00:00credit to the Patriots for winning, albeit one of the worst games I think I've ever seen
00:04in an AFC championship. And I've seen a lot, definitely the worst half of football
00:07I've ever seen. So I guess I'm just not surprised to see this end at the half. They should have
00:14just went home because those conditions were just insane to have to play in. But I do give the
00:19credit to the Patriots because if their defense was horrendous, then I suppose RJ Harvey and
00:24McLaughlin and those guys would have just ran all over them because that's all anybody was doing.
00:28But I guess I would ask you this, Adam. Was that positive for the Patriots there in that
00:33second half? Do you think that they just simply played better defense to win the AFC championship
00:39because it was that narrow of a margin? Well, I'll say this. You sound a little bit like
00:43Kurt Warner, of course, the Hall of Famer who lost to the Patriots back at the greatest show on turf
00:48days, who still all these years later, 25 years later, holds a grudge against New England for
00:53some of the various conspiracies or just blatant cheating that happened along the way under the
01:00Belichick regime. But I understand why a lot of people going into yesterday, never mind the results
01:07of yesterday, felt like the NFC game, Ram Seahawks, was the Super Bowl, if you will, because that was
01:14going to be the more compelling game. And you knew that whoever it was that came out of the AFC,
01:19the Patriots less so, but whichever team, it was going to be the NFC heavily favored. I mean, hell,
01:26if Jarrett Stidham and the Broncos got through, they would have been, you know, by kickoff,
01:30probably a 10-point dog against the Seahawks. So it would have been incredibly lopsided. I think
01:37the Patriots, I guess to go back to yesterday first, the conditions were really interesting
01:42because the conditions were not a factor at all the first half of that game. And both offenses
01:49looked terrible. No doubt about it. I mean, we were not getting MVP Drake May, for instance,
01:54and haven't seen a whole lot of that over the course of these three games so far in the postseason.
01:58It was the second half and in particular, the last, you know, quarter, quarter and a half where
02:03everything got really gross. You know, May dropping back to hand off to Ramondre Stevenson.
02:09He can't give him the ball because Stevenson slips and falls on his face and then May slips
02:13and has to take the sack. It just got, you know, mucky and ugly out there. But I do think you have
02:19to one credit, both defenses, both defenses were terrific. And I was someone who was really
02:24skeptical of the Broncos defense over the second half of the year and felt they were a little
02:30fraudulent, a little overrated, you know, weren't really deserving of the top five recognition that
02:35the statistics over the course of a full year bared out. But, you know, watching it, obviously
02:41the weather impacted things, but still they got stops. They, in particular in that first half,
02:45made May and the rest of that offense's life very, very difficult. Where I will contend that
02:51yesterday, you know, feeds into all these people's opinions about the Patriots who are
02:58doubters, skeptics, and believe they've had this, you know, easy path, even in the postseason,
03:03nevermind the easy regular season schedule, is I do think, doesn't mean the Patriots would have
03:07lost, but I absolutely do believe yesterday's game, if you had a mobile Bo Nix, a la a mobile
03:13Drake May, as opposed to a pocket passer who couldn't handle pressure in Jarrett Stidham,
03:18who just got stuck there and drilled any time the Patriots brought a blitz, that game would have
03:23looked different. But some decisions were made. Obviously, Sean Payton, after the fact,
03:28asked about him, you know, whether or not he had regrets over passing on the early points that could
03:32have gone up by two scores and making a 10-0 lead, and they didn't, they got greedy, and they went
03:36for it, didn't work out, and all of a sudden, you're on the wrong side of a 10-7 game. I just,
03:41the Patriots defense is really, really good, especially the run defense, and I do think it's
03:45going to make Kenneth Walker's life as a rusher difficult in the Super Bowl. Now, as a receiver,
03:51as a pass catcher, it could look different, but I think the, I've sort of changed my tune on this
03:57game a little bit along the way. I wonder if these defenses, the Patriots and the Seahawks,
04:02are a little bit of a wash, more so than I would have initially given them credit for,
04:06knowing how good Seattle's is, to where then you start to look to the offense and say,
04:10maybe this actually will be the game that will be determined by the quarterback.
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