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.
play0:16A.J. Brown, Nick Sirianni have heated sideline exchangeA.J. Brown and Nick Sirianni share words after a dropped pass in the second quarter vs. the 49ers.
play0:32Parker Washington makes leaping grab for Jags TDTrevor Lawrence throws a dime to Parker Washington to put the Jaguars back in front vs. the Bills.
play0:29Bills advance to divisional round thanks to game-sealing INTTrevor Lawrence is picked off by Cole Bishop to end the Jaguars’ hopes in a 27-24 loss to the Bills.
play0:38Bears hold on to win after Packers can’t convert Hail MaryThe Bears complete their second-half comeback to defeat the Packers and advance in the playoffs.
play0:24Panthers fail to convert on 4th down, Rams advanceJimmy Horn Jr. is unable to haul in the pass on 4th down, sealing a victory for the Rams.
Rex Ryan: If Packers move on from Matt LaFleur, it would be for John Harbaugh (2:40)Adam Schefter and the “NFL Countdown” crew weigh in on Matt LaFleur’s future with the Packers with John Harbaugh a coaching free agent. (2:40)
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.
A.J. Brown, Nick Sirianni have heated sideline exchangeA.J. Brown and Nick Sirianni share words after a dropped pass in the second quarter vs. the 49ers.
Parker Washington makes leaping grab for Jags TDTrevor Lawrence throws a dime to Parker Washington to put the Jaguars back in front vs. the Bills.
Bills advance to divisional round thanks to game-sealing INTTrevor Lawrence is picked off by Cole Bishop to end the Jaguars’ hopes in a 27-24 loss to the Bills.
Trevor Lawrence is picked off by Cole Bishop to end the Jaguars’ hopes in a 27-24 loss to the Bills.
Bears hold on to win after Packers can’t convert Hail MaryThe Bears complete their second-half comeback to defeat the Packers and advance in the playoffs.
Panthers fail to convert on 4th down, Rams advanceJimmy Horn Jr. is unable to haul in the pass on 4th down, sealing a victory for the Rams.
Five organizations are moving on to the offseason, and we’re here to help. I’m going to break down what went wrong for each of those franchises in the wild-card round, how that might have been foreseeable and what they can do to avoid that same fate next season. Fans invariably want to fire coaches and tear up the roster after a playoff loss, but I’ll try to be more level-headed or realistic in projecting what might make sense or what these teams might be thinking.
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.
There’s also the question of whether the Chargers will return offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who doesn’t have many supporters among Chargers fans after Year 2 in Los Angeles. Roman and Harbaugh arrived in town excited at the idea of what Herbert would look like with a run game, but the Chargers rank 27th in success rate on designed runs over Roman’s two seasons.
After what has been an excellent debut season as a head coach in Jacksonville, I’m worried Liam Coen is going to be sick for weeks. The Jaguars let this game get away from them in a way that I would not have anticipated. On a day when Trevor Lawrence struggled with consistency and went 18-of-30 for 207 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions, the Jags simply didn’t run the ball often enough.
The duo of Tuten and Travis Etienne Jr. combined for just 14 carries, which they turned into 118 yards and a 71% success rate. By EPA per designed rush by running backs, this was the 13th-most-efficient rushing performance of the season in any game by any set of backs. The Jags simply didn’t get to it enough.
Raw rush totals can be misleading. Lawrence kept on a zone-read on fourth-and-short when he would have handed the ball off if Joey Bosa hadn’t crashed down. Teams can run RPOs and throw their way out of run looks if they get the right movement. We saw the Panthers throw a pair of slants to Tetairoa McMillan that were tagged onto their run plays for easy completions. And if a defense is loading up with heavy boxes and daring teams to throw, running for the sake of running isn’t a good idea.
But the Bills weren’t doing that. The Jags didn’t run into a single loaded box with Etienne or Tuten all game. Nine of those 14 carries went into light boxes, which helped their efficiency and hinted toward how the Bills were willing to approach this game on defense. Looking at Lawrence’s first-and-10 dropbacks that weren’t near the goal line or in the two-minute drill, there were plenty of run-friendly boxes that the Jags chose not to hit.
