Participants,

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re the #1 seed and had that extra week to rest and prepare.  Both the Tennessee Titans and Green Bay Packers were our #1 seeds this year and both were unceremoniously ushered out of the playoffs.  Both sent packing on a late FG.

Wincinnati Bengals 19, Tennessee(ya) Titans 16
Bengals QB Joe couldn’t Burrow a hole fast enough to avoid being sacked a playoff record 9 times.  But somehow he kept his cool and managed to orchestrate a few key drives that led to a HUGE upset in Nashville.  A big assist from Titans QB Ryan Tannehill, who tossed 3 INT’s – that last one on the Titans final drive especially hurt.  The Music City is certainly singing the Blues today.

The Bengals better find a way to protect their QB next Sunday.

Who Dey?  Dey headed to the AFC Championship Game!

HSBT Update
Greg the Great amassed the most points, with 118, while Ben the Butler kept the goose-egg streak alive.  Interestingly, JTB was the only participant to pick Who Dey but ended up with the 4th most points in this game.  However, he has the Bengals winning it all!

San Francisco 49ers 13, Green Bay Packing It Up 10
The Special teams were anything but for the Pack, as the game’s critical score came on a blocked punt that the 49ers scooped up for a TD.  On a balmy winter night in Wisconsin (10° with a wind chill of around zero), the Packers offense had a major meltdown in the tundra.  They took the opening kickoff right down the field for 7 points.  Game over, right?

49er QB Jimmy G didn’t complete a pass until late in the 2nd quarter and the Packers held the halftime lead, 7-0.  San Francisco amassed a nifty -7 totals yards in the first half.  That’s how bad it was.

Then the snow started as the 2nd half opened and the 49ers guardian angel “wide back” Deebo Samuel saved the day.  Add a few key catches by TE George Kittle (not Bailey) and “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the boys by the Bay.

SF K Robbie Gould remained perfect in the playoffs, with the game-winner splitting the uprights with 00:03 left on the game clock.

Warmer weather will greet the victorious 49ers next Sunday for their 3rd road game of the playoffs.

HSBT Update
JTB took honors with 60 points and the goose-egg tally increased to 6, complements of Buffalo Bill.  Speaking of him, he picked the Packers to win it all.  Would you think with that name he might have chosen that team from western New York??  Serves him right, I guess.  Greg the Great was the only participant to pick the 49ers but earned only the 3rd most points in this one.

LA Rams 30, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27
For the 3rd time this weekend, the visiting team won very late in the 4th quarter (or as time expired) by 3 points to secure a place in next week’s championship game.  The Rams started out firing on all cylinders and looked like they were going run away with a blowout victory.  In the meantime, Tompa Bay was looking for replacement spark plugs, as they sputtered time and again and found themselves down 20-3 at halftime.

When the Rams engineered another TD, it looked as if the Bucs were not going to be the repeat Super Bowl champs any longer.  But then the GOAT got a couple of breaks and the Rams started to make some unforeseen errors, allowing the Bucs to tie it up late in the 4th quarter.  On the final drive of the day, the tired Bucs D again allowed Rams WR Cooper to again get open deep in the secondary and Kupp in another catch.  A 30-yard FG as the clock struck 00:00 and the Rams sneak out of Florida with a road playoff win.

Being back in Sofi Stadium will be Sofine for the Rams.

HSBT Update
A tie for the most points, with Buffalo Bill and Comeback each earning 108 points.  Greg the Great and Pete the Terp also tie for the least points, extending the goose-egg streak to 7 straight games.

Buffalo Bills 36, Kansas City Chiefs 42 (OT)
For the 4th time this weekend, the visiting team won by 3 points very late in the 4th quarter (this time with an improbable TD pass with 00:13 left on the game clock)!  Wait – there’s no way the Chiefs could possibly take the ensuing kickoff into FG position with those few, scant seconds left.  But they did, and then a coin toss decided who would win this ultra-classic battle of 2 teams that would not quit.  I’m sure the Buffalo sports media won’t have an opinion on that rule for OT play.

An unbelievable heart-wrenching loss for the Bills.  In the end, their tired D just couldn’t keep up with the Chiefs speedy arsenal of WR’s.  Time and again, the Bills rallied to keep the game within 1 score.

I’m not sure you will see a more exciting game with a heart-stopping loss for the Bills faithful.

HSBT Update
Comeback Kid again on Sunday amassed the most points, with 114.  I’m sure he would have given up all those points for a Bills victory.  Greg the Great made sure the goose-egg streak remained intact.

HSBT Update
What a miserable weekend for the participants. 2-2 was the best individual record (JTB) for these 8 prognosticators and overall they were 8-24.  Definitely a record for futility and a lot of soul-searching will be evident in the upcoming week.

• Comeback Kid – Shattered by the score of the last game of the weekend, but is now your overall leader with 473 points
• 2022 Winner – although he went 0-4 over the weekend, he was able to stay in serious contention and is only 102 points off the lead with 371 points
• Pete the Terp – Moved up to Bronze Chicken Wing status with a glum but fairly productive weekend. He now has 346 points
• Buffalo Bill – Remains in 4th place just 1 point behind Pete the Terp, with 345 points
• Henrico FiveOh – Has 330 points, adding to the close totals after this past weekend
• JTB – His 321 points are keeping him the running, while his 2-2 weekend record was the best
• Ben the Butler – Had a quiet weekend and now has 266 points. He’ll need to step it up going forward if he still has his eyes on the trophy
• Greg the Great – Not so great this weekend, with a couple of goose-eggs on Sunday. But with the majority of points still out there for the taking, he’ll need to hone in his accuracy for next weekend’s games

4 unbelievable endings to 4 nail-biting games which may have been the best weekend of games in a very long time.  Once you start to think ahead to the Conference Championship games, keep in mind that 55% of all points are earned with only 3 games left in the competition.  So, everyone is still very much in the running for HSBT34!

Until later in the week, I remain

~  The Commish