Wildcards get NFL playoffs underway

The National Football League playoffs kicked off last weekend with the wildcard matchups, with all the seeded teams making it through to this weekend’s divisionals.

Denver Broncos, New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans and New York Giants came through to join Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens, who enjoyed a bye to this stage.

The pick of the matches was the Broncos’ 23-29 overtime triumph against last year’s losing Superbowl finalists, the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow added to his regular-season form of late-game heroics with the fastest ending of an overtime in NFL history.  In a scintillating 11-second play, Demaryius Thomas exploited some slack coverage to collect Tebow’s pass and run 80-yards for the touchdown.

An explosive second quarter from Tebow had given the Broncos a 6-20 half-time lead, but he was otherwise anonymous until his killer overtime pass to Thomas.  Though the Steelers dug deep in the second half to tie at 23-23, they looked sluggish both in offence and defence, sorely missing their injured players; too often veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s passes were hindered by weak protection.

Elsewhere, two of the NFL’s best offences went head-to-head, with the New Orleans Saints getting the better of the Detroit Lions 28-45.  In the Lions’ first playoff appearance since the 1999 season, they led 14-7 in the second quarter, when a Saints fumble was initially called as an incomplete pass.  This prevented what looked a certain touchdown return and, at 21-7 up, who knows where the Lions could have taken the game.

However, although they went in behind at half-time, Saints preserved their regular-season undefeated home record with a relentless second-half offence.  Quarterback Drew Brees maintained his impressive form, but it was with the rushing power of Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles that the Lions were crushed.  Despite general good play from quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Calvin ‘Megatron’ Johnson – the latter chalking up 12 receptions and two touchdowns – several key missed interceptions hampered the Lions’ cause.

A closely contested game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Houston Texans ended 10-31 to the Texans.  That winning margin was facilitated by three crucially intercepted passes thrown by Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, foremost of which saw Houston’s rookie defensive lineback J.J. Watt complete a sparkling touchdown return.  The Texans were steadier over the course of the game and closed out the win.

Finally, what was expected to prove an even match-up between the Atlanta Falcons and the New York Giants ended in a comprehensive 2-24 win for the Giants.  The Falcons had the slightly better regular-season record, but the late-season surge that had seen the Giants qualify so narrowly for the playoffs was extended here as their big players stood up to be counted.  Giants quarterback Eli Manning eventually came to command what was initially a rather scrappy affair, and his wide receivers secured the necessary touchdowns.

Going into this weekend’s divisional round, both the Broncos and the Giants will have to step up a gear in matches against more ruthless opposition – the Patriots and the Packers respectively.  Similarly, the Texans travel to Baltimore to play the Ravens, against whom they have a terrible record.  The Saints, who will travel to San Francisco to play the 49ers, probably have the best shot of all the wildcard qualifiers – having extended their winning streak to nine games – but have never won a postseason game on the road.