With Kansas City’s parade in the books, NFL fans can officially turn the page to the 2020-21 season. These NFL playoffs were filled with exciting performances and nail-biting finishes. Here are my top-10 takeaways from the NFL postseason.
Nick Foles, where are you?
The Eagles limped into the playoffs, with a substantial dearth of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. Carson Wentz struggled in his first postseason start. Wentz went down with a concussion, and this time Philadelphia didn’t have Foles to fall back on. Although it’s still hard to determine if it was the Eagles depleted receiving corp, if it was Wentz’ postseason debut nerves, or if the Eagles sent the wrong guy out of Philly.
Speaking of the NFC East…
Jerry Jones announced that Jason Garrett would not be back as Cowboys head coach. It was speculated all week leading up to the wild-card games, but the official announcement came during halftime of the Eagles’ wildcard playoff game, stealing more headlines from their hated division rival. The Cowboys have gotten rid of Garrett and might be better for it.
The end of the dynasty
In the Saturday night wild-card matchup, the Tennessee Titans jumped on the back of Derrick Henry to upset the New England Patriots in Foxboro. With the speculation on the future of Tom Brady, that could’ve officially marked the end of the Patriots’ stranglehold on the AFC.
The spark the Texans needed
Texans defensive end J.J. Watt returned from injured reserve just in time for the team’s wild-card game against the Bills. After Houston fell behind, it was a sack by Watt that flipped the momentum of the game in the Texans’ favor.
Change MVP to RSMVP (regular-season MVP)
The Ravens secured the No. 1 seed in the AFC behind Lamar Jackson, who had the MVP award locked up halfway through the regular season. Head coach John Harbaugh decided to sit Jackson and many other starters for the team’s Week 17 game. Against the Titans in the divisional round, Jackson came out rusty from three weeks without any in-game snaps. The Titans, again on the back of Henry, upset the prohibitive Super Bowl favorite.
The Seahawks were done in by a lack of a running game
The Seahawks made headlines when they brought back Marshawn Lynch after their running backs were placed injured reserve with the playoffs on the horizon. Lynch who came out of retirement was slowly working back into the lineup. That worked with moderate success until he was tasked with a heavier load against the Packers in the Divisional Round. Where it quickly became apparent, he definitely wasn’t in football shape.
Don’t go off-script
The Titans off, of two impressive upsets, went to Kansas City for the AFC Championship game. They went away from what was working throughout the playoffs earlier than they needed to. That mixed with the fact that the Titans defense was exposed by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs receivers.
One, and done
In addition to Tom Brady, both Drew Brees and Josh Allen’s great seasons didn’t survive past wild-card weekend. Meanwhile, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Deshawn Watson, and Kirk Cousins managed to lead their teams to one postseason victory.
Domination tends to always falter
The 49ers dominated just about everyone they faced all regular season. That continued through the divisional round, the NFC Championship game and for three quarters of the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, the league still plays four-quarter games.
No lead is safe
The Super Bowl champion Chiefs trailed all three of their playoff games by at least 10 points and won all three. None more impressive than coming back from a 24-0 deficit in the division round against the Houston Texans.
2 Responses
Thankfully this is your last one of these for this season. While I like these articles, the title changed from 10 things I learned to takeaways. You let go of the catchy headline before each point, which I for one thought they were better than the explanation behind them. Example the keys didn’t work on Monday after Jay Gruden got fired was funny and topical.. Hopefully next season these article will have consistency and get back to the way they originally were.
Thanks for the support