I wrote here Saturday that the Packers, as badly as they had played since the bye week, had a decent chance to win their first-round playoff game at Washington because the Redskins aren’t very good, NFC (L)East title notwithstanding.
It turned out that spotting the Redskins an 11-0 lead was just what the Packers apparently needed. Green Bay’s 35-18 win was the best the Packers have played in months against, well, a playoff team. The Redskins didn’t beat a playoff team all season, including in the playoffs.
The Washington Post’s Mike Jones reports:
With the third-quarter clock ticking down and the heat coming on second and long, Aaron Rodgers fired a rope of a pass 15 yards to wide receiver Randall Cobb at the 50-yard line — two yards beyond the first-down markers. A smile crept across Rodgers’s face as the quarter ended.
As of late, smiles have been infrequent for the Green Bay Packers. They entered Sunday’s first-round playoff game against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field having lost two straight, and opponents had exploited an injury-riddled offensive line and battered Rodgers, robbing him of his usual magic.
But on Sunday evening, order had been restored. The 2014 NFL MVP proved too masterful for the Redskins’ defense. Meanwhile, Green Bay’s defense found ways to cool off Kirk Cousins and his offense after impressive displays early in the game and to start the second half. And so, with a 35-18 defeat to Rodgers & Co., the Redskins’ turnaround season came to an end.
Rodgers and his teammates used that 10-play, 76-yard, 5-minute 39-second drive that spanned the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth — which was capped by a two-yard Eddie Lacy touchdown run — to take the wind out of the Redskins’ sails. That score put the Packers out of reach at 32-18.
A season-best crowd of 81,367 packed into the Redskins’ stadium to witness the team’s first playoff game in three seasons. They hoped to witness Washington’s first playoff victory since the 2005 season and the first at home since 2000.
But after the home team treated them to promising displays at various points of the game, from the middle of the third quarter on, Green Bay had its way with Washington. And by the 4:39 mark, when Mason Crosby’s 29-yard field goal put the Packers up 35-18, the bulk of the fans headed for the exits.
Rodgers, whose Packers will play at Arizona in the second round of the playoffs, led his team by completing 21 of 36 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns. Cousins, meanwhile, completed 29 of 46 passes for 329 yards and a touchdown. The quarterback also rushed for a touchdown — the only other one of the day for the Redskins. …
Through the first quarter, Rodgers completed just 1 of 8 pass attempts. But he found a rhythm in the second quarter, completing 5 of 7 passes while marching his team downfield on a nine-play, 80-yard scoring drive capped by a 12-yard pass to Cobb.
The savvy Rodgers twice kept the Redskins off-balance by quickly getting his team to the line as Washington was trying to substitute players.
The Rodgers-to-Cobb touchdown, and the successful kick, cut the score to 11-10 with 2:59 left in the quarter. Washington held the ball for just 32 seconds on the following possession, and that left Rodgers with plenty of time. Completing 7 of 8 passes, Rodgers directed a nine-play, 60-yard drive capped by a 10-yard toss to Davante Adams. Thus completed a 17-0 scoring run by Green Bay, who went into the locker room up by six. …
Green Bay’s rushing attack continued to click down the stretch. Rodgers ended the third quarter with a 15-yard strike to Cobb, and the Packers rushed for 49 yards on eight carries, ending with Lacy’s two-yard jaunt and a two-touchdown lead.
The home teams last weekend either lost (the Redskins and Houston, wiped out 30-0 by Kansas City) or suffered daggers to the heart. Earlier Sunday, the Vikings blew a 9-0 lead, but were in position to kick the game-winning 27-yard field goal. And then … click here for what happened next.
The egregious miss made the Washington Post’s Des Bieler ask if that was the worst missed field goal in NFL postseason history:
Well, probably not, given that it came in a first-round game. In fact, most Vikings fans, once they regain their composure, would probably say that it wasn’t even the worst in the team’s star-crossed postseason history.
That dubious honor likely goes to Gary Anderson, who missed a 38-yarder — indoors, at the team’s old home in the Metrodome, after having been perfect all season — that would have given Minnesota a 10-point lead late in the 1999 NFC championship game. Instead, the Atlanta Falcons scored a game-tying touchdown, then shocked the heavily favored Vikings in overtime and moved on to the Super Bowl.
