2026 NFL Playoffs. It's Unpredictable.

Packers vs Bears 27-24 4 plus minutes left.

That game was something. I really thought the Pack had it in the bag

Happy about the Niners. Bummed about the Bolts. Bolts need to make the interior offensive line a priority this off season in the draft and free agency

Huge Niner win although going the rest of the way without Kittle is gonna be tough. Bad enough that there's no Bosa or Warner already. Kittle just makes it tougher although the Tonges kid has been great in a reserve role. Saw him get a TD in the only game I went to in person this season when they lost to Jacksonville

Nice, about seeing Tonges.

The Chargers seem to be like the Packers, over the past decade plus. A lot of postseason losses.

Is there a way to find out every team's postseason W/L record since 2004?

I don't trust StatMuse a lot, but it says the Chargers are 5 - 10. It won't show me data for the Packers.

https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/every-nfl-teams-won-loss-record-since-2004-in-the-postseason

I'll look it up myself.

I have 13 - 15.

Was the Chargers offensive line a problem all season?

Yeah, injuries everywhere

It wasn't much of an offensive line to begin with but they had two really good tackles. Rashawn Slater got a huge contract and then got hurt two weeks later which caused him to miss the season

Joe Alt was the #5 pick in the 2024 draft but was only able to play around 3 or 4 games with various injuries and was ruled out for the year when he got hurt two months ago

And those were pretty much the only good linemen that they had. I'm actually surprised that they did as well as they did. Charger twitter needs to chill

How did you think the game was going to go, and what were some of the actual reasons for success?

Every year, I hear analysts say that west coast warm weather teams don't do well when they travel to cold weather.

Seems like the 49ers have done well against the Packers and Eagles in the playoffs.

And yes, I heard that same analysis again yesterday I think on Westwood One radio about tonight's Texans vs. Steelers game.

They said the Texans can't practice in cold weather.

My concern was the Niner defense. The same way the Bolts were without their two best offensive linemen, the Niners were without their two best defensive players but they were able to overcome it

The weather in Philly was actually pretty good. Not too cold given that it's January but the wind was a problem. Thankfully, the Niners didn't have to kick a bunch of field goals so the wind didn't become too much of a factor

How would you compare / rank Patrick Willis and Fred Warner?

Especially since both are middle line backers.

What did you think of coaching, on either side of the ball.

Willis is good but Warner is actually better IMO. Very smart and cerebral. Figures things out pre snap without Saleh having to tell him what to do and what not

Excellent play calling on both sides of the ball. Shanahan is basically calling the offense while Saleh is the DC. Saleh is limited due to injuries but has figured out how to get the most out of what he has

What does everyone think of this?

I like it. Their season had just ended.

There's only so many different ways you can ask "what went wrong". Maybe she could have included a question too, but others probably did, and maybe she had enough info for her article.

Plus, it was one of the best seasons in their history, regular season wise.

Of course the team should privately assess what they can do better, but that doesn't mean they can't also acknowledge the positives.

That was good. A nice change of pace from the typical gloom and doom

Continuing my ire of Infinity Sports Radio suddenly closing shop, and Westwood One Radio replacing it, here's what I didn't like from John Mallory:

• A Steelers fan called to talk only about their kicker, and one other aspect. Maybe Metcalf.

Mallory berated the fan, and said that's not how the game is played now, and that he wouldn't be calling in to talk about those aspects of the game.

• A fan called in to talk about how the NFL Wildcard round is better than other 1st round of sports.

First of all, not every game was great, despite what radio hosts claim. There were some good games, some duds. I also think that the NFL could have used an upset like the Panthers winning.

2nd of all, while I don't like the new scheduling of the MLB playoffs, the expanded wildcard round has had some good games too. No need to disparage that. Did people forget we just had an 18 inning winner take all game 3 in the wildcard round?

And, the NBA playoffs has had enough 1st round game 7's to keep things interesting too.

Lastly, from other Westwood One radio hosts, I hear discussions like how Jacksonville vs Carolina would be the worst SuperBowl. I hate that kind of talk. They disparage it because those teams have no history. Well every team has to start somewhere. What was the history of the Kansas City Chiefs or Golden State Warriors before the past 11 years? They talked about how Packers vs. Bears was going to be great because of "history". Well it wasn't exactly a well played game.

