Tag: 2024 NFC divisional round

Baker Mayfield had the most heartbroken response to the Bucs’ playoff loss against the Lions

Baker Mayfield really needs a hug.

The 2023 season was a resurgent one for Baker Mayfield. He nearly enjoyed career highs across the board and took the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the NFC divisional round. Unfortunately, despite Mayfield’s best efforts on a revitalized and confident team, the Buccaneers’ ride ends in the NFL’s quarterfinals after losing to the ascending Detroit Lions.

This is a grim reality that isn’t sitting well with Mayfield.

After the Buccaneers’ tough loss, Mayfield unsurprisingly equated Tampa Bay’s season concluding to having his heart ripped out. Given Mayfield’s reputation as a fiery competitor, you feel badly for him, but don’t expect any less. This is how an NFL player should react to postseason heartbreak:

The Buccaneers now enter an offseason rife with pivotal roster decisions on both sides of the ball. It seems apparent that Mayfield, at the very least, has earned another season to build on his tremendous first-year success with Tampa Bay.

The Lions’ Frank Ragnow showed absurd toughness blocking Vita Vea on 4th and 1 TD while visibly hurt

The Lions’ Frank Ragnow is the definition of tough.

In the playoffs, injuries that may have otherwise sidelined players aren’t as significant of a concern anymore. When it’s win or go home, guys more or less decide to grit their teeth and tough it out if they can.

Detroit Lions All-Pro center Frank Ragnow did exactly this during his team’s divisional-round matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Early in the game, Ragnow had his leg rolled up following a sack on Jared Goff. If there was one player the Lions could ill afford to see missing any time, it was Ragnow, the fulcrum and leader of their dominant offensive line. At the time of this writing, it is unclear what Ragnow’s ailment is.

Even still, rather than come out of the game, a visibly hurt Ragnow soldiered on with Detroit’s season on the line:

Later, with the Lions facing a critical fourth and goal near the end of the third quarter, Ragnow had the unenviable task of taking on the mammoth Vita Vea one-on-one. He passed with flying colors, paving the way for a clutch Craig Reynolds touchdown:

Ragnow didn’t pancake Vea, but he didn’t have to. He just had to stay in front of him long enough for Reynolds to cross the plane. Even while hurt, it is these kinds of heroic efforts that propel teams like the Lions to greatness.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson backed up his game-week trash talk by casually flipping interception ball at Baker Mayfield

The Lions’ C.J. Gardner-Johnson is a brilliant troll.

Baker Mayfield and C.J. Gardner-Johnson made headlines earlier this week when the Detroit Lions’ safety implied the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback wasn’t good enough for this level of playoff football. Mayfield aptly roasted Gardner-Johnson’s film preparation but otherwise left this beef with a defender simmering on the stovetop.

Both players reignited this little back and forth right away during the Lions’ divisional-round matchup with the Buccaneers.

After Gardner-Johnson intercepted a tipped pass off Mike Evans’ hands, he put on the moves during a marvelous return. And by the end of it, Gardner-Johnson found Mayfield standing by him on the sideline.

He simply couldn’t resist the temptation to flip the ball into his hands:

After the game, Gardner-Johnson tweeted a cheeky response to the whole affair.

The pick itself might not have been entirely on Mayfield. But it’s amusing exchanges like this that make it clear Gardner-Johnson knows how to play mind games and get under the skin of opposing players. Beyond being a ballhawk defensive back, that’s what makes him so valuable to the integrity of the Lions’ defense.

Matt LaFleur painfully described how the Packers let the 49ers break their hearts again

Matt LaFleur sounded devastated about the latest Packers’ playoff loss.

Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL. So even while the Green Bay Packers, one of the league’s youngest teams, seem to be at the start of something special, it’s no guarantee they ever reach their lofty goals. There’s just too much variance in play.

That’s what might make Green Bay’s 24-21 defeat at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers sting even more. (Beyond Jordan Love looking like Brett Favre, that is.) Sure, it’s a moral victory that the precocious Packers ever pushed the NFC’s No. 1 seed to the brink. There’s a lot to build on this offseason in Green Bay. On the flip side, even with the Packers’ youth, they’re not necessarily destined to take that next step and finish games like this whenever (or if) they get another opportunity.

Matt LaFleur understands this unfortunate reality, as he painfully described why another Packers’ postseason loss stung so much:

Pro football is a volatile game. Beyond the unfortunate specter of injuries, sometimes things — progressive development, roster construction, schedule — just don’t come together as planned. The Packers should hold their heads high, knowing they gave the 49ers the fight of their season. But to pretend as if their best opportunity to unseat NFC royalty wasn’t on Saturday would be foolish.

You never know — they truly might not get this kind of golden opportunity again.

Jordan Love gave NFL fans Brett Favre flashbacks after he threw a baffling interception to end Packers’ season

Jordan Love paid tribute to Brett Favre by throwing one of the worst interceptions ever.

Saturday night was a rough start to Jordan Love’s postseason career. And after an awful final sequence, he’s going to be compared a lot more to the wrong Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame quarterback.

After a late San Francisco comeback, an uneven Love (who had already thrown a pick earlier) was tasked with rescuing the Packers’ season. With just under a minute left, he responded by running right and throwing across his body deep back to the middle of the field, where a swarm of 49ers defenders was waiting to make a play on the ball.

Dre Greenlaw did, intercepting Love (again) on a horrific decision that may haunt him and the Packers for their entire offseason:

What was notable about this Love interception was how similar it was to when an erratic Brett Favre — the NFL’s all-time leader in thrown interceptions — threw a season-ending pick to the New Orleans Saints during the 2009 NFC title game. In fact, it almost literally looks like the same play in mostly the same situation:

It’s still way too early to make any definitive conclusion about Love and his career prospects in Green Bay. Sometimes, when he makes sparkling off-platform throws in the pocket, he resembles Aaron Rodgers. And sometimes, when he trusts his playmaking a little too much and goes for it all at the worst possible time, he looks just like Favre. Though, to be fair to Love, Rodgers never beat the 49ers in the playoffs, either. So maybe he is still more similar to his predecessor. For now.

But for the most part, Saturday night was an excellent example of Love living up to a Favre-like reputation, especially on the Packers’ season-ending play.