Given how Lawrence played Sunday, that was a missed opportunity. He came into the postseason on fire and playing the best football of his career, but as I highlighted last week, that doesn’t always lead to the same success in the postseason.
While the Jags led 24-20 with 4:03 to go after Lawrence found Etienne for a touchdown, the Josh Allen drive that followed felt almost inevitable. The Jaguars have a solid defense, but their secondary needs the pass rush to create problems. Instead, Allen went 9-of-12 for 144 yards under pressure, including a spectacular throw against an unblocked rusher to Brandin Cooks on a post route for 36 yards, which got the Bills into the red zone for the game-winning touchdown.
Trevor Lawrence throws a dime to Parker Washington to put the Jaguars back in front vs. the Bills.
Hunter still deserves time to develop, and the Jags surely would have loved to have him at cornerback against the Bills on Sunday, but their future plans for him could determine what happens this offseason. It seems likely that the Jags will move forward with Hunter playing regularly at cornerback, where they’ll have an opening, especially if Newsome is allowed to hit free agency.
Bills advance to divisional round thanks to game-sealing INT
The new regime inherited Thomas, and he didn’t appear a natural fit in Year 1 with Coen. Would the Jaguars consider trading him? The 2024 first-rounder is the most natural fit as the “X” receiver in Coen’s offense, and I’m not sure any of the other guys are obvious replacements for him in that role. Plus, Thomas was so talented as a rookie that I’d want to try to make it work for another season.
Van Lanen missed Sunday’s loss with a knee injury, with Little back to his old spot and committing two false starts. The commitment to Van Lanen suggests that the Jags see him as a left tackle candidate in 2026. With Little’s $11 million base salary guaranteed next season, it would hardly be a surprise if the Jaguars traded him to clear out a starting spot and get some cash to put toward free agent additions this offseason.
The Bears found their rhythm on offense, as they scored on five of their six possessions in the second half, racking up 333 net yards and 28 points. The Packers, decidedly, did not. The offense went to sleep for its first four possessions in the second half, as Green Bay amassed 29 yards and one first down across a four-drive stretch.
Bears hold on to win after Packers can’t convert Hail Mary
The Bears complete their second-half comeback to defeat the Packers and advance in the playoffs.
That final play saw the Bears take advantage of the position that has been the weak spot on the Packers’ roster going all the way back to the start of the season. Carrington Valentine was supposed to be booted out of the starting lineup by the arrival of free agent slot corner Nate Hobbs, but Hobbs was ineffective and injured for most of his debut season in Green Bay. Valentine has allowed a 121.2 passer rating in his stead, and he came up lacking on the last snap of the Packers’ season.
This time, though, the Bears were taking a shot downfield. Williams fired his hips toward the tunnel screen without ever really throwing the ball, but that was enough. Valentine drove on the screen, and by the time he turned around, the ball was already coming out. DJ Moore had dropped a spectacular throw from Williams earlier in the drive, but this time, the wide-open veteran brought in a fade for the winning touchdown.
And the Packers sorely missed Parsons, the player for whom Gutekunst broke tradition and sent two first-round picks to acquire. They pressured Williams on 25% of his dropbacks, but the Packers had just two quick pressures on 48 opportunities, meaning that most of the times they bothered Williams came late in the play. Parsons averaged more than two quick pressures per game on his own this season. Could those pressures have helped swing this game toward Green Bay?
The Packers did have a chance to win the game after the Moore touchdown, but sloppy game management from LaFleur limited what they could do. It’s always easier to evaluate timeout usage after the fact, when we know how the game ends, but it’s impossible to suggest that LaFleur got anything close to full value for the three he had in the second half.
LaFleur had to use his second timeout on defense with 2:08 to go, this time because the Packers couldn’t get the right players on the field. The timeout stopped the clock for the Bears and gave them the ability to open up the playbook to call a run just before the two-minute warning, which they took advantage of to pick up 5 yards.
The Packers were left with one timeout for their final drive, which they used after a short competition to Romeo Doubs. They were then forced to run 10 seconds off the clock after an injury to center Sean Rhyan. In the end, they never even got an opportunity to run a play within the red zone before time expired, coming closest when Love nearly squeezed a pass between three Tampa 2 defenders to Christian Watson inside the 5-yard line.