NFL 2013: NFC Wild Card Playoff - Minnesota at Green Bay

Green Bay def. Minnesota 24-10

Well, when you hear that your starting quarterback - who, to be honest, hasn't been that great a passer all season - is out for a playoff contest against a team whose own offense is that red-hot that you'll need a lot of big plays to keep up, you know you're in trouble. Then, you remember that your backup quarterback is a kid who hasn't ever thrown more than a handful of touchdowns (mostly against bad teams) in the National Football League, and none at all this season. That's big trouble.

Aside from the first drive, where RB Adrian Peterson and backup QB Joe Webb did some nice work on the ground to send Minnesota a 3-0 lead, the game went pretty much as I expected. With a quarterback whose arm makes Tim Tebow's look strong thrust into the contest at the last minute and a guy in Peterson who is as good a running back as there is in the league, what does the defense expect? Lots of handing the ball to #28.

That's what Minnesota delivered, because Webb seemed unable to complete a throw of any substance. Sure, Peterson went for 99 yards, but with your quarterback 11-30 for 180 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT, that isn't nearly enough. There was nothing Peterson could do to carry this team, not with the Packers stacking the box most of the time. It was tough sledding.

At the best of times, Webb looked out of sorts. At the worst of times, he was damn near killed by a Packers defense that clearly smelt the blood in the water. Not for the first time, Clay Matthews showed why he's gone to the Pro Bowl in each of his seasons in the League. That defense of Green Bay's proved it's not as bad against the run as everyone suggested. They held Peterson under the century mark, which is more than most teams have done this season.

Next week vs. San Francisco should be interesting...

NFL 2013: AFC Wild Card Playoff - Cincinnati at Houston

Houston def. Cincinnati 19-13

For mine, Houston deserved to win this one. At least, they deserved it more than the Bengals did. The game shouldn't even have been as close as it was. The Texans dominated on both sides of the football. Their big problem was converting big plays through the middle of the field into meaningful points inside the red zone. 

One ill-advised Matth Schaub throw - and the resulting Pick-6 - was what kept Cincinnati in the game. They couldn't do much themselves on offense. Andy Dalton completed less than 50% of his passes, and big threat wide receiver AJ Green went missing for big stretches of a game. Simply put, your best player cannot afford to not turn up for about three quarters of a playoff contest. Cincinnati's defense, mostly, was helped out by the Texans' inability to convert in the red zone. On the field, it wasn't as close as 19-13. And the Bengals continue to chase their maiden playoff victory.

Relief in Houston, surely, after an alarming late-season slump that saw the Texans look less like the team that had started 11-1 and more like, say Oakland or Jacksonville. They have that all-important playoff win, Matt Schaub's first career post-season win, but are headed to New England next week. Tom Brady and company cleaned their clocks in Foxborough a few weeks back. The rested Patriots will probably be too much.