Sunday Wild-Card Discussion

Those ground game hating people like ben Baldwin gonna have diifficult time watching  Ravens-Titans agme. Hating such a major part of football must be rough. Makes me  think of sheep being allergic to wool or baseball fan who hates pitching.

I have posted twice about how much I dislike the Titans matchup due to Tennessee being awful on pass defense and that the Ravens would not take advantage.

However, after watching yesterday's games I am upgrading the Ravens since the refs seemingly let PI, holding, illegal contact,  pass interference and roughing the passer go unnoticed unless blatant.  This is the Ravens dream; since they throw so little and have a poor receiving crew, they rarely draw these penalties.  However, the defense is very aggressive and often gets flagged.

Few offensive holding penalties also helps a rush offense, I am not afraid of Derrick Henry, Tennessee has a much more efficient passing attack then rushing attack.  The Ravens pass offense is only more efficient than their run offense due to Jackson scrambles, which also lead to offensive holding penalties.

This is not new to the playoffs.  The Ravens won a Super Bowl by getting a non-call on a pass interference against a Peyton Manning receiver, resulting in a pick 6 in the AFC division game, and committed two defensive holds on 4th and goal against SF in the Super Bowl, of which neither were called (other than Jim Harbaugh on the SF sideline).

Of course lets not forget the play that went against the Saints on a non PI call that led to pass interference becoming challengeable for a brief period of time.

An odd reason to upgrade the Ravens, but that is my argument.

Might not see any more one on one coverage of AJ Brown after that drive. 

Incredible Lamar TD run

Lamar Scramble, the Ravens play that works

Really wish the Ravens would've just ran a play instead of kneeling it. There's a low chance that they fumble it, very low chance TN recovers it and an insanely low chance TN bring it back for a TD, with 5 seconds left.

Can the Ravens complete their first comback down 10+?

Titans need a defense, like asap

Can the Ravens progress far in the playoffs with virtually zero passing offense? Seems doubtful. Might be just enough tonight though. 

Horrible punt on 4th and 2 for the Titans in Ravens territory. They might not get many more possessions this game

Fourth and 2 in Baltimore territory trailing in the fourth quarter? Bad decision.

stupidity like that doesn't deserve to be rewarded....

Announcers did that stupid “x touches” is the magic number earlier.

Some people believe this, hopefully no one that reads this site

Can't believe TEN is only going to score 13 points.  I really thought their O was rounding into form as a versatile, do-anything attack.  

I'm not surprised that BAL's O was unable to take much advantage of TEN's weak pass D, but I am surprised that the obit on TEN's season is going to say it was their O, not their D, that let them down in the end.

I know this is going feel like a gutting loss for Titans, but I am kind of impressed with this two year run of theirs which really came out of nowhere. Two years ago the Titans seemed like the Jaguars experiencing life after Bortles(Mariotta). Now they transformed into a contender. Clearly they will need to fix their defense going forward 

Wow the Ravens are not going to shake hands???

Ravens shut down Henry all game, and the Titans O couldn't get into rhythm without a little bit more of Henry. Surprised about that 4th and 2 call towards the end, putting your defense on the line there when your offense is tops in the league was just a poor decision.

Felt like the Titan's defense did surprisingly well, but that first Jackson run opened everything up for Baltimore. Hard to contain someone that quick at QB for a full game, he can just break one like that any time you get lax.

But Lamar bails them out, reminding the world he was the MVP just a year ago. 

Not expecting much from this game to be honest. Saints won't find it easy on offense, but will grind out enough scoring drives. I struggle to see where the Bears offense is coming from. The only path to an upset would be multiple Saints turnovers.

Need to do it more often lol

I still don't trust Trubisky to keep this up, but he's throwing ropes today. Unfortunately for the Bears, Wims alligator-armed the best one.

That unsportsmanlike penalty looked like a nonsense. Hate the refs getting involved unnecessarily like that.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a penalty called for just yelling at an opponent. He did put his hand briefly in Jenkins shoulder. Was it flipping the ball to the ref before he walked back to the huddle? 

Should I actually have turned the volume up on the broadcast?

Felt like a shitty call against the bears that really cost them

That unsportsmanlike conduct on Kmet was BS

Also, has anyone else noticed that they’ve changed the way they film players after TDs, on the sidelines, or in other situations where they want the focus on one person? They’ve decreased the depth of field, leading people/things not at a certain distance from camera to be blurry. It makes you focus on one person but also makes it look more video game-ish (Madden games do this) and also makes it harder on cameraman if people are moving in and out of focus.

The saints look like they are trying to hide Brees. I never thought I'd see the day. 

I think Trubisky is actually playing solidly. Unfortunately, his team has decided now is a great time to sabotage because...he deserves it? Now I really feel bad for the kid. 

EDIT 

The Bears defensive performance would infuriate me as a fan. A clinic of missed tackles and an inability to cover passes 6 yards-10 yards down the field despite the fact that thats the only kind of throw Brees can make consistently these days. 

Does the NFL have special rules this weekend to keep the scores down or will GB and KC have a cakewalk to the Super Bowl?  Scoring way down this weekend, just does not seem like a 5 game oddity to me.

