Tag: NFL Playoffs 2024

The Buccaneers benching Devin White in a playoff game is an ominous sign for his Tampa Bay future

The Buccaneers don’t trust Devin White anymore.

Just four years ago, Devin White was an All-Pro caliber linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a Super Bowl campaign. Mired by inconsistency and unreliability, those same Buccaneers can’t even trust him in a playoff game anymore.

After already seeing his role significantly reduced during Tampa Bay’s decisive wild-card round win over the Philadelphia Eagles, White made the equivalent of a short cameo at Ford Field. He was so brutal within Todd Bowles’ defensive scheme, that he passed off Josh Reynolds to no one on a crucial early Lions touchdown.

From there on in, it looked like the Buccaneers had enough of White’s mistakes with their season on the line:

A former top-five draft pick, White’s future in Tampa Bay might be in doubt. In what was already effectively a contract year for the linebacker, he disappointed, looking nowhere near the kind of franchise player he once resembled in a Buccaneers uniform.

He may well stay with the Buccaneers on a cheaper deal as they regroup following their playoff ouster in Detroit. But after a relatively disappointing 2023 campaign, punctuated by a reduced role in the postseason, White should probably prepare for a new NFL home, just in case.

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.

Kyle Shanahan joked he wanted to tackle Dre Greenlaw when he kept running after his game-winning INT

Kyle Shanahan was desperate for Dre Greenlaw to go down after his clutch pick.

There is one tried and true hallmark to closing out a team when you pick off their last possession. You’re supposed to go down and give yourself up right away so as not to risk losing the ball.

Dre Greenlaw clearly forgot this tenet after taking advantage of Jordan Love going full Brett Favre on Saturday night.

After Greenlaw picked Love off to clinch a San Francisco 49ers’ divisional-round win over the Green Bay Packers, he weirdly kept running. And running. He broke a tackle … and kept running. Once again, the only way the Packers had a feasible chance at winning after the pick was if Greenlaw fumbled the ball!

Naturally, this Greenlaw thought process did not go over well with Kyle Shanahan. After the 49ers’ victory, Shanahan joked that he was so flustered with Greenlaw at that moment that he would’ve almost tackled his linebacker himself if it meant he’d go down with possession.

Hey, anything it takes, right?

In the playoffs, with your season on the line, every significant moment is heightened with an extra layer of tension. There’s no telling what would’ve happened to the 49ers and their Super Bowl 58 aspirations if Greenlaw had actually fumbled the ball while he continued running.

Fortunately for Shanahan, they have a third-straight appearance in the NFC title game instead.

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.

Lamar Jackson said he delivered a profane halftime speech to remind the Ravens how good they are

A fiery Lamar Jackson is something we’ll have to get used to.

If there’s one thing we should’ve learned from the Baltimore Ravens’ dominant win over the Houston Texans in the AFC Divisional Round on Saturday, it’s this — never mess with Lamar Jackson.

After the Houston Texans successfully stymied the Ravens for a half, Jackson apparently lit into his teammates and coaches at halftime. When asked who did most of the talking after an alarming 10-10 half, Jackson professed that he did while using a lot of “cursing” that he couldn’t repeat in the microphone.

In the end, it was about reminding the 13-win Ravens how good they are. That they should be manhandling an underdog like the Texans without mercy. Jackson and his team would respond perfectly with an emphatic 24-0 second half en route to a berth in next Sunday’s AFC title game.

Whatever Jackson said, it clearly worked!

A fiery and heated Jackson isn’t something we’ve seen much on the field. It’s just not usually his approach to the game. But even getting a little hint of it is such a treat. We’re watching an MVP-caliber quarterback craft his legacy in real time. We should start appreciating that much more.

Lamar Jackson masterfully dominated the Texans to put the Ravens one win from Super Bowl 58

The Ravens are on the doorstep of the Super Bowl because Lamar Jackson has never been better.

Lamar Jackson has spent an entire NFL career fighting erroneous narratives.

He couldn’t throw at this level of football. Even after being only the second unanimous MVP in league history, he couldn’t lead a serious winning team like the Baltimore Ravens to legitimate championship contention. As such, for a time, some believed he didn’t deserve a Brinks truck of generational money and a wholesale commitment from his organization.

During the Ravens’ 34-10 AFC Divisional Round beatdown of the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon, a masterful Jackson demonstrated precisely why all these criticisms never had any merit. With over 250 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns created, Jackson took a playoff game over like the face-of-the-league superstar quarterback he’s always been.

This was Jackson at the peak of his powers.

What was remarkable about Jackson’s performance on Saturday was his pliability. Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans — who remains one of the game’s premier defensive minds — came prepared to throw Jackson off his rhythm with an unconventional blitzing plan. After getting somewhat rattled early, Jackson and Baltimore’s offense, by extension, answered with a heavy dose of quarterback draws. When Houston reverted back to a diet of four-man rushes in response, Jackson took his time playing around the pocket, letting the offense come to him before delivering an off-platform dime or scampering through self-manufactured running lanes as big as the Red Sea.

