NFL Conference Championship Playoff Results

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How exciting. You're basically like MrBeast. That's what, you know, that's what my son calls me.

No, he doesn't. I tell Robbie I'm a YouTuber all the time. Well, you are.

Yeah, so are you. Well, yes. You guys are a YouTube page or a YouTuber? I might have multiple YouTube pages.

We have an Adam Goldshow YouTube page. That sounds like an administrative screw-up more than anything else. Not yet on fans only. Maybe we do that at some point. Only fans. Only fans. It's probably good that you don't know that. That's good. I know.

It's a wise, whether it was intentional or not, it's a wise screw-up on your part. Should we just talk for a moment? I think I'm the idiot for correcting you. All right, so, yeah, good. I'm such an innocent man.

All right, let's get to, first of all, do you think the Ravens, not that you're feeling good after losing that game. I can't wait to be at, like, my son's basketball game on Saturday and somebody's like, why are we talking about only fans on the radio? Or maybe somebody asked you about Nolita Hill. If you know, you know. I have no idea.

I'm glad I don't know. Yeah, you are. All right, so the Ravens are probably happy that their game was the first game and not the second game. Because all we're talking about here is Dan Campbell and his decisions. Dan Campbell got them off the hook, huh?

Well, sort of, yeah. I mean, in Baltimore, they're not talking about Dan Campbell's decisions. But there are only two games. We will eventually get around to why Baltimore fell short against Kansas City. But let me start with the, because I think there were four decisions that are worth talking about.

And I put them up in a poll which of these decisions was the worst. The field goal before the end of the first half. The fourth down try on the first possession of the second half after San Francisco kicked a field goal. The fourth down try down three in the fourth quarter. And then the timeout they took late in the fourth that essentially ended the game when they didn't get the onside kick. I think it was the timeout. I think they had to be prepared. If they were going to run the ball on third down, they had to be prepared. They were going to have to run another play. And they had to do that quickly because taking the timeout really ended the game.

It ended it. I'm with you. Look, I mean, you know, we can, and I mean, all my group chats last night were a buzz about the fourth down decision making. Shout out to my buddy Nathan who just shamelessly berates me for the numbers every time somebody goes for it on fourth down on ATW. But, you know, I think that the only one that, for me, if Dan Campbell wants to go for it on fourth down, go for it. If he wants to do what you do, he's been good about this all year long. He's been aggressive. It's part of the reason we call him Dan Gamble.

We love seeing him do it. And I think it's crazy to change your identity midstream, particularly in a playoff matchup. Having said that, running the ball on third down, down by the goal line, and then burning a timeout before the fourth down. Granted, it's great that you call a timeout because you want to make sure that you have a play call in place to go for it.

But then you cannot stop the clock. You're forcing yourself to get the onside kick. And honestly, I think that's not so much an in-the-moment failure as it is sort of a pre-planning failure. It's kind of something you usually see from Kyle Shanahan. They should have had, when they got the first down, and they called the timeout with a minute left. They scored the touchdown with 56 seconds left. They really should have just kicked earlier in the possession. Or they should have kicked on the previous fourth down. Now, it's worth noting Michael Badgley, their kicker, sub-60% from 45 to 49 yards on the season. Oh, wait a second.

Sub-60% from 45 to 49 yards? So why was everybody just assuming that in the third quarter and then in the fourth quarter that those would have automatically been successful field goals? Well, that's part of the failure when we have this discussion is that people say, you take the point. You're not getting three points. You can't just ask for the points and they hand them to you? Yeah, it's not like it's a pass back in an NCC football game. You're not like walking through the gate and getting handed a ticket. It's like, I'll have a pass back. I don't know why that's what I thought.

It's fine. You're not being given three points. There's a percentage chance of converting the field goal. All of that goes into play when you're talking about whether or not to go for it. And if you don't like two 60% chances, I mean, you're probably going to get one of them.

You're probably just going to get one. But if he's 59.8%, which I think is maybe it's 59.4%. Either way, the Lions probably feel like their odds of converting a fourth and two is higher based on their success rate doing it. In fact, I would almost guarantee that the odds of them doing it are higher than Badgley's kick conversion rate. Especially the way San Francisco is playing. Right, but that aside, you're going to have to get a field goal at some point if you want to take it over time. They probably should have kicked earlier and then just kicked off and played defense.

Let me just drag it back a little bit. They pick up a first down, they get to like the 15 or so yard line. And it took about almost 20 seconds. Let's say 15 seconds, because I actually think it was closer to 20. Before they actually snapped the ball as they were getting set and then off the center was calling out.

