Divisional

DENVER BRONCOS (33) vs. BUFFALO BILLS (30)

After the Bills won a playoff game on the road for the first time in over three decades, most television pundits and journalists were counting on them to take down the number one seed in the conference: the Denver Broncos. Sure, they had a defense that led the league in sacks and an opportunistic offense, but we all thought the magic would run out eventually. Spoiler alert: it did not.

Denver’s offense received the ball to start the game and they wanted to send a message that they would not be disrespected. Slowly but surely, they marched right down the field and got into scoring range, within a few minutes. It nearly ended with a catastrophic turnover from Jaleel McLaughlin, but an offsides penalty from Larry Ogunjobi saved the Broncos from such a disastrous ending. Unfortunately, they failed to score a touchdown and had to settle for three, yet it was a good start. However, the defense proceeded to get carved up on the next possession. Thanks to a few gashing runs by James Cook, the Bills offense waltzed their way right down the field and Josh Allen capped off the drive with a wide open touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman. Denver went three-and-out on the ensuing possession and just two plays later, Allen took off up the middle for a 26 yard run all the way to the opponent’s 32 yard line. At that point in time, it looked like Buffalo was going to completely seize momentum and turn this into a rout, just like they did in last year’s Wild Card meeting between the two teams. But on the very next play, Cook surprisingly got the ball jarred loose from his hands and the Broncos recovered the football! It proved to be the break that the team needed because once the offense returned to the field, Bo Nix threw a 27-yard dime down the seam to Marvin Mims into the red zone and three plays later, the quarterback found the backup offensive tackle Frank Crum wide open in the flat for the go-ahead touchdown! Now the Broncos were ahead 10-7 when the Bills could have easily been up 14-3. 

When Allen got the ball back, he was able to get his offense all the way inside the 15 yard line, but a sack from Malcolm Roach and ugly drop from Keon Coleman forced Buffalo to settle for a tying field goal. After the two minute warning, it took Nix just nine plays for him to give his team the lead again, thanks to a beautifully thrown touchdown pass to Lil’Jordan Humphrey from 29 yards away. Allen had 22 seconds left to find a way to get at least three more points on the board near the end of the half, but he coughed up the ball on a scramble and Denver pounced on it again, which set up a 50 yard field goal for Wil Lutz to make it a 10 point game at the break. Now the Bills were stuck in a gaping hole and it was their own fault.

Just two plays into the second half, Allen lost another fumble off a strip sack by Nik Bonitto off the edge and the Broncos defense forced their third takeaway of the afternoon, yet Buffalo held to force a field goal. The deficit was now 13, but with two quarters left to play, it wasn’t the worst case scenario. Sure enough, the Bills offense got out of their own way on the next drive and in just nine plays, they were able to make it a one-score game again thanks to a wide open touchdown pass to Keon Coleman on a slant. Three plays later, Nix gave Buffalo the turnover they needed with a horrific interception to Deone Walker, but Allen gave it right back to Denver by throwing a pick of his own to PJ Locke into double coverage. Yet the Broncos offense could only muster 29 yards in the third quarter and keep the Bills around in the game.

On the second play of the fourth quarter, Allen threw a strike to Khalil Shakir over the middle and the receiver broke free in stride for a 46 yard catch-and-run all the way to the 16 yard line. On third and eight at the 14, the reigning MVP threw a perfect dime towards the left corner of the endzone to Dalton Kincaid for the go-ahead touchdown. There might have been plenty of time left, but it felt like the Bills had this game in the bag. Their defense forced a quick three-and-out on the very next drive and all of a sudden, their offense was inside the 15 yard line again with less than five minutes left. However, it did not end with another touchdown. Instead, Denver’s defense forced a critical field goal and the deficit was only four. Once Nix returned to the field, it almost felt like it was inevitable they would find a way to score because that’s what the Broncos offense had done all season long: show up in the clutch.

On the first play of the possession, their top target Courtland Sutton made his first catch of the game and it gave them the spark they needed. On a critical third and eleven at the 37 yard line, he found himself wide open on a 25 yard pickup to the Buffalo 40 yard line. With close to a minute remaining, the Broncos had another critical third down in their way and Nix was able to pick up the first down with his legs to keep the drive alive. On the next play, the quarterback fired a deep shot towards the left corner of the end zone and connected with Marvin Mims for the go-ahead score with 55 seconds left! The only problem was that they gave Allen too much time left to make some magic of his own, especially with three timeouts in his pocket. Thanks to an incredible hook-and-lateral play from Shakir to Ray Davis, the Bills were able to get into field goal range with plenty of time left to spare. But on third and ten at the 32 yard line, Allen sailed a wide open pass to Dawson Knox that could have easily given Buffalo the lead and it forced them to kick a field goal and send the game into overtime. How lovely.

