The Monday Minute: Wild Card Edition

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SUPER MEGA ULTRA, SLIME-FILLED, ROCK EM SOCK EM, QUICK JAB, LOOP D LOOP WILD CARD WEEKEND!!! Amirite?!?!?! Oh, it was 2 extra games of football? And both 2 seeds beat the 7 seeds? Damnit I didn't take Viagra for this.

Well since I am here... I am going to give my impressions on each of the 6 Wild Card games. So let's just go in order, shall we?

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Bills 27, Colts 24. Old Man River, Sails into the Sunset. I feel like this game got a bit overlooked because of the timeslot, but also the Colts got disrespected with their lack of national coverage this year. Especially towards the end of the year, they really turned it on offensively. Ironically, this game was the most offensive yards they had in any game this season with 472.

The Colts really tried to focus on controlling the TOP. Though, I got really annoyed that the broadcasters kept talking about the play clock going down to zero. Yea we get it, we can see it, they aren't calling it for a reason, move on. 9 for 17 on 3rd down with 34 min TOP is exactly how you want to play the Bills. The issue for them was 2 for 5 in the RZ. The media will point to the 4th down that they went for it as their demise. I point to the missed FG from Blakenship who has been mostly money all year. You want to win in the playoffs? Can't miss FGs from under 40 yards out.

As good as the Bills offense can be, the Colts defense showed the blueprint of how to slow them down. Zone coverage and keep Josh Allen in the pocket. 2 for 9 on 3rd down. They are going to get explosive plays. You just have to limit them and don't give up easy 3rd downs. Teams like Miami that play mostly man coverage struggled with them because you're constantly trailing the WR. Josh overthrows, he doesn't underthrow. This Bills offense isn't as potent as KC and their defense is swiss cheese. They are beatable.

Last note, if this is truly Rivers' last game, it will be a little weird for me. I grew up on Peyton, Brees, Rivers, Brady, Ben, Eli. Brees is likely going this year, maybe Ben too. The Mannings are already gone. Brady is gone next year (good riddance). Truly a changing of the guard. But the NFL will be a little empty without the best trash talker in the league.

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Rams 30, Seahawks 20. A Battle of Attrition. First things first, I want to shoutout my favorite school Wake Forest and John Wolford for being the first QB from the program to start in an NFL playoff game. I heard that he was in the locker room postgame celebrating with his teammates so hopefully, his injury early on isn't too serious.

This game was rather sluggish offensively outside of Cam Akers who has me thinking Todd Gurley 2.0. Coming out of the draft, I had him higher on my RB board than most, but he has looked GREAT since he has come back from injury. 176 yards from scrimmage and a TD. He is flying up the fantasy rankings.

The biggest takeaway I wanted to share from this game is about Seattle's roster construction. Generally, teams that are successful try to build their team so they beat their divisional opponents. The idea being the easiest way to make the playoffs is to win your division. So it is very confusing to me that the Seahawks have allowed Aaron Donald to terrorize them since he was drafted. The Seahawks have won their division 3 times since Donald was drafted, one was during his rookie year, the other was during Goffs rookie year, and then this year.

Donald averages a sack, 1.5 TFLs, 2.5 QB hits PER GAME vs the Seahawks in his career. I understand that having Russ under contract makes things difficult on the cap. But he was running all over the place back there because the team isn't set up to succeed against this Rams front. You gotta get him some more beef on the OL to stop him or scheme up a better offense.

Last thing, Kupp and Donald both got hurt in this game. I don't expect they will miss next weeks game, but they will have to travel so will lose a day of full rest. Hopefully, they are both able to be a full go regardless.

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Bucs 31, Football Team 23. "They are who we thought they were". Washington, the winner of the NFC Least, tried their damndest. To their credit, they never give up and they have a very good defense. But when you go 7-9, you don't deserve to win a playoff game against Tom Brady.

The referees were an absolute disaster in this game. A lot of missed calls. Reviews that were way too close to call. Just a rough go for them in the primetime slot for these 6 games. I'm just glad the better team ended up winning and not because the refs gave them the win.

