Power rankings system devised and compiled weekly by Stemshul. “Expert” analysis by paradroid.
Wildcard weekend is done and dusted, on to the divisional round! While we didn’t have the same quality of games that we had last year, there were some good ones. First game was San Francisco hosting Seattle. I didn’t think the Seahawks had much of a chance, but this game was awfully close through three quarters. Geno Smith had Seattle in a 1st & 10 at the S.F. 15 late in the third with a chance to take the lead going in to the 4th, but a fumble recovered by the 49ers led to a TD, and San Fran was off. A punt and an interception from the Seahawks aided what ended up being a 25-0 run from the home team to eliminate any suspense. Seattle should be pleased with this season, but will Geno be the guy going forward? This year was great; will he be able to repeat the performance next year? The 49ers roll on knowing that they could probably win with just about any QB they want to slot in.
The Chargers completely dominated the Jaguars. It was 27-0 just before half-time, and we just turned off the T.V. I assume they went on to win handily. Of course, the second half did get played (and yes, watched by us), and despite L.A. peaking at a 98.5% chance of victory according to ESPN’s win probability metric, somehow Jacksonville returned. Despite Trevor Lawrence’s 4 first half interceptions and a total of 5 turnovers before the break, the Jags overcame their inner Blake Bortles and won 31-30. Completely nuts! Justin Herbert and Lawrence look like the future at quarterback, and once they can achieve a little consistency game-to-game (and half-to-half), look out.
In Buffalo, Miami without either Tua or Teddy put up a valiant fight against the Bills. They were unable to stop a 3rd & 7 running play from Buffalo (it was pretty close, but ultimately upheld after a booth review). Even with a stop, the Dolphins would only had about 30 seconds and no timeouts, but I’m telling you there would have been a chance. Weird season from Miami, but when Tua is healthy, they played like gangbusters on offense. I hope he can get healthy and avoid future concussions, because that Miami attack is all sorts of fun. The silver lining of this loss is that the Dolphins won’t be tempted to put him in harm’s way before he has a full off-season to get better. Buffalo remains a Super Bowl favorite, but I didn’t like how the defense played on Sunday. Cincy’s going to be a real challenge this weekend.
I’m going to skip over Minnesota-N.Y. for now and jump to the Ravens-Bengals. Like Miami, Baltimore was missing their number one option under center. Tyler Huntley is at least their back-up instead of a third stringer, and has played quite a bit this year. And although Baltimore struggled to score early, the Ravens defense made it hard for Cincinnati all day long. Eventually, Baltimore was able to tie the game at 17. They then drove all the way down to the Bengal’s 2 yard line. An ill-fated attempt by Huntley to leap over the pile from way, way too far back resulted in a fumble, which was promptly nabbed and returned all 98 yards for a TD. This was the eventual final score. Baltimore did get the ball back with about three minutes left (and with two timeouts), but showed a weird lack of urgency. It took them 10 plays to grind out 19 yards, and a key offensive holding penalty led to a 4th & 20 with eight seconds on the clock, which did not succeed. The big question now is whether Lamar is going to get that huge contract this off-season. Considering how much time he missed, it was still a good year for Baltimore, but the future is a little uncertain.
Ok, on to the two games I didn’t care about. The Giants beat the Vikings in the battle of the overachievers. Neither result would have surprised me. I think N.Y. is going no further; the Eagles already beat them twice this year. Daboll seems like a decent coach, but luck favored the Giants this year. It’s unlikely to happen again next year and the NFC East looks tough going forward. Minnesota is in the same boat, albeit in an easier division. But Detroit is starting to look like a monster and if Aaron Rodgers comes back with a little receiving help, G.B. will likely be better as well. The Cowboys, unlike the Vikes or G-men, are actually a dangerous team going forward, though I don’t consider them a real threat for the big prize. I think the 49ers will handle them fairly easily. Tampa didn’t deserve to be there and were promptly shown the door (not surprised at all). I’m pretty excited about this weekend’s slate of games with most of the uninteresting/overrated teams out of the playoffs. It’s steak, tacos, and football all weekend. As Paul would say, let’s do this!
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