Tag: 2022 NFL Playoffs

Daniel Jones’ fall back to earth should tell the Giants all they need to know

Daniel Jones had a nice 2022 season, but the Giants’ blowout loss to the Eagles proved that Big Blue simply needs a better quarterback.

If you want to know how coaches feel about their quarterbacks, you can listen to what they say, but it makes more sense to watch what they do.

In the case of the New York Giants, there was a play in their 38-7 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Saturday’s divisional-round game that may have been the final statement from head coach Brian Daboll regarding quarterback Daniel Jones. With 13:21 left in the fourth quarter, the Giants had fourth-and-6 from their own 42-yard line. Daboll was already down 28-7, so if there was a play in his quiver here that could have extended the game, he certainly would have used it.

He didn’t. Daboll brought out punter Jamie Gillan to boot the ball away, and that was essentially the end of the game.

“[The Eagles] hadn’t scored yet in that half,” Daboll said after the game about that particular decision. “I’m counting on the defense maybe just from so backed up to maybe get a three-and-out.  Then they had a long drive. We probably could’ve went for it, but we weren’t executing well enough to be there, so that’s what we did.”

On the two plays before that, Jones had taken a Fletcher Cox sack, and thrown incomplete to receiver Darius Slayton. And this looked like the end of the skill set inflation Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafla had performed on Jones’ behalf.

In the end, Jones completed 15 of 27 passes for 135 yards, no touchdowns, an interception, five sacks, and a passer rating 53.8. Out of the hothouse and into the spotlight, and against a defense that absolutely had his number, Jones reverted to his level.

Throughout the 2022 season, the Giants’ first-year coaching staff did everything they possibly could to maximize what Jones had to offer. They took his abilities as a runner, and spammed designed runs with that as much as possible. They had established an overall principle in which Jones would look for his first read, and if it wasn’t clear, he should look for green grass. It was basically the kind of thing you would set up for a mobile rookie quarterback — which, in his fourth NFL season, Jones basically was in the context of having a competent set of coached working with him.

The Eagles were all too aware of this, and they game-planned accordingly.

“Just taking away that first read because we knew they wanted to take us out of the game by getting away quick throws and by him extending the play with his legs,” Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham said after. “When you look at [Bills quarterback] Josh Allen and you see the system that he runs, it’s similar to what [the Giants] run; the same thing. We just played off that. Take away his first [read] and get him to move around. We gave ourselves a chance to put pressure on him. I think it’s a credit to [Eagles Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon] and the coaches.”

Daboll of course worked with Allen as the Bills’ offensive coordinator before he got the Giants job; his ability to turn Allen from wild stallion to fully-developed professional quarterback is a primary reason he got that gig in the first place. But Allen came into the league with a ridiculous set of raw tools, which Jones does not have. Daboll and Kafka did what good coaches do: They made the most of what they inherited.

But Jones is still the quarterback who posted DVOA of at least -10.0% in each of his first three seasons, which throughout recent NFL history has been an absolute barometer of future bustitude. The other quarterbacks to have such a poor DVOA metric over their first three seasons?

Jeff George (1990-1992), Rick Mirer (1993-1995), Tim Couch (1999-2001), and Sam Darnold (2018-2020).

You may draw your own conclusions from that.

Jones came into Saturday’s game against the Eagles ranked 20th in the NFL in DVOA (+1.1%), but let’s be real. Nobody is looking at that as an indicator that the REAL OMG DANIEL JONES has been unleashed. The fact that Daboll is the clubhouse leader for Coach of the Year is the more obvious story, and justifiably so. There is nothing about Jones’ game that has you thinking he’s on his way to elite status; most likely, his future is either as a disappearing act with the wrong staff, or as a middle-tier starter in the best possible circumstances — which we’ve already seen to a degree.

Because the Giants didn’t pick up Jones’ fifth-year option, he’ll be a free agent when the 2023 league year begins. The Giants have an interesting choice there, but it’s not really a pressing issue if they can find a quarterback who can transcend what Jones is capable of. Based on the tape, which is the best thing we have to go on, that’s not going to be incredibly hard. Jones is a nice player who gives you certain schematic options, but there are also chunks of your playbook you’re simply not going to be able to use.

