Wow! What a wild final week of regular season this one was!
Two winner take all showdowns for division titles in the NFC, and all sorts of playoff scenario possibility for both divisions. Entering this final weekend, only the Denver Broncos were a lock on one of the two top spots in the AFC conference, but they still had to win to clinch home field advantage. No other teams had clinched one of the top two spots in either conference, otherwise. And there was the final playoff spot in the AFC, while three teams were trying to clinch the final spots in the NFC. Plus, there were games with all sorts of ramifications for playoff positioning.
So, you knew it was going to be a very interesting weekend.
But no game was as big as the showdown on Sunday Night Football between the visiting Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys. The Eagles were trying to recover from a few embarrassing seasons of not even coming close to meeting high expectations. They got a new coach, and got new results as well.
The Cowboys, in the meantime, are no strangers to these season finale, winner take all showdowns. In fact, this is the third year in a row that they were involved in one. Two years ago, it was New York Giants, who slammed Dallas and eventually went on to win the Super Bowl. Then last year, it was at Washington, and they lassoed the Cowboys.
But this year, it was in Dallas. The Eagles had lost the earlier meeting in Philadelphia, but the Cowboys were without their starting quarterback. So, this was going to get interesting.
The Eagles went up early, with a tough defense, and continued shots offensively, building up a 10-0 lead.
You knew, though, that the Cowboys were not going away quite that easily. They got a touchdown when Kyle Orton, stepping in for the injured Tony Romo, who found Gavin Escobar near the sideline, and Escobar managed to kind of leap and dive into the end zone, to make a game of it. Suddenly, it was intense again.
Philly answered back themselves, when Foles found Brent Celek for a 14-yard touchdown pass and another ten point lead, although Dallas got a field goal before halftime to pull within 7.
Dallas chipped away at the lead in the third quarter with a pair of field goals, to get within a point, as the final quarter came.
Philly's defense held strong, but Dallas's last rated defense largely came through for most of the game as well. However, the Eagles managed to pound the ball into the end zone with 6:09 left in the game when Bryce Brown got a 6-yard rushing touchdown.
The Cowboys still had some life left in them, but they would have to claw their way back. They did, with Orton finding Dez Bryant for a 32-yard score that electrified the home crowd. But the two point conversion failed, and with 3:50 left, Dallas was running out of time.
They held defensively, and got the ball back, for an opportunity at a potential winning field goal. But on the very first offensive play of the drive, Orton threw behind his intended target, Miles Austin, and the ball went into the arms of Eagles slot cornerback Brandon Boykin, effectively icing the game, and the NFC East, for the Philadelphia Eagles, who handed the Dallas Cowboys their third straight winner take all regular season finale showdown loss.
Philly will now host New Orleans next weekend, as the Saints secured a playoff spot with a solid victory over Tampa Bay.
There was another game for all the marbles in an NFC division, as well. That would be for the NFC North, where the visiting Green Bay Packers, now with Aaron Rodgers back in the lineup, taking on their old rivals (in fact, it's the oldest rivalry in the NFL), the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
The Bears took an early lead in this one, when Cutler found Forte in the end zone in the first quarter. But the Packers began to get it together in the second quarter with a pair of field goals sandwiching an odd touchdown, in which Rodgers fumbled, only to have the ball recovered by his own wide receiver, Jarret Boykin, who took it in for a score.
At the half, the Pack held a 13-7 lead.
But a Forte run into the end zone put Chicago right back on top, 14-13. It was at this point that the game began to feel more like a shootout, as the Packers responded when Rodgers found Cobb down the middle for a touchdown.
A couple of minutes later, Forte once again found the end zone, and the Bears were up again going into the final quarter.
The crowd was going berzerk when Cutler found Brandon Marshall in the end zone just seconds into the fourth quarter, as it appeared that they might have the Packers on the ropes, with a 28-20 lead.
The Packers kept their poise, however, and managed to drive the ball down the field, with running back Eddie Lacy pounding the ball into the end zone to pull Green Bay within a point.
Very late in the game, and needing only a field goal to go ahead, Aaron Rodgers found Randall Cobb deep down the field for a 48-yard touchdown pass that has become one of the main highlight reels from this weekend in football, and the Packers were up again. They missed a two-point conversion, but were not up, 33-28, with very little time left.
