A second year of six Wild Card games and unfortunately, there wasn’t much competition between them all. Out of the half dozen games this past weekend into Monday, only two games finished within one possession of each other. The other four games had an average margin of 22.5 points. To be honest, there was some ugly football. What we did get to see was some amazing individual performances and one of the craziest endings in recent memory. It may not have been everything we hoped for to start the road to Super Bowl LVI, but we now have what looks like one of the most loaded playoff weekends in years put in place.
Niners Deliver Another Underwhelming End to a Once Promising Cowboys’ Season
The only playoff game from the weekend that could be described as great also included one of the strangest endings ever seen in an NFL playoff game. As one could probably expect, it ended with another early postseason exit by the Dallas Cowboys, this time by the hands of the San Francisco 49ers.
The Cowboys had spent the entire game playing from behind, but a fourth quarter shutout allowed Dak Prescott and the Dallas offense one final opportunity to prevent another disappointing loss. After burning all of their timeouts and forcing the 49ers to punt the ball with 39 seconds, Dallas would get a chance to put together a miracle. The Cowboys mad their way up field fairly efficiently by catching multiple balls and getting out of bounds. Then came the heartbreaking ending.
With 14 seconds left in the game and Dallas on the San Francisco 41 yard line, Dak Prescott ran a quarterback draw up the middle for 17 yards. Great right? Well it would have been had more time been on the clock. With no timeouts and the team rushing to hike the ball, NFL rules require that a referee place the ball before it is snapped. With the referee attempting to barrel through the Cowboys offensive line, the clock had struck zero before Prescott could hike the ball and either take a final shot or spike the football. The game ended with a 23-17 victory of San Francisco. It was the ultimate brutal ending for the Cowboys in a season where they once held the NFC’s number one seed and appeared to be serious contenders in a wide open NFC race.
As bad as the ending was for the Cowboys, it was a huge victory for a San Francisco team that doesn’t look like your usual sixth seed. The Niners were the only team to win on the road this weekend and let’s be frank, they outplayed the Cowboys.
The Niners were able to use a balanced attack of running the ball with Elijah Mitchell and Deebo Samuel mixed with the throwing of Jimmy Garoppolo to move the chains. The Niners defense also gave the Cowboys major fits for a large portion of the game. Unfortunately, San Francisco saw defensive stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner leave the game with injures. We will need to wait and see what their chances to play next weekend are.
San Francisco will now travel to Green Bay to take on the one seeded Packers. The Packers will have their hands full with this Niners team and if Garoppolo can take care of the football, Lambeau Field could be in for an upset special.
Allen, Bills Put on an Offensive Clinic to Eliminate Pats
There were several impressive team performances this week, but none were more so than the Buffalo Bills. I think the fact that Buffalo has no punt data for the entire game might paint a pretty good picture. Yes, Buffalo had nine drives and scored a touchdown on every single one except for the two drives at the end of the first half and end of the game. Two missed extra points caused the final score to be 47-17 in one of the most dominant wins we’ve seen against a Bill Belichick coached Patriots team. New England was not a team built to come back from behind and that was never more apparent. Mac Jones couldn’t muster up enough momentum to respond consistently, but let’s be honest, it wouldn’t have made a difference. Josh Allen was lights out connecting on 21 of 25 passes for 308 yards and five touchdowns. It’s hard to imagine Buffalo can repeat a near perfect performance, but if they the Bills play like they did on Saturday, there won’t be a team that can beat them.
There’s not really much else to say. This was murder.
Bengals Earn First Playoff Win in 31 Years
The Cincinnati Bengals experienced postseason success for the first time in a long time with their 26-19 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Joe Burrow continued his late season hot streak and found ways to keep getting the ball into Ja’Marr Chase’s hands in the Bengals’ Wild Card victory. The Bengals came out of the gates fired up by scoring points on all of their first four drives and jumping out to an early 20-6 lead. Vegas was able to score a touchdown before half-time to pull within seven.
There were no touchdowns in the second half as both teams had two field goals which held Cincy’s seven point lead for the win. The Raiders nearly completed a game ending drive that could’ve sent the game to overtime, but Derek Carr threw a redzone interception to seal the Raiders’ season.