It didn’t matter how the Texans tried to disrupt Jackson. Nothing would’ve worked because they just couldn’t.

In every instance where it seemed like Houston had landed a powerful body blow, the likely two-time MVP quarterback had a devastating counterpunch ready. This is what happens when the best dual-threat quarterback of all time has finally mastered playing his position and playing the game. You can’t throw him off. You can’t make him uncomfortable and erase him with any bog standard gameplan designed to neutralize an offense’s fulcrum. Because try as you might, you’ll catch a quarterback like Jackson off guard for a faint moment, only to see him decisively adjust. You can crush quarterbacks like Jackson all you want, but he only needs a handful of mistakes to capitalize on to win.

Jackson’s adaptability was nowhere more evident than on this sublime touchdown pass to Baltimore tight end Isaiah Likely:

Led by Jackson, the Ravens will now host their first AFC title game ever next Sunday. With everything he’s already accomplished, it is fitting that Jackson adds that notable notch to the Ravens’ belt, a franchise with a rich tradition despite only existing for a few decades. (Eat your hearts out, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.) It is appropriate that Jackson takes Baltimore to the doorstep of the Super Bowl for the first time in over a decade. There’s symbolism, and then there’s talismans like Jackson dropping a cartoon anvil on top of our heads to ensure we got the message.

Perhaps more importantly, Jackson can take the Ravens back to the Big Game by overcoming one of his more celebrated peers next Sunday. Even with Jackson’s litany of regular-season accomplishments, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have probably surpassed the Ravens’ superstar in terms of acclaim lately. They are marketed as the next great quarterback rivalry, the Tom Brady and Peyton Manning battle of the modern era. Jackson, usually, has been third fiddle in that conversation. Heck, during a short Ravens’ downswing in recent years, it was easy to forget about Jackson entirely. The talent never left, but the Ravens and Jackson’s lack of success made him an afterthought.

That period is over. When making comparisons, if Jackson’s name isn’t in the same sentence as Mahomes and Allen moving forward, then someone made an egregious oversight.

Jackson has already staked a claim on being the finest signal-caller in Ravens’ history. But up until Saturday, the postseason accolades eluded him. It’s easy to say Jackson’s casual dominance of the Texans was the signature performance in the career of quarterback everyone has been all too eager to tear down for years. But it might be too soon.

Lamar Jackson has mastered playing professional quarterback. This postseason feels like it might be all about him crafting his personal legacy, and it’s only just beginning.

Lamar Jackson sprinted straight into the tunnel after scoring a Ravens’ game-icing TD

Lamar Jackson knew it was time to go home.

Like all of the greats, Lamar Jackson knows when it’s time to pull up the curtains. He had a golden opportunity to tell everyone when they could relax as the Baltimore Ravens put an AFC divisional-round beatdown on the Houston Texans.

With the Ravens driving late, seeking a game-icing touchdown, Jackson found room to scamper in for one of the easiest eight-yard touchdown runs of his NFL career. And rather than celebrate immediately with his teammates, Jackson unironically ran right down the end-zone tunnel as if to say the ballgame was over and Baltimore could start preparing for the AFC title game.

A 31-10 score late in the fourth quarter is about as over as it gets, and Jackson knew it:

As an organization, the Ravens haven’t played in a conference championship game since January 2013. For Jackson, this will be his first appearance in the NFL’s final four. Judging off this touchdown and tunnel celebration, he’s more than ready to shine as Baltimore prepares for a potential trip to Super Bowl 58.

Troy Aikman passionately lobbied for Jim Harbaugh’s NFL return during Ravens-Texans

Troy Aikman is a BIG fan of Jim Harbaugh coming back to the NFL.

After he finally won a National Championship with the Michigan Wolverines, it seems very likely that Jim Harbaugh will make his return to the NFL this fall.

You can apparently count Troy Aikman amongst Harbaugh’s biggest fans of his coaching.

With Harbaugh in attendance to watch his brother John’s Baltimore Ravens battle the Houston Texans in the AFC divisional round, Aikman was inspired to talk up Harbaugh’s coaching chops during ESPN’s broadcast. Before congratulating him for getting over the hump with Michigan, Aikman professed that Harbaugh has won everywhere and will make someone very happy if he comes back to an NFL sideline as a head coach in 2024:

The last we saw of Harbaugh in the NFL was when he coached the San Francisco 49ers to eight playoff wins, three consecutive NFC title game appearances, and a berth in Super Bowl 47 from 2011 to 2013. It’s difficult to say such success will immediately follow Harbaugh over a decade later, but at least he has an established track record.