Conference Title Game Picks With Sheil Kapadia. NFL Coach Hiring Drama With Dianna Russini. Plus What’s Up With the Celtics?
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What are the AFC and NFC title game picks?
A lot of NFL for you today on the podcast, we're going to pick the AFC and NFC title games tendencies maybe with Shilka Padia and the latest on all the NFL coaching hires. How did all of these people land where they landed the best job and the worst job? with NFL insider Diana Rossini. I went to the Lakers Celtics last night. The Lakers looked really good. The Celtics did not. The Celtics are kind of weird right now. What's going on? I dig into some of the numbers, present some theories. I'm probably not convinced of any of it yet, but I'm going to share it with you anyway. And life advice. Well, let's do it. Our picks and breakdown. Sheil Kapadia, who joins us. You know him from the Ringer Philly special and the Ringer NFL show. It is my favorite slate of NFL football.
I know everybody likes division because you get the four games. I just think the magnitude of what matters. I think we remember these games a lot better than we remember the division games. So let's just start in the AFC. On Monday, I said I was picking Buffalo. I hate it. Because you're picking against Mahomes. But I'm there. Let's do this. Let's do it for the Bills down in Kansas City. Who are you picking?
I've got the bills too. I hate it too. I hate myself for doing it because I know my feeling, what it's going to be like on Sunday around nine o'clock Eastern time where I'm going, you idiot. Why did you try to do this again and outsmart yourself? But I just feel like, you know, from a narrative standpoint, I felt coming into the playoffs that Josh Allen or Lamar, one of them was going to finally, finally break through. And so I'm basically just sticking to a previous take. That's my analysis.
Okay. Now, If you look at the thing that was... Did you pick Baltimore against Buffalo? No, I had the Bills. Okay, all right. It made a lot of sense on paper because of the mismatch of thinking about the front and Derrick Henry and the rushing attack, a lighter D-line. I mean, I think it was repeated nonstop during the broadcast as well, but that was the Baltimore argument in picking them against Buffalo. Oh, which is the way I should say it. And honestly, it made a lot of sense. If you look at this Bill's rushing attack, They've been really good at it. Sometimes I think the best quarterbacks, maybe it's the offensive coordinator and Brady being there for a while, but it's just sometimes they can't help themselves with the toys. And it's pretty clear that Buffalo a couple games in, and the Denver game wasn't really close, but at times it felt conservative even against Baltimore.
But it seems like with this rushing approach, 362 yards combined, 4.8 yards per carry, that that is something that Buffalo feels like can travel.
Yeah, this actually started, I feel like, for them in last year's divisional round game against the Chiefs. If you look at that game, it was one of the most efficient offensive games for any team all season. And they still lost because they couldn't produce explosive plays and they missed a field goal and Mahomes is Mahomes and all that. But yeah, I think they really leaned into it this year. They are running the football on first and second down at a higher rate than league average, where like five years ago, you know, we would say you have Josh Allen at quarterback. what are you doing? Like put the ball in his hands, let him cook. But they've kind of leaned into this. They've got an awesome offensive line, a huge offensive line that can really run block.
And that's been sort of the way they've played this year. And the other thing aligned with that is they're turning the football over at the lowest rate of any offense in 25 years. It's crazy. Four percent of their possessions this year have resulted in turnovers. And so they've kind of leaned into it when they need Josh Allen to be Josh Allen. He can be third and fourth down late in the game. But yes, the run game has kind of been at the heart of everything they do this season. That's been the big change with this version of the Bills team.
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