Chris Long: Chiefs had a better game plan and Brock Purdy was awesome

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Every single person I mentioned won a championship in their careers. The Rich Eisen Show. That's what the legacy is at stake for Lamar Jackson. Mr. Not Quarterback-y enough. I felt like if we wouldn't turn the ball over, we definitely would have had a shot. The NFC Championship game will forever be remembered for the decisions that Dan Campbell made in the second half.

Just crush you. The Rich Eisen Show. Today's guest, two-time Super Bowl champion and Greenlight podcast host Chris Long, Super Bowl champion, offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz. And now it's Rich Eisen. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show here on the Monday after Championship Sunday, which means we know who's making Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It's the Chiefs and it's the 49ers. And oh, my goodness, do we have so much to talk about over the next three hours. And of course, as soon as we're done on this program, there's overreaction Monday for our podcast. So there's not enough runway for us, basically, for us to fly and land this plane after a wild weekend in all of sports. The NBA having a conclusion of its most exciting week, maybe in recent memory, and there's our phone lines.

844-204-Rich is the number to dial here on the program. Chris Long in his usual spot, first up in the first hour, he will no doubt tell us what the Chiefs did right. Ravens could not do. And then the Lions did well enough, but not well enough to hold off the San Francisco 49ers to take the NFC championship game.

Instead of losing three of those bad boys in a row, they go back to the Super Bowl and it's a rematch of Super Bowl 54. And Lions fans, we're here for you today. The famed Rich Eisen Show, bro hug for anybody that's out there. And we send our condolences your way because it sure looked like you were going to be in Las Vegas, Nevada.

844-204-Rich, number to dial Mitchell Schwartz, longtime Kansas City chief who won Super Bowl 54 with Mahomes and the rest of the gang. He'll be here in hour number three to tell us what he saw on the field in Baltimore, Maryland. Good to see you over there, Christopher. How are you? Hey, great.

DJ Mikey Diaz and Deez Nuts, what's going on? Good morning, Rich. I don't know what's wrong with you. You all right over there? You OK? Yeah, I was hoping for two different teams, but whatever.

OK, very good. T.J. Jefferson, good to see you over there. I mean, it's good to see you. I was kind of already having thoughts that Eminem was going to be on set with us in Vegas and he and I were going to rap a song together. And now it's just not going to happen.

It was almost Eminem versus Taylor Swift for a second there. OK, that would have been so shady in the building. That would have been broken.

That would have broken international stuff like that. Yeah, no, come on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

All right. So many different ways that we could start this program with the Chiefs looking inevitable again. We could start this show with what went wrong with the one seeded Ravens, and we could definitely start the show with Dan Campbell's decision making. But I'm going to zig or zag when everybody else is zigging, because I'm sure Dan Campbell's getting lit up everywhere else at the top of everybody else's show right now. And we will discuss what Dan Campbell's decision making wrought in later on in this program. And we'll take your phone calls on that matter.

Eight, four, four, two or four rich never to dial. But I'm going to start with the San Francisco 49ers. I'm going to start with them and I'm going to start with Brock Purdy. Because I will tell you one of the top storylines coming up over the next 10 to 14 days and get ready for it.

I'm sure it's even starting right now in some other places. Get ready for Purdy's game managing game changing. Match up with him versus Mahomes and how he's going to do against Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs defense, and there's enough time for all that stuff. And how shaky he looked against the Green Bay Packers. And then in this game against the Detroit Lions, who needed only about 90 seconds of game time to take their first ever lead in the history of the NFC championship game for them. And Brock Purdy throwing a couple at the Green Bay Packers secondary and they dropped the ball and this time around the Lions didn't.

And took that turnover and turned it into points to take a 17 point lead on the 49ers in this game. He couldn't blame the rain. It's a nice night. Nice afternoon.

Nice night. Couldn't blame Deebo Samuel's shoulder. He was playing.

He looked as spry as 19 could ever look as spry. Can't blame it on anything else. Couldn't blame it on, how about this, the rust. Remember that? They didn't play their starters in week 18 and then had a week off.

Couldn't blame the rust you played last week. And then the second half hit, and I understand Dan Campbell made decisions that kind of let the 49ers off the hook because of the way they made the opportunities hit. You can't have the door opened for you by your opponent coach's decision making without walking through it and blowing it open. And Brock Purdy got lucky to start when after Dan Campbell decided not to go for a three point lead again, and just try to press the pedal to the metal and try to keep the ball and maybe take a three touchdown lead, not a three score lead. When he decided to just leave the door open for the Niners and Purdy goes up top and a ball hits the defender's hands and winds up in his receiver's hands.

Everybody's going to hang their hat on. He was lucky. Sometimes you need that instead of being good because a couple snaps later, Purdy was good. He found Ayuk in the end zone. That was a dart.

That was a dart. And then the comeback was on. The defense comes up with a takeaway of Jameer Gibbs, the brilliant rookie who helped get that 17 point lead. Took the ball away. Purdy comes back.

