Raphael Stevens

More stories

  • 113 Shares189 Views

    in Football

    NFL Playoff Predictions: Our Picks in the Divisional Round

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyN.F.L. Playoff Predictions: Our Picks in the Divisional RoundThe A.F.C.’s young quarterbacks fight for a trip to the conference championship, while veterans, and defense, lead the way in the N.F.C.Jalen Ramsey of the Los Angeles Rams, foreground, largely nullified D.K. Metcalf of the Seattle Seahawks, lying on field, in three meetings this season. Can he neutralize Green Bay receiver Davante Adams?Credit…Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesJan. 14, 2021, 12:01 a.m. ETFew thought the Los Angeles Rams or the Cleveland Browns would get this far, and the Buffalo Bills had far more success than could be expected. The Baltimore Ravens stormed back into contention, a pair of 40-something quarterbacks will face off in New Orleans and everyone is (or should be) scared of the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The wheat has been separated from the chaff, and the divisional round will narrow things further.Here is a look at this weekend’s N.F.L. playoff matchups. Unlike in the regular season, the picks are not made against the point spread.Saturday’s GamesLos Angeles Rams at Green Bay Packers, 4:35 p.m., FoxLine: Packers -6.5 | Total: 45.5Much will be made about the relationship between Coach Sean McVay of the Rams and Coach Matt LaFleur of the Packers. LaFleur served as McVay’s offensive coordinator in 2017, and they were offensive assistants together on Washington’s staff from 2010 to 2013. They are key figures in an offensive revolution, but if you are hoping for a high-scoring affair, you might want to try another game.Green Bay led the N.F.L. in scoring thanks to a turn-the-clock-way-back season from Aaron Rodgers that has him in contention for the Most Valuable Player Award. His success came with help from the running of Aaron Jones (1,459 yards from scrimmage), the vertical threat of Marquez Valdes-Scantling (20.9 yards per reception) and the all-around brilliance of Davante Adams (115 catches, 1,374 yards and 18 touchdowns).But if there is a team designed to slow the Packers, it is the Rams.Few defenses can match the relentless pass rush of Aaron Donald and Leonard Floyd, and while Rodgers does not fluster easily, the few times he has shown weakness in recent years have come when he is under consistent pressure. Complicating matters is the absence of the star left tackle David Bakhtiari, whose season ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in Week 16.Jones could be neutralized by a Rams front seven that ranked third in the N.F.L. in run defense — yes, Donald leads the way there too. Green Bay relying on the home run threat of Valdes-Scantling is risky thanks to his propensity for dropped passes.That leaves the most intriguing matchup as the one between the shutdown cornerback Jalen Ramsey and Adams, who can make a case as the N.F.L.’s best, and most underappreciated, current receiver.“You know me, I’d like to go against anybody and have good-on-good as much as possible,” Adams said this week when asked about Ramsey.On neutral ground, and with equal health, this could add up to a Rams upset. But Green Bay fought hard to gain the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, and that hard work could be the team’s saving grace. It is expected to be around 30 degrees at kickoff in Green Bay, Wis., and Rams quarterback Jared Goff is only a few weeks removed from surgery on the thumb of his throwing hand. He appeared to struggle with his grip last week, and the cold, combined with a good-enough Packers defense, should give Green Bay all the edge it needs. Pick: PackersLooking for his first playoff win against the Titans, Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens took care of things himself. He led his team with 136 yards rushing last week.Credit…Wesley Hitt/Getty ImagesBaltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills, 8:15 p.m., NBCLine: Bills -2.5 | Total: 50The Ravens have not lost a game since Dec. 2. The Bills have not lost one since Nov. 15. Both have weatherproof offenses and defenses capable of game-changing plays. And both overcame some psychological weight in the wild-card round — Buffalo got its first postseason victory since the 1995 season; Lamar Jackson of the Ravens won a playoff game for the first time.There are myriad reasons to pull for both teams — and a persistent belief that either team advancing is just signing up to lose to Kansas City in the next round — but it is hard to believe that Buffalo, even at home, can slow Baltimore’s juggernaut running game.When the Ravens hit the “reset button” after a midseason lull, the team focused nearly all of its attack on the running of quarterback Lamar Jackson and running backs J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards. That led to Baltimore’s rushing for 230 or more yards in four of its final five