The wildcard round will wrap up tonight when the Houston Texans take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game that should be very low scoring.
Before I just give a quick recap of the games, think about this. We had five games between Saturday and Sunday. The losing teams lost by a COMBINED 27 points.
The Bills, Bears and Rams all won their opening playoff games by scoring a touchdown in the final two minutes, which set a new NFL record.
It marks the first time in NFL history that three different playoff games ended with a game-winning touchdown in the final two minutes.
According to MSN, there have been four times that two playoff games in the same postseason ended with a game-winning touchdown in the final two minutes, but it has never happened three times like this year.
Those years were 1982, 2002, 2011 and 2023.
This isn’t just a record for the wild card round, it’s the NFL record for an entire postseason.
Below is just me recapping all the games, so it will sound like a lot of nothing. The main idea of this was to have you read what happened above. Pretty cool.
The best opening weekend that I can remember in a long time, it just sucks that the Cowboys weren’t playing, but with the Packers loss they will now also get picks no. 12 and 20 in the draft.
Saturday Games
The playoffs started with a game that every single person thought would be a boat race and that was the Rams at the Panthers, but I honestly thought that the Panthers were going to pull the biggest upset of the weekend.
Carolina trailed by two scores early, but just continued to make plays and after blocking a punt late in the 4th with only 4 minutes left, Bryce Young connected with Jalen Croker to take a 31-27 lead, but we all know how this story ends.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/2010147662079631743?s=20
Matt Stafford tried to make his case one more time why he should be the MVP over Drake Maye by going 71 yards throwing a game-winning touchdown to Colby Parkinson.
In a game where the Rams were the biggest favorites of the weekend by 10 points, the Panthers showed why you play the games and don’t let the people in Vegas try and predict the outcome.
Rams won 34-31, but the Panthers have a lot of good things to build on in 2026.
The night cap looked like it was really going to be a boat race when the Packers took a early 21-3 lead, but once again, the Bears woke up in the second half, and scored 25 points in the 4th quarter to beat the Packers 31-27.
You have to really put the Bears away or they will bite you. The Packers played that second half not to lose instead of just trying to put the dagger in them.
If you did not watch this game, once again, the kicker was pretty much the reason why the Packers lost this game, though.
Brandon McManus missed two field goals and an extra point, costing the Packers a total of seven points.
If he even made just the two field goals, it would have forced the Bears to have to recover an onside kick after scoring a go-ahead touchdown with less than 2 minutes left and only one timeout.
Three Sunday Games
The games on Sunday started with another banger as the Buffalo Bills went on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Once again, it was a bit of a defensive battle early on and scoring broke open in the 4th quarter.
A total of four lead changes all happened during the final frame of action, tied for the most in a playoff game, and with just over 4 minutes left, the Jags took the lead 24-20, and it was in the hands of the 2024 MVP, Josh Allen.
With the help of the tush push, Allen led a game-winning drive to win 27-24. Trevor Lawerence had a chance to at least send it into OT, but was intercepted on the first play after the go-ahead touchdown for the Bills.
I think it is funny that the Bills wanted the tush push banned more than any other team in the offseason, and it just flat out won them their playoff game. Funny stuff.
Next on the slate was the afternoon game between the 49ers and the Eagles. I wanted nothing more than somehow both teams to lose this game as I hate them both.
This was the game that I thought had the chance to be the most boring game of the day, and boy was I wrong once again!
With winds as high as 40 miles per hour, most of the action took place in the first and 4th quarters.
Brock Purdy threw two interceptions, and yet his DEFENSE kept them in the game and, guess what, because of that, the defending champions are now out of the playoffs with the 23-19 home loss to San Fran.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/2010513075892576693?s=20
Cry Eagles cry.
In the last game of the day, the man who is everyone’s pick to win the MVP, Drake Maye, took the field against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Again, this early game was all defense. Maye was picked off on the first drive of the game inside their own 20, but the Chargers rolled the dice and were unable to get any points after going for it on 4th down.
Tell me if you haven’t heard this before, the game was a snooze fest in the first half with only 9 total points scored, and things really did not pick up much as Justin Herbert was sacked a total of six times.
The Pats would score a touchdown in the 4th to pull away and win the game 16-3.
13 points is what they won by and that was the biggest of the weekend. It was a great start to the NFL playoffs.
Let’s see how the game tonight goes, and then let’s get ready for the rest of the playoffs.
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