Touchdown. And the thing that I was really impressed with for Brock Purdy was when the game was on the line. He used his legs also, showing you he's got not just neck up and sometimes he's got to set those feet and make the throws. But when push comes to shove, he can run the football too. This is something the Chiefs better watch out for. They thought maybe what they were done with running quarterbacks after they they kept Lamar in the pocket in the AFC Championship game so expertly.

Well, guess what? Brock Purdy had three scrambles in this game. All of them for first downs.

All of them. Second and 11 from the Detroit 25 down 24 to 17 after that drive that the Brandon Ayuk tip ball winds up in his hands. And after they made it 24 17 and after they got the turnover and it's second and 11 from the Detroit 25 just on the outside of the red zone. He scrambles for 21 yards down to the four yard line.

Guess what happens? Touchdown tie game. Later on from the Detroit 23 yard line. On another drive later on in the fourth quarter, second and six. What does he do of a tie game at 24 all? Ten yard scramble inside the red zone.

Two sacks though. What does he do after that? A seven yard pass to Debo to keep things on the up and up for Jake Moody who, bless him, split these uprights to give the Niners a lead. And then later on after Dan Campbell makes one more head scratching decision to not go for a game tying field goal. To go ahead and go for it on fourth down and give the ball back to the 49ers.

What does he do? On third and four from midfield the Detroit 49. He scrambles it for 21 yards to the Detroit 28.

What happens later on? Touchdown. Those are the points that the Niners needed to stave off the Lions.

Brock Purdy getting it done with his legs. As a matter of fact, if he didn't have to take that three yard loss at the end of the game because they needed him to just dance around for a bit to get rid of the clock and win the game, he would have had one fewer rushing yard on championship Sunday than Lamar Jackson. And he overcame an interception. And he loves to play football.

You could see it. And his team loves him. Mike, Kyle Shanahan had this to say after the game about Purdy. I thought it was the difference between winning and losing. He made some big plays with his legs, getting out of the pocket, moving the chains in some first downs, getting some explosives. He competed his ass off today and it wasn't easy for any of us, but he kept grinding and it was unbelievable there in the second half.

Yeah, difference between winning and losing. Christian McCaffrey, who did his thing. MVP.

It's tough to argue, isn't it? 20 carries, 90 yards, four catches, 42 yards, two touchdowns on the ground for McCaffrey. My goodness.

My goodness gracious. And at one point he would have had a third. Elijah Mitchell came in and scored that last touchdown to put him up by 10 because he landed on his head.

He had to come out for a snap. This is what McCaffrey had to say about Purdy after the game. I don't have enough good things to say about Brock. All he's done since he's been here is play at an elite level and everything starts with him. We're lucky he's our quarterback. He takes a lot of heat for absolutely no reason. All he's done has been a great leader, been a great player. I'm so proud of him and pumped up that I get another one with him this year. He sure does.

It's called the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada. Let's hear from the man himself. I hope he's ready for what's coming over the next 13 days because the other guy is the greatest under 30 quarterback in the history of the NFL in terms of all the metrics. And we'll show you later about that.

Because as you know, Tom had a pretty great career from 30 on. Mahomes is going to have a tough time matching that. But right now he's ahead of pace. But again, that's later on. So Purdy is going to have to get ready for the comparisons because it's going to be difficult for him.

Although he does have the nice soft landing of being a Super Bowl quarterback in just year two, despite being the last pick in a draft two seasons ago. Here's Purdy. That's huge. Obviously just the feeling of redemption coming back.

It's huge, man. And for all of us to what we went through, I guess last year, this whole year has been crazy. You go through highs, you go through lows. And even in this game, the season's on line, you're down 17. And then to see the clock hit zero and you're up is special to all of us. And so obviously we have one more job's not finished.

But I can't tell you guys how proud I am of the team to fight. Now, of course, Brady's name is going to get thrown about because of Mahomes chasing Brady and Brady's childhood team is the 49ers. And Brady's going to loom over these entire proceedings over the next two weeks just because he's Tom Brady. Also, you know, I assume he'll be in Vegas.

He might be knocking on the door of ownership there and whatever. The reason why I bring him up is, again, I just remember when Tom was fresh faced. Everybody's wondering, oh, he can't do it because Brady was still learning. He was learning on the job. And you know, I think that's what Brock Purdy is doing. I think Brock Purdy is still learning on the job. And it's going to be a tough comparison because the other guy, he's not learning anything.

He's the one schooling. He's schooling everybody in Mahomes and Purdy is learning on the job as one would think the last pick in last year's draft, not this year's draft, last year's draft would be doing. And the kicker's learning on the job too, by the way, my guy from Michigan.

Yeah, he's a rookie. And so he missed another kick and the Niners just keep on plugging along. They're back in the Super Bowl and they love Brock Purdy who, again, a lot of people are waiting for him to fall on his face for whatever reason.