That's the kind of talk teams from winning franchise say even during years where their team isn't that good. Like having history is supposed to be relevant for the current season.

Much like the NBA has too many 3's, is there too many passing attempts in the NFL now?

Seems like the Texans should run more, given some of their passing turnovers.

I think a lot has to do with personnel. If you have really good tackles and a good QB then you can justify a pass oriented offense

If you have good interior linemen who are good at opening holes then you would be wise to run the ball more or at least run early to set up the pass later on

I'm with you there. One of my favorite things about the last decade in the NBA is that we've seen first time winners and teams that you never would think could win a title, actually win a title. You mentioned the Warriors. People forget just how bad they were in the old days. They were in the lottery for 15 out of 16 seasons during Chris Cohan's tenure as owner with the "We Believe" run as their one post season appearance and then the first two seasons of Lacob's reign as well as he had to clean up Cohan's mess

But they are a big market team that finally tapped into a market that is tailor made for the NBA. Toronto, Milwaukee, Denver and OKC are much more impressive and while Toronto has become a hotbed of sorts for producing basketball talent, it's still not a free agent hot spot

Milwaukee is small for a two team metro area where the NFL team 100 miles away is more popular than the two local teams combined and Denver is small for a four sport city

OKC is the smallest or 2nd smallest market in the league depending on what year or what census you're looking at. It's between them and Memphis

When those teams win, you know that competitive balance is working which leads to better and more competitive games

I heard from some radio host (I think Westwood One again) that the NBA doesn't even want competitive balance. It's just an unintended consequence. Like if it happens, fine, but that's not what they are going for. I did try ESPN Radio last night for an extended period. They've changed since I used to regularly listen to them, until around 2010. Their night show is more like a recap of what happened. The host doesn't actually offer commentary. I want a combination of full coverage, plus commentary. I was happy they got in some....

It just seems like Texas was making mistakes while passing. So why not try running a little more?

This goes beyond yesterday's game. I do not like how games featuring Aaron Rodgers are broadcasted. It seems like the commentary is always about how if it works, Aaron Rodgers was great. If it doesn't work, it was someone else's fault. They even had on screen promos mid game, saying "Aaron Rodgers coming up" before the Steelers offense would take the field. They did not do that for CJ Stroud. Perhaps it was because they were trying to do a tribute for his potential final game. But this goes beyond Troy Aikman's broadcasting yesterday's game. Aaron Rodgers is always covered this way. Not only that, but Rodgers has never seemed inspiring to be, with all of his angry looks. Patrick Mahomes is also almost covered the same way. But I don't think he gives those angry looks, so I'm better with it. I think not giving angry looks, but reacting differently, is more inspiring. If any other QB had the same 3rd down stats as what the Steelers did, there would be more criticism at the QB. But with Aaron Rodgers, from a broadcasting perspective, it's almost never his fault. Even Patrick Maholmes got humbled a bit by broadcasters during last year's SuperBowl. Yes, I realize the Texans got some scores from their defense, so more of their credit would go to them, rather than the Texans offense. But it seems like any QB opposing Aaron Rodgers is never covered the same way, regardless of if that other team is winning. Lastly, I'll go back to the basic principle. If doing it one way isn't working as well, why not try something else? The Steelers didn't have to try long passes on almost every play. Sometimes some short passes of a few yards, or running it a....

Thanks, I didn't remember the Silver quote. I like the competitive balance. And most of the time, I like seeing new teams try to win their first, or establish some continuity. That Lakers team with Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell was actually one that was more blue collar, and better to watch. Didn't like the preceding ones, especially since I'm not a Magic Johnson guy. Didn't like the Shaq ones. Shaq is too much about himself and his personality. And he says some weird things. Like one time, he said "I work on my boom boom boom game". It's....

I wonder who "the NBA" is, in this case. Adam Silver? His accountants? Bec. if it's the owners, they could end competitive balance overnight by eliminating the salary cap.

