Odds and Endzones: Wild Card Round

I’ll dispense with my bitter grumblings about the Green Bay Packers not being in the playoffs, but just assume my attitude throughout this and all future 2017 playoffs posts.

If I was only going to watch one half of the a Kansas City Chiefs-Tennessee Titans game, I wish I would have chosen the second half. I turned it off at halftime, when the Chiefs held a 21-3 lead. But…

I will say that Chiefs fans have very good reason to be angry at the refs. It was a terribly officiated game and several big, game-changing calls went against Kansas City. Chief (heh) among the head-scratchers: the Chiefs sacked Titans’ quarterback Marcus Mariota while he was standing in the pocket, forced a fumble, and recovered -- but the refs blew the play dead because of “forward progress.” Huh??

Then, in the fourth quarter, the Titans were down 21-16 when they scored a touchdown, making it 21-22, and they went for two. The Chiefs again sacked Mariota, forced the fumble, recovered the ball, and returned it for their own two-point score!! Except that the refs CALLED THE EXACT SAME THING, saying that Mariota’s “forward progress” was stopped. Oh, and like the previous call, it’s not reviewable (though far, far less egregious). So instead of 23-22 Chiefs, the game ended at 22-21 Titans. In both instances, the refs blowing the whistle too early took two legitimate fumbles away from the Chiefs. Normally with bad calls you say you don’t really know how the game would have turned out if if they had been called correctly, etc., but I think it’s pretty fair to say that the Chiefs definitely would have won if both -- or even one! -- of these calls have been correct.

Normally, I’d rub it in because the Chiefs are such an easy target, but I do actually feel bad for them because they got robbed, so I won’t.

I doubt Marcus Peters was feeling this way toward the refs by the end of the game.

#FootballisFamily pic.twitter.com/SLlLNDRsFb
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) January 6, 2018

Kansas City deserves some of the blame in that they gave Kareem Hunt, the league’s leading rusher on the season, only five carries the entire second half!!

Oh well! One of the weirdest and coolest highlights from Tennessee’s comeback was Mariota’s touchdown throw to … himself. How weird is that?! (Interesting rule detail that I didn’t know before: the passer's "entire body" has to be past the line of scrimmage for it to be an illegal forward pass, which is why Mariota's pass to himself counted.)

With starting running back DeMarco Murray out with a knee injury, Titans’ backup Derek Henry did more than okay -- he rushed for 156 yards and a touchdown!

The Atlanta Falcons dispatched the young whippersnapper Los Angeles Rams 26-13. Julio Jones was just six yards shy of having a triple-digit receiving day. Did you know that his name is not Julio?? His name is actually Quintorris Lopez Jones. Huh. He’s a very good receiver, as you can see here when he catches Todd Gurley.

The Rams’ head coach Sean McVay once beat out Calvin Freakin’ Johnson for the Georgia State Player of the Year. (He has the good grace to be embarrassed about it.)

Atlanta running back Devonta Freeman really wanted this touchdown, but his offensive lineman Alex Mack wanted it more, and he made sure Freeman got in.

(I’m going to say something stupid: I think the Falcons are going to win the Super Bowl. Because I never learn.)

I was really happy for the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars making the playoffs, but not so much when I had to watch a game that featured both of them. Jacksonville knocked out Buffalo 10-3, and the game wasn’t as interesting as the score makes it sound.

I think I deserve credit for working a second Gone with the Wind gif
into a football blog in the same season.

Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles had more rushing yards (88) than passing yards (87)!! IN A PLAYOFF GAME.

But, hey, he's making $19 million next year, so I guess the joke's on us.
Or, more accurately, on the Jaguars.

Also, have we discussed that there ain’t no way in hell this guy is 25 years old?

Listening to Tony Romo trying to be nice while watching Tyrod Taylor and Blake Bortles quarterbacking was probably the most entertaining part of the game.

The single, lone highlight of the game came on Aaron Colvin’s interception. What concentration!

I so wanted the Cinderella story for the Bills, but maybe they can try again in another 17 years.

The New Orleans Saints won, but I am so wildly impressive with the Carolina Panthers’ defense holding them to just 41 yards rushing! (Sure, sure, the 376 passing yards by Drew Brees sorta offsets that, but still… they held a team that has Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram to 1.9 yards a carry.)

Why wasn’t the late Carolina interception reviewed?? Aren’t all turnovers reviewed? Wasn’t that a big thing a few years ago when they said all scores and turnovers would be reviewed? I thought it was incomplete. The Saints, up 31-26, decided to go for it on 4th-and-2, and Drew Brees threw an interception. It would have been better for the Panthers if they had not intercepted, because it set them back about 16 yards from where they would have been if the Saints had turned the ball over on downs. BUT it looked to me like the Carolina player might not have had possession on the interception (it was ruled an interception and then a fumble), but who knows because they didn't review it!! No one know what the hell a catch is anymore, but the refs are definitely sure that's an interception?