games of the regular season, including a ludicrous 404 — the fifth-most rushing yards in N.F.L. history — in a Week 17 win over Cincinnati. That kept up in the wild-card round, with the Ravens running for 236 yards.Buffalo ranked 17th in run defense this season, but that ranking would have been worse had teams not been forced to pass to keep up with the Bills’ electric offense. That shows up in the fact that Buffalo ranked among the N.F.L.’s six worst run defenses in yards per carry (4.6) and rushing touchdowns allowed (21).The Bills’ defense has several players capable of serious disruption, but much of that comes in the secondary. On a chilly day in Orchard Park, N.Y., the Ravens could focus on running the ball, and it is hard to see the Bills being able to stop them. Buffalo’s offense can’t be counted out, even against a solid Ravens defense, but Baltimore should control the clock and the game. Pick: RavensSunday’s GamesM.J. Stewart of the Cleveland Browns made an incredible interception of a Ben Roethlisberger pass last week. It was Cleveland’s second takeaway in the first five minutes of the game.Credit…Joe Sargent/Getty ImagesCleveland Browns at Kansas City Chiefs, 3:05 p.m., CBSLine: Chiefs -10 | Total: 56.5For all intents and purposes, Cleveland advanced to the divisional round after slightly more than 13 minutes of its wild-card game against Pittsburgh. A playoff game has rarely gone sideways so quickly, with the Browns’ defense forcing three quick turnovers and their offense handling its end of the deal by running up a 28-0 lead with 1 minute 56 seconds left in the first quarter.The Browns’ 48-37 win should not be written off as a fluke — Cleveland has its best team since Coach Bill Belichick was roaming the sideline in the mid-1990s — but taking advantage of Ben Roethlisberger’s mistakes is a lot different from forcing Patrick Mahomes into some, so expecting a repeat of that lightning-fast start would be foolish.Kansas City might get running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire back from a scary-looking hip injury in Week 15. Even if they don’t, a combination of Le’Veon Bell and Damien Williams provides enough balance that Mahomes should be able to shred Cleveland’s secondary with deep passes to wide receiver Tyreek Hill and throws underneath to tight end Travis Kelce.Cleveland’s offense has occasionally shown some burst — last week’s effort was the franchise’s highest-scoring postseason game since the 1954 N.F.L. championship — and the Browns can chew up the clock thanks to the superb combination of running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. But even Baker Mayfield’s most ardent believers should struggle to take him in a head-to-head matchup with Mahomes. The Browns aren’t pushovers, but they probably cannot do much to stand in Kansas City’s way. Pick: ChiefsTampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints, 6:40 p.m., FoxLine: Saints -3 | Total: 52The oldest starting quarterback left in the A.F.C. playoffs is Baker Mayfield, who doesn’t turn 26 until April. Three of the four starters in that conference were first-round picks in the 2018 draft. By the time any of the four had started a game in the N.F.L., Tom Brady had already won five Super Bowls and Drew Brees was closing in on Dan Marino’s record for career passing yards.The young players have largely reimagined the quarterback position, using their mobility to empower their passing while contributing to a leaguewide scoring explosion. Yet Brady and Brees, museum-quality examples of a forgotten age of pocket passers, carry on, leading serious Super Bowl contenders in the second week of the playoffs.In truth, this game shouldn’t be defined just by its famous quarterbacks. Brees’s Saints had plenty of offense this season — running back Alvin Kamara led the N.F.L. with 21 total touchdowns — but relied just as much on the defense, which Dennis Allen, the team’s defensive coordinator, built into a powerhouse.Tampa Bay has a talented young defense as well — the support on that side of the ball undoubtedly played a role in Brady’s decision to sign there — and in recent weeks, the Buccaneers have started to truly click on offense. The team’s wealth of receiving options — wide receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown; tight end Rob Gronkowski — powered Brady to his best statistical season since at least 2017 and one of the best of his career.The regular-season meetings between these teams were laughable. The Saints won both, with a combined score of 72-26. And they are playing at home, which plays a role for them even if the impact is lessened by the tiny crowds that the team is allowed to host. The Buccaneers are a good enough team that they should be respected — in many ways, this feels like a tossup — but the Saints are rightly narrow favorites in what could be the most competitive game of the weekend. Pick: Saints.All times are Eastern.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 125 Shares119 Views

