It was apropos that after the first four years of the NFL’s expansion into a 14-team tournament with only one bye oer conference that the adjective “Super” was dropped from its Wild Card Weekend promotional umbrella this year. Up until last night, the games played were most definitely not super, and arguably weren’t all that wild, either.
All four home teams had won, handily, reminding anyone watching of the overall level of mediocrity that the lower seeds that limped into the playoffs truly were despite any rhetoric to the contrary in the hype leading up to it. Yesterday we mused about how Ohio State and Houston Texans fans took heart over their emphatic win over the Chargers; while Buckeyes lovers gained some solace over Michigan and alumni personnel the same was true with Oregon, as Ducks alum Justin Herbert was as humbled in this outing as his team was in Pasadena on New Year’s Day by the current OSU squad.
The ensuing three games were no more competitive. Saturday night the Baltimore Ravens sent the reeling Steelers home early with some stellar performances, as the team website’s Matt Ryan (no, not THAT one) authored:
In a dominant performance, the Ravens topped the Steelers, 28-14, Saturday night at M&T Bank Stadium for a wild-card playoff win.
Baltimore controlled the game from the jump and took a 21-0 halftime lead. Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry starred again as the Ravens played one of their best games in the season on the biggest stage yet. The Ravens got Henry for cold and physical games just like this, and he didn’t disappoint, rushing for 186 yards and two touchdowns. He opened the game with nasty stiff-arm of Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and kept punishing Pittsburgh from there. He torched the entire Pittsburgh secondary with his 44-yard third quarter touchdown run.
In Buffalo yesterday afterrnoon the Bills surprisingly echoed that gameplan in their one-sided win, per NEWS10NBC’s Ian Mills:
The Buffalo Bills handled the Denver Broncos with a 31-7 win in the wild-card round and much of the team’s offensive damage was done on the ground. The Bills rushed for 210 yards, 10 yards shy of the team’s season-high of 220 against the San Francisco 49ers.
Lead back James Cook led the way with 23 carries for 120 yards and one touchdown. Of Cook’s output, 78 yards came in the first half when the team had only mustered 69 passing yards. On the team’s lone first-half touchdown drive, the Bills ran for 67 yards, Cook accounted for 38 of those yards.
And in the City of Brotherly Love later yesterday afternoon the Iggles emerged with a home win in perhaps the least exciting game of all to that point, as USA TODAY’s Chris Bumbaca observed:
In a playoff game that won’t garner many reruns on NFL Network, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers 22-10 Sunday in the NFC wild-card round.
Dallas Goedert bullied his way to a 24-yard touchdown in the third quarter and the Eagles defense contained Jordan Love, Josh Jacobs and a depleted Green Bay receiving corps to pave the way for victory.
Neither quarterback played inspiring ball. For Philadelphia, Jalen Hurts completed his first six passes but missed his next seven and finished 13-for-21 with 131 passing yards and five rushes for 37 yards in his return after missing the last two games (and most of a third) with a concussion he suffered against the Washington Commanders on Dec. 22.
As an old boss of mine would whine, this was all “just plain dull”.
But in the Sunday night game we got a storyline and a result that came close to wiping away the tedium of the balance of the week, as THE ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Rob Maiddi gushed:
Jayden Daniels ran for a critical first down to set up Zane Gonzalez’s 37-yard field goal that clanged off the right upright and went through as time expired, and the Commanders beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 in an NFC wild-card game Sunday night for the franchise’s first playoff win in 6,945 days.
New owners. New general manager. New coach. New franchise quarterback. That’s the formula — with an emphasis on the QB — that Washington rode to playoff success after nearly two decades of futility. Washington hadn’t won in the postseason since beating the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay 17-10 in a wild-card game on Jan. 7, 2006.
And for a franchise that was as downtrodden and embarassing as the one-time Redskins were under the loathsome Dan Snyder, the reinvented Commanders have done a complete 180. A year after losing 13 games and drafting Daniels, they have now won 13 games including last night and strut into Detroit this coming Saturday night against the top-seeded Lions with as much momentum and house money as any upstart could hope to have. They’ve already won a playoff road game–the only one to date to do so.
That said, it’s already assured that they won’t be the only road warriors looking to make the Divisional Round more compelling than the past 48 hours have been. That’s because the Vikings and Rams are playing tonight on the home field of the Arizona Cardinals–thank you, L.A. wildfires. The winner gets a ticket to Philly for their own chance at an Eagles team that has been playing just well enough to advance but hardly well enough to be a lock to do so again.
All this means that next weekend portends to be a lot more competitive and exciting than the one we’ve just mostly snored through. One can only hope.
Courage…