And twice he's fallen down and he did get up against the Packers, last drive against the Lions, second half, arms and legs and heart. And I think Niners fans, that's why they, as I said on game day morning yesterday in talking about Brock Purdy's struggles, Chris Berman famously says the Buffalo Bills, nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills. But I said, with all due respect, Boomer doesn't have a Twitter account because if anybody twitches in the direction of being critical of Purdy not being the guy, you know, Niners fans turn your mentions into a total dumpster fire right on the spot.

Actual. So, but I'm giving him his flowers right now because what will be lost today and perhaps tomorrow and then the media will then turn the page to the two teams that are still playing and of course playing against each other in the biggest game there is that America can stage and export that it's going to be all about Dan Campbell's decisions, but those decisions don't mean anything if they don't take advantage of it. And the guy who was the one who took advantage of it the most is Brock Purdy.

And everyone will be focused on the lucky bounce. You know, but there were the scrambles, there were the dime throws he made earlier in the game. He took one directly in the chops and threw one to Debo Samuel for a first down. There was one where he looked dead to rights in the pocket, scrambled to his left and found Kyle Juszczyk on the sideline. He made some great throws and was taking it in the chest and at one point in the mouth and where he was down on the ground and it looked like he got roughed and he's bleeding from his lip.

So well done, man. Brock Purdy is a Super Bowl quarterback. Now all he's got to do is just hit the wide open receiver over the top in the last couple minutes if they need that throw.

Because that's something Garoppolo couldn't do, as we all know, the last time these two teams faced in the Super Bowl. But that's for another day. Today the Niners move on. And you are there to give us a call. 844-204-RICH. Number to dial. I see phone lines are already lit. We've got a couple open. Let's get them all lit.

Why not? Certainly in time to have conversations with you, but we will take a break and talk about all of this with Chris Long, two-time Super Bowl champion, our usual Monday sage about what we just saw. Chris Long of the Green Light Pod and inside the NFL when we come back.

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So here's the scoop. There was a moment in the AFC Championship game, huge moment in this game, big where the Ravens are down 17 7. They're on the Kansas City 41. It's third and nine. In the third quarter, 325 to go in that third quarter, and at the very least with Justin Tucker, you feel if you just get a couple yards, they're going to kick a field goal, make it a one score game, right? And instead, Lamar takes a sack.

Justin Reed gets him. So I reached for my phone and I tweet out. What a massively huge sack. I mean, OK, and think nothing of it. Put my phone down. How could you not think nothing of it?

It's a massively huge sack. Why would you think anything right? Well, then I looked at my mentions, Chris, and they were all filled with why he laughed because sophomores like all all filled with that's what she said. Don't make me blush.

Rich is one. That's what she said. There you go, Jeff Schmidt. I mean, I can't say so.

I guess there's a site. Make it a quote. There it is. Put that up one more time, if you don't mind what to use that photograph as well.

It's very classy on the left. What a massively huge sack. Wow. Which it was.

Guys, you guys need some more highbrow humor. Excuse me. It's still going on today as it should. Really? Why? Oh, I got a lot of I got a lot of the means from from the office. I got a lot of pause. Yeah. Yeah. It's so funny where you took it the way I intended it. It's a huge sack. It was a massively huge sack there. You can't.

Justin Tucker would have made it a one score game in the AFC Championship game. And instead. And then you back here on the Rich Eisen Show, eight four four two four four rich number to dial him on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or or just stop by. All right. We're back here on the program joining us from Green Light Pod, our friend, two time Super Bowl champion taking final notes, getting set to have our chit chat after championship Sunday.

None other than the great Chris Long. How you doing, Chris? Rich, what's up, dude? How are you?

I'm great. My God. Is there a million things for us to talk about today or what?

You know, just two big ones that love this time of year. I went home and played Madden last night instead of watch like games till two in the morning. It's so nice to have just two games to break down.

That's it. But so much to break down from these games. Let us start with the AFC Championship game, because I just went all in to start this game, to start the show on Brock Purdy, because I just wanted to kind of zag when everyone else I'm sure was zigging about Dan Campbell's calls. And we'll get to you on that subject matter. But what what is your prime takeaway on the AFC Championship game? Chris, here I have written down since you you you caught me taking notes on my yellow pad.

Well, you are a professional. Kansas City's 10 to 15 percent better in the playoffs. I know some people knew that would happen. They had a better script.

You could see it from the beginning of the game. They called better plays. They had a better game plan. Kansas City's defense outplayed Baltimore. They outplayed their defense.

They were the more disciplined team. You know, people can talk about those calls. But what calls do you think should have gone the other way? You know, like, really, you go look back at those calls. They're players putting themselves in positions that they shouldn't be in. Don't leave it in the ref's hands. Don't taunt the various need.

Don't if you're Vannoy, don't headbutt. You know, like that's an automatic. I mean, like, you know, there's a bunch of penalties in this game that didn't go the Ravens way.

But a lot of them, they created those issues on their own. You know, I think the better quarterback just won. Listen, I went through this with Josh Allen last week. I thought it was unfair for people to skewer Josh Allen with all the success he's had in the playoffs.

