Tag: postseason

Andy Reid ranks second in NFL history for most playoff wins

Andy Reid has the second-most playoff wins in NFL history after guiding the #Chiefs to a Super Bowl LVIII victory.

Andy Reid has lifted the Kansas City Chiefs to new heights since joining the team in 2013 and has put together a sterling resume that is sure to get him enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he retires.

The Chiefs’ ability to win games in the playoffs is a testament to Reid’s genius as a head coach who has earned Kansas City three Super Bowl rings in the last five years.

After the team’s playoff run earlier this year, Reid now ranks second all-time for the most postseason wins in NFL history.

This remarkable accomplishment wasn’t achieved without significant effort on the part of Reid and the Chiefs’ players who have committed themselves to creating the NFL’s next dynasty.

With expectations at an all-time high heading into Kansas City’s 2024 campaign, Reid should be expected to do everything he can to help the Chiefs complete a three-peat next season.

Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce made NFL history in win vs. Bills

#Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce earned their place in NFL postseason history against the #Bills after linking up for two touchdowns.

The Kansas City Chiefs relied on the connection between Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce to score points against the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs on Sunday night.

While the outcome of the matchup was ultimately decided after an untimely missed field goal by Bills kicker Tyler Bass in the game’s final minutes, the efforts of Mahomes and Kelce accounted for nearly half of Kansas City’s 27 points on offense.

Mahomes found Kelce in the end zone for two scores in the game, earning the pair a place in the NFL record books as the quarterback-receiver duo with the most postseason touchdown connections in league history with 16.

While the outcome of the game may be marred in the eyes of some fans because of Bass’ brutal miss, the unbelievable history made by Kansas City’s star quarterback-receiver tandem won’t be outdone any time soon.

This outstanding feat only took the dynamic pair six years to achieve, and with the AFC Championship Game on the horizon, Mahomes and Kelce may be destined to add to their totals.

Pat’s POV: One major change to bowl season that I want to see

Time to have this conversation.

Once upon a time, I was a card carrying member of the “there are never too many bowl games” club. However, with the product on the field this year it might be time to rethink my position.

Look no further than the Capital One Orange Bowl matchup between the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida State Seminoles. The latter has been ravaged by opt-outs after an undefeated ACC champion was left out of the four-team invitational. The Seminoles have a total of 24 opt outs including quarterback Tate Rodemaker, who took over for the injured Jordan Travis.

Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports brought up an important question on Wednesday, “are bowl games worth the hassle?”

There are 41 bowl games, not including the national championship, played every year and it is something that I look forward to each and every season. However, as Wolken pointed out the product has been watered down by the transfer portal, opt-outs, the upcoming 12-team playoff, and asking if these games are worth it.

Perhaps there are several changes that need to be made. You can argue that the bowl committees need to make the games worth it for the players who decide to play in the game. You could encourage an NIL-like incentive for players who do participate. That is an argument for another day and one that is worth having.

For me, I look around FBS and think about the watered-down product. Outside of the AFC and NFC South divisions where a team could finish at .500 or worse shouldn’t be rewarded with the postseason. If you look at the NBA playoffs last season only the Atlanta Hawks were a .500 team that made the postseason. Taking a peek at last year’s MLB playoffs, not a single team had a record of .500 or worse while qualifying for the postseason.

So why are we rewarding college football teams in that manner? Below you will find a list of teams that made the bowl season with a record of 6-6.

  • AAC (Rice Owls)
  • ACC (Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse)
  • Big 12 (Texas Tech, UCF)
  • Big Ten (Rutgers, Minnesota)
  • MAC (Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan)
  • Mountain West (San Jose State, Utah State)
  • Pac-12 (California)
  • SEC (Auburn)
  • Sun Belt (Old Dominion, Georgia State, Marshall, Georgia Southern, Arkansas State, Louisiana, South Alabama)

A total of 23 teams that finished their 12-game schedule with 6-6 records were awarded with trips to the postseason. When your system calls for 82 teams and 28% of the field finished with a .500 record, it might be time to reevaluate the system.

