NFL Playoff Breakdown

Happy Monday everyone, let's take another look at what went down this week sports-wise. Bills fans, you might want to look away.

Wide right... again. Twenty-three years after Scott Norwood missed his would-be Super Bowl-winning kick for the Bills, Tyler Bass unfortunately followed in his footsteps.

As bad as I feel for Bills fans, I really feel for Bass as well. As good as he was in the regular season, missing only one extra point the whole year and getting it done for the most part in terms of making field goals in the fourth quarter of games, he went 2-5 in the post season and absolutely hooked a 44-yard field goal that would have tied up the Bills game against the Chiefs.
 
In one of the most epic announcer's jinx episodes of all time, Jim Nantz mentioned Bills coach Sean McDermott's confidence in Tyler Bass, giving listeners a quote from the head coach saying, "if (Bass) has to make one for us with the game on the line, he will." Yikes.

The Chiefs will take on the top seeded Ravens in Baltimore this weekend in a game in which much of America will likely support Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.

We all know it; the Taylor Swift narrative is getting tiresome. No football fan cares, and if anything, it's hurting the Chiefs at this point. The Chiefs have played primetime so often this year, and the NFL clearly is pushing the networks and social media accounts to give Taylor Swift as much screentime as possible.

I just don't get it. The NFL gets the most viewership of any American professional sports league by far. Why do they feel the need to incorporate a celebrity into their game that badly? I have no clue and it does bother me, along with thousands of other NFL fans.

Enough of that though, how about another game where a kicker underperformed. The San Francisco 49ers took down the Green Bay Packers 24-21. This was a frustrating game to watch. The 49ers were so strong this year, and the Packers entered the playoffs as the Cinderella story, but looking back on this game, the Packers should have won.

The Packers managed just six points on three red-zone trips in the first half. Those lost points ended up being crucial late in the game. The Packers went three-and-out, missed a field goal and had a turnover on three fourth-quarter possessions. And to make matters worse, Anders Carlson missed a kick for the sixth straight game.

So, the Packers knocked off my Cowboys for no reason and lost a game they could and should have easily won the very next week. Nice.

What a story this season's Lions team has had. Jared Goff was shipped off to the worst team in the league and has come back to turn this Detroit franchise around and lead them to the NFC Championship game, knocking off his former team that gave up on him along the way.

They handled business against a sneaky Buccaneers team that played their hearts out but came up short. I have so much respect for Baker Mayfield. He's faced nothing but criticism throughout his career but took the Browns to their first playoffs in years, and now took a seriously suspect Buccaneers team to the divisional round and was one final drive away from potentially tying the game and sending it to overtime.

And then there were four. We've reached the semi-finals if you will. I like the Ravens and 49ers, but I hope to see the Ravens and Lions square off.

I think Lamar Jackson is playing the best football of his career and has a fantastic defense to back him up. Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen are the best linebacker duo in the league and they're going to prove it this weekend.

That’s all for today, we'll catch up later this week to go over the wild, wild west of the NIL landscape.

John Stanley

Content Writer