You know, I love Lamar but I can also
acknowledge that was not good, but um I do
feel I, I think we have to be fair
here that felt like coaching malpractice. They completely abandon
their total identity. They run, they pound,
they grind. This is what they do. Number
one rushing team in the league by far until yesterday
, their running backs in Baltimore, I'm not making
this up had six total carries. They were,
they were never getting blown out. They didn't have
to abandon it the most they trailed by was 10
. I mean, San Francisco was still giving the
ball to mccaffrey and they were at one point down
. 24 to 10 should have been 27 to 10
, but 24 to 10 until about seven minutes left
. It never felt like they had to throw.
And here's the funny thing, the Ravens went 0
to 4 with 25 or fewer rush attempts this year
14 and one when they ran the ball a lot
. Apparently there was a power outage or something or
the fax machines don't work. That data was not
available in Baltimore instead, you know what they became
they became the Buffalo Bills with Josh Allen, defensive
coach Harbaugh's defensive leaning. Hey, here's a cape
lead us. That's what they've been doing with Josh
Allen and finally this year with Josh Allen, they
gave him help and then against Kansas City, it
was all on Josh Allen and that's what it felt
like yesterday. What about the tight end? You
liked? What about Gus Edwards? He'd been terrific
. Instead, they asked Lamar to drop back 46
times. That's not Lamar at his best. It's
closer to 2627. Even with quarterbacks, we like
Dak Prescott, there's a line passes more than 35
times. You're not going to win games. And
that's what's funny is they were never out of this
game. This wasn't like San Francisco falling into a
hole and you're thinking, is this over? This
never felt like it was over. You were just
waiting for the Ravens to get on track and go
back to being what they were and they completely abandoned
. Like it's one thing to be Dan Campbell.
You have sort of a vibe and a culture.
This is how we play, but you do understand
mostly that in the playoffs got tightened up a little
bit, a little less emotional, but I can
still defend Dan Campbell because the Lions play with a
chip and I love the chip. I don't even
, I didn't even recognize Baltimore yesterday. This is
a run team number one in the league. It's
one of the strangest 3.5 hours of playoff football I
have ever seen. I mean, it would be
like San Francisco going into a game, forget the
second half. It'd be like the Niners saying,
hey, listen, I know it's a big game
and all, but let's switch it up and not
pound the ball with mccaffrey and Debo and become a
finesse offense again. It's not like they bailed on
the run game in the second half late. They
never ran the ball the whole game. Yes,
Lamar Jackson melted down. Absolutely no question. But
you know what, Josh Allen can melt down and
make mistakes when you ask him to singularly lead the
team. And I do think it now it is
as J Mac mentioned earlier, the James Harden thing
, I think it is fair as much as it
pains me to say it. Um It is fair
to come to a reasonable conclusion. Now it can
change. Peyton Manning wasn't great in the playoffs early
in his career, but it can change. But
it's fair. Now to say is Lamar built for
elite defensive coordinators and pass rushes in January. I'm
asking the same thing and it pains me to say
it, but from, from coaching to second half
mistakes, is it possible like Buffalo Baltimore is just
not built for this? They're not built to beat
the coaching and the quarterbacking and the institutional knowledge of
the Chiefs. We've all kind of felt like that
with Buffalo. And then we watched it again with
Buffalo this year and we're all like, absolutely,
absolutely sure of it. Now, Buffalo is not
going to beat this Kansas City group. This was
the year that they're not going to, they can
beat everybody else. They're not going to beat these
guys in a big game. And I didn't feel
that with Baltimore, I felt like, ok,
this is in Baltimore, better defense, better special
teams. This team is different and then they weren't
. And I think it's a reasonable opinion to have
this morning as they may be stylistically coaching. They're
not built to be Andy Reid Mahomes in January.