NEWSLETTER
There’s a lot to get into today, so let’s nix the intro and get right into it.
AFC Wild Card
It was a chalk weekend in the AFC as all of the favorites handled their business and advanced to the divisional round. Burrow and the Bengals snapped a 31-year drought for Cincinnati, the Bills put on a clinic and sent the master Bill Belichick packing, and the Chiefs bid farewell to Ben Roethlisberger on Sunday night.
Bengals 26, Raiders 19
Joe Burrow and the Bengals took care of business at home, stoping the Rich Bisaccia/Raiders feel-good story in its tracks. Burrow completed 24-of-34 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns as the Bengals topped Las Vegas 26-19 for their first playoff victory since January 1991. A solid first quarter and a loud Paul Brown Stadium helped Cincinnati secure the early momentum, and they rode it to a win.
.@JoeyB's Awareness = 100
Watch on NBC pic.twitter.com/VqDsHh3hgb
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) January 15, 2022
Bills 47, Patriots 17
I’m here hat in hand on this one, as I predicted a Patriots upset of the Bills in my Wild Card Weekend Preview on Friday, and boy was I wrong. Josh Allen and the Bills were perfect. Literally perfect. Allen completed 21-of-25 passes for 308 yards, five touchdowns, and zero interceptions, and Buffalo scored on every single drive until the kneel-downs. No turnovers, no punts… just points. Boy, does that set up a heck of a battle between Kansas City and Buffalo this weekend?
The Buffalo Bills just had the NFL’s first ever perfect offensive game.
No punts. No picks. No fumbles lost. No field goals. All touchdowns on every single drive until the kneel downs.
And they did it against a top five defense.
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) January 16, 2022
Chiefs 42, Steelers 21
Did anyone really expect this game to go any differently? The Chiefs came into this one as the far superior team on paper, and they played to that tune as they blasted Pittsburgh right out of the playoffs, essentially ending Ben Roethlisberger’s NFL career. While Roethlisberger has been mum on the situation, it’s widely presumed that this is the end of the line for the long-time Pittsburgh quarterback. Roethlisberger won two Super Bowls, made six Pro Bowls, and was the 2004 Rookie of the Year during his 18-year career in Pittsburgh, and he’s a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer in five years.
Ben Roethlisberger greets Patrick Mahomes after their game Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. pic.twitter.com/YldjPPeUyA
— Matt Freed (@mattfreedpghpg) January 17, 2022
Patrick Mahomes was nearly perfect, completing 30-of-39 passes for 404 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception in the Kansas City victory. Travis Kelce caught five passes for 108 yards and a touchdown, and Jerick McKinnon caught seven passes for 81 yards and a touchdown. Kansas City cruises into an AFC Championship rematch from last season in next week’s divisional-round meeting with the Buffalo Bills.
NFC Wild Card
The lone upset on the NFC side of things was the 49ers beating the Cowboys in Arlington on Sunday, setting up an NFC Championship rematch from two years ago. The short-handed Bucs made easy work of the Eagles, and the Rams blew the doors off the Cardinals on Monday night.
Buccaneers 31, Eagles 15
On Sunday afternoon, Jalen Hurts got his first taste of playoff football in the NFL when the Eagles visited Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa. Brady threw for 271 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Mike Evans had a huge afternoon hauling nine catches for 117 yards and a touchdown as the Bucs put up 31 points on the Eagles defense as Tampa Bay cruised to a victory. Jalen Hurts had himself a rough playoff debut throwing two interceptions and completing only 23-of-43 yards as the Eagles struggled to put together anything of substance until garbage time.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1482798902818529282?s=20
While there will surely be questions surrounding Hurts and the Eagles’ future under center, Jalen Hurts isn’t letting his poor performance against the defending Super Bowl champs get him down, and why should he? He arguably wasn’t even the worst quarterback this weekend. Is anyone questioning Kyler Murray’s future in Arizona?
Jalen Hurts in his 1st playoff game:
– 53.5%, 258 yards, 1 TD & 2 INTs
– 8 carries, 39 yards & 0 TDsKyler Murray in his 1st playoff game:
– 55.9%, 137 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs
– 2 carries, 6 yards & 0 TDsInteresting that only the #Eagles’ media will say their QB isn’t a starter.
