It truly was a wild weekend, with only 2 of the 6 home teams advancing to the Divisional Round and the Browns exceeding the over/under (47.5 points) by themselves in a whoopin’ of the Steelers, 48-37, during the weekend finale Sunday night.  The #3 and #4 seeds in the AFC and NFC are now out of the playoffs.

Let’s get into a review of the Super Wild Card Weekend games.

Buffalo Bills 27, Indianapolis Colts 24
What a way to begin the playoffs in front of 6,700 Bills faithful for the 1st time in 25 years.  A see-saw battle that could have gone either way to the very last play, when Colts QB Philip Rivers threw a Hail Mary that was knocked down by the Bills.  All one could think of was while the ball floated towards the Bills end zone was the Week 10 “Hail Murray” that gave the Cardinals a win over the Bills in the desert – their last loss.

The Bills lived up to all the hype for the most part and came up with several clutch plays to keep drives alive.  QB Josh Allen put a stamp on his All-Pro season and was throwing darts all over the field when not making a critical 3rd down runs.  You gotta question the Colts decision-making and wonder how things would have ended if K Blankenship had not clinked one off the upright earlier in the day.  It wasn’t a 47-yard wide right miss, but it could be the start of redemption for the Bills.  Kudo’s to the Bills WR’s – Stefon Diggs proved he’s a star, the diminutive Cole Beastley continued to make clutch catches over the middle and Gabriel Davis displayed some big time “toe drag swag” on 2 or 3 grabs.

2021 Winner starts off the HSBT post-season with 65 points, taking the early (and insurmountable?) lead.

LA Rams 30, (Sleepless in) Seattle Seahawks 20
The Rams started a backup QB John Wolford, who immediately got his bell rung, forcing injured Jared Goff (recovering from surgery to his right thumb 2 weeks ago) to come in.  So much for the Rams chances…  The Seahawks continued to struggle mightily on offense and combined with the LA top-notch D, Hawks QB Russell Wilson had a lousy day.  Their OL needs an upgrade and it became obvious as Wilson was scrambling most of the day when he wasn’t getting sacked.

The Rams win this season’s rubber match and are advancing, and hope star DT Aaron Donald will be OK after a rib cartilage injury that forced him to miss most of the 2nd half.

Pete the Terp earns 65 points in this game, while Ben the Butler chalks up a goose-egg.

Tampa Bay Football Team 31, Washington Football Team 23
The game script for both teams followed the predictions of almost everyone.  The GOAT was not pressured too often and consistently found his WR targets, who now seem to be a very strong and imposing group going forward.  On the other side, Washington fill-in QB Heinecke (bet you can guess what his favorite beer is) played admirably and kept the WFT within a TD for the lead most of the night.

Tampa Bay seems to be peaking at the right time, which is usually the case when #12 is your playoff QB.  This team will be dangerous next weekend.  Meanwhile, the WFT gets to mull over a 7-9 season and try to come up with a nickname.

Comeback Kid takes honors in this one with 45 points.

Baltimore Colts Ravens 20, Houston Oilers Tennessee Titans 13
We all expected a classic in this one and got it!  Great way to start the Sunday action!  The Ravens kept Titans RB Derrick Henry in check all day (50 yards rushing compared to his season total of 2,027) and QB Lamar Jackson had several key dashes (including 1 for a TD).  The D ruled the day for both teams and the low score reflected it.  This game proved how hard it is to beat a team 3 times in a row, which the Titans had a chance to accomplish.

Disappointment for the Titans, who went to the conference championship last year.  The Ravens have won their last 6 and a classic battle is brewing for next Saturday night in Orchard Park.

Henrico FiveOh begins his Sunday domination with 74 points.

New Orleans Saints 21, da Bears 9
It was fun to watch this game on Nickelodeon and to see winning coach Payton getting slimed afterwards.  Not a stellar performance by either team, but enough by the Saints to host another game next weekend.  It was the Saints D that came though in the clutch, making life miserable for Bears QB Trubisky all day.  da Bears backed their way into the playoffs and left New Orleans through the back door to avoid any errant slime.

Henrico FiveOh continued to shine, earning 111 points to lead the way, breaking Greg the Great’s mark of 110 for a Wild Card game that was set in 1996.

Dawgs Gotta Eat 48, Patheticburgh 37
Was this a Sci-Fi movie?  Before you could get a second beer, da Browns were up 28-0 in the 1st quarter!  The Steel Curtain was reduced to an electronic underground fence running on less than 5 (TJ) Watts.  The Browns faithful were waiting for a Ben comeback and it did start getting a little tight around the collar in the 3rd quarter, but Browns RB Nick Chubb had a timely TD dash that ultimately put away the home team.  The Browns not only finally made the playoffs, but won on the road (and in Pitifulburgh, where they had lost 17 in a row!)

Ben the Butler leads the way with 96 points, as HenricoFiveOh cools down with a rare goose-egg.

HSBT STANDINGS
After 6 (instead of the customary 4) games completed, as predicted we have a few new Wild Card Round records:

• JTB (290 points) and HenricoFiveOh (245 points) set new weekend standards for points, surpassing Comeback Kid’s record of 243 set in 2010
• The aforementioned HenricoFiveOh set a single-game scoring mark of 110 points

Current standings going into the Divisional Round games this weekend:

• JTB holds the lead with 290 points – enjoy the Dawg bones!
• HenricoFiveOh is also off to a very good start with 245 points
• Greg the Great is currently in 3rd with 184 points, plus he won’t have to worry about picking his Seahawks or da Bears going forward
• Buffalo Bill is off to his usual strong start with 172 points, good for 4th place at this time
• Ben the Butler capped off the weekend with a nice 136-point effort after missing the last 2 seasons
• 2021 Winner has 132 points and will be very dangerous going forward
• Pete the Terp is in 7th with 129 points and will have the difficult choice to make for the upcoming Baltimore at Buffalo game
• Rounding out the scoring is Comeback Kid with 128 points, but he stated that a comeback is in the works for this year!

Kudo’s to all Participants for properly submitting their weekend scores on time.  Let’s keep it going this weekend, when the scores for all 4 weekend games are to be submitted no later than 1:00pm EST on Saturday, January 16.  There is a lot of football left and roughly 87% of the total points remain up for grabs!

I’ll be back with another analysis and set of predictions later in the week for the Divisional Round games.

Until then, I am

~~ The Commish