play0:24Patriots deck Herbert to force fumbleK’Lavon Chaisson drops Justin Herbert and forces a fumble.
play0:2849ers stop Eagles on 4th down to clinch victoryEric Kendricks makes a great play on defense to stop the Eagles from scoring and secure the 49ers’ 23-19 win vs. the Eagles.
play0:24Travis Etienne Jr. shakes off a tackle attempt to put Jags back up late in 4thTrevor Lawrence finds Travis Etienne Jr., who powers through a tackle attempt to give the Jaguars a lead with a little over four minutes remaining.
play0:27Bears pull within 3 after TD to ZaccheausCaleb Williams throws a beautiful pass to Olamide Zaccheaus for the Bears touchdown, and the two-point conversion is good.
play1:19Should Rams be concerned after tight win over Panthers?Alex Smith, Tedy Bruschi, Rex Ryan and Randy Moss discuss the Rams’ 34-31 wild-card win over the Panthers.
Dan GrazianoCloseDan Grazianosenior NFL national reporterDan Graziano is a senior NFL national reporter for ESPN, covering the entire league and breaking news. Dan also contributes to Get Up, NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, Sunday NFL Countdown and Fantasy Football Now. He is a New Jersey native who joined ESPN in 2011, and he is also the author of two published novels.Follow on XBen SolakCloseBen SolakESPNBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.Jan 11, 2026, 11:40 PM ET
Drake Maye drops a dime to Hunter Henry for a TD (0:45)Drake Maye drops a dime to Hunter Henry for a TD (0:45)
49ers stop Eagles on 4th down to clinch victoryEric Kendricks makes a great play on defense to stop the Eagles from scoring and secure the 49ers’ 23-19 win vs. the Eagles.
Eric Kendricks makes a great play on defense to stop the Eagles from scoring and secure the 49ers’ 23-19 win vs. the Eagles.
Travis Etienne Jr. shakes off a tackle attempt to put Jags back up late in 4thTrevor Lawrence finds Travis Etienne Jr., who powers through a tackle attempt to give the Jaguars a lead with a little over four minutes remaining.
Trevor Lawrence finds Travis Etienne Jr., who powers through a tackle attempt to give the Jaguars a lead with a little over four minutes remaining.
Bears pull within 3 after TD to ZaccheausCaleb Williams throws a beautiful pass to Olamide Zaccheaus for the Bears touchdown, and the two-point conversion is good.
Caleb Williams throws a beautiful pass to Olamide Zaccheaus for the Bears touchdown, and the two-point conversion is good.
Should Rams be concerned after tight win over Panthers?Alex Smith, Tedy Bruschi, Rex Ryan and Randy Moss discuss the Rams’ 34-31 wild-card win over the Panthers.
Alex Smith, Tedy Bruschi, Rex Ryan and Randy Moss discuss the Rams’ 34-31 wild-card win over the Panthers.
The NFL playoffs are officially underway. The Rams narrowly edged the Panthers, and the Bears took down the NFC North-rival Packers in a wild comeback. On Sunday, the Bills held off the Jaguars, the 49ers took down the defending champion Eagles and the Patriots won a low-scoring affair over the Chargers.
What are the main lessons and takeaways from each wild-card matchup, and what’s next for these teams? We asked national NFL reporter Dan Graziano and NFL analyst Ben Solak to help size up every matchup from the opening round and look forward from all angles. For each wild-card game, Solak is answering one big remaining question and Graziano is judging the legitimacy of one potential overreaction.
Let’s jump in, making sense of potential offensive changes for the Chargers and Eagles, the Bills’ Super Bowl window, the Jaguars’ rushing attack, Caleb Williams’ growth and Bryce Young’s future. And check back all weekend for more snap reactions as games happen.
So what happens now? Did quarterback Drake Maye & Co. get their stinker out of the way early and survive it? Do they learn from this and play better next week against the Steelers or Texans? Or does this advanced level of competition do them in, the way their critics feared all season that it might?
We’ll have to wait a week for the answers. Coach Mike Vrabel has pressed every correct button in his first season as the Patriots’ coach, and MVP contender Maye has not let anything bother him. They’ll get either the Steelers and a chance to avenge a Week 3 loss in which they turned the ball over five times, or a Texans team that would be coming in on a 10-game win streak and features an even tougher defense than the Chargers.
This is the survive-and-advance time of the year, and the fact that the Patriots won ugly doesn’t disqualify them from winning it all. It just adds a little bit of strength to the arguments of those who continue to believe this team is playing over its head. — Graziano
Herbert has officially gone 0-3 in his first three postseason starts. He is only the fourth quarterback this century to go winless in his first three postseason starts, joining Andy Dalton, Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford.
