The NFL Divsional playoff round has been set after a weekend of Wild Card games. The New England Patriots, the AFC # 2 seed, will host the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday at 1 pm, with a chance to advance to their eighth straight AFC Championship game. Here is a short recap of each Wild Card game from this weekend:
Saturday- Indianapolis 21, Houston 7
Andrew Luck threw a pair of touchdown passes and Marlon Mack also ran one in all during the first half of play on Saturday, as the Indianapolis Colts took a 21-0 lead and topped the AFC South Division Champion Houston Texans 21-7 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Luck threw scores of 6 and 18 yards to Eric Ebron and Dontrelle Inman and Mack scored from two yards out in the first half to allow the guests to take a 21-0 halftime lead. Mack was the first rusher over 100 yards against the Texans this season finishing with 148. Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson, in his first ever playoff game, was sacked three times and hit eight times and finished with 235 yards with a touchdown and one interception. Keke Coutee caught a touchdown pass for the only score of the day for the hosts. Indianapolis now 11-6 heads to Kansas City to face the top seeded Chiefs at 4:35 on Saturday, while Houston finishes their season 11-6.
Saturday- Dallas 24, Seattle 22
Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott both had short fourth quarter touchdown runs as the NFC East Champion Dallas Cowboys outlasted the Seattle Seahawks 24-22 at AT&T Stadium in Irving, Texas.
In a first half battle of field goals and Seattle leading 6-3, Dallas scored the first touchdown of the day to give them a 10-6 halftime lead when Prescott connected for an 11 yard touchdown to Michael Gallup. The Seahawks regained the lead on a short touchdown scamper by Russell Wilson in the third, before Elliott and Prescott both scored in the fourth to make it 24-14. Seattle cut it to just a two point deficit late when Wilson found J.D. McKissic from seven yards out on a fourth down play, and the Seahawks also converted a two point play after the touchdown. Dallas however would recover an attempted onsides kick to end the rally and hold on to just their second playoff win since 1996. The Cowboys will head to Los Angeles to face the Rams Saturday at 8:15.
Sunday- LA Chargers 23, Baltimore 17
At M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, the Chargers dominated play much of the day and built a 23-3 fourth quarter lead, but then needed to hold off a fierce Ravens rally for the 23-17 road Wild Card game win.
Los Angeles (13-4) held Baltimore to just 59 total yards in the first half, but couldn’t find the endzone having to instead settle for all field goals in a 12-0 halftime lead. Baltimore (10-7) finally got on the board in the third quarter after a turnover when Justin Tucker hit a 33 yard field goal. The Chargers responded to that when Melvin Gordon scored the first touchdown of the day, and with the two point conversion made it 20-3 after three quarters. LA added a field goal early in the fourth, before Baltimore went on a run to attempt a comeback. Rookie QB Lamar Jackson, who at one point had negative yards passing, connected on touchdown passes of 31 and 7 yards to Michael Crabtree to get the Ravens back in it. Jackson was strip sacked though on the final Baltimore possession, and LA recovered the fumble and ran out the clock. The Chargers had seven sacks of Jackson on the day. LA now heads to New England at 1 pm Sunday in the Divisional Round.
Sunday- Philadelphia 16, Chicago 15
At Soldier Field in Chicago, Nick Foles connected on a touchdown pass to Golden Tate with 56 seconds remaining turning out to be the winning score as the Philadelphia Eagles upset the Chicago Bears 16-15.
Both teams swapped some field goals in the first half, with the Bears holding a 6-3 halftime lead. Dallas Goedart scored the first touchdown of the day with a 10 yard reception from Foles in the third to make it 10-6 Eagles. Cody Parkey hit another field goal for the Bears to make it 10-9 late in the third. With about 10 minutes left in the game, Mitch Tribisky connected on a 22 yard touchdown pass to Allen Robinson to give the Bears back the lead at 15-10. After both teams went three and out on ensuing possessions, Foles took over at his own 40 yard line and then eventually found Tate open on a third and goal play to give the Eagles the lead. A great kickoff return though set Chicago up for a late game winning field goal, but the 42 yard kick by Parkey hit the left upright and also bounced off the crossbar and fell to the ground no good as time expired. On the replay it appears as though the Parkey kick was partially deflected on the way up. Philadelphia (10-7) now heads to New Orleans to battle the top seeded Saints Sunday at 4:40. Chicago ends their season at 12-5.
