Super Wild Card Preview
Plus reaction to the Patriots hire of Jerod Mayo as Head Coach
The script writers at the NFL were on one when they concocted the storylines for this weekend!
Browns at Texans
The Texans are back in the Texans/Bengals slot: the 4:30pm Saturday playoff game is made for those two teams. In my head pictures of these games, its just 8-8 Marvin Lewis/Andy Dalton Bengals teams playing DPOY JJ Watt/Matt Schaub Texans teams. Well the Texans are back where they belong and the storyline here is that the NFL really can’t lose no matter the outcome.
If the Texans win, then Houston rookie QB CJ Stroud gets a win in his first playoff game and is instantly the New Kid on the Block (Hangin’ Tough) in the AFC’s second round. If the Browns win, then 38-year old, father of 5, Joe Flacco will continue the league’s best story line, celebrate his 39th birthday on the 16th and then wage the Uncivil War that has been building for 30-years between Baltimore and Cleveland. Think of that, in 1995 owner Art Modell ripped the Browns from Cleveland (and fired Bill Belichick) and rebranded them the Baltimore Ravens. The Browns didn’t exist again until 1999.
And now Joe Flacco, the MVP of the last Ravens Super Bowl (the Harbaugh Bowl at Super Bowl 47) could be the one to get redemption for the city of Cleveland against the bully’s from Baltimore that stole their team and the MVP that stole his job (Lamar Jackson) and end their best season in over a decade. That’s too much not to root for, it might also be the ploy to a tremendous Disney/sports/kids movie. (Cleveland Rocks! Starring Jon Hamm as Joe Flacco.)
Plus, Browns DC Jim Schwartz loves to bring pressure and CJ Stroud is one of the worst QBs in the league against pressure.
Browns 23 Texans 20
Dolphins at Chiefs
Look, I just sat through a miserable weather game, so I sympathize with the fans that will flock to Arrowhead on Saturday night, where the temps are supposed to hover around 0 with wind chills near -30. I do and there has been some discussion as to if this game should be played under those conditions due to safety to the teams and fans. Believe me the flu I picked up as souvenir from Belichick’s last game in Foxborough makes me sympathetic to those cold soles in KC. But this game is gonna look freakin awesome on TV! (Actually it’s on Peacock (Not a sponsor.)
Arrowhead always presents well on screen, add in the cold, the lights, this uniform match up and this is the most beautiful game of the week. Plus you have the Tyreek Hill’s return to Kansas City, two potentially high powered offenses and factor in that it feels like the Saturday night playoff games always end up as classics. (I have zero to back up that statement other than, the Snow Bowl was played on a Saturday night.)
The Dolphins are limping to the finish, literally, they have a Pro Bowl unit on their IR right now, especially on defense where they’d been greatly improved this year. Add in that I don’t like the Dolphins on the road vs a good time or in cold weather. That’s a lot of strikes against Mike McDaniel’s team. I think KC will be a bit sluggish, as they have been most of the season, but they’ll get the job done.
Chiefs 27 Dolphins 19
Steelers at Bills
I’m just sick of the Steeler’s crap. I mean this team was a bunch of rock fight artists when they had their starting quarterback Kenny Pickett. When he went down, they put in Mitch Trubusky and they lost to the Patriots. Now they’ve exhumed Mason Rudolph from the shadow realm Myles Garrent sent him to in 2019. I’m just sick of watching them and I think this is the least competitive game of the weekend. I’m told by my Bills pal Troy that we could get some Lake Effect Snow for this one as they’re a snow band over the Finger Lakes right now. (People get lost in the Finger Lakes.) It would dress this game up a bit.
Buffalo was dead two months ago and nobody in the AFC stepped up and buried them. The Steelers won’t the Undertaker either.
Bills 34 Steelers 17
Time out for the halftime show sponsored by Jerod’s All-Pro Mayo (not a sponsor)
News broke just hours after my last Notebook that the Patriots were announcing Jerod Mayo as their next head coach. I like Mayo. Everybody likes Mayo. I think he has all the skills you want in a head coach (except experience.) I like that the team moved quickly and had a plan in place, apparently the team submitted succession plans with the league a year ago when they had Jerod take his name out of consideration for other head coaching vacancies. So the team made good on whatever their promise was to him a year ago.
