The 3M Report: Divisional Round

Matt Price Posted On January 16, 2017

Welcome to the divisional round edition of the 3M report; a look back on all the magic, mayhem, and mishaps of this weekend’s playoff matchups. This is my favorite week of the NFL season. Usually, all the scrubs have started their off-season at this point and only good teams remain. This season we had one tomato can still left alive, but even Houston was competitive in the first half of their game in Foxboro.

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The weekend began with the perennial playoff powerhouse Seattle Seahawks dominating on their long opening drive in Atlanta. Seattle made several mistakes including penalties that negated long kick returns by Devin Hester. One of those returns in the second quarter gave Seattle a first and goal inside the Atlanta 10-yard line but instead, a holding penalty backed them up inside their own 10-yard line. Two plays later replacement right guard Rees Odhiambo stepped on Russell Wilson’s ankle causing a safety and pulling Atlanta within one point at 10-9.

From that point on the Falcon’s offense didn’t look back, outscoring the Seahawks 27-10 the rest of the way. Julio Jones’ toe injury flared up and kept him out much of the second half but he scored the first touchdown of the day for the Falcons, dragging Seattle defenders into the end zone with him. Both running backs played well. Devonta Freeman made an incredible move on his 53-yard reception that faked backup safety Steven Terrell out of his shoes in the open field. Mohamed Sanu caught the game-clinching touchdown and Tevin Coleman hooked up with Matt Ryan on a 14-yard score through the air for the Falcons in their 36-20 victory,

Houston kept things competitive in the first half largely due to two turnovers by the Patriots. Tom Brady threw a pass a little too far out in front of Michael Floyd that was tipped and then picked off and Dion Lewis fumbled on a kick return. The Texans converted those turnovers into 10 points including a touchdown reception by C.J. Fiedorowicz. Prior to his fumble, Lewis was spectacular. He scored on a 13-yard reception and a 98-yard kick return, the longest kick return touchdown in Patriots franchise history.

Despite dominating the time of possession, Houston entered halftime down 17-13. In the second half, New England pulled away. Brady threw a 19-yard wheel touchdown on a wheel route and over the shoulder catch by James White. Brock Osweiler didn’t have a great game. He did drop a deep ball right over the shoulder and into the hands of Will Fuller on a beautiful throw, but the rookie dropped it in the end zone and instead of narrowing the lead to 24-20, Houston was forced to punt back to Tom Brady. On the very next drive, Brady threw a pass to Julian Edelman that was tipped by Benardrick McKinney and picked off by Andre Hal. Houston turned the interception into three points on the following drive and pulled to within one score. On the first play of the next Texans drive, Osweiler threw his second interception which was returned to the Houston six-yard line by Logan Ryan. Two runs up the middle later and Lewis added a rushing touchdown, giving him three on the day and one in all three phases of the game. Osweiler threw his third interception of the second half with 3:08 to play and sealed the win for Belichick’s boys.

The Packers and Cowboys gave us the best game in a great divisional round. The Packers started hot. Riding the momentum of their wild card win, Green Bay scored touchdowns on each of their first three drives, propelling them to a 21-3 lead midway through the second quarter. On the first drive, Richard Rodgers made a sliding 34-yard touchdown grab, capping a five play 75-yard drive. Ty Montgomery was heavily involved in the game plan and his two rushing touchdowns early gave the Packers their big lead. Dak Prescott continues to impress. I thought he would have some rookie jitters in such a big spot but if he did, he didn’t show them. Prescott hit Dez Bryant on a 40-yard strike for a touchdown to answer Green Bay’s third score. He led another field goal drive late in the first half and the Cowboys entered halftime down 21-13.

Aaron Rodgers led an incredible drive coming out of the half. 25 yards to Randall Cobb, 14 yards to Davante Adams, 26 yards to Jared Cook, and one more short one to Cook for the touchdown making it 28-13 Packers. Both quarterbacks threw interceptions on their next drive before Prescott led two more touchdown drives, throwing one to Jason Witten and another to Bryant. He also showed he could do it himself on a two-point conversion that tied the game 28-28. After both teams added another field goal to make it 31-31, the Packers got the ball back with 35 seconds left on the clock. “Jared Goat” came up huge once more on a 36-yard toe-tapping reception on the sideline that put his team inside Mason Crosby’s range. He got iced once, but it didn’t matter. Crosby was clutch on Sunday and knocked through his second 50-yard field goal of the day to send his team to the NFC championship game next week in Atlanta.

The night game in Arrowhead was supposed to be an early game but bad weather pushed it back. Pittsburgh was moving the ball well in the first half but despite dominating time of possession and yardage kept stalling on Kansas City’s side of the field and settled for four field goals instead of touchdowns. Le’Veon Bell was certainly doing his part with 18 carries and 101 yards before halftime. Bell finished the game with 170 rushing yards, setting the franchise record for playoff rushing yardage in consecutive weeks.

Alex Smith’s first drive was efficient and ended with a five-yard touchdown pass to Albert Wilson. The rest of KC’s drives in the first half went like this: punt, interception, punt, fumble. Not a great way to start a playoff home game, but because of the Steelers’ inability to get in the end zone went into the half down just five points 12-7. After the Chiefs went three and out on their second-half opening drive, the Steelers added a fifth field goal. That drive opened with a 38-yard run up the middle by Bell out of the shotgun. Bell was the only player other than Ben Roethlisberger to touch the ball on Pittsburgh’s first drive of the second half that put the Steelers up 15-7.

The field goal battle continued through the third and fourth quarter with both teams adding one more each to make it 18-10. After a helmet to helmet penalty on Chris Conley, the Chiefs were set up deep in Pittsburgh territory. On a fourth and two, Reid drew up a play that focused the defensive attention on Tyreek Hill streaking through the backfield and had Smith roll out in the opposite direction with his fullback Anthony Sherman who caught a three-yard pass for the first down on the Steelers one-yard line. On the next play, Spencer Ware bounced out of a hole that James Harrison filled and into the end zone for the touchdown. On the following two-point conversion, Smith found a wide open Demetrius Harris to tie the game but it was called back on a holding penalty. The retry was no good and left the Chiefs down 18-16 and the Steelers getting the ball back with 2:43 on the clock. One first down and three kneel-downs later and that was the game. The Steelers will travel to Foxboro next week for the AFC Championship.

That does it for the divisional round edition of the 3M report! I’ll be back next week with a recap of the Championship round.

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Matt Price

Contributor at Dynasty League Football

Senior writer and co-host of the DLF Dynasty podcast, the longest running dynasty focused podcast on the planet

Creator and Co-host of Dynasty Game night, the fantasy football game show.

Creator and host of the Zookeeper Stories podcast.