Is Lamar Jackson’s season a ‘FAILURE’ with a loss to the Chiefs 😬 | First Take

The First Take crew take a look around the league and answer questions about the NFL playoffs including how important a win is for Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, who is more likely to win on the road: The Kansas City Chiefs or the Detroit Lions and who to trust more Brock Purdy or Jared Goff.

0:00 Lamar’s season a failure with a loss to the Chiefs?
3:45 Better story: Lamar wins 1st Super Bowl or Lions win 1st Super Bowl?
7:00 More likely to win on the road: Chiefs or Lions?
14:00 Who do you trust more: Purdy or Goff?

#espn #nfl #firsttake

✔️Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

Is this season a failure if Lamar loses Sunday RC yes absolutely a failure Lamar Jackson is now only judged by championships and I think it’s a failure for many reasons one it’s a failure because he has the best team and part of him being on the best team is that

Defense is the Run game is Todd monin that’s been added also some of the pieces on the outside but it’s Lamar Jackson Lamar Jackson is in the conversation with Patrick Mahomes for best player in the entire world but what do the best players do to become great

They show up in the biggest moments this is the biggest moment of Lamar Jackson’s entire career and let’s be real Lamar Jackson is playing for more than himself and I know we’ve had the Doug Williams win Super Bowls Patrick Mahomes we’ve had the Russell Wilson but Lamar Jackson

Is different from all them Lamar Jackson has gone against the status quo gone Against The Familiar since the moment he was drafted by not choosing an agent and staying with his mother and allowing her to be part of his representation by the hair he wears by the way he talks by the

Way he plays this is bigger than Doug Williams when John Harbaugh sat on the sideline next to Lamar Jackson during his first run as an MVP and said do you know how many kids are going to go by number eight jerseys because of you because they look like you because they

Talk like you because they come from places that you came from and you never he never switched up he never became anything but Lamar Jackson he never changed his style of play he just improved on it he never changed the way that he directed or he behaved in press

Conferences he just improved on it and he never changed the way that he led a locker room he just improved on it but it stayed authentically Lamar Jackson and for that reason when he wins or when he loses the conversation is about so much bigger than just who he is as a

Player so this is imperative that Lamar Jackson not only wins this game but he wins the Super Bowl because it’s an entire culture on the back of that Jersey not just the name Jackson it’s imperative for several reasons I’ll piggyback off of everything you said first by the player part Lamar Jackson

If he loses to the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend and the Patrick Mahomes here’s what we’re going to be saying about him next month when Award winners are presented he’s a two-time NFL MVP two times he finished with the afc’s best record and he’s got two playoff

Wins that’s what we’re going to be saying about him that’s number one here’s number two what we’re going to be saying about him there are nine quarterbacks thus far who’ve won two or more NFL MVPs pton Manning Aaron Rogers Tom Brady Brett fa Johnny United Joe Montana Steve

Young CT Warner and Patrick Mahomes every single one of them have won a Super Bowl championship he would be the only one who hasn’t so when we look at it from that perspective there is no question that if he does not win this Sunday as the number one seed in the AFC playing

On clearly the best team and having the best record and home field advantage in the AFC playoffs it is going to presumably be a failure ESS let me ask you this because obviously you are a columnist for many years and you know how to make headline Stephen A Smith yes

He does bigger storyline do you think it’s Lamar winning his first Super Bowl and obviously we know all the narratives we talked about it earlier all the critics or the Detroit Lions and just the franchise and the city and the history there well I think outside of

Detroit um it’s it’s Lamar in the city of Detroit and and and the outskirts in Michigan um obviously it would be the Detroit Lions when you’ve only had one playoff win since 1957 coming into these playoffs there’s no question it means everything uh to that City to that local

No doubt about that but if you think about Lamar Jackson all I would ask the audience to do is hearken back to everything that Ryan Clark alluded to who he is and what he represents and last time I checked this Millions upon millions of black people outside of

Detroit in the state of Michigan and what Lamar Jackson would mean to the culture what him becoming a champion would mean to the culture resonates far far far more significantly than the Detroit Lions winning a Super Bowl championship yeah no absolutely I think when you look at Lamar Jackson and the