    in Football

    NFL Playoffs: What We Learned From the Wild Card Weekend

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat We Learned From the N.F.L.’s Wild-Card WeekendLamar Jackson finally won a playoff game, Tom Brady continued to break records and Nickelodeon’s broadcast of a game for children offered a welcome distraction.Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens has rushed for more than 130 yards in two of his three career playoff games.Credit…Mark Zaleski/Associated PressJan. 10, 2021Updated 9:18 p.m. ETIt was a supersize wild-card weekend, with the N.F.L.’s expanded playoff format requiring six games, rather than four, in the first two days of the postseason. There were no surprises in the results of the first five games, but most were close enough to provide plenty of entertainment.Here’s what we learned:It is time for a new Lamar Jackson narrative. It was hard to tell if the Baltimore Ravens were a top contender or a beneficiary of one of the N.F.L.’s weakest schedules over the final five weeks of the regular season. And with consecutive seasons that each ended in a disappointing playoff loss, there were those who questioned whether Jackson’s run-heavy style could translate to postseason success. After watching Baltimore race for 236 yards on the ground in a 20-13 win on the road against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, those narratives can be retired. Baltimore won’t surprise anyone, but knowing what’s coming is a lot different from knowing how to stop it.With his first playoff win and his team’s defense playing well, Jackson should finally be able to relax. That should terrify opponents, because Jackson, who rushed for 136 yards on Sunday and 143 in last year’s playoff loss to Tennessee, already owns two of the top three playoff rushing performances by a quarterback in N.F.L. history.[embedded content]Nickelodeon should broadcast a game every week. Keeping things interesting when a heavily favored team wins easily can be hard, but a broadcast on Nick aimed at children managed to do just that. The announcers explained the game at a base level, but had entertaining insights along the way, as when the former N.F.L. player Nate Burleson described being tackled as feeling like “falling down wooden stairs.” As for the actual game, the New Orleans Saints barely broke a sweat while beating the Chicago Bears, 21-9. The only real misstep of the broadcast was a fan vote leading to Mitchell Trubisky, the losing quarterback, being named the game’s most valuable player. Over all, the innovations led to the least competitive game of the weekend being must-see TV. (Related: The writer of this article has two children.)Credit…NBCTom Brady is leaving no stone unturned. Brady, the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (that still sounds weird), already had plenty of N.F.L. records, but he broke one on Saturday that had lasted for 50 years, passing George Blanda to become the oldest player to throw a touchdown pass in a playoff game. Brady, at 43 years 159 days, threw two touchdown passes in Tampa Bay’s 31-23 win on Saturday over the Washington Football Team, and will most likely push the record further next weekend in the divisional round. As Drew Brees is the only other active quarterback in his 40s, and is potentially retiring after this season, Brady’s record — should he ever choose to stop playing — could be safe for quite some time.Brady’s triumph led to jokes on social media after an NBC graphic showed how much younger Brady looks than Blanda did in 1971 (above). But Blanda’s fans still have some bragging rights: A versatile player for the Oakland Raiders, he not only had two touchdown passes in that A.F.C. championship game against the Baltimore Colts, but he also kicked the extra point after both touchdowns and connected on a 48-yard field goal.The Los Angeles Rams were leading the Seattle Seahawks, 6-3, when Darious Williams stepped in front of a pass by Russell Wilson and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown.Credit…Ted S. Warren/Associated PressThese are not the 2018 Los Angeles Rams. In the 2018 season, Coach Sean McVay used a groundbreaking offense — and a fairly mediocre defense — to lead the Rams to the Super Bowl. The script has officially been flipped, with Los Angeles going as far as its defense can take it. Facing the Seattle Seahawks, who finished eighth in the N.F.L. in scoring, Aaron Donald and the Rams’ front seven put a ton of pressure on Russell Wilson, sacking him five times in the Rams’ 30-20 victory on Saturday. The Rams also showed an aggressive streak when cornerback Darious Williams burst through a pair of Seattle players at the line of scrimmage to intercept a pass by Wilson, returning it 42 yards for a touchdown.Strong performances from the team’s defense and its rookie running back Cam Akers (28 carries for 131 yards and a touchdown) were particularly important since quarterback Jared Goff appeared limited after recent surgery on the thumb of his throwing hand.Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills are a problem for opposing teams. Buffalo’s defense might be the only thing standing in their way.Credit…Adrian Kraus/Associated PressThe Bills aren’t going to make it easy — for them or their opponents. A 27-24 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday gave Buffalo its first playoff win since 1995. The game managed to show off the Bills’ strengths and weaknesses. Quarterback Josh Allen (324 yards passing, 54 yards rushing, three total touchdowns) and wide receiver Stefon Diggs (128 yards receiving and a touchdown) were dominant, and safety Micah Hyde saved the day with a late pass deflection, but alarm bells should be ringing that Buffalo’s defense allowed 472 yards of total offense and nearly gave up what had been a 24-10 lead in the fourth quarter. The Bills did not have a sack or a turnover in the game, and got almost no contribution from the team’s running backs. As good as Allen and Diggs are, the rest of the team will need to step up for this run to continue.The expanded playoffs are a major time investment. As some feared, expanding the playoff field to 14 teams, from 12, led to an 8-8 squad — the Chicago Bears — qualifying for postseason play. In addition, the N.F.C. East was won by the 7-9 Washington Football Team, leaving only five of the N.F.C.’s entrants with winning records. But this year’s A.F.C. provided a good argument for the format, because it allowed the formidable 11-5 Indianapolis Colts to qualify. The conference even had a team with a winning record — the 10-6 Miami Dolphins — that did not make the playoffs.The ultimate goal of the Super Wild Card Weekend, however, was money. Games were broadcast across multiple networks and streaming platforms for more than 10 hours on both days. With the smaller in-person crowds, you could almost hear the league’s cash registers welcoming that boost in advertising revenue.The Dearly DepartedThis weekend, we said goodbye to the following teams. Each team has things it can look forward to and things it can work on heading into next season.If the Seattle Seahawks want to succeed in the playoffs, the team will need to give quarterback Russell Wilson more time to throw.Credit…Scott Eklund/Associated PressThe Seattle Seahawks12-4 | N.F.C. West championsIn the first half of the season, the Seahawks appeared to have a Super Bowl-quality offense and a high-school-level defense. While Seattle ironed out many of its defensive woes, it was Russell Wilson and the team’s offense that looked overwhelmed on Saturday — that happens a lot against the Los Angeles Rams’ underrated defense. Where does that leave the Seahawks? They need to find upgrades on the offensive line to protect Wilson and should probably go back and study the tape of the early-season games in which they seemed far more aggressive with their passing game.The Tennessee Titans11-5 | A.F.C. South championsDerrick Henry had an incredible season, rushing for 2,027 yards and becoming the first player to repeat as the N.F.L.’s rushing champion in more than a decade. A blend of his running and Ryan Tannehill’s passing led the Titans to the fourth-most points in the N.F.L. While many will focus on Henry’s disappointing effort in Sunday’s loss, Tennessee’s biggest issue this season was its defense. The easiest way to support Henry and Tannehill is to not make it imperative that they score on every drive.The Indianapolis Colts had their season end on Saturday, but rookie running back Jonathan Taylor has stepped up to become a major force for the team. Credit…Rich Barnes/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Indianapolis Colts11-5 | A.F.C. Wild CardThere were a lot of positives for the Colts this season. Some shrewd off-season moves led to the team having its best record since 2014 — and just its second playoff appearance since then. Indianapolis is unlikely to get similar turn-back-the-clock performances from quarterback Philip Rivers and cornerback Xavier Rhodes going forward, but the team’s trading for defensive tackle DeForest Buckner and drafting of running back Jonathan Taylor should set the Colts up for more success next season.The Chicago Bears8-8 | N.F.C. Wild CardWhat a weird season. Chicago got off to a superficially strong start, was badly exposed by a midseason losing streak, rallied to make the playoffs and then was overwhelmed by the New Orleans Saints. A No. 7 seed being crushed by a No. 2 seed isn’t exactly an endorsement of the expanded playoff structure, but the Bears could probably be a relevant team fairly quickly provided that they admit Mitchell Trubisky is not their long-term answer at quarterback.The standout rookie Chase Young was clearly impressed with the play of quarterback Taylor Heinicke. Heinicke was the fourth quarterback to start a game for Washington this season.Credit…Brad Mills/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Washington Football Team7-9 | N.F.C. East championsLaugh all you want about the team’s record — Washington matched the 2010 Seattle Seahawks for the worst record of a playoff team in the 16-game era — but the Footballers are walking away with their heads held high and their future looking bright. The rookie defensive end Chase Young is a top-shelf disrupter and poised to lead his unit into relevance for years. On offense, the team has found its answers at running back (Antonio Gibson) and wide receiver (Terry McLaurin). And after a gutsy performance against Tampa Bay, where he impressed with his arm and his legs, Taylor Heinicke should get some serious consideration as the team’s quarterback of the future.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 113 Shares99 Views

