NFL playoffs scores, news and highlights: What happened on Wild Card Saturday
The Panthers and Ravens grabbed big wins to move on to the Divisional round. Five things you need to know from the first day of the NFL playoffs.
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Cam Newton fractured two bones in his back in a car accident Dec. 9th. Less than a month later, he led his team to a 27-16 Wild Card win over the Cardinals. The Panthers move to the NFC Divisional Round with the help of a gritty performance by the fourth-year pro, who took several big hits from a physical Arizona defense, including this play where Newton picked up a big first down with his legs:
Cam was seen clearly grimacing in pain throughout the afternoon, and was regularly slow to get himself off the turf and often lingered on his knee after breaking the huddle.
Playing through the pain, Newton finished 18-of-32 for 198 yards passing, two touchdowns and a pick in rainy 50-degree weather. The interception came on a miscommunication with receiver Jerrico Cotchery. He missed a wide open Dennis Dixon downfield on a couple of occasions, but his stat line was not helped by a couple costly drops by his receiving corps. Nonetheless, Newton made big plays when his team needed to, including two huge scrambles on separate third-and-longs that led to first downs and extended drives, and a touchdown pass to Mike Tolbert on a third-and-goal late in third quarter.
(via @_Marcus_D_)
While Newton's performance was inspiring, it was ultimately Carolina's running backs who carried the offense. Their 188 yards rushing was kickstarted by Jonathan Stewart's 13-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and the Panthers' backfield also produced two receiving touchdowns -- a 38-yard screen play scamper by Fozzy Whittaker and the 1-yard reception for a score by Mike Tolbert, shown above.
Carolina’s run game has come together at the right time, and the 188-yard performance nearly keeps pace with their final four games to end the season, where the Panthers averaged almost 200 yards rushing per game. A dominating run game and a suffocating defense is a nice little combination to win in the postseason.
And, speaking of suffocating defense:
2. The Panthers’ defense is good and/or the Cardinals’ offense is bad
Carolina put together the most dominating defensive performance in NFL playoff history, holding Arizona to a record-low 78 total yards, or 1.7 yards per play, a total that included 27 yards rushing and 51 yards passing. With Ryan Lindley under center, no one really expected Arizona's offense to come in and light things up, but this was a historically bad output marked by zero run game, a fractured pass game, and ugly turnovers. The backbreaker was this throw by Lindley from the Carolina 8-yard line with 11:53 remaining and the Cards down two scores, 27-14. After recovering a Cam Newton fumble, Arizona had a real chance to make it a one-possession game, but Luke Kuechly more or less sealed the deal.
(via @_Marcus_D_)
Credit must be given to the Panthers for the dominant performance, of course, and they held the Cardinals to just eight first downs all game. Arizona’s third- and fourth-quarter drives ended in this order: punt, fumble, punt, punt, interception, punt, interception, end of game.
It was an ignominious end to what had looked like a Cinderella season for the injury-decimated Cardinals, who shot to an NFL-best 9-1 record at one point before losing five of their final seven games. The defense that helped carry Arizona to their hot start faltered late in the season as the full weight to win fell on their shoulders. Meanwhile, the Panthers march on as the bizarro Cardinals -- at one point this season, Carolina was 3-8-1 and all but forgotten in the playoffs picture, but a four-game win streak to end the season helped them take advantage of a terrible NFC South division and secure a postseason berth. They’re rolling now, though, and that’s all that matters.
3. For the second time in history, a team with a losing record wins a playoff game
The Panthers became the second team in NFL history to win their division with a losing record at 7-8-1, joining the 2010 Seahawks, a team that won the NFC West at 7-9 and subsequently knocked off the defending champion Saints at home in the Wild Card round. Like the Seahawks, by virtue of winning their division, the Panthers got to host a playoff game against a team with a much better regular-season record. And, like the Seahawks before them, the Panthers used their home-field advantage to knock off a better regular-season team in the Cardinals, who finished 11-4.
With the Panthers’ win, the method the NFL uses for playoff seeding is sure to come under scrutiny again this offseason. Should seeding continue to be determined in part by division standings? Should a division winner automatically host a playoff game despite their final regular-season record? It’s obviously unclear -- or maybe even unlikely -- that the Ryan Lindley-led Cards could have won were they at home, but Arizona did finish the season 7-1 at University of Phoenix Stadium while going 4-4 on the road. Home field is a pretty huge advantage, particularly in the playoffs, so it’s an interesting discussion that’s sure to get a little attention at the owners’ meetings this summer.
4. Joe Flacco -- did we decide if he's elite yet?
Well, I'm not sure a lot of people would agree with that, but Flacco did finish the game with 259 yards passing and two touchdowns, including this one to Torrey Smith after a beautiful escape from a broken pocket.
Flacco's solid, turnover-free play helped push the Ravens out to a 30-15 fourth-quarter lead before their defense could finish the game out. He did so without much help from the run game in this one, as Justin Forsett and the Baltimore backfield could only muster 49 yards on 25 carries.
So far, so good for Flacco, who will look to replicate his 2012 postseason performance in an effort to push the Ravens past the Patriots next week. In Baltimore's Super Bowl run two years ago (in which they beat the Patriots in the AFC Championship game), the Ravens' "elite" signal-caller completed 57 percent of his passes for 1,140 yards (285 per game), 11 touchdowns (average of 2.75 per game), with a 117 quarterback rating. His line so far? 62 percent completion rate, 259 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a 114 quarterback rating.
5. The Steelers lacked balance, missed Le'Veon Bell
The Pittsburgh defense did not help matters a whole lot by surrendering 30 points to the Ravens, but it seemed clear that the Steelers' offense missed their star running back, Le'Veon Bell. The Ravens stifled Pittsburgh's explosive offense for much of the game, leaning on their front line, once again led by Haloti Ngata, to stuff the run and rush the passer. Without the dual-threat offensive weapon in Bell, who accounted for 2,215 combined yards rushing and receiving this year (39 percent of their total offense), the Steelers couldn't get much going until the fourth quarter, and by then it was too late.
Bell was replaced by rookie Josh Harris and recently signed Ben Tate, and neither player factored much in the ground game. Pittsburgh's backfield finished with just 46 yards rushing (on 16 totes) and accounted for just 30 yards in the pass game (on seven catches), and Ben Roethlisberger couldn't manage to carry the team with his arm alone in this one.
It points to the long-held belief that balance matters in the postseason, and strong defense and an effective run game were both conspicuously absent for Pittsburgh Saturday night, making them somewhat one-dimensional. To that point, with the Steelers’ departure from the playoffs, quarterbacks that lead the regular season in passing yardage have now gone 49 straight years without a Super Bowl win.
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