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2025 NFL Post Season 🏈 Weekly Discussion Thread – Playoffs, Week 3
Welcome to the 2025 NFL Post Season Weekly Discussion Thread! 🏈
Share your thoughts on the third week of the playoffs — wins, losses, predictions, or anything else football-related.
From the very depths of my bitter, jealous, shriveled, and blackened Miami Dolphins fan heart.... BOO PATRIOTS! ;)
This year of the NFL is crazy. I would've lost everything if I bet on the teams that made it through the playoffs. As a lifelong Chiefs fan, I would've predicted the Bills would end up at the superbowl, but who knows.
Who would have guessed, many years ago, that we'd be seeing a Sam Darnold superbowl. All aboard the GEQBUS baby.
I'm a big fan of Darnold's growth throughout the years. Obviously the Jets were never going to develop him well. When he got his second chance with the Panthers I saw a player that had thr potential, but he had to both work out his lingering issues and also not be held down by a shit coach in Rhule.
I think him taking a year as a backup in a competent organization of the 49ers was what he needed because ever since then, hes been straight fire. He got lucky to get a break in Minnesota when JJ went down early, but then after that season I knew it was a mistake to let him go. People tried to shit on him for "choking" but he still looked generally good and his time in Seattle has proven he has been more than up for the challenge.
Between Darnold and Daniel Jones, this makes me wonder about what other QBs that didn't quite work out early and just need a fresh outlook. Thoughts?
Kinda cheating, but Kurt Warner?
Man that panthers team was just awful, I tuned in for a year because Baker (my boy) also joined the team, and god that was horrible football to watch. One of those teams where nothing goes well and you can't judge any players because the whole thing is rotten, no one could succeed in a position like that.
Which I guess makes sense for Darnold too, can't trust the jets, they will betray you.
🎵When it's Bover, that's the time I fall in love again. And when it's Bover, that's the time you're in my heart again. And if it's Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, I know, we were gonna win. We were gonna win. 🎵
I definitely could continue with my final Bo-themed song, but I'll spare everyone because there another long winded Broncos post on the way. It's the last one, I promise.
All week, I had little to no expectations for the Broncos. Yet somehow, they not only managed to make it a game, but actually played well enough for me to think they should have won. Crazy. It just goes to show that no matter how low you set your expectations, sports will usually find a way to make it sting somehow. They say God is a Patriots fan, which, given the state of the rest of the world, totally makes sense.
A lot of the negative comments I see online are focused on Stiddy (who was one boneheaded play from achieving legend status), but I think this was in many ways a "chickens coming home to roost" game.
I've had my concerns about Will Lutz's ability to kick from beyond 50, he missed a 50+ yard attempt. All season, Sean Payton had a ton of unnecessarily aggressive 4th down attempts that didn't pan out, Denver failed to convert an aggressive 4th down attempt early on instead of going up 10-0. Denver had the second most dropped passes in the league (13 more than the third highest team), multiple drives stalled due to a dropped pass. The screens and early down play calling has been in an issue all year, that trend certainly continued. The only thing that was missing was the penalties, and kudos to the defense for not only balling out, but playing disciplined for 60 minutes. Of course, this was the exact type of ugly game that usually ends with a Bo Nix pulling out some sort of crazy drive in the final minutes. Bummer.
Denver has some additional flexibility this offseason now that they are no longer paying Russell Wilson, and they'll need to make the most out of it. Historically, teams that win a ton of one-score games tend to regress the next year (see: 2025 Kansas City Chiefs). The only way around that is to take a leap and be a 12+ win team that doesn't look fraudulent for the majority of the season. That's going to be tough.
Now for the Super Bowl matchup that I didn't want, but fel inevitable. Usually, I am a mid-level Seahawks hater. They were involved in a Super Bowl that I don't like to talk about (actually, make that two), I have a soft spot for the Rams and 49ers, I am not a fan of the uniforms (though the throwbacks are top-3), they traded the corpse of Russell Wilson to us, and the 12th man thing drives me crazy. Congrats, you built an architectural marvel to account for your shitty weather, that doesn't make you the best fans in the league. However, given the circumstances, which includes the Sam Darnold redemption arc, I'm all in on Seattle. Sorry in advance to the Seahawks fans for putting my stink on you.