Can wild-card winners maintain momentum in wild NFL season?
LOS ANGELES — Any time, any place.
That’s the mantra of the moment for the Atlanta Falcons, back in the playoff mix looking to take a different path to the Super Bowl as a sixth-seeded wild card. Next stop: Philadelphia, where the top-seeded Eagles await with a different identity of their own after a torn ACL prematurely ended the season for star quarterback Carson Wentz.
“We always talk about being road dogs,” Falcons linebacker Deion Jones told Paste BN Sports after Saturday night's 26-13 victory against the Los Angeles Rams. “So let’s pack up and do it again.”
The Falcons are undoubtedly seeking to finish the job after surrendering the biggest lead in Super Bowl history to the New England Patriots. But in the here and now, they are also angling for another type of history. Just six teams have won it all by taking the wild-card route, which means no bye week and almost certainly three consecutive road games. After the first round of the playoffs, maybe this is the wild season when it happens again.
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Not only are the defending NFC champions still in the hunt, but so are The Tennessee Titans (the fifth seed in the AFC) after erasing an 18-point halftime deficit at Kansas City to advance. That’s some prize for Marcus Mariota and Co. to draw a date in New England. But that’s playoff football. Maybe Mariota — so spectacular at Arrowhead Stadium — has some magic left.
The road teams won Saturday, the home teams held serve on Sunday. So bring on the rematches ... and maybe some fresh upsets.
A quick preview of the divisional round:
Falcons at Eagles, Saturday, 4:35 p.m. ET
After shutting down the NFL’s highest-scoring offense, the Falcons defense gets a matchup against a unit that isn’t quite the same with Nick Foles replacing Wentz. No, Atlanta’s offense doesn’t light up the scoreboard as it did last season with a league-high 540 points. Yet while Atlanta has averaged almost 12 fewer points this season, it has given up nearly one less touchdown per game, too.
Still, the Eagles will bank on their defense to provide a certain support network for Foles by keeping Matt Ryan and Co. in check. With Julio Jones and assorted other weapons, the Falcons are still plenty explosive. The last thing the Eagles need is to engage in a shootout.
Titans at Patriots, Saturday, 8:15 p.m. ET
Mariota’s first career playoff win, which helped save coach Mike Mularkey’s job, puts him head-to-head against Tom Brady. Even worse, TB12 and his crew might extract some extra fuel from the buzz generated by the ESPN report that illuminated apparent tension within New England’s house that could signal the beginning of the end.
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But first things first: The top-seeded Patriots have a chance to win a sixth Super Bowl with Brady, Bill Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft. We’ve seen this team respond to controversy in the past, like the Super Bowl crown after Deflategate was launched, another crown to cap the season that Brady served his four-game suspension and that perfect regular season on the heels of Spygate.
Now this. What a fine time for the Titans to visit.
Jaguars at Steelers, Sunday, 1:05 p.m. ET
Now do it again. In Week 5, the Jaguars went to Heinz Field and embarrassed Ben Roethlisberger, who had what was probably the worst game of his career with five interceptions, including two pick-sixes.
It was a coming-out party of sorts for Jacksonville’s defense, the type of performance that further legitimized a unit rising as one of the best in the NFL. That same crew paced the opening-round victory against Buffalo on Sunday, as Jacksonville forced two turnovers and won on a day when much-maligned quarterback Blake Bortles ran for more yards (88) than he threw for (87).
After his wakeup call in October, Roethlisberger jokingly questioned whether he still had it. Something’s there. Like each of the other teams hosting a divisional playoff, the Steelers won 13 games. The Jaguars will surely see a different Big Ben, who threw nine picks in his other 14 games this season and will surely be motivated to prove a point.
An even better barometer for the Steelers could be Le’Veon Bell. The versatile running back carried just 15 times for 47 yards in Week 5. In two playoff victories last season, he rushed 59 times for 337 yards. Sure, it will be difficult to run on the Jaguars, but trying just might be the ticket to advance.
Saints at Vikings, Sunday, 4:40 p.m. ET
So much has changed since they opened the season at U.S. Bank Stadium on a Monday night.
Sam Bradford was the Vikings quarterback who passed for 346 yards and three TDs, only to suffer a knee injury that set the stage for Case Keenum to become one of the biggest feel-good stories in the NFL. Dalvin Cook was the rookie running back who gashed New Orleans for 127 yards. Adrian Peterson wore a Saints uniform. And Sean Payton’s team was headed for yet another 0-2 start.
Two things haven’t changed. Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer still has a monster defense, ranked No. 1 in the NFL for fewest yards and fewest points allowed. And Payton still has Drew Brees, who demonstrated during Sunday’s win against Carolina that in the midst of the balance that has defined the Saints offense with the running of Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara, he can still bring his gunslinger game.
Still, for both teams, here comes the perfect litmus test to see just how far they’ve come.
After all, it’s not how you start, but how you finish.
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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell
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