Denver’s offense got the ball to start the period, but quickly left the field in four plays and were forced to punt. Now, it was Allen’s time to shine. This was not going to be like any of those losses to the Chiefs. The Bills were finally going to get over the hump and make a run for the Super Bowl. Well, they were able to convert on a couple of big third downs, but here comes the play of the game. On third and eleven at the 36 yard line, Allen took a deep shot down the middle of the field to Brandin Cooks. At first, it appeared that the veteran receiver was going to haul in a huge reception to get the Bills into field goal range, but the ball was ripped out of his hands by cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian for a game saving interception! Here comes the victim mentality, if you’re a member of the Bills Mafia. Personally, I agree with the call because it didn’t look like Cooks had complete possession of the football, but don’t tell Allen or Sean McDermott that at all. Nonetheless, the call upheld as a turnover and Denver’s offense returned to their own 20 yard line with plenty of time on the clock.

Thanks to a nifty juke from RJ Harvey, the Broncos were already approaching midfield. Then just two plays later, Taron Johnson not only got flagged for pass interference, but Joey Bosa delivered a late hit and got called for roughing the passer to get Denver into field goal range. Then on second and 12, Sean Payton played aggressively and called a deep shot to Mims down the middle of the field. The pass was incomplete but Tre’Davious White was flagged for a huge pass interference penalty at the eight yard line, thus setting up the chip shot field goal for Lutz. The kick was good, Denver survives and Buffalo is once again heartbroken.

You want to know the truth? I don’t feel bad at all for the Bills. They can whine and complain about the refs screwing them over, but you know how you could have avoided this situation? How about don’t turn the ball over five times in a playoff game that you lost by three? Guess who committed four of them? Josh Allen! What a shocker, the Buffalo Bills got in their own way again! It’s like this team has learned absolutely nothing from their postseason failures! All of that noise they made in the summer on Hard Knocks, all of the hype and buzz surrounding this team finally getting past their demons… just to result in them becoming the laughing stock of the playoffs. Let’s not sugarcoat this, Buffalo. You choked. You choked just like every other year you’ve been in the playoffs with Josh Allen as your quarterback. Congratulations, you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Clippers of the NFL: failures and underachievers in every sense of the word. 

That’s not even the worst part about all of this. Two days after the game, Buffalo announced that head coach Sean McDermott was fired. To be quite honest, the writing was completely on the wall. When you look at the constant playoff futility, the fact that they were a sixth seed in the AFC when they were the preseason favorites to win the conference and how gross the team has underachieved as a result, somebody had to pay the bill. We all knew something had to change and the team needed a shakeup, but here’s the kicker. General manager Brandon Beane is not only staying, but he is now the President of Football Operations. The owner Terry Pegula meddled in the team affairs yet again. That’s shameful because I truly thought he and the organization turned the corner. Now, this team is in a weird limbo and once again, they have nobody else to blame themselves.

Denver, you might have won the game, but it came with a heavy cost. Sean Payton announced that on the second to last play of overtime, Bo Nix suffered a broken bone in his ankle and it’s an injury that will force him to miss the rest of the playoffs. That was easily one of the most stunning injury announcements I have heard in quite a long time. Jarrett Stidham will be starting in the AFC Championship and it just so happens to be against the team that drafted him in 2019: the New England Patriots. We’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s finish this game first. If you told me that Josh Allen wasn’t going to punt all game long and he would score 30 points, I would say this game was a complete blowout. However, the Broncos played with the determination and grit that they had all season long. Their defense forced five takeaways and their offense was able to take a sizable lead early in the third quarter. They might have blown that lead, but when it was time to show up in the fourth and overtime, they delivered. It’s why I know this conference championship is going to be an amazing one to watch, regardless of who is starting at quarterback. We’ll see who will win the AFC on Sunday afternoon at 3:00.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (41) vs. SAN FRANCISCO 49ers (6)

Yikes, this game was a complete beatdown. I had a feeling the 49ers were going to come up short in the playoffs, but I didn’t think they would lose this badly. However, it literally took less than 15 seconds for the Seahawks to completely seize the momentum of this game. On the opening kickoff, Rashid Shaheed took the return all the way from the five yard line and used his blazing speed to go the distance for a 95 yard touchdown. 

