Another round down in the NFL Playoffs, and the field is halved again. The addition of the four teams on bye helped the overall entertainment factor of Divisional Weekend. However, two of the games ended up closer on the scoreboard than they really were on the field. As we head to the conference championships there will be no interlopers as it is 1 seed versus 2 seed in each conference. Let’s see how that came to be as we take a look back as well as one forward in part two of the three part State of the NFL Playoffs.
THE STATE OF THE AFC PLAYOFFS
The Patriots are the team that every non-New England fan loves to hate. They are “cheaters” in as many ways as detractors can concoct. But it is mostly the frustratingly consistent standard of excellence they’ve maintained over the Brady & Belichick regime that produces the vitriol towards them. That continued on Saturday in the opening game of the second round against the Chiefs.
New England did what New England does. They dink and dunked Kansas City to death forcing Kansas City to take chances on short routes. When they did that, they got Gronk’d. Questions surrounding the all-world tight end’s availability were answered when he was left off the inactives list prior to the game. Two punishing touchdowns later proved the concern was unfounded.
Two other storylines entering the contest was the tempered expectations for Chandler Jones and Julian Edelman. Jones’ strange brush with the law left many wondering how big of a role he’d play in the game. Edelman hadn’t played in two months after breaking his foot and still seemed to move gingerly on it during drills. In typical Patriots fashion though, both men played and excelled. Jones had a sack to force a punt in the second half. Edelman caught a team high 10 passes for an even 100 yards.
The 27-20 win by the Pats didn’t even really seem that close. Once Gronkowski scored for the second time, the game was all but done and dusted. There was just no foreseeable way that the Patriots were going to go Chernobyl on this one.
For the Chiefs, it was a somber end for their amazing run, but it was one of their own doing. When I say the Patriots had the game wrapped up at 21-6, it wasn’t because they were playing particularly crisp football. It was the erratic nature or Kansas City’s play calling mixed with an inexplicably blasé attitude towards the clock that sealed the notion for me.
You could see Alex Smith getting visibly upset with each timeout he had to call. Andy Reid blamed it on another mysterious series of headset malfunctions at Foxboro, but like Mike Tomlin in the season opener it just reeks of an excuse for their own futility. Down two scores with less than a quarter to go, Kansas City was huddling after each gain. Wide receivers were foolishly staying in bounds. Football novices watching the game beside me were scratching their heads as the Chiefs turned what should have been an urgent matter into a leisurely 80 yard stroll to paydirt. Leaving your season in the hands of an onside kick result is not ideal. And when the Patriots gave them a gift while running out the clock, they let that slip through their fingers.
Like every Patriots fan has posted on social media in the ensuing three days, it is “on to Denver” for New England. The AFC playoffs continue to be the place where the Patriots extend records, but Denver has always been a tricky place for them at any juncture in the season. But Denver themselves aren’t coming into the AFC Championship Game on the highest of notes.
Denver did not resemble a top conference seed in their game against the Steelers. In fact, even with an injury list that resembled a CVS receipt, Pittsburgh had more of the makings of a #1 than Denver. But in the end, as it has for the entirety of 2015, the defense bailed out an uninspired offense with a timely takeaway.
Up until the juncture just referenced, Denver’s MVPs had been their punter and their kicker. Brandon McManus had all 12 of the Broncos points with four field goals, including one from 51 yards in swirling winds. Britton Colquitt had been handed the charge of pinning Pittsburgh back after too many a Denver drive petered out. Three of his six punts were downed within the 20 and his superb hang time limited Steeler return man Markus Wheaton to just 5 yards a return. But as the Steelers were shredding the Broncos defense in the fourth quarter en route to what could have been a decisive touchdown, that changed.
Third string running back Fitzgerald Toussaint had been a solid fill-in for DeAngelo Williams against the Bengals and the Broncos. Up until the fateful moment, he had scored the game’s only touchdown. But as he battled for a first down in Denver territory, the ball was dislodged and momentum shifted.
With new found life, Denver moved the ball effectively on Pittsburgh for the first time all day. Outside of a huge third down conversion, all the damage was done by Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson on the ground. It was a master class in methodical football as the Steelers wore down with each 3 to 7 yard run. It was an inevitability that one of the two would punch it in and Anderson did just that willing himself to six points from the one yard line. Denver converted the two point conversion to put themselves up seven and let the defense play Mortal Kombat with Pittsburgh’s offense.
In a losing effort, Pittsburgh showed why they are always one of the most feared teams in the playoffs. Without Antonio Brown and DeAngelo Williams and Ben Roethlisberger playing with a shoulder held together with duct tape, they gave the league’s best defense all they could handle. Playing shorthanded has almost been an unofficial slogan for the Steelers in the past few playoffs they’ve participated in. That only does so much to soothe the sting of such a loss though.
Martavis Bryant had a career day in Brown’s spot, catching nine balls for 154 yards and rushing for 40 more. Toussaint had just 39 yards as Williams’ replacement, but he had a touchdown and several key first downs within those yards. You could see the play almost go into slow motion for him though as Bradley Roby forced the ball to the Mile High turf, even through his visor. He sat motionless on the bench as Denver took his error and changed the course of the game. Or at least he looked motionless each of the 163 times CBS panned to him during the drive.
So the AFC Championship game is set and it is the one that the executives at CBS were hoping for as soon as the playoffs began. It is the potentially final chapter in the Brady vs Manning saga. Although Peyton Manning hasn’t formally announced his retirement just yet, he has been a shell of even his worst self in 2015. Another year would be counterproductive for both Manning’s legacy as well as the Broncos’ future. Tom Brady isn’t going anywhere, because he is clearly a cyborg, but he is going to the one place this weekend where he isn’t invincible. Denver goes to the Super Bowl as key turnovers late on make the Patriots’ fifth straight AFC Championship Game one to forget.
