Tag: NFL wild card

Eagles’ Lane Johnson cuts a WWE style promo with the Golden Title ahead of playoffs

A wrestling fanatic and future Universal Champion, watch as Eagles’ Lane Johnson cuts a WWE-style promo with the Golden Title ahead of the NFL playoffs

Lane Johnson is one of the most charismatic players in the NFL and the Eagles’ right tackle will surely have options once his football career comes to an end.

Johnson is a former Oklahoma Sooner and has a tight relationship with WWE Hall of Fame announcer, Jim Ross.

During the 2021 NFL offseason, Johnson sat down with Trey Wingo to discuss a potential future with the WWE.

“Jim Ross, J.R., was an announcer for the WWE. He was always at our games and he would just whisper in my ear every now and then, ‘hey, if football doesn’t work out, I got you a spot,’ ” Johnson explained. “So I feel like in my heart I want to be a wrestler, but we’ll see what happens when this football’s done. But, yeah, I would love to. It’s something you never have to grow up in, just seems like a lot of fun.”

A Pro Bowl and All-Pro right tackle, Johnson has been rehabbing an abdominal injury over the past three weeks but looks to be in phenomenal physical shape.

Johnson received a gift while at his ‘Bro Barn’ recently, unveiling his new WWE Golden Title.

Staying in character ahead of the Wild Card round and NFC Divisional round, Johnson cut this amazing promo putting everyone on notice.

The 6-foot-6, 317-pound Johnson would be an imposing character and could lean on his Texas roots and relationship with Stone Cold Steve Austin to build a solid niche.

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The Chiefs clocked the Steelers, the spread, and set up a heavyweight fight with the Bills

The Chiefs destroyed the Steelers and set up a playoff doozy with the Bills.
Get your popcorn ready.

There’s no need to beat around the bush. No one expected the Steelers to upset the Chiefs (-12.5).

Ben Roethlisberger, on his last legs, in his final career game, against a legit Super Bowl contender, doesn’t look great on paper or when you watch live. Pittsburgh was the definition of an underdog, played like it, and the Chiefs are moving onto the Divisional Round against the Bills.

The world keeps spinning, and everyone is having a grand old time.

No, this one was more about how and why the Chiefs destroyed the Steelers in a complete 42-21 emasculation, and what it means for potentially one of the more anticipated NFL games in recent memory. All odds and ends via Tipico.

To be fair, Kansas City did start slow, as if they were overlooking a massive underdog. A pregame -12.5 spread probably reflected how both bettors and the Chiefs felt. A couple of turnovers—including a fumble right into the hands of T.J. Watt, who scored his first career touchdown en route to a mid-second quarter 7-0 lead—made it look like the mighty Chiefs were ripe to be taken down.

Oh, to be young and naive.

After Watt’s touchdown, Kansas City and the all-worldly Pat Mahomes opened up the floodgates. That might be an understatement because not even Sideshow Bob could stop this dam from exploding altogether. Cecil Terwilliger, eat your heart out.

From 10:35 of the second quarter to 9:19 of the third quarter, Mahomes threw five touchdowns. For those of us you less proficient with numbers and math and such, that’s five touchdown passes in 11 minutes.

The Chiefs looked unstoppable and locked in, and in quite a familiar manner since the Mahomes’ era started in earnest in 2018. This is who the Chiefs are. They score in bunches, and you can only pray they make a mistake. Those prayers, most often, are never answered.

Kansas City was feeling it so much, they even decided to sprinkle in a little razzle-dazzle. Er, a Fat Guy Touchdown, that is.

Here’s where it gets fascinating. The Chiefs and Steelers are by no means on friendly terms. But this isn’t a heated rivalry with animosity baked-in. These two teams don’t play twice a year because they’re in the same division. And it’s not like the Steelers are competent enough to challenge the reigning AFC Champions and their crown. Kansas City doesn’t have a real reason to hate the Steelers.

No, see, that touchdown by backup left guard Nick Allegretti (and the blowout on the whole) is almost certainly more about who the Chiefs knew were watching.

Those pesky Buffalo Bills.

While we can’t say we know exactly what the Chiefs were doing with their respective Saturday nights, there’s no reality where they didn’t watch how the Bills obliterated the Patriots in their Wild Card Game. If they tried to lie, it wouldn’t be believable.