When the 49ers offense took the field, they were able to get into Seahawks territory, but faced fourth and one at the 40 yard line. Brock Purdy handed it off to Kyle Juszczyk, who then ran to the right on an option play with Christian McCaffrey involved, but Seattle completely blew the play up and forced a stop. San Francisco’s defense might have been able to force a field goal, but just two plays later, the backup tight end Jake Tonges fumbled the football and the Seahawks defense recovered. From that point on, this was nowhere near a close contest.

Dealing with a serious oblique injury that kept him out of practice for the few days leading up to the game, Sam Darnold only threw for 124 yards. However, he also only had five incompletions and truth be told, he didn’t need to do too much to win this game. He threw a beautiful touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba near the end of the first quarter to take a 17-0 lead, he didn’t turn the ball over and not once did he give the 49ers any momentum. What really powered the Seahawks offense was their running game. Unfortunately, they lost Zach Charbonnet to a torn ACL, which is a devastating blow because he is a huge focal point of this offense. However, Kenneth Walker made the most of his chances by rushing for 116 yards on 19 carries with three touchdowns credited to his name. By the time the second half rolled around, Walker kept putting the game well out of reach, but it was their defense that truly led the way.

The only silver lining I have for the 49ers is that they scored three more points than they did in the last matchup against Seattle. Unfortunately, the football gods deemed that would be all. It was quite obvious that the injuries were going to catch up with this team at some point, but their offense was completely outmatched and overpowered. Purdy only threw for 140 yards and turned it over twice. Christian McCaffrey was only held to 35 rushing yards and looked incredibly beat up. I would be more livid at them given their past, but that game just got more and more depressing as it rolled on. Don’t worry, the Philadelphia Eagles would have most likely suffered the same fate.

The Seahawks deserved the win and they have proven to be one of the most likable teams in the league this year. Now they get to host the NFC Championship for the first time since 2013, but we’ll find out who they will play later.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (28) vs. HOUSTON TEXANS (16)

All I kept hearing all week long was that the Patriots were one of the most flawed teams in the playoffs. “Their offense would have no match for the best defense in the National Football League.” “The Texans are going to completely destroy the Patriots.” Well, look who’s laughing now? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to completely brag about this win, since this game could have swung in the other direction multiple times.

Once again, Drake Maye had a rough performance. He got sacked five times by Houston’s defense and he coughed up the ball three more times. In the last two postseason games, he’s taken 10 sacks and he’s been responsible for five turnovers. I’m not going to dance around it and say he was perfect, because that was not the truth. However, he did make three incredible plays on Sunday afternoon that put the Patriots on top. The first was on the second drive of the game, when New England faced a critical fourth and one at Houston’s 28 yard line. Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans dialed up the blitz as the Patriots decided to go for it. Maye then fired a laser over the middle to Demario Douglas and he broke loose for a 28 yard touchdown to put them ahead 7-0. The second was in the next quarter with about three minutes left to play. New England was able to get all the way inside the 10 yard line thanks to a couple of big completions to Kayshon Boutte and on first down at the seven yard line, Maye threw another sweet touchdown pass, this time to Stefon Diggs to make it a double digit lead. However, the Texans were able to climb back and kick a couple field goals to keep it a one-score game, until the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. On third down and four at the 32 yard line, Maye took a shot down the right side of the field to Boutte and the receiver made a fantastic one-handed catch over Derek Stingley Jr. for a huge touchdown reception to make it a 12 point game. Did Maye have an extraordinary performance? Definitely not. However, he made more than enough plays to win the game, which is more than I can say for CJ Stroud.

I’m not going to be like Dan Orlovsky and say that 31 other quarterbacks would have won this game because that is going over the line. However, this was the worst performance I have seen from Stroud in his life. There’s nothing else to say other than the fact that he was the biggest reason why they lost this football game. Not only did he throw four interceptions, but all of them were in the first half. One of them was a pick six to Marcus Jones that gave New England all of the momentum. Nobody is going to care that he threw a nice touchdown pass to Christian Kirk for their only lead of the game in the second quarter or that he didn’t have two of his top targets in Nico Collins and Dalton Schultz. All anybody has talked about is how Stroud completely cost his team the game. What makes it worse is that Houston’s defense did everything they could to try to win, yet they still lost by double digits. It says something when people were actually avid for Davis Mills to take over in the second half. That’s how bad it’s been for this franchise. What an absolute fall from grace it has been since 2023. For Stroud to take this massive of a dive into his career is just excruciating to witness and it’s why Houston hasn’t been able to get over the hump. This organization is going to need to do a lot of soul searching this offseason and who knows what decisions they will make?

