NFL Divisional Round Review, Surprising Victories in Both Conferences

The NFL Divisional Round is held yearly with the top eight teams of the season facing off to punch their ticket to the AFC or NFC championship. This year has seen shocking upsets with teams such as the Green Bay Packers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning in their Wildcard matchups against all odds. 

The weekend of the Divisional Round got off to a hot start with the most surprising team of the year, Houston Texans, led by young star quarterback CJ Stroud and wide receiver Nico Collins. The inexperienced team faced off with the Super Bowl favorite Baltimore Ravens. Unlike the Texans, the Ravens roster has experienced the playoffs recently but the franchise has seen little success. The talk surrounding this game was if the Texan’s defense would be able to stop the explosive Ravens offense. The Texan’s defense had held the Ravens offense to only ten points leading to a ten-to-ten game at the half. This would quickly change following the start of the third quarter. The lethal Ravens would go on to score twenty-four unanswered points as the stingy defense would hold the Texans to no score. The game ended in the final score of thirty-four to ten in favor of the Baltimore Ravens. “I was frustrated at halftime, but after we pulled away in the end I felt satisfied,” said lifelong Ravens fan Junior Munil Anna. 

The night game was a surprise matchup of the seventh-seed Green Bay Packers v.s. The first-seeded San Francisco 49ers. The Packers won the coin toss and chose to receive the ball first setting the tone for the game. They drove downfield but the drive eventually stalled out with the Packers settling for a field goal. The game would see no scores till around halfway through the second quarter when former Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy threw a touchdown to former Iowa Hawkeye Tight end George Kittle. The Packers would score another field goal before halftime and hold the Niners to zero more points till half resulting in a score of seven to six at half in favor of the Niners. Green Bay would strike first after halftime with a touchdown pass from Jordan Love. The Niners would come right back and score off a thirty-nine-yard touchdown run from Christian McCaffery. This did not phase the Packer’s offense who would score another touchdown and succeed in a two-point conversion to end the third quarter with he score of twenty-one to fourteen with Green Bay looking like they’d pull off an upset. The Niners drove down the field and kicked a field goal. The Packers were driving down the field once again but had been held to a field goal attempt that would put them up by seven points in the fourth quarter but kicker Andres Carlson missed giving the Niners a chance to go and win the game. With ice in his veins, young Quarterback Brock Purdy led the Niners down the field to the Packer’s six-yard line. He’d hand the ball off to the likely offensive player of the year Christian Mccaffrey who’d run in for the score. Fellow young quarterback Jordan Love still had a chance to lead the Green Bay offense down the field again but threw a cross-body pass that was intercepted, punching the Niner’s ticket to their second straight NFC Championship game. 

Succeeding the action-packed Saturday game slate the Detroit Lions took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Detroit on Sunday. The Lions have not seen much success in the franchise’s entire history but this year felt different under the coaching of Dan Campbell. “He came in here intending to change the mindset of the players but I believe he changed the mindset of the fans as well. Fans went from begging the team to be sold from the Ford family to having a chance at winning the Super Bowl in 3 seasons,” said Senior Aarav Satturu.  The teams would trade field goals in the first quarter and touchdowns in the second. At half, it was tied ten to ten. The game would eventually stall out until the end of the third quarter with the Lions scoring a touchdown with three minutes left. The remaining time in the half was still too much for the Buccaneers offense. Baker Mayfield would throw a touchdown with ten seconds left once again tying the game. Following back-to-back touchdowns by the Lions in the fourth quarter it looked as if they would bleed the clock to the win, but the Buccaneers once again showed resilience and with four minutes left went on another touchdown drive. They would receive the ball once again with around two minutes left but this time the Lion’s defense would make a stand intercepting Baker Mayfield ending the game. The Lions are now in the NFC Championship game for the first time in 1991 facing off against the potent San Francisco 49ers. Satturu later added “I am so excited for my team to play in the NFC Championship this year, because I knew it would happen. I had faith in this season from the beginning.”

The final matchup of the Divisional Round would be a familiar matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Buffalo Bills. Patrick Mahomes would have to face a team on the road in the playoffs. for the first time in his career. This was a talk surrounding the game but Mahomes once again proved why he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. The teams would both kick field goals in the first quarter but in the second the Bills would outscore the Chiefs fourteen to ten and held a lead of seventeen to thirteen at half. The game would once again go back and forth with the Chiefs scoring a touchdown but the Bills answering back with a touchdown of their own making it a twenty-four to twenty game entering the final quarter. In the fourth, the Chiefs would score a touchdown from an Isiah Pacheco run. Down three with the game on the line Josh Allen led the Bills into field goal range and set up Tyler Bass for the game-tying field goal but just like Andres Carlson, Bass missed. Following a first down the Chiefs were able to kneel the clock out once again beating the Bills in a playoff thriller. “I thought the game was going to overtime because it was a chip shot field but when he missed I was kind of mad even though I’m a Chiefs fan because I’m tired of Taylor Swift,” said Junior Gabriel Okelloh.