The game didn’t come without a little referee controversy as Tyler Boyd scored a 10 yard touchdown pass on a play that had a noticeable inadvertent whistle and should have been blown dead. The NFL made an embarrassing statement after the game as one would expect.
The loss ends an eventful season for Las Vegas that included John Gruden being fired after past insensitive racial comments and second year receiver Henry Ruggs being arrested after being involved in a car accident that killed a woman and her dog in which Ruggs was over the legal drinking limit. Interim head coach Rich Bisaccia should earn a fair shot at being handed a more permanent coaching position after how he handled everything thrown at his team.
The Bengals will travel to Tennessee to take on the number one seeded Titans as one of the hottest teams in the NFL. The turn around in Burrow’s second season is impressive and although the Bengals are built to be even stronger in the next couple years, they have shown good reason to believe that they could upset the AFC leaders and find themselves in their first AFC Championship since 1988.
Young Philly Offense Struggles in Loss to Tampa Bay
The Philadelphia Eagles felt like the seventh seed in the NFC entering the playoffs. Sure, they had a surprisingly successful season but on paper they still felt like a level below any other team in the NFC playoffs. It definitely showed as they ran into the defending champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and experienced a 31-15 loss.
The Tampa Bay defense game Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense fits all day and forced three turnovers. Although against an inferior opponent, the Bucs defense looked like they were in playoff form similar to how they looked last season when they made their Super Bowl run.
Tom Brady was his usual playoff self. “Captain Cool” seemed in control the entire game and finished with 271 yards and two touchdowns. Mike Evans was Brady’s favorite receiver on Sunday as he finished with 117 yards and touchdown.
The Buccaneers’ journey to repeat as champions will now welcome the Los Angeles Rams, who defeated Tampa earlier in the season. We all know playing Mr. Brady in January is much different than playing him in September though.
Chiefs Offense Flips the Switch, Eliminates Steelers in Big Ben’s Final Game
It took a little while, but the Kansas City offense eventually figured their issues out and erupted on the Pittsburgh Steelers defense for a 42-21 victory. The Chiefs made it look like they were going to return back to their early season inconsistencies. Their first five drives ended the following ways: punt, punt, interception, punt, fumble returned for a touchdown.
After Pittsburgh took their 7-0 lead, the Chiefs offense woke up and scored touchdowns on their next six drives to pull away in convincing fashion. Patrick Mahomes was one fire after his only interception, finishing with 404 yards passing and five touchdowns. Travis Kelce also got in the mix by throwing a two yard touchdown himself to Byron Pringle.
The offensive creativity the Chiefs showed is something that has been missing at moments this season. The Pittsburgh win leaves the feeling that Andy Reid has been saving some pieces of his playbook for the playoff season. The Chiefs may need more of that creativity next week as they welcome the Buffalo Bills who gave Kansas City a 38-20 loss at home earlier this season.
It should also be mentioned that this playoff game is also perceived to be Ben Roethlisberger’s final game after a hall of fame career. Although Big Ben was not physically the player he once was, he went out with a decent performance. Roethlisberger avoided any turnovers and threw two touchdowns. Had the Pittsburgh defense been able to return to any type of form close to last season’s team, the Steelers could have made this a relatively interesting game.
Congratulations on a great career, Big Ben. See you in Canton.
Stafford Gets First Playoff Victory
It only took 13 seasons, but Matthew Stafford earned his first NFL playoff victory in his first season with the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams dominated their division rival, the Arizona Cardinals, and won by a score of 34-11.
Stafford only needed to throw 17 passes in the victory, but his 11.9 yard per pass average helped get the Rams down the field efficiently. It also helped the Kyler Murray was willing to throw the ball back to the Rams.
The LA defense held the once high octane Cardinals offense to only 183 yards for the entire game and forced two interceptions out of Murray. One of those interceptions was thrown from Murray’s own end zone as he was attempting to escape pressure and was returned within seconds for a Rams’ touchdown.
The Cardinals were never able to return to the same page they found success with in the beginning of the season. Arizona never found that chemistry after Murray and DeAndre Hopkins were out with injures. Once Murray returned, he looked lost with out Hopkins on the outside. Monday night showed more of the same.
