What We Learned in the N.F.L.’s Divisional Round

A week after three road teams advanced in the wild-card round, three home teams took care of business in the divisional round. The weekend featured one of the biggest upsets in recent memory — Tennessee’s 28-12 stunner over Baltimore — but otherwise stuck to the expected script. That is not to say it was boring, however, with the 49ers, the Titans, the Chiefs and the Packers all making clear cases for themselves as Super Bowl contenders.

Here’s what we learned:

• A little rest goes a long way. San Francisco needed a win over Seattle in Week 17 to secure a first-round bye, and doing so appears to have set the team up for an extended run in the playoffs. The 49ers had three key starters return from injuries on defense and the difference was made readily apparent on Saturday in an easy 27-10 win over Minnesota. The one area of concern? Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo appeared to turn his ankle during the game, and was asked to do almost nothing in the second half, with the 49ers running the ball on nearly every play. Could those two things be related? And will that limitation stretch into Sunday’s N.F.C. championship game against Green Bay? One bonus of the scheduling is the 49ers, who played the early game on Saturday, having the longest rest of any of the teams playing next week.

• A lot of Patrick Mahomes goes a really long way. The Chiefs were down by 24-0 to the Texans early in the second quarter on Sunday, and Arrowhead Stadium was going through a sort of identity crisis. Everything changed when Mahomes found Damien Williams for a 17-yard touchdown pass. The stadium came alive, Mahomes seemed invigorated, and Kansas City reeled off a playoff-record seven consecutive drives that ended in a touchdown — and they added a field goal on the eighth for good measure in their 51-31 romp. Mahomes’s dominance was so overwhelming that most people probably did not even notice that he had a game-high 53 rushing yards to go with his 321 passing yards and five touchdowns.

• Derrick Henry is built for the playoffs. Henry, Tennessee’s seemingly unstoppable running back, had a terrific regular season, leading the N.F.L. with 1,540 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns, but that was somehow just the appetizer for a playoffs in which he has already rushed for 377 yards. Over the course of two games, Henry has eliminated the N.F.L.’s defending champions (the New England Patriots) and the team with the best record in the regular season (the Baltimore Ravens). Tennessee has not been taking any chances, letting its workhorse run the ball a combined 64 times, but Henry still has a long way to go if he wants to set a record for rushing yards in a single postseason: John Riggins had 610 yards over the course of four postseason games after the 1982 season, including 166 in the Washington Redskins’ win in Super Bowl XVII.

• Beware of Mr. & Mr. Smith. For the most part you know what you’re going to get with the Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers is going to knock your socks off with a few deep passes, Davante Adams is going to be on the receiving end of most of those passes, and this season the team added the wrinkle of Aaron Jones celebrating a touchdown on an inordinate number of plays — he did it 19 times during the regular season, and two more times on Sunday. But as the Packers demonstrated in Sunday’s win over Seattle, Za’Darius and Preston Smith have truly changed what you can expect from Green Bay on defense. They combined for 25.5 sacks during the regular season, and they each added two more on Sunday. It was Preston’s second that was the most important, as he crushed Russell Wilson to the turf late in the fourth quarter, ending a drive that could have resulted in Seattle’s taking the lead. The huge stop allowed Green Bay to preserve its 28-23 victory.

• Absolutely nothing about Lamar Jackson’s record-breaking season changes. Baltimore’s quarterback set an N.F.L. record for a quarterback with 1,206 rushing yards, led the league with 36 touchdown passes, and guided his team to a 13-2 record in his 15 starts. He was so popular among opponents that it became a regular thing for them to line up after games with jerseys for him to sign — despite his having just demolished their teams. If anyone tries to take a loss to the red-hot Tennessee Titans, combine it with last year’s playoff loss to the Chargers, and turn that into something about Jackson not being able to perform when the pressure is on, they will need to find a new victim. Jackson came back stronger from last season’s defeat, and after he picks up his Most Valuable Player Award on Feb. 1, he can set about coming back even stronger in the 2020 season.

The Weekend’s Top Performers

Top Passer: Patrick Mahomes

Passing was cool again this week. While the four wild-card games produced a total of only six passing touchdowns, this weekend’s action had 16 in the same number of games, with Mahomes personally contributing five. His statistics were eye-popping, but the fact that he did not give up when his team was down by 24-0 was even more impressive.

Top Runner: Derrick Henry

Tennessee passed the ball far more than people realize during the regular season, but in the playoffs the Titans are trusting in Henry, and he is rewarding that trust. His 195 rushing yards on Saturday was the ninth-highest total in a playoff game since at least 1950, and resulted in him breaking the Titans/Oilers franchise playoff record for a second consecutive week. He also threw his first career touchdown pass.

Four of the week’s top 10 rushing performances came from quarterbacks.

Top Receiver: Davante Adams

Choosing between Adams and Kansas City’s Travis Kelce is nearly impossible, as both had such huge days, but Adams gets the nod because of how vital he was to Green Bay’s victory. He accounted for 66 percent of Aaron Rodgers’s passing yards, caught both of the team’s passing touchdowns, and had a crucial 32-yard catch late in the fourth quarter to help ice the win. Kelce was just as productive, but he had far more help.

Next Week’s Schedule

No. 6 Tennessee Titans at No. 2 Kansas City Chiefs, 3:05 p.m. Sunday, CBS

Early line: Chiefs -7.5

No. 2 Green Bay Packers at No. 1 San Francisco 49ers, 6:40 p.m. Sunday, Fox

Early line: 49ers -7

One* Sentence About the Divisional Games

*Except when it takes more.

49ers 27, Vikings 10 San Francisco’s commitment to the hot hand at running back is extreme: Tevin Coleman led the 49ers with 102 rushing yards and two touchdowns on Saturday after not having had more than 40 yards in any game since Week 8 — when he had 105 rushing yards and four total touchdowns. Will Coleman get the ball again next week? Will Raheem Mostert? Is it Matt Breida’s turn? Not even they know.

Titans 28, Ravens 12 Ryan Tannehill threw for fewer than 100 yards for a second consecutive week, but it would be inaccurate to pretend that Tennessee’s second win of the playoffs was all Derrick Henry’s doing. Tannehill, playing in his second career playoff game, contributed two passing touchdowns — one of which went for 45 yards — and also ran for a score.

Packers 28, Seahawks 23 Seattle saw its season end, but not before Marshawn Lynch, who returned from retirement just three weeks ago, contributed three rushing touchdowns in the playoffs, and one in the regular-season finale. He showed he still has what it takes to be a goal-line back if he wants to play another season.

Chiefs 51, Texans 31 Houston tied for its second-most points in a game this season, and still lost by 20, which says a lot about how incredible Patrick Mahomes’s offense is when everything is clicking, and not too much about the electric future of Deshaun Watson.