Daboll was asked specifically whether he saw Jones as the (or a) quarterback of the future.

“All these conversations, we are going to have those. We have a long offseason. There is a time and place to have all those conversations and tonight is not it.”

Perhaps that’s all that needs to be said. Daboll had already made all the statements he needed to make.

Eagles demolish Giants in first half, again

The Eagles continued their first-half dominance of the Giants

To say the Philadelphia Eagles have owned the New York Giants this season is an understatement.

The first half is the perfect example of the Birds’ dominance.

  • In the first meeting, the Eagles took a 21-0 lead in the first half on Dec. 11, 2022, before the Giants scored. It was 24-7 at the break.
  • On Jan. 8, 2003, the Eagles led 16-0 at halftime.
  • In Saturday’s divisional-round game at the Linc, the Eagles led 28-0 at the half.
  • Add it all up and it totals 68-7 in the three first halves the teams played.

The statistical demolition in the third meeting was stunning:

EAM STATS
1st Downs 3 18
Passing 1st downs 3 7
Rushing 1st downs 0 10
1st downs from penalties 0 1
3rd down efficiency 1-5 6-7
4th down efficiency 0-1 0-0
Total Plays 19 43
Total Yards 64 258
Total Drives 5 6
Yards per Play 3.4 6.0
Passing 44 118
Comp-Att 6-10 12-17
Yards per pass 3.7 6.9
Interceptions thrown 1 0
Sacks-Yards Lost 2-13 0-0
Rushing 20 140
Rushing Attempts 7 26
Yards per rush 2.9 5.4
Red Zone (Made-Att) 0-0 4-4
Penalties 1-5 1-5
Turnovers 1 0
Fumbles lost 0 0
Interceptions thrown 1 0
Defensive / Special Teams TDs 0 0
Possession 9:48 20:12

The 28-0 margin was the second-largest lead the Eagles have had in franchise playoff history.

Miles Sanders had 75 rushing yards. The Giants were paced by Daniel Jones with 13 on three carries.

Four Eagles had scored touchdowns, 2 on the ground and 2 via pass receptions.

It was a complete blowout and the Giants had 30 minutes to figure something out to head back up the New Jersey Turnpike knowing their season was kaput.

 

 

Jerick McKinnon throws Foyesade Oluokun out of the club with killer blitz block

Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon is small but mighty, and Jaguars linebacker Foyesade Oluokun found that out the hard way.

At 5-foot-9 and 201 pounds, Kansas City Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon isn’t an imposing physical presence. Until it’s time to block, which is when the veteran lets his internal Bronko Nagurski out, to the detriment of defenders.

Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Foyesade Oluokun found this out the hard way in the third quarter of the Chiefs’ divisional-round game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Oluokun came in on a blitz, and McKinnon just blew him right out of the play.

It’s all in a day’s work for McKinnon, who prides himself on being an every-down back. He ended the regular season least with at least one touchdown catch in six straight games — no running back since at least 1970 had ever done that before, and his nine touchdown receptions this season is tied for the most since 1970, along with Marshall Faulk (2001), Chuck Foreman (1975), and Leroy Hoard (1991). Only Washington’s Charley Taylor, who had 12 touchdown catches in 1966, had more among running backs in pro football history, and like McKinnon, Taylor split his time between runner and receiver.

Not bad for an option quarterback in college, who had bit roles with the Vikings, lost two seasons to a knee injury with the 49ers, and started to find his way back with the Chiefs.

McKinnon’s primary quarterback has noticed McKinnon’s attention to the seemingly little things.

“It’s not like he’s looking for the glory or the praise,” Patrick Mahomes said a few weeks back. “He just comes to work every single day with a smile on his face and he brings the energy. You ask anybody in the locker room, he’s probably one of, if not the favorite guy in the locker room. Everybody loves him, and that’s the type of guy he is, and it’s good to see that it’s paying off, all the hard work that he’s doing. And hopefully he can keep scoring touchdowns.”

If not, he can certainly lay the wood so that others can score.

NFL Playoffs: The Giants’ move from man to zone could upset Jalen Hurts

Giants DC Wink Martindale has switched heavily from man to zone defense in the last month. That could be a problem for Jalen Hurts.

