2 Pros and a Cup of JoeHour 2: Jonas, Brady & LaVar – Ben Johnson Lands in Chicago
Why did Ben Johnson choose Chicago over Vegas and Jacksonville? How big of a window do the Ravens have while Lamar Jackson is under center? All that and much more!
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Can I understand one team?
Now?
I understand?
Yeah, and now I understand what ups sister Nancy understand I said, Now I understand what you're saying. Now I understand what you are saying. It's from creation Lee. You messed up? Now Boom, by the way, haven't been messed up?
How about the.
Back channeling by Brady Quinn changing his intro song without letting anybody know.
And then then I still cut up on what you said? Uh like, well Lead had told all this, Solf messed up man, he told on himself. Yes, yes, I'll tell you later. It's that one thing. One thing man, Oh right near the beach.
Are we changing are we changing songs and opens here on the show?
Is that getting done?
Ley?
It is?
Yeah, It's in the works and I'm ready. I've got a banger. It just depends on how hard you guys want it.
WHOA right? Do you really want to wake up in the morning or do you really want to wake whoa? Whoa?
Way too graphic for me? So I too provocative for this this time?
Well, I do know this.
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So.
There was a tweet that was sent out by Ian Rappaport of the NFL Network earlier who said Aaron Glenn is expected to meet with the Jets later on today. The hope is that they're able to get a deal done. He's a former Jet. It would seem like it would make some sense, but you know, he could be the head coach of the Jets by the end of today, if not the Saints or another team that are considering Aaron Glenn if he decides to pass on whatever the New York Jets are offering. Which is interesting because the other coordinator for the Detroit Lions, the offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, reportedly finalizing a deal.
To become the new head coach of the Chicago Bears.
Wow, which which would mean that Vegas once again doesn't get their man right.
But like, why was that ever? Like that?
And you talk to enough peoples like, oh, that's gonna happen. It's a foregone conclusion. Tom Brady can't, you know, talk in certain ways about Ben Johnson because if he hires him afterwards, it's see they've already talked and there's a massive deal out there, and then a day, a couple of days after they get eliminated, he agrees to a deal with the Bears.
Like what happened?
This is where I can't stand some of the narratives that the Internet and social media create. You have people who have no clue what they're talking about. And it's even some people who have websites, I mean pro football talk talked about the conflict of interest with Tom Brady announced. He's announced a game, He's talked about these coordinators, But it's like it's a conflict of interest because he's a limited partner of a team, Like, can we just get this out so people understand, Yes, he's Tom Brady, and I'm sure Mark Davis takes into account his opinion and he might even be a part of the interview process.
He doesn't have the final say.
He's he does not the majority owner, like until he's that ultimately, whatever he says it matters to.
A degree, and then it doesn't.
Because Mark Davis owns the team, he has to make that decision with whoever else he's maybe anointed, and maybe Tom's one of those people. But at the end of the day, it's still Mark Davis's team. Who he wants to hires, who he hires. That's how this all works. So there's no conflict of interest with him calling a game just because he talks to these guys in an interview. Like, what's the conflict? I mean it does Tom Brady giving out the Detroit Lions secrets to the Washington Commandos before the playoff game? Like I don't really understand like, what the big conflict is that Mike Florio or anyone else has an issue with. It's it's the stupidest discussion we've had for the entirety of the season.
So can we just move on? And Ben Johnson nor Aaron Glenn are gonna.
Be the next head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. So that's one side of this conversation. The other is what is the city?
You guys?
The Ben Johnson of all the jobs that are available, is picking a team that's in the division, which he's he's in right now, or at least until it's official. I guess, I thin guess it's official. But he's leaving Detroit Lions as the offense coordinator to stay in the division and go to the Bears. What do you think that says about what he thinks about the rest of the NBFC North.
That there's that window in Detroit that's closing and he sees that as as an opportunity and based on what we saw from that division in the playoffs this.
Year, I'm gonna take my chances right where we at. Yeah, I know, I'm familiar with my familiar confines and and they don't lock their doors.
Yeah.
