NFL Divisional Round Playoffs Review: the favourites win, setting up high-quality conference championship games

Another playoff round is in the books, setting up next week’s AFC and NFC Championship games.

On Sunday (AEDT), we had the first double-header of the round. The Indianapolis Colts journeyed to the snowy Arrowhead Stadium to face the Kansas City Chiefs. After starting the season 1-5, the Colts won 9 of their last 10 regular season games, made the playoffs, and beat their divisional rival Texans in the first round.

The Colts organisation and its fans are understandably happy with the magic they found in the second half of the season – but that magic came to an end when they ran into Patrick Mahomes II and the Chiefs.

Mahomes and the offence got out to an early lead and did all they needed to do. However, this game’s star was the Chiefs’ defence, which was mostly ineffective during the regular season. Particularly good for the Chiefs’ defence were its front seven. Dee Ford and Justin Houston wreaked havoc on Andrew Luck. Ford and Houston came up with a fumble (Ford forced it and Houston recovered it) when the Colts were in the Chiefs red zone, poised to make a comeback. It was a hugely frustrating moment for the Colts, for whom everything seemed to go wrong on this day.

In the second Sunday game, the Dallas Cowboys met the Los Angeles Rams for a ticket to the NFC Championship game. The Cowboys fought valiantly, but like all of this week’s games, the underdog was simply outmatched.

The story of this game was the Rams running all over the Cowboys, only a week after the Cowboys stifled the Seahawks’ league-best running attack. The Rams accrued 273 total rushing yards. Star RB, Todd Gurley, seems to be a week away from 100% after a knee injury sidelined him for the last month of the regular season. Regardless, he was solid, rushing for 115 yards and a touchdown. CJ Anderson, Gurley’s replacement during his injury was the real hero of this game, rushing for 123 yards and two touchdowns. The stocky, powerful Anderson was a perfect compliment to Gurley.

Rams QB Jared Goff found some of his early-season form that made him one of the most efficient players at the position. Goff’s play-action throws are the finish on Sean McVay’s shiny offence. So keeping the mistakes to a minimum for the young QB, as he did in this game, is key to a Rams Super Bowl berth.

The two Monday games saw the Los Angeles Chargers go to Foxborough to take on the New England Patriots, and the New Orleans Saints host the Philadelphia Eagles.

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The Patriots dominated the Chargers from the opening drive. Tom Brady’s offence put on a clinic of balanced football, mixing runs and passes into a perfect symphony. Brady had 343 yards and a touchdown, with a 77% completion rate, while his running back, Sony Michel, rushed for 129 yards and three touchdowns.

All of a sudden, after looking vulnerable this season, the Patriots are poised for another Super Bowl run.

The Chargers are a capable, balanced team. But Belichick and Brady embarrassed their defence. The future is bright in LA though, with a bunch of blue-chip youngsters to keep building around on both sides of the ball.

In the second game, the defending champs came out hot, and jumped to a 14-0 lead over the first seed Saints. They managed to trim that lead to 14-10 going into the half. Then, the Saints scored a touchdown after an 18 play drive, holding the ball for nearly the entire third quarter. A field goal in the fourth quarter made the game 20-14 to the Saints. Nick Foles and the Eagles had a chance, after a Will Lutz missed field goal, to lead a game-winning drive with two minutes left to play. That drive seemed promising until Alshon Jeffery dropped catch fell into the hands of Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore.

The key to this game was the Saints offence. They didn’t put up many points, but they did keep drives alive, which limited the Eagles’ time of possession. Time and time again, the Saints stared down third and long, and consistently picked up first downs. The big throws that Drew Brees kept making on third and fourth down proved the difference.

So, as many anticipated, the first two seeds in both conferences are the last teams standing. Next week we’ll have the Chiefs hosting the Patriots for the AFC Championship, and the Rams traveling to New Orleans to face the Saints for the NFC Championship.

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And of course, the winners of those two games will meet for the Super Bowl.

It seems fitting that these four teams remain. While the Colts, Cowboys, Eagles and Chargers were good teams, and great underdog stories, the better teams won. Since the start of the season, the Chiefs, Patriots, Rams, and Saints have been in an elite group of their own. It’s comforting to know that whoever wins next week will be deserved challengers for the Lombardi Trophy.