Four games this weekend, and we've still got two to watch today. This does bring me to a complaint about the league promoting this as "Super Wild-Card Weekend." It sort of made sense when the league first added two games to this weekend. But now it just feels silly, since there's no regular wild-card weekend to compare it to. Go back to saying Wild-Card Weekend and call it good.
Plus, it really wasn't very super. Three games were decided by 31, 19 and 16 points, and two of them weren't actually as close as the final score. We finally good a good one last night, but for most of us our eyes were bleeding from watching the debacle in Dallas. Anyway, there are recaps to be had, so let's go.
Browns at Texans: The number of people who were shocked by the Browns losing this game was surprising to me. It's like they looked only at the final season numbers showing the Browns with a top defense in terms of yards allowed, ignoring the home-away disparity. Set aside the meaningless finale and Cleveland had still allowed 38, 24, 31, 29 and 36 points in its last five road games, until allowing 22 at Houston (which used Keenum and Mills at QB, and those guys are terrible). I just don't understand how so many people into betting ignored that stuff. I'm sure if the game were in Cleveland it might have gone different, but who cares.
Anywho, there was also the reality that even in his remarkable resurgence, Joe Flacco had thrown a lot of interceptions. Couple those two facts and this game wasn't quite as shocking as some thought. C.J. Stroud just missed an open Nico Collins on another long touchdown in the first half or it would have been even uglier even sooner.
Now of course Houston heads to either Kansas City (if Pittsburgh wins today) or Baltimore (when Buffalo wins). That will go a lot differently, although all week we'll hear the talking heads saying how the upstart Texans destroyed one great defense and will now destroy another. I'm not buying. But a really nice time to be a Houston fan. They're in great shape with a franchise quarterback, lots of early draft picks, and good coaching staff in place, with an iffy division around them.
Dolphins at Kansas City: This game was a reminder that Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City are still the champs and the Dolphins are still a team that stumbled around the second half of the season and against top competition all along. Yeah, they had been gutted by pass rusher and secondary injuries over the past month, and were working with a couple of key offensive players banged up too. But they played a full game and had essentially one notable play on either side of the ball. Some poor throws and decisions by Tua Tagovailoa, some curious ones by Mike McDaniel, too. Meanwhile Kansas City watched Rashee Rice blow up in its offense and Travis Kelce have a decent game (I'd say great except for him dropping at least 2 passes, one that would have gone for a touchdown, in fairness it was pretty cold). And Mahomes did Mahomes-like things.
Isiah Pacheco also had a nice game against a previously tough run defense. I think the key question is where do these teams go from here. (Not next week, but going forward.) Kansas City is going to keep on dominating the AFC West, and no one will be surprised if they go into Buffalo and get a win. They do have the best defense they've had in the Mahomes era, and the best wide receiver since letting Tyreek go. For Miami, they've got some roster issues to straighten out, including figuring out a way to tailor things to Tua's strengths -- which they did the first half of the season, not the second. Some drawing board stuff to go back to.
Packers at Cowboys: As I mentioned once or twice, I thought Green Bay might win this game. Sadly I didn't bet it, nor build my playoff rosters accordingly (aside from not rostering Tony Pollard, because he's not very good), but I'm not surprised. Main rationale is that the history of Mike McCarthy teams getting outclassed in the postseason is long and established, from Favre to Rodgers to Dak. Yes Rodgers won a Super Bowl. Bully for him. McCarthy has been a head coach for nearly 20 years now, he's always had a franchise quarterback, and he's won a single Super Bowl that Rodgers carried him to and lost to an underdog in virtually every other postseason. Frequently at home. He should be fired; should have been fired a few years ago. (As an aside, my main takeaway from the postgame Jerry Jones interview that's making the rounds is that Jones is not a young man.)
Personnel-wise, yeah, Dak Prescott had a lousy game. Dallas fans are correctly finished with him after another postseason defeat; he made some terrible throws and reads and all that. But whenever a team has just a very good but perhaps not a championship quarterback and determines they have to get better at the position, my standard answer is there's a much, much stronger chance you'll get worse at the position if you replace him. So move on from Dak they may, but the odds of them finding someone this offseason who's better are pretty damn slim. Additionally, if Dak was 50 percent of the on the field reason they lost the game, the other 50 percent was a defense repeatedly blowing coverages and allowing huge pass plays over the middle of the field (never mind getting shredded by Aaron Jones). Announcers kept mentioning how Dallas was playing a lot of zone coverage after typically playing man. Perhaps that will be the misstep that also gets Dan Quinn shown the door.
For the Packers, hey, that Jordan Love guy has kind of emerged. Midseason he was not looking so good, but he's been fantastic since. It was a strange defensive choice on Dallas' part to not go after him a little more aggressively. First-year starter, road playoff game, I don't know, maybe get in his face some? Credit to Green Bay's offensive line I suppose, but definitely a burn the game plan sort of performance by the Dallas defense. Yes he had a bunch of open receivers, but on a lot of those plays he had an epic amount of time. Maybe the clock strikes midnight at San Francisco next week, but I'm not feeling too comfortable if I'm a 49ers fan right now.
Rams at Lions: Finally a good game. Should be noted here that I thought the Rams would win, and that I gave the coaching and decision-making edge to Sean McVay over Dan Campbell. I stand corrected. In fact, Campbell made several correct decisions to go for touchdowns, while McVay made a couple of poor decisions to kick field goals and then punt. I wasn't crazy about the field goal from the 11-yard line while down 4 with 8 minutes left, and punting with 4 minutes left when you only had one timeout was illogical. Yes, it was 4th and 14 (in Lions territory, note) and odds of converting it were low. But odds of not getting the ball back at all were high enough that the modest field position gain from punting it if you actually got a defensive stop wasn't worth it. You go for it on fourth down and if you don't get it, hope for a defensive stop. As it worked out, they were still in need of a defensive stop, without even taking the low-percentage shot of trying to convert a fourth down. Similar negative without the positive of maybe converting the fourth down and actually winning the game.
As for the players on the field, what can be said about them. Start with the Rams. Matthew Stafford made several amazing throws in this game. Seemed to get his hand mangled on a helmet early on, but able to battle through (or just fortunate) .Puka Nacua in particular but also Cooper Kupp and Demarcus Robinson made some plays for him. I've gushed enough in this space about Nacua, but damn I wish I had him in a dynasty league. Special player.
The Lions defense played better than I expected, forcing some field goals and getting some stops (even with Stafford making a couple of remarkable throws). They'll now host the winner of tonight's game, and I think they'll be winning it (neither seems fully equipped to take advantage of the holes in their defense. Kudos to Jared Goff and Dan Campbell.
Monday Monday, times two: So we've got a couple of games today. They're still shoveling snow in Buffalo, but the game will be played and my thoughts aren't much different from Saturday. Bills 24, Steelers 17. I'm not sure about Eagles-Bucs, but I'm expecting good things from Tampa Bay's offense and it's hard to see the Eagles just turning it on, especially without A.J. Brown. Bucs 23, Eagles 20.