Road Warriors Sweep Wild Card Weekend
For the first time ever, all four Wild Card NFL Playoff games were won by the visiting team. Two games were won decisively, but the other two should have been won by the home team, but victory slipped away.
In Houston, the Kansas City Chiefs had no trouble with the Texans. Knile Davis returned the opening kickoff 106 yards for touchdown, and it was essentially over after seven seconds. The Chiefs forced five turnovers, and rolled to a 30-0 victory, the team’s 11th straight win, and first playoff victory in 22 years. The downside for the Chiefs is that top receiver Jeremy Maclin suffered a high ankle sprain. It’s unclear if he’ll be able to play in the Chiefs upcoming game against the New England Patriots in the Divisional Round.
In Cincinnati, the Bengals had a 16-15 lead over the Steelers with seconds left, when two costly and foolish penalties worth a total of 30 yards put the Steelers within field goal range. Chris Boswell kicked a 35 yarder field goal and Pittsburgh won 18-16. In this physical and penalty marred game, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered a shoulder injury (though he was able to play in the final offensive drive,) and WR Antonio Brown suffered a concussion. The Steelers will next face the Broncos in Denver in a Divisional Playoff game, but it remains to be seen if a big part of their offense will be available.
In Minnesota, the Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks battled it out in sub zero temperatures. Seattle trailed 9-0 after three quarters, but mounted a comeback to take a 10-9 lead. But the Vikings made one last push, and with 22 seconds left, kicker Blair Walsh came into to attempt a 27 yard field goal. The normally dependable Walsh hooked the kick to the left, and missed. We heard an audio clip of a shocked Viking’s radio broadcaster scream “THE SEASON CANNOT END THIS WAY!” after the miss. Yes it can. And it did. Seattle will travel to Charlotte and take on the Carolina Panthers in the next round.
Finally, in Washington, the Redskins jumped off to a 11-0 lead over the Green Bay Packers, a team whose offense had gone into the dumper in recent weeks. But the Packers got themselves together, and started looking like the team that had gotten off to a 6-0 start before finishing 10-6, and outscored the Redskins 35-7 to take away a 35-18 victory. Green Bay plays at Arizona in a Divisional Round Playoff next weekend.
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Poor Vikings: it sounds like Morton Anderson missing his only FG of the year to let the Falcons go to the SB.
Also, I think GB might not have given their best at the end of the season. They look good at 5:2 next week.
A key reason for the Packers’ success against Washington was improved play by the offensive line. The line has been riddled with injuries, and Aaron Rodgers has been sacked and pressured in recent games much more than earlier in the season. The Packer’s finally found a combination of blockers that not only protected Rodgers, but opened up holes for the running backs. Of course, Arizona’s defense is much better than Washington’s.
I guess the major question becomes : is there better than a 30% chance that GB can exploit the weaknesses found by Seattle or that Palmer will underpreform. If so, GB looks good at 5:2.