I needed a day to process everything. I’m heartbroken for the city of Buffalo. What Jim Nantz did to to you guys with the “wide right call” is borderline inhumane, and we might have to start a petition to throw him in jail. The sad part is I don’t see an end in sight to this cycle of great season, playoff exit to Cincy or KC, and offseason hype for the Bills anytime soon. I’ve only been on this Buffalo rollercoaster for 5 years, and I already want to throw up all over myself and get off. I could say I’m used to disappointment as a Colorado Rockies/Wyoming fan, but I’m mostly used to mediocrity; not a mountain of success followed by heartbreak. Let’s save some for the blog, we have some games to recap.
The blowouts
The Houston/Baltimore game might’ve been the most predictable game of the weekend. It happens every year. A team overachieves in the wild card round and everybody in sports media is ready to ride them to the Super Bowl, crown CJ Stroud as the next hottest commodity in sports, and completely piss on the regular season. However, the Ravens are a fucking wagon and are coming to drink your beer and steal your women. Unfortunately for them, they have an unstoppable force coming for them next weekend. Regardless, the AFC Championship should be an instant classic.
Houston gets to enjoy an offseason after overachieving all year knowing they have their guy at quarterback and their coach is building a great culture. Hopefully he continues to promote coordinators from within to help with the development of CJ Stroud, but we know that defense will get better. The future is bright Texans fans.
I’m calling the Lions/Bucs game a blowout even though the Bucs technically had a chance to tie it up on the last drive of the 4th quarter. Bucs fans can take solace in the fact that Baker has that dawg in him. His stats might’ve shown he threw two “interceptions”, but we all know Mike Evans dropped the first one and they were pushing the ball down the field on the second one. I’m not entirely sold on Todd Bowles as a head coach, but if he takes the handcuffs off his OC, that team can be dangerous.
If I’m a Lions fan, I’m scared shitless that the worst running team in the NFL averaged almost 6 yards per carry. Now ya’ll have to go to San Francisco and play that offense after your defense has been bullied upfront for 6 quarters straight? Good luck. I’m still happy for Detroit, it’s been a great run, but I’d hold off on buying your Super Bowl packages Lions fans. I can’t end this on a negative note though. Lions fans, your turnover prone offense toward the end of the season has played clean, complimentary, playoff football. Not only have they not turned the ball over this postseason, they’re avoiding 3 and outs to flip field position to help their defense. In order to have a chance next week, they’ll have to keep playing clean and win the special teams battle.
The Games That Make Playoff Football Fun
Packers fans should be ecstatic for the future of their team. I know he pissed the game away late with two backbreaking interceptions, but Jordan Love is a guy you can build around. Ya’ll have another franchise quarterback to watch for years to come, a talented young roster, and a good coach. For how much shit the defense got toward the end of the year, they were able to force the Niners to push the pace offensively. They looked like the better team for 3 quarters of that game.
That being said, I have to call out the head scratching playcalling by my guy Kyle Shanahan. You called a run play 10 times in the second half when Christian McCaffrey was averaging almost 6 yards per carry…27 of the 37 plays that weren’t an offensive kneeldown were designed passing plays. I love Kyle Shanahan, but this is what he does that deserves to get shit on. Niners survive and advance; Packers fans you get to spend an offseason excited for next year.
As excited as I am for Packers fans, I’m just as heartbroken for Bills fans. Whereas the window is wide open for Green Bay, it feels like the Window is just about shut on Buffalo. They’ll always have a chance with Josh, but with the Bengals coming back healthy next year, Houston, Baltimore, Kansas City, Miami, potentially Jim Harbaugh to the Chargers, and Aaron Rodgers in New York, it’ll be much tougher to get to a conference championship. There’s some young talent on the offensive side of the ball with Cook, Kincaid, and Shakir, but Stefon Diggs feels like he doesn’t want to be there half the time and the defense is aging. It felt like it was “now or never” for the Bills, but unfortunately injuries to linebackers and inexperienced offensive weapons kept them from getting it done against the Chiefs.
Chiefs fans, ya’ll have the Tom Brady Patriots effect in Kansas City right now. It doesn’t matter how shitty of a regular season you have, how soft your defense is, or how terrible Andy Reid is at managing the clock because you’ll always have a chance with Patrick Mahomes. You’ll have the satisfaction of breaking AFC fans’ hearts for the next 10 years, and I loathe you even more for it.
3 games. That’s all we have left. I think we can boldly say the selection committee got it right because we have the 4 best teams from the regular season playing for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Also…you need to start paying attention to college hoops if you haven’t already.
The Morning Flush 