 It's being called Super Wild Card Weekend, six games in the duration of two days to kick off the NFL postseason, which is different than the regular four games that we usually have for the Wild Card round. We'll be giving you notes and analysis for each game this Saturday and Sunday, plus news around the NFL to kick off a brand new episode of Time 2 Football. Hello everyone, thank you guys so much for joining us for this podcast. My name is Hasan Khan, the host of this show. Listen, fantasy football, it's over. A lot of you guys are dipping. That's okay. I don't know what the viewership is going to look like for this podcast. Maybe it's only going to be two people, three people, four people, whatever it is. We're still going to knock it out. We're still going to do this thing, and we're going to premiere this live on YouTube so you guys can join us in the chat on YouTube. I'll be hanging out with you guys as well. Usually you guys ask your fantasy football questions in the chat. Since it's over, just let's talk about football. Let's hang out, talk football, talk about the teams and the games that are happening and that are playing this Saturday and Sunday. Let's talk about our Super Bowl picks as well. Just hang out. Have a good time for the next 30 minutes, hour, however long this podcast may be. But if you guys are watching this video, make sure you guys subscribe to this channel so you can stay up to date for weekly shows that we come out with every single week. And vice versa, if you want to listen to us on the go and you don't want to watch in a 30 minute or hour long video on YouTube, you can listen to us on iTunes. Head over to the podcast app and search for Time to Football. Subscribe to us on there. Listen to us on the go. We're going to talk about all the six games and all the teams that will be playing this weekend. But first, even though the regular season is over, we still do this every single week handing out the most prestigious award on the show, the Hungriest Player of the Week. Hungriest Player of the Week, the one that wanted it the most. Listen, week 17, a lot of players balled out. Maybe it was their last week of playing football for the season because their team didn't make the postseason. Maybe there's a lot of players that wanted to really play hard to help their team get into the NFL playoffs. And that is the case for this particular Hungriest Player of the Week, the second time this season that we named him the Hungriest Player of the Week. Chase Young of the Washington football team is very deserving of the Hungriest Player of the Week award. I mean, you're looking at stats, okay, not the greatest in the world, the pretty above average, a sack, a fumble recovery, two tackles, three QB hits. But the thing is stats tell a different story. It's all about the eye test. And if you watch that game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Chase Young was the bread and butter of that defensive line and helped that Washington defense limit the Philadelphia Eagles offense to just 14 points. So just Jalen Hertz rushing touchdowns. But he led this defensive line to a victory, the Washington football team to a victory and help the team clinch a playoff spot, the NFC East Division title and face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend. And that is why Chase Young is your Hungriest Player of the Week. News and notes around the NFL heading into wildcard weekend. A lot of praise reports to hand out. First off, the best news of all, Adam Gase has been relieved. No longer the head coach of the New York Jets. Long time coming. Jets fans, congratulations. You deserve it. Adam Gase has been let go as well as Doug Morone has been let go by the Jacksonville Jaguars as well. Two coaches fired and those teams are looking for a new head coaching candidate to help lead their team for the future as well as the LA Chargers letting go of their head coach, Anthony Lynn no longer being a part of that team. A lot of teams are now interviewing head coaching candidates to see who's going to be leading their team for the future. Some head coaching interviews have been going on for the past week. Brian Dabel, the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. Robert Salah, defensive coordinator of 49ers. Eric Bienamy, the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs. Joe Brady, the offensive coordinator for the Panthers. Dan Mullin, the head coach of the Florida Gators, college football. Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator for the Titans and Todd Boles, the defensive coordinator has been interviewed by the Atlanta Falcons. So a lot of good coaching candidates out there, a lot of different teams like the Jets, the Chargers, the Falcons, the Panthers have all been interviewing these head coaching candidates. We'll keep you updated with all the coaching news that goes around the NFL when we hear more about that. Trevor Lawrence, the Clemson quarterback has officially declared for the NFL draft. So he'll be eligible to be drafted this upcoming April in 2021. And it's expected that Jacksonville Jaguars are going to draft him. If they don't, I have no idea what to say about that. But Trevor Lawrence more than likely is going to become a Jacksonville Jaguars with the news announcing that he'll be entering the NFL draft. Speaking about this weekend and some players that have been activated, whether it be from the COVID-19 list or off of IR, Cooper Cup, the Rams wide receiver is going to help out that passing game. Michael Thomas has been hurt. Then he came back, then he was hurt again. He's going to be able to play this weekend. Shaq Barrett, a good defensive player on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Eric Ebron, Andrew Whitworth, the veteran tackle is going to be eligible to play for the LA Rams. Some injury news that we don't know whether they're going to play or not. Mike Evans, the wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hyper extended his knee in week 17 in that victory against Atlanta Falcons. He is now considered to be a game time decision. Another wide receiver, Cole Beasley of the Buffalo Bills is listed as questionable as well. A big offensive player that's going to help out their team a lot, but may not even play. That's Jared Goff, questionable because of the thumb surgery that he had a couple of weeks ago. His status is still yet unknown. They're going to see how he goes in pregame warmups and let's see if he's eligible to play and willing to play if that against the Seattle Seahawks. From reports, it seems like he's been throwing the ball really well. So we're optimistic about Jared Goff. Olivia Vernon tore his Achilles week 17 against Pittsburgh Steelers. Listen, it just keeps on getting worse and worse for the Cleveland Browns. Despite the amount of COVID-19 inactives that they've had, the injuries that they've had, they still find themselves to go 11 and five and make the postseason. That's remarkable by Kevin Stefanski and that Cleveland Browns coaching staff and that team as well. So Olivia Vernon, this is another big blow on that defensive side of the ball. Going to be missing some time the rest of the season and unfortunately we'll miss this game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. And then the Bills signed Kenny Stills to the practice squad in wake of the Cole Beasley injury news as well. So those are just some of your news and notes around the NFL. Now to get into the preview for the games this weekend. Six games instead of four because the NFL expanded the playoffs from 12 teams to 14 teams, at least for this season. For the second time since 1970, all the teams in a single conference have at least 11 wins. Talking about the AFC, which we're going to talk about first, starting off with the game that's going to kick off wildcard weekend Saturday at one o'clock. The first game of the postseason will be the 11 and five Indianapolis Colts heading to Western New York to face the 13 and three Buffalo Bills. This is the 12th time that Philip Rivers has thrown for over 4000 yards in a season, which is tied for the second most ever. As for the Bills, this is the first division title win since 1995. The Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich is facing his former team. Not that he's coached for the Buffalo Bills, but he actually played for the Bills. If you remember back in the 90s in that playoff game, when the Bills came back and that amazing 32-point comeback against the Houston Oilers, Frank Reich was the quarterback of the Buffalo Bills that day. So he's going to be facing the Bills full circle. Pretty cool. The Colts, they're 11 and five like we mentioned. Their offense is ranked 11th in both passing and in rushing. Their defense, however, has been kind of lackluster. The 20th and pass and second in the rush. So in the rushing game, they're pretty good in the run defense out of the ball, but the pass defense, especially in the last three, four, five weeks or so, they've been kind of lackluster. Josh Allen and that passing offense is ranked third while that rushing offense is ranked 19th. That's because that those numbers are inflated a bit because of Josh Allen, who led the way for that Buffalo Bills rushing attack. Devin Singletary and Zach Moss, if they were just a lead back and there was just all about them, and Josh Allen had no input into that run game, they'd be ranked a lot lower. Defense, they're pretty decent, pretty average, 13th and pass and 17th in rush. For the Colts, they lost in the division round to the Chiefs in 2018. So this is the first playoff appearance for them since then. As for the Buffalo Bills, they lost in overtime last year, blowing that lead against the Houston Texans 22-19, and they haven't won a playoff game since they won the AFC East title last, and that was in 1995. So how can each team pick up the victory in this matchup? For the Colts, we talked about their offense being ranked 11th in passing and 11th in rushing. Phillip Rivers really turned it around when he started building a chemistry