NFL Week 18 Recap with Ben Solak

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The NFL regular season has come to a close. And the league saved the best for last, with the hunt for the NFC’s one seed coming down to a Sunday night matchup between the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. So with all of the byes determined, and playoff pairings set - Ben Solak and Michele Steele explore how the 14 playoff teams locked down their spots, and what the offseason holds in store for those who didn’t make it. Check out the playlist, featuring our favorite stories of 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It is Monday after week 18 of the regular season, but guess what? It is never too late to wish Ben Selak. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, Ben. Happy New Year, Michelle. Thanks for coming back. We missed you. Yeah. You know what? I had to come back. I had to come back for week 18 in the Sunday Night Beetown that we just witnessed. Thanks so much to you and Seth Walder for holding out the fort in the last couple of weeks.
0:22.3	I love that film nerds and analytics nerds just got together for a beautiful nerd podcast for
0:28.6	the last couple of weeks. Yeah, we desperately need some professional hosting in Junkett.
0:33.5	Thanks just we're glad you've returned. Oh, well, the night is young.
0:39.3	We'll see how professional this podcast is.
0:50.5	I want to get your quick reaction here to the beatdown that we witnessed Sunday night between the Lions and the Vikings.
1:00.6	I'm going to hold your feet to the fire here because I do happen to know that you thought this game would be more or less of a toss-up. It did not end up being that. It was money for Detroit. What surprised you most about this game? Yeah, we walked into this game thinking,
1:05.2	all right, we've seen the Detroit defense now against some really good offenses, gave up 31 to
1:09.4	the Packers in prime time last month.
1:11.4	Just had that back and forth game against the 49ers.
1:14.8	Like, you know, this secondary is liable.
1:17.1	And sure, they're getting Alex Anzolone back, but there's no Carlton Davis and the
1:20.9	past rush isn't that present.
1:22.2	And then the Vikings are going to be able to eat this, this alive in the passing game.
1:25.7	And that just could not have been further from the truth.
1:32.5	The truth. This was by a mile, by a mile, Sam Donald's worst game of the season for the Vikings. On throws, where he dropped back for at least two and a half
1:36.9	seconds, 11 for 31, on throws against the blitz, 10 for 23, under pressure, six for 18 for only 86
1:43.7	yards.
1:44.6	The Lions went full thermonuclear, all systems go, empty the cannons, fire all.
1:50.5	Yep, just ballistic.
1:51.4	They blitzed on over half of the dropbacks in this game, which, to be fair, they did that in the first game against Sam, but with not nearly as much success.
1:57.6	They got pressure on almost 50% of Sam's dropbacks, a preposterously successful
	...

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