The Bears were unable to score themselves, and the Pack had clinched the NFC North, a rather stunning reversal of fortune from a team that, it had seemed, had fallen completely out of contention after a winless period of longer than a month when Rodgers first got injured and was out of Green Bay's lineup. At that point, it seemed like a two team race for the NFC North, between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears. But first the Lions, and then the Bears, both self-destructed, giving the Pack a rather unlikely shot at sneaking in to the playoffs by winning the division outright. For fans of the Bears, it was extra added insult to lose this division, once again, to their hated rivals, the Green Bay Packers, with the salt on the wound being that the stinging defeat was at home, in Soldier Field. Green bay knocked off the Bears in the NFC Championship Game a few years ago to reach Super Bowl XLV, which they also won.
Now, Green Bay will host a playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, who handed Arizona a tough defeat that buried the Cardinals playoff chances, although they likely would not have qualified for the playoffs anyway, since the Saints got that victory over Tampa. New Orleans did not get the division title, though, because the Carolina Panthers were able to hold off a tough challenge from the Atlanta Falcons, one of the elite teams from last year, as the Panthers wrapped up the NFC South, as well as the number two seed, with a 21-20 win.
As for the first seed, the Seahawks finally took care of business, and clinched not only the NFC West, but the number one seed overall, by dominating the Rams at home.
The Denver Broncos will be the AFC's top seed, as they easily and quickly took care of business against their division rivals, the Oakland Raiders. Manning had an amazing day, in which he clinched not one, but two quarterback records. He completed 25 of 28 passes for 266 yards, allowing him to eclipse the overall passing record of 5,476 yards, as he finished with 5,477 yards - only one more than Brees had in 2011! Manning also threw for four touchdown passes, which establishes the new touchdown passes thrown by one quarterback in a season to 55, and he directed the Broncos to a dominating 31-0 lead by halftime, after which he and the others largely sat out, and Denver sat on the lead, trying to kill the clock and keep their players healthy. The win clinched home field advantage for the Denver Broncos for a second year in a row, and they won the AFC West division title for a third year in a row overall, after a 34-14 victory on the road.
The Bengals dominated Baltimore, and ended any hopes of a repeat by eliminating their division rivals, and the defending champions, as they secured the number three seed. They, as well as the Colts, who absolutely dominated Jacksonville, had been hoping to sneak into the second seed in the AFC, and get that precious extra week of rest. But those hopes ended with New England's surprisingly tough victory over Buffalo up at Foxboro, securing the number two seed for the Pats.
It became a wild race for that last playoff spot in the AFC. The Dolphins held most of the advantages going into the day, with Baltimore also looking like they had a real chance. But those two games were early, and I already mentioned that the Ravens lost to the Bengals. But the Dolphins, after going up early, 7-0, were completely dominated by the New York Jets, who finished the season strong, and were able to produce a solid 20-7 win at Miami, eliminating the Dolphins outright. The Jets also announced the Rex Ryan would be back for the 2014 season. In the meantime for Miami, a very strong season ended abruptly, as the shocked fans of Miami watched the Dolphins completely fall apart against New York, one week after their team was shut out in a lackluster effort up at Buffalo.
It looked like that last AFC Wildcard might just belong to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who dominated Cleveland. Everything had to work just so. The Steelers had to take care of business, and they had to hope for the improbable scenario of having the Dolphins, the Ravens, and the Chargers all lose. And as I just mentioned, the Dolphins and the Ravens both lost, and coupled with Pittsburgh's win, it was looking good for them.
For a while, it was looking good in the San Diego game, as well, as the Chiefs, who had locked up the fifth seed, were up by ten in the final quarter, after an up and down game between the two teams. But the Chargers rallied, as Rivers found Eddie Royal in the end zone to pull within three, and a field goal late nodded it up at 24 apiece. Then, in overtime, San Diego was able to capitalize off of a turnover, and Nock Novac, who had gotten the field goal to tie it and send it into overtime, kicked the field goal to win it and send the Chargers into the playoffs for the first time in four years. San Diego was able to win it, despite never leading in the game, until the final play in overtime won it outright for them.
The Chargers will now visit Cincinnati next weekend, while the Chiefs will go to Indianapolis.
In other games, the Titans handed the Houston Texans their 14th straight defeat. The Texans had entered the season as one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl. They end it with the first pick in the draft assured. Minnesota ended a miserable season with a narrow 14-13 victory over Detroit, and the Giants were able to pound out a soggy and depressing victory to end a miserable season. Eli Manning injured his ankle and came out of the game during the win.
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