Obviously there are benefits to the bowl games including the revenue generated for each conference and extra practices for teams, I am not sure where the line is for changing a system that has been in place for over 100 years.

But at this point it feels like there should be a change made. Perhaps that is another reason to have a college football commissioner.

Packers’ playoff hopes take significant hit with big loss to Bucs

The Packers were once 6-6 and flying high. Back-to-back losses to the Giants and Bucs delivered a massive blow to the team’s playoff chances.

During the last two weeks, the Green Bay Packers had a chance to raise their chances of making the postseason to 80 percent or better. Instead, Matt LaFleur’s team played poorly and lost back-to-back games to the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, dealing a severe and potentially irreversible blow to the team’s chances of making the playoffs.

After Sunday’s 34-20 loss to the Buccaneers, the Packers’ chances of making the playoffs sit at only 25 percent, per the New York Times playoff simulator.

The loss was gigantic in impact. A win over the Bucs would have pushed the chances to 65 percent or better.

If the season ended today, the Packers — at 6-8 — would be out. In fact, Sunday’s loss dropped the Packers from the No. 7 seed, or the final wildcard spot, to No. 11 in the NFC.

Green Bay was once 6-6 and riding high after wins over the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs in back-to-back weeks. Talks of getting to 10 wins and challenging for the NFC North title looked legitimate. But the rollercoaster ride hit an apex and came crashing down over the last two weeks.

The Packers are struggling but still hold some control. According to the simulator, if the Packers win out — in games against the Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears to end the season — their playoff chances would still get close to 100 percent. Any loss — but especially to the Vikings in Week 17 — would be catastrophic to those chances.

“All I know is this…We’ve got three weeks left,” coach Matt LaFleur said Sunday. “We’ve got three games, and every game is a playoff mentality. Who knows what will happen? But we can’t get it all back at once, you’ve got to earn it every day. You’ve got to get back to practice and just give it our best shot from here on out.”

The path ahead is manageable but the Packers must get their season back on track next Sunday in Carolina against the 2-12 Panthers. The playoffs start now in Green Bay. Either the Packers close out the 2023 season with a three-game win streak or LaFleur’s team will likely miss the postseason for the second consecutive season.

Saints, Rams on collision course to compete for NFC’s 7th playoff seed

The Saints and Rams are on a collision course to compete for the NFC’s 7th playoff seed on Thursday night:

So much talk about the New Orleans Saints’ playoff hopes have centered on the NFC South title, and that’s easy to understand. Whichever team wins the worst division in pro football will secure a home playoff game, so it’s seen as the Saints’ easiest path forwards.

But it’s not the only road they can take. There’s a non-zero chance of the Saints reaching the postseason as the final wild-card seed in the NFC playoff picture. It’s just a significantly more challenging journey to take. The first step: beating the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night.

The Rams are slotted in just ahead of the Saints in the NFC playoff standings; if the postseason started today, Los Angeles would round out the playoff picture as the No. 7 seed, with New Orleans watching from home at No. 8. A win at SoFi Stadium on Thursday wouldn’t clinch anything for the Saints, but it would be a powerful statement that their playoff ambitions are just as legitimate as the Rams’ are.

And of course it’s the Rams. They’re one of the Saints’ oldest rivals, dating back to their shared history in the old NFC West. New Orleans has logged more wins (35) and losses (43) against the Los Angeles than many other teams even if they aren’t playing each other as often as they used to. It’s almost karmic that they are the hurdle between the Saints and a playoff berth.

But again, a win on Thursday night won’t seal the deal. It would certainly bode well for what comes next, with New Orleans headed for rematches against the same Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons teams that beat them earlier this year.

Three of the seven playoff seeds are already accounted for: the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, and San Francisco 49ers have all clinched postseason berths already. The Saints are likely going to have to take it down to the wire in Week 18, but they’ve got a chance to make the cut. They just need to keep winning. Let’s see if they have it in them.

