Eight is Enough: Chiefs Prepare for the Browns

Eight is Enough: Chiefs Prepare for the Browns – This is the first weekend, mostly, that I’ve watched an NFL game featuring a team not named the Kansas City Chiefs. The NFL billed this weekends games as Super Wild Card Weekend. They didn’t lie, nor was I disappointed. It was wild, and it was super. If you were a fan of stalwart defensive play, well then, you were in NFL heaven this weekend.

Let’s revisit the Super… the Wild… the Chiefs-less, Packers-less weekend of football.

Saturday’s Games

Indianapolis Colts @ Buffalo Bills, Bills Win 27-24

The Bills victory over the Philip Rivers led Colts in Buffalo on Saturday marked their first playoff victory in over 25 years. However, after all the hoopla, pomp and circumstance thrown the Bills way this past month, calling it a victory seems like overkill. It would be much more on target to say the Bills survived the Colts than it would be to say they beat them.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen played a great game, completing 26 of 40 passes for 309 yards and two touchdowns, but remember there’s great… and then there’s, Mahomes-great. Allen ain’t there yet. I will concede, however, that his quick pass to Bills tight end Dawson Knox late in the 2nd quarter for a touchdown was a Mahomes-esque effort.

Long-time Chiefs foe, ex-Charger and current Colts quarterback Philip Rivers was tearfully nostalgic after the loss,

“After your 17th year and you’re about to be 40, and you’re not sure if you walked up your last tunnel, heck yeah, heck yeah, it’s more (emotional). It was a heck of a fun season. There’s zero regret. Moving to Indiana, and shoot, and playing for this franchise and having a chance and meeting some new guys that I will keep a relationship with. We fell short today, but I’ll walk out of here with my head held high, for sure.”

Los Angeles Rams @ Seattle Seahawks, Rams Win 30-20

What a catastrophic loss! What a colossal failure! What a monumental letdown? Perhaps Simon and Garfunkel should redo their classic song, Mrs. Robinson, and change the lyrics to “Where have you gone, Russell Wilson?“

Behind our own Patrick Mahomes and the Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson is the 3rd best quarterback in the NFL. Yet, with a paltry 11 completions on 27 attempts, two touchdowns, and an interception, Wilson failed to lead his fellow favored Seahawks to victory. As a native St. Louisan (never a Rams fan), it was a gloomy game to gawk at!

A motivated Jared Goff, losing quarterback of Super Bowl LIII, took over for the injured John Wolford and tossed a single touchdown and nary an interception in 19 attempts. Goff was true on nine of his tries. It was just good enough. The genuine hero of the game, however, was Rams running back Cam Akers, who scampered for 131 yards on 25 carries, averaging 4.7 yards per rush. If the Rams had a real quarterback, they’d be scary!

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Washington Football Team, Bucs Win 31-23

I was heartbroken when the WFT announced that former Chief Alex Smith would not play in Saturday night’s contest with the dastardly Tom Brady and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Instead, we got WFT quarterback Taylor Heinicke in just his second start in the NFL. Get ready for a blowout, I thought. Boy, was I wrong!

Heinicke balled out, for an XFL-castoff whose 2nd start was a playoff game, tossing a touchdown and racking up 306 passing yards with 26 completions on 44 attempts. The interception in the first quarter didn’t help either. Despite the loss, it was a gutsy performance by a young man thrown into a near-impossible situation.

Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady was able to defeat an ex-XFL quarterback by a mere eight points. Someone please give that chronic whiner a lollipop and a gold-star sticker for his forehead.

A hearty well done to WFT head coach Ron Rivera who endured a pandemic-filled season, battled and beat cancer, went through five quarterbacks in a single season… yet still clinched the NFL East and a playoff berth. That’s the stuff of legends!

Sunday’s Games

Baltimore Ravens @ Tennessee Titans, Ravens Win 20-13

Titans quarterback Lamar Jackson has finally earned his first playoff win after three attempts. However, it was a stiff Ravens defense, specifically ex-Chief safety Marcus Peters, who sealed the victory for the Ravens. Peters picked off Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill with 1:50 left on the clock to extinguish the embers of the Titans flaming desire to advance in the postseason. Jackson and company then doused those hopes securing two first downs with less than two minutes left in the game, inspiring the Ravens players to an impromptu endgame dance on the Titans midfield logo.

It was a victory gained mainly, as most Ravens wins are, on the legs of the wily Jackson who was the Ravens leading rusher with 136 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. The Ravens quarterback outperformed the Titans leading rusher, and NFL Offensive Player of the Year favorite, Derrick Henry, by almost 100 yards. Henry rushed for 40 yards and zero touchdowns on 18 carries. The Ravens defense shut him down all day.

Chicago Bears @ New Orleans Saints, Saints Win 21-9

Every postseason, during the Wild Card weekend, there’s one team that seems to look out of place. Like they don’t belong. This year, that team, was the Chicago Bears. From Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s atrocious performance to Anthony Miller’s deplorable punch that got him ejected from the game, it was clear to see that the NFL prematurely invited the Bears to sit at the grown-ups’ table.

None of that mattered to Saints veteran quarterback Drew Brees, however, who tossed two touchdowns, tossed not a single interception, and piled on 265 yards with 28 completions in 39 attempts, as the Saints won easily. Rumor has it that this is the 41-year-old Brees’ last season.

Both Saturday’s Buccaneers win, and Sunday’s Saints win, set the stage for a Brady-Brees showdown next week. The aging quarterbacks will battle for the chance to advance to the NFC Conference Championship, all the while, the sidelines of both teams will reek of Bengay Cream and Sunsweet Prune Juice. I can’t wait!

Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers

If you were a Steelers fan, it got ugly early in a hurry! The Browns racked up 28 points on the Black and Gold in just the first 13:04. NBC captured a shot of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin on the sideline in the first quarter. He looked like the actor Omar Epps in a scene from Juice.

Give it to the Steelers, though, they did not quit. They battled back from their 28-0 deficit to make it 35-23 at one point in the game.

However, Browns quarterback and ex-Texas Tech backup to Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield, and his Browns cohorts were up to the challenge. They held off the second-half surge by the Steelers, winning the game, 48-37. Mayfield completed 21 of 24 passes for 263 yards and three touchdowns with zilch interceptions.

I bid a very special salute to ex-Chiefs, current Browns running back Kareem Hunt, who carried the rock eight times for 48 yards and two touchdowns.

I want to give a special shout-out to ArrowheadOne reader Priest-Mahomes who repeatedly assured us on the Disqus forum during the game that the Steelers would win. 😁

So, after all of this past weekend’s action, or as I like to call it, Amateur Hour, it now gets real. The Browns are coming to town. I’m not scared. Are you?

Here are the schedules for the NFC and the AFC games coming up next weekend.

Michael Travis Rose — ArrowheadOne

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