    in Football

    What to Watch for in Sunday’s N.F.L. Wild-Card Games

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesVaccination StrategiesVaccine InformationF.A.Q.TimelineAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat to Watch for in Sunday’s N.F.L. Wild-Card GamesLamar Jackson will try to get over the playoff hump against the Titans, the Saints will try to avoid any surprises, and the Steelers and the Browns circle each other for the third time this season.Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson will try to win his first playoff game in his third try when the Ravens face the Titans in a rematch of last year’s divisional-round contest.Credit…Bryan Woolston/Associated PressJan. 10, 2021, 8:00 a.m. ETSunday brings another day chock-full of N.F.L. playoff football, with three games kicking off roughly 14 hours after the last of Saturday’s trio of postseason contests ended. Distinct, pitched rivalries heighten the stakes of two of the matchups — Baltimore at Tennessee at 1:05 p.m. Eastern, and Cleveland at Pittsburgh at 8:15 p.m. — but the middle game, which has Chicago visiting New Orleans at 4:40 p.m., is seen as an apparent mismatch since it includes the erratic Bears, one of only two teams without winning records that have barged into the playoffs.Lamar Jackson will try to finally win a playoff game.Near the midpoint of the 2018 season, Lamar Jackson was named Baltimore’s starting quarterback and took the N.F.L. by storm, running the football (79.4 rushing yards per game in seven starts, six of which were victories) as well as he threw it (he averaged 159 passing yards per game during that stretch). Viewed as a team that nobody in the postseason wanted to play, the Ravens were instead upset at home by the Los Angeles Chargers in their opening playoff game, in which Jackson looked out of sorts and ruined two critical drives with an interception and a fumble.Last season, Jackson was the league’s most valuable player, and the Ravens were the top playoff seed in the A.F.C. But Baltimore was routed at home by the Titans as Jackson again struggled with two interceptions and a lost fumble.This season, the Ravens (11-5), a fifth seed, have looked unbeatable in their last five games, when they averaged 37.2 points per game. Jackson has regained his usual regular-season form. But another playoff loss, especially against a Tennessee (11-5) defense that ranked among the N.F.L.’s worst against the run and the pass, will amplify the spotlight on Jackson’s winless playoff record.In the Titans’ playoff victory over the Ravens last season, running back Derrick Henry rushed for 195 yards on 30 carries. It will be fascinating to see if Baltimore Coach John Harbaugh and his proud, physical defense have come up with an answer for stopping Henry — as they must. When the teams met in late November this season, Henry was kept under 100 rushing yards as the fourth quarter ended in a tie, but he took over in overtime, winning the game with a bulldozing 29-yard touchdown dash through most of the Ravens defense.The Saints hope for a miracle-less postseason.The bad mojo haunting the Saints in the last three postseasons has been well-documented. If Mitchell Trubisky and the Bears (8-8) were able to add to the franchise’s sense of playoff doom, it would be a sign that something really odd was afoot in New Orleans. The Bears backed into the playoffs as the N.F.C.’s seventh and last seed on a tiebreaker when matched against the equally inconsistent Arizona Cardinals (8-8). The Saints, winners of 11 of their last 13 games, are the second seed, trailing only the Green Bay Packers.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