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NFL announces first-ever playoff game to be carried by streaming service

The NFL announced that its first-ever playoff game will be carried by NBC’s Peacock live streaming service in the 2023 postseason:

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Go ahead and get your smart TVs and mobile devices in order: the NFL is expanding its slate of programming for live streaming as the 2023 season draws closer. There’s a chance the New Orleans Saints will be competing in a playoff game exclusively broadcast on a streaming channel in January.

Per an NFL press release sent out on Monday, “Peacock will become the home to the first-ever exclusive live streamed NFL Playoff game, presenting an NFL Wild Card Playoff in primetime on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024.”

The streaming service is owned by NBC and represents the next foray into alternative coverage for the NFL; Amazon Prime Video already owns exclusive coverage rights for Thursday night games and the league’s own NFL+ app is, well, also a thing that’s out there.

To its credit, Peacock has proven itself a reliable carrier of live sports. As observed by FOX Sports’ Bryan Fischer, in 2024 they will kick off their coverage with this NFL playoff game as well as eight regular-season Big 10 football matchups, dozens of men’s and women’s college basketball games, the Paris Summer Olympics, weekly Major League Baseball features, Premier League soccer contests, exclusive USFL games, and a multitude of Spanish-language soccer games, “among other things.”

They’ve built a robust platform and are set to profit wildly from it, even if some viewers are only tuning in (at first) for this one NFL postseason matchup. Stay tuned in case the Saints are one of the two teams competing in it.

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WATCH: Highlights from Bengals vs. Chiefs AFC Championship Game

Watch highlights from the AFC Championship Game matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Watch all the highlights from the AFC Championship Game matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs.

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WATCH: Highlights from 49ers vs. Eagles NFC Championship Game

Watch all of the highlights between the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles from the 2022-23 NFC Championship Game.

Watch all of the highlights between the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles from the 2022-23 NFC Championship Game.

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NFL playoffs: Previewing the Bengals at Chiefs AFC Championship Game

Previewing and predicting the 2023 AFC Championship Game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Easily the most anticipated game of the weekend, the AFC Championship Game will be a rematch of last year’s showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Cincinnati Bengals. There are two major storylines for this game, the first of which is Cincinnati’s success against the Chiefs. For Kansas City, the Bengals are one nut the Chiefs have yet to crack.

Under quarterback Joe Burrow, the Bengals are 3-0 against the Chiefs, including in the AFC Championship last season. Cincinnati trailed the Chiefs 21-3 at Arrowhead, yet ultimately prevailed 27-24 in overtime to advance to the Super Bowl.

The second biggest storyline is the health of Patrick Mahomes, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the divisional round. Mahomes was also injured in last season’s divisional round. While Mahomes will certainly play on Sunday, his mobility will be in question. Mahomes is not known for his speed, but rather for his ability to move around, extending plays and punishing defenses. If Mahomes is hobbled, it would be a huge advantage to Cincinnati’s defense.

The Bengals may not have a glorious playoff history, but they are 3-0 in AFC Championship Games. Given the matchup issues they present to the Chiefs, Mahomes’ health, and the leadership of Burrow, I predict they will make it 4-0.

Prediction: Bengals over Chiefs 26-21  

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2023 NFL playoffs: How to watch AFC Championship Game Bengals at Chiefs

Here’s everything you need to know to watch the Kansas City Chiefs host the Cincinnati Bengals. in the 2023 AFC Championship Game.

Championship Sunday is almost here! Below is everything you need to know to catch the AFC Championship Game.

WHO: The No.1 seed and AFC West champion Kansas City Chiefs vs. the No. 3 seed and AFC North champion Cincinnati Bengals.

WHEN: Sunday, Jan. 29 at 3:30 p.m. PT

WHERE: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri

TV: CBS, channel 7 in the Seattle area

CREW: Jim Nantz (play-by-play), Tony Romo (analyst), Tracy Wolfson (reporter), Jay Feely (reporter), Gene Steratore (rules analyst).

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