I mean I was with AP the other day and I just still couldn't understand outside of it being for benj and like I get clearing it out. You know, one year, the guy doesn't have pretty much anything that he needs personnel wise outside of a defensive end and a rookie a rookie sensation tight end, and you let him go after a year. Okay, you're doing it because of all of the things we're hearing about Ben Johnson. But now, if Ben Johnson isn't going to Las Vegas, then who is your coaching candidate and why is that justified? How do you justify this firing now is what I would be curious to understand, because again, you want to go away from a defensive minded guy. Okay, makes sense. All the name that just kept surfacing and resurfacing and being connected to Tom Brady's, you know, being enamored by him and all this other stuff and aggressively wanting him has been Ben Johnson. So how does that work? How do you you now justify that decision? And have we heard a name emerge as who is the front runner to be the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
The only name I saw was Ben Johnson.
That's all I heard, so saying, if you're legitimizing the firing of Antonio Pearce after one year with total negligence in being able to give him a team that would be able to have success in that particular part of the NFL, how do you justify the firing now that you're not getting Ben Johnson. I think most people would say they would be okay.
Like I didn't.
Maybe I didn't like him, maybe he didn't get a fair shake. Who cares. You're bringing in a guy that you believe is going to be someone who offensively can get this team going, but that's not going to happen.
So where you go from here.
It might be a different offensive mind if they do do it, I.
Would assume so.
But I want to get back to the the decision by Ben Johnson though selecting this team, because the one thing is you talked about Antonio Pierce that they didn't have in Las Vegas is a quarterback. And that's one of the evaluations that I think if you're Ben Johnson and you're looking at the Chicago Bears ownership, which has been criticized heavily in many ways, how they've led. This search has been criticized heavily. But the one thing I think you could say they have is they have a quarterback. I think Caleb Williams has displayed that this season, his ability to be able to make plays and show enough potential where Ben Johnson says, yeah, I can work with that, like I can work with a lot of the pieces that they have around him too. Are we anywhere close to where the Lions are? No, Because if you look at that roster, one of the strengths of that offense is their offensive line. They built that thing from the inside out, and clearly the Bears still need to do that, but they have some other pieces around the quarterback position too. So you know, Ben Johnson knows that division better than any other, and he saw value. He saw you know, maybe as he's looking at his own team saying, well, they're gonna lose Aaron, They're gonna lose me. You have a window that's closing on a roster that's hard to keep all these guys together. And maybe we've hit the ceiling with Jared Goff. So if I'm gonna take an opportunity where I have to face this team twice, here like, I'm okay with that because I've got this quarterback, I've got these other pieces, you know, these defensive pieces.
I feel like I.
Could turn this thing around and win some football games at a place that hasn't experienced that. And I think he probably looks at Minnesota and says, well, they've got to make a decision. Is Darnall coming back?
Is he not? If he's not, it's.
Jaj McCarthy who's essentially playing his rookie year since he missed this year with injury. So as good as Justin Jefferson is and Kevin O'Connell is, there could be those growing pains. And by the way, they might lose their defensive coordinator and Brian Floores if he gets a head coaching job, and then you you know, you kind of look at green Band and say, well, green Bay they can build on the roster they had, you know, a good seat too. But he made this decision looking at this division that he knows so well and even his own team and saying, yeah, I could beat these guys. Otherwise you don't take that job. And I think he thinks he can beat him with Caleb Boyas and some of the pieces they already have.
Yeah, it's and I think it says a lot about what he feels about those teams in the division, what he felt about the Raiders. I can't wait to hear what Pete Prisco says about, you know, the Jaguars and where that lines up, because look like the Trent Balky stuff that we've talked about, like that could be pushing and steering a lot of people away from the organization. But there was a lot of people that thought, man, if you're the Bears, like nobody's gonna want to take over a team that's got Kevin Warren who's all over the place, who's got Ryan Poles who's already there, Like they're gonna want to be able to pick and choose who they're working with when it comes to the front office. And so he just looked at it and said, I'll take my chances with the quarterback with what they got on offense, and just.
Hope that the old line gets better.
Like that would feel like would be the most sensible, which is why some of the other ones out there outside of Jacksonville, who's got a quarterback and and some pieces there, just didn't make a whole lot of sense. To me, So Dallas never never, I don't even I don't even think Dallas got an interview because they waited so long. So Dallas, they just you know, Mike McCarthy, I mean, Mike McCarthy in Vegas is that I don't even know if he's interviewed. I don't even think they've they've talked to him, but Mike McCarthy's out there.
