Ravens, Eagles battle way into playoffs
The playoff chase went down to the final minutes of the NFL season Sunday, when Baltimore squeezed in as AFC North winner, and defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia got some help to secure an NFC wild card.
That left Pittsburgh and Minnesota out.
Kansas City grabbed the AFC’S top seed, followed by New England, Houston and Baltimore. The Chargers own the first wild card and will play at the Ravens next weekend.
The winner of the Sunday night game between the Colts and Titans at Tennessee captured the other wild card and travels to Houston.
The Saints have the top seed in the NFC, and the Rams got the No. 2 spot when they beat San Francisco. Chicago, whose win at Minnesota knocked out the Vikings and put the Eagles into the post-season, is seeded third and faces Philadelphia next weekend.
Dallas is the fourth seed and will play Seattle.
C.J. Mosley intercepted a fourthdown pass by Baker Mayfield to preserve the Ravens’ 26-24 win as Baltimore (10-6) rushed for a season-best 296 yards.
A year ago, Baltimore missed the playoffs by losing its finale at home to the Cincinnati Bengals on a last-minute touchdown.
Steelers players remained on the field after they edged Cincinnati 16-13 and watched the drama from Baltimore on the videoboard. But their archrival Browns couldn’t help them against the equally hated Ravens, and unless the Indianapolis and Tennessee game ended in a tie late Sunday night, Pittsburgh (9-6-1) is out.
Nick Foles, who led the Eagles to the Super Bowl title over the Patriots last February, guided them to a resounding 24-0 victory at Washington. Then the Bears helped with a 24-10 win at Minnesota.
Earlier, the Texans rallied from losing their first three games to win the AFC South and will be the No 3 seed, hosting a wild-card contest next weekend. Houston (11-5) easily handled Jacksonville 20-3 Sunday.
The Texans finished last in the division in 2017.
Houston and Chicago have done the worst-to-first turnaround this season, making it 15 of the past 16 seasons at least one team has pulled that off.
“It’s do or die now, so you’ve got to put everything on the line now,” Texans QB Deshaun Watson said. “Prepare harder than you did before and anything can happen at this point. The tournament is wide open and it’s my first playoff, so I’m just excited to get in and see how things go.”
New England, meanwhile, will get a week off in early January for the 13th time since 2001, most in the NFL during that span.
The Patriots (11-5) routed the Jets 38-3, and because they beat Houston during the season, they get the bye.
“Eleven and five is nothing to be sad about,” Tom Brady said. “We put ourselves in good position.”