connection with T.Y. Hilton. Jonathan Taylor stepped up pretty late in the season, but he's been really, really solid for that Colts rushing attack. Actually, as a matter of fact, 253 yards rushing last week. The keys to the victory for the Colts, run the ball. It's all about that running game because the Bills pass defense is a little bit better than the run defense. The run defense has been exposed and the Colts can expose that run defense if Jonathan Taylor and that rushing attack or to get it going. So run the ball, expose the Bills, run defense. Don't stack the box. I'm telling you, against Josh Allen in the passing game, you don't want to stack the box. The reason because we talked about the Bills rushing game with Devin Singletary, with Zach Moss being lackluster and being a little bit too disappointing. If you don't stack the box because there's no need to stop those guys because they've been kind of disappointing, you can play the pass and try to contain Stefan Diggs and Josh Allen in that passing game as much as possible. Just force them to run the ball and the Colts will find themselves having a great key to victory. As for the Buffalo Bills, how can they pick up this victory? Josh Allen, Stefan Diggs, that duo, just keep on doing what you're doing. It doesn't matter who's matching up against Stefan Diggs. It seems like every single game he has maybe six, seven, eight, nine receptions or so and they've just been a pretty good wide receiver quarterback duo. So keep on honing in on that. This Colts pass defense hasn't been the best. The rush defense has been great but that doesn't even matter. Your run defense or your run offense for the Buffalo Bills is not even that good to begin with. So just keep on passing the ball against the Colts and you'll be fine. Two powerhouses and the run game go head to head as the 11-5 Baltimore Ravens travel to Nashville to take on the 11-5 Tennessee Titans. The Titans are 2-0 in the last two games against the Ravens. Earlier this season in a terrific overtime victory and how could we forget? Last year's divisional matchup where Tennessee shocked the world on the road in a 28-12 victory over the Ravens. Both teams are gonna run the ball hard and gonna run it many, many times. The Titans and the Ravens, two polar opposites when you talk about their offense as far as their passing versus the rushing. Let's talk about the Titans first. 23rd in the NFL and passing as far as yards go. 2nd in the NFL and rushing. Hey, they're a run first team as you can tell by the numbers. As far as the Baltimore Ravens, 32nd in the NFL and passing dead last. But first in the NFL and rushing. These two teams, first and second in rushing. So you're gonna see this ball. I wouldn't be surprised for each team having 30, 35, 40 carries each this game. So we're gonna see a lot of rushing attempts in this game. For the Titans, their defense, they're ranked 19th in rushed defense, which they could have difficulty and could struggle in stopping the Baltimore Ravens in the run team. As for the Ravens, eighth in the run defense, a top 10 run defense. So you would expect them to have a little bit more success in stopping the run against the Tennessee Titans. But with Derek Henry, that's a non-factor. It really doesn't matter where you're ranked because Derek Henry can expose any matchup regardless of who it is. So how can each team pick up a victory against the opposing team? For the Tennessee Titans, keep on running with the ball. We talked about how the Ravens are ranked in the top 10 in run defense. It doesn't matter with Derek Henry. Just keep on doing what you've been doing and run with a ball. That's your bread and butter. Just keep on running it with your lifeline Derek Henry. As for the Baltimore Ravens, run them with the ball as well, but stack the box on defense against the Tennessee Titans. Now that's going to be pretty sketchy and pretty scary because if you were to stack the box, yes, this Ravens secondary can get exposed. We saw them get exposed in recent weeks, and Tannehill is not that bad of a quarterback either. So he could pass the ball all day if you were to just line up seven, eight defenders in that box. But if you had the option, if you had the option of choosing whether to stop Derek Henry, stack in the box, trying to stop him and just letting Tannehill pass all over you, or maybe playing a little bit further back trying to stop Tannehill, but let Derek Henry run all over you, I would go down the route of trying to stop Derek Henry. So that's what I would do if I were the Baltimore Ravens, and those are the keys to victory for each team if they want to pick up a victory this weekend. The last matchup in the AFC, for the first time in 18 years that Cleveland Browns are in the playoffs with an 11-5 record. Their division rival the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers made it in despite a recent late season skid. This is the first time in eight years where two teams who played each other in Week 17 play a consecutive game in