Good question. The NBA is technically the owners, their lawyers and Adam Silver. Like you said and what I mentioned above, if they only cared about large markets and didn't care about competitive balance, they would just do away with the cap. The fact that the cba keeps getting more and more owner friendly tells me that those radio hosts don't know what they're talking about and just have an axe to grind

Thanks. Any thoughts about my longer post?

Interesting but not surprising regarding Kobe's efficiency although I did find the fact that Iverson beat him in that category to be surprising

Those Laker teams were funner to watch but not due to Jones or Campbell. Van Exel and Ceballos were fun to watch regardless of their off court goofiness

Back to Iverson, the coach wanted to bring him off the bench and he was hell bent on starting so that relationship was doomed from the start. That coach was on to something. These high volume, no passing, low efficiency players need to come off the bench as instant offense types. I guess the Kobe's and Iverson's of the world are too good to come off the bench but someone like James Harden nowadays would be a better fit off the bench

And yes, just about any era of L word basketball is not only undesirable due to everything about the organization, the Shaq and Kobe era was just boring and unwatchable regardless of whether you were a fan of the team or not

I will say that the showtime era was fun to watch as was the brief Van Exel and Ceballos era

Yes I forgot to mention Van Exel and Ceballos too.

I do think Iverson was a better passer than it might appear. He almost never had a 2nd scoring threat next to him.

One of the few times he did, was when Van Horn was in Philadelphia. I thought that Philadelphia team was playing well. Then they traded Van Horn during All-Star weekend when he was on vacation at Disney World.

One other stat I remember is that there was some game where Iverson and Stackhouse both scored 30, and it had been several years since Philadelphia had two players score 30 in the same game. I don't have any way to look this up, but I'd suspect more than 1/2 the league probably had one game where two players scored 30 in the same game, within the same time frame.

Going back to that Van Exel and Ceballos team, it was just a bit more refreshing that there wasn't a giant overshadowing personality on the team, but more of a group effort.

And those guys actually talked about the game afterwards. Unlike Shaq or Kobe, who would say weird things or ego related things.

Perhaps Iverson had declined to a point when he went to a Detroit, that he should have been a bench player. I would have to rewatch to think about it.

While Showtime was before I started watching the NBA, anytime I have watched a replay of that era, I find myself preferring their grittier opponents. Boston, Detroit, Utah, Philadelphia.

And that was before I found out a year or two ago that Larry Bird averaged double digit rebounds for a lot of his career. I think I also saw a matchup against the Spurs, and was reminded that Rod Strickland used to play for them.

I have not seen the Sleepy Floyd game yet, but probably will at some point.

I was actually at the Sleepy Floyd game with my Dad. It was my sophomore year in high school. Lakers had a decent lead heading to the 4th before he went off. Funny thing is, HBO, with it's new found hard on for the city of Oakland, made a parody movie of sorts detailing events that took place in Oakland during the mid to late 80's only they put a semi super hero vs. villains sci-fil element to it. It's called "Freaky Tales" and is available on HBO now

I'll link the wikipedia page but don't read the plots if you plan on watching so as not to ruin it for you. Pedro Pascal stars with plenty of big time and small time cameos from well known Oakland people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freaky_Tales_(film)

It's fun watching old Larry Bird videos. He was deceptively athletic and a double figure rebounder in every year before his back went out

While Eddie Jones never talked to the media and Van Exel was standoffish, I liked Ceballos and he usually had good things to say to the point where he became the Sun's emcee around 20 years ago

Too bad he's not the Suns arena emcee now. I'd want to pay more attention to how he does it, since I have the version of LP where I see the in arena feed.

I see a thread topic of NFL... but enter on NBA convos...

Just gonna leave this here:

GO RAMS!

Thoughts on last weekend's game?

Rams and Seahawks was a great game

Can't really say the same for the other game but that has more to do with the weather conditions

What did you think about the Broncos 4th down decision early in the game?

I was fine with it. But, I didn't know there would be such drastic weather changes later. If I had known that, then I would have gone for the FG.

BUT, even a 10-0 lead isn't that much. New England outplayed them the last 3 quarters, and could have overcome that.

Yes, Rams vs. Seahawks was a great game.

Agreed. OTOH, they knew about the possibility of snow in the forecast and could've strategized accordingly. I would've played it safe regardless