So the Wildcards are over and the Divisional rounds are approaching. I thought I would take a look at all the Wildcard games separately and analyse each team's performance. We shall start with the AFC games.
Bengals @ Texans - Texans win 31-10
Two teams meet in the Wild-Card round of the playoffs who are both surprises here. First we have the Houston Texans, a team who in their entire franchise history has never made the playoffs before this season, and we have the Cincinnati Bengals, who made it into the playoffs as the 3rd AFC North team. Both these teams had big seasons for different reasons - the Texans finally didn't have to deal with Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts winning out the division, and their defence evolved into one of the elites of the League. On the other side we have the Bengals, who under the arm of Rookies Andy Dalton and the speed and ability of A.J. Green played a magnificent season.
Everybody was uncertain on the ability of T.J. Yates, the Texans 3rd string quarterback, if he could help his team to their first playoff win in their first appearance. But Yates delivered, going a respectable 11/20 for 159 yards with a touchdown to Andre Johnson. Yates done his part and now it was up to the run game of Arian Foster and Ben Tate, a dynamic duo, and the new vaunted Texans defence to stop the solid play of the Bengals. Early in the first this didn't seem to happen though, and the Bengals went down the field (aided by a 52 yard defensive interference penalty on Strong Safety Glover Quinn), and the big back Cedric Benson punched it in for a Bengals score. But that would be the end of it, as the Texans would dominate the game from there on in. Andy Dalton finished up 27/42 for 253 yards and 3 interceptions and the Texans won through on the legs of Arian Foster who went 153 yards on 24 carries for a Touchdown, and the hands of Defensive Lineman J.J. Watts, and the Bengals fall in the first round. The Texans go on to face the Baltimore Ravens this weekend.
Steelers @ Broncos - Broncos win 29-23
This was a game that was to many a foregone conclusion. The Broncos led by QB Tim "Tebowtime" Tebow, a quarterback who has a wildly inconsistent arm, against the first-ranked defensive unit in the league - The Pittsburgh Steelers. The Broncos, who had a 7-game winning streak after Tebow was put in as the starter for the request of the fans, kicking Kyle Orton out in the process..and the Steelers, on the back of a solid 12-4 season, but were besieged by injuries on both sides of the ball.
The game started out as many had expected. The Steelers drove down the field but were stopped by that strong Broncos defence twice and forced to kick field goals, but the Broncos offence wasn't going. The run game was stalled and Tebow hadn't connected on a single pass by the end of the 1st quarter, and the Broncos had only 8 yards on offence. But then suddenly, Tebow throws two long-bombs down the field and the Broncos are suddenly ahead 7-6. What follows is a complete collapse by the Steelers defence and Tebow playing the best football of his career. After running in a touchdown himself, and driving up the field (helped by a Ben Roethlisberger interception), the Broncos end up the half ahead 20-6. Wow, what a turn around!
The Steelers would manage to come back in the 2nd half though with two Touchdown drives of their own, and both teams would kick field goals to end out the 4th quarter tied 23-23. Steelers had a chance to win the game off a long field goal, but the Broncos defence came up strong and forced a sack and pushed the Steelers well out of field goal range.
The new overtime rules for Playoffs are thus: each team will have a chance to possess the ball unless the following occurs: the first team scores a touchdown, the defence at any time scores a touchdown, or if both teams kick field goals on their first possession, the first team to score afterwards of any kind wins the game. Many were excited to see the new overtime rules in action but this wasn't to be so. On the first play from scrimmage, Tim Tebow throws to Demaryius Thomas, who beats Cornerback Ike Taylor and runs 80 yards for a Touchdown. Game over. Tim Tebow finishes up the day 10/21 for 316 yards and two Touchdowns with no picks. Ben Roethlisberger finished up 22/40 for 289 yards with 1 Touchdown and 1 interception.
Demaryius Thomas in the end had 4 catches for 204 yards and 2 touchdown catches. What a great game for him!
And yes, my beloved Steelers were thus kicked out of the playoffs. =[ But hats-off to Denver who played a great game on the day. I hope they do well next week against the New England Patriots.
I will follow up with the NFC games in my next post. I hope to see you all then!
:( boo broncos.
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