NFL Wild Card Weekend
Now that the 2023 college football season is over, the football world turns its attention to the National Football League playoffs. One of the most bizarre regular seasons in the history of the NFL would bring questions about the certainty of the postseason. Fourteen teams are hungry for a chance for the biggest bragging right in sports: “Super Bowl Champions.”
To kick things off, the defending American Football Conference South champs, the Houston Texans, welcomed the top wild-card seed out of the AFC, the Cleveland Browns. Rookie quarterback CJ Stroud’s arrival on the big stage was no problem. Stroud threw for 274 yards and three touchdowns.
The nightcap on Saturday featured the Miami Dolphins, who ended the season on a two-game losing streak, going to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the defending Super Bowl champs Kansas City Chiefs. The Dolphins went from living in tropical weather daily to wind chills as low as 40 degrees below fahrenheit. The Dolphins’ high-powered offense could not compete with the frost of Old Man Winter falling to Kansas City 26-7.
Fast forward to National Football Conference Sunday due to only three games being played. The #2 seed in the NFC, the Dallas Cowboys, finally had everything set up to make a deep postseason run.
On the other side of the field, all eyes were on Jordan Love in his first career playoff game. He was filling in big shoes after Green Bay Greats Brett Farve and Aaron Rodgers, who delivered Championships to the franchise. Love not only exceeded expectations, but he and the Green Bay Packers’ run game dominated the Cowboys’ defense, getting the 48-32 upset over the Dallas Cowboys.
The state of Michigan continues to ride high after their Detroit Lions ended their 30-year playoff drought, moving to the divisional round defeating the Los Angeles Rams 23-24. The loss for the Rams also spoils former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford’s return to the Motor City. Thirty-six inches of snow pushed the Steelers / Bills first-round game to Monday
afternoon. The red-hot Bills could not melt the thick snow in time for the originally scheduled date.
Buffalo continued their push for the franchise’s first championship, defeating Pittsburgh 31-17, despite the Steeler’s late push for a comeback. Finally, the game with the biggest questions was the nightcap game between the Philadelphia Eagles, who finished 1-6 after starting 10-0 on the season, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are on year one without “Tampa Tom,” AKA the GOAT. Tampa cruised to a 32-9 victory, giving the Buccaneers their second postseason victory in three years over the Eagles.
The Divisional round will be promising, expect the contenders to turn up the intensity