Looking back at the first-round of the NFL Playoffs, there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement up until the last game of the weekend. The divisional round looks to be full of much more excitement. But let’s quickly recap a Wild-Card Weekend that was.
Kicking off the Wild-Card weekend, the Bengals and Texans really played a stinker of a game. If you want to call it a defensive battle early on in that match-up, go ahead. But it really was a tale of both offenses failing to really do much of anything. Especially the Bengals, who failed to take advantage of offense when their defense forced the Texans to kick field goals on their first three possessions. The Bengals wound up holding the Texans to 19 points, but really never got any rhythm on offense, and only put up two field goals. (The defense scored the only TD for the Bengals on a interception return for a TD) The Texans move on to New England where they were embarrassed on Monday Night Football 42-14 in Week 14.
The later game on Saturday was the easiest for me to predict before the kick-off of the weekend. The Packers took on Adrian Peterson and the Vikings at Lambeau, and it was never really close, just as I expected. 90 minutes before the game, it was declared that Christian Ponder would miss the game, and Joe Webb would start in his place.
(Here’s what his elbow/arm looked like as of 1/7/)
Anyways, Joe Webb didn’t really have a chance. Sure, his read-option play with Adrian Peterson was a threat, but his lack of play with the offense was a killer. And when I say lack of, I mean NONE. Joe Webb didn’t take one snap in the regular season under center. The story of this game was that the Packers finally held Adrian Peterson in check for the 3rd match-up of these teams this year. Adrian Peterson averaged about 200 some yards in the first two games, but didn’t get to 200 in the 3rd game. Heck, he didn’t even get 100. He was held “in check” with 99 yards. The safe pick of the weekend turned out to be just that. The Packers are headed to the Bay Area to take on the 49ers for the divisional round. The 49ers won their last match-up in Week 1 of this year, 30-22.
Then we get into the Sunday games. The first match-up was emotional lift against emotional lift. The Colts went to Baltimore in a battle of Chuckstrong v. Ray Lewis’ last home in Baltimore. I thought Andrew Luck and the Colts could’ve exposed that beat up defense, especially in the secondary, but just like the Bengals on Saturday, they failed to make much of anything on offense against a team that they really did have a chance against. The Ravens offense surprisingly clicked in this game. Ray Rice got his carries, and when Joe Flacco threw the ball, he got good chunks of yardage to take advantage of the Colts’ offensive woes. Andrew Luck’s rookie season is over, but the Ravens head to the Mile High City to take on my Denver Broncos in the divisional round in a game that will provide a much larger challenge for the Ravens than the Colts provided. My Broncos-Ravens game preview will come later in the week.
The later game on Sunday was a tale of the two rookie starting quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Robert Griffin III. The Seahawks took on the Redskins in Washington in the most exciting game of the weekend, in my opinion. People thought I was crazy to pick the Seahawks in this match-up, but this Seattle defense is for real. Outside of the front 7 of this Seattle defense, you have Browner and Sherman in the secondary who are going to have their hands full with Roddy White and Julio Jones in Atlanta next week. But in this Redskins-Seahawks game, it was all about RG3 not being 100% and that Seattle defense really taking advantage. If RG3 was completely healthy, the outcome of the game might have been different, but Russell Wilson and the Seahawks won the game 24-14. The Redskins never saw the Seattle side of the field after the 1st quarter and were outscored 24-0 after going up two touchdowns early. The Seahawks are riding a high heading into Atlanta to face the Falcons in the divisional round.
Let’s take a quick look into the NFL Divisional Round.
Saturday
No. 4 Baltimore Ravens (10-6) at No. 1 Denver Broncos (13-3) – Sat. 4:30 ET
No. 3 Green Bay Packers (11-5) at No. 2 San Francisco 49ers (11-4) – Sat. 8 ET
Sunday
No. 5 Seattle Seahawks (11-5) at No. 1 Atlanta Falcons (13-3) – Sun. 1 ET
No. 3 Houston Texans (12-4) at No. 2 New England Patriots (12-4) – Sun. 4:30 ET
Outside of the Broncos-Ravens game (to which I’ll write the game preview for that later in the week) I look at the Seahawks-Falcons game being the the most intriguing game on the divisional round docket. The Seahawks just might be my upset pick of the week. That defense is red hot and the Browner-Sherman match-up on White-Jones that I mentioned earlier is going to be something to watch. If they take away Matt Ryan’s top two weapons, that Seattle defense might give their offense a good chance to win this game. Oh yeah, that Seahawks offense has that rookie QB named Russell Wilson. Who happens to be the last rookie QB standing after Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III were ousted in the first round. The divisional round should be much more exciting than wild-card weekend.
Anthony Rodriguez
Anthony is the Founder, Administrator, Editor and Publisher of Lightning Rod Sports. Originally from California, Anthony has been raised in the Rocky Mountains and Denver area for most of his life. Anthony works with the Emmy-winning student-run T.V. newscast at MSU Denver, The Met Report, as the Assistant General Manager, formerly the Sports Producer, as well as Lead Anchor and Production Assistant. He is currently the Play-by-Play Announcer, Color Commentator, and Production Assistant for the Metro State Broadcast Network, and calls games for Metro State soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball as a “Voice of the Roadrunners.” In addition to that work with the Metro State Broadcast Network, Anthony also hosts the monthly 30-minute magazine show called "The Roadrunner Review" which airs on Altitude Sports and Entertainment. He hosts the bi-weekly "KMet Sports Show" on KMET Radio at MyMetMedia.com/KMETSportsShow. He is also the Founder, Administrator, Editor, and Columnist for his own Denver Sports website, LightningRodSports.com. Anthony is also part of the Social Media team at Examiner.com, and has worked with the Altitude Radio Network for the Avalanche and Nuggets. Anthony is a former Producer for Mile High Sports Radio, as well as a former Sports-Talk show host on the LightningRod Radio Network.
