EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday. The first weekend of the NFL Playoffs are almost over. With the extra two games, the NFL decided to make Sunday a triple header and have a Monday Night Football game. With that, here’s today’s slate: NFL Playoffs and Jets Fire LaFleur
NFL Playoffs
Seahawks at 49ers
The San Fransisco 49ers may have the best 3 QBs in the NFL. While some teams can’t find one, the Niners went down to their third-string option, in rookie Brock Purdy, for the last few games of the season and he keeps just performing well and winning games. Purdy threw for over 300 yards and 3 TDs in the game. The 49ers also traded for Christian McCaffrey during the season. Some thought it was too much but C-MC ended up with 120 yards on 15 carries. The game was close but then the 49ers defense came to the forefront and allowed the offense to do their thing and scored 18 points to win the game 41-23.
Chargers at Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are again throwing a wrench in these NFL Playoffs. Last time they were in they barely qualified but made a run to the AFC championship game. They were 5 minutes away from defeating the Patriots in that one. This time, they got hot late in the season and managed to overcome a struggling Titans to win the AFC South crown. That resilience helped as the Jags came back from 27-0 at halftime to win 32-31. Watching Trevor Lawrence play like the #1 overall pick hurts to see as a Jets fan. This kid shook of the bad first half to throw 4 touchdowns in the second half to go with his 4 interceptions. The Chargers looked like they had things locked up so much so that one betting site took a bet to pay 11,500 on a 1.4 million bet and they had to eat all of it. The result was the third biggest playoff comeback. It is a shame because the Chargers were playing well and QB Justin Herbert is really looking like the goods – but he will have to wait til next year.
Bills at Dolphins
This game was really not supposed to be so close. The Bills were the heavy favorites, as they were playing at home against a 3rd string QB. They were also still carrying the Damar Hamlin momentum. But those pesky Fins weren’t going down without a fight. They fought back and even took the lead in the 3rd quarter, but there was no way the Bills were going to lose this game. Rallied by their star QB Josh Allen, they found a way to take the lead with big touchdown throw to Gabe Davis. From there the defense held at 34-31 and then with precious little time left, running back Devin Singletary took on the Dolphins defense and carried 4 defenders maybe more to get the first down that sealed the game.
Tomorrow’s Headline Today:
Bills, Bengals Barely Beat Back-ups— Meet The Matts (@MeetTheMatts) January 16, 2023
Giants at Vikings
The New York Giants defeat of the Vikings was called by our own Ben Whitney and Angry Ward – a Vikings fan. Minny has kind of been paper tigers all season. Despite all the wins, they had a negative point differential. Ward would tell you that you would be a fool to bet on a team with Kirk Cousins as your QB in the playoffs. Same old Vikes… Giants fans feel emboldened, and you have to consider they got a good draw. The Jints had the Paper Vikings (TM) and now will face division rival Philadelphia, who will try to beat them a third time…. Daniel Jones, however, seems like a playoff quality QB and coach Brian Daboll looks like the real deal. Jones was incredibly efficient and solid. Again, I’m not sold on him being the guy that wins you a Super Bowl but then nobody thought Nick Foles would be a guy to win the Big Game. Jones threw for 301 yards, 2 TDs and ran for a team leading 78 yards. In the Colts game and in yesterday’s, he took on the role as team leader and delivered. The Jets could do worse than having a guy like Jones lead their team.
Ravens at Bengals
Using the above MTM Twitter feed headline from last night, the Cincinnati Bengals (not Bengsls) tried to hand the game over to the Cleveland Browns Baltimore Ravens. Back-up QB Tyler Huntley had the Ravens in the position to win, yet fumbled an inch from breaking the plane. The ball ended up in home-town Cincy boy and stud defensive end Sam Hubbard, who galloped like a Clydesdale in a 100 meter sprint, 90 yards for the TD. The fact that he was helped by an arguable clip, escaped the referees and all was good again in Pennsyl-Tucky-Ohio. But if never had been that hard.
Jets Fire LeFleur
In their mission to salvage the Zach Wilson draft pick, the J-E-T-S have decided to part way with Offensive Coordinator Mike LaFleur. It may be that LeFleur just was a bit too young and introverted to be the OC. I think one of the mistakes the Jets made was having a young Defensive Coordinator as their head coach and rather than having a veteran Offensive Coordinator, they went with a bright young talent. They really need to bring an experienced veteran to be the OC. Let’s see who they interview and choose for that role.
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below. Check out Ben Whitney, who will be sporting his new Wink Martindale tattoo.
