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Buffalo Bills 31 Pittsburgh Steelers 17
So the Bills jumped ahead early, scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter to take a 14-0 lead. Quarterback Josh Allen threw the two touchdowns to tight ends Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid, respectively. They added another touchdown in the second quarter with Josh Allen breaking free for a record 54-yard touchdown run, the longest of his career.
At that point, everything appeared to be going swimmingly. Buffalo was up, 21-0. They seemed to be capitalizing off Pittsburgh mistakes and turnovers.
Then, the momentum seemed to turn in favor of the Steelers when a field goal attempt that would have given the Bills a 24-0 lead was blocked instead. Pittsburgh capitalized, scoring a touchdown just a few plays later to get within 21-7 by the half.
The Steelers kept that momentum for most of the second half, also. In fact, they pulled to within 24-17 early in the fourth quarter, and seemed to be in position to possibly make it really scary for the Bills.
However, Josh Allen found wide receiver Khalil Shakir in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown catch late in the fourth quarter, which effectively put the game on ice.
Statistically, the two teams were relatively even, with the Bills enjoying the advantage in some of the key areas. The Bills hung onto the ball for 368 yards and 24 first downs to 324 and 22 first downs for the Steelers. Buffalo held onto the ball for a bit over 33 minutes. But perhaps the most glaring difference was in turnovers. The Steelers committed two turnovers, while Buffalo had none.
As a result of this win, the Bills now advance to the divisional round. They will host the Kansas City Chiefs next Sunday.
My pick: Accurate
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32, Philadelphia Eagles 9
Well, the Eagles looked suspect to many people late this season. They were one of the very few teams in league history to start off amazingly well, after racing off to a 10-1 start, only to follow that up by getting pretty much ice cold the rest of the way. It started with them getting crushed at home against the 49ers in a highly anticipated match-up, then getting blown out the next weekend at Dallas. It all went downhill from there, as Philly won only one game in their last six regular season games.
Then they added this final loss in the postseason last night, just to complete the collapse. The only team that I can think of who could compare was the New York Jets, who raced out to a league best 10-1 start in 1986, only to lose their final five regular season games. But at least they recovered on time to beat the Chiefs in the Wild Card Game, and then pushed the Browns to overtime in the divisional round, before being eliminated. This Eagles team, by contrast, just seemed to dig themselves a deeper and deeper hole.
Remember, last season, the Eagles went to the Super Bowl, and very nearly won it. When they raced out to that very impressive 10-1 start, many of the pundits seemed to think that they were the best team in the league, and had a real chance of reaching the Super Bowl again. But their poor play towards the end saw them sink from the top seed in the NFC all the way to the fifth seed, and very quickly. Then yesterday, they seemed to play an uninspired game. Jalen Hurts looked like a shadow of the quarterback he seemed to be last season and even earlier this year. And the defense looked simply atrocious, with shoddy tackling that kept allowing Bucs receivers to gain considerable extra yardage, and sometimes - too often, frankly, touchdowns.
In short, the Buccaneers dominated this game. They both created and capitalized on their scoring opportunities better and more frequently than the Eagles. They got hot towards the end of the season. Indeed, this felt like a game where the two teams were going in completely opposite directions.
With the win, the Bucs now advance to the divisional round, where they will travel to Detroit to take on the Lions in the Motor City next Sunday.
My pick: Accurate
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