New York Giants defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale is fond of saying that if you are wearing a Giants helmet, you are going to attack on defense. That’s always been Wink’s modus operandi — when he was the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator from 2018 through 2021, Baltimore regularly led the NFL in blitz rate. That has transferred to the Giants in Martindale’s first year on the job. In 2021, Bug Blue blitzed exactly 25% of the time. This season? No team has blitzed at a higher rate than the Giants’ 39.7%, and it isn’t close — in the regular season, the Arizona Cardinals ranked second in blitz rate at 34.5%.

So, you know what you’re going to get when facing a Wink Martindale defense from that perspective. And generally, he’ll throw in a high rate of man coverage to go along with all those blitzes. That was what the Giants did through Week 14, which marked their first of two regular-season games against the Philadelphia Eagles, who they’ll face in Saturday night’s divisional round contest.

Through Week 14, per Sports Info Solutions, only the New Orleans Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers had more opponent passing attempts in man coverage than the Giants’ 176. And on those 176 attempts, Martindale’s defense allowed 124 completions for 1,129 yards, seven touchdowns, two interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 79.0. Only the Steelers blitzed on more opponent passing attempts with man coverage than the Giants’ 84 — Martindale’s squad gave up 44 completions for 498 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 73.4.

But since that first Eagles game, Martindale has changed his coverage concepts pretty drastically. The Giants are still attacking with blitzes, but they’re playing much more zone coverage — especially split-safety zone. Perhaps it was what happened in that 44-28 loss to the Eagles that changed Martindale’s mindset. In that game, Jalen Hurts set New York’s man coverage to “Julienne” in the Cuisinart, completing nine of 16 passes for 152 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 128.1. Against man coverage and the blitz, Hurts completed six of 10 passes for 99 yards, one of his touchdowns, and a passer rating of 126.7.

From Week 15 through the team’s wild-card win over the Minnesota Vikings, the Giants have faced 100 passing attempts in zone coverage, seventh-most in the league. They’ve allowed 69 completions for 788 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 91.8. They’ve blitzed with zone coverage on 29 opponent passing attempts since Week 15 — only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did it more often in that time — allowing 21 completions for 347 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 112.3, which ranks third-worst in the league.

So, it looks on the surface that Martindale’s switch from man to zone has made his defense more vulnerable. But if Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has one bit of Kryptonite in what has been an MVP-level season, it’s the ability to deal with blitzes and zone coverage behind them. Hurts has faced zone coverage with blitzes on 51 of his dropbacks this season, and he’s completed just 23 passes for 274 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 78.5 — seventh-worst in the NFL.

“Everybody’s saying he’s having an MVP season, and I agree because he can beat you with his legs,” Martindale said this week of Hurts. “He can beat you with just being a dropback quarterback. He can beat you with a sore shoulder. He can beat you a lot of different ways, and that’s a great challenge because there’s just a few quarterbacks that can do it that way. And you can have him dead to rights back there n the pocket, and he’s a magician. He’ll get out of it.

“I’m not happy for the guy right now because I’m preparing for him. But you can see the work that he put in the past offseason. And where he’s at today is, to me, two completely different quarterbacks. Out of respect of the game, you respect that. You can see the hard work that he put in. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge.”

Perhaps one way to mitigate that challenge in the Giants’ favor is for Martindale to show Hurts things he hasn’t really seen from his defense.

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson gets play-calling inspiration from Twitter

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson finds play-calling ideas and inspiration on Twitter.

Say what you want about Twitter these days since a certain entrepreneur took it over, but the medium is still valuable. Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson, one of the NFL’s most creative offensive minds and play-callers, found it easy to verify that as he spoke to the media on Thursday in anticipation of Saturday’s divisional round game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Pederson was asked during his Thursday presser whether he liked to install new things this late in the season.

“I think you can still be creative this time of year,” he said. “Guys like having creativity. They don’t want the same sort of mundane things, which are good, you’ve got to have them, but at the same time, you still want something fresh and unique and different. Because again, we’re playing a team we played two months ago, so we want to have some things that are fresh and new. They’re going to have stuff that’s new and some wrinkles in there as well.”

