Weekend Slate: The blowouts of the AFC, the tedium of Eagles-Packers, and the clutch gene of Jayden Daniels

If you are looking to review the Houston Texans-Los Angeles Chargers game, that can be found here.

Commanders 23 at Buccaneers 20

I don’t know that I necessarily believe in a player being more “clutch” than his peers over the course of their life. I can feel those moments, of course. I can even have the feeling of “Oh wow, you don’t want (Patrick Mahomes) to get the ball back here.” But I just believe that these things tend to even out over the course of games, years, etc, and any excess clutchness is the product of being great and being in those situations often to begin with.

Anyway, Jayden Daniels is clutch. He’s completed 71.1 percent of his regular-season passes for 1111 yards and 11 touchdowns in the fourth quarter this year. And after Deion Jones (a ghost of Dan Quinn’s past) helped thwart a long fourth-quarter goal-line drive, he got another chance when the Buccaneers uncharacteristically gave the ball away deep in their own territory on what looked like an end around gone wrong:

Given another fourth-and-2 try, this time Daniels whizzed a ball over an underneath zone defender to Terry McLaurin to tie the game.

One thing I greatly enjoy about Daniels is how little wasted movement there is. He takes one step back on the windup here to get to the platform he wants the ball out from, and that’s literally it. The fact that it comes out as fast as it does is almost disarming, something you appreciate only after watching hundreds of other quarterback wind this ball back. He is the 90s Ninja trope come to life, just beating someone over and over again so quickly that it looks like he’s not doing anything at all, or that there’s three of him in the pocket and you have to pick which one is the real him.

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The Buccaneers take the ball and drive in a tied game, but run into a key third-down where Mayfield changes the play at the huddle, but rookie center Graham Barton snaps it early and everything is chaos. Todd Bowles — one of the masters in the field of rough clock management — decided to settle for a tying field-goal attempt on the ensuing fourth-and-3. He would then never see the ball again. Daniels ripped crucial throws of 21 yards to Dyami Brown, and 18 yards to Austin Ekeler to keep the Commanders churning. The Ekeler one all but ended the game, and Daniels went right back to the Kung Fu well when he took a first down on third-and-2 on a run like so:

We had a lot of dominating stiff arms this weekend. Derrick Henry on Minkah Fitzpatrick, a flurry of them from Dallas Goedert on Carrington Valentine. Joe Mixon had a good one. Daniels didn’t so much stiff arm free rusher Kalijah Cancey as he did give him a gentle nudge to the shoulder — but that was all the space he needed. 90s Ninja Shit. Daniels finishes the last two drives 6-of-6 for 57 yards and a rushing first down.

I enjoyed the Buccaneers season and I enjoyed the little NFC South taste that a Mike Evans-Marshon Lattimore matchup gave us. Evans thoroughly dominated this one for once, so that wasn’t Tampa’s problem in this game. They simply lost too many key downs at the wrong times down the stretch, punted twice to Washington’s zero times, and had the game’s only turnover. Chris Godwin will be a free agent and they’ll have to hope they can keep Liam Coen or get the replacement right for the second year in a row, but the Bucs should be in good position to keep their mini-NFC South dynasty going. It’s not what it was when Brady was here, but it’s still plenty of fun.

Daniels? He gets to try his clutch bonafides out against the No. 1 seeded Lions next week. Good luck.

Packers 10 at Eagles 22

This was a dreary, injury-riddled game. After an opening kickoff fumble recovered by the Eagles, Jalen Hurts started 6-for-6 with a touchdown pass to, of all people, Jahan Dotson. He got there by virtue of a Packers pass rush that was rushing to contain and instead almost didn’t rush at all, letting Hurts stand in for nearly seven seconds:

Hurts then fell into a deep funk the likes of which we’ve, well, actually seen fairly often this year. The Eagles moved the ball nine yards on their next four drives after going up 10-0, and Hurts was 0-for-7 on those drives. Eventually they found a 16-3 lead after Dallas Goedert baptized Carrington Valentine on a big blitz for six:

The good news is that this version of the Eagles doesn’t need passing. It needs Saquon Barkley, and then A.J. Brown reading on the sideline while their defense takes care of things. Outside of a Mean Run by Josh Jacobs for 32 yards that set up Green Bay’s only touchdown, the Packers had absolutely nothing going for them. Injuries decimated them, and by the end of the game their pair of backup guards that were standing in for Elgton Jenkins were drawing a brutal holding penalty every other drive while Jordan Love stood in and tried to rip throws at Malik Heath and Bo Melton.

I don’t think this necessarily means anything deep for the Packers. They advanced further last year, but they were silenced without their best weapons against a great Eagles defense. They’re also a running team that needs to not be in a 10-0 hole to be at their best. And they didn’t get to play America’s Chokers this year. It does sort of feel like they don’t have enough in the tank to simply beat the best of the best — they’re the kind of team that needs to wind up with three major draft pick hits or three ring-chasing stars somehow, only the Packers rarely ever do the second part of that as an operating philosophy.

