Super Wild Card Weekend Recap: The Inheritance

Over 24 hours have passed, and I still feel like I'm in a wonderful dream.

It was Sunday, January 14, 2024, and the Green Bay Packers were heading to Arlington, Texas to face off against the Dallas Cowboys in one of the NFC's three Wild Card Playoff contests. As the game got closer to beginning, I was just drinking in this moment. Jordan Love is in his first playoff game. This is big. No matter what happens from this point, Love has more than proved that he's the man in Green Bay, and he had already exceeded expectations by simply playing in this game.

Despite this, Jordan Love decided to bring a wrecking ball with him and tear Jerry World down, brick by brick.

Love's first playoff drive ended with an Aaron Jones touchdown. No biggie, right? Then Dallas's first drive stalls. After Dallas gets the ball back, Dak Prescott throws an interception deep in his own end. Short field results in another Aaron Jones touchdown. 14-0. Again, better than 7-0, but still, no biggie, right? Then the Packers move down the field again. Extra point is no good, but that's literally the only mistake we make. 20-0! Dallas gets the ball back, Dak throws INT #2. This one gets taken to the house. 27-0! I'm stunned. I'm literally stunned!

The Packers kept the foot on the gas and it resulted in a 48-32 win. Mind you, it was actually 48-16 until Dallas got two touchdowns in garbage time! Who here saw this coming? If you say you did, you're lying. I sure as hell didn't expect this! We Packers fans were happy to be here. It wasn't a repeat of 2022, we didn't get spoiled and eliminated in the final week, we won on the final week and got in. I expected either a close win one way or the other, or the possibility that Dallas was going to flatten us. Instead, we tore Jerry World (AT&T Stadium) to bits.

This was history. Not only did Jordan Love get his first playoff win of his career, he and the Packers became the first #7 seed to win a playoff game since the NFL added an extra team back in 2020. You know what we witnessed? Remember when Aaron Rodgers owned Jerry World? This was Jordan Love receiving his inheritance from Rodgers. And here's a scary stat. With this win, the Packers have more playoff wins in Jerry World than the Cowboys. Yikes.

Speaking of the Cowboys, a lot of fingers are being pointed. Now, those of you who've read my stories know that I'm an immensely harsh Mike McCarthy critic, and admittedly, it's because I'm a bitter Packers fan who is still upset over how McCarthy's incompetence kept Aaron Rodgers from getting another ring. However, what I'm about to say will surprise you: I don't think McCarthy should be fired for this. Here's why. The time to fire McCarthy was either last year or the year before. If they can him this year, it'll really be for those past years. What happened on Sunday was not McCarthy's fault. It was an everything problem, though the main catalyst was Dak. Many Cowboys fans are done with him; they want him out and Trey Lance in. It's going to be an interesting offseason for the Dallas Cowboys.

Super Wild Card Weekend kicked off with the Houston Texans hosting the the Cleveland Browns, with CJ Stroud making his playoff debut, while the Browns had Joe Flacco, who was just days away from his 39th birthday. Both teams are having quite the dream season; the Texans locked up a playoff spot during one of Week 18's two Saturday games, a win over the Indianapolis Colts, and the following day saw the Texans lock up the AFC South when the Jacksonville Jaguars were defeated by the Tennessee Titans. As for the Browns, they locked in their first playoff appearance since 2020 weeks prior. This game was close; 10-7 lead for Houston after the first quarter, but once Stroud connected with Brevin Jordan for 76 yards, that ended up cementing Houston's control of this game.

Houston ended up winning this game, 45-14; their first playoff win since 2019. The Texans are playing with house money and it's working out so far. A surprise playoff appearance, an even more surprising division title, and a playoff win--all after winning only 3.5 games last season. As for the Browns, this was a good season, but a win was not in the cards for them. We'll see what next year brings.

The history continued later that evening, as we received the first Peacock exclusive playoff game in history: the Miami Dolphins facing off against the Kansas City Chiefs in a very cold Arrowhead Stadium. For Tyreek Hill, this wasn't his first game against his former team, but this was his first appearance back at Arrowhead. He did find the end zone in this game, but that would be the Dolphins' only positive for the whole evening. The Dolphins had literally no answer for the Chiefs, or for some of the calls that went against the road team that night. The Chiefs didn't really do much, but it was enough for a 26-7 win.