  • 113 Shares119 Views

    in Football

    What to Watch for in Saturday’s N.F.L. Wild-Card Games

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat to Watch for in Saturday’s N.F.L. Wild-Card GamesThe first day of the expanded postseason kicks off with the Bills facing a franchise hero and the Colts, an N.F.C. West grudge match and the Washington rookie Chase Young getting his date with Tom Brady.Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winners of their final four regular season games, will try to keep their momentum going against the Washington Football Team’s fearsome pass rush.Credit…Grant Halverson/Getty ImagesJan. 9, 2021, 8:00 a.m. ETA weekend bulging with N.F.L. playoff football begins Saturday, when for the first time three games will be staged on the same day.The madness begins at 1:05 p.m. Eastern with an A.F.C. matchup in Orchard Park, N.Y., where about 6,700 fans, after assenting to coronavirus testing, will attend an event nearly as uncommon as a global pandemic: a Bills home playoff game.Bills legend Frank Reich returns to Buffalo as a spoiler.The second-seeded Bills will host the seventh-seeded Indianapolis Colts in the first postseason game at Bills Stadium since Dec. 28, 1996, another milestone in Buffalo’s enchanted season. But they’ll face a Colts team that’s led by Coach Frank Reich, who orchestrated one of the greatest playoff comebacks in league history when he quarterbacked the Bills to an overtime victory over the Houston Oilers after Buffalo had fallen behind by 32 points in a 1993 A.F.C. wild-card game.Credit…John Hickey/Associated PressCredit…Ron Schwane/Associated PressThis year, Reich’s Colts (11-5) had an unsettling tendency to collapse against good teams: They failed to score in the second half versus Baltimore, allowed 24 straight points in a loss to Tennessee and, in Week 16, blew a 17-point third-quarter lead at Pittsburgh. They did beat the Packers, though.In guiding the Bills (13-3) to their first A.F.C. East title since 1995, quarterback Josh Allen threw for 4,544 yards and 37 touchdowns, both franchise records. Receiver Stefon Diggs, who is questionable for Saturday’s game with an injury to an oblique muscle, led the league with 127 receptions, the sixth most in a single season, and 1,535 yards.If the Bills do have a weakness, it’s their run defense, which could benefit the Colts, whose rookie running back Jonathan Taylor rushed for 253 yards and two touchdowns in their Week 17 victory against Jacksonville. Only Derrick Henry of Tennessee has run for more yards since Week 11.Will the Seahawks stick to the basics against the Rams?Next up, at 4:40 p.m., is the season’s final installment of a delightful N.F.C. West rivalry, with the sixth-seeded Los Angeles Rams visiting Seattle for the second time in two weeks to face the third-seeded Seahawks. The Rams lost that Week 16 clash — and their quarterback, too. Jared Goff, recovering from surgery to repair a broken right thumb, may or may not be available to start. If he is not, John Wolford, who threw for 231 yards and ran for 56 in a Week 17 victory