the wildcard round. And in the last two instances that this happened, the team that lost in Week 17 rebounded in the playoff game to win. Who won in Week 17? The Cleveland Browns did, so the Pittsburgh Steelers, with history being on their side, maybe they could pick up the victory, kind of breaking down how each offense and defense has performed this season so far for the Browns on offense. They're ranked 24th in the NFL in passing, but third in the NFL in rushing, so they're going to lean in on Nick Chubb and Cream Hunt. As a matter of fact, Chubb and Hunt are the only running back duo on the same team this season to record over a thousand yards from scrimmage each individually, so the Browns like to run it with those guys. On defense, however, for the Browns, they'll rank 22nd in the pass and 9th in the NFL and run defense. For the Steelers, 15th and pass, 30 second in their rushing offense. That's pretty bad. Defense, however, they're ranked 3rd in stopping the pass and 11th in stopping the run, so their defense has been a main key and the reason why they were able to do so well this season, but also prevent them from just suffering so much in this late season skid that they have. This defense has been amazing and to stop this Browns offense in this run game, I mean, it may not be that difficult to do for the Browns. You may just have to lean in with that running attack because that defense for the Pittsburgh Steelers to stop in the pass, it's very, very good. Top 3 ranked 3rd and the Browns pass offense, not the best in the NFL, even though Baker Mayfield did throw for over 3,500 yards this season. So what are the keys to victory for each team? For the Browns, listen, this defense is going to be tough. You can try to run with a ball, but the Steelers know that you're going to try to run it. You can try to pass the ball, but the Steelers have been good against the pass this season with their secondary and Mika Fitzpatrick and so many good players. So for the Browns, the only thing you can really do, be efficient. Run game will be your key, but just manage the clock. That's all you can do. Try to get the ball, try to get turnovers, and just manage the clock, run out of the clock. Each possession should be 6, 7, 8 minutes long to try to keep that Pittsburgh Steelers offense off the field and prevent them from scoring points. For the Steelers, pass heavy, that's the key to the game. The run defense, we talked about the Browns, top 10. And the Pittsburgh Steelers, they still have no identity in that run, that running offense. James Conner, it seemed like at the beginning of the season was going to be the go-to guy, but he's been losing reps and he's been getting injured and Benny Snell and Anthony McFarland and Mike Tomlin likes to switch in and out his players as well. So we just don't know who the lead back is and who's really going to step it up. And it's just unreliable. And that's actually part of the reason why the Steelers have not been looking that great is because the run offense has not been good at all. So you're going to have to pass it, pass heavy. Your main guy on this offense, Deontay Johnson, who seems to get 7, 8, 9 receptions every single game, lean on to him, your rookie wide receiver Chase Cleeppool, and then always the reliable Juju Smith Schuster as well. Pass heavy, run game is non-existent, it does not matter. The Steelers need to keep on doing what they've been doing on offense and that is to pass the ball. Listen, this game, this is the third time that this matchup is happening this season between the Browns and the Steelers. They've split the games one-on-one, each picking up their own victory. For the third time, what's going to happen? Last week, we saw that the Browns picked up a victory against Mason Rudolph. Mason Rudolph had a very good game. You may not know it, but he had a pretty good game against the Cleveland Browns. How much better will Ben Rothesberger actually be? Will he be good enough to help pick up the victory? And if he actually played last week, Ben Rothesberger did, would they have beaten the Cleveland Browns? Pretty tough question to ask in pretty solid debate as well, but leave your comments who you guys have winning this game. Do you guys have the Browns or do you have the Steelers? The first NFC game will be between the 10-6 Los Angeles Rams and the 12-4 Seattle Seahawks. An NFC West team has played in the Super Bowl in five of the last eight seasons. How will Jared Goff's recent thumb surgery affect his status this weekend? For also Wilson, it becomes the third player with four consecutive seasons of 30 or more passing touchdowns. The Rams, oh boy, Jared Goff. That's important. I understand John Wolfer picked up a victory against the Arizona Cardinals. Great. Came off the practice squad. Good story. Updated as LinkedIn. Understand. But Jared Goff, to have any sort of production on this offense, you need Jared Goff at quarterback with your wide receivers now returning and Cooper Cup being activated off that COVID-19 list. Jared