It feels like some teams are better than others announcing who they've interviewed. Like the Bears interviewed everyone god, and they were also very public about that, whereas other teams they'll, you know, someone will send out a report or maybe there's an insider who lets it be known. But the Bears, man, they were, they were. They interviewed pretty much everyone on the face of the planet besides Lee.
Well and got the best one out there. So yeah, maybe there's a method to it. So now they get say we've seen it all, we've seen the world.
We get to brag about I seen the most coveted, prestigious job out there.
I still think Brable was the best one, but you know this is second best. I mean, Jonas, how are you feeling about this? This is your you know, this is your big job.
By the way, the staff is like already coming together, right, Like Dennis Allen will be defensive coordinator. It looks like Darren Rizzy. Yeah, I mean it's a hell of a staff. I will say that's a hell of a staff.
So and Dennis Allen has always been They've given him credit as one of the better defensive coordinators in the league. It's just as a head coach, like he struggled with the Raiders, struggle with the Saints and it just never panned out. But you know the fact that he's going to get gobbled up this quick, I think, I think says a lot about him, Darren Rizzy, Like, I can't wait to see some of the interactions he has with Tory Taylor.
If that's the case, that's going to be.
A lot of fun Taylor Toy Tory oh oh oh, I'm sorry.
Now the other one too soon? The other Yeah, yeah, so that that could be Antonio Brown won't let it go. You will not let it go, you know, or whoever's ring his account. So yeah, that's uh, I'm cautiously optimistic.
Uh I just the O line.
Is a real problem and unless they get that fixed. I just don't know what's gonna look different this year as opposed to last year. I mean, maybe they won't lose those games they should have won. Uh you know a couple of those being divisional games that were just late game collapses. But yeah, cautiously optimistic. And everybody says.
They've got a ton of cap space. Yeah, fourth most of the league. Now, as far as and you talk to.
These you know, people in and around the league, as far as play callers go, where does he stack up, ben Jonson Brady as far as.
He's went up there at the top.
I mean, did you not to go back to the previous game since we're already on Tuesday, did you see the little quick pitch that turned into a shovel pass?
Yeah?
And I mean you just don't see other teams doing that. It's awesome. It's ridiculously creative. It was perfectly designed because the way it impacts and it really dissects the defense almost cuts it in half with the way they blocked and the way the defense reacts. So it's it's stuff like that that that's the creativity you're looking for. I mean, you can apply it to any other industry. You want like people are always looking for that person who's the innovator.
They're creative, they're they're like.
Able to take their business and do things that like they can't foresee or they can't fathom.
That's what Ben Johnson's been as a play caller.
Now, whether or not he can execute those things and get that Bears team to get it done, that's another story. But that, to me at least is I think the hope for lot of Bears fans is you're a team that is best known for the eighty five Bears for defense. I think that's fair to say that, and Walter Payton like those two things. Maybe you'd say, Jim McMahon, you might have throw some other players in there, But by and large, I think the Chicago Bears are viewed as like, the greatest team we had was a defensive team, and this is an era now of offensive football, and I think it's gonna be fun for Bears fans to see all the different things that he can dial up. I mean, hell, they've watched it when they get to play the Detroit Lions two times a year, so it'll it's gonna be fun to see what he's able to do. With Keiler Williams because he's got a ton of ability, right, Like he couldn't do as much with Goff because of his lack of mobility. Caleb Williams can do a bunch of stuff. So that's what could be really fun with this offense.
I wanted to ask you as this because I've been curious about it when people talk about offensive versus defensive minded head coaches. Did you guys notice a difference as a team in either the approach or the vibe depending on whether the coach came from the offensive side or defensive side of the ball. Was there any difference that you noticed as players.
With the different side of the ball that came from.
Yeah, just like if you like, hey, we're our head coach is an offensive minded head coach, Like, was there a different vibe, a different approach to games as opposed to, Hey, our head coach is a defensive minded head coach.
As players?
I mean, I feel like I could speak on this, but I always felt like the defensive coaches that I had, it was very like these three things.
This was you know, like it was very.
