Vikings and Jaguars join Eagles, Patriots in dramatic style
Here are the 20 things we learned from what was a wild and classic NFL Divisional Round playoff weekend:
1. Among the NFL’s “Final Four,” the Patriots have five Super Bowl victories, while the Jaguars, Eagles and Vikings have combined for zero.
2. The Vikings, trying to become the first team to play a Super Bowl on its home field, are already the first club in NFL history to reach a conference championship game during the same season its stadium serves as the Super Bowl site.
3. The Eagles want us to buy in heavily – if not literally – to the Vikings. But they really want Vegas to invest. Philadelphia is now 4-0 as a home underdog in the Super Bowl era.
4. Since 2015, the Vikings have held a lead of 10 or more points in 29 games. They are 29-0 in those games... thanks to Stefon Diggs’ 61-yard walkoff TD in Sunday’s shocking defeat of New Orleans.
5. The Saints’ stunning loss came six years to the day of their divisional playoff collapse in San Francisco, when then-49ers TE Vernon Davis caught the game-winning TD with 9 seconds left in a 36-32 thriller.
6. The Jaguars’ 45 points Sunday matched the most ever surrendered by the Steelers in their long and illustrious playoff history and the most ever allowed in Pittsburgh. The only other team to hang 45 on the Steelers in postseason was Dan Marino’s Dolphins in the 1984 AFC Championship Game. Surprisingly, those 45 points represent just the second-best playoff output in Jags history. They exploded for 62 in the 1999 divisional round – ironically, Marino’s final NFL game.
7. Jacksonville will be making its third appearance in the AFC Championship Game. The previous two came when Tom Coughlin, who’s in his first year as the club’s executive vice president of football operations, was the head coach.
8. The Jaguars are one of four franchises to never reach the Super Bowl. They’re just one win away from membership revocation in a club that also includes the Browns, Lions and Texans.
9. It’s not always pretty – and many pundits and fans are already lining up candidates to replace Blake Bortles next season – but Jacksonville’s quarterback now has a 2-0 playoff record. The combined postseason ledger of some notable potential replacements – Alex Smith, AJ McCarron, Kirk Cousins, Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford – is 2-9, with both wins earned by Smith (2-5). Bradford has never taken a team beyond the regular season.
10. The Jags are 1-3 all-time in postseason against the Patriots, including a loss in the 1996 AFC Championship Game at old Foxboro Stadium. The last playoff game New England lost prior to the Bill Belichick era was a 25-10 defeat to the Jags in the 1998 wildcard round. Coughlin was Jacksonville’s coach. Pete Carroll was New England’s. Jacksonville is now 2-0 all-time against Pittsburgh in postseason. The Jags are the only team to win twice in Heinz Field in the same season and have now done it twice (2007, 2017).
11. The Jags beat the Bills, coached by Sean McDermott, in the wild-card round. Sunday, they vanquished Mike Tomlin’s Steelers. McDermott and Tomlin were college teammates at William & Mary in 1994. (Neither was recruited by Alabama.)
12. Jaguars Pro Bowl CB A.J. Bouye did not surrender a touchdown pass in his first 17 games this season. But he was beaten for two scores Sunday by Steelers all-pro receiver Antonio Brown. Be interesting to see if Bouye’s confidence wavers at all against Tom Brady next weekend.
13. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger became the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to have 400 yards (469) and five TD passes in a playoff game. He’s the only passer in postseason history to lose despite throwing five TDs.
14. After rushing for 109 yards and three TDs in Sunday’s win, Jags rookie RB Leonard Fournette has scored five times and averaged 145 rushing yards in two games at Pittsburgh. Against the rest of the league, he totaled eight TDs and averaged 70.5 rushing yards in 13 games (including playoffs).
15. The Eagles and Jaguars could meet in the Super Bowl one year after both finished in last place in their respective divisions.
16. Belichick broke a tie with Hall of Famers Tom Landry and Don Shula by coaching in his 37th playoff game Saturday night, most in NFL history. Belichick also extended his own record by notching his 27th postseason victory. Brady also extended a record, picking up his 26th playoff win, 10 more than any other quarterback in league history. At 40 years, 163 days, he also became the oldest QB credited with a postseason victory.
17. While Brady has 26 playoff wins, the other remaining quarterbacks (Bortles, Philadelphia’s Nick Foles and Minnesota’s Case Keenum) have combined for four – three coming this weekend.
18. Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski has 10 TD grabs in 11 career playoff games.
19. New England has 12 sacks in the two games OLB James Harrison has played. The Patriots averaged 2.5 per game prior to Harrison’s arrival.
20. A season-long struggle to approach last year’s offensive fireworks ultimately doomed Atlanta in the postseason. In the 2016 playoffs, the Falcons averaged 420 yards and 36 points, far superior to this year’s average output (302 yards, 18 points). Considering how well the defense played Saturday and over the past seven weeks, when it only allowed 16.1 points per game, the Falcons will really have to consider another change at offensive coordinator given Steve Sarkisian’s inability to remotely replicate what Kyle Shanahan did with a largely unchanged cast of players.
(USA Today/TNS)