NFL Wild-Card Weekend thread

Ovah. Start the firings.

 

Holy God, this team almost had the 1 seed

 

That turned around quickly.

 

Ok. Maybe the Bucs WON’T regret settling for field goals.

Eagles collapse complete.

 

All set up because you take a safety with the line of scrimmage being the 14-yard line

 

What could have happened inside this team that turned them into crap? Maybe they weren't as good as some were saying, but they were much better than this.

 

Hurts had three different chances to throw the ball away and just kept backpeddling.

 

I don’t want to feed whatever nonsense some of you have been on, but I’ll bite.

NFC East really were frauds. Cowboys beat up on bad teams and got bailed out by the refs against the one good, non division team they beat. And the Eagles folded the first time they got punched in the face by a legit team.

But next year we’re going to be right back listening to how good the Cowboys are and watching way too many NFC East teams on prime time.

 

Some of that is that they simply played better. The stronger team isn't going to be pressured into as many mistakes. Part of it was poor officiating. The Steelers last real chance ended when they missed a defender grabbing Pickens by the facemask, then by the waist before the ball arrived. Highsmith was also held a lot, but still, I don't think that was the difference.

The Steelers couldn't
The Steelers couldn't
The Steelers couldn't
The Steelers couldn't
The Steelers couldn't
The Steelers couldn't handle Josh Allen. The defense was just sloppy. They had blown coverages early and missed way too many tackles. Their offensive line didn't play nearly well enough, but part of that was being way too damn conservative. Too often, they were running on first and second down even though the Bills' run defense was better than expected. They didn't have any success until they started mixing that up, but they were already down by 14. They also failed to take shots deep, which made no sense. Maybe they tried the protection wasn't there, but Rudolph's strength is attacking down the field and he has playmakers in Johnson and Pickens. They needed to give them more opportunities to make big plays.

In other words, the Steelers' poor game plan and mistakes had a hell of a lot more to do with this loss than the officials.

 

Honestly, the FRAUD talk is just fun over-the-top babbling (except for Belichick, he really is a fraud @JC). but yeah, the NFC East did not show well. And between the built-in fan bases of the Cowboys & Giants and the Eagles only being two seasons removed from the Super Bowl, they will indeed be all over prime time next year.