I don't know how to describe as saying like not regimented, but it felt like at times. I mean, there's it all depends on the personality. There there's one that like that I that you know I was had or was a part of that kind of just more talked to the team, but then really felt like it was the defensive led team and he wasn't wrong, but you know, that was his strength, that's what he knew, That's what he kind of spoke to. There's others that when they speak it's almost like how they would coach the defense. Hey, we got to stop these you know these two or three things. This is what you have to do in order to win. And then you've get you get other coaches who I think that come from the offensive side that kind of speak more generally. Maybe there's a pep talk to something a little more you know, creative about It's just it's it's just different, Like I think there's just different perspectives on how they see the game and then how they reflect that and teach a team.
But that's how I would describe.
It is typically the offensive. You know, guys are coming up with different schemes and players and different stuff, like there's only so many ways you're gonna play, man, There's only so many ways you're gonna play different types of zone, and so it tends to be kind of more in this like box of of this is what we've got to do to win, you know, this is these these two or three things where you take away we're doing this, doing that, Okay, boom, go out and do it, go out to execute.
I don't know, that's why I'm pressI at least, I mean, I think there's a little bit more to it than that. But I mean I would ultimately say I looked at the person and I never really took the time to think about, Okay, this is a defensive coach, Like we had Marty Settenheimer. He's a defensive guy, you know, we had Steve Spurri. Or he's an offensive guy. We had Nord Turner, he's an offensive guy.
You know.
I just, you know, I don't know. I never really looked at it from that perspective. So it's kind of interesting to because you hear it. It's always reported and it's always discussed like Okay, you're choosing between an offensive minded guy versus a defensive minded guy. But I guess recalling as a player, I never really I just looked at it.
As the person.
Like, like, the reason why I ask is because like we're talking about how great Jayden Daniels is and they're talking about, Hey, if you want to get the most out of Kayleb Williams, you're gonna need to get an offensive minded coach. Well, dan Quinn's a defensive coach, but.
He brought in a brillion offensive mine in Kingsbury. So, like I guess to the point, it depends on the type of control that that head coach wants, I would assume, And I guess that's where I was getting to is you get to know the person. You get to know if they're like more of a delegator or if they're more of a micro manager. And if it's a defensive guy or even if it's an offensive guy, depending on how micro they are, on how they're running the team will dictate to me. I would assume how heavy you are on one side to the other. Like we were supposed to be a heavy, offensive sided type of team when Steve Spurrier took over, and we were totally defensive driven, totally you know, but we had Marvin Lewis as as a defensive coordinator.
How would coach Spurry talk to y'all. Oh, hey, you know, nobody's fault. Nobody's fault. We're all pros here, all right, Hey, get gets showered out. All right, we're going to bet. He will mean, well, i'll see us, see you guys on Monday, but again on Monday.
But again, don't don't.
Don't wear it all weekend.
You know, Hey, we're all pros.
We're all pros. Uh, it's all film. We got it on film. We'll see it. We'll watch it. Well, we got it.
You know, we're all we're all So basically, what he was telling you is, if you're here, it's because you're here. If you get released, it's because we're all pros. You're getting released. Like that's basically what he was telling cats. Because we lose that game. We lose that game. He was like, oh, he ain't nobody's fault.
Was he the loosest head coach you've ever had?
Oh he's the best. He's like, I mean, you could do whatever you want. I mean it was like this. He trusted the players to govern the team. It's like, you guys be pros. You guys be what you're going to be to one another, and we're just gonna call plays like we're going to practice the we're gonna run the plays. This is our playbook, so on and so forth, and and Marvin was a little different. Marvin was more structured. So we had our own little thing going. But in terms of a total hole and being able to like stay at home or relaxed with meetings and stuff like that, Coach Spurrier was the best. I was like, I used to tell them, dude, y'all immature mother efforts. Y'all going to f this up for all of us. You're gonna f it up for all of us because y'all not professionals. And they did, and they blamed that on Steve Spurri or how many days beween? When is Steve Spurrier da?
How many days a week? You think he played golf because he loves.
I don't know, man, I just remember the one time it was raining outside and we went out.
I was like, man, look, look, Coach Cole, that that rain was hitney.
That we just got started with doing like, you know, the little little jog through. We hadn't even made it to stretches.
