Divisional Round table defined
The Pittsburgh Steelers visited the Kansas City Chiefs in the last of three games of Sunday’s Wild Card Round action, getting annihilated for the second time this season against that opponent in that venue.
The Steelers scored first, via a defensive play by star T.J. Watt, but that came before Patrick Mahomes took the game for good, leading his Chiefs to an easy victory over the bottom seeds in the American Conference.
The 42-21 result only confirmed Ben Roethlisberger’s pregame statement that “we probably shouldn’t be here”.
With the Chiefs’ win, the American postseason picture was completely defined.
In Saturday’s action, the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 26-19 to clinch the first available ticket to the next round.
Cincinnati, which won for the first time in the playoffs for the first time since January 6, 1991, will travel to Nashville to meet the top-seeded team in the AFC, the Tennessee Titans. Cincy has not met Tennessee in the current campaign.
The visit of the Bengals to the Titans will be played next Saturday 22, at 15:30, Central Mexico time. This is the first game we will see in the Divisional Round.
On the other hand, on the same Saturday night, the Buffalo Bills showed no mercy to the New England Patriots with a categorical 47-17 thrashing at Highmark Stadium, thanks to a great performance by quarterback Josh Allen, who threw five touchdown passes in a first-rate performance.
The Bills’ win over the Patriots sends the Buffalo team to the Arrowhead for the Divisional Round. The Bills already beat Kansas City in the regular season.
The Bills and Chiefs will kickoff their matchup on Sunday, Sunday 23, at 5:30 p.m. Central Mexico time.
The National Conference defined its first crossover after the surprise victory of the San Francisco 49ers over the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday afternoon. The second crossover was defined in a historic “Monday Night Football” between the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams.
The Niners defeated Dallas on the road to secure their ticket to the next round, where they will face the National Conference’s No. 1 seed, the Green Bay Packers, who enjoyed their bye week.
The 49ers will be looking for revenge for their Week 3 loss to the Packers, 30-28, at Levi’s Stadium, although now the setting will be the icy Lambeau Field in Green Bay. This game will kick off at 7:15 p.m. Central Mexico time on Saturday 22nd.
Jimmy Garoppolo did not look very accurate in his passes, however, Elijah Mitchell and Deebo Samuel shined in the ground attack with touchdown carries and kicker Robbie Gould was accurate in his field goal attempts.
With this result, the No. 2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who earlier in the day easily beat the Philadelphia Eagles, await the winner of the first “Monday Night Football” in the history of the playoffs, the Rams.
Tom Brady came up big with two touchdown passes and running backs Giovani Bernard and Ke’Shawn Vaughn also contributed touchdowns, while the defense constantly harassed Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, notching multiple interceptions.
The Cardinals suffered a tragic collapse from the opening kickoff of their visit to the Rams on MNF, falling behind to a Rams offense that got an explosive Cam Akers back in the backfield.
There was a scary moment during the game when safety Budda Baker was left lying stiff on the field late in the third period after colliding with Akers. He was removed immobilized and taken by ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation.
The Bucs lost to the Rams in the first month of the regular season. Their next game is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday 23, Central Mexico time.
The winners of the Divisional Round games will face each other a week later in the Conference Championship Games, with both games scheduled for Jan. 30 at times to be determined.
Super Bowl LVI will crown the NFL champion on February 13 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