Storylines that he’s built around him we’re talking about a dude that won a Heisman this is a guy who like Chris says we’re assuming or is the presumptive MVP he’s made headlines himself with his play since he stepped on the campus at Louisville but the detractors right and the people who

Control the narratives they’ written those stories they’ve written those headlines and so those headlines get to skew as negatively or as positively as the perception of the people who are writing them the perception of the people who are being asked the questions every day on TV and they’re going to

Focus on what they want to focus on and so that’s why to me once Lamar Jackson wins this there’s no more negativity but until he wins it they will be there will continue to be stories written or stories told about how you can’t get it

Done being who he is and I think to me that’s the narrative I want him to correct more than any yeah no doubt about it you guys hit the nail on the head I mean a win for Lamar Jackson in the Super Bowl it ends the debate on

Whether or not he’s great the other thing that it does is it gives us something to talk about for the next decade in terms of Pat Mahomes actually having a true rival you know what I mean when we talk about patri Mahomes we we’re not talking about him in

Comparison to any of his contemporaries we talk about him with the alltime greats Joe Montana Payton Manning Tom Brady but Lamar actually winning it being one ring off of Lamar of of Pat Mahomes count but then also having the same amount of MVPs to match Mahomes

Then all of a sudden we can have that Manning and Brady debate I know a lot of people want that to be Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen they just play a lot it it ain’t they just they play a lot and Patrick Mahomes beats Josh Allen when it

Matters most but when it comes to it gives us a true rival for Patrick Mahomes and that just makes it spicier he ain’t got one right now who’s more likely to win on the road Sunday the Lions and I’m not going to hesitate on that when you think about this team and

What Dan Campbell has been able to create we often go back to what he said in his opening press conference and about biting knees and getting knocked down and getting back up what we Overlook is how well coached this team is how much belief he had in a team that

Only won three games in its first year that started its second year one and six to continue to go forward on fourth down to continue to push and be behind them and now this team’s team believes in themselves and also think about their coordinators offensively Ben Johnson defensively Aaron Glenn the things that

They’ve been able to do to use every piece of that roster that Brad Holmes has built to be the best they could possibly be and now on paper matching up against the San Francisco 49 it doesn’t look good San Francisco 49ers extremely explosive in the P game Detroit Lions

They don’t stop that very well but going on the road being able to run the ball with jir Gibbs being able to run the ball with David Montgomery and Jared G who believe it or not is a better quarterback than Brock pie yes I said it

Bump the stats bump what you think bump the MVP conversation Jared G is a better quarterback than Brock pie and on the other side of that the only reason we’re even talking about the AFC Championship being a game is because Patrick Mahomes plays for the Kansas City Chiefs the

Baltimore Ravens have been so dominant this year that it shouldn’t be a conversation the only reason it is is because in my opinion the best quarterback to ever play the game is the quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs and that’s why I have to go with the Kansas City Chiefs reluctantly right

Because experience matters right and he’s been in these big games and you talk about Patrick Mahomes yo kind of slay the dragon last week when you talk about going to or Orchard Park one of the most hostile environments I know MNT Bank Stadium is going to be rocking but

It’s going to be you know similar to what he experienced last week on the road you talk about Andy Reid and his ability to find out and exploit the the weaknesses and defenses last week deciding you know to attack the linebackers knowing what the situation was with AJ Klein you know and his

Ability and so he attack him with Travis Kelce but also Steve spola because I’ve seen in recent years you know even when he went all the way back when he he defeated the greatest show of all time when you think about what he did New England Patriots you know even when his

Teams aren good he’s a good big game coordinator right so I know he’s going to have something for Lamar Jackson and I get nervous sometimes that Lamar could always revert to what he was and start using his athleticism the evolution of Lamar Jackson this year has been that

He’s been able to buy time and use his legs to throw the ball down the field and use his legs only when it’s the last resort that’s what kept Him healthy that’s why he’s in his position that’s why this team is in his position is because he’s been healthy I get nervous

That Patrick Mahomes always finds a way right and you talk about you know Tom Brady lost at times during his run but you were surprised and so I wouldn’t be surprised if Patrick Mahomes finds a way to figure it out right you think about guys getting tight right the

Expectations and all the pressure is on the Baltimore Ravens they’re the best team with the MVP with the number one defense left in these playoffs they should win they’re supposed to win but we know the the best team doesn’t always win you just have to be better than that