Goff will be a big help this weekend to help pick up a victory and advance into the divisional round. They're 10th in the NFL and rushing, which is pretty good because Daryl Henderson for the majority of the season has been good. And the Camp Acres towards the tail of the season has stepped up as a lead back. Solid. But you can't just rely on that rush offense because the Seattle Seahawks rush defense is ranked fifth in the NFL, top five. So you best believe that they're going to cause some trouble and some disruption in the run game. They're ranked 13th in the NFL and passing. So Jared Goff needs to go out there and pass the ball. As far as the Seahawks to ranked 16th in the NFL and passing dead middle, you may not believe it because the first half of the season Russell Wilson was this MVP candidate. We all thought that he was going to win MVP, kind of sizzle down. And now that's more than likely going to be Aaron Rodgers. But the Seahawks offense first half of the season was amazing. They kind of took a different turn and kind of sizzle down on offense. And DK Metcalf has been held in check for the most part when they faced the Rams. So this might be the key to victory for the Los Angeles Rams. With Jalen Ramsey, keep on locking up DK Metcalf and keep on containing Russell Wilson, who kind of sizzled down. Expose that pass defense, the ranked 31st in the NFL and pass defense. Now the Seahawks, those numbers might be a little bit skewed because the first half of the season, they had to play a lot from behind. And that's why that defense and that offense might be a little bit switched than what we may see right here. This defense ranked 31st may not tell the story of how they've been performing in recent weeks. They've actually been pretty good. But for this defense to get exposed, the ranked 31st, that's how they finished in the regular season. Jared Goff needs to be out there and pass the ball with Cooper Cupp is now activated and Robert Woods as well. If Goff plays and Jamal Adams doesn't, even better. For the Seahawks, manage the clock. I know that Russell Wilson and the offense have been having trouble and they might continue to have some struggles with DK Metcalf being locked up with Jalen Ramsey, but just continue to manage the clock. Slowly move down the field because it's hard to break a big play when you're facing the Rams defense, who's ranked first in the NFL against the pass and third in rush defense. The 8 and 8 Chicago Bears barely made it into the playoffs and now I have to face the number two seed, the 12 and 4 New Orleans Saints. This is Mitch Trebisky's second playoff start while Drew Brees has quite a bit of experience under his belt. He started 16 post-season games, throwing for 4900 yards and 34 touchdowns in those 16 games. The veteran has been leading this New Orleans Saints offense for the majority of the season. Taysom Hill mixed in there here and there and their final rankings are a little bit skewed because of Taysom Hill playing four games. When I say that, I'm talking about how their offense is ranked 19th in passing and 6th in rushing. All that tells you that the style of play of Taysom Hill not really passing the ball a lot and really rushing it. So those numbers might be a little bit skewed. For the Bears and their offense, it's kind of a telling story. Their offense has been struggling as of late. 22nd in passing and 25th in rushing. Now that rushing offense, it's going to turn around, it's going to get better because if David Montgomery did not really turn around since, I would say week 12, they might be ranked a little bit lower than 25th. For the Bears, the keys to victory, lean in on that defense. This offense for the Bears has been struggling. That's okay. This is going to be a low-scoring game. It's going to get ugly, but that's fine. Just keep on pushing Drew Brees and help this New Orleans Saints offense to struggle in this Bears defense to do great against them. Put a spy on Alvin Kamera, whether it be a linebacker, a corner, you want someone faster, maybe a safety, a corner, whoever it may be, someone needs to shadow Kamera every single time because I'm telling you, once he gets that ball out of the backfield, it's going to be dangerous. For the Saints, that's actually one of the keys to victory is to let Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamera do their own work. This Bears defense, it's tough. I understand. It's going to be difficult to try to break a big play against them, but if you dump it off to Alvin Kamera and Michael Thomas, who's going to be returning now from an injury and let them do their thing yards after catch, it'll be fine for the Saints offense. But leave your comments down below who do you guys have winning this matchup. The final game we want to talk about, a game that might be a lot more competitive than you may think. The 11-5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the 7-9 Washington football team, both head coaches have experienced with getting far into the postseason. Bruce Arians