Guest Writer
Every once in a while, magic happens and you realize you’re watching the best that ever was.
As I was sitting back to let my weekend be consumed by NFL Playoff Football, I quickly realized there was a whole lot of magic being absolutley poured all over each of these games.
It started out with a good game and just kept getting better and wilder…
The four Divisional Round games were decided by a COMBINED TOTAL of 15 points, that’s a 3.8 points per game margin of victory. It’s also the lowest average margin of victory in NFL playoff history in a round with at least four games.
All 4 Divisional Round games were won with no time remaining in regulation or in overtime, there have never been that many finishes in an entire postseason in NFL history (via NFL Research).
There’s really too much that happened to fit it all into one post, here are my highlights.
Starting out with the Bengals and the Titans. Evan McPherson is a PERFECT 8 for 8 on Field Goals in the playoffs, including this absolute banger of a 52-yard game winner.
Rams vs Bucs. The Rams almost became Tom Brady’s latest conquest, L.A. gave up a 27-3 lead to the reigning Super Bowl champs with TB12 guiding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into a tie game with 42 seconds remaining. But Matthew Stafford beat the Bucs blitz, and Cooper Kupp got wide open deep, setting up Matt Gay’s revenge on a 30-yard winner.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills lit up the scoreboard, with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen proving they’re both absolute BEASTS and laying the groundwork for the new generation of NFL Quarterbacks. These two QBs combined for a mind boggling 25 points in the final two minutes of regulation.
After Allen threw his FOURTH TD of the night, Mahomes needed just 13 INSANE seconds to force overtime.
From there, the Chiefs won the coin toss and easily marched down the field, wrapping the game on a Travis Kelce TD on the first possession of OT.
This was over the minute the Bills lost that coin toss.
We’re 100% sure that OT rules are going to be looked at (again) after this one.
Some other fun facts from these brain melting Dividional Playoff games…
The Bengals won even though Burrow was sacked NINE times, just the second QB to do so, joining K.C.’s Len Dawson in the 1966 AFL Championship.
The 49ers didn’t score an offensive touchdown (two FGs, one blocked punt TD), becoming just the third team to win a playoff game without an offensive TD in the last TWENTY postseasons.
The Rams lost FOUR fumbles, becoming the fourth team to do that in a playoff game and STILL WIN in NFL history.
The Bills-Chiefs contest was the first playoff game in NFL history with three go-ahead touchdowns scored in the final two minutes of regulation. We’re smelling a brand new and awesome rivallry brewing between these two young teams.
Andy Reid is a savage telling Patrick Mahomes. “If things are grim, be the Grim Reaper”.
And that’s a wrap on our NFL Divisional Weekend update. We’ll be keeping our eyes on the Conference Championship games coming this weekend.
As if you didn’t know already, we’ve got the Bengals at the Chiefs, January 30 at 3pm Eastern and the 49ers at the Rams at 6:30pm Eastern.
We’re hoping these games are as exciting as last weekend’s, but that’s going to be a hard act to follow.
Have an hour to kill? Check out Pro Football Focus’ in depoth look at each of the games…
This article has been syndicated from our friends at the Gambyl Sports Betting Exchange – Source
