That was a masterpiece. It didn't look super great through a couple drives, but my word were drives 3+ amazing. Prescott I would argue has never played a bad game. The Bucs defense is not bad, but he was controlling the game, reading them well, that Bowles inevitably got blitz happy and every time Dak was on point. Some of the throws were high risk, but man did they pay off with high reward. Prescott needed that performance after an iffy end to the year, even if it was a bit unlucky how turnover prone he was. This was that performance. The Cowboys can, dare we say it, win the Super Bowl if this Prescott shows up three more times.
Runner-Up: Daniel Jones
Jones has quietly been great for a while now, mainly by sharply cutting his turnovers and just in general improving his accuracy. That was all well and good but this was taking those elements up a notch. Yes, the Vikings defense is atrocious, but this was a great performance for his first playoff game, especially ahead of what should be a fun contract negotiation this summer. Jones also kept his scrambling, but more as a backup plan aside from a couple designed runs. There was a lot of pressure on him, especially with Saquon having a quiet game. Danny Dimes delivered.
Goat of the Week: The Buccaneers
It's not just about Brady, though absolutely he was not good yesterday and part of the problem, throwing balls wildly away at the slightest hint of pressure. But this is about the team, both for yesterday and all year. Given their preseason over/under was 11.5, and they struggled to 8-9 and then were drummed in the Wild Card game, I truly wonder if this is the most disappointing single season team since the "Dream Team" Eagles. This was a disaster. The OL was bad, the running game pathetic. The defense got way too trigger happy. Coaching was bad. And yes, Brady was not good in the slightest.
Runner-Up: The Chargers Offense
It's weird to criticize a team for putting up 30 points, but given the short fields, 30 points seem poor. And more to the point, from the moment they got the lucky punt fumble setting them up at the 6-yard line, their offense was plain bad. All the symptoms that they've had all year - way too many short throws. Way too little creativity. All of it so sadly familiar. As I write this, they've already fired Joe Lombardi. I do hope someone comes in and fixes what should be a great offense - not a scared one that lucked their way into 30 points but couldn't get to the 33 they needed.
Surprise of the Week: The Teams with backups (not the niners)
Aside from the Bucs, none of the losers were truly disappointing and aside from the Cowboys, none of the winners were truly surprising. So here, let's go with the Ravens and Dolphins for playing damn hard starting Skyler Thompson and Tyler Huntley. Neither offense was great, but the Dolphins made up for it with the high-risk / high-reward defensive approach that gave up a ton of yards but made enough game changing plays to take a 24-20 lead. The Ravens on the other hand just upped every other part of their game to compensate, with some great playcalling, defense, and doing everything right except the QB "sneak". In the end, while both did lose, they made for a far more compelling Wild Card Weekend than we had a right to expect.
Runner-Up: The Cowboys Secondary
Travonne Diggs gets all the press, and he was good aside from one play where he got beat by Evans but Evans couldn't catch a slight overthrow. But all the guys around Diggs were excellent. Constantly reading Brady well. Giving up very little YAC. The Cowboys DL made work of the Bucs OL, but even when they didn;'t get home quickly, Brady generally had nothing easy open downfield - even during their late game nickel and dime stat padding session. Great performance by the 'Boys on this one.
Disappointment of the Week: The Bengals Offense (yes, in a win)
Yes, it is hard to play the same team three times, but I would've thought the Bengals had a few more new ideas than whatever it is they tried to do there. They kept feeding Chase short which did work, but they fully just gave into the Ravens dominating their injured OL. The Bengals offensive performance worried me a whole lot more than Buffalo's - this was just a mediocre session by a team that while on a big win streak and having nice overall stats, is not operating at the level it did at its best last year on offense.
Runner-Up: The Bills Poise
In the end DVOA and most advanced stats think the Bills dominated the Dolphins. Even normal stats would agree given they outgained them 2:1 but this is a worrying sign that the Bills melted down a bit in the 2nd quarter through to the fumble-six. The OL is a weakness but tehy were worse than normal. Allen decided to basically only throw bombs for a game to quickly diminishing returns. There were drops. There was a lack of poise. The Bills composure is generally way better in big games (see the almost calm offense they played in KC this year) but we have to hope they can flip that switch against a much better team.
Team Performance of the Week: The Cowboys OL
They had injuries. They had Jason Peters playing snaps at an age where he absolutely shouldn't be doing so. They had every reason to have a tough time against what is generally still a good front. But instead, starting from future hall of famer Zack Martin winning battles against Vita Vea on outwards, the Dallas OL was awesome. Great edge blocking to get Pollard good runs. They churned the Bucs, ground them down to dust. They gave Prescott time more often than not. It was a masterpiece.
Runner-Up: The Ravens defense
I'll admit, I was on a boys trip this weekend out in Palm Springs/Joshua Tree, so I didn't see significant portions of many games. So that's why most of these are from the games I saw a bit more of. The Ravens defense was excellent - as it has consistently been since trading for Roquan Smith. How well Mike McDonald's team generated pressure was stunning - even if it was against a patchwork OL. Their secondary was awesome against Higgins and Boyd, and even limited Chase for the most part. They needed every bit of Ravens ingenuity to keep close, and they got it.
Team Laydown of the Week: Vikings Defense
I know the Vikings defense is not good. They've proven that all year. But man was it atrocious, so much so I considered not giving Jones a shoutout in player of the week for that reason. They played soft zones and (1) didn't stop Jones from running effectively and (2) gave up all kinds of yardage by not tackling well. Seriously just a mess all around. The Vikings need a long, hard reset on that side of the ball.
Runner-Up: The Seahwaks Defense
Speaking of which, the whole "third time playing a team" didn't really work here. You can't even blame playing a new QB since they played Purdy before, and played him a whole lot better that time. I get that Shanahan is a great play designer and play caller, but man were guys just wide open running deep crossers in this one. Maybe this is just a sign that the 49ers offense is in that good of a groove, but I expected a whole lot more from them.
Storyline that will be Beat Into the Ground: The NFC Beast
We've been hearing it all year about how great the NFC East is - and or good reason. They've done super well getting three playoff teams and the other at 8-8-1. But now we get the view that this is the first division since 1997, and the first since realignment in 2002, to send three teams to the divisional round, and the NFC East takes are going wild. Yes, we get it, they had a great year. But in the end it was just a weird year in the NFC Playoffs, where the Giants beat an equally bad playoff team, and the Cowboys beat an overmatched weakling. In the end, what is most present is while the NFC East has three teams, the best team might be the one non-NFC East one.
Storyline that Should be Beat Into the Ground: The Jags??
I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but the Jags are super interesting, not so much of where they are, but what they represent. Doug Pederson has turned this team around incredibly fast. All year I've made illusions to the 2016 Eagles (Pederson's first year there). Those Eagles went 6-10, but scored 36 more points than they gave up, ended up quite high in DVOA. These Jags arne't as good by DVOA, but scored 54 more points than they allowed. They have a young potential prodigy at QB. They are also a bit reminiscent of last year's Bengals, the upstart team that was the #4 seed that made good, with a young #1 overall pick in his second year, that all of sudden we woke up and saw in the Super Bowl. It is more likely the Jags lose this weekend then end up in the Super Bowl for sure, but it is still fun to think about.