In a sense, pounding the Steelers into the Arrowhead Stadium turf became more about sending a message to their next opponent. Oh, Buffalo, you and Josh Allen humiliated the NFL’s No. 4 defense? In the melodic words of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler: Anything you can do, I can do better. Contrary to popular belief, the NFL can sometimes be petty and silly and wonderful at once.

The Chiefs’ relaxed victory sets up a monumental Round 2 playoff tilt with the Bills next Sunday night on CBS. Call it a hunch, but no one’s waiting up for “60 Minutes” afterward if this one goes as expected.

The Chiefs took last year’s AFC Championship Game. You’d be foolish to assume the Bills don’t want to avenge that defeat desperately. And you’d be even more ridiculous to think the Chiefs don’t want to humble a team that they, deep down, consider a little brother.

These two teams flat-out do not like each other, are near the peaks of their powers, and will become the epicenter of the football universe together next weekend. The suspense in the air is capable of murder. Here’s to hoping it lasts.

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Mike McCarthy proved he hasn’t learned anything, and the Cowboys suffered for it

The Cowboys were not ready for the 49ers, thanks in large part to their head coach.

Death, taxes, and the Cowboys (-3.5) making a quick playoff exit.

While a host of miscues almost let Dallas make an inexplicable comeback in the NFL Wild Card Game against the 49ers, in the end, it’s another cold (temperate?) winter in Arlington. A deflating, 23-17 defeat is not all she wrote.

Many screeds will be penned about what and who was responsible for another disappointing Dallas effort in the postseason. (Which, we can all be sure North Texas will have a penchant for the melodramatic in their usual eulogies while Jerry Jones weeps.)

Could Dak Prescott have been better after one of the best years of his career? Absolutely. 254 passing yards but one touchdown and a terrible decision to scramble with the Cowboys (who were out of timeouts) driving in the final seconds isn’t up to par.

Could a defense littered with stars like Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence have been a bit more stout? We’re not sure Deebo Samuel isn’t still running past Cowboys defenders.

But a factor that the Cowboys should be able to control and count on—coaching decisions—is what probably stings most.

Mike McCarthy: Your table is ready.

First, there were the customary conservative fourth-down decisions. The type of decisions Green Bay faithful were familiar with long before any Cowboys fans got to know them.

Near midfield? Punt, why not!

Down by two scores (with two two-point conversions, no less) in the fourth quarter, and your offense struggling? Oh, taking the field goal is totally fine. You haven’t been to the red zone all day, but there’s plenty of time.

And, finally, in what was even new territory for all you McCarthy heads out there: He called a fake punt on a fourth down, which the Cowboys converted, and followed it up by trying to goad the 49ers into taking a timeout.

Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it.

Whoops! A delay of game!

There have been many instances where you could and should question McCarthy’s decision-making in a playoff game throughout his career. It’s part of the reason he’s no longer on the sideline in Green Bay.

But two separate punts near and in opposition territory, followed by a delay of game after a successful fake punt (not easy to do)? This is unquestionably his Mona Lisa of awful game management.

The Nickelodeon broadcast of the game probably put it best.

(Via Nickelodeon)

The Cowboys will try to pick up the pieces and reflect on a playoff run gone awry. While there are certainly other factors, they shouldn’t look much farther than their outright liability of a head coach.

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Robbie is still good as Gould in the playoffs

Few kickers have been better in January than Mr. Gould.

There’s no better way to make yourself a legend as a kicker than reliability in the postseason. Sure, you can make most of your kicks when the season isn’t do-or-die, and your team and fans think nothing of it. (Vikings fans and Bears fans, disregard.)

But make big kick after big kick where any miss might eventually mean an entire season goes down the drain? Where all eyes are on you and only you? That’s the kind of life where if you’re a kicker, you never have to buy a drink or a dinner in your home city again.

It’s a life that the ever-calm 49ers kicker Robbie Gould has always led.

After making two kicks in the first half of San Francisco’s Wild Card Game against the Cowboys, Gould’s nerves of steel once again came into focus. In 11 separate playoff appearances with the Bears, Giants, and 49ers, the 39-year-old kicker has never missed a field goal.

Gould has been impeccable, whether in the clutch or a routine early game kick.

18 attempts. 18 makes.

