I like for able to, but it's just, it just seems weird that it's just like, this is it like the, oh yeah, done.

um are they just sneaky ben johnson team that's my i mean i i do think this is kind of defensible if you can land ben johnson but i just think the way everyone's going about it is absolutely reprehensible it's disgusting yeah because the patriots won today and beat the bills it felt like the bills right no i insist you win uh the patriots are now selecting number four so all that

trade stuff I did last week kind of just went out the window of discussion but uh picking four might not be the worst thing in this draft but we'll have plenty of time to talk about that and their future for the next few months we're going to take our last break here and just wrap up with a bunch of little tiny storylines from week 18.

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All right, we are back. All right. We've talked about playoffs, good teams, talk a little Patriots there at the number four pick. The Titans locked down the number one selection and the Titans could draft anybody. They could trade it anywhere and I would believe it. They could have a new coach next year and I would believe it. They could keep the same coach and I'd believe it. But yeah, congratulations, Tennessee Titans. You are the number one pick for 2025 draft. You are now on the clock. Giants,

And Eagles played. Eagles took him down 20-13. Tanner McKee, I just wanted to give him a little shout out. I think Tanner's got something. And if he finished 27-41, 269 and two touchdowns, zero picks. Any thoughts on that game or the Eagles right now? Jalen Hurts is still in the protocol, so that's why it's interesting to me. Yeah, that's still interesting, but I...

I mean, at least we have confirmation that we just don't need to see Kenny Pickett play again. I don't think we're done here. To me, it's like kind of like watching Nick Mullins when he had those years in the 49ers offense. You just keep trotting him out there. Be like, we know he's not good. And now he got some confirmation on Pickett today. Yeah.

Right. Then you see Tanner McKee actually right. We'll call him in the pocket. That's a really nice throw. Yeah. Stay in the pocket and pushing the ball. I like McKee. Yeah. Not the greatest athlete, but he can move a little bit, but he's big and good throw. Um, then last one. Also commanders. Cowboys had a really funky game. Uh, that Cowboys defense has picked it up since Micah Parsons come back, but, uh, they had a lead, but commanders ended up winning Marcus Mariotta drove them down 23, 19 commanders keep their spot in the playoffs. Um, but

But Jane Daniels, this was interesting. He was a little rough on that first half. Jane Daniels finished six to 12 for 38 yards and took four sacks and said he had leg soreness afterwards, which they're trying to make it sound like it's no big deal. But when you take him out and keep the rest of the starters in,

kind of, you know, a little arm bounce, a little arm bounce, but I get it. You want to take some precautions. Jordan Love hurt his nerves and stuff. I get it. Starting quarterback, making the playoffs. Any thoughts on this game though and where the commanders are at? Any Marcus Mariota love? Look, we've talked about for like

almost a month and a half how crazy michael parsons has been i get it i kind of get it i kind of get it because because boy those like 15 snaps jayden's in the game they could not block him at all i i get it i get it but he had a throw to terry he missed because parsons pressured him and parsons legit blew through three blocks and i'm going to clip that tomorrow on twitter but yeah sorry to cut you off

You threw 12 passes and you got sacked four times. So I get it. I think it's a little goofy kind of keeping everyone else in the lineup, but whatever. We all know what these teams are oriented around and which positions are more important. Agreed. Also, Trey Lance.

I actually thought that I enjoyed watching Trey Lance today, which makes me wonder why the hell they didn't play him for a month. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's talk about that for a quick second before we get out of here. Cooper Rush had he has a snap count incentive of 55% this year, right? He was at 52 point or he's like 53.5. I think going into this game.

And then they decided to start Trey Lance. And Trey Lance looked okay. Which is, it's just like you did both guys dirty at the same time. That's exactly it. If you wanted to do this

We could we have done this like a month ago or maybe right when Dak got hurt, you put Trey Lance in. But to let Cooper Rush work his way, build up goodwill with his teammates. I mean, they want to have a handful of games in the back half of the season and then just get to this point and pull that money out. Wait, come on, guys. Come on. That was weird. It was really weird. Just the Cowboys and everything they do. Everything they touch is weird.

The Jerry touch. It's not Midas touch, which is everything is gold. It's just everything turns to weird with Jerry. I don't know. I don't know, man. Because to me, when you trade a fourth round pick for a backup quarterback, I like to showcase him. And so get either. I can know I have a high end backup or I can trade him for further stuff. I don't know what they how they handle Trey Lance didn't make sense. At least if he stunk in a couple games, then you go to Cooper Rush. But you know what Cooper Rush is. I've seen Cooper Rush and extended starts that mattered.

last year or two years ago. I'm sorry. Like very recently I've seen it. So, uh, it just didn't make sense to me. Um, but anyways, that's week 18.

It was fun. It was goofy. It was weird. We are wrapping it up. We are marching on to the playoffs. We have an award show later this week, a three-man weave for that award show. Can't wait to do that with you guys. We wait until the whole season completed, which I'm glad I did because I got swayed in one of the votes, but I won't talk about that yet. But I am Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. That is Charles McDonald. Where can they find you, Charles?

Yeah, you can find me on blue sky. I asked something. I'm about retired. I just, I went over back there today. It's bad. So I think I'm just going to be on blue sky for now. Don't want all of it. Yes, but also send in those mailbag questions, either the football 301 mailbag at yahoosports.com or leave us a review on Apple podcasts, leave a five-star review and you jump the line.

Also, but you can send those emails. Those are great as well. Send those mailbag questions. We've been really enjoying those, especially on Thursdays. Make sure to subscribe to us. Follow us. Rate us five stars. Watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. Also, thanks to Brett and Stone behind the scenes. Charles and I will be back on Tuesday with Matt. Also on Thursday to preview the playoffs. We are finally here. The wildcard round. We will be previewing that. Cannot wait to get to it. Thank you all for listening. See you guys next time.

you

Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first. Like, you know, to check and make sure it's a heated stadium first. Before you agree to paint your chest for the big game and spend the entire time trying to keep warm by eating atomic buffalo wings. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois.