The Baltimore Ravens move to 3-0 and secure the top spot in the AFC playoffs with a 23-20 victory over the Houston Texans.  Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson had only a so-so game passing, but the talented Baltimore offensive line, with three “5” rated players, opened up some gaping holes for Mark Ingram, Gus Edwards and Jackson, piling up 251 yards on only 34 carries (7.4 yards per attempt).

Still, Deshaun Watson and the Texans battled in this game, holding a 17-13 lead late in the 3rd quarter.  In fact, down by only 3 in the final moments of the game, they had the ball just over midfield in Ravens’ territory but a fourth down sack of Watson by Chris Wormley ended their threat and locked up Baltimore’s victory.

Houston is still alive in these playoffs . . . and we could see a rematch of these two teams as we march toward the Super Bowl!

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive woes continued in this game as Philip Rivers and the Los Angeles Chargers easily handled them in a 23-10 victory.  Pittsburgh actually drove the length of the field on their very first possession with fullback Benny Snell taking it in from 3 yards out.

But that was the lone TD the Steelers would pick up!

And, they are now heading home, eliminated from this post-season tournament, while the Chargers move on.

Melvin Gordon enjoyed a sold game, with 95 yards on 18 carries, but, really, the Pittsburgh defense played their typical good game, holding LA to under 300 yards of offense.  But 3 Steelers’ turnovers to none for the Chargers was a big reason why LA won.

The BIGGEST upset of the tournament so far!!  The 15th seeded team in the NFC, the Lions, tops the 4th seeded team, the Seahawks, by one point . . . on a missed extra point!  And, because this was Seattle’s second loss, they are booted from the playoffs!

Ironically, Seattle was never behind in this game until halfway through the final period.  Down 22-16, and starting from their own 8 yard line, Lions’ quarterback, Matthew Stafford, marched his troops the length of the field, only to see Kenny Golladay cough up the ball to the Seahawks on Seattle’s 7 yard line.  On the very next play, however, Russell Wilson took off on an 8-yard scramble, but he, too, fumbled the ball away to Rashaan Melvin.  Three plays later Kerryon Johnson scored from 2-yards out to tie up the game.

Then the veteran kicker, Matt Prater, nailed the extra point to give the Lions a one-point lead.  Seattle got the ball back but ended up punting it back to Detroit with about four minutes to play . . . but Johnson, carried the ball 9 times for 38 yards on the game’s final drive, eating up the clock and securing the upset victory for  the Lions!

Sometimes statistics can be deceiving.  In this contest, it appeared as if the Cowboys dominated!  After all, they controlled the clock and accumulated nearly 500 yards of offense, compared the San Francisco’s 317, and they sacked 49er’s quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo 6 times.  But Dallas also played on a much longer field and ended up on the short end of a 23-16 decision.

Still, Dallas had plenty of chances – actually taking the lead briefly midway through the 3rd quarter after a 51-yard TD pass from Dak Prescott to Michael Gallup.  But, it ended up being two costly turnovers that did the Boys in.  Jason Witten coughed up a fumble after a completion at his own 15 yard line, and Garoppolo found Emmanuel Sanders for a TD on the Niners’ first play following the turnover.

But, it was the second turnover that was particularly painful.  With about 3:00 left in the game, Dallas took over at their own 12 yard line, trailing by seven points.  Prescott, who had a terrific game, drove his team all the way down the field inside the San Francisco 10 yard line.  But, it was here that he got hit trying to throw and Nick Bosa picked off the errant pass with only 20 seconds left in the game to lock up a 49er’s victory.

The Bills dodge a bullet in this tournament!!  They narrowly defeat the lowest ranked team in the AFC, the Bengals, to advance to the next round.  But, despite a solid performance by their defense, their offense was horrible.

Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen completed less than 50% of his passes for only 174 yards and was picked off twice.  The Bills only scored one touchdown – that coming on a 53 yard run by the ageless Frank Gore early in the second half.  But, take that run out of the equation, and they averaged less than 3.5 yards per carry against a pretty weak defense.

In fact, if Cincinnati doesn’t turn the ball over 5 times, they probably would have won the game.  But, the Bengals are now eliminated while Buffalo limps on . . .

Drew Brees started this game completing 3 of 6 passes for 14 yards.  Then, he got serious, connecting on 30 of his final 33 passes for 295 yards and 3 TD’s!!!!  He doesn’t complete as many long passes as he did when he was younger . . . . but, when he’s on, he just doesn’t miss many open receivers, and boy, was he on today!

Down at the half, despite being heavily favored, the Saints controlled the ball for the majority of the final two periods and rallied for a 17-point victory, bouncing the Panthers from the playoffs.

Brees’ favorite target was Michael Thomas, who hauled in 13 catches for 125 yards and all three of New Orleans’ TD passes.  And, Alvin Kamara added 84 yards on just 11 carries, including a 36 yard scoring scamper for the Saints.

Here are the best single game performances from the second round of my tournament.  So far, the most remarkable player has been Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.  In two games, he has completed 47 of 70 passes (67.1%) for 710 yards, 1 interception and a remarkable 11 touchdowns!!!  That is an astronomical 133.93 passer rating!!!!  Here are the rest of the best:

Well, 32 games down . . . . and 8 teams eliminated.  Time to move to the next round!  I have 16 teams who are all 1-1.  They will play in one bracket, and each losing team will be eliminated.  I also have 8 teams who are unbeaten at 2-0.  They will play to determine the #1 and #2 seeds in each Conference, but each of these unbeaten teams will move on even if they lose their game in this round.  This will leave 16 teams – 8 in each Conference, who will then move into a single elimination tournament culminating in Conference Championship Games leading to the Super Bowl!  Here are the Round 3 Matchups:

Josh Allen is “The Man!”  In his game against the Texans, he completed 22 passes for 277 yards and two touchdowns.  He also ran 14 times for 102 yards!  But . . . he also fumbled three times and did not actually lead the Bills to a touchdown until only 1:25 remained in the game.

Buffalo really dominated this game statistically.  They ran up 510 yards of total offense to Houston’s 307.  But, their inability to actually finish drives with touchdowns cost them this game.  Twice in the first half they got the ball to the Houston seven yard line, and both times had to settle for chip-shot field goals.

Then, late in the second quarter, Bills’ punter Corey Bojorquez, kicking from his own 8 yard line, had a punt slide off the side of his foot and it only traveled 17 yards before going out of bounds at the Buffalo 25 yard line.  Three plays later the Texans’ Desaun Watson found Duke Johnson for a 14 yard TD pass.

The short punt and the fumbles allowed Houston to play on a much shorter playing field and offset a solid effort by the Bills’ defense.