I've got the numbers right in front of me. They ran no huddle at 1.39 on the clock. Golf hit supporter for eight yards. They had a first down inside the two minute warning. They ran that play. It's 1.39, they get that off.

They hit Amandla state ground for 1.37, second and two. They get a first down at the nine and then run a play with 1.16 left. Right, so maybe on first and goal from the nine you spike the ball to stop the clock.

So that time doesn't run off. Right, because it siphoned 20 or so seconds out of the game. But even so, if you throw the ball on third down you don't have to worry about calling the time out if it's an incomplete pass. Or at least have the next play call ready so you don't end your chances of winning the game. I'm not against trying to score that touchdown because it's easier to get in field goal range than it is to have to score another touchdown when the other team knows they just need to keep you in bounds. I get it, but there comes a point where you wait too long.

Here's the other part of this conversation, Will Brinson is here. And I promise we'll get to the Ravens and the Chiefs because historically speaking we should be talking about the Chiefs. I guess somewhere along the line everybody forgot that according to DVOA the 49ers have like a top ten all time offense since they have been tabulating whatever data they tabulate. And at some point with Detroit defense, especially their pass defense not being as good, at some point they were going to start making plays. 281 yards of second half offense in the first five drives, I guess that was San Francisco getting theirs right? Yeah, I think it's sort of sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture when they had a 24-7 lead at halftime and they lose 34-31.

I think 34-31 is probably a predicted score for a lot of people out there before the game ever kicked off. The idea that San Francisco was not going to appear on games or whatever, dude, San Francisco can score points and they can score them quick. They're an explosive offense, they have not had a ton of success coming from behind. And I do think that Kyle Shanahan is more of a front running play caller and I think Brock Brody is more of a front running quarterback.

But in the same vein, this is an offense that has Christian McCaffrey, has Brandon Iuch, has Debo Samuel, has Kyle Juszczyk. They didn't even use George Kittle. He was a blocker. And I do think that part of the problem is watching the game in real time after Dan Campbell kicked the field goal in fourth and goal. It was like fourth and three and a half probably. In hindsight, he went down and looked and it was like that.

They kicked the field goal before halftime. It felt like, oh, that's a very Undan Campbell thing to do. And then everything went not their way. You know, like immediately after, it's like whether it was the fumble first down by Jamir Gibbs, whether it was blitzing a cornerback and having him grab Brock Brody.

But Brody somehow gets out of his grasp and hits George Kittle for a toe tap first down. It's like whether the punt that should be down, you think it's going to be down on the one, ends up going. You know, like everything went the 49ers way and went against Detroit. And so it felt like, you just felt the pressure.

It felt like, oh, this is a collapse. But in reality, I think it's maybe more like, I don't know, Detroit went ape in the first half on both sides of the ball. And the 49ers played a much better second half, adjusted and got a ton of breaks. Yeah, the second half is actually the way I thought the game would be played.

I really thought that San Francisco would be able to control Detroit, but Detroit's run game in the first half was beyond the pale of really comprehension. And that's why I thought they should have gone for it on the first one. 28 to 7 is a knockout punch.

It might not be a knockout punch. It just felt differently. All right, you didn't even mention the Brandon Aiyo catch off Vildor's face. It was just amazing. Yeah, dude. I mean, that kind of stuff was going their way. And then, you know, Detroit has the flea flicker to JMo that, you know, is just everything went San Francisco's way in that second half.

All right, let's let me get to the other game, because I think we only got a few minutes left and I want to talk about the historical. Look, Patrick Mahomes may end up being more decorated than any quarterback in the league, and that includes Tom Brady, depending on how long he plays. But he is about to play in his fourth Super Bowl in his five years as a starter, right?

It's insane. They have been in the conference championship game for every single year. Well, no, he's been to six. Six conference championship games as a starter. So this is his seventh year in the league. He's going to his fourth Super Bowl. He's already got two wins. So we're sort of on track. Is he going to play till he's 44?

I don't know. Anyway, well, they don't have weapons. Everything we've been saying about Kansas City this year is still true. Their wide receivers are just OK. Shouts to Marquez Valdez Scantling for making another big play for the second two games in a row.

Rushy Rice is a nice underneath guy. But essentially, Baltimore could not stop Travis Kelce. Eleven catches, a lot of that was in the first half, but eleven catches, he's now the all-time leading receiver in postseason history for a total number of catches. Mahomes and Kelce, that's history to me.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's the best defense he's ever had, which is pretty fascinating. And if you again, this game, like you take it from a 30,000 foot viewpoint and the Ravens had the one touchdown Tuesday flowers early in the game in the first quarter. Right. We got we got three touchdowns. It felt like this game was going to be off the chains offensively through the first 20 minutes of game time.