Oh, and if that wasn’t enough: He’s never missed an extra point either (29-of-29).

Gould’s excellence might get lost in the shuffle of a wild finish between the Cowboys and Niners. But it shouldn’t. It’s clear that not only does this veteran kicker still have some juice left in his right leg, but he also continues to have the calmest mind under pressure.

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The Philadelphia Eagles weren’t supposed to be here. Now they need to figure out what comes next.

The Eagles weren’t supposed to be in the 2022 NFL Playoffs. What comes next?

The Philadelphia Eagles lost to the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs. That’s fine. They weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.

The Eagles were supposed to be rebuilding in 2021. This was, after all, the year in which they’d traded away one-time franchise quarterback Carson Wentz but not the cap hit his guaranteed money left behind. That contributed to a league record $62 million in dead cap space this year. Philadelphia came into the season with roughly 1/3rd of its spending room committed to players who weren’t on the roster by midseason and still made it to the postseason.

That is stunning. Now comes the hard part; sustaining this momentum into 2022.

The Eagles thrived, in part, thanks to a soft schedule; they only played one playoff team after Week 7 and went 9-2 against teams that failed to qualify for the postseason in a 9-8 campaign. Philadelphia also succeeded because first-year head coach Nick Sirianni played to his strengths and went against the grain of a pass-heavy NFL. Sirianni, fully understanding the power of his blocking and quarterback Jalen Hurts’ speed, engineered an offense that ran for more yards than anyone and averaged 190 rushing yards over its last 10 games.

On Sunday, the schedule got tougher and the Bucs took away those running lanes. The Eagles’ regular season approach stopped working. They had nothing else to offer Tampa Bay.

Hurts threw for 258 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. 118 of those yards and the TD came after the Bucs took a 31-0 lead into the fourth quarter. He was unable to make plays when it mattered and often looked unsure of his throws downfield.

It was a frustrating performance from a player who may have been limited by injury but ultimately failed to come through. That leaves a clear dilemma in Philly. Should it buy into the Hurts experience for Year 3, or should it begin looking for an exit strategy?

Hurts led an offense that threw for more than 300 net yards twice and less than 200 10 times. He ran for more than 50 yards per game but ranked 22nd in the league in passer rating, sandwiched between Davis Mills and Ben Roethlisberger. His legs made him a middle-of-the-road passer when it came to overall value, according to Next Gen Stats’ expected points added model, charted here helpfully by RBSDM.com

We already know he has the pass protection other quarterbacks could only dream of. So how can the Eagles build around him?

There’s a solid market of veteran wide receivers who could help upgrade a position of need, including Allen Robinson, Chris Godwin, and maybe even Davante Adams. Philadelphia can’t afford any of those guys because of limited cap space. Another $22 million in dead money is on the books for next season. Their estimated $13.6m in spending room ranks 22nd-most in the league.

The Eagles can address the position at a receiver-heavy draft, where they’ll have three first round picks — Nos. 15, 16, and 19 — thanks to previous trades. They’ve selected a Day 1 wideout each of the last two years with the result ranging from disastrous (Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson in 2020) to promising (DeVonta Smith in 2021). Plucking Jameson Williams or Chris Olave with one of those picks could give the team a badly-needed playmaker to pair with Smith and Dallas Goedert (and create space for Quez Watkins to fly) while providing the upside of a future WR1.

That would be a boon for the emerging young QB. Hurts’ 9 air yards per pass was the fourth-deepest mark in the league and his 14 percent bad throw rate was third-lowest. Questions remain about whether or not he could sustain that with more volume — he threw 62 fewer passes than Jared Goff this season despite playing one more game — but it’s clear he’d be better off with a receiving corps that didn’t drop more than five percent of this throws.

Philadelphia could also see Sunday’s loss as a reason to develop its Plan B at quarterback — a reasonable possibility for a team that drafted Hurts in 2020 despite having Wentz signed through 2024. The Eagles’ passing game had a small-sample uptick with Gardner Minshew behind center. The Jaguar castoff’s success could provide evidence of brighter days for the Philly aerial attack.

Minshew will remain on the roster as a viable, inexpensive QB2 for at least one more year.  He may have company. After drafting a flawed but intriguing quarterback in 2020 general manager Howie Roseman could do it again in 2022. The upcoming crop of rookie QBs is one of the weakest in years, but the Eagles could opt to turn one of those first round picks into a lottery ticket behind center.