Yes, the Jaguars lost 27-17 to the Chiefs in Week 10, but it would appear that Pederson and his staff have been looking at social media for schematic inspiration.

“You do get a lot of stuff off of Twitter. People send you those videos and stuff off of Twitter and YouTube and things like that. A lot of it is just like fan video that might have saw something in a training camp practice. All that stuff gets posted nowadays. That’s the thing about it, everybody has a microphone and a camera. That’s usually the most creative place we find stuff.”

Of course, not everything works at the NFL level.

“You’ve got to be careful because the high school and college rules are different, formationally, than ours, so you’ve got to be a little bit careful there,” Pederson concluded. “You can’t just put a play in and go, ‘Wait a second, the tackle’s got to be covered up somehow,’ to be able to run something. You look at them, and there’s a lot of good ones out there, a lot of creative minds, which is good.”

So, if you’re watching Jaguars–Chiefs on Saturday, and you see something that looks very similar to something you recently posted? It’s entirely possible that you inspired the concept.

Fantasy football playoff draft player rankings

Fantasy football draft rankings for the remainder of the NFL postseason.

The following set of PPR rankings are geared toward anyone in a redrafting fantasy football playoff contest. This update from last week’s release recalculates placement based on the outcomes of Wild Card Weekend contest. The forecasted number of total remaining games to be played largely factors into each player’s rankings, so feel free to use this as a baseline rather than a be-all, end-all approach to choosing a roster if you see the postseason shaking out in a different manner.

For weekly lineup rankings and projections, make sure to check out our Start/Bench Tool each Wednesday of the postseason.

Updated: Friday, Jan. 20, at 7:44 p.m. EST

Key: Upgrade / Downgrade

Playoff draft rankings (entire playoff run)