He was like, it's sure, it's cold out here, Let's take it on there and wrap it up. It's like, get lunch, get getting yeah, get in the weight room, getting the weight room, get a little film in.
Hello, it's cold, get a break.
It was out he was running towards the doors, and you know what, we were sitting there. He was like, it's cold as hell out here. Why are we out here? Like? Why are we out here practicing? And he was like he was doing what we was thinking like, you don't never have that happen with a coach. A coach does what you're thinking, Like, dang, what would it be like if coach just called the practice like, we don't really need to be out here. It's a spring practice. It's crappy out here. Why are we out here? Like we could do a lift.
Hey, it's cold as hell out here. Hey, everybody, bring it on up. We're gonna take it on there. We're gonna get lunch, We're gonna get in the weight round. Were like fifteen minutes into practice. Broh. It was it was not did you laugh, Like, how do you guys react to that?
Oh?
We was pumped up, dudes, was pumped up.
But see the problem was is you had vets that were pumped up and it's like get in here, get your food, digest your food, get a good workout in and use the time properly in the meeting room. And then you had dudes like I'm gonna go get my food and I'm gonna speed through this workout and I'm out of here. I get back to my video games like whatever, like get back to my my, you know, my dating life.
Whatever it was.
It's like, dudes just weren't taking What Steve was doing was allowing for us to be responsible for one another, and dudes just wasn't. I guess the biggest the biggest thing I to say for him is he needed to realize and notice that he didn't have enough of He didn't have enough old head vets that could could manage the locker room at that time. It just wasn't the mix was we were too young. We were too young. He had to tighten up, like when Marty had us. The old heads hated Marty because it was opposite. He treated us like the young dudes and had all kinds of rules and was coaching like he's out there telling He's out there telling Darryl Green, like how to do his stance as a defensive back d Green in like year twenty eight, he telling d Green how to do his stance and then stuff like that in defense.
It was wild response.
Oh, d Green would look at just look at him and be like like what you're really correct Like you're correcting my stance. Like I'm like he ain't look at him like.
I'm Daryl Green. But what the what?
What the what? That was when he made he made Bruce Smith dude. He made Bruce Smith dude. Oklahoma drill. They did Oklahoma girra. Bruce's like, all right, I'm gonna do it. Bruce gets up there, he throws the guy out of the way. He hits the guy. Everybody's pumped up like Bruce gets up. Then he goes back now on one knee. We never saw Bruce again for the recentrated cat and the kid in the same drill, a kid breaks his ankle, shot him.
Er goes all right, everyone, let's take a knee and let's pray.
Right, everybody takes a knee, and you hear somebody, you hear voice come out of nowhere.
Pray pray for what? Pray for?
Some of his matten is going on around here. We tall turned the looking with Bruce Bruce Smith was not he was not happy. He legitimately injured. Oh yeah, he said, they're holding his shoulder. His shoulder was on the ground. He had to pick his shoulder up and hold his shoulder while we was praying for the other dude that just broke his ankle.
So yeah, it was very interesting.
It is two Pros and a couple of Junibox Sports Radio, Lamar Arrington.
I'm not on that one.
Brady Quinn, Jonas Knox with you, So coming up we are going to get into one of the narratives that's been built around to one of the best players in the league in the National foot BALLI that is, and that'll be yours next year at FSR.
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
It's a very good reminder, job On, what did you say, job On? What it's from the cool running soundtrack?
Right?
Is it that? I'll believe?
So, Two Pros and a Cup of Joe, Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington Brady Quinn, Jonas Knox with you. So coming up here and we'll call it a little over twelve minutes from now, a little bit of.
A pretty popcorn Bubb'll go reggae song.
A little bit of confusion here based on what's on the Google doc and what's on the rundown that was printed out.
Oh no.
On the Google doc it says the topic from yesterday, but on the rundown it says F S R I R baby version.
So okay, I'm not really sure what right now.
I know I'm saying that's when Lee went back to uh to fix some things.
He uh it reverted all the way back to another day. He's trying to change. Right now, he's trying to change. I love it the real the real time editing by Leada La. I hate this Google doc so much.
What do you mean just filling out the easiest thing in the world to deal with and you can't figure it out.
It's just the copy and pasting. I got it. I got this other thing I gotta do in the l drive that's.