— James Nagle (@NagleNFL) January 18, 2022
49ers 23, Cowboys 17
Just as I ate my crow for the disastrous New England pick in my Wild Card Weekend preview last week, I’m here to boast about my 49ers over Dallas pick! Deebo Samuel is a freakishly good athlete, and San Francisco is a matchup nightmare for many teams. This team pounds the rock and plays solid, bend but don’t break defense. Elijah Mitchell ran for 96 yards and a touchdown, and Deebo Samuel ran for 72 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. The defense sacked Dak Prescott five times and picked him off at a crucial point in the third quarter to set up the eventual deciding score in this one.
Three consecutive plays for the 49ers:
1-Sack by D.J. Jones
2-Interception by K'Waun Williams
3-Touchdown by Deebo SamuelThat's … efficient. pic.twitter.com/JM6zIiYJxd
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) January 16, 2022
We’ll talk about this more later this week, but the 49ers are the last matchup that Aaron Rodgers and the Packers wanted to end up with this week, and there’s a good reason for that concern. San Francisco’s simple grind-it-out style was a significant problem for Dallas’ high-powered offense on Sunday, and they’ll be a problem for the Packers’ similar offense this weekend.
Rams 34, Cardinals 11
This one was a laugher from the jump with Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals falling flat on their face in Los Angeles, completing the collapse that saw them finish the regular season with a 1-4 record after they blew the Bears out of the water in Week 13. Murray completed only 55.9 percent of his passes for 137 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions in the blowout loss. On the other hand, Matthew Stafford didn’t need to do much, but he did what he had to do nearly perfectly, completing 13-of-17 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns.
The Rock hit the tequila pretty quick after the Kyler Murray interception, while Eli was letting out some kind of noise pic.twitter.com/bpOXDb6Lb6
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) January 18, 2022
Is it time to have a conversation about Kliff Kingsbury yet?
Kliff Kingsbury's end to the season as a head coach…
Texas Tech:
• '13: lost 5 of 6
• '14: lost 4 of 6
• '15: lost 4 of 6
• '16: lost 6 of 8
• '17: lost 6 of 8
• '18: lost 5 of 5Cardinals:
• '19: lost 7 of 9
• '20: lost 5 of 7
• ‘21: lost 5 of 6 pic.twitter.com/t7e0C1rWC7— The Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) January 18, 2022
Raiders Gonna Raider
As Bears fans, I understand that we think we know what dysfunction looks like. But is there a more dysfunctional franchise in football from the top down? The Raiders, fresh off of a playoff berth, have fired general manager Mike Mayock. Honestly, I expected it to happen, but it’s how they did it and tend to always do things that make them the Raiders. According to Albert Breer, Mayock was fired, and no one even told the rest of the staff about it yesterday. They thought Mayock was going home for the evening when he left the building on Monday and discovered the firing on social media.
Couldn't make it up—When Mayock was leaving the building, the guys working for him thought he was leaving for the day. No one said anything to them. And they found out the rest via social media. pic.twitter.com/niwMsMvdtD
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 18, 2022
Mayock’s firing in Las Vegas likely spells the end for Rich Bisaccia as the interim head coach of the Raiders. I’d imagine that whoever comes into Las Vegas as the new general manager will want to hire his head coach, so Bisaccia is likely not going to be sticking around in his current capacity, if any at all.
https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1483182000467025928?s=20
Officiating Woes
To say that the officiating this week was terrible would be an understatement. Jerome Boger’s crew was so bad that they’d be left off the schedule for the rest of the NFL playoffs after their performance in the Bengals-Raiders AFC Wild Card game in Cincinnati.
Referee Jerome Boger and the officials from Saturday’s Raiders-Bengals game are not expected to work again this NFL postseason:https://t.co/oPdfnJxQD7
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 16, 2022
Despite the ire from fans and pundits about the officiating of Boger and his crew, the Raiders were not interested in blaming their shortcomings on the referees in Saturday’s contest. Here’s Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby from Adam Schefter’s report at ESPN:
“In the moment, we didn’t know because we heard a whistle,” Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “The ref said he was out, and then they said it was a touchdown — and then there was no review. So we were just like, ‘All right,’ so we just kept going. We had our opportunities. We just didn’t capitalize.”