The Chargers clearly need new interior offensive linemen. Though the injuries at tackle submarined the whole line, all three starters on the interior were the expected ones preseason: Bradley Bozeman at center, Zion Johnson at left guard and Mekhi Becton at right guard. Bozeman and Johnson have not been starting-caliber players for years, and Becton is only an average-level starter.
Of course, that doesn’t explain away the four-interception game against the Texans in the 2024 postseason, nor the collapse against the Jaguars in the 2022 postseason. Taking the collective weight of those three losses and calling Herbert a postseason disappointment is a fair assessment. But of the three quarterbacks he has joined (and, not for nothing, Peyton Manning would also qualify if we included the 1999 season), he’s clearly more of a Stafford character than a Dalton one.
Postseason success will come to Herbert when he plays for a more well-rounded team. As unsatisfying as it is to say, it’s the truth. — Solak
Patriots deck Herbert to force fumbleK’Lavon Chaisson drops Justin Herbert and forces a fumble.
K’Lavon Chaisson drops Justin Herbert and forces a fumble.
Find me a team that has been through more than the Bills. Find me a team that’s hungrier. Find me a team that’s more certain it can do what it takes to win games this time of year. Find me another team with Josh Allen. — Graziano
Travis Etienne Jr. shakes off a tackle attempt to put Jags back up late in 4th
At the end of the day, the Jaguars lost a brutally close game to an excellent Bills team. As with all losing teams, there were plenty of little things they could have done better. But someone has to lose the ballgames, and Jacksonville — despite its truly excellent season and legitimate Year 1 leap under Coen — drew the shorter straw Sunday. — Solak
Williams should continue improving with this group around him and Johnson coaching him. If next season’s Bears win 12 or more, and Williams wins five or six of those in the final two minutes, he can be the darling of the MVP voting body. There are a lot of “ifs” there, sure, but this isn’t far-fetched. — Graziano
The lingering question: What’s wrong — and right — with Ben Johnson’s fourth-down decision-making?
The fourth-down haters were out in full force at the end of the first half, as Johnson’s Bears went 1-for-4 there, including a failed fourth-and-5 at their 32-yard line. This was a particularly aggressive call. The NFL Next Gen Stats model favored a punt, while the ESPN model very, very narrowly favored a “go.”
Should Johnson have gone for all those early fourth downs? I’m not sure. The defense felt as if it had no stops in it, but as evidenced by the second half, it did. It’s hard to know from the outside what goes into every decision.
What we can say confidently is that the Bears were making massive, easy mistakes on fourth down. The interception targeting Luther Burden III on fourth-and-6 came because the rookie receiver was confused at the line. The second-half fourth-and-1 failure in the red zone was a result of a blown pass protection. Even the fourth-and-5, way backed up, looked like a huge Burden catch-and-run … until the ball was tipped at the line.
All of that said, it’s too soon for the Panthers to commit. If Young wants to sign a Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield type of deal, go ahead and do that, Carolina. Well worth it, given the promise Young showed this season and the investment the team has already made in him. But if he wants Tua Tagovailoa money? Uh-uh.
Young doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who needs the affirmation that would come with the long-term deal. I’m sure he knows a ton of things he can do better and looks forward to a chance to work on them. Heck, he’s better off waiting and having an even better year in 2026 and negotiating off that. Big hat tip to Young and the Panthers, but it’s still way early. — Graziano
Should Rams be concerned after tight win over Panthers?
Of course, the Rams have struggled with turnovers against Carolina, as well: three takeaways in the first game, then one (plus the blocked punt) in the second game. In general, the Panthers do well discouraging the play-action pass and forcing Matthew Stafford to play more patiently. And when he plays patiently, he’s forced to scramble more or take more checkdowns — not his preferred style of play. — Solak
No, not an overreaction. Oh sure, they won. Which is all that matters at this point. But their performance did not scream “No. 2 seed/Super Bowl contender,” and it did little to tamp down the notion of them being an untested team that could struggle against better competition. The Chargers are now only the third team the Patriots have beaten this season that made the playoffs. One of the other two was the Panthers, who finished their season 8-10 after losing to the Rams on Saturday. And the final one was the Bills, to whom they also lost to later in the season.
The Patriots made some plays when they had to against the Chargers. They made their field goal attempts, which really matters in games that are touchdown-free until the final 10 minutes. But they were also sloppy with the ball and didn’t generate much of their usual exciting, explosive offense. The Chargers’ defense was one of the best at limiting explosive plays this season, so that might have been a part of it. But it would have been hard to watch this game and not think a team with a functional offense could have knocked out New England in the first round.