Allen Torches New England
Photo: Special for the NY Beacon
By Andrew Rosario
Because the NFL expanded the regular season, adding 1 more game, 1 more team was allowed to participate in the first round of the wild card playoffs. It concluded Monday night when the Arizona Cardinals faced the Los Angeles Rams. It was a fitting end to a weekend that saw blowouts and a bizarre ending.
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It began last Saturday afternoon when the Cincinnati Bengals hosted the Las Vegas Raiders. The Bengals had not won a playoff game in 31 years. Their quarterback, Joe Burrow wasn’t even born. It was the Bengals first postseason appearance since 2015. Things have not have been that dire for the Raiders who made the playoffs in 2016 but have not won a playoff game since 2002 when they beat (who else) the New York Jets. Cinci won their division while Las Vegas need a win or tie to get to the postseason. In a game that turned out to be an instant classic, the Raiders beat the Los Angeles Chargers in overtime punching their postseason ticket. By games end, the drought would be over for Cincinnati while the Raiders will have off season moves to make.
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Joe Burrow, who season was cut short last year due to a knee injury, finished his day throwing for 244 yards completing 24 of 34 passes and 2 touchdowns in the 26-19 win. Carr did all he could, throwing for 310 yards on 29 off 54 passes, 1 td and 1 interception. The Raiders had one last chance to score which would have sent the game into overtime but Carr’s last attempt was intercepted by linebacker Germaine Pratt. The win ended the Cincinnati 31-year drought.
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Later that night, In weather suited for only polar bears and penguins, the Buffalo Bills hosted their division rival New England Patriots at High Park Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The temperature at kick-off was a frigid 6 degrees with the wind making it feel like -6. It didn’t seem to bother the only geographically located New York team in the NFL. Buffalo jumped out to a 14-0 1st quarter lead before fans could get their second cup of hot chocolate. The Bills stampeded New England taking a commanding 27-3 halftime lead. It only got worse in the second half as the Bills tacked on 20 more points in the 47-17 trouncing. Bills quarterback Josh Allen finished his night throwing for 5 touchdowns, 308 yards, completing 21 of 25 passes. His counterpoint rookie quarterback Mac Jones making his first postseason start, was running for his life every time he dropped back in the pocket. Jones attempted 38 passes, completing 24 for 232 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The cold weather had no effect on the Bills running game as they rumbled for 174 yards with running back Devin Singletary leading both teams with 81 yards. When they weren’t pressuring Jones, the defense stuffed the Patriots ground game allowing only 89 yards.
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For Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, the loss was the worst in his 22-year career. He had never lost by 30 points in his playoff history. Said a very sullen Belichick, “not a lot to say here. Obviously, Buffalo made more plays than we did today, played better than we did, coached better than we did. We just didn’t perform well enough to really have a good chance to win the game. We have to find a way to do better.”
Sunday was every football fans nirvana as 3 games took place. Game 1 saw the Philadelphia Eagles travel to Tampa Bay to take on the reigning Super Bowl champion Buccaneers. The last time Philadelphia faced Tom Brady in the playoffs, the Eagles stunned New England in Super Bowl 51 coming away 41-33 victory. The two teams faced each other in October with the Eagles record falling to 2-4 after the 28-22 loss. At that point, the playoffs were the furthest thing on the team’s mind. Philly turned it around winning 7 of their last 9 games to clinch a wild card spot.
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Brady and Tampa scored the very first time they had the ball. Brady missed on his first 3 pass attempts, then competed his next 6 in a row. 12 plays and 75 yards later, running back Giovani Bernard runs it in from 2-yards out taking a early 7-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Bucs had Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts on the run for the entire first half. The Eagles came into the game with the league’s best running attack. You could not tell as the Bucs, under defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, held Philly to only 35 first half yards. The Eagle managed only 2 first downs in the first half trailing 17-0. The Bucs scored 14 more points in the third quarter leading to the 31-15 win.
Brady (29-37, 271 yards, 2 td’s) set a Tampa postseason record with 29 completions. Mike Evans set a record as well hauling in 9 catches. Hurts finished his day 23-43, 1 td and 2 int’s. The Buccaneers are looking to become the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since the New England Patriots did it (led by Brady) in 2004-2005.
The most captivating game took place Sunday afternoon when the San Fransisco 49ers visited the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas had a succesful season as they led the NFC East with a 12-5 record, while the 49ers were in third place in the NFC West with a 10-7 record.