What they couldn’t have foreseen, and nobody could, would be that Mike Vrabel would be available. That is the ultimate monkey wrench. If Vrabel were still with Tennessee, I think fans in New England would be thrilled to break their old 51 jerseys out. But the idea of Vrabel has had everybody salivating since October when he donned the red jacket. Vrabel checks almost all of the same boxes that Mayo does, plus has 6-years of head coaching experience in the NFL, took a team to an AFC title game and two years ago was the coach of the year. We all like Mayo, but Vrabes would have fired up the fan base to another level.
I’ve officially talked myself into this hierarchy: Mayo is the head coach, bring back Josh McDaniels to run the offense (with Mayo being a defensive guy, you need a strong offensive mind. Maybe that’s Billy O, but Josh will be back in the fold in New England or wherever Bill goes.) Keep Steve Belichick as DC (maybe assistants will actually have titles now!?!?)
And then you hire your GM: Mike Vrabel. Word out of Tennessee was that he likes the personnel side and wanted more control with the Titans which they weren’t willing to give him. Maybe that’s only something he wanted if it came with coaching the team, but that would be the Kraft power play of power plays. Vrabel and Mayo would be a fresh, yet familiar regime in New England. Back to the Preview.
Packers at Cowboys
I know that Dallas is the higher seed and thusly get to host this game, but I’m sorry, the Cowboys and Packers should only meet at Lambeau. I don’t care the year, I don’t care who the President is, I don’t care if Tony Romo is screeching over the…..wait, no I do care and I don’t want him ruining this for us. The point is, Cowboys and Packers should always play at Lambeau because it’s instant NFL Films vibes whenever these two teams put their get ups on and line up across from each other. Even when they played in 2015 (the Dez caught it game) it felt like it could’ve been 1967.
The biggest story line to watch is the growing buzz that if the Cowboys fail to get out of the first round and with all the tasty head coaching candidates that are out there, would Jerry Jones fire Mike McCarthy if he loses to his former team? Also, would Jerry Jones hire Bill Belichick? Would Bill Belichick want to coach for Jerry Jones? I think the answer to both questions is yes. I believe that Bill is continuing on because he loves coaching and he wants 15 more wins to break Don Shula’s record. He could get that in a season in Dallas. Bill, with this roster? Hell, he could win a Super Bowl with this roster. (Imagine a greater villain that Bill Belichick winning a Super Bowl for the Dallas Cowboys? That’d be like if at the end of Terminator 2, (spoiler alert) if the Terminator turned heel again and dropped John and Sarah Conner in the molten liquid metal and rode off into the sunset on a Harley listening to Dwight Yoakam.)
Cowboys 30 Packers 24
Rams at Lions
The Lions are hosting their first playoff game in 30 years and trying to win their first playoff game since 1991. To do so, they have to beat arguably the best QB in their franchise’s history. Matthew Stafford left them 3 years ago and immediately won a Super Bowl with the Rams. Now in 2023/24, the Lions have rallied around Sean McVay’s castoff, Jared Goff, and have the 3 seed in the NFC. McVay and Goff went to a Super Bowl together and after one of the great offensive seasons in league history, scored a whopping 3 points in the Super Bowl against New England. Andy McVay dropped Woody Goff on the floor and decided to play with Buzz Stafford Lightyear instead.
Will Stafford knock the team he quarterbacked for 12-years to infinity and beyond? Or will the Lions reach for the sky get their first playoff win as Jared Goff says there’s a new sheriff in Detroit? Will Dan Campbell actually bite a kneecap?
Lions 28 Rams 27 (game of the weekend, that’s why it’s on Prime Time Sunday night. Might as well be the Wide World of Disney.)
Eagles at Buccaneers
How is Tampa hosting a playoff game? How did they get into the playoffs? I’m asking too many questions in this Notebook, but golly-day this game deserves it. The Eagles were world beaters for most of the season, but you know how it goes, your head of security gets banned from the sidelines and who wouldn’t lose 5 of their next 6? I don’t get how the Eagles are as bad as they are, but they’ve become a dumpster fire. However, they’re playing Tampa Bay, quarterbacked by Baker Mayfield, in a playoff game. Tampa Bay, who in a win and get in week 18 scenario beat the 2 win Panthers 9-0. NINE TO NOTHING. I really like this weekend’s schedule, but there’s no reason for this game to be highlighted as the only game on Monday and shouldn’t be played in prime time. This game has daylight written all over it. Ugly, putrid, rock fight.
Eagles 16 Buccaneers 6