The wild card games of the NFL ended where there were no major surprises, except for San Francisco against Dallas, so the favorites practically went to the divisional round with relative ease.
The day began with the Cincinnati Bengals hosting the Las Vegas Raiders, who advanced to the Wild Card Round in dramatic fashion in what was undoubtedly the game of the year on that last Sunday night of the season where in overtime , and with the clock at zero, Daniel Carlson hit a field goal to leave the Los Angeles Chargers lying on the field.
Cincinnati dominated with its explosive offense led by NFL sensation Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase. A game where the locals always had control until the end where they stopped any hope of the Raiders by intercepting Derek Carr on the last play.
It is important to mention that Cincinnati was the team that had the longest time without winning a Postseason game, 31 years without winning a Playoff game. That streak was snapped last Saturday with a 26-17 victory over the Raiders.
The second game of the day looked like a very close game between the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots. We were disappointed by those led by Bill Belichick, who didn’t even put up with a tremendous beating of 47-17 for the locals where we saw a mark never seen before. The Buffalo Bills scored on all of their offensive drives, with no turnovers, no punts, and no field goals, that is, on all of their offensive drives they scored touchdowns, something that had never been seen in NFL history. Watch out for Buffalo, he’s up for big things.
On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers began the day by receiving the Philadelphia Eagles, where those led by Tom Brady swept the weak visiting team with a score of 31-15. It is impressive to see the level of Tom Brady’s game at 44 years of age!
Later, it seemed like the game of the week between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers, on paper, the most even game of the day which disappointed us a lot with a completely lost Dak Prescott. In the end the 49ers won easily with a score of 23-17 with a ridiculous last minute play by the Dallas QB, the bear of the week.
To end the day, the Kansas City Chiefs received the Pittsburgh Steelers in what was a true massacre of those commanded by Patrick Mahomes, crushing their rivals 42-21, in what was the last game as a professional in the future hall of the fame, Ben Rothliesberger.
To close the day in the Monday night game, the Los Angeles Rams easily prevailed over the Arizona Cardinals, another division game that promised a lot, but in the end it was a little more of the same that we saw the end of the week with a bulky score of 34-11 in favor of the Los Angeles squad.
It was not the weekend we expected, but with this increase in teams in the Wild Card Games, it is normal for these types of matches and scores to take place.
We’ll see what happens this weekend with really exciting matches that we will see in the Divisional Round.
