Welp, so far the only interesting wild card game was the Cowboys vs 49ers (and only really the 4th quarter). Here's hoping the Cardinals and Rams can at least make the game competitive throughout. Tired of watching these blowout games.

Bengals-Raiders wasn't too bad, but overall the games have been a disappointment. Bucs-Eagles and Chiefs-Steelers were always mismatches, meanwhile the Patriots (who were supposed to be a legit contender) may as well have not shown up.

Luckily they're finishing the week strong with a great matchup along with the first ever playoff Manningcast game.

That the announcers even made light of, yet some people continue to spout "ZOMG DALIS GAWT SCROOD BIE DA REUFZ IGEN@!!11!2" garbage on the internet. It's not the ref's fault Dak doesn't know the damn rules, and with the track record of that team and guys on the outs, it was this year or broke for DAL, too. I remember saying if they ain't winning a SB with the 3rd seed, 12-5 record and 3rd-ranked offense AND 6th-ranked defense, they ain't sniffing a SB ever again, and whadd'ya know? McCarthy blows it with the biggest playcall fail I've ever seen with all the chips on the line.

You better believe SAS will have a LOT to say about this one on First Take this morning, especially if his latest Tweet is anything to go by (trigger warning for Cowboys fans) :

I almost feel bad for Michael Irvin.

People mistook their big wins over the Jets (54-13), Panthers (24-6), Browns (45-7), and Falcons (25-0) as meaning the Patriots were Super Bowl bound for some reason.  The combined record of those teams is 24 W 44 L.  New England had 5 games against playoff teams this season and won 2 of them.  They lost to Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Buffalo, while beating the Titans and Buffalo once in ridiculous weather conditions that nerfed Buffalo's offense.  Their 2nd and 3rd meetings with Buffalo proved that the Pats were never on the Bills level.

Cry me a river about Steelers opponents with Covid.  The Steelers entire 2020 season was derailed by their opponents not being able to contain Covid outbreaks on their rosters.  

2020 Regular Season Schedule                                       2020 Actual Schedule
Sept. 14 at NY Giants, 7:15 p.m.                                       Sept. 14 Steelers 26 at NY Giants 16
Sept. 20 vs. Denver, 1:00 p.m.                                          Sept. 20 Steelers 26 vs. Denver 21
Sept. 27 vs. Houston, 1:00 p.m.                                        Sept. 27 Steelers 28 vs. Houston 21
Oct. 4 at Tennessee, 1:00 p.m.                                      Game postponed by Titans Covid outbreak
Oct. 11 vs. Philadelphia, 1:00 p.m.                                     Oct. 11 Steelers 38 vs. Philadelphia 29
Oct. 18 vs. Cleveland, 1:00 p.m.                                        Oct. 18 Steelers 38 vs. Cleveland 7
Oct. 25 at Baltimore, 1:00 p.m.                                      Oct. 25 Steelers 27 at Tennessee 24
BYE                                                                                 Nov 1 Steelers 28 at Baltimore 24
Nov. 8 at Dallas, 4:25 p.m.                                                Nov. 8 Steelers 24 at Dallas 19
Nov. 15 vs. Cincinnati, 1:00 p.m.                                        Nov. 15 Steelers 36 vs. Cincinnati 10
Nov. 22 at Jacksonville, 1:00 p.m.                                      Nov. 22 Steelers 27 at Jacksonville 3
Nov. 26 vs. Baltimore, 8:20 p.m.                                   Dec. 2 Steelers 19 vs. Baltimore 14
Dec. 6 vs. Washington, 1:00 p.m.                                      Dec. 6 Steelers 17 vs. Washington 23
Dec. 13 at Buffalo, 8:20 p.m.                                            Dec. 13 Steelers 26 at Buffalo 15
Dec. 21 at Cincinnati, 8:15 p.m.                                        Dec. 21 Steelers 27 at Cincinnati 17
Dec. 27 vs. Indianapolis, 1:00 p.m.                                    Dec. 27 Steelers 28 vs. Indianapolis 24
Jan. 3 at Cleveland, 1:00 p.m.                                          Jan. 3 Steelers 22 at Cleveland 24

The Steelers lost their mid-season Nov 1 Bye week, because the Titans could not field a team to play against them on Oct 4.  They had to take their week off in Week 4 of the NFL season.  So early in the season, that no other NFL teams were originally scheduled to be off that weekend.  

Then, the Steelers Nov 26 game against the Baltimore Ravens was postponed 3 times due to a Ravens Covid outbreak moving the game from November 26 to December 2.  This resulted in Pittsburgh having a 3 day off week before having to get back on the field against Washington on Dec 6.  What a coincidence that's the exact moment the Steelers undefeated season completely unraveled.  So, again, cry me a river about Pittsburgh "benefitting" from opponents having Covid the following year.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh lost JuJu Smith-Schuster for the entire season in Week 5.  He had 97 catches on 128 targets for 831 yards and 9 TD's last year.  You don't think that created a hole in Pittsburgh's offense?  You don't think the Steelers had any high profile inactives in any games this year?  The NFL's sack leader T.J. Watt was out due to injury on both 9/26 vs Cincinnati and 11/21 at Chargers.  Both losses.  You don't think the Steelers could have used some pressure on Justin Herbert in a game which Pittsburgh scored 37 points but gave up 41?  You don't think they could have used their best cover man Minkah Fitzpatrick either, who also missed the Chargers game?  You don't think Big Ben would have beaten the Detroit Lions in a game the Steelers had to settle for a tie without him? 