against Arizona that clinched a playoff berth, would start in his stead.The Rams allowed the fewest points (18.5) and yards (281.9) per game in the N.F.L. this season, but they also didn’t score an offensive touchdown in the last two weeks. Entering the postseason with that offensive malaise is bad timing, but it might be surmountable, considering that Los Angeles has held Seattle to 36 total points in their two meetings this season while sacking Russell Wilson 11 times.On pace at midseason to throw for 56 touchdowns, Wilson tossed only 12 over the second half of the regular season. Coach Pete Carroll, apparently unnerved by Wilson’s seven turnovers in losses to Buffalo and the Rams, resorted to a more conservative approach — for years the Seahawks’ formula — facilitated by a defense that stabilized after a dreadful start to the season: Since Seattle’s Week 10 loss at Los Angeles, no team has allowed fewer points.Chase Young will try to keep Tom Brady from getting comfortable.Chase Young, a Washington defensive end, led all rookies with seven and a half sacks and 10 tackles for loss.Credit…Mitchell Leff/Getty ImagesThe final game of the day, slated for 8:15 p.m. between fifth-seeded Tampa Bay and fourth-seeded Washington, showcases two quarterbacks who, based on all good sense, should not have been doing what they did this season.At age 43, Tom Brady threw for 4,633 yards, more than every quarterback but Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, and 40 touchdowns, tied with Russell Wilson and trailing only Aaron Rodgers, to lead the Buccaneers to their first playoff berth since 2007. Over the last four weeks, they have scored 148 points, the most in the N.F.C.For Washington, Alex Smith — whose status is questionable, as he has a calf injury — returned from a horrific 2018 leg injury to morph from third-stringer to backup to starter and help the Footballers secure their first division title since 2015.Smith’s on-field production, however, paled next to Brady’s, just one of the reasons this game has been touted as a mismatch. Brady is surrounded by an embarrassing collection of talent in Tampa Bay (11-5), from the receivers Antonio Brown and Chris Godwin to running back Ronald Jones to the rookie anchor at right tackle, Tristan Wirfs. Containing their offense should be a struggle for a Washington team that ranked 25th in scoring and 31st in yards per play, ahead of only the woeful Jets.It should be a lopsided game unless the Footballers (7-9) can make Brady’s life miserable all night — a realistic outcome given the team’s extraordinary pass rush. Brady succumbed to pressure in each of his three Super Bowl defeats and, at his advanced age, isn’t the most elusive fellow. Washington defensive end Chase Young led all rookies with seven and a half sacks and 10 tackles for loss. By the end of the night, those numbers will very likely swell. By how much could determine the game’s outcome.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • 150 Shares199 Views

    in Football

    A ‘Super’ N.F.L. Playoff Weekend Is Missing Something. Can You Guess What?