A hundred rating. Twenty-one touchdowns. Four interceptions. The guy is not often the reason they lose in the playoffs. And, you know, I think it's such a visceral reaction because I think we've treated Lamar poorly.

You know, as, you know, the media and fans and we have really, we've really gotten on him when he's lost these games. And so I think some people think Josh skates. But the point is, whether you're Josh or Lamar, you ain't Patrick. You know, there's only one Patrick Mahomes. He literally defines this era of football. If you were born in a certain part of history and you're a great quarterback, your life is different because Patrick Mahomes exists. And, you know, I think whether it's fair or unfair, you could tell how many Super Bowls with Lamar or Josh be in. If they played in the NFC, it'd probably be more than zero.

But the unfortunate circumstances, this guy, Patrick Mahomes is ridiculous. And the conversions early in this game were amazing. The one to Kelsey on Stevens, you know, on that, I think it was the first drive on fourth and two, which also told you both teams, the way they were going early in the game, were worried about the other team scoring, especially, you know, Baltimore going backed up and that sort of thing. But it was the conversions. And the most fitting conversion of all was the third and nine at the end of the game where, you know, some people say run the ball. I think in that situation, the seconds aren't worth that much.

You can end it right here. Right. And, you know, they got the man in the indicator, the robber safety's kind of, he's kind of checking on Kelsey in the middle of the field at the sticks and he sees the matchup with MVS that he likes. And if you remember back to the middle of the season when this thing really got snowballing for the Chiefs and people were like, they're not the same team. It was the MVS drop against Philly. And, you know, we've seen so many of these throughout the year and people said it'll just persist through the playoffs. But I'd rather have that problem where you just got to catch the ball than the problems that a lot of these teams have. So, you know, and that played itself out.

So MVS stepping up, Kelsey getting to a new level. Guy looked like a shell of himself for much of the season, 11 targets, 11 catches. And they weren't afraid to run the ball where Baltimore was scared out of it.

Why? That's because it does seem that Spagnuolo didn't just get in the head of Lamar. He got in the head of Todd Monken, it seems, because just six running back runs. I mean, Zay Flowers had one fewer carry than Gus Edwards or Justice Hill. I mean, Lamar had eight carries. Some of them were designed, others were scrambles.

How does that happen? What did you see? Well, I don't think it was a thing where he just said, hey, based on our alignment or our box counts, you're not going to be able to run the ball. I thought it was – and I thought Spags got a lot out of reinforcements in general. I thought, you know, when you're down to Willie Gay, now Tranquil's had to play a lot of ball, but like somebody from that unit stepped up. And I thought Tranquil played really well, you know, that first play of the game.

He sets a mean edge. They're stingy on third and one. I don't know why because Baltimore, the second possession, I think once they got a conversion on fourth down, they get – they line up and run power and they gash him for 14 yards. You didn't see that again until the opening play of the second half. And, you know, I think just being scared off it, like just being spooked a little bit, coming out of the half and going, okay, we're going to reestablish the run game. And Justin Reed comes down who played really well and, you know, suplexes Gus Edwards. And, you know, the second play, it's a jet sweep and McDuffie tackles.

He's sure handed. I think the – I think it's a terrible combination for Baltimore and that's why some of us saw that this was going to happen where it's like, okay, you have playmakers outside, but you got great tacklers on that Kansas City defense. You've got two guys outside that by the time Baltimore was trying to take shots against man coverage, they couldn't connect outside the numbers because that's not something they've done really well against great teams. But also the fact that you've got Snead and you've got those guys in coverage. And I think every time they got something going, whether it was, you know, catching Snead, you know, running with an over and you've got Zay Flowers on that long reception where he taunts Snead. They screwed it up for themselves, you know, whether it was the taunting or the forced fumble where, you know, you're not protecting the ball at the goal line or the, you know, they start at the one yard line in the second half. They got this great drive and Lamar just chucks it into triple coverage. So they weren't as disciplined as Kansas City. If those teams played ten times, Kansas City wins seven. You know, I feel that strongly about who they are. And, you know, it's not taking anything away from Baltimore. I just think we got a little out of our skis on that particular team because spags can make a bad matchup out of almost anybody.

So then I'll ask you the question I think many are asking today is how does Kelsey do it? You know, honestly, because Steve Wilks is going to circle 87. Everybody circles 87. Why wouldn't you circle 87 all week long? And then 87 just dominates.

Yeah, good luck. You know, like I think the Ravens probably, you thought, even if you thought Kansas City was going to win this game, you would have thought somebody else would have had to make a bunch of plays. Well, I mean, his first touchdown was on Kyle Hamilton. That's a first team all pro.

It's a first team. And that's the bottom line is like eventually if you're going to play aggressive and, you know, you're going to man up on Kelsey or whatever you do, unless you're going to bring extra bodies to the party, he's that dude for a reason. And like Kyle Hamilton's a great player already and all pro and deserves all that. But like those guys get beat too.