Who’d fit the bill? They have the ammunition to trade into the top 10 and select a guy like Kenny Pickett, though that seems like a waste of assets for a team with holes to fill. Quarterbacks currently expected to last until the late teens include Malik Willis, Desmond Ridder, Sam Howell, and possibly Matt Corral.

Willis, who plays at 6’1 and 215 pounds just like Hurts did in college, would be an interesting pickup. He’s a dual-threat QB whose legs carry him out of trouble, just like the Eagles’ incumbent. He had worse passing stats than Hurts despite playing against low-major FBS competition at Liberty University, but you can also argue he had significantly less talented receivers to throw to and blockers to clear a space than the guy who played his college ball at Oklahoma and Alabama.

Would the Eagles wade back into the fray by picking up the Christian school version of Hurts? It’d be weird (and, honestly, pretty dang funny), but it’d allow the team to keep the foundation of a playoff playbook intact. Would Sirianni opt for a more classic pocket passer to evolve his offense? Or was the success of his run-heavy game enough to try another year of handoffs-and-scrambles to set up occasional deep shots?

This is a tough situation to be in, but Philadelphia is ahead of schedule in its rebuild and will have several opportunities to get better in 2022 even without oodles of salary cap space. Hurts has proven he’s capable of being a playoff quarterback, with some help from a soft schedule. He also showed he’s not capable of winning a postseason game on the road without more help.

Ultimately, Roseman and Sirianni are staring down a good problem to have. Their team can succeed even without the kind of high octane passing game that’s propelled the bulk of 2022’s contenders. Now they need to figure out if Hurts can be that kind of quarterback. And if they even need him to be in order to get back to the playoffs next winter.

Congrats to the Lions, who now own the longest playoff drought with the Bengals’ win

The Bengals win and the Lions somehow keep losing even when they’re not playing.

There are no shortages of NFL fanbases who understand nothing but playoff pain. In a league where any opportunity at a postseason win can be very few and far between, the sting of a mid-January loss is a unique hurt.

It lingers.

Before Saturday afternoon, the Cincinnati Bengals and their poor fans were, quite frankly, unmatched in winter misery. Fortunately for everyone in southwestern Ohio, they can finally rip the collective monkey off their back.

Led by stellar performances from Joe Burrow in their first playoff game, the Bengals beat the Raiders, 26-19.

Here’s the glorious moment of euphoria, courtesy of linebacker Germaine Pratt.

Cincinnati now has its first playoff win in over three decades. That’s after seven straight losses (!) in the Wild Card round, from Carson Palmer to Andy Dalton. It is the first time that the Bengals advance further in the postseason since 1990.

More importantly, it ends the NFL’s longest playoff-win drought at 32 years. For a frame of reference, the last time the Bengals played on the second weekend of the playoffs, Back To The Future Part III was the top movie of the U.S. box office, and Phil Collins led the charts with his ever-smooth symphony, “Another Day in Paradise.” What a time to be alive.

Where it gets interesting is what the Bengals’ victory means for another perennially downtrodden franchise: The Detroit Lions.

With Cincinnati and their Golden Boy Quarterback no longer having to sweat big January wins, the spotlight centers on the Detroit faithful—now the leaders of the losers with pro football’s longest playoff-win drought at a frigid 31 years.

For a frame of reference, the last time the Lions won a playoff game, the No. 1 movie of the box office was Hook, not exactly Robin Williams’ magnum opus, and the top song was Michael Jackson’s “Black and White.” Woof. (To be clear, both being decidedly less cool than Michael J. Fox and Mr. Collins, near their respective peaks.)

Time will tell whether the Lions can exorcise their demons in the coming years. After a 3-13-1 season under first-year head coach Dan Campbell, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon.

We can assure you, everyone’s knee caps are safe.

Suffice to say: Barry Sanders is not walking through that door, and Calvin Johnson is not walking through that door. And if the Lions expect them to walk through that door, well, they’ve got bigger issues than we all thought. That would be quite the accomplishment for the already hapless Lions.

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NFL Wild Card: From the Chiefs’ generosity to Jimmy G., every team’s fatal flaw

The Chiefs are very generous with the ball, the Rams need Robert Woods, and other reasons why this year’s Wild Card teams aren’t playing deep into January.

