The argument could be made that this 2016 Wild Card weekend was the worst weekend to ever attend an NFL game in person. Didn’t matter which one, but as a home team fan, you were guaranteed to have your day ruined. For the first time in the modern era, all four Wild Card home teams lost, including one in the third-coldest game in NFL history. Imagine sitting through hours of historically bone-chilling weather and then on top of that, you’re going to watch a missed chip shot field goal that was shorter than an extra point, but meant oh so much more than that. Pretty lousy, eh?
But credit goes to the four road warriors, who refused to let home-field advantage be recognized as A Thing and prevailed nonetheless. Easy for a couple of this weekend’s entrants, slightly more dramatic for a couple more, all four teams will carry no small amount of confidence into their matchups against higher seeds in the next round, but as far as any group of No. 5 and 6 seeds, this is a fairly formidable collection.
And we knew this to be true from the opening kickoff of the weekend’s first game, when Kansas City’s Knile Davis went 106 yards for the score (and was really in the clear for the final 70 yards or so). From there, the game only got worse for Houston, which looked completely outmatched, outclassed, and out-everything in all facets of the game. The Chiefs didn’t really put this away until the second half, but the game was never truly in doubt. Brian Hoyer looked overwhelmed time and time again, and Houston simply didn’t have the personnel on offense to keep this game competitive for very long, and the final score of 30-0 made this seem more competitive than it was.
Kansas City got some good news that wide receiver Jeremy Maclin (knee) is not ruled out for next week’s divisional round game at New England, but the Chiefs will be confident whether he plays or not. They’ve now won 11 in a row since starting the season 1-5, and even with Alex Smith at quarterback, even with Spencer Ware at running back, the Chiefs are to be underestimated at their opponents’ peril, especially with that voracious pass rush.
Saturday’s finale was maybe the weirdest game of the whole weekend, so we didn’t really have any sure idea of how it would turn out until the final kick went through the uprights in the last few seconds. I mean, could anyone have scripted such a complete meltdown of discipline and decorum as exhibited by the Bengals in those final moments? The game was in hand and maybe they could’ve survived one major bonehead penalty, but not two. And so it was that a game that Cincinnati looked like it had no chance to win turned into a game it couldn’t possibly lose before it ultimately found a way to snatch defeat from near-certain victory.
Ben Roethlisberger may still be in a painkiller-induced haze, and his status for next week’s showdown in Denver is certainly in question, but provided he still has two legs and two arms appended in all the right places, I can’t envision him not playing. And while Cincinnati’s streak of playoff ineptitude now reaches a cool quarter-century with the 18-16 loss, Pittsburgh plays on in search of that record seventh ring.
Seattle, on the other hand, is trying to reach its third-consecutive Super Bowl, which no NFC team has ever done before. For that to happen, they’d have to win in the sub-zero temps of Minnesota and the chances of pulling off this upset — which is only relative, because the Seahawks were actually favored to win this — seemed bleak entering the fourth quarter, down 9-0 thanks to three Blair Walsh field goals. And though it seemed like a fourth Walsh score, a chip shot he’s made many thousands of times in his life, would erase what had been a stoic fourth-quarter rally for Seattle, the ball did not agree when it left Walsh’s foot. It skittered off to the left, stayed there, and the Seahawks held on for a wacky 10-9 win. Now they must venture to the warmer environs of Charlotte and the No. 1 seed, while the Vikings’ offseason will consist of Walsh regretting that last kick, Jeff Locke trying to figure out that hold, and rushing champion Adrian Peterson trying to explain away that awful fourth-quarter fumble deep in Vikings territory that set the whole unfortunate final chain of events in motion.
Green Bay closed out the weekend with a surprisingly convincing win at FedEx Field, and I’m not sure we’ll ever really understand how it is that the Packers just ended up dominating this game. It was actually a very entertaining affair through three quarters and only a one-score game heading into the final frame, but then the Green Bay defense (which was decent-ish in the regular season) came alive with a sense of urgency missing from earlier drives. Kirk Cousins was sacked four times alone in the fourth, and two of those ended Washington drives on downs. Aaron Rodgers more or less remembered that he’s Aaron Rodgers, and from there Washington was toast. Green Bay ran away with a 35-18 win and gets a date with Arizona, which destroyed the Packers in Week 16, 38-8. Methinks this will be somewhat more competitive this time around.
So, if this is going to be the kind of postseason where road teams are just going out there with no fear and slug a beating onto unprepared home favorites, that means we’re still in for some incredible football. On the other hand, would anyone be surprised if every No. 1 and 2 seed won next weekend? That’s for a later discussion, but for now, it’s nice to think that maybe we still have no earthly idea what’s yet to occur in these playoffs.