Wild Card Weekend Recap: What Happens Now?

I think I figured out why I love Wild Card Weekend so much. It's because it's the first playoff anything of the calendar year. The NFL season starts in the fall, and once upon a time, the champion was crowned either on or slightly before New Year's. The evolution of the NFL schedule has resulted in the playoffs starting just into the New Year, and currently, the final week of the season falls on the first weekend of the New Year, with Wild Card Weekend coming a week after that. So yes, chronologically, the NFL's Wild Card Weekend serves as the first playoff anything of the calendar year.

The NFL Wild Card Playoff has served as the opening round of the playoffs since 1978, putting this round in its 48th year. This is the sixth year that the round consists of six games after the addition of the seventh seed in each conference. So here's a look at how each of the games fared (in chronological order):

Rams @ Panthers

I had a feeling that this would be a wild one. A lot of eyes were on this game, which kicked off Wild Card Weekend. The Los Angeles Rams and the Carolina Panthers facing off in a rematch from about a month prior, and the looming question was hanging. Could the Panthers do it again? Could lightning strike twice in the same place? The fans in Charlotte were excited. Playoff football was in the Queen City for the first time in a while. The game was back and forth and going sorts of directions. Both teams played well. The Panthers showed out. But the Rams did just a few shades better.

The Rams got the payback and won 34-31, bringing Carolina's dream season to an end. For those who say an 8-9 team shouldn't be in the playoffs, well, you didn't see how they played. Carolina came very close to taking down the powerhouse. They have a lot to be proud of. As for the Rams, they're in full force, and they are dangerous as hell.

Packers @ Bears

You know, strangely, this doesn't hurt as much as others I've seen. Yes, we were up 21-3. Yes, we had this won. Yes, we fell off in the fourth quarter. But at least Jordan Love, as usual, played his ass off. So did Caleb Williams. Of course, Packers fans are all over the place, because of course we are. All I've heard is "Fire LaFleur, fire LaFleur, fire LaFleur." Why? If I had to play percentages, I'd put only about 6% of this on the coach. The other 94% is on McManus and the defense, and out of that chunk, I'd say it's 55% on the kicker, and 39% on the defense. Brandon McManus missed seven points on Saturday. Two FGs and an extra point. That ended up being the difference.

So the Bears won their version of the Super Bowl, because we know they won't get to the real one. As the #2 seed, that means they will host the Divisional Playoff. But back to the "Fire LaFleur" crowd. Say we do fire him? Who do we get? Who's out there? Do not say John Harbaugh. I do not want that idiot anywhere near the Packers. He ruined Lamar Jackson's prime for years. I don't want him ruining Jordan Love, too. So yeah, there's not much out there, plus, LaFleur is still getting it done.

Bills @ Jaguars

Sunday's tripleheader began with the Jacksonville Jaguars hosting the Buffalo Bills, and regarding the latter, I've said this before: this is Josh Allen's easiest chance to get to the Super Bowl. There's no KC, there's no Cincy, and there's no Baltimore. To borrow the words of WWE's evil Women's Intercontinental Champion, Becky Lynch, "It's not just me saying it. Others are also saying it." But as I said before, I don't trust Josh. No one should, yet people make excuses for him when he chokes every year. With the Jags at home, I expected the Jags to win this, and I expected Bills fans to find another excuse, and as depraved as they are, I knew what they'd blame, or rather who: Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Allen's wife. That day was the Golden Globes, and Hailee was at the event. Trust me, Bills fans are so delusional and depraved, that a Bills loss would have seen them blame Josh's better half.

However, thankfully, it would not come to that. The Bills picked up a 27-24 victory on the road, which is rare for that group, because they haven't won on the road in the playoffs. Josh Allen had a pair of rushing TDs; the second one coming with barely over a minute left. As for Trevor Lawrence, his chance at a clutch drive ended quickly with a bad interception. This, IMO, was a wasted season. 13 wins, best they've done in forever, yet they lose like that at home. Holy moley.

49ers @ Eagles

The focus was supposed to be the fact that this Wild Card matchup, the last NFC game of the weekend, was contested between the last three NFC Champions. Eagles were in Super Bowls LVII and LIX, winning the latter, and those appearances sandwich the Niners' appearance in Super Bowl LVIII. The Niners scored first, but the Eagles tied it up. Well, they would have if Jake Elliott had made the extra point. Even so, it seemed like the Eagles would play just well enough to get away with it, yet again, only for Christian McCaffrey to give the Niners the lead. Eddy Pineiro missed the PAT, but it didn't matter.

The Niners won 23-19, dethroning the Eagles. This was a case of Jalen Hurts being surrounded by morons, and there are four main ones who stand out. The aforementioned Elliott, yes, but also Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo as well. There's one more idiot on that team, and that's AJ Brown. The same AJ Brown who did nothing but complain about not getting the ball--in games they were winning. Yet what did he do on Sunday? Drop the ball... literally and repeatedly. Ugh. What an absolutely shitty way to get dethroned, and with that, the Niners are off to Seattle.

Chargers @ Patriots

Sunday's triple dip ended with the New England Patriots hosting the Los Angeles Chargers, and this was ugly. I actually had the Chargers pulling off the upset, but they couldn't do a thing. Not a single thing. The Chargers blew an easy opportunity at points early in the game, and it ballooned from there. The Patriots didn't have to do much of anything. They sacked Justin Herbert six times in this game. Drake Maye did just enough to get the job done.

A 16-3 victory for the New England Patriots, their first playoff victory since Super Bowl LIII against the Los Angeles Rams. As for the Chargers, it's back to the drawing board, as they are still looking to win a playoff game for the first time since 2018.

Texans @ Steelers

Ugh. Blech. Yuck! Remember that bad third quarter by the Packers in Saturday's game. If that quarter was extended to a full game, you would get what we saw from the Steelers. I refrained myself from saying what I'm about to say a week ago, because I was very happy with the fact that they won the AFC North on the last day of the season, on the last game of the season. But because of the absolutely disgusting display I just saw only a few hours ago, I'll come out and say it: the Steelers were lucky for a good bit of this season.

Steelers should have won this game. CJ Stroud lost two fumbles in this game. He hadn't lost a fumble all year, but he lost two, and Pittsburgh's defense had three takeaways overall. Yet they couldn't capitalize on them. Steelers led 3-0 after one and trailed 7-6 at halftime. The offense died right there. After a scoreless third, Houston's defense worked overtime. Houston scored three TDs in the fourth quarter, and two of them were scored by the Texans defense. A 30-6 victory for the Houston Texans.

The drought continues. The Steelers haven't won a playoff game since the 2016 AFC Divisional Playoff against the pre-Mahomes Chiefs. This was their first Monday Night loss since October 1991, when Chuck Noll was still their head coach. Seven straight playoff losses, with this loss being the third one at home and the sixth one by double digits. And even worse: the Texans hadn't won a road playoff game until this year. And worse than that, this has brought out the wannabe White supremacists who want Mike Tomlin fired solely because he looks like me. Oh boy.

And then, there were eight. The Divisional Playoff is all set, and on Saturday, January 17, it kicks off with the Denver Broncos, the AFC's top seed, hosting the Buffalo Bills on CBS. After that, the Seattle Seahawks, the NFC's top seed, have a third meeting with the San Francisco 49ers, and that airs on Fox. On Sunday, January 18, ABC and ESPN will the other AFC game, the Houston Texans in Foxboro against the New England Patriots, and after that, the weekend concludes in Chicago, as the Bears host the Los Angeles Rams on NBC.

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