Perhaps all they need is a year where Love rolls out healthy for 17 games, or a year where they survive the injury attrition in a way that other teams don’t. But it was always going to be hard to imagine them surviving this game based on how this year had gone to this point. (And can someone please let Matt LaFleur know that Jayden Reed doesn’t have to be solely a slot receiver?)

The Eagles face the winner of tonight’s Vikings-Rams game and will threaten the winner in a first-to-20 race in the Divisional Round.

Bills 31 at Broncos 7

Bo Nix staked the Broncos to a 7-0 lead with an impressive deep touchdown pass to Troy Franklin. Broncos fans probably could have stopped watching there. The Bills punted once in eight possessions, and that only happened after a back-to-back of false start and Zach Allen sack of Josh Allen set up a third-and-21.

(Josh) Allen put the game out of reach in the third quarter after a nine-play, 5:34 touchdown drive. Sean McDermott called for the go on fourth-and-1 at the Denver 24, and Allen went for the kill shot to No. 1 wideout and No. 1 third-down back Ty Johnson:

It’s really cool to see Ty Johnson — a guy who I will always remember as a middling Jets UDFA back and confuse with Jonathan Grimes — wind up with this kind of signature playoff moment. The play also spells out how the Bills won: When they did pressure Allen (and they managed quite a few!) it did not matter at all. When the Bills simply ran the ball, Denver could not hold up at the point of attack. James Cook’s 120 yards rushing led a 44/210 rushing line as a team, but that gets even more impressive when you realize their longest carry was 19 yards. 22 of Buffalo’s 39 carries were successful per NFL Pro.

I don’t think Denver’s offense played ~*bad*~, but as was the theme in the AFC this week, the team that could not run the ball did not advance. The Bills did not fall for the Marvin Mims Jr. eye candy, and Bo Nix’s receivers left a few major drops on the turf:

Sean Payton had to pull out a trick play punt to keep this drive alive.

I don’t think the Broncos have anything to hang their heads about, getting to the No. 7 seed despite being Russell Wilson Cap Holded is pretty impressive. Nix’s rookie year was a success, and I wouldn’t be stunned if he took another step forward this offseason. I do kind of wish, in retrospect, we at least got to see Joe Burrow take a crack at this Bills defense. Both because I think it would have been more fun and because I think it might have been the Burrow/Chase/Higgins Bengals last ride. In all likelihood, the Bengals also would have gotten their ass kicked. The Bills, as it turns out, are Good At Football.

Are they good enough to avenge a 35-10 loss to the Ravens in Week 4? Because that’s what it will take to keep going.

Steelers 14 at Ravens 28

While the final score looked somewhat respectable, it masked a dominant Ravens performance on the ground where Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson combined to nearly roll the Steelers for 300 combined yards. Baltimore scored touchdowns on three of their four first-half drives to open up a 21-0 halftime lead and effectively bled the final six minutes on a game-ending drive that would have easily scored more points had they needed it to.

Jackson carried the ball 15 times for 81 yards, the first time he toted 10 or more carries since a Week 6 win over the Commanders, and wound up with a heating pad on his back for a bit of the second quarter. If his body can hold up to this punishment, I’ve got to say: Nothing looks more dominant right now than this offense with the ability to free up space for Derrick Henry. Behold:

The fact that you need to choose correctly on the fastest quarterback on the planet or try to tackle Henry in space is patently unfair. Given how both offenses work better when running the ball and how important the lead will be, I’d advise the Bills-Ravens coin toss winner to take the ball first. Too important to stay on script.

The Steelers hit a few moon balls — one impressive touchdown for George Pickens when he deftly snagged a ball away from his body to avoid a safety, then waltzed into the end zone — but simply couldn’t run. They had eight running back carries for 23 yards, and they were never going to win a game with that little running and this pass offense.

It has been reported that the Steelers will retain Mike Tomlin (an obvious keep to me) and they’re in an interesting spot where a) the offense isn’t good enough for them to be a great team, b) both quarterbacks and both of their top two running backs are free agents, and c) Arthur Smith is getting head-coaching interviews. Over the past few years we have seen the Sam Darnoldssaince, Baker Mayfield reclaim his career, and Geno Smith become one of the NFL’s 15 best quarterbacks in Seattle. As much fretting as I see over the idea that the Steelers are too good to tank, I don’t know that they’re necessarily not being smart about this. I just think they haven’t found the right combo of pass offense, pass offense infrastructure, and offensive coordinator since Ben Roethlisberger got too long in the tooth to wing it.

How will they approach those answers this offseason? It could be almost a full rebuild if they wanted it to be.