Team that day I think that’s the point you’re making with the Lions because we both know that all are all around that San Francisco is a better team but the better team doesn’t always win and how often do we get you know two number one teams or number one seeds going against

Each other somebody usually um you know chokes and you know I just hope it’s not the Ravens but if I had to pick a team that it would be I would say you know arguably you know the best generational talent that we’ve seen in a long time I

Don’t I don’t put Patrick Mahomes in that same discussion that you guys put because three isn’t five I think he needs as still a lot more work to get done but I I don’t I don’t doubt this man I’ve doubted him before and I’ve come up on the wrong side of that well

Listen I think if we if we gonna say what we’ve said about Lamar Jackson it’s not just about Patrick Mahomes it’s how Lamar Jackson Rises to the occasion and every negative adversity that has been thrown his way throughout his life and his career he’s responded in Stella

Fashion for the most part and so for me I’m looking at Baltimore and I expect them to win that game even though I know that Patrick Mahomes is that dude I’m a side where RC here with the Detroit Lions do you know that the Detroit Lions

Are the only team that hasn’t give up 70 rushing yards in a game this season the only team that hasn’t done that now I’m thinking about the San Francisco 49ers and I understand Kyle Shanahan and his play calling and I get the fact that auk is there and KD is there we’re hoping

That Debo Samuel is gonna be ready to roll after injuring that shoulder injuring that shoulder last weekend and we get that and that’s going to be necessary but a lot of their success obviously is predicated in the r on on Christian mcaffrey you know not just

Running the football but out of the back field and some of the things that we can that he can do we accept that we understand that but if you could find a way to neutralize the running game of San Francisco which Detroit has been able to do effectively throughout this

Season then that’s going to be a plus for you so I look at it from that perspective I also agree with RC that Jared G is a better quarterback this year than Brock P if you’re looking and you’re watching the games and you’re looking at Jared G play the game of

Football we cannot we cannot ignore what we’ve seen this brother do then we’ve got to take into account they’ve got not one but two running backs with over 900 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns this season in Montgomery and Gibbs so I’m looking at it from that perspective and

What they bring to the table I’m looking at leap Porter who I didn’t even expect to play because he got hurt at the tail end of the regular season but he’s been in both of these playoff games I’m looking at him I’m looking at James Williams of course I’m looking at an

Aman ra St Brown and they’ve got a multitude of weapons to make things happen offensively I don’t like what I’ve been seeing from San Francisco defensively over the last several weeks I think they’ve bent a little bit too much they may not have broken but they

Bent a little bit too much and then last nugget of information that I think both of y’all all both of y’all will be interested in okay Detroit faces a Niners team that’s five and0 in home playoff games under Kyle Shanahan you got to get the the impression that

Somehow someway that’s going to come to the end they’ve lost 13 straight road games to San Francisco how much longer is that going to last and last but not least they’ve lost 11 straight road playoff games ironically the last play playoff game on the road that the

Detroit Lions have won was against San Francisco in 1957 I think at some point that’s going to come to an end the Detroit Lions I give a better chance than the Kansas City chief who do you trust more Sunday is it g Sunday Sunday just Sunday in that little NFC Championship game are

You going Jared go or p jarck G is the better quarterback okay who do I trust more on Sunday which is the question I’m going to go over Brock py because you talk about home cooking he got you know over the hump last week having a bad performance able to come

Back and Lead his first game winning drive you know I feel like he’s going to be comfortable right I don’t worry about Jared G because he showed that he’s big time he’s taking a team to the Super Bowl before so he’s been on big stages

What I get concerned with is is this the first time that the other others you know the the role players come in and feel a little bit tight because they’ve been having home cooking in the confines of you know um you know Ford Phi now they’re going across the country which

Is always difficult and they’re playing in a hostile environment they won’t be able to lean on the things that they’ve been able to lean on like being able to make checks and not having to go on a silent count and all those things so if

You ask me what team do I do I trust more I got to go with the home team simply because the Lions team are so young and so new to success that I think they may struggle a bit early on until they get their sea legs under them jerck G

