NFL conference championship Sunday thread

Games over the minute you miss one, I don’t think it matters when you try to get them.

 

Tracy Wolfson is dreadful but took her time saying “Clark Hunt” and smartly so.

 

I despise that rule. It encourages retaliation.
I remember an LSU-Alabama game a few years ago where an Alabama defender hit an LSU player late and out of bounds on the LSU sideline. Flag goes up, and three other Alabama players rush in to pick a fight. It works. Alabama winds up with three well-deserved personal foul penalties, but since they baited one person on LSU's bench into punching back and drawing a flag everything was wiped off the board. The lesson is that, essentially, once you see your guy get a flag in that situation you just need to keep shoving and provoking opponents until someone hits you back.

 

You need three scores, a field goal at some point. Not much of a chance to make a 4th-and-23. So kick the FG.

Tampa has a better pass rush than the Bills. But unlike Brees and, to a lesser extent, Rodgers, Mahomes isn't a statue.

On the dust-up play, there clearly should have been an ROP. Allen was clearly in the grasp of the first tackler, the whistle had blown, and Okafor comes in and finishes him off with a tackle below the knees.

 

I guess I'd rather be in it longer, that's all.

 

True. I'll believe an opponent stops the Chiefs when it matters when I see it happen, but if they do lose Fisher, that could have a big impact on the game.

 

They’ve turned into the Chiefs from 1991 to 2017. They get tight. Some years, the offense doesn’t show up. Today, the defense doesn’t make it. Often, the coaching doesn’t.

 

Going for the FG instead of the TD on fourth down is pretty much indefensible, given how much time there was left in the game and who's playing QB for the other team. At that point, you probably have to assume that you aren't going to get the ball back - Brady isn't some rookie QB that has minimal situational awareness of the clock. You can even see it in the Win Probability stat that ESPN has on their site - Bucs went from 81 percent to 89 percent when the Packers kicked the field goal. The Packers' win probability went down, even though they were banking points.

 

Mahomes is great; but let’s not forget how devastating Hill is, he’s one of a kind.

 

That whole team. They have the 1 or 1A tight end depending where you put Kittle. A rookie of the year candidate running back. Honey Badger leading the defense. Mahomes and Hill make any constipated defense soil themselves. Hill on just about any other team would elevate that team immediately. We’re also going to be talking about Mahomes in be same way we talk about Brady, Marino (Super Bowl or lack there of aside), Montana, Manning et al. When Brady, Rogers and Brees all retire, he’s going to get talk about the goat if he can stay healthy and if KC can keep weapons around him. It almost isn’t fair what they have.

 

Mahomes' salary cap hit was $5.34 million this year.

It jumps to $24.8 million next year, $31.4 million in 2022 and $42.4 million in 2023.

As is always the case when an originally underpaid QB finally receives his market value, salary cap problems have to start tearing at the team at some point . . . don't they?

 

Just a couple of mop up notes from yesterday:

• Aaron Jones was a goat. He fumbled, it was recovered by his own team; then made the same exact fumble. Can't do that. He was a zero for the packers.
• Instead of fixating on the LaFleur decision, i can't get over how ineffective Rodgers was on that series. I understand he has a lot to process on that third down play, but he is the presumptive MVP of the league. That third down decision to throw was Goff-like. If he runs, he has a probable td, and at worst a 4th and 2.
• Did the Bills defense make a single play all night?
• Lot to like about Josh Allen, but he takes a lot of bad sacks.