San Francisco got the ball first, quickly worked their way down the field and scoring on their opening drive. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo passed backwards to Elijah Mitchell, who ran in for the touchdown. The Dallas defense stepped up and the next time the 49ers had the ball and got it close enough for Robbie Gould to kick a field goal (53 yards) with 4:53 minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Dallas started the second quarter behind 10-0. Their defense stayed active, but San Francisco managed another field goal (52 yards) by Gould with 9:40 left. The Cowboys fought back as quarterback Dak Prescott threw a touchdown pass to Amari Cooper in the end zone with 5:19 remaining. Gould then kicked a third field goal (41 yards) with 3:03 minutes before the end of the quarter. Dallas trailed 16-7 at halftime.
The third quarter was scoreless until Williams intercepted Prescott’s pass with 5:58 left. Garoppolo then handed off to wide receiver Deebo Samuel who ran for the touchdown on the next play extending the 49er lead to 23-7. A Greg Zuerlein field goal (51 yards) closed the gap to 23-10. Prescott worked the ball downfield the next time they had the ball and then scampers 5 yards for the touchdown bringing the score to 23-17. Then, things got really interesting.
The Cowboys had an opportunity to score in the last seven seconds of the game, but there appeared to be confusion on the field. The referee, who had to set the ball, jumped in between players as Prescott attempted to spike the ball in order to stop the clock. It would have given them one more shot in the end zone. The refs ruled the time expired and the Cowboys season came to an end.
Prescott completed 23 of 43 attempted passes for 254-yards and one interception. Garoppolo completed 16 of 25 attempted passes for 172-yards and 1 int.
The last game Sunday night perhaps saw the end of the career for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were not even supposed to in the playoffs. Going into their last regular season game against division rival Baltimore Ravens, the FPI (Football Power Index) had them having only a 6% chance of getting into the tournament. But that’s why they play the games. The Steelers took out the Ravens in overtime. The Indianapolis Colts choked against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars (a win would have put the Colts in the playoffs) and the Las Vegas Raiders took out the Los Angeles Chargers in an overtime thriller sending them and Pittsburgh to the postseason. The bad news for the Steelers was their first round opponent was the Kansas City Chiefs who are looking to get to their third straight Super Bowl.
The first quarter was a punt fest with Pittsburgh out punting Kansas City 5-4 as neither team put points on the board. The Steelers defense would be responsible for the first score of the game. With the ball on their own 31, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is hit by Steelers defensive end T.J. Watt who scoops up the ball and runs 26 yards into the end zone taking a short lived 7-0 lead. It was all downhill for Big Ben and Pittsburgh from that point on.
Before the end of the second quarter, Kansas City scored the next 21 points. First, Mahomes finds running back Jerick McKinnon with a 4-yard touchdown pass. After another Pittsburgh punt, wide receiver Byron Pringle catches a Mahomes 12-yards touchdown pass. The Steelers go three and out giving the ball back to the Chiefs who were looking to add at least 3 more via field goal. They got more as Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce hook up for a 48-yard touchdown extending the lead to 21-7 effectively putting the game away.
Pittsburgh added 2 meaningless touchdowns and KC tacked on 7 more as the lead ballooned to the final score 42-21.
Mahomes finshed his night 30-39, 404 yards, 5 td’s and 1 int. Roethlisberger completed 29 of 44 passes for 215 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Monday night concluded the wild card weekend when the Arizona Cardinals visited the Los Angeles Rams. It was the first playoff start for Cards quarterback Kyler Murray while Rams veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford was looking for his first postseason win. In the end, the Rams defense proved to be to much for Murray as they dominated the Cards in the 34-11 win. Stafford only attempted 17 passes, completing 13, 2 touchdowns, 202 yards and watched as the running game gained 140 yards. Murray (19-34, 137 yards, 2 int’s) must have thought he was playing against 22 defenders as he was smothered all game. With his back to his end zone, he is flushed out of the pocket attempting to flip a pass. Linebacker David Long, Jr picks off the pass and runs it in from 3-yards out for the touchdown and a 21-0 lead. The Rams never looked back. After 13 years, Stafford finally got his first playoff win.
So the divisional playoff are set for this weekend. It kicks off Saturday when the Bengals travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans at 4:30. That night, the 49ers go to Green Bay and take on the Packers 8:15. Sunday, the Rams go to Tampa to face the Buccaneers 3pm and the Bills go to Kansas City to face the Chiefs 6:30.
The winners move on to Championship Sunday to see who will go to Los Angeles and SoFi Stadium for Super Bowl LVI (56) February 13th.
Shara Talia Taylor contributed to this article.
