Wild Card Madness! The Road To The Super Bowl Is Being Paved

So? Were you one of the crystal ball lookers who saw Indianapolis or Philadelphia pulling off upsets on the road? Did you see that the Chargers were clearly the better team on paper and that the Ravens were pretenders?

Source

Wild Card weekend is in the books and it lived up to its name. We had some big surprises and games that went down to the wire. Depending on how much stake you had in the games and if your team was playing, the games this weekend provided tons of entertainment. Not surprisingly, the games weren't the high flying offensive battles that we have become used to this year. First of all, the highest offensive teams were relaxing at home on a bye week. Then there is the tightening up that naturally occurs in the playoffs. These games mean everything!

Source

Wild Card weekend is always interesting because in many cases the best team is not necessarily playing at home. The Chargers are a great example of this. They were actually tied for the best record in the AFC. They were a tiebreaker away from being the number one seed and having a bye and home-field advantage. Instead, they ended up with the number 5 seed and had to go on the road and play a Baltimore team that needed some good fortune just to make the playoffs. It says a lot about the quality of play coming out of the AFC North.

Source

The Chargers dominated the Ravens in a game that only appears close on the scoreboard due to two late Raven TD's. At one point early in the 4th quarter, Baltimore's net passing yards when including lost yards on sacks, was in the negatives. The Indianapolis Colts continued their hot ways by going into Houston and putting up a quick 21-0 lead that the Texans were never able to recover from. This was considered to be a big upset with the #6 seed taking out the #3 seed on the road but many were not surprised by the Colts victory. I wish I was one of those people who saw that win coming. This has set up some interesting matchups in the AFC divisional round with Kansas City taking on Indianapolis at home while the Chargers will travel to Foxboro to take on the Patriots. I can see a big Chiefs and Chargers showdown ahead in the conference championship.

Source

In the NFC, we saw what might be the biggest surprise out of all the results. The Bears managed to lose to the Eagles at home in a heartbreaker. The Bears played well at home but were never able to create a gap and the Eagles scored with less than 4 minutes to take a one-point lead, they would fail on the 2-pt convert. The Bears promptly marched down the field and set themselves up for a winning field goal which Parkey hit cleanly except the Eagle called the Icing timeout just before the snap. On the re-kick, Parkey did the unthinkable and hit the upright for the 6th time this season. He might be the most hated man in Chicago today and very likely looking for a new job in the offseason. I'm not sure he could do that 6 times in a season if he tried but somehow it happened and with it, the Bears were sent packing and the defending champs lived on to fight another day. In the other game, the Cowboys were able to hold off a late surge by the Seahawks to win at home and move on to the divisional round. The Saints will take on the Eagles who they crushed a few weeks ago and the Cowboys will travel to L.A. to take on the Rams.

Source

The upcoming weekend is going to be a big one. A win gets you a spot in the conference championship and one win away from a trip to the Super Bowl. All eyes will be on the NFL Sunday as teams battle it out for playoff glory.