Every team in the NFL catches opponents with injuries, or in this era with Covid inactives.  Let's not cherry pick instances to say the Steelers somehow lucked their way into a winning record this year while playing a Top 10 Strength of Schedule.  

One other thing that bugs me is this fixation on the Steelers offensive regression, but no one talks about the way in which the Mike Tomlin defensively-led Steelers has exited the post season in the Steelers last 3 playoff appearances:

But sure, let's blame the offense for not averaging over 45 points per game.

I'll finish this rant by saying there are worse ways to go out then Ben (29 of 44, 215 yards, 2 TD's, 0 Ints) did last night.  Dan Marino ended his career in a 62-7 playoff loss against Jacksonville with an 11 of 25 for 95 yards with 1 TD and 2 Int's stat line.  Jacksonville led 38-0 before Marino's first completion of the game, and he ended up getting pulled from the game after 1 series in the 2nd half.  

I wasn't expecting anything good in last night's game, but the Steelers surprised me by containing Patrick Maholmes and the KC offense for over 1.5 quarters, and actually having a 7-0 lead with 6 minutes to go before halftime.  To my pleasant surprise, I got to watch almost an entire half of football before feeling like my team was out of the game.  Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.  Even so, as badly as they got beat, the Patriots 30 point loss to Buffalo was worse.  New England didn't score a single point until they were down 26-0.  Anyway, now the Steelers will spend the rest of the postseason in the same positiion the Cleveland Browns are:

Not sure why you are so defensive of the Steelers offense.  Especially since it is responsible for at least 2 of those losses, and arguably the 3rd as well.

Let's start with the Chiefs game yesterday.  The Steelers had 39 net yards at the end of the first half.  Net 40 if you want to take out the kneel down to end the half.  You are not going to win any game playing offense like that.  After the Chiefs scored a TD on the opening drive for the 3rd quarter, and then forced a fumble and scored another TD, the game was over.  The Chiefs played prevent defense the rest of the way.  While the game was "close", the Steelers possessions ended: Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, End of Half, Fumble.  Net 38 yards on those 9 drives. The defense getting lit up by the Chiefs is nothing to be ashamed about.  Happens to a lot of teams.

Let's go to the Browns game.  All you need to know is Browns, zero turnovers, Steelers, 5 turnovers.  Steelers possessions started: Fumble, Interception, Punt, Interception, Punt, Interception.  28-0 start for the Browns.  Game was basically over at that point.  Win probability for the Browns never dropped below 85% after that point.  The second half garbage time points made it look closer than it actually was (TD with 1:09 left).  Offense lost this game too.

Finally the Jaguars game.  Another game they lost the turnover battle, this time 2 to zero.  Problem was the first interception set up a short field (18 yard line) for the Jaguars to easily go up 14-0 in the 1st quarter.  Then a Ben fumble was returned for a defensive TD to make it 28-7.  They gifted 14 points to the Jaguars in a game they lost by 3.  Although again, the final score looks a lot closer than the game actually was.  The Steelers scored two TDs right at the end of the game.  One with 2:01 left, and one with 0:01 left.  The defense only gave up 378 yards in this one.  And the Jaguars were actually the 5th highest scoring team in the league in 2017, and 6th in yards.  Not that bad a job considering the competition.  The turnovers on offense is what really did it.

If you look at the advanced statistics for the Steelers this year, the offense was bad.  Football Outsiders DVOA have them as the 25th best offense in the NFL.  ESPN FPI has them as the 27th best offense.

Cardinals looking absolutely awful. Looking like another blowout game. *yawn*

I knew I was going to forget to make my prediction for this game.

I don't deny the Steelers offensive has been bad this year.  I've never shied away from saying the offensive line is atrocious, or that the receivers have a major issue with dropping passes.  Diontae Johnson personally ended 2 Steeler first half drives with dropped passes of well thrown balls on 3rd downs.  And yeah, Ben regressed as the years wore on, as aging QB's do (see Peyton Manning and Drew Brees) especially after the year he lost a season with the elbow injury.  But, you're right to call out the turnovers in the other 2 playoff games I mentioned, although Ben was turnover free in the KC game this weekend (Najee Harris had his first fumble of the year deep in Steeler territory to set up another Chiefs score).  I was on a rant and didn't need to throw in mention of those other games, but the scores stuck out in my head at the time.  The Steelers were a consistently Top 10 offense the last 3 years that Todd Haley ran it.  Yet, he was the only one to get thrown under the bus after the Jacksonville loss.  So, I'll always be salty that they didn't win a Super Bowl when they had the offensive trifecta of Big Ben, Antonio Brown, and Le'Veon Bell playing together in their prime. 

Anyway, the Steelers were 1 out of 4 playoff teams to get trounced this weekend.  And of the 4, they were the only one to have held a lead at any point in the game.