Copy pasting is hardast What what do you mean it?
How's that hard? It's not hard. It's not hard.
So like yes, it did say baby auto correct Brady version.
I thought we would have a good Brady version of the f s R. I R seeing them. You know what, I did say baby version because I.
Usually I will tell you with the notes that I put in the rundown if I have a good story to share.
So.
I did put in one.
Exactly like that was a terrible assumption. I mean, I will go ahead and describe life with an infant. With a newborn, you're basically feeding, changing, and then you know, that's pretty much. It burpened the baby a little bit too, but that's pretty much it not a lot of sleeps involved.
And that's the extent I thought, maybe you know something in the hospital here and there, something might have happened.
But it's been a long week and haven't talked you in a week.
Yeah, it's it's all blur when you when you have when you have a child, which hopefully one day you'll get to that point. Who knows you will.
It's not looking like it's.
Coming any closer the way things are going, but you will. You will one day have that joy and then you'll see him be like, oh it's not you know, as crazy as I thought, it's a lot of the repetitiveness the same thing.
Race. Yeah, well, can't wait, go speed go, speed racer. Yeah. No one's betting on you to have a kid anytimes. Who well, that would be great though. Uh. You know, all all dads here on the.
Show, and the rain is a mom too, so we could all be parents together here, Lee, stop holding on. Honestly, you joined the party. It's fun.
That's a good time. Can't wait.
You got a vent in the room, Come on now, you know you know.
It is two pros and a cup of joe. Here on Fox Sports Radio, LeVar h. Brady Quinny with you, by the way. The discussion surrounding Lamar Jackson, Well, let's let's make sure we got full time for that because we are up against it here at this point. But it is important though, no matter who you are, if you're a dad, if you're a mom, if you're Lamar Jackson, it's always good to have your weight in order, is it?
You'd think so? I believe so well.
If it is to be in order, and you are overweight like me, how I found myself in this overweight state so many times in my life, you know what, I knew it and you will know it and then you'll get sick of it, and like I did, you'll schedule your consultation today.
Call visit my PhD weight loss dot com.
That's right, my phdweight loss dot Com, so that you can feel better about yourself get healthy again like I have the HD weight loss.
You're not hot in here speaking of weight loss. We're losing weight because they the ac bro feel perfectly fine hot in the studio like my grandmom's house.
Yeah, my confident like this, No, that ain't gonna be this war, No, damn it is.
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe Here on Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, Jonas Knox with you. So as somebody has faith confidence of a future super Bowl in the NFL, you'll hear why next here on FSR.
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe, Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, Jonas Knox with you here coming up top of next hour a little over ten minutes from now here from the tire rack dot Com studios. What are we gonna do with the complainers? A lot of complainers still in the world of football that will be yours here on FSR. A reminder though, that you are listening to us now, but did you know you can also see us. Be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows. Be sure to subscribe so you always have instant access to our Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube.
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So.
Patrick Ricard of the Baltimore Ravens said that he thinks Lamar Jackson's going to win a Super Bowl one day and that he hopes to be there for it.
And when do we ever talk about their windows closing with him? Does the Ravens do they have a shelf life? Do they have a window that that's open?
Look, I know that he hasn't done it, but with him as their quarterback, I think they've got a shot as long as he keeps playing it the way at the level he plays at.
And I know people want to old it doesn't seem like that's translating.
I don't think that it's because the debate about who's you know, Mark andrews Lamar Jackson's turnovers, Like can't it be a little of both?
It's all of it, but it's all of it.
But at the end of the day, it's all of it on a team that Lamar Jackson continues to lose the way that he's losing in the playoffs.
Can can I obviously I wasn't here yesterday I talk about this, but the thing that stood out to me about that game, and there's narrative.
There's narratives about both quarterbacks.
I mean for Josh Allen, like he has not been able to win the MVPs, not being able to get over the hump. Maybe he does that this year, right, maybe he wins the MVP. You know, these are the two candidates next to Saquon that I think I've been making a case this year, but coming into the game, like it's never been about I think for either of the quarterbacks, like if they can get to the playoffs, like they've been playoff teams now, it's getting over the hump to then get past Kansas City get to a super Bowl.
Neither have been able to do it.