Positional rankings

Rk Pos Player Team Proj GP Rk Pos Player Team Proj GP
1 QB Patrick Mahomes KC 3 1 WR Deebo Samuel SF 3
2 QB Joe Burrow CIN 2 2 WR Ja’Marr Chase CIN 2
3 QB Brock Purdy SF 3 3 WR Tee Higgins CIN 2
4 QB Jalen Hurts PHI 2 4 WR Brandon Aiyuk SF 3
5 QB Josh Allen BUF 1 5 WR Stefon Diggs BUF 1
6 QB Dak Prescott DAL 1 6 WR CeeDee Lamb DAL 1
QB QB Trevor Lawrence JAC 1 7 WR A.J. Brown PHI 2
8 QB Daniel Jones NYG 1 8 WR J. Smith-Schuster KC 3
9 QB Gardner Minshew PHI 2 9 WR DeVonta Smith PHI 2
10 QB Cooper Rush DAL 1 10 WR Tyler Boyd CIN 2
11 QB Tyrod Taylor NYG 1 11 WR Gabe Davis BUF 1
12 QB Brandon Allen CIN 2 12 WR Kadarius Toney KC 3
13 QB C.J. Beathard JAC 1 13 WR Isaiah Hodgins NYG 1
14 QB Case Keenum BUF 1 14 WR Christian Kirk JAC 1
15 QB Chad Henne KC 3 15 WR Jauan Jennings SF 3
16 QB Josh Johnson SF 3 16 WR Zay Jones JAC 1
OUT QB Jimmy Garoppolo SF 3 17 WR Darius Slayton NYG 1
Rk Pos Player Team Proj GP 18 WR M. Valdes-Scantling KC 3
1 RB Christian McCaffrey SF 3 19 WR Richie James NYG 1
2 RB Jerick McKinnon KC 3 20 WR Michael Gallup DAL 1
3 RB Joe Mixon CIN 2 21 WR Quez Watkins PHI 2
4 RB Isiah Pacheco KC 3 22 WR Trenton Irwin CIN 2
5 RB Miles Sanders PHI 2 23 WR Khalil Shakir BUF 1
6 RB Saquon Barkley NYG 1 24 WR Marvin Jones JAC 1
7 RB Travis Etienne JAC 1 25 WR Cole Beasley BUF 1
8 RB Elijah Mitchell SF 3 26 WR T.Y. Hilton DAL 1
9 RB James Cook BUF 1 QUE WR Jamal Agnew JAC 1
10 RB Tony Pollard DAL 1 28 WR Justin Watson KC 3
11 RB Ezekiel Elliott DAL 1 29 WR John Brown BUF 1
12 RB Devin Singletary BUF 1 30 WR Noah Brown DAL 1
13 RB Samaje Perine CIN 2 31 WR Isaiah McKenzie BUF 1
14 RB JaMycal Hasty JAC 1 INJ WR Mecole Hardman KC 2
15 RB Kyle Juszczyk SF 3 33 WR Skyy Moore KC 3
16 RB K. Gainwell PHI 2 34 WR Kenny Golladay NYG 1
17 RB Nyheim Hines BUF 1 35 WR Ray-Ray McCloud SF 3
18 RB Matt Breida NYG 1 36 WR Zach Pascal PHI 2
19 RB Boston Scott PHI 2 37 WR Marcus Johnson NYG 1
20 RB Jordan Mason SF 3 38 WR Danny Gray SF 3
21 RB Chris Evans CIN 2 39 WR KaVontae Turpin DAL 1
22 RB Michael Burton KC 3 40 WR Jalen Tolbert DAL 1
23 RB Reggie Gilliam BUF 1 41 WR Trent Taylor CIN 2
24 RB Trayveon Williams CIN 2 42 WR Stanley Morgan CIN 2
25 RB Tyrion Davis-Price SF 3 Rk Pos Player Team Proj GP
26 RB Ronald Jones KC 3 1 TE Travis Kelce KC 3
INJ RB C. Edwards-Helaire KC 2 2 TE George Kittle SF 3
28 RB Malik Davis DAL 1 3 TE Dawson Knox BUF 1
29 RB Trey Sermon PHI 2 4 TE Dallas Goedert PHI 2
30 RB Duke Johnson BUF 1 5 TE Dalton Schultz DAL 1
31 RB Gary Brightwell NYG 1 6 TE Evan Engram JAC 1
32 RB Snoop Conner JAC 1 7 TE Hayden Hurst CIN 2
Rk Pos Player Team Proj GP 8 TE Daniel Bellinger NYG 1
1 PK Robbie Gould SF 3 9 TE Noah Gray KC 3
2 PK Evan McPherson CIN 2 10 TE Blake Bell KC 3
3 PK Harrison Butker KC 3 11 TE Jake Ferguson DAL 1
4 PK Jake Elliott PHI 2 12 TE Jack Stoll PHI 2
5 PK Tyler Bass BUF 1 13 TE Tyler Kroft SF 3
6 PK Brett Maher DAL 1 14 TE Tommy Sweeney BUF 1
7 PK Riley Patterson JAC 1 15 TE Mitchell Wilcox CIN 2
8 PK Graham Gano NYG 1 16 TE P. Hendershot DAL 1
Rk Pos Name Tm Proj GP 17 TE Dan Arnold JAC 1
1 DT 49ers SF 3 18 TE Quintin Morris BUF 1
2 DT Chiefs KC 3 19 TE Nick Vannett NYG 1
3 DT Eagles PHI 2 20 TE G. Calcaterra PHI 2
4 DT Bengals CIN 2 21 TE Devin Asiasi CIN 2
5 DT Giants NYG 1 22 TE Chris Manhertz JAC 1
6 DT Bills BUF 1
7 DT Cowboys DAL 1
8 DT Jaguars JAC 1

 

Mixed positional rankings

 

