Prescott, Dallas face ‘expectations’
ARLINGTON, Texas — Old playoff foes Dallas and San Francisco haven’t met in the postseason since the last of three consecutive NFC championship games in the 1990s.
The wild-card meeting Sunday is the first step toward a Super Bowl instead of the last, with Dak Prescott and the Cowboys (12-5) trying to get that far in the playoffs for the first time since the year after their rivalry with the 49ers was the biggest thing going in the NFL.
Prescott was the starter from the beginning of his rookie season in 2016, leading Dallas to the top seed in the NFC before a loss in his playoff debut at home to Green Bay. Now he’s the $40 million-a-year quarterback trying to get the storied franchise’s long-awaited run going in his third trip to the postseason.
“I don’t necessarily know why people have labeled the word ‘pressure’ as such a bad thing honestly,” Prescott said. “I think it creates high expectations and high standards, and they usually create high results.”
Jimmy Garoppolo and the visiting 49ers (10-7) are two years removed from losing to Kansas City in the Super Bowl. They needed a tense victory at the Los Angeles Rams in the finale to qualify for the playoffs while the Cowboys cruised late in the season as NFC East champs.
“We know we have a chance to do something special and it’s just you don’t get that opportunity every year,” said Garoppolo.
EAGLES-BUCS: No one has had more success in the NFL playoffs than seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady, who says his focus is on trying to help Tampa Bay beat the Philadelphia Eagles and not a dazzling postseason résumé or how well he’s played at age 44.
The Bucs (13-4) set a franchise record for wins during the regular season, with Brady joining Drew Brees and Peyton Manning as the only quarterbacks in the past 30 years to lead the league in passing yards, touchdowns, attempts and completions.
With a career-best 5,136 yards — the third-highest single-season total in NFL history — and 43 TDs, the argument can be made that this has been his finest season.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was 3 years old when Brady made his first postseason start in 2001. Hurts, 23, is in his first year as Philadelphia’s fulltime starter. The Eagles have won seven of 11 games since losing to Tampa Bay 28-22 at home on Oct. 14, including four of the past five to earn the No. 7 seed in the NFC.
STEELERS-CHIEFS: Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger are brutally honest about the Steelers’ chances of advancing past the wild-card round of the playoffs, especially given the Chiefs humiliated them just a few weeks ago in Arrowhead Stadium.
You almost wonder whether the Steelers will even show up Sunday night.
But they need only look at their own postseason history to know there’s always a chance. The likely retiring Roethlisberger was a second-year pro in 2005 when the Steelers parlayed another wild-card berth into their most-recent Super Bowl triumph.
“We’re probably 20-point underdogs,” Roethlisberger said, “and we’re going against the No. 1 team that’s won the AFC the last two years — arguably the best team in football we don’t have a chance. So let’s just go in and play and have fun.”
Indeed, the Steelers (9-7-1) are playing with nothing to lose while the Chiefs (12-5) carry the weight of hefty expectations.
Not only have they won the past two AFC titles, they’ve been to the past three championship games, and they’re fresh off a record sixth West division title.
The organization that once went nearly three decades without winning a home playoff game has won five straight, thanks to a bevy of talent surrounding star QB Patrick Mahomes.