And if you go back through their playoff history, both when I've watched him, I've always felt like they've pressed and for some reason, you know, you go back and look at that game, like it still feels like Lamar is pressing. You know, the fumbled you know, the ball play kind of however that turns out the interception. You know, he probably thought the receiver is going to keep a higher angle. You know, that's my bet, because he let it go early, had good timing and anticipation where they are on the field. Usually that's a back you know, you're thinking more back pylon angle at that point. Even if it was front pilon, it still should have been more vertical. And it looks bad gets picked off. It might have still been you know, based on how he threw it might have still gotten disrupted by the middle safety anyway. But it always feels like when when the games in a crucial moment in the playoffs, he presses and he tries to do too much. And that was the difference between him and Josh Allen this game was Josh Allen just kind of took what the defense gave him, you know. Joe Braden and asked him to win the game necessarily, and when he had to be physical, he ran physical.
He did this thing around the goal line.
And I go back to the two point conversion and I look at that and I say, you know, because everyone's the point to that play in particular, and it's the small details for me sometimes with Lamar Jackson, when you watch and go that ball when you're in shotgun and you have a sprint out and you have a play like that like everyone would call, you know, sprint right option, where usually you're basically just trying to get that slot receiver. In this case, the way they set up kind of a pick for Mark Andrews, you're trying to get him the ball quickly out in space. You're creating some sort of pick or like screen for him. And but that ball, because of the timing of it, should be out of his hand in five seven steps at most, and go back and watch, I bet he takes nine if he didn't take more than that. And the reason why that's significant is because of the timing of it, like Mark Andrews is not going to feel the sideline, the ball ends up being low and behind. Well, if you have a little more space and you're not worrying about staying in mounds while trying to catch the football. Even though it's a bad pass, it's still easier to then still adjust to make the catch and get in the end zone. But now not only he's it's not only battling the goal line, he's battling the sideline too, and so it just it compounds the mistake of not getting the ball out soon or when he was opened right out of the gate that's his first read, that's probably his only read, and not giving him better ball. So it's like those little small things they don't really reveal themselves with the course of the regular season. But then when you get into his crucial moments against some of the best, like that's where it's like, well, we got to be more detailed with our approach to everything we're doing. We can't press. So I think he's got a long window, but there's still some things, some fine tuning that he needs to improve upon, and obviously their team needs to improve upon, because I mean the Mark Andrew's fumble, I have no idea why he was running backwards like he caught that football and looked like he had at least ten yards upfield. Instead, he tries to cut back and then the ball gets ripped out, they turn it over, they give up three points.
Yeah, I don't know.
I look at it and I go despite like other playoff losses that Lamar Jackson has had, like the one against Tennessee when they were the one seed and you know it was they had the bye week and Derrick Henry was throwing touchdown passes and they were They got annihilated in that game. That was just a bad game for Lamar Jackson, a bad game for Baltimore in general. And they talked about it afterwards, Well, we rested week eighteen or week seventeen, whatever it was back then, and you know, we basically missed three weeks. We're not going to do that again. And like they just sort of kind of look back at their getting ready in preparation for that game and it changed this one.
I looked at and went all right.
So he had the early turnovers, but multiple times in the second half he was able to drive them down the field. Like I don't just look at it and go, well, you blame Mark Andrews, you blame Lamar Jackson. Like there's also the fact that Derek Henry only ran the ball sixteen times, like it felt like there was an opportunity there for them to lean on Derek Henry a little bit more. I just it's too easy for people to go with, Oh, it's just Lamar's fault. Oh they can't win with Lamar. Oh they can't.
It's man like.
There's a lot that goes into this stuff. And there's a lot of people that say the same thing about Josh Allen, like and you know, if he beats Patrick Mahomes this upcoming weekend, then all that goes by the way.
I just think that there.
Was Jane Daniels is one game away from going to the super Bowl. I mean, there just are some there are some guys that just don't end up winning super Bowls that have had brilliant careers, like super brilliant careers as quarterbacks. I just think we got to accept that. And Lamar's apps and he has a he has a window. I just wonder when does that window start to close? You know, I mean because you got to have the conversation about it. I Mean there's guys.
Think it's it's open, Like probably Lee's window is just trying to escape from his situation
At that come down, well, there you go.
