Justin Herbert and Jordan Love failed their latest big-time playoff moments

The Wild Card Round was unkind to a couple of superstar quarterbacks.

Somehow, at some point very recently, the NFL decided that the opening round of the playoffs was to be called the Wild Card Weekend. This was a startling change.

You see, in recent years the NFL has tried to force the round in question as the Super Wild Card Weekend and has done so in a (clearly) failing effort.

Sunday night’s game provided the first bit of true entertainment as the first four games of this whole thing were sleepy outings at best. Responsibility for that can be applied here, there and wherever... but there are a specific few places that we are about to touch on.

Welcome to The Skinny Post. We are Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa and flash photography is permitted.

Let’s begin.

Justin Herbert and Jordan Love were the clear losers from the weekend

RJ:

This brings me no joy as Michael is our resident Chargers fan, but I am here to report the facts and they are Very Not Good for Justin Herbert or Jordan Love.

Obviously both quarterbacks have already been well paid so those kinds of things are not in jeopardy, but these playoffs provided an opportunity for each of them to ascend into a different tier and they both failed in epic fashion.

If we are splitting hairs here I’d say that Packers fans have more of a reason to feel down than Chargers ones. Herbert, while clearly lacking any playoff success, has a very large body of work in the regular season to rely upon. It may drive Chargers fans mad that it is “only” regular season success, but the sample size is large there at least.

On the other side of the coin, it is fair in my opinion to wonder whether or not Jordan Love just caught lightning in a bottle near the end of last season and that maybe he isn’t next in the line of succession at quarterback for Green Bay in the way that his predecessors were.

These questions may seem unfair or outlandish, but that is the price that losing playoff games brings. History is written by the winners and these dudes threw away their pens with all of their interceptions.

Michael:

Oh, you’re going to make me talk about MY quarterback? We’re really doing this?

...sigh...

Alright then.

Herbert had a bad game. End sentence. That’s what everyone wants to run with because it’s the easiest way to frame the game. He was not his best, but neither was nearly the entire team around him. Dropped passes. No pass protection (he was pressured on over half his dropbacks). There aren’t many quarterbacks who could have done any better. I’ll stick by that wholeheartedly.

People also need to stop running with this “four interception” rhetoric like they were all equally abysmal decisions. His first pick? Yeah, one of the worst calls I’ve seen Herbert make in his career. The second? He looked like a guy desperate to move the ball and he forced it to the only receiver he could trust. The third and fourth picks? The third was a massive blunder by his tight end, Will Dissly, and the fourth was a “YOLO” ball to a 6’4 speedster when the game was out of reach and the offense needed a miracle. These are not equal and those who know ball need to call it out when the casuals want to spread this over-simplistic explanation of what happened.

But who am I kidding? People will do what they want, even if well over three-quarters of the NFL would swap their quarterback for Herbert in an instant.

What team/player is the biggest “feel good” story left in the playoffs?

Michael:

I don’t like picking the best teams in the NFL for prompts like this, but how the heck don’t you look at Detroit and want them to take it all the way? The defense is decimated. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is crushing it. The city deserves a ton and I can’t imagine how cool it would be to see the Super Bowl parade run through that city. I’m positive we’d get some all-time “moments” from that (think Jason Kelce dog mask-type stuff).

The other I could see a good case for is Washington simply due to the turnaround they’re riding after being atrocious a year ago. And a rookie quarterback leading them? Goodness. That’s another easy team to root for, but I understand if you (RJ, noted Cowboys fan) don’t want anything to do with that.

RJ:

Objectively speaking Washington is a fantastic answer. I can square that.

But forgive me for being super blunt here... Detroit is just this moment’s Buffalo. I know the Bills have been successful for a long time, but they still have not reached the Super Bowl. They have been at this longer than the Lions have. I think Lamar Jackson is the rightful MVP, but an incredible consolation for Buffalo would be to go all the way and rub it in everyone’s faces.

I’ve had a back and forth, love and hate relationship with the Bills for some time now. I’m all the way in (although I think the Ravens are gonna win it all) in terms of energy.

Go Bills.

The Ravens and Bills are the only two teams who looked elite this weekend

RJ:

At the time of this writing, we have only seen five of the six Wild Card games.

This means that there have been five winners to date and while the Commanders had some incredible drama in their victory and the Texans ran away with things late and the Eagles took care of business... none of those teams necessarily looked awesome.

Apologizing for wins in general let alone playoff wins is stupid so I am not here to bash anyone. My only point here is that the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills won their games in a different sort of way across the weekend. They looked a clear cut above the rest of the field an that we are now going to get a game between them is the best news ever.

I think that I think Baltimore is going to win, but I also think that I think this has the potential to be one of the best playoff games in recent memory. Jim Nantz and Tony Romo touched on this on the broadcast of Buffalo’s playoff win over the Broncos... this is sort of why we should wait to vote on MVP and other things until after the playoffs. We can argue how building opinions solely off of the playoffs is irresponsible, but acting like they don’t matter is equally silly.

Michael:

It’s hard to believe this Ravens team was the same one who lost to the Raiders early on in the season. After the Steelers gave them fits in the regular season, Baltimore came out and throttled their defense with the run game, posting nearly 300 yards.

Then there’s the Bills who took on the Broncos defense which ended the year No. 3 in points allowed. It didn’t matter to Josh Allen and Co. at all.

Now that my Chargers are out, I’m going to get behind whichever team runs the ball the best (because that’s REAL football) and that sure looks like the Ravens.

The Patriots hiring Mike Vrabel gives me the same vibes as the Jerod Mayo hire. New England is simply chasing any lasting residuals of Bill Belichick.

Michael:

Is this just me? Because I think it’s weird that the Patriots have now hired two former Belichick players to follow Belichick. I understand they want some sense of continuity with “The Patriot Way”, but this is just sort’ve weird now. Vrabel sure knows how the Krafts want the Patriots to be run, but you’re telling me you did things a certain way, with the literal G.O.A.T. at quarterback for two decades, and you think you can replicate it that easily without him?

The Patriots have a lot more to worry about than that, in my opinion. Like, maybe how Robert Kraft admitted he picked Mayo years before the actual hire and despite gaining those years of experience, he all of a sudden was “not experienced enough” in his first year? Maybe Kraft’s picker is off.

And you know what they say, teams stay bad because of bad ownership.

RJ:

I definitely agree that the Vrabel thing feels like “this time it is for real!” in a way.

The Patriots are really proving to be a Not Legit organization in the aftermath of Brady and Belichick. I have no idea why anyone believes that they deserve the benefit of the doubt. Mike Vrabel is definitely a talented coach who could flourish, but betting on that is not for me.

Their roster is still really bad. And they cost themselves the number one pick. And they barely conducted a search.

I’m out.