Plenty of questions to be answered this weekend
The age difference among quarterbacks in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs is remarkable. NFC quarterbacks average 36.8 years old. Tom Brady is 43. Drew Brees is 41. Aaron Rodgers is 37. Jared Goff is 26. They have been to a combined 12 Super Bowls. Their combined records in the playoffs are 53-30.
In the AFC, it’s a different story. Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield are 25. Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are 24. Mayfield, Jackson and Allen earned their first playoff victories this past weekend. Even Mahomes, the defending Super Bowl MVP, will be starting only his sixth playoff game this weekend.
Those eight quarterbacks are at the center of many of our key questions for the divisional round, which begins Saturday afternoon at Green Bay:
--Can Jared Goff or John Wolford generate any offense at frigid Lambeau Field?
Wolford started over Goff in Saturday’s first-round win at Seattle because Goff was just 12 days removed from surgery on his throwing thumb. Then Wolford suffered a stinger in his neck and Goff had to enter the game, struggling to throw at first but improving as the game progressed.
It’s unclear whether Wolford can return for Saturday’s game at Green Bay. If not, whether the Rams can pull off the upset could depend on Goff’s ability to grip and throw the ball in cold weather. The Rams’ defense has been great, but they’ll almost certainly need the offense to play better than it has over the past few weeks to hang with the high-powered Packers.
- How will Aaron Rodgers fare against the best defense in football?
Rodgers’s first challenge will be getting the ball to Davante Adams, who is one of the NFL’s best wide receivers but is likely to see a lot of man-to-man coverage from Jalen Ramsey, the best cover cornerback in football. In one-on-one situations against Seattle star DK
Metcalf on Saturday, Ramsey held him to four catches and no big plays.
Rodgers also will have to deal with a defensive line that produces a ton of pressure - especially now that it appears star tackle Aaron Donald (ribs) should be able to play. But the lesser-known players on the Los Angeles defense are great, too, and the unit has the speed at linebacker to stop outside running plays and is exceptional when shifting to a two-deep zone that limits deep throwing opportunities. Rodgers is the likely league MVP, but he won’t have it easy in this one.
- Can the Bills contain the Ravens’ running attack?
Stopping the run isn’t a strength of the Bills. They ranked 17th in rushing yards allowed at 119.6 per game and 26th in yards per carry with 4.6. The Ravens are perhaps the best running team in the NFL, and they rushed for 236 yards in their 20-13 first-round victory over Tennessee.
Fueling the victory was Jackson, who led Baltimore back from a 10-point deficit to earn his first playoff win and did a lot of his damage on the ground. He had 16 carries, compared with 19 for his backs, finishing with 136 yards. The key play was his 48-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that tilted the momentum in the Ravens’ favor. The Bills have to find a way to contain Jackson, who was mostly efficient with his passing in Sunday’s win as well.
- Can Josh Allen afford any big mistakes against a good Ravens defense?
Allen, who was the NFL’s hottest quarterback entering the playoffs, earned his first playoff win Saturday as Buffalo held off the Indianapolis Colts. For the most part, he was excellent, throwing for 324 yards and two touchdowns against a good defense. But he nearly committed the type of huge mistake that he has often been guilty of in his young pro career: In the fourth quarter, he fumbled after trying to get out of a sack. The play resulted in a 23-yard loss after one of his linemen recovered the loose ball, but it came close to being a catastrophic turnover.