This past weekend lived up to its namesake and was a wild one filled with some dramatic matchups. Here’s what we learned from each game of the NFL’s Wild Card Weekend.
New Year, Same Old Chiefs
At the half, it seemed like the Kansas City Chiefs were going to pull away from the Tennessee Titans. However, the Chiefs went into full-blown Andy Reid meltdown that saw them blow an 18-point lead.
After week one, the Chiefs looked poised to do big things after a big win against the New England Patriots. It’s the same old song and dance for Kansas City and perhaps it’s time for a change at the position of head coach. Reid is a good coach during the regular season, but when you can’t get above a certain level with him it’s time to sever ties.
Rams Regress
The Greatest Show on Surf hit dry land on Saturday night when they lost to the Atlanta Falcons. This team, much like the Chiefs looked great throughout the regular season. The biggest difference is there’s a lot of youth on this team (youngest HC in the NFL, second-year QB at the helm, etc.) and they were picked apart by a good defense and a veteran QB in Matt Ryan.
Looking forward to seeing what the Rams can do next season with all the pieces they have in place and being part of one of the worst divisions in the league doesn’t hurt matters.
Bad Luck Bills
The Bills in the playoffs usually results in Buffalo getting disappointed in epic fashion. While it wasn’t Scott Norwood levels of disappointment, the Bills fans came down hard off of their high of making the playoffs for the first time since the Clinton Administration.
The thing that really hurt the Bills late though was the fact that Tyrod Taylor went down with an injury and they had no choice but to put Nate Peterman in. The former Pitt Panther continues to show that he’s not a good quarterback in the NFL by throwing yet another interception to put the game out of reach. The Bills need to get some horseshoes and four leaf clovers if they want to make a run in the postseason.
Panthers Head Into Interesting Offseason
The Carolina Panthers have a lot of things that they will be dealing with in the next few months. Undoubtedly the biggest is going to be a search for a new owner after Jerry Richardson stepped down (some might say the Saints own them) at the end of the regular season.
However, the biggest headache may be a possible investigation into the way they handled Cam Newton’s concussion protocol. While the organization says that it was more about his eye after the visor he has on his helmet hit him, the way he went down was clearly a concussion. It’ll be interesting to see what will come of that because it’s a bad look for the NFL if the Panthers didn’t go through the full protocol for a concussion when they should have.
-Clint Domingue