The AFC wild card games were wrapped up Sunday night after 3 teams advanced, and 3 teams were sent home. The Jaguars, Bengals, and Bills will join the Chiefs in the AFC divisional round, while the Dolphins, Ravens, and Chargers will join the rest of the eliminated teams in the NFL at home.
All three of these games were decided by one possession when many thought that two out of three of these games would not be close. Looking back at my predictions for the AFC, I ended up going 2 for 3 in them only failing to predict the Chargers Jaguars game correctly.
For awhile, the Chargers Jags game looked like it would be a large rout by the Chargers as they were up 27-0 at one point. But this did not faze Trevor Lawrence and the Jags as after throwing for 4 interceptions in the first half, he threw for 4 touchdowns the rest of the game and a game winning field goal by Riley Patterson gave the Jags an amazing comeback victory over the Chargers.
Although it is not the largest deficit that has been came back from in the playoffs, it was one of the best comebacks I have ever seen. From throwing for four interceptions in one half and being down by four scores to completely dominating the second half and winning the game is an unbelievable thing to do. The Jaguars have had a crazy season and this game just was a small sample size of the crazy season they have had. They now head to Kansas City to take on the #1 seed Chiefs next Saturday.
The first game on Sunday of wild card weekend for the AFC was the Bills playing the Dolphins. Everyone including myself expected this to be a huge rout and the Bills would easily advance to the divisional round, but it was the exact opposite. The Bills went up 17-0 early, but the Dolphins came back and tied it and even took the lead at one point all with their third-string quarterback.
The Bills eventually pulled out of the game with a victory, but they played nowhere near their best football. We have seen glimpses this season of games where the Bills have not played their best football and this was definitely one of them. The defense was getting carved up left and right by a third-string quarterback and the offense had some explosive plays and if not for those plays, they would not be in the divisional round. They now host the Bengals on Sunday in the AFC divisional round.
The final game of the weekend was Sunday Night Football between the Bengals and the Ravens. This was another game where everyone thought one team would absolutely pummel the other, but again this was not the case. The Ravens without Lamar Jackson put up a valid fight, but their offense continued to be very anemic. They were two yards away from taking the lead over the Bengals in the 4th quarter until quarterback Tyler Huntley fumbled and allowed the Bengals to score a 98-yard fumble return touchdown. This touchdown would be the game-winning score as the Bengals won, 24-17.
The Ravens are an absolutely horrible team without their star quarterback, Lamar Jackson, and would be nowhere near a playoff team if he was out all season. If he leaves in the offseason, then the Ravens will have a very steep hill to climb with the quarterback position wide open. The Bengals now head to Buffalo in arguably the toughest environment in football next Sunday.
As a fan of the NFL, I loved watching these close intense games come down to the wire and hope that these types of games continue throughout the playoffs. It is much better when the underdog keeps the game close and the game isn't a rout. As all the division winners advance to the divisional round, we should definitely have another great weekend of games coming up next weekend.
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