And usually if they get beat, it's by hall of Famers. And, you know, there's something to that. You know, this guy in the playoffs, he's got his hockey beard going. I feel like he's locked in. He said he wanted this game more than any game he's played in, you know, and I love it.

I believe him. I feel like it's the backyard ball between Mahomes and Kelsey on that fourth down or maybe was a third down where, you know, Mahomes gets smoked and Kelsey's on one side of Stevens when the ball is released. But then he gets around him and gets the other end. You know, it's like there's a reason these guys have been playing for, you know, a decade like that.

They know they know who each other are and they know where they're going to be and they don't have to say a word. And that's a connection that Lamar doesn't have that with anybody. You know, Mark Andrews is the closest thing to it, but he's missed a lot of time. You know, I don't care how bad Kelsey's played relative to expectation.

He's still Travis Kelsey in the playoffs. I mean, and then just the area of the era of invincibility when the game was tied because Lamar did have some dynamite moments to tie the game at seven apiece. And then the Chiefs marched 16 plays, including a third and five where Mahomes scrambles for nine seconds before flipping it to Kelsey who makes a remarkable grab to keep the drive going.

And it makes you feel like, all right, this is never going to happen. And the game was tied. And the bottom line is this, like two great quarterbacks, right? There was a point you looked up in the first half and you said, hey, Lamar is their whole offense. You know, it's the batted pass that he catches himself.

It's him shaking off Chanal and all that stuff like that's who he is, right? That's why he's the MVP. But one quarterback and one offense, because I don't want to put it all on Lamar. The game plan to me is a little bit suspect. One quarterback, one offense was willing to take a little chunk of flesh every play.

You know, it wasn't going to be a kill shot, but they were comfortable picking you apart. And if you're going to play off coverage, they're going to take the easy answer. They're going to run the ball. They're going to run it into down safety looks.

They don't care. They're going to run their offense. And I think like, you know, the flash and flare of the Ravens this year. But Kansas City, as bad as they've been, they know how to do that and they know how to convert.

And they converted the whole first half. Chris Long here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's get to it. The Dan Campbell decisions, your two cents on it. OK, at first I was like, Dan, what are we doing? I just say this. The time out to me is a no no.

Like that to me is the thing that we should be evaluating Dan's performance on. You mean at the very end of the game? At the very end of the game. OK. I hate that because onside kick, not a high percentage play. You know, if you get three downs with a minute to go after a kickoff and a chance to maybe, you know, like if you get that fourth down. Right. You did. You get a chance to be kicking a field goal to tie the game.

Right. Like unless I'm misremembering it, I feel gaslit by that time out. Like I was just like, what are we doing? Other than that, you know, the fourth down's OK. You know, that's who you are. And to his credit, I just I looked at the second half again just 10 minutes ago. I think Detroit just missed their opportunities like they they they had chances the entire second half to convert in these situations, whether it's Reynolds dropping the ball on third and nine, whether it's, you know, golf being a little bit off on fourth and three. You know, the plays there, you know, he didn't Dan Campbell didn't fumble the ball gives fumbled the ball. There was a point in this in this half where they came out and they were rolling. They were chunking them.

It's twenty four ten. It's they get third and for Warner makes a great play in the run game on fourth and to Reynolds drops the ball like these are plays that need to be made. Right. And I know I've been on the other end of it, like where at the end of the Dallas game where I think golf's been a little bit off, you're like, well, I know the plays open in the flat, but maybe don't trust the guy who's been a little bit off. But in this situation, the ball is there on the balls are on guys, guys hands, dude, like, so I make the plays, I'm with you, I'm with you. Just a little pushback here, Chris, is in the same way, you know, you don't want your quarterback flinging it into windows. He shouldn't just because that's what he does, right?

That's his style. You're going to live with it. You're going to die with it. And and there sometimes you got to throw it away. You've got to live for the next snap. You got to live for the next half. You got to live points when it's right there. You know, a perfect example, if you remember, remember and far through the interception with the Vikings to forget. Yeah.

Yeah. You know what I mean? To send the Saints to the Super Bowl. And and and Paul Allen, who is at the radio mic in Minnesota, said it right. He goes, this isn't like Detroit, man, like, this isn't like week six.

You know, I understand, I understand, Rich. I wanted to jump on Dan for the fourth down calls. But the fact that Reynolds dropped the fourth and two, and it's not a low percentage play, like that's a play they make all the time.

Why is it Reynolds? You know what I mean? Like 14?

Where's 14? Why is it paid? He gets paid too.

He's open. You know, you want golf to force the ball into coverage. I don't know. Like, here's my point. My point is this. If you got any issue with the fourth down calls is the fact that before the half, it was good enough to go three possessions. But the same thing in the second half was not good enough. And I think late in the game, you're thinking more about possessions than points.

