NFL Open Thread: Divisional Round Part Deux

A couple notes from yesterday:

• Kyle Shanahan is a brilliant play caller and game planner, but one thing you can’t help but notice is that ever since he blew a Super Bowl he literally could have won by kneeling three times and kicking a field goal he has overcorrected in the other direction. This is a pet peeve of mine but I hated the way Shanahan played the end of the first half, being so concerned with SCORING TOO QUICKLY that he ended up settling for a long field goal in a downpour and winding up with nothing without even trying to mount.a touchdown drive. (Incidentally, the other NFC West schemelord can have the same problem sometimes — I still have no idea why McVay chose to just run out the clock after that phantom false start call on the Lions at the end of the first half, although he had nearly a minute and all his timeouts. Could well have cost them the game.)
• Lamar Jackson will be the MVP because the voters will heavily discount Purdy’s superficially better stats because of his superlative supporting cast. Yesterday was an excellent illustration of why the voters are right — take away even one of his cadre of All-Pros and Purdy immediately gets much more erratic. Indeed, the difference in the game was ultimately that the Niners intercepted the two interceptable throws Love made, while Purdy served up several absolute pizzas the Packers couldn’t produce a turnover on.
• Love made a terrible mistake at the worst time last night, but his development this year has been incredible.I was completely wrong about him, and it’s amusing to see the Packers immediately improve by dumping Aaron Rodgers.

On today’s games I have the Lions -6 (to be honest, just because I actually want to bet on a team I’m rooting for after making a lot of money betting on the 49ers and Oilers last night, I wouldn’t really recommend it) and the Chiefs +125 — I hope I’m wrong on the latter, but I just don’t trust Buffalo’s defense or special teams.