Things I Noticed: Wild Card Round

The postseason opens with the Wild Card round, featuring the third and fourth seeded division winners hosting the two Wild Card teams.  While that may seem obvious to most football fans, yesterday I stood in line waiting for lunch for 20 minutes behind a young couple that clearly could not figure this out.  The guy actually thought the Texans were a Wild Card team because they were playing this weekend.  His girlfriend was nearly as lost, but seemed to know more than he did.  Anyway, I figured it was worth explaining, even though if you're reading a sports blog, you probably knew this already.

Denver, New England, Atlanta and San Francisco earned a bye this week for being the top two seeds in their conferences.

For the other teams that qualified for the playoffs, but not a first round bye...

Here are some things I noticed this week:

Bengals at Texans

• Matt Schaub's first career playoff start (262 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT) was as underwhelming as his play over the past month has been, but he did just enough to help the Texans get a win.

• Arian Foster became the first player in history with 100+ yard rushing games in first three career playoff games. His 425 rushing yards in his first three career playoff games is a league record.
• Schuab was the only QB in the league that didn't run for a first down all season, but picked up one on a QB sneak at the end of the first quarter.
• Leon Hall undercut the route on a poorly thrown pass from Schaub and ran it back for a pick six to give the Bengals their first (and only) lead of the game.  This was the 4th straight game with defensive TD for Bengals.
• Andre Johnson dropped a ball in the end zone on third down, forcing the Texans to settle for FG to end the half.  All three of the Texans scoring drives stalled short of the end zone, forcing them to settle for field goals, but they still took a lead into halftime that they would not surrender.
• The Bengals had -6 passing yards at halftime, when factoring in sacks.  Dalton completed only 4 of 10 passes and 2 of those completions went for negative yardage!  The rest of his day would get slightly better, but that's not saying much.  He finished with only 127 yards while completing only 14 of his 30 pass attempts.  He also failed to lead a single TD scoring drive for the offense.
• Cincinnati is the first team since the 2007 Chiefs to have negative passing yards in the first half of a playoff game.
• Houston could have stopped the Bengals on 3rd and long and gotten the ball back with the lead and only four minutes left, but they gave the Bengals new life with a pass interference penalty.  Yet the Bengals failed to take advantage, turning the ball over on downs when a completion on fourth down came up short.  In that situation, with the game on the line, you just can't throw the ball short of the marker unless the receiver has a clear path to a first down.
• Houston wins 19-13, advancing to the next round to face New England - also known as the place the Texans were so thoroughly embarrassed last month that is caused the rest of their season to unravel.  So they can't be feeling all that confident about a trip back to Foxboro.

Vikings at Packers

• These divisional foes split their season series against each other, with the Vikings holding onto the final playoff spot by beating the Packers last week.  The rubber match between them puts to the test two highly kept theories: never bet against Aaron Rodgers in a playoff game and never bet against Adrian Peterson... at anything... ever.
• Christian Ponder warmed up before the game, but was ruled inactive just prior to kick-off.  Joe Webb, who hasn't thrown a pass all season, gets the start.  This is either horrible news for the Vikings chances, or terrifying for the Packers.  I can't decide which.  Just know that Ponder was dreadful in the second half of the season, rating as one of the league's worst QBs after play making receiver Percy Harvin was lost for the season.  Meanwhile Webb is athletic enough to make plays in ways Ponder can't, even if we aren't totally sure if he's capable of completing a pass.  Hey, Tim Tebow won a playoff game last year with a similar skill set, right?
• Webb is making a habit of throwing the ball up for grabs to try to avoid a sack as he's being pulled to the ground.  That's not a good sign.  It's led to a couple of near INTs and an intentional grounding penalty.
• Not trusting the leg of Mason Crosby,  the Packers go for it on 4th and 5 rather than chance a 52 yard FG.  It results in a 32 yard pass to Greg Jennings to set up a goal to go situation inside the Vikings 2 yard line.  JerMichael Finley drops a pass in the end zone and Green Bay ends up settling for a chip shot FG.  At least Jennings helped get the Packers into Crosby's range.  I mean, not even Crosby could miss from 20 yards away... right?  Ok, sigh of relief as he makes the kick, putting the Packers up by seven, and they never looked back.
• Down two TDs in the second half, the Vikings needed to keep the Packers out of the end zone to stay in the game.  They stopped them on 3rd down to force Green Bay into a 33 yard FG attempt (hardly a given considering how Crosby's season has gone), but a 12 men on the field penalty gave the Packers a first down.  Aaron Rodgers threw a TD pass on the next play to seal the win.
• Webb's day looks slightly less awful thanks to a garbage time 50 yard TD pass to Michael Jenkins.  That play accounted for nearly a third of his yardage on the day, which is fitting since he barely completed a third of his passes.
• Webb may not be able to throw like Ponder (on second thought, he wasn't really that much worse), but he did show what he can do with his athleticism by rushing for 68 yards.  He spent much of the afternoon running for his life in the backfield, getting sacked three times, but on a few plays he managed to slip away from the defenders to make a big play with his legs.
• The Packers finally managed to contain Adrian Peterson.  After AP put up 409 rushing yards against them in their two regular season meetings, they held him to only 99 yards in this game.  Ok, so that's still a great game for most running backs, but Adrian Peterson is not most running backs.
• Green Bay wins 24-10 and travel to San Francisco next week to face the 49ers.  Now if only Green Bay had taken care of business like this against the Vikings in Week 17.  Then this game against the Niners could have taken place in Green Bay instead.

