Justin Herbert and Jordan Love failed their latest big-time playoff moments

For some reason, at some point very recently, the NFL decided to call the opening game of the playoffs Wild Card Weekend. This was an amazing change.

As you know, the NFL has been trying to force a controversial round in recent years. Super Wild Card Weekend And it was (obviously) a failed effort.

The first four games of this whole thing were sleepy games at best, so Sunday night's game provided the first piece of true entertainment. Responsibility for it can apply here, there, anywhere…but there are some specific places I'm going to touch on.

welcome to skinny post. We're Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa. Flash photography is permitted.

Let's get started.

Justin Herbert and Jordan Love were the clear losers of the weekend

RJ:

This doesn't make me happy because Michael is a resident Chargers fan in our house, but I'm here to report the fact that it's very bad for Justin Herbert and Jordan Love.

Obviously, both quarterbacks are already well paid so nothing like that is in jeopardy, but these playoffs provide an opportunity for each to rise to another tier, and both could be in the grand scheme of things. method failed.

If there is a difference of opinion here, I would say that the reasons for being depressed lie more with Packers fans than with Chargers fans. While Herbert clearly lacks playoff success, he has a tremendous amount of work to fall back on in the regular season. This may upset Chargers fans that this is “just” a regular season success, but at least it's a large sample size.

On the other side of the coin, Jordan Love just caught lightning in a bottle near the end of last season, and it's fair to wonder if maybe he's not Green's next quarterback successor. And in my opinion Bay is just like his predecessor was.

These questions may seem unfair or outlandish, but that's the cost of losing in the playoffs. History is written by the victors, and they threw away their pens at every interception.

Michael:

Oh, are you going to make me talk about my quarterback? Are we really doing this?

…sigh…

Well then.

Herbert had a bad game. Finish the sentence. This is the easiest way to put together a game, so everyone wants to use and run it. He wasn't the best, but neither was the entire team around him. Dropped the pass. No pass protection (he was under pressure on more than half of his dropbacks). Not many quarterbacks have been able to do better than this. I follow it wholeheartedly.

People should also stop rhetorically pretending that all these “four interceptions” are equally bad decisions. His first choice? Yes, one of the worst calls I've seen in Herbert's career. Is it the second one? He looked like he was desperately trying to move the ball, forcing it to the only receiver he could trust. Third and fourth choices? The third was a blunder by tight end Will Dissly, and the fourth was a “YOLO'' ball given to the 6-foot-4 speedster when the game was out of reach and the offense needed a miracle. These are not equals, and if casual people want to spread this oversimplified explanation of what happened, those who know the ball need to shout it out loud.

But who am I kidding? People will do what they want, even if well over three-quarters of the NFL immediately traded their quarterback for Herbert.

Which team/player is the biggest “feel good” story left in the playoffs?

Michael:

I don't like picking the best team in the NFL for prompts like this, but how the hell can you not look at Detroit and want them to win all the way? The defense is devastating. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is crushing it. This city has so much to offer, and I can't imagine how great it would be to see the Super Bowl parade roll through it. I'm sure we'll get some of the best “moments” of all time from that (think something like Jason Kelsey's dog mask).

Another good case I can think of is Washington. It's simply because he's trying to turn things around after the terrible treatment he suffered a year ago. And who is the rookie quarterback to lead them? It was good. This is another easy team to root for, but I can understand if you (RJ, a noted Cowboys fan) don't want anything to do with that.

RJ:

Objectively speaking, Washington is a great answer. You can square it.

But forgive me for being so blunt here…Detroit is Buffalo at this very moment. I know the Bills have been successful for a long time, but they haven't reached the Super Bowl yet. They've been in this situation longer than the Lions. I think Lamar Jackson is the rightful MVP, but the incredible consolation for Buffalo will be to do everything they can to rub it in everyone's faces.

I've had a love-hate relationship with the Bills for some time. Energy-wise, I'm feeling pretty full all the way (even though I think the Ravens will win it all).

Go Bills.

The only two teams that looked elite this weekend were the Ravens and Bills.

RJ:

As of this writing, I have only seen five of the six wild card games.

This means there have been 5 winners so far. The Commanders had incredible drama in their win, the Texans ran away late, and the Eagles took care of business…none of these teams necessarily looked great.

I'm not here to bash anyone, because apologizing for wins in general, let alone playoff wins, is stupid. My only point here is that the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills won games in different ways over the weekend. They seemed clearly better than the other players on the field, and we're going to play a game now. between Those are the best news ever.

I think Baltimore will win, but I also think this could be one of the best playoff games in recent memory. Jim Nantz and Tony Romo touched on this in their playoff broadcast of Buffalo's win over the Broncos…this is kind of why should Please wait until after the playoffs to vote for MVP etc. You can argue about how irresponsible it is to frame your opinion solely from the playoffs, but it's equally foolish to act like it doesn't matter.

Photo credit: Elsa/Getty Images

Michael:

It's hard to believe that this Ravens team was the same one that lost to the Raiders earlier in the season. After the Steelers had a seizure in the regular season, Baltimore came out and loosened up the defense with a run game that racked up nearly 300 yards.

Then there's the Bills, who faced a Broncos defense that finished the year third in points allowed. That wasn't a problem at all for Josh Allen and others.

Now that the Chargers are gone, I'm going to get behind the team that runs the ball best (because that's real football), and it certainly looks like the Ravens.

The Patriots hiring Mike Vrabel gives me the same vibe as hiring Jerrod Mayo. New England is just chasing Bill Belichick to stay.

Michael:

Is this just me? Because I think it's strange that the Patriots followed Belichick in hiring two former Belichick players. I can understand that they wanted continuity with “The Patriot Way,” but this is kind of weird now. Vrabel certainly knows how Kraft wants to run the Patriots, but you tell me he's been doing things a certain way for 20 years with the literal GOAT at quarterback, but he can't do it without him. Do you think it can be easily reproduced?

In my opinion, the Patriots have a lot more to worry about than that. For example, Robert Kraft admitted that he had chosen Mayo years before he was actually hired, and suddenly admitted in his first year that he was “not experienced enough” despite all those years of experience. Is it the same as ? Perhaps the Kraft picker is turned off.

And you know what they say, teams stay bad because of bad ownership.

RJ:

I definitely agree that the Vrabel thing is like, “This time I’m serious!” In a sense.

With Brady and Belichick, the Patriots are proving not to be a legitimate organization. I don't know why some people believe they have a right to the doubt. Mike Vrabel is definitely a talented coach and has the potential to grow, but it's not for me to bet on that.

Their roster is still really bad. And they sacrificed the No. 1 pick. And they did very little searching.

It came out.