So I, in that situation, I might've kicked, but that's the way they do things. And Reynolds dropped the ball and you know, like, I can't, I can't fault Dan for that. When the right play is dialed up or Ben or that sort of thing. The thing I can fault them for is as a team between the Gibbs fumble and their two minute drive, San Francisco had the ball for 13 minutes. They had it for three minutes. And that's the difference in the difference between kicking a field goal in that situation for people.

And part of this is hindsight. Cause if he catches the ball, they might go up 31 10 or whatever it was, you know, that that's the side of it that Dan Campbell's looking at is if Reynolds catches this, this can of corn, we're going to go up three touchdowns in the next two minutes of third quarter. And then the game's over. So I understand the attacking.

I really do. You know, as bad as I want to second guess the guy, but at that point you go up 27, 10 and the difference is there's seven minutes to go in third quarter at that point, it's tied at 24, three minutes to go in the second quarter or third quarter. So in a four minute span, it flips cause of the Gibbs fumble and a three and out. And you know, like part of it's hindsight and you live and die with these decisions and part of it, the reason they're here are those decisions.

So I, I can't second guess that one as much as I can the time out the time out to me is I don't get it. Chris long here on the rich Eisen show and you know, obviously quarterback driven league. We got to focus on Brock Purdy and his performance.

What's your awesome. I thought so too. I thought it was awesome. Listen, the guy killed the, the, the Packers with his legs late in the game. And there's one play in particular in the red zone where, you know, the, the Packers at this point, if they can force a field goal, you never know, but you end up, I think you end up running a tee and the tackles in a shade and it's just a really tough game to run and Purdy sees it and he runs the ball down into low red and the rest is history at the lions. Right? You're talking about the green Bay game.

Okay. So, so then you, you look this week and he killed him in plus territory with his legs the same way. And that's the thing that people don't talk about with his game enough is that to me is what separates him from a capital G game manager.

That's why I call him a game executive. Like most, like, like, like really good quarterbacks in his league are like most really good quarterbacks, you know, there there's good stuff around him. I'm not going to hold that against Purdy because in this game, this guy, I mean, he made huge plays, whether they're conversions, circus throws, I thought in the second half, they started to attack match-ups like the builder BPI, I Yukon Sutton in the red zone. Like they started to get the match-ups they wanted and they attacked him and Purdy was a big part of that, but Purdy talking the ball and running and no bigger situation than third and fourth, four 42 to go up midfield and he tucks it and runs away from Anzalone down to the 28. He was huge with his arm and with his legs. So I got nothing bad to say about Brock Purdy on day, like today, Brock Purdy is part of the reason they're in the super bowl.

You can say that confidently. No question because every single decision that we just talked about with Dan Campbell, with the exception of that run, when you need to conserve every last time out to have a shot at getting the ball back with no timeouts left and maybe getting a field goal to force overtime if you're lucky, every single decision that Dan Campbell made that did not work out, Brock Purdy helped blow that door even further wide open, that fourth and two, instead of going up 17, yeah, there was that lucky moment with Ayuk, but then the throw to Ayuk in the end zone for the touchdown was outstanding and then yeah, the defense did take the ball away from the Lions the next set of downs, but he's the one who ran it into the red zone to set up McCaffrey. I mean, he was terrific, Chris. Yeah, it's a couple of weeks in a row, like I said, that's an underrated part of his game, the off platform stuff.

To me, that separates him from being called squarely a game manager. This guy, yes, he has good things around him, but to me, plays that are broken when it comes to the design of the play and they're not on time, that's where, if you're a quarterback, you make plays off schedule and that's what he did all yesterday and he's done that a lot this year. All right, your first blush, I'll ask you this next week, when it's Super Bowl week, but that's it, chiefs?

That's your first blush? Yeah? Yeah. I like the chiefs, man. You know, the town where we're headed doesn't right now, which is kind of nutty, you know? Where are we headed?

Vegas. Oh, they don't like the chiefs. Well, I mean, in terms of, in terms of, you know, again, we beat the Super Bowl champs.

That always feels good. Yeah. We beat them, you know, like we can build on that.

Yeah. Nobody says we beat the team that lost to the Super Bowl champs. If you're Vegas fans, maybe you want the chiefs to win.

No, I'm referring to the town where, where the people who work in that town who set things like lines. They didn't like the chiefs last night. Well, they, they didn't like the chiefs last night either. And I don't know what Vegas was doing, hanging that seven with the lines.

I know it turned into a backdoor cover, but obviously the lines were the right side there. I also don't know what they were doing with the chiefs. I mean, I understand, but it was like Vegas did not know that they were just as good as Baltimore. And I'm walking around last week and I'm feeling gaslit again, dude, gas.

I'm just feeling gaslit in general lately. I'm like talking to people that I trust and everybody's drinking the Baltimore Kool-Aid man. I think Kansas city can win the whole, the whole damn thing. I mean, they're going to be able to run the ball, you know, like that was a game where they weren't supposed to be able to run the ball and it was more of a part of their game plan than the Ravens. So they're going to be able to run the ball.