I expected the Ravens-Titans to be 38-35, until I saw yesterday’s games.  If you asked me who would win, I would have said the team that scores 38.

Over-unders for the six games were:
 

IND-BUF: 50.5 - over (51)
LAR-SEA: 42 - over (50)
TAM-WAS: 44.5 - over (54)
BAL-TEN: 53.5 - under (33)
CHI-NO: 48 - under (24, maybe as high as 38 with a crazy finish)
CLE-PIT: 48

Today's low, but all three games yesterday hit the over.

Your point is well taken.  However Rams Seattle, 333-278 yards, Tennessee 209, Bears need garbage time drive to reach 200.

But upon further review it is my imagination, Colts Bills Wash Tampa Baltimore and New Orleans tons of yards.

I guess my expectation for playoff games offense is too high even by today’s NFL standards.

Best result ever for a Cleveland coach, but seriously that changes game right out of the gate.  Pittsburgh was not expecting to need to outplay Cleveland by 7 over course of game just to get to OT 

in Trubiskys Bear coffin right?

Right?! lol

Well this has escalated quickly...

Wondering when last team led 14-0 this quickly.

the Steelers shouldn't have rested so many last week lol

Also Big Ben refusing to QB sneak is hilarious. 

No they absolutely shouldnt have rested.

They say blow outs aren't fun, I'm having a lot of fun right now lol

And here I was thinking it was gonna be the Steelers who blew out the Browns...

Really starting to question whether it's worth tuning into the first half of Steeler games.

Bigger truth than the absence of Stefanski is the fact the Steelers have not been a good team for a month and a half... Now let's see if they can at least make this interesting...

Ha Ha-- let's make it 28-0 in the first quarter...

Time to sing:

Its the end of the Steelers as we know it 

Its the end of the Steelers as we know it

And I feel fine

As a Bills fan, I am hating this because now the Bills will likely have to deal with the Ravens while the Chiefs will effectively get a second bye against the Browns. But I can’t help it: I’m laughing out loud at Pittsburgh right now. Roethlisberger needs to retire now, and there’s still 1:56 left in the first quarter. 

Nice idea

2001 Playoffs I think   Ben has a shot at the mark

Maybe pitches for Pirates next year

are welcoming their masks now.

I didn't check the score of this game until just now. What an absolutely shocking scoreline. The Steelers lost not only to Washington but to Cincinnati in the latter part of the season, so a Browns win didn't seem out of the question... On the other hand, Pittsburgh almost won with their backups last week against Cleveland. One way or another, 28-0 is one of the most surprising scores I've seen in a long time.

EDIT: Wow, it was 28-0 in the first quarter. That's even crazier.

Ok, the part of this game that I didn't expect is the Steelers Defense to get rolled so hard. Yikes, just an ugly ugly performance. 

Feels like I’m watching John Elway and Doug Williams out there.

This is what Super Bowls used to look like.  Super Bowl XXII after 1987 season, Washington 35-10 at half after outscoring Denver 35-0 in 2nd quarter.

I feel like im watching the end of a once proud contender. Like the 2000s Detroit Pistons? Maybe the 80s Pistons also works. 

This comeback is a cinch for him.  I saw the game and years later I say how on earth does team come back from 35-3 2nd half deficit?

God would the Browns D coordinator get fired if the Browns somehow lose

Well steelers cut the lead to 12.

Tomlin made a big mistake not to go for two down 13

Pete Carroll approves

If Gregg Easterbrook were still relevant, he would’ve written “Game over” in his notebook after that punt.

Tomlin makes ANOTHER dumb fucking mistake not going for it on 4th and 1. 

But hey, he's a great motivator and never had a losing season.

Dumb dumb dumb idiot.

Ballgame right there.

Yeah especially since the browns scored, again. Lead up to 19.

Will analytics run Tomlin and Pete Carroll out of NFL if they do not adapt soon?

Do we need an analytics coach on sideline?

In any profession you must learn as things change.  And I strongly disagree to gut greater than analytics

Where has this Steelers offense been for the last two months?

Cleveland is covering for their line injuries by running Pittsburgh’s offense.

The most important part of Browns and Rams winning this weekend is the dream 'these teams supplied the New York Jets with their only wins of the season' Super Bowl matchup is still alive. Just imagine, we can hear Adam Gase all Super Bowl week break down how to stop the two teams.

But seriously, losing to a team that started 0-13 in the last few weeks of the season is not the prelude you would imagine for teams that land big upset road wins in the playoffs.

Turnover number 5 seals the win.

How do you win as a road underdog?  Winning the turnover battle 5-0 should do it.

Ben did set a record with 47 completions in a game

The Steelers were booted out of the 2017 wild card weekend by Leonard Fournette, and in 2020 by Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.  In both of those years they had great run defense during the regular season, so it's extra frustrating to see it.

I'm not sure how much to read in this game. Just one of those games where the game script turned on the Steelers from jump.

That said, congrats to the Browns and especially their fans. This is why I love the NFL and think the nba is substandard. In the NfL you don't need the equivalent of luke skywalker to save your franchise.