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesVaccination StrategiesVaccine InformationF.A.Q.TimelineAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn Pro FootballA ‘Super’ N.F.L. Playoff Weekend Is Missing Something. Can You Guess What?No, not Tom Brady. He made it. But the pandemic is forcing teams to keep large numbers of fans away.A limited number of fans, socially distanced, at a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game this season.Credit…Jason Behnken/Associated PressJan. 9, 2021, 7:30 a.m. ETThe N.F.L. playoffs are one of the biggest sporting obsessions in the United States, typically among the most-watched television programming of the year.And this year the postseason will get an extra boost because the N.F.L. has added two playoff games, for a total of six games over Saturday and Sunday in what the league is calling “Super Wild Card Weekend.”Yet the monthlong postseason party — which will include perennial contenders like the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks as well as rarer participants like the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns — will be drained of some of the color, sound and pomp as the league navigates the coronavirus pandemic.Most games will be played with no or very few fans in the seats, sapping some of the drama — not to mention live crowd noise — from the football festivities. There will be only a few hundred, not thousands of, Terrible Towels waved in Pittsburgh. There won’t be any “12s,” as Seahawks supporters are known, shaking the rafters in Seattle, because spectators will be barred. Just 3,000 Saints fans will be yelling “Who dat?” in the cavernous Superdome.“I hate it for the fans,” Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told reporters on Wednesday. “I think about what Heinz Field would be like Sunday night. I hate it for the Steelers, for the energy and excitement that it brings. But once again, that is what we are doing. That is what we are living in.”The Bills, who will kick off the bonanza of games on Saturday afternoon at home against the Indianapolis Colts, needed intervention from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and an elaborate testing program to be able to host a few thousand fans for the first time this season.Viewers at home have become accustomed to seeing stadiums filled with cardboard cutouts and to hearing recorded cheers. But those make a poor substitute during the playoffs, when sold-out stadiums help add excitement for a television audience expanded by a surge in casual viewers.“Football this time of year is part of Americana, our town squares on Sundays and Saturdays and now even Wednesday,” said Andy Dolich, who ran business operations for four professional teams, including the San Francisco 49ers. “You have all sorts of digital devices and sound being pumped in, but there’s nothing like seeing fans sitting shoulder to shoulder with beer and brats being dumped in their laps.”The empty seats will hit Browns fans the hardest, Dolich said. After they ended the N.F.L.’s longest playoff drought last Sunday, their fans will not be able to attend the game in Pittsburgh. The Steelers expect to have fewer than 1,000 fans on hand on Sunday, limiting attendance to friends and relatives of players and staff members.With strict limits on attendance this weekend, there will be far fewer Terrible Towels at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field.Credit…Justin K. Aller/Getty Images“It’s like Edmund Hillary getting to the top of Everest and not being able to tell anybody,” he said.The buzz-less stadiums have become one of the defining features of the league’s 2020 campaign, along with hundreds of positive coronavirus tests among players, coaches and staff members that forced games to be rescheduled, including one that was ultimately played on a Wednesday afternoon. Thirteen teams had no fans in attendance this season, and several other teams had fans at just a few games before health authorities banned large gatherings as the number of virus cases spiked this winter.The league drew a combined 1.2 million fans this year, less than 10 percent of last season’s number. The league’s 32 teams this season lost roughly $4 billion in sales of tickets, luxury boxes, food, parking and sponsorships. Even television viewership, the lifeblood of the league, fell 7 percent during the regular season, the first decline since 2017, when a substantial number of players knelt during the playing of the national anthem to protest racial and social injustice.The Super Bowl will be muted, too. To limit potential exposure to the virus, the teams will arrive only a day or two before the game. Many of the league’s biggest sponsors, who often host hundreds of their most important clients at the Super Bowl, will not travel to Tampa, Fla., for festivities before the game. The N.F.L. might fill just 20 percent of the seats at Raymond James Stadium, including vaccinated emergency medical workers invited by the league.Still, some fans will get a chance to see their teams play in person for the first time this season. The Bills will have about 6,000 fans this weekend, and the Packers said they would host about the same number of fans at their first home game, in the divisional round next weekend. The Tennessee Titans will have about 14,500 fans, or 21 percent of their capacity, at their home game; that number is in line with the attendance at many of their regular season games.In the future, though, when fans look back at pictures of this year’s playoff games, the empty seats are sure to stand out as much as, if not more than, the plays.“Intellectually, people will say it was remarkable that there were games, but that they were lacking the passion, which is a key element of live sports,” said Phil de Picciotto, the president of Octagon Sports, a talent agency and event management company. “It will feel lacking. But the alternative was to do nothing.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More