Of the four QBs in the championship games

[MightyGiants]

Only Patrick Mahommes impressed me.   The other three left plays on the table, in my opinion.   I appreciate that all 4 teams in the championship games had strong defenses, but it was interesting to see the QB play. 

On a side note, if I hadn't been so lazy, I could have won some coin.  Mahommes was an underdog, and when he was an underdog, he covered the spread 90% of the time.  If I had a draft betting app set up, I would have placed a solid bet on KC (I also had read that the ref in the KC game favored away teams, historically).

[DaveBrown74]

Good observation - I would thoroughly agree.

Mahomes stood out. I thought he was great, especially considering how good that Ravens' D has been all year. They were easily the best D in the league.

Lamar was not impressive overall, and neither were the NFC QBs. All three QBs had their moments, but all three of them made multiple bad throws/plays. Goff was the victim of some bad drops, although he also had some really poor throws, including when he wasn't really under pressure.

[spiderblue43]

Goff doesn't have a high ceiling. Good but not special. Plus..he's bad under any sort of pressure and outside a dome. Never liked him.

Lamar can't perform in big games. He presses and gets careless. I blame Harbaugh too. What was that game plan?

Purdy showed moxie yesterday but also got lucky a lot. Mahomes is Mahomes-the best we've seen since Brady.

[Fletch]

I really don't think L Jackson is good enough to win a title. His reads on that last Int he threw looked like something from the Mike Glennon days here.

[Fletch]

Wait Goff played bad ? How so? And Josh Allen wasn't good? 3TDs and 75 rushing yards in a play off game is bad. But he should have thrown it underneath instead his left tackle bumped into him while trying to throw a TD to an open receiver. 

[DaveBrown74]

Mahomes is Mahomes-the best we've seen since Brady.

Not to hijack, but just as an aside because I saw this this am:

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1751747062314520660

[katkavage]

Disagree. Purdy was a pure winner I'm the second half.

[katkavage]

Goff was also excellent. Of the four really only Jackson was sub par.

[uconnjack8]

Yesterday featured the 3 top scoring defenses in the NFL.  Baltimore, KC and SF all gave up less than 18 ppg during the season. 

As good as Mahomes is, and KC needed every bit of it, that game was won by the defense giving up 10 points to a team that averaged of 28 PPG. 

I thought Goff and Purdy played reasonably well.  Purdy had a 88.1 QBR, which is extremely high (Mahomes broke 91) and Goff had just under 60 which is pedestrian, but not awful.  I don't think either of those two are top 5 QBs in the NFL, but those teams are not built to rely as heavily on QB play. That's part of why I feel like they played reasonably well.   

It was stunning to me the way Detroit could do no wrong in the 1st half and do no right in the 2nd with SF doing the opposite.  It was reminiscent of the Buffalo Houston 35-3 comeback game in that way.  Detroit ran the ball 21 times for 148 yards and 3 TDs in the 1st half.  They managed just 34 rushing yards in the 2nd half. 

[Trench]

The bigger question is based on what we saw each QB do yesterday, can our QB do at least the same?

[MightyGiants]

Yesterday featured the 3 top scoring defenses in the NFL.  Baltimore, KC and SF all gave up less than 18 ppg during the season. 

As good as Mahomes is, and KC needed every bit of it, that game was won by the defense giving up 10 points to a team that averaged of 28 PPG. 

I thought Goff and Purdy played reasonably well.  Purdy had a 88.1 QBR, which is extremely high (Mahomes broke 91) and Goff had just under 60 which is pedestrian, but not awful.  I don't think either of those two are top 5 QBs in the NFL, but those teams are not built to rely as heavily on QB play. That's part of why I feel like they played reasonably well.   

It was stunning to me the way Detroit could do no wrong in the 1st half and do no right in the 2nd with SF doing the opposite.  It was reminiscent of the Buffalo Houston 35-3 comeback game in that way.  Detroit ran the ball 21 times for 148 yards and 3 TDs in the 1st half.  They managed just 34 rushing yards in the 2nd half.

I think Dan Campbell's aggressive nature betrayed his team in the second half.  There is a reason why teams who are up by 17 points tend to be a bit more conservative: they don't want to give the other side big chunks of points or momentum.  To me, the turning point of the game was not answering the 49ers FG to open the second half with their own FG (instead, going for it on 4th down).  Had they evened things up, it would have taken a bit of the wind out of the 49ers sails and I don't think they are back in it tied after just 8 minutes have gone by.

[katkavage]

The bigger question is based on what we saw each QB do yesterday, can our QB do at least the same?

I don't look at QB ratings to evaluate how they performed in the game and what they did to help their team win. Goff was very good. He had some beautiful throws that were dropped. Purdy elevated his game by throwing and running leading his team to victory. I won't even talk about Mahomes. Nothing to say but he is the best out there.

And with the exception of Pittsburgh and Cleveland, every playoff QB was/is head and shoulders better than what the Giants currently have on their roster.

[uconnjack8]

I think Dan Campbell's aggressive nature betrayed his team in the second half.  There is a reason why teams who are up by 17 points tend to be a bit more conservative: they don't want to give the other side big chunks of points or momentum.  To me, the turning point of the game was not answering the 49ers FG to open the second half with their own FG (instead, going for it on 4th down).  Had they evened things up, it would have taken a bit of the wind out of the 49ers sails and I don't think they are back in it tied after just 8 minutes have gone by.

Rich,

I totally agree.  The momentum change after that 1st stop on 4th down was the beginning of the end. 

Sometimes you will hear the announcers say things like "this is how they did all season".  And that's great, but to me that's no different than the coaches that try to run "their system" even though they don't have the personnel for it.  The idea is to win, not to be stubborn in your ways.  Detroit was winning all year with that type of strategy but hadn't played too many opponents as good as SF on the road. 

So instead of putting 6 points on the board in the 1st 22 minutes of the 2nd half, the team didn't score until there were 56 seconds left. 

Not sure if Detroit would have won with those points if they were still making the mistakes they made in the last 1.5 quarters, but I think they would have had a better shot. 

[TDToomer]

It was stunning to me the way Detroit could do no wrong in the 1st half and do no right in the 2nd with SF doing the opposite.  It was reminiscent of the Buffalo Houston 35-3 comeback game in that way.  Detroit ran the ball 21 times for 148 yards and 3 TDs in the 1st half.  They managed just 34 rushing yards in the 2nd half.

You don't even need to go back that far in NFL playoff history. Blown leads happen all the time. The Chargers to the Jags last season. Texans to the Chiefs prior to that. The pre-Mahomes Chiefs to the Colts in 2013. Then our Giants to the 49ers in 2002. 

[uconnjack8]

You don't even need to go back that far in NFL playoff history. Blown leads happen all the time. The Chargers to the Jags last season. Texans to the Chiefs prior to that. The pre-Mahomes Chiefs to the Colts in 2013. Then our Giants to the 49ers in 2002. 

You have a better memory than me.