Rk Pos Name Team Proj GP Rk Pos Name Team Proj GP
1 RB Christian McCaffrey SF 3 29 DT Chiefs KC 3
2 QB Patrick Mahomes KC 3 30 QB Trevor Lawrence JAC 1
3 RB Jerick McKinnon KC 3 31 QB Daniel Jones NYG 1
4 QB Joe Burrow CIN 2 32 PK Robbie Gould SF 3
5 QB Brock Purdy SF 3 33 WR Tyler Boyd CIN 2
6 RB Joe Mixon CIN 2 34 PK Evan McPherson CIN 2
7 RB Isiah Pacheco KC 3 35 PK Harrison Butker KC 3
8 RB Miles Sanders PHI 2 36 TE Dalton Schultz DAL 1
9 WR Deebo Samuel SF 3 37 WR Gabe Davis BUF 1
10 WR Ja’Marr Chase CIN 2 38 RB James Cook BUF 1
11 QB Jalen Hurts PHI 2 39 RB Tony Pollard DAL 1
12 WR Tee Higgins CIN 2 40 RB Ezekiel Elliott DAL 1
13 WR Brandon Aiyuk SF 3 41 WR Isaiah Hodgins NYG 1
14 TE Travis Kelce KC 3 42 WR Christian Kirk JAC 1
15 TE George Kittle SF 3 43 WR Kadarius Toney KC 3
16 QB Josh Allen BUF 1 44 RB Devin Singletary BUF 1
17 QB Dak Prescott DAL 1 45 TE Evan Engram JAC 1
18 RB Saquon Barkley NYG 1 46 DT Eagles PHI 2
19 RB Travis Etienne JAC 1 47 DT Bengals CIN 2
20 TE Dawson Knox BUF 1 48 WR Jauan Jennings SF 3
21 TE Dallas Goedert PHI 2 49 WR Zay Jones JAC 1
22 DT 49ers SF 3 50 TE Hayden Hurst CIN 2
23 WR Stefon Diggs BUF 1 51 WR Darius Slayton NYG 1
24 WR CeeDee Lamb DAL 1 52 WR M. Valdes-Scantling KC 3
25 RB Elijah Mitchell SF 3 53 RB Samaje Perine CIN 2
26 WR A.J. Brown PHI 2 54 PK Jake Elliott PHI 2
27 WR J. Smith-Schuster KC 3 55 TE Daniel Bellinger NYG 1
28 WR DeVonta Smith PHI 2

Commanders should have been playing on wild-card weekend

Washington fans watched wild-card weekend with the painful realization that the Commanders should’ve been on the field. Unfortunately, a winless December doomed them.

I’ve watched two NFC playoff games and made one conclusion, the Washington Commanders should have been playing this weekend.

Did you notice the Seattle Seahawks pass defense? Or should I say, lack of pass defense? My goodness, they were yielding huge chunks of passing yardage. George Kittle averaged 18.5 yards per reception, Jauan Jennings 20.5, Deebo Samuel 22.2 and Brandon Aiyuk 24.3 yards per catch. The 49ers cruised by the Seahawks 41-23.

The Vikings defense made Daniel Jones look like he was soon going to be fitted for his yellow jacket in Canton, OH. In the 31-24 NYG win over the Vikings, Daniel Jones became just the 3rd QB in playoff history with 300 passing yards, 75 rushing yards in a game. Who are the other two? Lamar Jackson and Steve Young. But those two lost in those games; Jones and the Giants today won.

On December 4, the Commanders stepped into Giants Stadium with a 7-5 season record. They jumped out to a 10-0 lead and had plays to win the game. Many of you, I am sure, still see Logan Thomas wide open for a touchdown, and for some reason, Taylor Heinicke couldn’t make the play, and Washington settled for a field goal. That was four points sorely missed, seeing the Commanders settled for a 20-20 tie.

Two weeks later, Washington again could have beaten the Giants, but when they could only convert one of ten third downs,  and Heinicke lost two fumbles, they fell 20-12 to the Giants. And somehow, with rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. averaging 7.4 yards per carry, he had just 12 rushing attempts.

After Heinicke turned the ball over twice in a Week 16 loss at San Francisco, Rivera turned to Carson Wentz. But Wentz was horrible against the Browns in Week 17, completing a Commanders 0-3-1 month, and they were officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Offensive coordinator Scott Turner was fired last week. Heinicke and Wentz both said possible goodbyes to the Commanders while the Seahawks and Giants were playing on national television in the NFL playoffs.

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NFL sets Divisional Round schedule: Times, days, and networks

The NFL Divisional Round schedule is set for January 21 and 22

All eight teams are set for the divisional round of the NFL playoffs with the Dallas Cowboys drubbing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday to settle the final spot.

The schedule is known for next weekend.

On Saturday, the Jacksonville Jaguars will play the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead. The kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. ET and the game will be on NBC.