Dare I say... Taylor Heinicke was balling out there. The offense had its limitations especially against Tampa who has a top 5 run defense. But Tampa was allowing him to go deep and he made some throws out there. He kind of reminded me of Nick Mullens, who I love for no reason other than I love him. One thing that I felt Washington needed more of was JD McKissic. He had 4 touches the entire game to Gibsons 16.

If Tampa is to get to the big game, their running game is the most important key to their success. Their secondary has been a lot leakier the 2nd half of the season and being able to control the TOP will be big against a team like Green Bay if they face them in the NFC Champ game. Ronald Jones getting hurt this game didn't crush them as much because Fournette reached 93 yards on the ground in his place.

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Ravens 20, Titans 13. Something Clever about Stomping. Let's start with something that happened prior to this game. Last year, these teams met in the Divisional Round. The Titans came in and knocked the socks off of Baltimore. See, the Ravens weren't too happy about that. Because it is cold in January and socks help keep you warm. Fast forward to November when they met in Baltimore again. Most of the Titans team came out to midfield for warmups and started yelling towards the Ravens sideline. John Harbaugh walked out to midfield and started yelling back. Apparently, the Ravens weren't happy with the way they congregated on the logo. Maybe the Titans were in an oval instead of a circle shape because I'd assume none of them were wearing their anti sea rhinoceros undergarments. To make a short story even longer, the Ravens defense, after a game-clinching interception, gathered on the Titans logo and stomped around. These teams flat out don't like each other.

As far as my impressions from the game, I will continue to say it. I would NOT pay Lamar Jackson crazy franchise QB money. I know he is a wonder running the football, but he does not know how to go through his progressions/reads. He has his first route, which is normally Andrews in the MOF or Marquise on a deep route, and if that isn't there he looks down to the pocket and tries to find an escape. Either he doesn't trust his protection or he doesn't know how to stand and deliver. He can get an MVP based on insane passing efficiency and running the ball. But if he wants to win the Lombardi he needs to be able to do more.

Also on the Ravens side, JK Dobbins is gonna explode next year if they give him the ball enough times. He reminds me of MJD out there being able to squeeze through the OL but also run a guy over if he needs.

I will continue to say this as well. Stop Derrick Henry and you stop the Titans. Ryan Tannehill is not a threat. Tannehill is who he has been for the last 6 years. He is great on play-action and moving outside the pocket. But if you need him to score 30 points and outduel another offense he isn't that guy. Also, how impressive was the Ravens DL? They just moved OL out of the way so those LBs could fill holes and set the edge. They put on a clinic. I was however surprised at how well the Titans defense played especially their DL. They had tied the fewest sacks of a playoff team (19) since 1979, but in this game ended up getting to Lamar 5 times. That was the only reason they were able to keep the game close.

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Saints 21, Bears 9. Bears. Beats. No one. The children of America will grow up thinking that the sport of football's best player is Mitch Trubisky. No seriously... Nickelodeon ran a poll and kids voted him the MVP of the game. If you are completely confused, this game was simulcast on Nick/CBS/Amazon/Twitch. I watched on Twitch with Daniel Jeremiah, but apparently, the Nick broadcast was... what the kids call "lit".

Ryan Pace, GM of the Bears, is going to famous for one thing and that is trading up to select Mitch. However, the trade he made for Khalil Mack also looks like it just wasn't worth it. Mack was a rockstar his first 2 years in Chicago. However, trading 2 first-round picks, a 3rd, and a 6th to acquire Mack, a 2nd, and a 7th rounder to me is QB level compensation. Imagine if they had just average quarterback play with that defense. Losing those picks hampered the ability for Chicago to help this offense. Yes, Mitch holds them back, BUT the last few weeks we saw a completely different type of Mitch. A Tannehill-like Mitch who doesn't turn the ball over because he isn't asked to do much.

Regardless, this was likely Mitch's last game as a Bear, even though I don't think he played too poorly on this day. The Saint have a great DL and were able to keep Mitch in the pocket and frankly, he tends to self-destruct in there. Additionally, the Bears had success this year with the running game. That had no steam for this game. Saints had an absurd stat where they had not given up a rushing touchdown to a RB since 2017 earlier this season. Cook and another RB ended up scoring on them this season. The point is though, their defense completely stimied the Bears.