Raiders’ interim head coach Rich Bisaccia wasn’t interested in playing the blame game either, saying he had “no problems with the officiating today.”
Then there were the Dallas Cowboys fans hurling trash at the referees as they left the field and Dak Prescott praising those fans for their actions as he opted to take the low road and cry about the officiating instead of owning his poor play against San Francisco:
Dak Prescott Praises Fans … for Throwing Trash at the Referees? https://t.co/AZI7DgN2gL pic.twitter.com/A1YTZ61VNO
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) January 17, 2022
Maybe the Raiders should think twice about keeping Rich Bisaccia around because he and his players have been pretty anti-Raiders since he took over in October in their actions on and off the field. As for Dak and the Cowboys, well, they’ll have plenty of time now to wallow in their tears.
The Extra Point(s)
• These videos are always great.
NFL Wild Card meeting pic.twitter.com/RO3SXZ95jS
— Annie Agar (@AnnieAgar) January 18, 2022
• Allen Robinson had a down year in 2021, and he’s not leaving much to the imagination as to why he thinks he might have had such an unproductive year with the Bears:
It’s crazy how successful deep crosses and special routes are #KCvsPT
— Allen Robinson II (@AllenRobinson) January 17, 2022
• It’s unlikely that Robinson will be running any routes in Chicago in 2022, so it won’t matter much for him who the Bears go with for their vacant GM and head coach positions, but the veteran receiver made sure to take a shot at Matt Nagy on the way out the door.
• Speaking of the vacant GM and head coach positions in Chicago, Luis has you covered with a one-stop-shop list of candidates that have either already been interviewed or are reported to be interviewed in the coming days.
Here’s the List of Head Coach and GM Candidates the Bears Have Interviewed (Or Will Soon)https://t.co/UV8kX58w2e pic.twitter.com/XV4efh4GmK
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) January 18, 2022
• Eli Manning came to the Manning Cast with the drip he got from Snoop Dogg 😂:
https://twitter.com/SBNation/status/1483250605019709443?s=20
• Now that Dallas’ season is over, their coordinators will be getting plenty of interest in the ongoing NFL head coaching carousel in the coming weeks. DC Dan Quinn is expected to interview with Denver, Miami, and Chicago this week, according to Adam Schefter.
Cowboys’ DC Dan Quinn is scheduled to interview this week for HC jobs with Denver, Minnesota, Miami and Chicago, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 18, 2022
• There will be plenty of interest in OC Kellen Moore as well. Moore is reportedly set to interview with Denver, Minnesota, and Miami this week, according to Adam Schefter.
#Cowboys OC Kellen Moore’s schedule begins this week with the #Broncos interview today, then it’s the #Vikings and the #Dolphins scheduled, as well. https://t.co/fjC7qQXDHi
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 18, 2022
• Brian Daboll’s team is still playing, but he’s one of the hottest names in the coaching carousel right now. Could the Cardinals look to Daboll to get the most out of Kyler Murray?
https://twitter.com/LockedOnNetwork/status/1483477057069801476?s=20
• Or, maybe Daboll ends up with Miami with Tua, a QB that he worked with at Alabama…
Brian Daboll is (+200) to be the next coach of the Dolphins pic.twitter.com/urPKnAOd3X
— PFF Bet (@PFF_Bet) January 17, 2022
• But, I know of a young QB that could use Daboll’s tutelage:
Tonight the Bills had a touchdown on every drive.
No punts.
No turnovers.
No field goals.All against Bellichick in a playoff game.
For the season, the Bills were 6th in rushing yards and 15th in attempts.
Dont let the media fool you, Brian Daboll can generate offense. pic.twitter.com/dvmFFc3A5i
— Max Markham (@MaxMarkhamNFL) January 16, 2022
• The Washington Football Team’s new threads (which will be revealed on February 2) are a hit with some of the players:
https://twitter.com/WashingtonNFL/status/1483475607572856839?s=20
• All right, that’s it for today. We’ll catch up later this week when we preview the NFL Divisional Round before the action gets going this weekend!