The Jaguars lost to the Chiefs in the regular season, 27-17.

That evening, NFC East rivals meet on FOX Sports as the New York Giants travel down the New Jersey Turnpike to face the NFC’s top seed, the Philadelphia Eagles. Kickoff is 8:15 p.m. ET.

This will be the third meeting for these teams and Philly won both in the regular season.

On Sunday, CBS will have the first game.

The Cincinnati Bengals will face the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in Western New York.

The Bengals and Bills had their game canceled in the regular season when Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest in the first quarter and was rushed to UC Medical Center.

Kickoff for this contest is at 3 p.m. ET.

The final game will take place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Ca, on FOX Sports, with the Cowboys facing the San Francisco 49ers.

That game starts at 6:30 p.m. ET.

 

Brandon Staley’s shortcomings all too obvious in Chargers’ wild-card collapse

Brandon Staley is a great defensive mind. But he has things to learn as a head coach, and the Chargers’ wild-card collapse showed them all.

Brandon Staley has done as much over the last few years to forward the new light box/multiple coverage defensive paradigm as any coach in the league. He has made some interesting decisions based on analytics in his two seasons as the Los Angeles Chargers’ head coach. As a scheme guy, and as a coach who can build a winning defense, Staley has nothing left to prove.

But as a head coach, Staley has a lot to learn.

Moving from coordinator to head coach is a weird and often unexpected journey. That ability to see and react to everything at the proverbial 30,000-foot level — to be the CEO — is not something everybody finds easy or possible to attain. Which is why some utterly brilliant coordinators have flamed out as head coaches, and some perfectly ordinary schematic minds have been great in the top job.

It’s not for everybody. Not to say that it will never be for Staley, but after Saturday’s 31-30 wild-card loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, in which Staley’s Chargers blew a 27-0 second-quarter lead and seemed to have no answer for a Jags team that was very busy throwing up all over itself in the first half, there have to be serious questions regarding Staley’s understanding of his current job.

In his press conference following the third-largest postseason collapse in the history of professional football, Staley had a lot to say about how his offense and defense underperformed as the game went on. He had things to say about his team’s penalty tendencies in the second half, and he had a veiled shot or two for referee Shawn Smith’s officiating crew — valid to a point, as Smith and his team had a terrible game overall.

What you did not see was Staley taking a leadership role and putting the responsibility upon himself.

“We just didn’t play clean enough football in the second half in all three phases,” Staley concluded. “We didn’t score the ball or possess it well enough on defense. We had far too many penalties in the second half that really hurt us and didn’t play well enough in the red (zone) area, didn’t perform well there in the two minute at the end of the game. Just didn’t play a good second half of football as a team.

“Defensively, penalties just really hurt our team. We had a second-and-18 that [was] going to be a third-and-19. We have a PI (pass interference). We had an offsides when it would have been a sack. We have a penalty that allows them to go for two. An unsportsmanlike penalty, it goes for two. So I thought penalties hurt us in the second half on defense. On offense, we just didn’t sustain drives in the second half, and didn’t run the football effectively enough, and then didn’t do well enough on third down in the second half. We had some killer third-and-shorts that we didn’t make today. And then, obviously, we missed a kick down the stretch that really hurt us.”

Coaching decisions, adapting to in-game changes, and situational awareness were not mentioned. They should have been, and Staley should have put that onus on himself.

With 49ers win, Vikings would play on road in divisional round

The Vikings know who their potential opponent will be in the divisional round

Going into Wild Card weekend, the Minnesota Vikings had a chance to face one of three teams in the divisional round with a win over the New York Giants. With the San Francisco 49ers win 41-23 over the Seattle Seahawks, the Vikings will travel to Santa Clara to face the 49ers in the divisional round if they advance past the Giants.

The 49ers played a really solid game of football. After jumping out to a 10-0 lead, Seattle made it interesting by going into halftime with a 17-16 lead. Once they came out in the second half, the 49ers started cooking with both the running and play-action passing game. Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth but looked every bit of a rookie quarterback missing reads and throws consistently.

The Vikings would have had a tough matchup regardless of the opponent in the divisional round, but knowing that the opponent would be the 49ers going into Sunday’s game gives them a slight advantage.