Has struggled Under Pressure I think maybe they find a way to get pressure on them well one of the things y’all have y’all have played the role in teaching me is that if you have a running game if your defense travels and your running game travels then obviously that that

That that HS a lot of problems that may plague you and when I look at the Detroit Lions and I think about that duo at the running back spot in Montgomery and Gibbs and then I take into account Jared golf 71% completions 10 touchdowns just one interception and play action

I’m thinking about what they can do against a San Francisco 49ers defense that’s been prone or you know to to to you know surrender to some degree when you utilize play action effectively so I’m looking at it from that standpoint I’m also looking at all the pressure

Being on the San Francisco 49ers I’m going to trust gol more than I’m going to trust trust pry in this situation I think that if the San Francisco 49ers pull this out it will be because of the greatness of Christian mcaffrey and of course dbo Samuel I think that’s what it

Will require in order for them to pull something off but I’m just of the mindset that the pressure is on San Francisco you think the pressure is on the Baltimore Ravens is the number one seed how about Kyle Shanahan keep knocking on the door but unable to kick

The door in how about them being at numerous NFC championship games and a Super Bowl appearance and still having been able to uh close the door and then you’re going up against Alliance team that before these playoffs began had one playoff victory since 1957 nothing was expected of them and

Here they come here they come roaring in and they win two playoff games and they find themselves in that NFC Championship game after beating the Rams and the Buccaneers I think that the lions are playing with house money I think they’re going to be loose we know they’re a

Physical team they can run the football they could play Smashmouth football they can throw the football and they can get after you defensively I’m going to trust G in this situation even more so than py I think that P’s got a lot to overcome

Not to say he can’t but I think he’s got a lot more to overcome I’m going to trust G more than him in this situation yeah so answer is I agree with Stephen A I say Jared G but it isn’t that easy that’s why these sorts of questions set

You up to say things that you don’t really want to say in the answer when you look at everything should be stacked in his favor but the one thing that none of us has mentioned truly yet is that without Debo Sam this isn’t just a different quarterback

This is a different offense the way that they have to run their offense and who they have to run it through changes now Christian mcaffrey is the best player Debo Samuel is the most important piece the way that he can be utilized in the Run game the way that he can be utilized

To change up what you do formally and Jaan Jennings is a fine player but he ain’t Debo Samuel and so now that makes Brock p take more shots outside why because it’s about Personnel now I look for Brandon auk to step up and beat the guy and that’s when you get more

Reckless because for as much as Brock pie can anticipate for as much as Brock pie can be accurate his arm isn’t the strongest arm and once you get outside of those numbers that counts that’s why a guy like Matthew Stafford even though he’s aging can play great this year

Because he can put it wherever he wants to put it Brock py can’t do that now let’s think about what the Detroit Lions walk walk in to Santa Clara being able to do they can run the football with jir Gibbs and David Montgomery you know who

Had a field day last week Aaron Jones what are you GNA you think it was difficult going uh down down and around which is bringing the the wide receiver down the block to end and pull in two tackles against the Packers do you know who’s pulling for the Detroit Lions pan

Su and he is head hunting and jir Gibbs is a step faster than Aaron Jones he has that Chris Johnson effect let him get in the open field if you want so what does that happen that put that puts Dre green law and Fred Warner in the bind and what

Do they like to do from a passing standpoint in Detroit play action in between the numbers the San Francisco 49ers are the best team the San Francisco 49ers have the better roster San Francisco 49ers have the better play calling head coach and so all of that says well damn Ryan you should pick

Brock pie but I’m not it’s going to be Jared G it’s going to be Ben Johnson in the way that this team plays football as it pertains to this game against the San Francisco 49ers which is also why I’m picking the Detroit Lions to win RC can I um are you

Sure no I’m not no no listen listen that’s why I rather talk about what the film I have not finished the question Mr can you allow me to Pivot to the full question sir please are you sure that we can defend def atively say that San Francisco has the better

Players yeah I don’t see I mean I’m looking at Detroit it’s that secondary watching line yeah yeah it’s it’s closer than people give credit to because you look on the offensive side of the ball offensive line running back receivers it’s where defense that the Lions fall off okay fine I’m talking offensively

Defensively give it offensiv offensively they’re offensively they’re about the yeah I’m like offensively I don’t see a drop from the Detroit Lions