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Well, we had the weekend of the Elite Eight left in the league, which has now been narrowed down to just four teams.
A couple of surprises for me this weekend. The fact that the G-Men lost is not surprising. But getting hammered on the level that they did was a bit of a surprise, admittedly. Also, even though you could kind of see it coming, the loss by the Buffalo Bills this season really feels disappointing, and makes me wonder if they are actually going to be good enough to get to the Super Bowl. Something just keeps happening to derail their postseason each year. This time, it was just pure domination by the road team, the red hot Cincinnati Bengals.
Let's look at the games that just were played during the divisional round this past weekend:
Kansas City 27, Jacksonville 20 - Yes, I expected the Chiefs to win, but honestly, I thought that they might win a little bit more convincingly than this. They more escaped this one than bullied the Jags. Patrick Mahomes played on a twisted ankle, and that leaves a lot of questions about the game next weekend, and whether or not he will be one hundred percent. But he played through the pain here, and led KC to a tough victory, when it easily could have slipped away from them. That is what the best teams do, win when they are not playing their best. Travis Kelce looked incredible, of course. And Andy Reid knows these situations, and understands how to survive in games like this. He is not going to coach his 10th career Championship Game by accident, after all. The Jaguars deserve a lot of credit. They really ended the season as one of the hottest teams in the league, clinching the division title and a playoff berth along with it, obviously, just one season after being one of the worst teams in the league. They have some serious young talent, and clearly are building towards a bright future. They should be making some noise in the not so distant future. But this is the time for the Chiefs, who nevertheless got the job done, and now advance t a fifth straight AFC Championship Game. Again, a lot of question marks as they enter a week of preparation for that game, but they at least did just enough to win and get past a surprisingly tough Jax team here in this one. My pick: Accurate
Philadelphia 38, NY Giants 7 - I had expected a close game, and thought that the Giants - my favorite team - would have a real chance here in this one. Instead, they got hammered and humbled by the Eagles, who suddenly look as solid as they did at any point this season. Jalen Hurts looks like he's at or very near 100 percent, the running game looks dangerous and hard to contain, and the defense looks intimidating and imposing. New York had a good run to first qualify for the postseason, and then to beat the Vikings on the road for the first playoff win in over a decade for this franchise, but they simply had no answers in this one. The Eagles were just too good, and across the board. It was a decisive blowout, one that will sober the G-Men up, most likely. They may have made improvements, but there is clearly much work to be done to try and catch the two tormentors within heir own division: the Cowboys and especially the Eagles. Philly did everything right in this one, and it seems clear that the playoff bye obviously did them a lot of good. They look ready to make a deep run. My pick: Accurate
Cincinnati 27, Buffalo 10 - There was something about this match-up that made me feel uncomfortable. For full disclosure, I had picked the Bills as the team that I favored to win the whole thing back in August, and was still kind of hoping that they might prove me right. But they felt like they were running out of momentum this season ever since they had those back-to-back losses to the Jets and Vikings. Yes, they won their remaining seven straight games to finish out the season with a very impressive 13-3 record, and won the AFC East. Yes, they were the number two seed. But they did not seem o have a head full of steam and were not playing with quite the focus and intensity as they did when they opened this season up. They kept playing very tight games against AFC East opponents, and barely winning. Their offense did not look as explosive, and their defense did not look as intimidating or solid. And in the end, against a team that seems to have that sense of intensity and purpose that appears to have gone missing in Buffalo, the Bills just could not even really compete. I got home after work and turned this game on, and the Bengals were up, 14-0. The game was far from over, yet I got the sneaking suspicion that the Bengals were well on their way to victory. True, the Bills scored a touchdown, but the Bengals answered right back. And sorry, but that was a touchdown that they scored right before halftime, and Cincy got robbed. But it mattered little, because they simply were not going to be denied in this one. It was played in Buffalo, under cold and snowy conditions, which usually favors the hometown Bills. However, the Bengals feel like a team on a mission right now, and I would feel nervous having to play them. What a solid win, by arguably the hottest team in the league! . My pick: Inaccurate
San Francisco 19, Dallas 12 - Maybe this was not quite as high-scoring as I had expected the game to be. Yet in the end, the 49ers were able to wear down the Cowboys. They did not jump out to a surprisingly big lead like last year. In fact, the game seemed relatively even most of the way through. The teams were well-matched against one another. This was a real playoff game. Yet still, the 49ers did just enough things right when they had to do them, like that impressive catch by Kittle, which sparked the momentum on that fourth quarter drive to give the Niners a touchdown, and put them in the driver's seat. It is a game of inches, but that drive, and limiting the Cowboys to a field goal on the next possession, felt like it decided the game. Once again, the Cowboys come up short, failing to reach the NFC title game. Meanwhile, San Fran reaches it for the third time in the past four seasons, although this time, they will have to travel to Philly to take on the high-flying Eagles. . My pick: Accurate
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