“Super” Wild Card Weekend, as the opening burst of postseason action now seems to be commonly known, should by default be both “super” and “wild,” and last year’s version wasn’t much of either.
This season’s offering might have been heading the same way – a bit of a dud – until suddenly, dramatically, it turned into a barnstormer of a weekend, a rip-roaring feast of football, full of choke jobs and comebacks and much-discussed moments, magnetized to drama all the while.
What happened was a showcase in how postseason football is supposed to work. Faced with the galling prospect of elimination and an earlier-than-hoped start to those empty offseason months, even outmatched teams are supposed to leave it all out there, empty the playbook, exhaust every bit of imagination and trickery and courage in the pursuit of survival.
And that’s how it went.
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Jacksonville did it, ferociously storming back from a 27-point hole, aided by nerve-shredding fourth downs and a two-point conversation. And also helped no doubt by Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley being unable to impart any energy or urgency into his group, meaning their season slipped away in extraordinary – but also very Charger-like – fashion, to the devastation of their long-suffering fans.
“We’ve put ourselves in a hole at times, and we’ve worked ourselves out of it,” Jags head coach Doug Pederson told reporters. “Just to have the resiliency and the fight and the desire and the ability to continue to play, because it easily could have gone the other way.”
It could indeed, but the epic revival in Duuuuuval County served to set the tone. After Saturday’s opener had seen the San Francisco 49ers run away with things later following a bold first-half push by the Seattle Seahawks, you could be forgiven for wondering at halftime of the Jaguars/Chargers clash if this was going to be just like 12 months ago.
’49ers looked like a team who could win it all’
Daryl Johnston and Joe Davis speak on San Francisco’s win over Seattle.
Back then, a series of thumpings took the heat out of the start of the postseason, with Kansas City and Buffalo both racking up huge wins before going toe-to-toe the following week, and the Rams winning big over Arizona to begin an ultimately fruitful Super Bowl run.
Not this time. The collective margin of victory in January 2022 was 103 points across the six games. This year, going into Monday night’s Buccaneers/Cowboys blockbuster, it is 36 from five, and the Niners clash was closer for long stretches than the final outcome suggests.
On Sunday, another potentially lopsided outcome turned into anything but. With Josh Allen having marched the Bills into a 17-0 lead over the Miami Dolphins, it looked over. It should have been over. Miami, entering the postseason having lost five of six, and with Skylar Thompson under center, was toast.
Yet football’s fickle ways were at play once again. Buffalo couldn’t stop turning it over, Miami head coach Mike McDaniel was buzzing with fresh ideas, and the Dolphins surged all the way back to take the lead, before falling by three, left to lament some poor clock management from McDaniel in the late moments.
It was a trend by now. Ebbs and flows, the team trailing always seeming to find a way to stay in contention and the leader unable to close things out.
Had the New York Giants not had an interception overturned while leading Minnesota by 10, that game, too, could have become a one-sided waltz. Instead, it went to the wire as well, New York holding on despite a laughably soft roughing the passer call benefiting Kirk Cousins, before the Big Blue eventually held on defensively through the final drive.
‘Daniel Jones played the game of his life’
Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen on the Giants’ QB leading them to victory.
By the end, the football gods were getting the picture. As Sunday night rolled around, there was no point angling for a blowout (and why would you?). Cincinnati and Baltimore was tit-for-tat the whole way through, and if Monday night’s action in Tampa is to follow suit, we are in for a treat.
We’ve been spoiled already, the kind of thing that leads to positive thought, a suggestion that these playoffs are going to be blindingly good. Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Dak Prescott and Jalen Hurts haven’t even been spotted yet, but things are bubbling already.
Lesser lights carried the torch on the first two days. Brock Purdy, Sam Hubbard, Zach Sieler, Dean Marlowe, Isaiah Hodgins and Foyesade Oluokun were among those to influence outcomes and comebacks, to a gameball-worthy degree.
Amid all the freneticism, it seems almost a surprise to consider than there was only one upset in the seedings, and the Giants beating the Vikings was a popular pick in any case.
It was a football bonanza, appropriate for a postseason where the initial matchups – and the potential meetings to follow – were mouthwatering from the start.
Billing something as “super” is bold. If you’re calling it that, it had better live up to the hype. This time, over and over, it categorically did.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.
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