THE STATE OF THE NFC PLAYOFFS
There was no team that I banged the drum more for entering the playoffs than the Arizona Cardinals. Even with 15-1 Carolina in play, the Cardinals were the most complete team entering the postseason. There were minimal surmises that Green Bay would provide any resistance in their quest for the NFC title. That wasn’t quite the case.
After dueling three & outs to start the game, Arizona struck first as they turned a short punt into an eventual touchdown pass. The short field was made a bit longer by a scary fumble on a sack but Carson Palmer was able to save his own blushes. In the end, Michael Floyd ran a pinpoint route and Palmer hit him square for the score. They were hardly dominant from then on out.
A defense that had sacked Aaron Rodgers 8 times is a 38-8 massacre just a month prior could not break through. The offense couldn’t get any traction through the air and even less so on the ground. One Carson Palmer interception led to a Green Bay touchdown. Another snuffed out a touchdown drive of his own. They were sloppy and inefficient, to be polite, yet still were in the lead. After the Pack went out on downs, a Chandler Catanzaro field goal put Arizona up a touchdown with under two minutes to go and the visitors bereft of timeouts. Nevertheless, Arizona found a way to let Green Bay hang around in spectacular fashion.
Green Bay’s final drive of regulation was the Jeff Janis Show, but it was one of those Tru TV car crash shows that you just can’t look away from. Janis ran the kickoff out of the endzone into a pile of humanity at the 14. Two incompletions, one Janis’ way, and a sack later and Green Bay faced 4th and 20 with their playoffs lives on the line. A 60 yard bomb from Aaron Rodgers to Janis brought a chill to the Arizona crowd and life into a team less than a minute away from being pronounced dead.
Rodgers tried twice more to find Janis on underneath routes but to no avail. A penalty had moved the Packers back to the Arizona 41 with just 4 seconds remaining. As football fans we were conditioned earlier this year not to take the Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary out of the realm of possibility. We just didn’t think it could happen in the playoffs. Oh, but it did. Rodgers avoided the rush and heaved the ball high towards the end zone where Janis came down with it for the touchdown. Mason Crosby avoided the John Carney “How Could He Do That?” and it was off to overtime.
There wasn’t much drama in the extra session as Larry Fitzgerald, on a broken play according to head coach Bruce Arians, broke Green Bay’s spirit. A shovel pass straight out of the Madden 2016 playbook sent them home not too long thereafter. Arizona dodged a huge bullet and now get to go to Carolina, a team that had their own troubles protecting a lead.
Carolina began their 2015 playoffs with a clinic in rushing the football. They went 75 yards on four plays, bookended by two runs up the gut by Jonathan Stewart. The first went for 59 yards and the second going just 4 through a wall of Seahawks. It wasn’t the worst reintroduction to the lineup after three games in street clothes for Stewart. It only got worse for the defending NFC champs in the first half.
The next drive saw Russell Wilson have his interception taken to the house by All-Pro Luke Kuechly to double Carolina’s edge. Carolina would score 17 points on their next three possessions, with the field goal coming after yet another Wilson pick. The Panthers would finally punt late in the second quarter, but all the Seahawks could do with it was watch as Steven Hauschka’s 55 yard field goal attempt fall short of the crossbar.
Carolina was dominating every facet of the game while the Seahawks couldn’t get anything right. A 31-0 deficit at the half had this game heading more towards the blowout route rather than a classic. But it wouldn’t have been the 2016 Divisional Playoffs if that happened.
The game had become the football embodiment of Freaky Friday. Seattle scored before half the stadium were even back in their seats. Carolina’s offense, a well-oiled machine in the first half, became a collection of bumbling nincompoops. Seattle scored again and what had looked like a Panthers highlight reel was turning into a horror movie.
Russell Wilson threw at everyone in the Carolina secondary and got results. But it was a sack by a member of that secondary that most certainly saved the game for Carolina. Josh Norman took Wilson down for a loss of 13 on the Seahawks’ third drive. It was Norman’s first sack of the season and it forced Seattle into an eventual punt. Carolina couldn’t make anything work themselves with the ball, but the clock continued to tick on Seattle’s hopes of an epic comeback.
Seattle would score 10 more points in the fourth quarter, but the deficit in the end was insurmountable. Thomas Davis recovered Hauschka’s onside kick and it was all she wrote. Carolina was headed to their third NFC Championship Game in their short history. However, this will be the first one they will be hosting at the Bank of America Stadium. Even with their near collapse, Carolina still has plenty of momentum as they welcome Arizona to Tar Heel Country. It is a shame that the league’s two best teams will meet in a conference championship, but at least it isn’t happening in the AFC for once. With that being said, this is easily the hardest game to predict in the playoffs to date. There are no glaring weaknesses on either side so it is going to take something special, or infamous, to turn the tide either way. I decided to go with the road team Arizona as a special teams play or big throw could be the game changer.
The end of the NFL season is nearing so enjoy the last few bits at your disposal. Come back next week for the final installment of the State of the NFL Playoffs where we recap the conference championships and prepare you for Super Bowl 50. You can follow me on Twitter @TREVORutley for thoughts, and probably a rant or two, during each game and @sportsftb to keep yourself up to date with all things sports. Use our GameView (found right up yonder) to make the games even more enjoyable and we’ll see you next week!