Raise your hand if you had the New York Giants and the Jacksonville Jaguars each winning a playoff game and advancing to the NFL Division round in the playoffs this season.
That’s what I thought.
My hand wasn’t raised either.
The Giants finished last in the NFC East a year ago with a 4-13 record.
The Jags also wound up in the cellar of their division, the AFC South, with an even worse mark of 3-14.
A tremendous turnaround for both teams.
The best story of the Super Wild-Card round was the Jaguars unthinkable comeback after trailing 27-0 to the Los Angeles Chargers with under four and-a -half minutes remaining in the first half.
Trevor Lawrence, who continues to grow as a franchise quarterback, rebounded from a horrendous 4-interception first half performance, to lead Jacksonville to the victory.
Actually, the Jags turned the ball over five times in the first two quarters.
But their head coach, Doug Pederson, urged them to peck away at the huge deficit, one play at a time. Easier said than done, but that’s exactly what the team did.
A winning field goal with :03 remaining in the game gave the Jaguars the not, 31-30.
Now Jacksonville must deal with the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs in KC.
I think it’s too much of a tall order for the upstarts, who lost to the Chiefs 27-17 in Kansas City in mid-November.
Previous meetings are just that, they are the game played that day.
Every encounter is different, as this upcoming contest will be.
But the Chiefs, enjoying a week to rest, as a reward to earning the top seed, should be ready to go.
The one thing I’ve seen KC head coach Andy Reid’s teams avoid, are the letdowns.
I believe the Chiefs will be focused for the Jaguars, just as they would have been for the Chargers, had they won.
Jacksonville’s tremendous bounce-back campaign will end, with much to look forward to.
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I felt Doug Pederson should be Coach Of The Year, as expressed in last week’s column, and I’m certainly not changing that. But my runner-up, Brian Daboll kept pace with Pederson, by leading the Giants to a playoff win.
The Giants, playing the 13-4 Minnesota Vikings on the road, not only beat the NFC North champs, but looked to be the better team as well.
The New Yorkers showed poise, an impressive running game sparked by Saquon Barkley, and the steadiness of quarterback Daniel Jones.
Jones was a huge question mark coming into the season, but he has been coached well, and in his first playoff appearance, led a team that never turned the ball over, and continued to rise in confidence.
I truly believe the Giants feel they can beat anybody.
Like the Jaguars in the AFC, they will face the number one seed in their conference, the Philadelphia Eagles.
I’m not sure who the NFC best is, right now, the Eagles, or the San Francisco 49ers, but it’s definitely one of the two.
The Giants will be facing their age-old rivals in the Eagles in the division match-up in Philly.
They always play each other twice, and it was only two weeks ago, that the Eagles wrapped up the top spot beating the Giants 22-16.
Earlier in the year, the Eagles romped, on the road, 48-22 at Giants Stadium.
It is always difficult to defeat a team three times in one year, but I love both the offensive and defensive lines of the Birds, and that should spell the difference.
But something tells me, the Giants shouldn’t be counted out.
Dare I use the term , team of “destiny”?
We’ll see.
The best of all the division week playoff games should be the AFC battle between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Remember, that was the game three weeks ago in which the Bills’ Damar Hamlin suffered an injury which nearly took his life.
The images of Hamlin’s collapse, the ambulance taking him to the hospital, and the two teams locked together in tears and prayer are still fresh.
The 24-year old has since been released from the hospital, rejoined his teammates in Buffalo, but decided it was best not to attend the Bills spotty victory over the Miami Dolphins.
Playing their third-string QB, the Dolphins actually led the Bills in freezing Buffalo, early in the third quarter, and trailed by only three early in the fourth, but the Bills held on despite the penchant for quarterback Josh Allen to throw untimely interceptions. He had two of them against the Dolphins, and he’s not played his best lately.
But the good ones come back and right the ship at the right time, and I feel Allen will do just that against the Bengals.
That previous encounter between the Bills and Bengals was, of course, cancelled after Hamlin’s injury, so the Bills came into the post-season one game ahead of the Bengals, with each playing one fewer game than everyone else.
In beating the Baltimore Ravens in back-to-back weeks, the Bengals did not play up to the level of a team that has now won nine straight.
Quarterback Joe Burrow , like Josh Allen, had an off-day for him, but Cincinnati won, which is all they had to do, and again tangle with the Bills.
Cincy has problems on offense, but even if they didn’t, I’d go with Buffalo this coming weekend.
Picked by most to be the AFC representative in the Super Bowl this coming February, the Bills have had a challenging year.
I think they move closer to the big game and edge last year’s Super Bowl runners-up in a barn-burner.
Last, but not least, the playoff tale of Tom Brady.
It wasn’t pretty.
By now, all the sports pundits will be giving their daily opinions on where his next stop will be. After winding up on the very short end of a thrashing by the Dallas Cowboys, Brady’s future will be in the spotlight.
Will he finally retire for good? Will he return to Tampa Bay? Will he go to a contender that has a chance to win a Super Bowl? And, of course, the obvious question. Who will want a 46-year old who is the Greatest Of All Time, but no longer that guy?
I have no idea, except for the feeling he doesn’t want to go out this way, nor does he want to leave the game.
It was tough to go into the playoffs with a losing record but that was the fate of the Tampa Bay Bucs. Home field or not, it’s difficult for an 8-9 team to beat an 11-5 group even if your QB is Tom Brady.
The Dallas Cowboys finally gave their fans hope that their time may have finally arrived with a decisive 31-14 thrashing of the Bucs.
They were impressive on both sides of the ball.
Dak Prescott came through with one of his finest showings, throwing four touchdown passes and in control from start to finish.
The defensive calls of coordinator Dan Quinn made Tom Brady uncomfortable enough to keep Tampa Bay off the scoreboard until the final seconds of the third quarter.
Brady had 66 pass attempts, the mark of a losing team.
So, Now it’s on to San Francisco ( Santa Clara, actually), and a date with the hottest team in football.
The 49ers have won 11 straight games after their victory over Seattle in the wild-card round.
The two big stories going for them is their rookie quarterback, Brock Purdy, the final player selected in last April’s draft, and the best defensive unit in the NFL.
Purdy has been the winning QB in the last seven of those 11 triumphs.
I’ve always had the belief that if an inexperienced quarterback sees things he’s not seen before for a single game, and it’s successful, he can be beaten.
Who better than Dan Quinn of the Cowboys to come up with something that might befuddle Purdy and the 49ers attack.
Just one time.
Kyle Shanahan, the Niners head coach is fully aware of this possibility.
They worked together in Atlanta, when Quinn was the Falcons head coach and Shanahan ran the offense.
The wild card just might be the 49ers defense against Prescott and company.
But it wouldn’t shock me if the Cowboys pull an upset, and continue winning.
An intriguing matchup to be sure.
So there you have it.
As the march to the Super Bowl rolls on.