Saints, Jaguars advance
Falcons, Titans also will hit road for playoffs’ second round
LOS ANGELES – Any time, any place.
That’s the mantra of the moment for the Atlanta Falcons, back in the playoff mix and looking to take a different path to the Super Bowl as a sixthseeded wild card.
Next stop: Philadelphia, where the No. 1-seeded Eagles await with a different identity of their own after a torn ACL ended the season for star quarterback Carson Wentz.
“We always talk about being road dogs,” Falcons linebacker Deion Jones told USA TODAY after a 26-13 victory against the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday. “So let’s pack up and do it again.”
The Falcons are undoubtedly seeking to finish the job after surrendering the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history against the New England Patriots, but in the here and now they are also angling for another type of history.
Just six teams have won a Super Bowl by taking the wild-card route — with no bye week and three consecutive road games. After the first round of the playoffs, maybe this is the wild season when it happens again.
So bring on the rematches … and maybe another round of upsets. A quick preview of the divisional round. Falcons at Eagles, 4:35 p.m. ET Saturday After shutting down the NFL’s high- est-scoring offense, the Falcons defense gets a matchup against a unit that isn’t quite the same with Nick Foles replacing Wentz at quarterback. No, Atlanta’s offense doesn’t light up the scoreboard as it did last season with a league-high 540 points. Yet while Atlanta has scored an average of about 11 points fewer this season, it has given up about one less touchdown less per game, too.
Still, the Eagles will bank on their defense to provide a certain support network for Foles by keeping Matt Ryan and Co. in check. With Julio Jones and assorted other weapons, the Falcons are still plenty explosive.
The last thing the Eagles need is to engage in a shootout.
Titans at Patriots, 8:15 ET Saturday
For an encore, Marcus Mariota’s first career playoff win — which undoubtedly helped save coach Mike Mularkey’s job — puts him head-to-head against Tom Brady.
The top-seeded Patriots have a chance to win a sixth Super Bowl with Brady, Bill Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft. We’ve seen this team respond to controversy in the past, such as the Super Bowl crown after Deflategate was launched, another crown in the season that Brady served his four-game suspension and that perfect regular season on the heels of Spygate. Jaguars at Steelers, 1:05 p.m. ET Sunday
Now do it again. In Week 5, the Jaguars went to Heinz Field and embarrassed Ben Roethlisberger, who had the worst game of his career with five interceptions that included two pick-sixes.
It was a coming-out party of sorts for Jacksonville’s defense, the type of performance that further legitimized a unit rising as one of the best in the NFL. That same crew paced the opening-round victory against Buffalo on Sunday, as Jacksonville forced two turnovers and won on a day that the much-maligned Blake Bortles ran for more yards (88)
than he threw for (87).
After his wake-up call in October, Roethlisberger jokingly questioned whether he still had it. Something’s there. Like each of the other teams hosting a divisional playoff, the Steelers won 13 games. The Jaguars will see a different Roethlisberger, who threw nine picks in his other 14 games this season — and will surely be motivated to prove a point.
Still, an even better barometer for the Steelers could be Le’Veon Bell. The versatile running back carried just 15 times for 47 yards in Week 5. In two playoff victories last season, Bell rushed 59 times for 337 yards. Sure, it will be difficult to run on the Jaguars. But trying just might be the ticket to advance. Saints at Vikings, 4:40 ET Sunday
So much has changed since they opened the season at U.S. Bank Stadium on a Monday night. Sam Bradford was the Vikings quarterback who passed for 346 yards and three TDs, only to suffer a knee injury that set the stage for Case Keenum to become one of the biggest feel-good stories in the NFL. Dalvin Cook was the running back who gashed New Orleans for 127 yards. Adrian Peterson wore a Saints uniform. And Sean Payton’s team was headed for yet another 0-2 start, with a defense that had yet to develop an identity as a force.
Two things that haven’t changed: Mike Zimmer still has a monster defense, ranked No. 1 in the NFL for fewest yards and fewest points allowed. Payton still has Drew Brees, who demonstrated during Sunday’s win against Carolina that in the midst of the balance that has defined the Saints offense with the running of Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara, he can still bring his gunslinger game.
Still, for both teams, here comes the perfect litmus test to see just how far they’ve come. After all, it’s not how you start, but how you finish.