They got the guys outside. They can cover, they got good linebackers, which is a prerequisite. If you get Willie gay bag, I think McKinnon had, I thought McKinnon is a huge part of what they do. And to get here without McKinnon, if they get him back, Willie gay, you might get that safety back. I haven't really checked in on his status, but Edwards has been fine. And yeah, I think they're going to be loaded, ready to roll.

Chris really appreciate it. As always. Who's on your pod this week talking about championship action.

What do you have? I wanted to get, I wanted to get a lean McNeil. He had a sack during the game last night and I was like, Oh, they're going to win. We're going to get a lean. We're going to cash in on this, but now I've got to figure out if we can get a cheap beef. So I'll work my contacts with my brother.

I'm sure you've got the contacts. Yeah. We'll see. You know? Okay. Yeah. We had spags on recently for anybody who wants to dig into the Kansas city defense.

That was a couple of weeks ago. He's unbelievable. He's my favorite. He's truly one of the greatest.

Right. He was your first head coach. Chris. He was my first, he was my second head coach. He was one of my four or five head coaches in St. Louis, which goes to show you how hard it is to win in St. Louis.

And I know head coaching is not being a D coordinator, but they ran him out of there and a man, I just think like with the runs, he's been a part of with New York, the Kansas city runs where the defense gets better as the year goes on. And now this year, like the guy is one of the greatest, Chris, thanks for the two cents. As always, we'll chat next week. Thanks for it. All right.

That's the great Chris long, two times, super bowl champ, everybody check out green light with Chris and Kyle's on it as well. I just love talking to him. He makes me smarter. All right. We'll take a break. We'll take a break, two Oh four, rich number to dial phone calls, and then we'll dig in deeper into Dan Campbell's decision-making. We haven't really done that except with just Chris moments ago.

That's next here on the rich eyes and show. So people are still having fun with my tweet again, if you're just joining us, a big sack of Lamar Jackson, knocking the Ravens out of field goal range when it was a 10 point game. Late in the third quarter. So I tweeted out what a massively huge sack. Big play. I should have said of Lamar or just any at that moment, but just to leave, it's kind of funny now what a massively, okay, there you go. Now people are re-tweeting it and responding. So let's check this one out right now.

Ben Yole says he retweeted saying me watching cesspit is carry the Mets to the 2015 post-season right. That is accurate. This was awesome. Your guy, Jared, right? Jared. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

When you're rewatching of all these performance during the 2018 world series. That's fair. I agree. And then this is my favorite Corey Crowe rich eyes and just wrote the forward for my biography. Wow. What a massively huge sack.

Corey. Good to know you. You're welcome. Wow.

It's still going by the way. Wow. That's just, that's just in the last two hours, I, you know, can I be honest about being shared because somebody, I guess, made it, made it a quote.

I refuse to believe you didn't think about it. It's right there. No, it's not.

I'm talking football on locked in our whole timeline is only talking about this game. Okay. I'm locked in. Yeah. Yeah. I get it.

I'm with you. Thank you. Yeah. And it's funny how you took it the football way.

And as soon as he saw it, he started laughing because he's the king of the that's what he said. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Then you write the book on it. Wrote the book. You wrote the book.

You know, sophomore. It's right here. And there you have it. Low brow.

I mean, you could say low brow if you want, but everybody on the rich eyes and show radio show. I can feel it. Thank you.

It was probably a bleak, bleak, bleak early evening in Iowa for you, sir. For a bit. Yeah.

Rich. It was. That was a tough one. So it's kind of funny because I watched the first part of the game down at Carl's and compared to last year where everybody was rooting for the Niners, everybody this year was rooting for the Detroit Lions. So it was pretty much me just getting bombarded by everybody. At that point, I had to go home, watch the rest of the game, eat my, eat my homemade chili kind of, kind of decompressed as Brock Purdy started to lead us to lead us to that comeback. Man. It was, it was awesome. Ah, man.

You got it. I mean, 17 points. What a comeback for the 49ers.

I thought you were dead to rights. I'm not going to lie because the lions were dominating the line of scrimmage. They were doing everything that they needed to do, but the Niners, if you had told the lions when they started the game with the ball, you're not only going to score in the first 90 seconds, but the Niners are going to only get three points out of before the first half ends and right after the second half starts. Only three points. You would have signed for that on a heartbeat where the lions get a seven three advantage for getting the ball first. No way. Exactly. I mean, it was, it was, I thought it'd be, I was completely in the same boat.

I thought we were, I thought we were dead to rights. And I look at my girlfriend at that point in time and I say, well, it looks like we're not going to go to Vegas and elope and have to tell two for Mario and yet, and yet, but, and yet are we now going to do this? No, no. She, she said, she said no to me as the smart woman that she is. She said no, she also, she also made the joke and, uh, uh, was actually curious whether or not Del Tufa would be there if we had something else going on with Fox. Yeah.

Next year. Very good. All right. So isn't this, thanks for the call.

Terzo. Appreciate it. You'd be well. Appreciate you guys.

