By: William Zhang
Home-field advantage was non-existent for Saturday and Sunday’s Wild-Card Games. For the first time in NFL history, all four road teams won on Wild Card Weekend. The Chiefs, Steelers, Seahawks and Green Bay advance to the divisional round where they will face the Patriots, Broncos, Panthers and Cardinals, respectively.
The first Wild-Card weekend game, featuring the Chiefs and the Texans, was by far the least entertaining game of the weekend. The Chiefs came in to Houston as favorites after ending their season on a 10 game win streak. The Chiefs were ready to play from the get-go. Knile Davis returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown putting the Chiefs up 7-0 11 seconds into the game. The story of the game was the Chiefs relentless defense who preyed on Texans QB Brian Hoyer. Hoyer was extremely sloppy with the ball, turning it over four times in the first half. The Chiefs beat the Texans 30-0, and will now face the Patriots in Foxboro next week.
The AFC Saturday Night game between the Steelers and the Bengals was an ugly game between two bitter rivals. After trailing by 15 heading into the 4th quarter, the Bengals managed to score two touchdowns and a field goal to put them up 16-15 with a 1:50 left in the game. The situation looked grim for the Steelers. Starting QB Ben Roethlisberger was carted off late in the 3rd quarter after sustaining a shoulder injury. On the first play of the ensuing drive, back up QB Landry Jones was intercepted by Vontaze Burfict. The game looked over at that point. The Bengals would win their first playoff game in over 25 years. On the first play of the next Bengals possession, running back Jeremy Hill fumbled the ball on the Pittsburg 26-yard line. With 1:23 left on the clock, Roethlisberger came back into the game. The Steelers managed to reach midfield but with only 22 seconds left.
With time winding down in the game, Burfict, who earlier in the game sent Roethlisberger to the locker room and picked off Landry Jones, deliberately lowered his shoulder into the helmet of Antonio Brown, leaving him motionless on the field. Burfict was charged with a personal foul and Adam “Pacman” Jones was charged with and unsportsmanlike conduct setting up Chris Boswell’s game winning field goal. The Steelers look to regroup for their game against the Broncos after an ugly game, leaving Antonio Brown with a concussion, and Big Ben with a shoulder injury.
The frozen tundra of Minnesota was the venue for the first NFC wildcard game on Sunday, with the Seahawks facing the Vikings. This sub-zero game was the third coldest NFL game ever played. Both teams played great defense. The Seahawks held Adrian Peterson to 45 yards on 23 rushing attempts and both teams were held to under 250 total yards. The Seahawks prevailed 10-9 after Vikings kicker Blair Walsh, missed the game winning 27-yard field goal.
The final game of the weekend was between the Packers and the Redskins. Going into this game the Redskins who were hot off a great regular season, were favorites against a struggling Packers team. The Packers, traditionally high scoring offence behind QB Aaron Rodgers, only put up 21 points in their last two games which were both disappointing losses. The offensive line has been the weakest link in the Packers team and was apparent early on in this game. In the 1st quarter, Rodgers struggled to complete passes, and Left Tackle, JC Tretter who was starting in his first NFL game failed to protect Rodgers who was sacked in the end zone early in the first.
The Redskins managed to hold the Packers to 11 yards after 15 minutes of play. But in the 2nd quarter, the Packers offense finally began to click, scoring 17 unanswered, putting them up 17-11 at the half. The Packers never looked back and beat the Redskins 35-18 and will now face the Cardinals in the divisional round, who they lost to 38-8, 3 weeks ago.
