NFL Notebook: Wild-Card Round Recap
The NFL Wild-Card Weekend is in the books. Here’s our recap of all six games. They are ordered by bracket structure—the AFC followed by the NFC, and in sequence based on the seed of the winning team:
Buffalo 31 Denver 7
The Broncos hung in there for a half and at 10-7, it looked like they could really put the pressure on the Bills. But Denver was just being outplayed in the trenches on both sides of the ball. The final rushing yardage numbers were 210-70 in favor of Buffalo. Bills’ running back James Cook went for 120 yards, and even that total doesn’t tell how physically aggressive he was when he ran.
Josh Allen didn’t have to carry the load, and he played sharp, efficient football—20/26 for 272 yards. Bo Nix looked like a rookie in the playoffs—he missed some open throws. It was a year of strong progress for Nix and for the Broncos, but it ended here.
Baltimore 28 Pittsburgh 14
Over the years, Steeler head coach Mike Tomlin has summoned his team to deliver some impressive efforts in spots where no one thought they could win. Saturday night in Charm City was not one of them. This final score doesn’t tell the story of how thoroughly Pittsburgh was dominated. Lamar Jackson set the tone early. He finished 81 rushing yards on the night and a lot of them came as the Ravens were building a 21-0 halftime lead. Derrick Henry rolled up 186 yards. Lamar was efficient throwing the football, even with top target Zay Flowers out.
The fact that Baltimore could do more or less what they wanted was underscored when the Steelers cut the lead to 21-7 in the third quarter and the Ravens just simply marched right back down for another score. Russell Wilson fought valiantly for Pittsburgh—20/29, 270 yards and no mistakes, but the Pittsburgh running game was non-existent.
Houston 32 LA Chargers 12
For the first quarter and a half, Los Angeles looked like they deserved to be the road favorite. Their defense was controlling the game. But the Chargers were missing opportunities. Bogging down in the red zone kept their lead to 6-0. When Justin Herbert threw an interception in Texans’ territory, blowing a chance to make it a two-score game in the first half, it was the beginning of the unraveling.
Herbert was a disaster. While one of the interceptions was not his fault, bouncing off the hands of tight end Will Dissly, three others were, he was wildly inefficient, and his 86-yard touchdown pass to favored target Ladd McConkey didn’t come until L.A. was in a 23-6 hole in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, C.J. Stroud was efficient, Joe Mixon ended up clearing the 100-yard threshold running the ball, and Nico Collins did the same receiving-wise.
Philadelphia 22 Green Bay 10
It was a very physical game and fun to watch. The effort levels brought by each team were underscored in the third quarter. With Philly holding a 10-3 lead, tight end Dallas Goedert ripped through multiple tacklers to will himself to the end zone and extend the lead. Undeterred, Green Bay running back Josh Jacobs ran through the entire Eagle defense to put the Packers just shy of the goal line, where they ultimately scored.
In the end though, Green Bay made too many mistakes. They lost a fumble on the opening kickoff. Jordan Love threw three interceptions. Jalen Hurts didn’t have great numbers, but in his first game back from a concussion, he avoided mistakes. Between the Eagle defense, Love’s erratic play, and Saquon Barkley rushing for 119 yards, mistake-free was all Hurts needed to be in this round.
LA Rams 27 Minnesota 9
In the wild-card preview post, I made several predictions. And, let’s be honest, they were almost universally disastrous. None more so than this game. Sometimes, when a prediction goes awry, you watch the game unfold and think “What was I thinking?” That’s how I felt watching my pick of a comfortable Chargers win unravel. But there other games where you think “I don’t regret my pick, but they are just melting down.” That was the case in this game. There was no excuse for Minnesota’s non-performance.
Facing a defense that has a good edge rusher in Jared Verse, but not a lot else, Minnesota’s pass protection allowed nine sacks. One of them turned into a fumble that Verse brought back to the house. Sam Darnold bears responsibility for some of those sacks and for a bad interception. Both the pick and the scoop-n-score came when Minnesota still had a chance to win. Meanwhile, Matthew Stafford was sharp. And a Ram team that had to flee its hometown was more focused than the Vikings.
Washington 23 Tampa Bay 20
By far the best game of the weekend, Washington pulled it out when their last-play field goal bounced off the goalpost and in. The Commander win was set up by Buccaneer mistakes. Leading 17-13 and having made a 4th-and-goal stop, Tampa gave the ball back on a botched handoff. It was the game’s only turnover, but it was the difference, leading to a quick score. Another mess on the snap count on the ensuing drive stopped the Bucs’ third-down play and forced them to settle for a tying field goal.
Jayden Daniels and Baker Mayfield were both terrific, but with 35 minutes of possession time, Daniels was on the field more. Washington was one of three underdogs to win this weekend (along with Houston and the LA Rams), but they were the only road team to survive.
Here’s how the bracket looks for the Divisional Round. We’ll be back here Friday to preview these four games:
AFC
Houston – Kansas City (Saturday, 4:30 PM ET, ESPN)
Baltimore – Buffalo (Sunday, 6:30 PM ET, CBS)
NFC
Washington – Detroit (Saturday, 8 PM ET, Fox)
LA Rams – Philadelphia (Sunday, 3 PM ET, NBC)