These past two weeks have been action packed for the AFC and NFC divisional rounds. The top teams of the NFL faced off against each other to secure spots in the Super Bowl. There have been many surprises in this fight for the title of best team in the NFL this year, and the battle is far from over.
To start, the wild card games took place on January fourth, fifth, eleventh, and twelfth. These games are played first and determines who plays the teams who were previously seeded higher and got a “bye”. This is when the team doesn’t have to play a round because they won enough games. In a way, they are seen as “overqualified” for the playoffs. The teams that had a bye for the wild card round were the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs from the AFC, and the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers from the NFC. These teams all had records strong enough to land them already a spot ahead of other teams in the tournament.
The actual wild card games were comprised of lots of action and surprises for different franchises. To start, the Houston Texans beat the Buffalo Bills by three points. This game came down to the wire, but an overtime field goal put the Texans into the next round.
Later that night, those who tuned in got to see the Tennessee Titans completely upset the Patriots, who were defending champions. The Titans beat the Patriots by seven in a 20-13 game. People were astonished by this performance. The powerhouse that the Patriots were fell to a team who had never even won a Super Bowl before.
Besides the major upset early on, the Titans even beat the Ravens in the second round. This was probably the most shocking, considering that the Ravens had a bye for being so impressive during the regular season. The Ravens fell short a whole fourteen points against the Titans in a 28-12 game. With the favorable team being the Ravens, including Lamar Jackson’s throwing and running abilities being what some consider to be the best the NFL has seen, it still was not enough to stop the might of the Titan’s defense. Not to mention the offensive power that Tennessee has with Derrick Henry’s running power.
On the other side of the bracket, things went as usual. Both the Minnesota Vikings and the Seahawks beat the higher seeded Saints and Eagles in the wild card round, but fell short to Green Bay and San Francisco in the second round. Aaron Rodgers pulled off a nice win against the Eagles and brought them into the NFC championship game against the 49ers. This will definitely be a great game, as we get to see Jimmy Garoppolo (back from injury) take on the veteran of all veteran quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers.
From the looks of the current playoff standings, it is clear that the Super Bowl will be one for the ages. With the first Super Bowl of the decade, the Titans are looking to bring home a Lombardi trophy. But if they want to they are going to have to battle it out against teams with actual history and trophies won. Next up is the Chiefs, and if they win that, they will play either the 49ers or the Packers.