NFL playoffs scores, news and highlights: What happened on Wild Card Sunday
The Colts and Cowboys grabbed big wins to move on to the Divisional round. Here are five things you need to know from the second day of the NFL playoffs.
1. Andrew Luck balled out
Andrew Luck came into Indianapolis' wild card matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals with a career playoffs passer rating of 70.0, and in his three postseason appearances he'd completed 55 percent of his passes with six touchdowns and eight interceptions. He shook off those those issues on Sunday, connecting on 72 percent of his passes to 11 different receivers while throwing for 376 yards and a touchdown.
Luck was masterful -- in command all afternoon long -- and made a number of tough throws, including this gorgeous touch-throw deep to the sideline for a first down on third-and-11.
This beautiful collapsing-pocket escape-and-throw to T.Y. Hilton, which put the Colts up by 10, wasn't bad either.
Big-time players make big-time plays, and the degree of difficulty on several of Luck’s throws pushed the scale to 11.
Indianapolis -- which finished 22nd in the NFL in rushing yards per game -- even got a solid effort from the ground game in this one. Dan Herron rushed for 56 yards and a touchdown, Zurlon Tipton added 40 yards, and Luck chipped in 18 yards on the ground as the Colts utilized a balanced gameplan to knock off Cincinnati at home.
2. Cincinnati fails to exorcise playoff demons
Andy Dalton and the Bengals' frustrating run of playoff losses continued with another tepid performance in the Wild Card round, this time against the Colts. Dalton finished just 18 of 35 for 155 yards -- 4.2 yards per attempt -- and failed to find the end zone as Indianapolis' defense tightened up at home. The Bengals' run game managed to put up 110 yards on the day but it just wasn't enough, and the Colts shut Cincinnati out in the second half on the way to a 26-10 victory.
Dalton (in)famously came into the game with a run of terrible postseason performances spanning the last three years. He had a 56.2 playoff passer rating in his three career appearances (all losses), with only one touchdown thrown to six interceptions. This latest disappointing loss wasn't squarely on Dalton's shoulders, but he'd surely liked to have led the offense to more than 10 points, even missing a couple of his playmakers in A.J. Green and Jermaine Gresham. The Bengals have now been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth season in a row and fifth time in six seasons. Consistently making it to the playoffs is not easy for any team, make no mistake, but Cincinnati's postseason ineptitude has fans questioning what changes need to be made.
3. Golden Tate provides a spark for Detroit Lions
The Lions' offense is most famous for the Matthew Stafford to Calvin Johnson connection, but 2014 free agent acquisition Golden Tate provided a nice boost for Detroit early on against the Dallas Cowboys. Tate -- who was the target of Dallas' ire all week because of a hit on Sean Lee in 2012 -- responded to chirping from Barry Church this week by taking slant route to the house after making Church miss. This was on the Lions' first possession.
That play put Detroit up, 7-0, and Tate would also make an integral block on a Reggie Bush run in the second quarter to help the Lions go up two scores, 14-0.
Unfortunately for Tate, he wouldn’t get the last laugh. The Cowboys came back from a 14-point deficit to win the game.
4. Tony Romo leads Cowboys' fourth-quarter comeback
By now, we all know the narrative surrounding Tony Romo (“he’s a choker!” according to many), but by leading the ‘Boys to a big-time fourth-quarter comeback win over the Lions on Sunday, Romo may have done some work in re-writing the narrative around his future legacy.
The Cowboys' signal caller -- who quietly led the NFL in passer rating (113.2), completion percentage (69.9) and yards per attempt (8.5) this season -- missed on a few throws early on, which had the announcers questioning whether his back was bothering him. But Romo stormed back in the second half and made a few huge plays late in the game to get Dallas back into it. None were bigger than his touchdown pass to Terrance Williams to put the Cowboys ahead for good.
Romo finished 19 of 31 for 193 yards and two touchdown passes -- a 114.0 passer rating that pretty much fits his regular season line. He spread the ball out as the Cowboys' run game struggled to gain full traction. His favorite target in this game was Jason Witten, who finished with five catches for 63 yards, two of which converted third downs and one that converted a huge fourth-down play. That fourth-down conversion gave Dallas new life, and later on that drive Romo hit Williams for the go-ahead touchdown.
5. Strange call reversal will be only thing we all remember
Unfortunately, a terrible penalty reversal marred an otherwise entertaining back-and-forth game between two strong teams in Dallas and Detroit. When Stafford tried to hit Brandon Pettigrew on a key third-and-1 play with 8:25 remaining in the game, it appeared that Dallas lineback Anthony Hitchens interfered with Pettigrew's ability to catch the ball.
A flag was thrown, and pass interference was announced. That’s when the referee crew further conferred, and a second official offered his opinion that a flag was not warranted, believing it to be legal face-guarding. The flag was overturned, the potential penalty was nullified, and the Lions decided to punt from the Dallas 46 (technically the 51 after purposely taking a 5-yard penalty).
This non-call came at a point where the Lions were leading, 20-17, and hoping to run more time off the clock. Instead, they punted the ball back to the Cowboys, who were able to drive down the field and score the go-ahead and eventual game-winning touchdown. Detroit had another shot at it but turned the ball over with a minute remaining when Stafford was sacked by Demarcus Lawrence on fourth down, fumbling the ball away to Dallas.
★★★
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