Wild Card Weekend Recap

Three road teams won on Wild Card Weekend, including the Saints being stunned at home to the Vikings in overtime. Saturday's playoff opener between the Texans and the Bills was a crazy game that went into OT, and Tom Brady might have played his last game as a Patriot after NE was bounced by Tennessee. There is a lot of digest from Wild Card Weekend. Here is my recap of all the games...

AFC Wild Card Game
(4) Houston-22 (5) Buffalo-19 (OT)
1) This was a wildly, entertaining game from start to finish. The Bills jumped out to a 13-0 halftime lead only to see the Texans storm all the way back to take the lead in the second half, but the Bills send it to overtime on a last second 47 yard field goal. The Texans ultimately pulled it out in the extra session, but this game was like two 8 year olds playing Madden 20 against each other.

2) The game changed when J.J. Watt sacked Josh Allen and forced a field goal at 13-0 Bills in the third quarter. It made it 16-0 and kept it a two possession game.

3) From there, Deshaun Watson flipped a switch and put the game on his back. He scored the first TD to cut it to 16-8. The Texans fed off the momentum, forced the Bills into turnovers and mistakes and took the game over for a 19-16 lead late in the game.

4) The end of this game was wild. After Buffalo drove deep into Houston territory trailing 19-16, Josh Allen took two horrible sacks. The last one was on a 4th and 27! Sean McDermott still had three timeouts left and they could have punted Houston inside their own 10, but for some reason they went for it and gave Houston the ball back in Buffalo territory. Bill O'Brien didn't help his team either when he went for it on 4th and 2 and decided to run a QB sneak with Watson. He got stuffed and the ball went back to Buffalo. The coaching decisions provided some head scratchers.

5) Deshaun Watson made the play of the playoffs so far by avoiding a sack in which he got sandwiched by two Bills defenders, and spun out and fired a pass for a huge gain that put the Texans in field goal position to win the game.

6) Give credit to the Texans and Watson for coming back, but this felt like a real opportunity lost for the Bills.



AFC Wild Card Game
(6) Tennessee-20 (3) New England-13

1) Derrick Henry dominated the game and he gave Tennessee a chance to control the clock. He certainly was a big reason why the Titans advanced.

2) The key sequence for me was when NE was stopped on three straight runs inside the 3 yard line late in the first half up 10-7. If they score a TD there, then they are up 17-7 and probably win the game. Instead, they settled for a short field goal, went up 13-7, and then gave up a TD drive right before the half to the Titans. The Titans went from possibly being down 17-7 at the half, to up 14-13.

3) The Pats defense did their part. Although they couldn't stop Henry, they only gave up 14 points and kept giving their offense and Tom Brady a chance to win it. The Pats just couldn't make the plays on offense to win the game.

4) Julian Edelman's drop on 2nd and 6 near midfield late in the game will haunt the Pats fans all offseason. He had room to run and would have given the Pats a nice gain and nice field position with plenty of time to win the game on a field goal.

5) The fact that Ryan Tannehill completed a huge 3rd down throw and knocked off the Pats in Foxboro is pretty amazing, but Tannehill has been really good since he took over in Week 7, so it shouldn't be a huge surprise.

6) Brady's pick six was just icing on the cake at the end for the Titans. Its crazy to think that Brady's last pass as a Patriot might be an interception return for a TD. There will be an entire offseason to dissect Brady's future, but it was wild to see it end like that in this game.

7) The Titans were the better team on this night. Mike Vrabel did a great job coaching his team and getting them ready, and they slayed the dragon in Foxboro. Gotta give them all the credit.


NFC Wild Card Game
(6) Minnesota-26 (3) New Orleans-20

1) This was the biggest upset of the weekend. NO ONE was picking the Vikings to upset the Saints, and they pulled it off in overtime. Just a stunner of a game.

2) Kirk Cousins needed a statement game on his resume, and this game will be the one that will get the monkey off of his back. He played great, and made big throws all game long. His game winner to Kyle Rudoph on 3rd and goal in overtime was a perfect throw.

3) The Saints and Drew Brees just didn't seem to have it all game long. They were down 20-10 in the 4th quarter, and it just seemed like they weren't on their gam. Give the Vikings and Mike Zimmer credit, but the Saints didn't look like the dominant team they were coming into the playoffs.

4) Once again, a sequence near the half helped decide this game. A Brees interception on a deep ball led to a Viking touchdown and a 13-10 Minnesota lead, and Will Lutz missed a 43 yarder to tie the game at 13 heading into halftime.

5) The Vikings got a huge win, and this is the type of game that could help get them on a run in these playoffs. This was about as good as it gets for this franchise.

6) The Saints are left picking up the pieces to another playof disappointment. How many more chances will Drew Brees and Sean Payton get? This will leave another bitter taste in their mouth, and it will be hard to rebound from this one.

NFC Wild Card Game
(5) Seattle-17 (4) Philly-9

1) This was the least entertaining game of the weekend. Once Carson Wentz went out with a concussion, this game lost it's appeal.

2) Josh McCown did his best to win the game for the Eagles, but the 40 year old QB just couldn't pull it off. The Eagles had battled injuries all year long, and it finally came full circle when their star QB got knocked out of the game.

3) The Seahawks did just enough to get the win. They weren't overly impressive, but it felt like once they knew Wentz was out for the game, they knew they had to just do enough to get by and they would win the game. It was a one possession game late but I never felt that the Seahawks were going to lose the game.

4) Seattle moves on and now becomes a very dangerous road team as they head to Green Bay.