As much as we can learn to appreciate every NFL team playing every weekend throughout the fall, there’s something different about playoff football. Aside from the obvious aspects of sudden death glory (ho-hum), January is where every team thinks they have a shot at winning the Super Bowl. Of course, most of those teams’ aspirations will prove to be delusional and utterly misguided in due time. Reality is often disappointing.

But the social media hype videos, the “nobody believes in us” speeches (even when you’ve won your gauntlet of a division)—they all last forever. That’s the magic of the postseason: Truly anything can happen. Plus, you can make up critics who don’t exist—what a dream.

With Wild Card Weekend on the very near horizon, let’s examine the most significant reason, the fatal flaw, that may prevent each of the 12 teams from making a deep playoff run.

Wild Card odds, courtesy of Tipico.

NFL Playoffs: Wild Card Game Previews, Schedule, Predictions, Lines, How To Watch

NFL Playoffs Wild Card schedule, game previews, predictions, and lines

NFL Playoffs Wild Card schedule, predictions, and game previews with all of the game times, lines, and how to watch

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Click on each game for the game preview

Results So Far
SU: 174-96-1, ATS: 152-117, Point Total: 153-118-1

– NFL Expert Picks, CFN Wild Card Weekend

Saturday, January 15

Las Vegas at Cincinnati

4:30, NBC
Line: Cincinnati -5.5, o/u: 49

New England at Buffalo

8:15, CBS
Line: Buffalo -4, o/u: 44

– NFL First Mock Draft: Top 16 Picks

Sunday, January 16

Philadelphia at Tampa Bay

1:00, FOX
Line: Tampa Bay -8.5, o/u: 46

San Francisco at Dallas

4:30, CBS
Line: Dallas -3, o/u: 51

Pittsburgh at Kansas City

8:15, NBC
Line: Kansas City -12.5, o/u: 46

– NFL Playoff First Thought, Super Bowl Predictions

Monday, January 17

Arizona at Los Angeles Rams

8:15, ESPN/ABC/ESPN+
Line: Los Angeles Rams, o/u: 49.5

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NFL Playoff Wild Card Expert Picks
Arizona at LA Rams | Las Vegas at Cincinnati
New England at Buffalo | Phil at Tampa Bay
Pittsburgh at Kansas City | San Fran at Dallas
2022 NFL First 16 Mock Draft
NFL Playoff First Predictions, Super Bowl 

 

Taylor Heinicke was second-highest graded QB in Wild-Card game since 2015

The performance that Taylor Heinicke put on vs. the Bucs is now in the record books, being topped by only Andrew Luck since 2015.

A few days have now passed since Washington’s wild-card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the performance that former practice squad QB Taylor Heinicke put on is still not far from our minds.

Though the end result was a loss, Heinicke’s performance was comparable to a breath of fresh air for a Washington fan base who has gone years without seeing any type of excitement from the quarterback position. With 306 passing yards, 46 rushing yards, and 2 total touchdowns, it also ranked as the second-highest graded performance from a quarterback in a wild card game since 2015, with only Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck topping it.

There’s no telling what Heinicke’s future will be like in Washington, but there are assumptions that he at least bought himself a backup spot with his performance, with an opportunity to compete for the top job.

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NFL Super Wild-Card weekend matchups are set

The six Wild-Card round matchups are set.

The trio of AFC and NFC matchups on Super Wild-Card weekend is set, almost.

The question is who will the fifth-seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers play from the NFC East. It will either be the Washington Football Team or New York Giants playing host to Tom Brady & Co., depending on what happens in the Sunday nighter between Washington and Philadelphia.

A WFT win and it gets the division crown.

Meanwhile, the other NFC matchups will see Chicago at New Orleans and the Los Angeles Rams at the Seattle Seahawks.

The Saints beat the Bears, 26-23 in the regular season.

The Rams and Seahawks will be going a third round as they are NFC West rivals.

In the AFC, there will be an immediate rematch and third go-round for the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. This one will take place at Heinz Field.

The other two Wild-Card games will see the Indianapolis Colts at Buffalo and the streaking Baltimore Ravens at the AFC South champion Tennessee Titans.

The times and dates will be announced by the league once the NFC East is settled and everything else takes shape with networks.