Below, I’ve posted the transcript of the most recent Football Film Room podcast covering the Divisional Round and included 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:
Bills vs. Broncos - It happened again
49ers vs. Seahawks - The Seahawks left no doubt
Texans vs. Patriots - C.J. Stroud gave the game away
Bears vs. Rams - Another thrilling ending
Here is a direct link to the podcast, and below that you can find the transcript and plays:
The Football Film Room Show - Episode #17 Transcript
Welcome to the Football Film Room Show. I’m Nick Kehoe, and we’ve got another great episode for you today.
We’re going to go through all the action from the Divisional Round.
Bills vs. Broncos
I’ll be honest, we’re going to spend the most amount of time on that Bills-Broncos game because while the divisional round is always very consequential, it was even more so for the Bills.
Not only did their season come to a heartbreaking end again, but Sean McDermott was fired less than 48 hours after the game. Now, we’ll get into that decision. We’ll get into why that decision probably had to be made.
But first, I want to talk about Josh Allen and the commentary around him coming out of this game. Because I watched the live broadcast. Then I watched the All-22 the next day. And what I saw just, I don’t know, it just did not match up with what I was hearing on NFL analysis shows and Twitter, of course.
Because I think Allen played a pretty damn good game.
You’re probably not hearing that in many places, but he made a ton of plays, a ton of throws. He ended up with roughly 350 total yards, three touchdowns, had several big-time throws, big-time decisions.
There was a third down where he threw the ball with such great anticipation. His receiver turned around, and the ball was pretty much in his face, had no choice but to catch it:
He had one play to Shakir [actually it was Keon Coleman] where he threw smoke and ended up being a touchdown. That’s where it’s basically a designed run play, and the quarterback has the ability to throw the ball to the backside if he likes the matchup:
Allen did a great job there of recognizing what was going on, standing up quickly and throwing a quick slant to Shakir Coleman.
Had another RPO where, again, he made a quick snap decision right after the snap, hit Shakir for 40-plus yards:
Had a big run with his legs…
Made a bunch of plays…
And at the end of the day, when you score 30 points, your team should win. When you score 30 points and lose, that game is not on the offense. When you score 13 points in the fourth quarter, including a go-ahead touchdown drive and then a last-second game-tying field goal drive, it’s really tough to put that game on the quarterback.
Now, were there throws and plays that Josh Allen would like back? Of course. Of course. He ended up with four turnovers. I thought two of them were on him.
The play before the end of the half where he was running around completely reckless with the ball…it looked like on the broadcast he was trying to lateral it, but then if you watched it on film, it almost looked like he was glancing towards the sideline to see if he could get out of bounds to stop the clock, and then he got hit and his hand got knocked backwards:
So it almost looked like he was shoveling it backwards. And maybe he was. Either way, way too reckless with the ball in that situation. That gave Denver three points.
The other turnover that was on him was the interception in the third quarter where he threw the ball deep and just didn’t get enough on it:
But the other two turnovers, one was a sack-fumble where he basically planted his back foot and got hit right as he was throwing it. And then the interception, the last play that everyone’s talking about, those two really weren’t on him.
On the sack, he was setting the protection at the line. He saw the blitz. He had James Cook go up and hang out right behind the center in the right A-gap so they could pick up the pressure look that Denver was showing them. There were 1-on-1’s across the board.
To the left, they had Nick Bonito, and Shakir was kind of right off of the left tackle, ran a little bit of interference on Bonito. And then Dion Dawkins just still couldn’t even get to him. Didn’t even get a hand on Bonito, and he basically had a free rush in on Allen when, on paper, it was supposed to be picked up:
The final play, the throw to Brandin Cooks, I mean, that was an outstanding throw. Threw it, what, 40, 50 yards downfield?
The ball hit Brandin Cooks in the right shoulder pad, and people are still arguing over whether or not it was a catch:
Now, I’m not going to get into that. I’m not going to open up that can of worms of what’s a catch, what’s not a catch. Whether he had possession of the ball and two feet on the ground and was being touched down or whether he didn’t survive the ground, whatever it is…
The point I’m making here is that for the second straight year, the Bills’ season ended with Josh Allen’s last pass hitting his receiver in the shoulder pads or the hands and that receiver not coming down with it:
Now, of course, there were other throws that Allen missed. I think right before they kicked the game-tying field goal, he had Dawson Knox for a touchdown. Threw the ball a little bit high, just missed him. I think it was because of the pressure that that happened, but of course that’s one he wants back: