The New England Patriots had been the NFL’s flagship franchise going back to 2001, when the QB/coach combo of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their first Super Bowl. In the ensuing years, the Patriots racked up a total of five Lombardi Trophies, three additional appearances in the Super Bowl and were a regular in the AFC Championship Game. In the 2018 NFL season, Brady and Belichick did it for a sixth and final time together, capturing yet another Super Bowl ring.
Brady put together another Pro Bowl season at the age of 41, orchestrating a balanced cast of receivers and a running game led by Sony Michel and his 931 yards. The defense was anchored by All-Pro corner Stephon Gilmore. New England got early wins over playoff-bound teams in Houston and Indianapolis. The Patriots won a wild Sunday Night game over the Kansas City Chiefs, 43-40 in October. That game would be a precursor to the postseason. A week later, New England beat playoff-bound Chicago 38-31.
At the same time, this didn’t appear to be a vintage Patriot squad. They took a 34-10 beating at the hands of the Tennessee Titans, who would end up missing the playoffs. They lost a 17-10 decision to the Pittsburgh Steelers, another team that ended up narrowly outside the postseason. Yes, New England finished the season 11-5, comfortably won the AFC East, and was set as the 2-seed, a status which then earned a first-round bye. But there was a feeling going into the playoffs that this year’s Patriot edition was vulnerable.
The teams looking ready to supplant New England were coming out of the AFC West. 2018 was Patrick Mahomes’ first year as a starter in Kansas City, and the second-year quarterback was an immediate star. He threw 50 touchdown passes, averaged almost nine yards per attempt, and won the MVP award.
Mahomes’ deep threat was Tyreek Hill, who caught 87 balls and averaged 17 yards a catch. Travis Kelce added 103 more catches at tight end. Both Hill and Kelce were All-Pro, as was offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz. Kansas City led the league in scoring. The defense, led by pass rushers in Chris Jones, Dee Ford, and Justin Houston, who combined for 37 ½ sacks, finished fourth in points allowed.
But the Chiefs did not have this division to themselves. The Los Angeles Chargers got a Pro Bowl year out of 37-year-old quarterback Phillip Rivers, who threw for over 4,300 yards. Melvin Gordon was versatile out of the backfield, both running and catching the football. Keenan Allen caught 97 balls for almost 1,200 yards. The defense had All-Pros in the secondary with Derwin James and Desmond King. The Bolts were in the top quarter of the league for both offense and defense.
Kansas City drew first blood in the season opener, beating L.A. 38-28. The Chiefs went on to win a 42-37 shootout over the Steelers a week later. In early December, K.C. knocked off playoff-bound Baltimore 27-24. Los Angeles stayed in hot pursuit, getting their own shootout win over Pittsburgh, 33-30 and beating playoff-bound Seattle 25-17 in early November.
On a Thursday Night in December, the Chargers won a big head-to-head game over the Chiefs 29-28. The AFC West was L.A.’s for the taking with two weeks to go. But the following Saturday night, the Ravens came into the StubHub Center, where Los Angeles was playing their games while SoFi Stadium was being completed. Baltimore won 22-10. Both the Chiefs and Chargers finished 12-4. But Kansas City got the tiebreaker and the #1 seed in the AFC. Los Angeles tumbled to the 5-seed.
The Chargers weren’t the only contender in Los Angeles—or even the best one. The Rams, playing in the Coliseum, had the second-best offense in the NFL. Todd Gurley did everything, rushing for 1,251 yards and catching 59 passes. Robert Woods and Brandin Cooks went over 1,200 yards receiving. Quarterback Jared Goff could be mistake-prone, but he threw for over 4,700 yards and averaged better than eight yards per throw. Defensively, the Rams had issues, but they also had a big-time playmaker—tackle Aaron Donald recorded 20 ½ sacks and won Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Seattle contended behind the league’s sixth-best offense, and a Pro Bowl year from Russell Wilson, who threw 35 touchdown passes against just seven interceptions. Chris Carson ran for over 1,100 yards. While the defense wasn’t the same as the Legion of Boom days from just a few years prior, they still had good pass rushers up front in end Frank Clark and tackle Jarran Reed. Middle linebacker Bobby Wagner was an All-Pro and the Seahawk defense finished a respectable 11th in points allowed.
The Rams won a September 23 battle with the Chargers to be the pride of Los Angeles. The Rams went on to win a pair of close, high-scoring games with the Seahawks—33-31 in October and 36-31 in November. And Los Angeles won one of the wildest Monday Night games of all-time when they outlasted the Chiefs 54-51. As for the Seahawks, they also got a prime-time win over Mahomes, 38-31 on a Sunday Night in December. A Monday Night win by Seattle over Minnesota proved decisive in the wild-card race.
When the dust settled, Los Angeles was a comfortable division champ, at 13-3 and the #2 seed in the NFC. Seattle still made the playoffs at 10-6 and earned the 5-seed.
The top seed in the NFC was the New Orleans Saints, another team getting Pro Bowl production from a veteran quarterback. Drew Brees was 39-years-old, but he still threw for almost 4,000 yards and had an outstanding TD-INT ratio of 32/5. All-Pro receiver Michael Thomas caught 125 passes for over 1,400 yards. Alvin Kamara ran for almost 900 yards and caught 81 passes out of the backfield. The Saints had the third-best offense in the NFL. The defense was more pedestrian, but still ranked 14th behind 12 sacks from end Cameron Jordan.
New Orleans did not have serious competition in the NFC South and a three-week stretch that started in late October was crucial to their overall playoff position. The Saints nipped the Ravens 24-23 and knocked of the Vikings 30-20 on Sunday Night. Then, in a late Sunday afternoon showcase game, a 45-35 win over the Rams would ultimately be decisive in settling the #1 seed. New Orleans furthered their bona fides with a 48-7 smashing of defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia in mid-November. The Saints finished 13-3.
The AFC South had a lively three-team race between the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, and Tennessee Titans. Houston got Pro Bowl production from 23-year-old quarterback Deshaun Watson, and wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins caught 115 passes and made All-Pro. Lamar Miller keyed the running game. But the real reason for the Texans’ success was the league’s fourth-best defense. The great J.J. Watt was at defensive end and had an All-Pro year with 16 sacks. Jadeveon Clowney added nine more sacks at outside linebacker.
Houston split the four games with their divisional rivals, but were also more consistent. The Texans got a high-profile Sunday Night win over the playoff-bound Dallas Cowboys in October. Houston ultimately finished 11-5, took the division and got the 3-seed.
Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck returned from a shoulder injury, threw for almost 4,600 yards and won Comeback Player of the Year. T.Y. Hilton was the prime beneficiary catching 76 passes for almost 1,300 yards. Luck got support from Marlon Mack, who ran for over 900 yards behind an offensive line led by All-Pro guard Quenton Leonard. The Indy defense had another All-Pro, outside linebacker Darius Leonard.
The Colts hammered the Titans 38-10 in mid-November. Indianapolis and Tennessee came down the stretch fighting for the sixth and final playoff spot. Each were 9-6. It came down to a head-to-head battle in the finale, flexed to prime-time. The Titans had quarterback problems. The Colts didn’t. Luck threw a couple of early TD passes and Indy rolled into the postseason with a 33-17 win.
Baltimore rounded out the playoff field in the AFC North. Lamar Jackson took over the starting job from veteran Joe Flacco midway through the season. In either case, the league’s second-best defense was a constant. The Ravens split their two games with the Steelers, got the aforementioned win over the Chargers, and followed that up by edging Cleveland 26-24 in the season finale. It was enough to get to 10-6 and get the 4-seed, nipping 9-6-1 Pittsburgh.
The Cowboys and Eagles fought it out in the NFC East. Dallas had difficulty scoring, and their offense was only 22nd for points scored. That’s in spite of Dak Prescott throwing for almost 3,900 yards and Ezekiel Elliot clearing 1,400 yards on the ground and winning the rushing title behind All-Pro guard Zack Martin. The defense didn’t have the same kind of star power, but they had better performance, coming in sixth for points allowed.
Philadelphia went through a hangover year after their Super Bowl championship. Carson Wentz reclaimed his quarterback job from Nick Foles, who had taken over down the stretch in 2017 when Wentz was injured. But Wentz struggled, didn’t hold the job and Foles wound up back in the saddle. The Eagle offense, even with the league’s best center in Jason Kelce and a 116-catch performance from tight end Zach Ertz, still ended up in the lower half of the NFL for scoring. The defense, with an All-Pro year from tackle Fletcher Cox, was better, but not great.
Dallas won both head-to-head games between the rivals. The first was a 27-20 decision on a Sunday Night in November. The second was a 29-23 win in early December. The Cowboys also got an impressive 13-10 Thursday Night win over the Saints the week after Thanksgiving. Dallas finished 10-6 and came in as the 4-seed. Philadelphia was in trouble down the stretch, but they delivered a series of big wins. With Foles back in charge, they beat the Rams 30-23 on a Sunday Night, and nipped the Texans 32-30. The Eagles finished 9-7 and got the 6-seed.
The NFC North had mostly belonged to the Green Bay Packers, and occasionally the Minnesota Vikings in recent years. No one saw the Chicago Bears coming. The league’s best scoring defense had three All-Pros in outside linebacker Khalil Mack, corner Kyle Fuller and safety Eddie Jackson. Tarik Cohen was a difference maker returning punts, and Jordan Howard ran for over 900 yards. While the young quarterback, Mitch Trubisky, could be a little erratic, the Bears still finished ninth for points scored.
Chicago got showcase wins on Sunday Night Football. They beat Seattle 24-17 in September, Minnesota 25-20 in November, and the Rams 15-6 in December. The Bears finished 12-4, easily routed the rest of the division and secured the 3-seed.
Wild-Card Weekend started with a statement performance from Indianapolis. The Colts went into Houston and beat the Texans 21-7, a result not even as competitive as it sounds. That night, Seattle and Dallas played a hard-fought game that the Cowboys ultimately chiseled out, 24-22. On early Sunday afternoon, the Chargers jumped out to a 23-3 lead on the Ravens and then held off a late push before closing out the 23-17 win.
The best game of the first round was its finale from Solider Field on early Sunday evening. Philadelphia and Chicago went back and forth, and the Eagles finally took a 16-15 lead in the final minute. The Bears got into position for one last field goal. The kick hit the upright…then the crossbar…then bounced out. The “double doink” had taken its place in NFL lore and Philadelphia lived to fight another day.
Kansas City had a star-crossed history of losing home playoff games. But all of that was before the Mahomes Era. The Chiefs kicked off Divisional Round Weekend with a comfortable 31-13 win over Indianapolis. As quickly as he returned to the scene, Luck would depart, announcing his retirement just seven years after he had been one of the most hyped #1 overall draft picks in history.
That night in the L.A. Coliseum, the Rams and Cowboys renewed a great playoff rivalry from the 1970s and early 1980s. Los Angeles delivered a 30-22 win. The following afternoon in Foxboro, the NFL world watched to see if the Chargers would be the team that finally exposed this presumably flawed Patriot team. Not so fast. New England led 38-7 in the third quarter before some garbage-time scoring made the final deceptively respectable at 41-28.
Philadelphia, riding their late season wave, went down into New Orleans and put the Saints in a 14-0 hole. Brees rallied his team. He threw for 301 yards. The New Orleans defense stiffened, and the Saints won 20-14.
The top two seeds in each conference had survived to play on Championship Sunday. And the games they played would be epic. New Orleans led Los Angeles 20-10. The Rams rallied to tie. The Saints drove down the field late in the game. A terrible no-call on an obvious pass interference by L.A. forced New Orleans to kick a field goal and leave time on the clock. The Rams rallied one more time, with a tying field goal and then a game-winning kick in overtime. The 26-23 sent Los Angeles to the Super Bowl and left New Orleans furious over the officiating.
New England might have appreciated being on the road, as a snowstorm blanketed their home region. They went into Arrowhead Stadium and took a 14-0 lead. The Patriots still led 17-7 after three quarters. Then, Mahomes unloaded. K.C. scored 24 points in the final period. But Brady kept going too. For the first time in history, both conference championship games went to overtime. New England won the coin toss in OT. Special teams player Matthew Slater said “We want the ball!” so emphatically the entire national TV audience heard it. With good reason. Brady marched the Patriots down for the touchdown that won it, 37-31.
The Super Bowl had plenty of tension, but both offenses were kept firmly under control. After three quarters, neither the Patriots or Rams had scored a touchdown. It was a 3-3 tie. As usual, it was Brady who made the big throws. He hit tight end Rob Gronkowski down the field on a big play that set up the go-ahead touchdown. Wide receiver Julian Edelman caught ten passes for 141 yards. New England added another field goal and won 13-3.
A season with so much drama had a familiar ending—Tom Brady and Bill Belichick standing on a podium and hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.