Top five headlines from 2023 NFL Wildcard Weekend

Trevor Lawrence (YouTube)

The first weekend of the National Football League playoffs is now in the books. Here are five headlines from the weekend that was.

5) Bills and 49ers faced an unexpected tough test.

Heading into Sunday, the Bills were a 13-point favourite to beat the Dolphins, and the 49ers were a 9.5 point favourite to beat the Seahawks. Yet, the Bills once trailed the Dolphins 24-20 in the third quarter before winning 34-31. Meanwhile, the 49ers were trailing the Seahawks 17-16 at halftime before covering the spread and coming away with a 41-23 win.

4) Bengals win thanks to their defense.

When you think of Cincinnati, you think of their great offense (quarterback Joe Burrow, wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd, and running back Joe Mixon). On Sunday night the major reason for the Cincinnati win was their defense. Defensive end Sam Hubbard had a 98-yard fumble return for a touchdown that turned out to be the game winning score in a 24-17 Bengals win over the Ravens.

3) Cowboys win despite historically bad kicking.

Dallas advanced to the second round of the NFL playoffs with a 31-14 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was an awful night for Cowboys kicker Brett Maher who became the first kicker in NFL history to miss three converts in a playoff game. Yikes! He even missed a fourth convert attempt!

2) Daniel Jones makes NFL history.

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones became the first quarterback in NFL history to have 300 passing yards, 75 rushing yards, and go on to win a postseason game. He had 301 passing yards and 78 rushing yards as the Giants beat the Minnesota Vikings 31-24.

1) Jaguars have historic comeback.

Jacksonville was once down 27-0 to Los Angeles in the first half. They came back to won 31-30. This was the third largest playoff comeback in NFL history. The largest was the Bills comeback in 1993 as they defeated the Houston Oilers 41-38 after being down 35-3. The second largest comeback was in 2014 as the Indianapolis Colts came back from a 38-10 deficit to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 45-44. All three games were AFC Wildcard matchups. On Sunday,  we saw the great and the ugly of Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence. He became only the second quarterback to have four touchdowns and four interceptions in the same playoff game.

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