Colts at Ravens

• Arguably two of the weakest teams in the postseason, but with two of the best stories.  Intangibles are hard to measure (hence why they call them intangibles), but the Colts came in riding the Chuckstrong wave, while the Ravens were fueled by Ray Lewis playing in his last career home game.
• The Colts got coach Chuck Pagano back in last week's regular season finale, but lost offensive coordinator Bruce Arians to an illness of his own for the postseason opener.  Arians led the Colts for most of the season while Pagano recovered from Leukemia, but was hospitalized prior to the game.  According to Colts sources, he is going to be just fine, but unfortunately the Colts offense wasn't fine without him.

• Baltimore made this game all about Lewis and he didn't let them down, leading the team with 13 tackles.  Playing in his first game since tearing his triceps in an October 14th game, Lewis hardly missed a beat in his return.  The only moment where he showed any signs of rust is when he bobbled and dropped a sure INT that could have swung the momentum of the game early.
• Andrew Luck looked like a jittery rookie making his first career postseason start early on in the game.  Wait, you mean he is a rookie making his first career postseason start?  It's sometimes hard to remember, given that Luck was practically anointed into the Hall of Fame upon being drafted into the league, but it should be expected that he would need some time to settle down in this game.  Eventually he did, looking much better in the second half.  Sadly, his team didn't step up with him.
• Luck was pressured all game by a blitzing Baltimore defense and his offense line struggled to keep him upright.  He was hit 10 times, sacked three times and pressured on what seemed like nearly every play.
• Anquan Boldin set a postseason franchise record with 145 receiving yards, including the game clinching TD.  His first catch didn't come until the third quarter, but went for 50 yards on the longest gain of the day for Baltimore.  Joe Flacco threw it high and deep into double coverage, but the ball somehow landed in the arms of Boldin.
• Ray Rice (15 carries, 70 yards) was decisively outplayed by his backup, Bernard Pierce (13 carries, 103 yards).  He also lost two fumbles in the game, after not losing a fumble all season.  He did at least salvage the disappointing performance with a 47 yard catch off a screen pass that brought the Ravens all the way down to Indy's 2 yard line to set up their first TD of the game.
• Luck has made a habit already of clutch performances, but any hopes of a dramatic comeback in this game were derailed by mistakes by his receivers.  Colts receivers dropped a handful of passes on their final two drives alone, while Luck just missed a long TD pass to LaVon Brazil when the rookie receiver slowed up at the end of his route and attempted to make a leaping catch instead of running hard to catch it in stride.
• Baltimore wins 24-9.  Ray Lewis joins the offense on the field for the game's final kneel down so that he can reenact his intro dance one last time on his home field.  You have to wonder, once his playing career is over, will he continue to use that trademark dance?  Will it only be on special occasions or will he just use it anytime he enters a room?  Anyway, he'll get at least one last chance to show it off next week in Denver.

Seahawks at Redskins

• This game featured only the second playoff match up between two rookie QBs ever.  Last year the Texans started TJ Yates against Andy Dalton and the Bengals, but Yates was just a fill in for the injured Matt Schaub.  This game was started by two rookie QBs that led their teams to the postseason.
• Wearing a bulky brace to protect his injured knee, Robert Griffin III was a far cry from his usual self as he limped around the field.  He took a hit early in the game that seemed to bother the knee even more and prevented him from being much of a running threat.
• With the benefit of two healthy legs, Russell Wilson out played his fellow rookie (187 passing yards, 1 TD, 67 rushing yards).  Eight of Wilson's ten INTs this season came on the road this season, but he didn't turn the ball over at all against the Redskins.  In fact, after a rough start to the season on the road, Wilson played well and didn't throw an INT in his last three regular season road games.
• Seattle had the chance to take a lead in the third quarter, but Marshawn Lynch fumbled at the 1 yard line.  He still ended up with a big game (131 rushing yards) and would later redeem himself with a 27 yard TD run in the 4th quarter that gave Seattle their first lead of the game.
• It was a valiant effort, but RGIII's knee finally gave out mid-way through the 4th quarter.  After a fumbled snap, RGIII's knee buckled as he attempted to scoop up the loose ball, causing him to collapse in a heap.

• Mike Shanahan will be scrutinized for his decision to leave RGIII in the game as long as he did.  That's not to say that he was wrong to let him start the game, but by the second quarter it was clear that he was playing injured and he was struggling to run the offense effectively.  The Redskins gambled by leaving him in the game and it may have cost them when RGIII injured the knee again late in the game.  Not only did an injured RGIII give the Redskins less of a chance to win, but what if he ended up tearing his ACL and missing next season?  He suffered that injury once in college and after the game was unable to confirm that he hadn't done it again.  When you get to the postseason you want to do whatever it takes to win, but you just can't gamble with the health of your best young asset like that.
• It's never a good sign when Dr. James Andrews paces along your sideline with a look of concern on his face as he watches your quarterback run on one leg.
• Seattle took over at Washington's 4 yard line after recovering the fumble.  The Redskins defense managed to keep them out of the end zone, but the chip shot field goal essentially put the game out of reach.  Seattle went up 10 with less than six minutes remaining and RGIII sidelined for the rest of the game.
• Kirk Cousins came in to relieve RGIII, but couldn't handle the Seattle pass rush and turned the ball over on downs before crossing mid-field.
• Seattle has been a below average team on the road (3-5 in the regular season), but get a big road win in Washington, 24-14.  Now they'll travel to Atlanta to face the top seeded Falcons.  That should be an interesting match up - a team that struggles on the road traveling to face a perennial postseason underachiever that may not be quite as good as it's record suggests.