The rumors of the Kansas City Chiefs' downfall are closing in on being exaggerated. A lot of us though the Chiefs were headed for a sharp demise after a number of games in the latter 1/3 of the season didn't seem to go their way. However, the Chiefs' problems received so much attention that a lot of us forgot about the Dolphins' problems. Many pinpoint the shocking home loss to the Titans as the beginning of the Dolphins' downfall this season, and the true centerpiece was their AFC East loss to the Buffalo Bills...at home. This is very troubling. The Dolphins went from looking like worldbeaters in September and October to being exposed in December and January. They have a lot to fix during the offseason, but Tua is not one of the things that needs fixing. The man led the league in passing yards. Stop acting like he's a lousy QB.

This was quite the story. The Detroit Lions playing their first home playoff game in 30 years, and their first in Ford Field ever. It was against the Los Angeles Rams, whose quarterback is Matthew Stafford, who played a long time in Detroit and is still loved in Motor City. Stafford and Jared Goff were traded for each other, and regarding the former, he would win a Super Bowl in 2021. As for Goff and the Lions, the trade began the road to improvement, resulting in the Lions winning the NFC North this season. Everybody was amped up for this, and this game ended up being the lone nailbiter this weekend. The Lions were up by one very late, but when they got that last first down, it ended a 32 year drought.

January 5, 1992. That was the last time the Lions won a playoff game. I was six years old and in the first grade. Barry Sanders was with the Lions. The Simpsons was in its third season, as was Seinfeld, George H.W. Bush was the President, and a gas cost $1.13/gallon. On January 14, 2024, 32 years and 9 days later, the Lions won, 24-23, in their first playoff game at Ford Field. And get this. Thanks to the Packers' win over the Cowboys, the Lions will remain at Ford Field for the Divisional Playoff.

Sunday's Wild Card action was supposed to kick off with the Buffalo Bills hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers, but a bigtime winter storm forced the game to be moved to Monday. So we had two games on Saturday, two on Sunday, and two on Monday. Honestly, I expect this to be the norm for Super Wild Card Weekend, it's nice and balanced. Anyway, the game took place in the early afternoon slot on Monday, and it was all Bills from the get-go. It was capped off by a 54-yard touchdown run from Josh Allen, which had me wondering where this was during the season, as the Bills sputtered for most of the season.

Buffalo won 34-17, as the Steelers couldn't really bounce back after falling behind 14-0. I was hopeful that the Steelers could pull off an upset; after all, the Bills have developed a bit of a knack for falling apart when it counts. Even so, this was a great season by the Steelers: 10 wins when it looked like they would be done for late in the season, and they managed to still snag a playoff spot.

Though at least that Pennsylvania team actually tried. Can't say the same for this one:

Poor Eagles. They were absolutely decimated in the weekend's finale game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was a team who had been tripping all over themselves after starting 10-1. It really looked like there was a strong chance that they would again represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Then the remaining six games were played. Horrible missteps, bad plays, and even worse, hideous defense in all games played. A 1-5 stretch to end the season. This game was even worse. Nothing went right, and when I say "nothing," I mean not a damn thing. Even the Brotherly Shove was stopped. Yes, it was stopped, and there's the photographic evidence.

The Buccaneers won, 32-9, over the team who entered the season as defending champions of the National Football Conference. I've read some tweets blaming the Eagles' terrible stretch on the chest pounding of head coach Nick Sirianni after beating KC. In any event, the Eagles have a lot of work to do, as their offseason started much earlier than they expected and wanted.

And there is the updated bracket. I really love how screwed up the NFC is. The AFC has nothing but 10+ win division champions left. As for the NFC, other than the 49ers, there's a team who hadn't won a playoff game in over three decades, a team who won a piss poor division, and a team with absolutely no expectations (who also scored the most points during this weekend). Absolutely wild.

The Divisional Playoff starts on Saturday, January 20 with the Baltimore Ravens hosting the Houston Texans, followed by the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Green Bay Packers. Amazing. This Packers team is part of the NFC's Final Four, I'm so elated! On Sunday, January 21, the Detroit Lions will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the weekend will end with the third playoff meeting between the Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs and the Allen-led Buffalo Bills. This time, the Bills will play host, meaning that this will be Patrick Mahomes' first official road playoff game (not counting his three Super Bowl appearances).

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