Shout out to Carl's. So how about this? The Niners last, the Niners 17 point comeback matched the comeback for the biggest comeback in NFC championship game history, um, matched it with, um, their comeback on Atlanta in 2012. So the last two NFC championship game quarterbacks to Mount 17 point comebacks are Brock Purdy and Colin Kaepernick for Kyle Shannon and Jim Harbaugh.

How about that? Can't make it up. Teams are previously 21 and oh, when leading by 17 or more at halftime at a conference championship game, previous largest halftime comeback in a conference championship game was 16 points. That was Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks on the Packers. Crazy man. How the hell did that happen?

18 point comebacks, um, have happened in championship games. They're both AFC. You know, one of them very well, unfortunately you're on the wrong end of it. Chris. Yeah. Colts Patriots.

Yep. AFC championship game. It was six. And then the chiefs were on the wrong end of it. When Joe burrow came back from 18 down on them to make the Superbowl a couple of years ago. Wow. I guess that's how you have to beat my homes is come back from 18 down the current version of the homes, the version of my homes that Brady beat was, uh, in Kansas city was, was the young.

And you had 50 touchdowns a year with Brady homes, the young, he just wasn't ready for the moment. The same way. Some other people aren't, you know, in the next hour, we'll play a soundbite Lamar basically said, this is my first time going through it. You know, and, um, that was just a, uh, an awful way for the lines to go on awful. And I know Chris, you're the king of, would you rather be blown out or not? Would you rather be blown out? If you're the lines were gone. Here's a funny thing. I said, TJ, this morning, if you're a Cowboys fan, would you rather have lost like the lions to yesterday or how you did against the Packers?

TJ? Well, in that, that brought us into the blowout thing or the not blow out. I think once you go down 27 dot, you kind of, you're resigned to the fact that this game's probably out of your reach and you're just calling back, you'd have made it to the NFC championship game. You'd have broken this whole 28 year streak. You got to break it up at some point, 17, like, and I told Chris, the thing is that the Cowboys are going to get massively crapped on no matter what situation might be a little bit different for another team.

But I, I would have rather gone out in the first round and the lose like half time, probably bought super bowl tickets, hotels, so fragile, us fragile. Yeah. Absolutely not. Dude. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about what I'd rather have Michigan not made the national championship game. Then then be up 18 and in the third quarter and lose.

Yeah. Rich, can you imagine the amount of garbage that would be spewed right now if the Dallas Cowboys were to at least made the NFC championship game. No one would have given a crap. It's like with the Cowboys either. Did you win the super bowl or did you not win the super bowl?

That's it. The lions fans just went on one of the most incredible runs. They had two home games that they went seven months. All they're going to think about is why didn't we kick the field?

Yeah. But they had to run. They had families. I'm sure families got together and who cares about the run? Because the run was amazing.

But you should have made the super bowl and you didn't because your coach was an idiot. Like, what do you mean? It's over.

Oh my God. I don't understand it. I'd rather loved and lost than never loved at all, I guess. And you guys are like, I don't want to get hurt so bad.

I'd rather get, I'd rather just get blown out. So the hurt is just like ripping the bandaid off, not like bleeding out. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. That's why I call you fragile. You want to get blood? What do you mean?

That is not fragile. Get some massively huge sack and go enjoy it. Got sack. And like I said, the Cowboys either way, we're getting crapped on, but yeah, I'd rather not go through with the Lions.

Call the show and tell us what you think. No lions fan is enjoying life right now. None. Zero. But the lions fans have enjoyed life since week one all the way up until this past week's halftime and they probably had an incredible journey. They probably had moments that they never thought they would have.

And including a second home. That's not true. Ask any lions fan. That's fine. We got Jeff and Detroit on hold.

I can't wait to speak with him in the hour. Number two, coming up, honestly, any lions fan will tell you they would have rather gotten blown out yesterday than lose like that. Yeah. No, you said that, well, first of all, all right, secondly, you said, would you rather be the cowboy? Like if you were the Cowboys, would you rather have lost the manner, embarrassed at home, one and done their entire season, you won as many playoff games as virtually nine tens of the league after that season, or would you rather have gotten two dubs at home had the moment you had in the first half of the NFC championship game, remove this whole conversation. You haven't made this game since 1995. No one would have cared.

Stephen A would still be on the show today. How about them Cowboys talking trash, but at least you had these great moments with your friends, your family. We are always going to have this argument. I will always take this position. I don't always take the position with today. I am. Oh my God. So I call you fragile.

It's definitely not fragile. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone's senior writer, Brian Hyatt. And here's Lil Yachty with Tierra Whack. I've never been to a fashion show. I never did any Paris fashion meet New York fashion week, and I'll tell you why, because I would always go to events and people would say to me, oh man, Yachty, man, I love your music bro.

And I should be like, what's wrong? I didn't even at the time I didn't love my music. I always feel like I'm in a room with all these artists and they all respect each other. And I feel like no one respects me. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.