The refs didn’t improve on the Panthers’ final drive, calling a controversial intentional grounding penalty when Cam Newton may or may not have been outside the pocket. The call meant a 10-second runoff AND a loss of downs. Ouch.

I am very bummed that Carolina’s exit means that I won’t get to watch dreamy Luke Kuechly until next season. I don’t know, Luke, maybe with your newfound free time we could, like, hang out or something?

Not a great week for the NFL fans who have weak stomachs when it comes to watching men’s brains get churned into mush. Travis Kelce, Tyrod Taylor, and Cam Newton all took big, big hits (none dirty) that had them stumbling unawares on national television. Mercifully, neither Kelce nor Taylor was allowed back in the game. (Though Taylor’s injury came on the last Bills drive of the game, so who knows if they would have tried to get him back in.) Newton, however, conveniently "cleared" the concussion protocol before the Panthers' next drive. Despite what the announcers tried to say, that wasn't an eye injury.

Seattle recently was fined $100,000 for violating the concussion protocol. Cam Newton came back in, threw a touchdown, and brought the Panthers to within five seconds of winning a playoff game -- I’m sure Carolina would be more than happy to pay $100k for a postseason victory. You want teams to take care of their players, but the Newton situation is a perfect example of why they don’t. They wouldn’t have had a chance at the win with Derek Anderson.

I don’t really have any feelings on Jon Gruden’s 10-year, $100 million coaching contract with the Raiders. I will say no other announcer would ever pull up a highlight clip on his cell phone and then hold the phone up to the camera, though, so I can appreciate his flair.

My other thought is that, with Gruden gone, who could we get to take his place on the Monday Night Football broadcast????

There are so many changes going on with the Green Bay Packers, and I don’t know if I can handle it!! I like stability!! Ted Thompson has moved to an advising role, and they’ve promoted Director of Player Personnel Brian Gutekunst to GM and promoted Russ Ball to Executive Vice President/Director of Football Operations. We still need a DC though!

The Packers lost Senior Personnel Executive Alonzo Highsmith to the Cleveland Browns, where he’ll reunite with former Green Bay scouting director John Dorsey. Highsmith enjoys a respected reputation with both players and other NFL executives. He was viewed as one of the possible options to replace Ted Thompson as GM, but Highsmith apparently didn’t think that was likely, saying of Cleveland: “It feels good to go somewhere that you feel like you're trusted.”

There are a lot of shake-ups going on around the league. The Chicago Bears have hired the man behind that smoking Alex Smith offense in Kansas City, and the Detroit Lions beat out other teams to hire the defensive coordinator of a team known for having a dreadful defense. Thank God for the NFC North!

8 new playoff teams usually would mean 'wow, there’s a lot of parity in the league!' But really it means, 'wow, a lot of stars got injured this year.'

Here's every team's playoff chances through the season. Hmm, what happened after Week 5 for the Packers??

This year, it’s Super Bowl LII, but I think we should call it Super Bowl Lil’ and see if it catches on.

I still haven’t decided which team to lend my considerable support to this postseason. Let’s roll through the remaining options:

Minnesota Vikings

FOR: The Super Bowl is being held in their hometown, which is pretty neat; they’re really, really talented.
AGAINST: It’s the Vikes, so lol obvs no.

Atlanta Falcons

FOR: I love Julio Jones; I like Matt Ryan, despite his weird ostrich neck; they’ve never won anything; people keeping on being mean to them about last year.
AGAINST: Are you kidding me? After what the way they choked last year? Hell no!

Philadelphia Eagles

FOR: Carson Wentz seems really great.
AGAINST: Carson Wentz will not be involved.

Tennessee Titans

FOR: Did you see Marcus Mariota’s adorable apology to the media because he was in a bad mood after losing?? Tennessee is a cool state, I imagine; Titans haven’t had anything nice happen to them in a while.
AGAINST: They’re obviously going to lose at the first opportunity when the refs aren’t constantly screwing over their opponent.

Pittsburgh Steelers

FOR: My grandfather’s favorite team; Antonio Brown is really good; I’m becoming a JuJu Smith-Schuster fan; Le’Veon Bell is good; I trust them in playoff games.
AGAINST: I’ve always hated their colors -- who thought yellow and black would look good? The AFC North just kinda bothers me; I still haven’t quite gotten over the Ben Roethlisberger-being-a-rapist thing.

Jacksonville Jaguars

FOR: Aww, so happy for them! Glad they’re not a joke anymore; their defense is very good and fun to watch; the half-matte helmets are cool and should become a thing.
AGAINST: They are still a joke with Bortles; Jalen Ramsey is as obnoxious as he is talented; their offense is honestly painful to watch.

New Orleans Saints

FOR: Alvin Kamara + Mark Ingram.
AGAINST: I think the whole come-back-from-a-devastating-hurricane-to-win-the-Super-Bowl-and-everybody-loves-Drew-Brees Cinderella plot story has kind of played out; head coach Sean Payton seems like a real jerk.

New England Patriots