The Football Film Room Show Transcript with All-22 Highlights
Episode #16
Below, I’ve posted the transcript of the most recent Football Film Room podcast covering Wild Card Weekend with clips of the plays I talked about in the episode.
Feel free to read the transcript on it’s own or use it (and the plays I included) to follow along with the podcast to get more context for what I’m talking about.
In this episode, I discuss:
Rams vs. Panthers - MVP Stafford showed up in the 4th quarter
Packers vs. Bears - Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams took advantage of their own tendencies
Bills vs. Jaguars - Josh Allen saw everything the Jaguars were doing
49ers vs. Eagles - Passing games and quarterbacks were the difference
Chargers vs. Patriots - A dominating defensive performance
Texans vs. Steelers - An even more dominating defensive performance
Here is a direct link to the podcast, and below that you can find the transcript and plays:
The Football Film Room Show - Episode #16 Transcript
Welcome to the Football Film Room Show. I’m Nick Kehoe, and we’ve got another great episode for you today.
We’re just going to dive right into the games because this was one of the best, if not the best, wildcard playoff weekends that we’ve ever had with the NFL.
The outcome was in doubt in most of these games until the very end. I think the first three games, whoever was winning at the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter ended up losing the game.
It was just an unbelievable weekend. A lot of great performances, some surprises in there, obviously some collapses, but we’re going to get to all of it. And we’re just going to go in chronological order.
Rams vs. Panthers
We’ll start with that Rams-Panthers game. And I gotta say, the Panthers…I don’t think anyone thought that that was going to happen. I don’t think anyone thought that they were going to be able to keep it close, let alone be on the verge of winning that game with less than two minutes to go. But they gave the Rams a run for their money.
Now, if you’re a Rams fan, there are two ways to look at this game, right? One way is to say, okay, this was a game where we had everything to lose. Playing an 8-9 team, you have to win that game. It would be so embarrassing to lose that game. And they just got through it. Now they can put that aside. They’ve got a playoff win under their belt, and now they can go on their run that a lot of people are expecting them to go on.
Another way to look at it is that they ended the season, the last quarter of the season probably, in a bit of a funk. They weren’t playing sharp football. Their defense was not what it was early in the season.
The offense, even though it played well, it certainly had its spurts of sloppiness and lack of discipline. A few too many turnovers and mistakes.
And you just sort of figured that every team goes through a lull at some point in the season. And you kind of expected them to put that behind them once they got to the playoffs.
But on Saturday in Carolina, they really didn’t.
They had a bad offsides penalty on a third and five in the second half, giving Carolina an automatic first down. They obviously had the blocked punt when they were nursing a three-point lead in the middle of the fourth quarter.
And then offensively, they had another hold on a run play when they were trying to put the game away:
And this is exactly what happened in Seattle. Remember, I talked about this a few weeks ago in Seattle. They obviously had the bad decision to punt the ball to the middle of the field to a dangerous punt returner when they had the 30-14 lead.
And then after the game was tied at 30 and they were driving for the game-winning field goal, they got a holding penalty on a run play. Which, again, just drives me nuts. The risk-reward…it’s not worth it to hold on a run play.
And everyone, especially in key situations, every offensive lineman should know, if you get beat, you get beat. Do not hold. Do not put yourselves back 10 yards. But they did it in that game, and it pushed them back 10 yards. They ended up having to attempt a longer field goal, and the kicker missed by just a little bit.
And that was one of the things that cost them that game, cost them the division, cost them a chance at the number one seed and the ability to rest and get healthy and not have to go on the road for every single playoff game.
And then they did it again against Carolina. They were up 27-24, picked up a big first down. You wanted this to be sort of a four-minute offense situation if you’re the Rams, and then what did they do? They held on a run play, set themselves back to a first and 20, and all of a sudden they were behind the chains, couldn’t get a first down, had to punt the ball away, and that’s, of course, the punt that got blocked.
Now, aside from the situational stuff, aside from the special teams, the defense continued to play the way they did at the end of the year. The pass rush is just not quite what it was earlier in the year, and that’s a big problem because their secondary, that’s their weak spot. Those cornerbacks, those are their Achilles heels, so to speak, and they could not get a good enough pass rush against Bryce Young and the Panthers, and Young was able to do whatever they wanted to in the passing game in the second half:
I mean, whenever they wanted it, they could get a big play. It was a very unimpressive game from the Rams’ defense and one that makes you say, what are they going to do against Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson, and the Bears? If they can’t get a pass rush, it’s going to be a difficult game up in Chicago.
Now, the only reason that the Rams even get to go to Chicago is because Matthew Stafford, MVP Matthew Stafford, did what he’s done all season and pretty much throughout his career. And that is come through with the game on the line.
I think this was his 54th career game-winning drive. But in the fourth quarter, he was lights out. 12 of 15, 143 yards, two touchdowns, two go-ahead touchdown drives.
And we’ll get to those in a second because this game can really be broken into thirds. You had the first part of the game, the first third of the game, where Stafford, the Rams, the offense, they came out of the locker room ready to go.
They were methodical. They did everything that we all thought they were going to do, right? They were going to come to Carolina, take care of business. This wasn’t going to be a repeat of what happened in week 13 when they lost. And they did. They scored on their first drive, took a 14-0 lead, and looked like they were in total control.
Now, the Rams clearly had the game plan to attack Carolina’s linebackers and safeties in the middle of the field. All three of Stafford’s touchdowns in the afternoon came against linebackers or safeties.
Their first one to Puka Nacua had Nacua lined up in the backfield. He was actually to the one-receiver side of a three-by-one. And what that did was it made the defense skew more towards the three-receiver side. And with Nacua running his route out of the backfield, not only did he get a free release, but he got matched up on a safety in space, and Stafford looked left to hold the coverage to the three-receiver side to keep any possible help defenders away from Nacua. And so you ended up with a huge mismatch of Nakua on a safety. He beat his man, had a ton of room. Stafford laid the ball in there, and the Rams were on the board:
Their second touchdown came on an option route to Kyren Williams out of the backfield, ended up running that against a linebacker. Again, another mismatch:
And then, of course, the game-winning touchdown came to Colby Parkinson, a tight end, running a wheel route where he ended up getting matched up on a safety. It was decent coverage, but one of the advantages of attacking safeties and linebackers is that they don’t have the ball skills of cornerbacks, receivers, tight ends. And so Parkinson was able to make a great catch, and of course the throw from Stafford was absolutely perfect: