NFL Wild Card Weekend Wrap: Bad Coaching, Worse Failures

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After the first round of the NFL playoffs, excitement, bewildering decisions, and a comeback for the ages. What just happened?

With the first weekend in the books, we need to look back and take note of what transpired. The NFL playoffs are the wildest of all postseasons. No series, just one game. As a result, every possession means the world to teams. Under those circumstances, the adage of ” playing a full sixty minutes” becomes vital. While many of these games held serve, the two biggest upsets occurred for similar but vastly different reasons.

The Unspooling Chargers

If you watched the first half of the Los Angeles/Jacksonville game, you would swear that the game was over. The Chargers beat the Jaguars from pillar to post. Racing out to a 27-7 league, the Chargers entered intermission riding high. Then, Brandon Staley decided to veer away from a century-plus of sound football thought: run the ball. For the next thirty minutes, Justin Herbert threw more passes than he should. Granted, the ball left Herbert’s hands, but the blame falls squarely upon Staley. Run the ball, making the Jaguars’ use timeouts, and tire out their defense with time-killing drives. Yet, none of that occurred. While Brandon Staley enjoys the support of his team, if Herbert wants to ascend to the next level, he needs to leave Staley far behind. In the NFL, blowing a twenty-point lead in the playoffs becomes the albatross for a coach.

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Now, the day after the Chargers’ collapse, we witnessed something that many predicted silently but wanted to hedge their bets. Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings won thirteen games and find themselves on vacation. We’ll get to Cousins later. First, the Minnesota Vikings’ defense collapsed, like they did all season. The Giants racked up 431 yards of total offense. Not to mention, the Giants converted seven of thirteen third downs, limiting Minnesota to 26:24 in time of possession. The defense let the offense down. With that said, Kirk Cousins did not rise to the moment. Nothing exemplifies the Vikings in this game more than the last play. On fourth and eight from their forty-eight-yard line, Cousins finds T.J. Hockenson for three yards. Expecting your tight end to catch a pass short of the sticks and expecting him to break a tackle while gaining five more yards is laughable.

Buffalo Worry

People see the Bills’ victory as a major plus. Now, a win is a win. Yet, why did the undermanned Dolphins give the Bills fits, losing by seven? For one thing, they miss Von Miller. Skylar Thompson did not play well, but he did enough to put Miami in a position to win. The Bills played frantically and were pressed by a team they should have wiped the field with. Those three turnovers help. Furthermore, how will this carry into the rest of the playoffs? Matt Milano needed to blitz more than he should. As a result, facing a Bengals team that can spread the ball around looks ominous. Life in the NFL starts with the ability to rush the passer. If the Bills raise the trophy at the end, they will have battled for it.