The National Football League ultimately leads up to the same thing every year, the playoffs. January is jam packed with playoff implications and great matchups with emotional value, such as Tom Brady chasing eight rings and this possibly being Aaron Rodgers’ last season with the Green Bay Packers after 16 consecutive seasons. Rodgers is coming off an MVP season and has remained in the mix for MVP this season.
The drama started before the playoffs even began, when something bizarre happened in week 18. Due to a quirk in the NFL playoff standings, a one-of-a-kind scenario emerged: if the game ended in a tie, both the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers would clinch a postseason berth. That’s because the Steelers ended up tying in a game against the Detroit Lions. Theoretically, if both teams elected to kneel down on every play of the game, both team would make it. If not, the team risked not making the postseason at all. To tie a game in the NFL, a game needs to go into overtime and at the end of the 10-minute overtime period, the score must remain tied. It almost happened with the push from the Chargers late in the game causing it to go to overtime. Both teams made field goals in overtime and the clock ran down to thirty-four seconds before the Chargers elected to take a time out. The Raiders coach, Rich Bisaccia contemplated kneeling before ultimately deciding to kick a field goal and a
The Raider’s opponent was the Cincinnati Bengals, who went five seasons without a playoff appearance before winning the AFC North title this year. They’ve gone much longer without a postseason victory, as they’ve lost eight straight playoff contests since defeating the Houston Oilers in the Wild Card round following the 1990 season. The Bengals air game has been outstanding; the emergence of Jamarr Chase has been prolific and elevated Joe Burrow’s game as well. The Bengals ultimately won due to their ability to play well against any defensive scheme. Their secondary lead by Jessie Bates III is also going to be essential in their coming games, the only weak point in their team is their defensive line. If the Bengals can contain Josh Jacobs they’ll run away with this game.
A game with raging dramatic appeal is the New England Patriots against the Buffalo Bills. That’s because during week 13, the weather conditions at the Bills stadium were less than ideal, so Bill Belichick decided to run the football. Mac Jones threw just three passes for the Patriots in a 14-10 victory over the Bills. Being division rivals is another contributor and is fueling the fire. Bills’ safety Micah Hyde had a few words for the media following their last matchup against the Patriots. “Damn right I’m a sore loser. Show me a sore loser and I’m gonna show you a winner. We want to win. Everybody in this damn locker room should be a sore loser,” Hyde said via NewYorkUpstate.com.
There’s a reason we are talking about Tom Brady around this time annually, because he’s a winner. At age 44, he’s still at the top of the league in almost every statistic within his position. Leonard Fournette broke out and opened up a ton for Brady this season. However, his team hasn’t been very dependable over the last few weeks. A ton of injuries and the wild departure of wide receiver Antonio Brown has left many wondering where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rank in the playoffs. What versions of Lavonte David, Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Leonard Fournette are the Buccaneers getting? Frankly it probably won’t matter because of Brady’s ability to overcome pretty much anything. Hard to bet against the Rams defense though, they’ll advance due to Von Miller’s ability to show up in clutch moments.
The last three games are easy to determine who will win, in my humble opinion. The Dallas Cowboys’ execution in the passing game is going to be essential. Although Dak Prescott has been inconsistent, I believe he shows up against the 49ers and advances them to the next round. The second to last matchup is the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs. Their last matchup in week 16 ended in a 36-10 blow out that the Chiefs dominated. Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin basically came out and said the Chiefs are better and that they are going to lose, their manifestation became reality when they lost 42-21. Finally, last but not least, the Los Angeles Rams against the Arizona Cardinals. Von Miller, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, among other facets will ultimately be too much for the Cardinals to handle and will be taken by storm, Rams advance.