Right. To to the touchdown to Kelce, the answer from the Ravens. You know, the Chiefs didn't go and get make it fourteen seven early in the second quarter.

Ten fifty six left. Pacheco scores. There were no touchdowns the rest of the game. There was only three points the rest of the game.

No, no. There was six points. Each team kicked the field goal. And I think I think what that speaks to one is the defense. It also speaks to the fact that the Ravens defense was historically good and a really dangerous unit. And what happened was Mahomes showed up to that game and he went sort of eleven for eleven and he was just unbelievable. He was just unbelievable. He was so dialed in, so locked in. And when he's like when he comes to play like that, he is just impossible to stop.

He's too good. And that's sort of the story of the Chiefs this season, where to me, it reminds me a lot of Patriots teams that would get to the playoffs and you'd be like, all right, yes, yeah, they've got this terrible division. The Jets, the Bills, the Dolphins stink.

Brady's in the playoffs. They got home field advantage. Very good Patriots team. And they get to the playoffs and they just have better coaching and better quarterbacking.

And they'd have their elite weapons step up and sometimes they'd have a great defense. And that's what this Chiefs team is. And that's why they're back in the Super Bowl.

You know, they they they had to go on the road. They didn't have a home field advantage. They beat the Ravens.

They did it. They did it with defense and with Mahomes. Just being Patrick Mahomes and flipping the switch when the playoffs got here. And that's just something that we saw over and over again with the Patriots.

Right. You know, like this isn't this isn't the Patriots here. And they would flip the switch and Brady would be great. And that's what the Chiefs did with Mahomes. As long as Travis Kelce wants to play.

It's I just don't know. I don't know how you beat that duo. Tight ends who can move like him and catch like him are too difficult to deal with.

Real quick, like we got like a minute here. The Ravens are going to have to live with this with the way they really melted down, whether it's flowers and the fumble going in the his taunting penalty, which you can't. You just can't do that. You can't cost yourself 15 yards when you're trailing like they were trailing the Lamar Jackson interception, which, man, just throw it away.

I don't know why you're trying to force it to me. That wasn't P.I. I understand what Gene Steratore said. And by the way, you probably should look at the video before you say that the contact happened after the interception.

And then we all see it in real time. No, but he wasn't coming back for the ball anyway. So fight if you're fighting back for the ball, maybe you get the call, but you weren't. So I didn't I didn't hate any of the officiating calls, but they made so many mistakes and they had the personal fouls that helped Kansas City down the field later. I just thought that Baltimore just kind of lost their poise.

Yeah, I'm with you, and I think that you could even argue that they sort of lost their poise from a game play perspective before the game started. Not running the ball, right? I mean, they had six carries by their running backs in this game.

Yeah. I guess I was at 15 on his first one. I got two more carries, just to tell it, three for three yards. And it felt like they wanted Lamar to stay in the pocket and not use his legs, which to me was just crazy. I didn't I did not understand their game plan whatsoever. Yeah, it there were a lot of things that they're going to be questioning in Baltimore as because 17 points shouldn't have been enough to beat them at home.

Kansas City's got a good defense, but Lamar Jackson is going to be the unanimous MVP. And he had a historic season and they scored seven points on their home field and zero after their first drive. Bad luck. Just terrible.

I'm sorry. They scored three more points. Justin Tucker kicked the field.

Right. And by the way, I loved Kelsey and Tucker in the pregame. Loved it.

Loved every second of it. And real quick, since it's on CBS, apparently America's Most Watched Network. Are we going to have a Taylor Swift cam during the Super Bowl?

I don't know. I just watch a channel with a camera trained on Taylor Swift the entire time. Look, Fox got the better game in the conference championships after we got the incredible divisional round game. I would predict that I actually thought that CBS was really muted in the coverage of Taylor Swift for the conference championship game.

Sure. I think it'll probably be I think it'll be a little less muted for the Super Bowl because. And I think there's a really good chance that she's 49ers. Great matchup. Should be a shootout.

Totals 48. And Taylor Swift's going to be there. Should be. Should be. Should be the highest Most Watched Super Bowl in NFL history in Las Vegas on CBS and streaming, of course, on Paramount Plus. Will Brinson, I'll talk to you later, man. Appreciate your time. Will Brinson, senior NFL writer, CBS Sports dot com, pick six podcast moderator.