The Patriots, on the other hand, continue to prove the doubters wrong. This is definitely a familiar script. However, they know their next test is going to be tougher than the last. The Broncos might be without Bo Nix, but Jarrett Stidham still has a few things he would like to say to his former team. Sean Payton is still a tremendous coach, the Broncos defense is still one of the best in the league and Mile High is never a fun place to play for any opposing team. I don’t care if New England is undefeated on the road. Their offense needs to get off to a strong start and once they do that, then the defense can continue to set the tone like they’ve done all postseason long. 

LOS ANGELES RAMS (20) vs. CHICAGO BEARS (17)

Let’s not lie to ourselves. If anybody was going to end Chicago’s miraculous season, it was most likely going to be the Los Angeles Rams. Even with the game being played at Soldier Field in freezing conditions, the team that made the least amount of mistakes found a way to win in the end. 

Chicago’s offense got the ball to start the game and on the first play of the game, Williams rolled to his right and hit DJ Moore for an explosive 34 yard catch-and-run all the way to LA’s 29 yard line. However, they faced fourth and two. Kicking a field goal would give the Bears an early 3-0 lead, but channeling the spirit of Dan Campbell, head coach Ben Johnson decided to go for it. Not only did they fail, but Williams threw a horrific interception to Cobie Durant, giving the Rams offense plenty of momentum. Sure enough, Matthew Stafford capitalized by driving his team 85 yards down the field in 14 plays and it ended with an easy walk-in touchdown for Kyren Williams. I understand that Williams was able to get in the end zone on the ensuing possession, and yes, it was on a fourth down play. However, there were more points that were left off the board. 

The rest of the first half turned into an ugly defensive slugfest, but both offenses were able to kick field goals on their final possessions of the half to keep it an even score at the break. The sloppiness continued in the third quarter and Williams ended up throwing his second interception of the game, but the score was still tied at 10 entering the fourth. Eventually, LA’s offense got out of their funk thanks to a 35 yard catch-and-run from Colby Parkinson to Chicago’s 45 yard line. Puka Nacua then came up with a couple of clutch conversions to get the Rams all the way inside the 10 and once again, Williams found the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown. 

When the Bears got the ball back, it looked like they were going to tie things up again as they got all the way to the two yard line. But once again, they faced fourth down and decided to go for it, which predictably failed. Make that three more points taken off the board due to their own mistakes. However, Chicago’s defense forced a critical punt just before the two minute warning! What a shocker, their offense plays sluggish for 45 minutes but somehow has a chance to flip a switch in the fourth! Thanks to a bad punt from Ethan Evans, it only took three plays for the Bears to get to the 20 yard line. Then of course, it was fourth down again. Now they had no other choice but to go for it but as Williams dropped back, it looked like he was going to get sacked by a wave of defenders. Spinning away from three guys, the quarterback threw the ball up for grabs towards the left side of the end zone and Cole Kmet came down with it for the game-tying touchdown! Of course. Of course that happened! The city of Chicago might have been losing their minds, but this is just what the Bears do to them every week!

Now the game was going into overtime, but LA got the ball to start. However, they went three-and-out! Now Williams had a chance to lead yet another game-winning drive and send Chicago to its first conference championship game in 15 years! Just look at him get the team to midfield! I can already imagine what the scene in the city is going to look like once the game is over. Then on second and eight, Williams deflated everybody’s hopes with his third interception of the night, this time to Kam Curl on a back-breaking play. It turned out that was the play the Rams needed because once their offense took the field, they cruised their way down the field and set up a 42 yard field goal attempt for Harrison Mevis, who drilled the ball right through the uprights. 

As I said before, there was a lot of action in this game, but it was clear and obvious to figure out why the Rams won this game: they didn’t make any mistakes. There might have been a lot of punts, sure, but they didn’t turn the ball over and they had timely conversions at the most important moments in the game. Chicago, on the other hand, turned it over three times and went 50% on fourth down. There were so many points the Bears left off the board and it was because they got too aggressive when they could have been conservative. Without those self-inflicted mistakes, they win the game! However, the Rams deserved the victory and that is why they will be in the NFC Championship against the Seattle Seahawks at 6:30 on Sunday night.