As far as the Saints go, the Taysom Hill project needs to be over. He doesn't add anything to this offense besides another RB. When he is on the field, 95% of the time he is going to be running. If it is a pass, he isn't dumping it off. It's going to be a 50-yard deep route. Man coverage with a deep safety and you completely stop it. I'm not particularly worried for their offense, as a whole, going forward. The Bears are incredibly solid on defense and the Saints didn't use Kamara as much as they could have.

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Browns 48, Steelers 37. 'The Factory of Sadness' is no more. So it's kinda hard to win football games win you turn the ball over 5 times or so I've heard. I think I read that on the back of a Wheaties box as a kid. LOL that's a joke, I would never have Wheaties. I hate myself, but I don't hate myself that much.

Based on the score, this was everyone's favorite game of the weekend right? Cuz points = fun? Just an awful display of football. Really poor ending for the weekend were the Bears and Steelers games. I mean we all knew this Steelers team wasn't deserving of an undefeated record, but 12 wins seemed about right. On this night, they looked more like a 7-9 team. Ben can't move around at all to evade in the pocket. He has more knocked down passes than any other QB in the league. I have been saying Ben has been terrible for the last 3 years, but I think this was his last game. The opening snap of the game obviously wasn't his fault but 4 INTs? Especially when you are the worst rushing team in football. Can't win that way.

The Steelers defense... oh how the mighty have fallen. I spoke about it a bit in my best bet column last week, but they looked even worse than I could have imagined. Minkah was nowhere to be found all night. The LB group has been decimated by injury but they might as well have not had any playing. Also, there was zero pass rush all night. A testament to how the Browns have been building their team the last few years.

As for the Brownies, I think we, unfortunately, have to retire the Factory of Sadness video. I will link it right here for you all to enjoy one last time though.

The Browns wanted this game more. They are GREAT in the trenches on both sides of the ball and because of that, they will be a tough out, for all teams but KC. But Cleveland should enjoy its deserved time in the sunshine since it'll be overcast for like another 4 months there. Nick Chubb is the closest Derrick Henry clone we have in the game. In fact, hot take here... I think he might be better overall because he can catch. I am a Baker fan but he doesn't need to do anything that will make people rave about him when his offense hums like it did tonight. And last thing, the Browns defense did have a good game despite the yards and points. They were playing prevent defense for 3 quarters and didn't allow any big plays over the top. That is a W in my book.
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Bonus bullet: I would not at all be surprised if I wake up Monday morning and see that Matt Nagy of the Bears or Doug Pederson of the Eagles is fired. Ryan Pace's time should definitely be up but those coaches are firmly on the hot seat for me. Nagy's regression with Trubisky is not at all surprising but when you are hired to get the most out of your player and he gets worse... As for Doug, you will see how I feel about him on Friday's article about tanking. Look at me plugging my own articles. I'm such a pro.
Bonus bullet: I'm gonna toot my own horn here. Both of my "Best Bets" from my Wednesday article hit (CLE/PIT OVER and Ravens -3.5) and my WFT push (+8) slid in that backdoor. Goff wasn't the starter so you can exclude that one. And let's just ignore what happened with the parlay. But yea, we will be back on Wednesday with those picks for the divisional weekend. Don't miss em! Damn I know I promised self-deprecating. I'll get depressed for you soon enough don't worry.
Final Bonus bullet: If you are curious about my Deshaun Watson opinion from the news that came out over the weekend and haven't read my Friday article, please do so here. It is an in-depth look at some important figures and numbers, and then my opinions on some possible destinations if a trade were to happen.
Secret (but not really since it's just one bullet lower and easily readable just in slightly smaller font size) Bonus bullet: Tonight is the National Championship, Ohio State vs Alabama. Really looking forward to this game especially from a draft lens. How does Justin Fields look against this Bama D who should pose a much better challenge than Clemson? How much does Waddle play and does he look good after a severe ankle injury in October? Who wins: Najee vs Trey Sermon? Let me know who you like to win the game.