The Rams looked like the well balanced team many people expected them to look like throughout the year. They haven’t quite put everything together, but with Stafford now finding chemistry with Odell Beckham Jr to go along with MVP candidate Cooper Kupp, the return of Cam Akers to join a talented backfield, and a defense that has the talent to play at an elite level, Los Angeles could be peaking at just the right time. They may need this momentum to continue as they travel to Tampa Bay to face the defending champions next Sunday.
Looking Ahead to the NFL Divisional Round
As far as I’m concerned, this is the best weekend of football of the entire year. It’s the best balance of good to great teams and quantity of games. In a season that has constantly had viewers changing their minds as to who are the best teams, this is when the playoffs really get turned up. Let’s be honest, none of us expected a playoff run from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or Las Vegas. It was an accomplishment for those teams to reach the postseason, but the general football fan in me is happy they have been eliminated. In my mind, the eight teams remaining are the best eight teams in football.
Buffalo is heading back to Kansas City for a rematch of Week Five and last season’s AFC Championship Game. These were the two favorites in the AFC at the beginning of the season and they will be playing one week earlier than many expected in September. Buffalo dominated the Chiefs 38-20 in their first meeting this season, but that was at a point when the Chiefs looked like they were having an identity crisis. On paper, this should be the best of four games this weekend and the winner may very likely be the favorite to win the AFC Championship even if it means going on the road. Both teams are also coming off great offensive performances, especially the Bills who saw Josh Allen have one of the great offensive performances in playoff history. There should be plenty of scoring, but the biggest story will be watching Allen and Pat Mahomes, quite possibly the Brady and Manning of this NFL quarterback generation, meet for another high stakes playoff game. The last two meetings between these two teams have not been as close as most people expected. Maybe this one will be the playoff classic we’ve been waiting for.
The Green Bay Packers will start their postseason and have their hands full with the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco is not your typical sixth seed playoff team. They have a strong defense, playmakers on offense, a dominant tight end, a swiss army knife “wide back”, and the ability to run the ball at well. Quite honestly I think is the worst opening match the Packers could ask for. They will and certainly should still be favorites, especially with the home field of Lambeau Field, but the 49ers just look like the type of team built to give the Packers serious fits. Now one of the biggest tales of the tape for this game will be the health of both teams. The number one seeded Packers are returning a who’s who of previously injured players including David Bakhtiari, Za’Darius Smith, and Jaire Alexander. The Niners are coming off their emotional road Wild Card win against the Dallas Cowboys in which both Nick Bosa and Fred Warner were injured. We likely won’t know until later in the week whether either playoff will be able to go. Without arguably their two best defensive players, San Francisco will have their hands full against likely MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense. If the Niners do get good reports for both players, the Niners could be primed for an upset and revenge for their Week Three loss to Green Bay in which Rodgers led a game winning and ending drive.
Tennessee welcoming Cincinnati is the battle between two teams we are used to seeing play and be eliminated in Wild Card weekend. This game guarantees that one of them will advance within one game of the Super Bowl. The Bengals and Titans are the “two other teams” people figured would join the certainties of the Chiefs and Bills in the AFC Divisional Round. The biggest question in this game is how useful will Derrick Henry be and what will he look like after being out due to injury so long? If Henry returns to form immediately, I see Tennessee making this an ugly clock burning game. If Henry isn’t up to speed, I could see this hot Bengals team make another huge leap in their turn around season.
After all of these years, Matthew Stafford has finally won a playoff game and he will now face the man that has won more postseason games than anyone. This is Tom Brady’s realm now and this game feels like Stafford will have to meet him in the middle. Yes, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week Three, but this one adds the pressure of the playoffs, something Brady doesn’t seem to even feel is even there. I think either of these teams could be playing in the Super Bowl, but in my mind it will mean Stafford needs to outplay Brady. He outdueled him back in September. Will Stafford be able do it again?
Four games that could go in any direction. Let’s hope football fans are gifted some great games to make up for some of the garbage experienced on Wild Card weekend. Enjoy all of the football we have left. Before you know it, it will be gone again.