It was the best of weekends and the worst of weekends, with a pair of overtime classics dotted with controversy, a blowout, and a really sloppy near blowout. Everyone has their opinions (note to self, stay off Twitter) and they're welcome to them; here are mine.
Broncos 33, Bills 30. Rollercoaster is sometimes used to describe football games, and I'm not sure it even fully covers this one. Here the rollercoaster kept going even after the game was finally over. Because it was the best game of the weekend it was the most talked about and I want to discuss it without repeating things which have already been talked about a jillion times, although maybe that not be possible. But some thoughts.
Buffalo's running game was surprisingly dominant early. You hate to make too much of an early fumble but James Cook's lost one when it seemed they were on their way to 14-3 was a momentum-changer. Denver losing Pat Bryant was also pivotal; he was featured and you started to wonder how they were going to move the ball at all with him out (replacement Lil'Jordan Humphrey dropped a touchdown, bouncing back with a key catch later). Besides the receiver injuries (with Troy Franklin also leaving) and Evan Engram continuing as a nonfactor, Denver doesn't appear to have a running back they trust to actually carry the ball. Personnel, Sean Payton; this is a team with offensive deficiencies across the skill positions.
Josh Allen turnovers were huge, as was his missed throw to Dawson Knox on the tying field goal drive that could have been a game-winning touchdown. But he also made the throw in OT, it seemed, to set up the winning field goal. But Bo Nix made more remarkable throws late, including the go-ahead touchdown at the end of regulation and a couple others prior to the controversial pass interference (the second one to set up the field goal; the first one didn't matter because of a roughing the passer flag that would have had the same effect). To me, it was like every close playoff game: lots of close calls and near-misses and whoever lost was going to have beef about something. Meanwhile Denver wishes they'd ended the game a few minutes earlier before Nix broke his ankle. Anyway, they'll be talking about this one for a while.
Seahawks 41, 49ers 6. Ugly mismatch that started literally from the opening kickoff. Nothing like returning a kick 95 yards for a touchdown to lower the stress level from a quarterback dealing with an oblique injury. But the big story was Seattle's defense, again, putting the clamps on whatever San Francisco tried to do. At no point were things competitive. Sweet touchdown throw from Sam Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba one offensive highlight. Another was Kenneth Walker showing how the committee with Zach Charbonnet had held him back all season. What a game.
For San Francisco, well, things ended with a pretty hard thud. Brandon Aiyuk is gone. George Kittle has an injury that he won't necessarily be healthy from in 2026. Christian McCaffrey is a year older. (I mean, we all are, but still.) Ricky Pearsall can't stay healthy, their other wide receivers are just guys at best, I don't even remember if Jauan Jennings also has a contract situation, but not a difference-maker regardless. And all their key defenders are coming off injury. At least there wasn't any controversy in this one.
Patriots 28, Texans 16. Maybe this game would have gone differently if Nico Collins was playing. Or if Dalton Schultz didn't get hurt early on. Or if it weren't snowing, or if Houston didn't have some offensive line injuries, etc. Somehow this game was 21-16 early in the fourth quarter despite all of Houston's giveaways. But C.J. Stroud throwing 4 interceptions, including a couple of wildly inadvised rainbows while the pass rush was all over him, was going to be hard to overcome regardless. Were Houston's defense not as good as it was, the game wouldn't have been close, and even that defense had a couple of critical breakdowns along the way to offset Drake Maye and the offense not doing very much. Not a pretty game to watch, though I guess Patriots fans have few complaints. Nice game for Rhamondre Stevenson. Rough stat line for Woody Marks; the offensive line can take some heat, with it being a liability much of the season and definitely yesterday.
The Texans had an all-time defense, and I think they've got a couple of nice offensive pieces in Nico and Jayden Higgins. But the line needs help, it can be debated whether Marks is a legit lead running back, and that was a rough postseason for Stroud. When the announcers are openly discussing a switch to Davis Mills in the Divisional Round, that's not particularly encouraging. And if nothing else, Houston needs to win more games in the regular season to get that game at home. As for the Patriots, they followed up what seemed to be a very favorable regular-season schedule with kind of a charmed life in the playoffs: broken Chargers offense, struggling Stroud and now Denver's backup quarterback.
Rams 20, Bears 17. After a couple of less than great games, this was a thriller, with regulation capped by one of the more amazing fourth-down touchdowns I've seen. Back-pedaling 20 yards, chased by two pass rushers, heaving up that ball that looked like a Hail Mary until it landed in his open receiver's hands...our jaws dropped. It was the best throw I've seen since Williams 4th-down conversion to survive Green Bay last week. Stunning. I haven't ready any post-game stuff so I don't know if Ben Johnson gave any thought to going for 2 there, but the extra point happened quickly enough that, apparently not. I guess going to overtime made sense, particularly with Chicago just a few minutes removed from not getting into the end zone on four plays near the goal line, but it was worth thinking about. In overtime, the Caleb Williams interception can be debated as to who was most at fault. Definitely wasn't a good route or effort by DJ Moore. But Williams threw 3 picks on the day, so not gonna act like he's without blame here.
Fantasy wise, the game was lower-scoring and with lower numbers than desirable from pretty much everyone, as could be expected from conditions. Rams showed a little more trust in Kyren than Blake, Bears favored Monangai in passing situations. Broadly, when a team with a young quarterback loses a playoff game you tend not to feel as badly as when that guy is getting older, a la Josh Allen, so I assume Bears fans feeling OK today.
That's the Divisional Round, and we've got a Final Four that was not unexpected. What's a little unexpected to me are the early point spreads, with New England favored by 5.5 at the Jarrett Stidham-led Broncos and the Seahawks favored by only 2.5 against the Rams. In both cases it feels like the home teams are being underestimated. We'll preview both here this week, at length, but those are my initial thoughts.