NFL Playoff Takeaways: Wild Card Round
Photo by Nam Huh from The Associated Press
This was one of the most memorable wild card weekends I can remember, with most of the games being fantastic to watch.
It had upsets. It had collapses. It had coaches yelling at their own players.
It had it all!
Rams defeat Panthers 34-31
The Panthers were giving Matt Stafford fits for a large part of that game.
The pass rush was making Stafford uncomfortable, and he noticeably had a hand injury that was bugging him.
They had a real chance to win that game.
And then, for some reason, they stopped bringing pressure, dropped back into coverage, and let Stafford pick them apart.
It was a weird decision for the Panthers, and maybe just a fear of Stafford beating them on the blitz, but he hadn’t done it all day long.
A missed opportunity for a huge upset.
Bears defeat Packers 31-27
It is impossible to overstate how horrible this second half was for the Green Bay Packers.
Kicker Brandon McManus missed two field goals and an extra point. Jayden Reed dropped a great chance to get the Packers a chance to get into the red zone late and possibly win.
But it all falls down to Matt LaFleur and his game management.
In the 4th quarter, the Packers had a 21-9 lead.
Their remaining drives took the following amount of time off the clock.
51 seconds
3 minutes and 32 seconds
1 minute and 27 seconds (while running 8 plays, how is that even possible?)
1:43 seconds and the end of the game
One of those drives also included a deep pass on 2nd and 10, because why not?
The Bears had three drives longer than three of their drives, and the Bears were the trailing team! They wanted to move fast!
That is a game you simply can not lose to your biggest rival, and it’s another backbreaking Packers loss in the Matt LaFleur era.
I have been adamant that Kyle Shanahan just simply is who he is.
Matt LaFleur seems to be who he is.
Bills defeat Jaguars 27-24
This game was absolutely awesome, and it came down to one team just simply being more experienced than the other.
When it came time to make a play, Josh Allen made them, and Trevor Lawrence just made little simple errors, such as throwing a game losing interception when they had plenty of time, or diving down short of the first down on a 4th down conversion attempt.
It just feels like this Bills team knows their moment is now, and this Jags team is a step or two away.
49ers defeat Eagles 23-19
The Eagles offense being that bland and boring is flat out coaching malpractice.
You can say it’s Jalen Hurts not being good. You can say it’s the offensive line not having Lane Johnson.
Doesn’t mean a thing to me, because this is on offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo having an incredibly boring and borderline peewee football level game plan, and Nick Sirianni not realizing this was a problem months ago, and doing something about it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are big changes in Philly this offseason, and frankly, I think they’re needed.
As for the Niners, they continue to win despite yet another devastating injury to a key player with George Kittle rupturing his achilles tendon.
I give Kyle Shanahan a lot of grief for his game management mistakes, but there’s no doubt that he is coaching his tail off.
It’s insane this team is where they are.
Patriots defeat Chargers 16-3
Everything people said about the Chargers offensive line was correct and true, but that doesn’t change the fact that Justin Herbert played a terrible football game.
He missed wide open throws, overthrew deep passes, and had my least favorite play of the whole weekend.
In the third quarter, down 6-3 and facing a 3rd and about 8, Herbert rolled to his left to avoid pressure.
As he was rolling left, he opened his hips and overthrew his wide receiver.
The overthrow isn’t the issue. That happens. It’s a hard throw to make.
The problem is, as soon as he opened his hips to throw, the Patriots linebacker spying Herbert turned up field to defend the pass, leaving Herbert a clear running lane that he refused to take.
You don’t need a huge chunk play there. You need a first down.
It’s the mistakes like that that prevent Justin Herbert from truly being that elite level quarterback everyone says that he is.
Maybe they don’t win the game regardless. After all, that offensive line performance was truly dreadful.
But it can’t be ignored how bad Herbert was, and how badly his last two playoff games have been.
Texans defeat Steelers 30-6
If this was the end for Aaron Rodgers, it was a fitting end.
The offense was humming. The defense was playing great. Rodgers throws deep to the right for D.K. Metcalf and Metcalf…
…drops the ball.
And from that moment forward, as it often is with Rodgers, the offense fell apart.
He didn’t target Metcalf again until the 4th quarter, he was yelling on the sideline, to who knows who, and after missing a deep go ball to Calvin Austin by a few yards or so, it wasn’t him just missing a throw.
It was somehow Austin’s fault for doing something wrong.
Now, credit belongs to the Texans defense. This was the lowest EPA per play allowed at -33.4. This is an absolutely incredible defensive unit. One of the best we’ve seen.
But the Steelers defense still forced three turnovers, and the Steelers offense scored 3 points off of those turnovers.
Meanwhile, the Texans scored 14 points off the two Steelers turnovers, a scoop and score and a pick six.
It was an angry, pouty, lackluster playoff game from Rodgers.
It’s just like it has been for years.