led the Arizona Cardinals at one point to an NFC championship appearance, where he was defeated by Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers to advance to Super Bowl 50. This Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, what a season it has been for this squad. I mean, you talk about in the beginning of the season, that Week 1 game against the New Orleans Saints, did not look great at all. A lot of people were talking, media was talking, trashing them. Oh, this is supposed to be a super team. You have all these players on this team. Tom Brady comes here, don't look that great. And then they turn it around and they look amazing. And then they have a little bit of a skid and don't look that good. And then the last half of the season, they really turned around and now they look great. So we don't know which Tampa Bay Buccaneers team is going to show up. We'd expect that it's going to be the talented offense that has so many offensive stardom on this team. We expect them to show up against the Washington football team. But against this defense that has ranked second in the NFL and passing at 14th against the run, can they really show up and do well against this tough Washington football team defense? I can't help but to think about Tom Brady under pressure. I know that some statistics may say that he's really good against pressure. And yeah, for the most part, he is. He's phenomenal against pressure. But there are those instances when he faced a really tough defense, a really tough pass rush, which the Washington football team could be, that Tom Brady seems to struggle. And I just keep on going back. My mind just keeps on going back to the two losses that he had against the New York Giants and the Super Bowl. I mean, when he had Justin Tuck and Michael Strahan and O.C. Umiura and all those guys causing pressure on that defensive line against Tom Brady, he struggled. And that might be the same recipe for the Washington football team who finds themselves in the playoffs and has the third team to make the playoffs with a record under 500. The Seahawks in 2010 and the Carolina Panthers in 2014 coached by Ron Rivera with the only two other teams to make the postseason with a sub 500 record. Cool note as well. On top of that, the Seahawks and the Panthers, both those teams that finished under 500, both won the first round of the playoffs. Could it happen? Could we make it a three for three? You're going to have to rush Tom Brady like your life depended on it in order for that to happen. Chase Young is excited for this game. Chase Young is going to be the defensive player of the year and Chase Young needs to get to Tom Brady, whether it be sacks, whether it be quarterback hits, whether it be pressure, whatever it may be, cause Tom Brady and that past defense to not hold on to the ball so much because we know what happens when Tom Brady, we've seen him for so many years with the New England Patriots, what he could do if he has that time inside of the pocket. And you don't want to give him that much time. So pass, send out extra blitzers if you need to, whether it be five, six, every single play, keep on pass rushing and keep on causing the blitz and pressure Tom Brady for the Bucks. Double team Chase Young, like I mentioned, Tom Brady can do amazing things when he has time in the pocket and especially with that star power that they have on the wide receiver core, you need to pressure Tom Brady in order for that team to fail. And you need to double team if you're the Bucks, you need to double team the best player on that team, Chase Young, if you want this offense to really click. So double team Chase Young and give Brady that time in the pocket. And those are your two keys to victory for each team. But comment down below, which team do you feel like is going to win? Do you feel like Washington is going to pull off the upset, which I am not really counting them out. I'm not saying that they're going to win, but I think it's going to be a pretty competitive game. Or do you have Tom Brady in the tape of Bitbuckineers moving on and Brady fighting for his next Super Bowl. But that's going to wrap it up for this week's episode of Time 2 Football. That's our analysis for each game. Let us know in the comments. Who do you guys have winning every single one of these games? Who do you guys have advancing to the division round? Any sleepers, any upsets? Do you even have a Super Bowl pick that's playing on Wild Card Weekend? Or even maybe the Packers or the Chiefs? Could they be your Super Bowl picks as well? Just comment with us, interact with us, and let us know your opinions. Subscribe to this channel so you can stay up to date when we come out with videos every single week. And subscribe to the podcast on the podcast app by searching Time 2 Football and listening to us on the go. With all that said, thank you guys so much for watching this episode. It is Wild Card Weekend, and Adam Gase is not the head coach of the New York Jets. Enjoy this weekend and I'll see you next week.