The NFL Wild Card Weekend Recap
Submitted by John on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 6:51pm
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The NFL Wildcard Weekend got off to a slow start this Saturday, with two lopsided performances that saw the Texans and Packers advancing to the Divisional Round of the playoffs next week.
Houston 19 - Cincinnati 13
Okay, I'll admit it, I was dead wrong about the Bungles. I thought their stout defensive front would stymie the zone blocking scheme of Houston. Instead, Arian Foster & Co. imposed their will to the tune of 34/140 & 1TD. The Bengals defense seemingly regressed from a tackling standpoint, and Houston stuck with a successful run oriented attack. Matt Schaub was his usual vanilla self, making Owen Daniels (9/91) the only fantasy relevant part of the passing game.
On the Bengals side of the ball, Andy Dalton was downright Joe Webb-esque (I'll get to that later), completing only 14 of 30 passes. It wasn't all on the Ginger Ninja, Jay "The Second Coming" Gruden, failed to get A.J. Green involved in the first half, and it showed. By the time he adjusted in the second half, it was too late. The Bengals do have a young, talented team, but they're still very much pups in a wolf den come playoff time.
The Texans meanwhile, travel to Foxboro next week to face the Patriots, who dominated Houston in their first meeting, 42-14. Lettermen jackets? Optional.
Green Bay 24 - Minnesota 1-
What happens when you game plan to stop MVP candidate Adrian Peterson, and your starting QB is Joe Webb? Well, you probably lose...like every time. Webb was overmatched by the now healthy Green Bay defense and couldn't keep pace with the more efficient Aaron Rodgers lead offense. Unfortunately for fantasy playoff owners, only John Kuhn (2 TDs) & DuJuan Harris (1TD) found the end zone. Rodgers was solid, if nothing else, overcoming a porous OL and managing to only take 3 sacks on the day.
The Packers travel to Candlestick to avenge their week one (30-22) loss to the Niners. The Niners will be without All-Pro DL Justin Smith, which could be a big factor in this rematch.
Baltimore 24 Indy 9
In a day where Anquan Boldin goes off for 5rec/145yds and 1TD and Joe Flacco plays near mistake free football, you have to believe in the power of Ray Lewis...or at least a bad Indy defense. Baltimore blitzed Andrew Luck on a majority of snaps, and for a while, it didn't seem to affect the score much. The game was a snoozer for the most part, until Ray Rice broke off a huge run in the 2nd half and set up Baltimore for a Vonta Leach score. Rice also fumbled twice, which led to an uptick for Bernard Pierce late in the game. Pierce paced all running backs with 103 yards on 13 carries.
The Ravens travel to Denver next week, and will likely not be dancing at midfield when it's all said and done.
Seattle 24 Washington 14
This one was never close, even though it was only decided by ten points. The Redskins and RG3 moved the ball well in the opening series, but the wheels came off not long after. RG3's right knee was bothering him all night, and late in the game he twisted his knee on the brown sugar-like grass of Fed Ex Field. RG3 left the game, and was replaced by Kirk Cousins who was blitzed mercilessly by the physical Seattle defense. Marshawn Lynch had a typical beast-like mode, (19/131/1TD) and Russell Wilson managed the game well enough to pull off a win.
The nasty Seahawks take their swagger to Atlanta to face the top seed Falcons, in what promises to be a physical matchup.
See you all next week. Cheers!
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