Of course, there’s missing a field goal in the first playoff round, there’s missing one in a conference title game, and then there’s missing one that would have won a Super Bowl. Yes, it’s time once again to invoke the name of Scott Norwood.
The Buffalo Bills kicker missed a 47-yarder with eight seconds left in Super Bowl XXV, allowing the Giants to escape with a 20-19 victory. That distance certainly made the attempt anything but a gimme, as opposed to Walsh’s chip-shot effort, but the highest of NFL stakes probably keeps Norwood atop this unfortunate list.
The Star Tribune’s Patrick Reusse places this loss on top of the Vikings’ unfortunate list, perhaps because …
I sent out this Tweet during the 2-minute warning of the fourth quarter, when the Seahawks were leading 10-9 and facing third down out of the break: “12-10, Vikes, mark it down.’’
This was done out of a genuine feeling that the Seahawks would be stopped and the Vikings would move into field-goal range for Blair Walsh – already 3-for-3 on an afternoon when Seattle coach Pete Carroll was reluctant to allow his guy to try them.
That is what occurred. The Seahawks were stopped and the Vikings moved into a field-goal range. And soon I was offering this Tweet:
“Gary Anderson falls into 2nd place on list of worst missed FGs in history of Minnesota Vikings Football, LLC.’’
Actually, I spelled it Andersen, because I always get our Gary mixed up with Atlanta’s Morten, who made the overtime field goal to beat the Vikings in the NFC title game in January 1999.
The responses in Tweetland were almost unanimous in disagreement with my contention that Walsh’s miss in a first-round playoff game could surpass as worst-ever Anderson’s miss in a game that could have sent the Vikings to a Super Bowl.
No matter.
I’m sticking with my contention that Walsh’s on Sunday is now No. 1 and here are the reasons:
1-Anderson’s field goal from 38 yards came with 2:18 to play and with the Vikings leading 27-20. It would have put the lead at 30-20 and made it roughly 90 percent that the Vikings would win.
Yet, Atlanta did score its tying touchdown with 57 seconds remaining. If that had been a touchdown to cut the lead to 30-27, there was always the onside kick and the possibility of a recovery for the trailing team.
Ask the 2014 Green Bay Packers about that one.
Thus, Anderson’s field goal attempt did not come with a guarantee of victory, only an extreme likelihood.
2-Walsh’s field goal would have put the Vikings ahead 12-10 with under 30 seconds to play. He would have flopped a kickoff down near the goal line, and Seattle would have had a couple of desperation plays with no timeouts remaining.
Walsh’s field goal would have won the game … 100 percent.
3-Walsh’s field goal was 11 yards closer. That matters. It’s more improbable to miss a 27-yarder in frozen conditions than it is to miss a 38-yarder, even when it’s being kicked indoors.
4-The fact Anderson hadn’t missed a kick all season was merely a quirk, not a factor in whether it should be rated as a worse miss than Walsh’s on Sunday.
5-The 1998 Vikings deserved what they got against Atlanta. Yes, the Falcons were 14-2, but it wasn’t a “this team is fantastic’’ 14-2 … more a tribute to an Atlanta team with resiliency.
The Vikings were 15-1 and they were a fantastic football machine on offense.
The Vikings played well but not great on that Sunday in the Metrodome. They allowed a team that was their inferior – the Falcons – to hang tough and it cost them.
6-The 2015 Vikings did not get what they deserved on Sunday. It was so miserably cold that it had to take fortitude for the 22 athletes on both sides to involve themselves in every play.
The Vikings were taking on a Seattle team with a ferocious defense and with an offense that had been tearing up most opponents through the second half of the schedule. This included the Vikings, 38-7, in early December in the same TCF Bank Stadium.
Mike Zimmer’s defense held the Seahawks scoreless into the fourth quarter. It took Russell Wilson scooping up a ball like the baseball player he was to create a long, busted play and give life to Seattle’s offense.
And then after it fell behind 10-9, the Purple defense still held the Seahawks and gave the offense a chance. All the Vikings needed was one little drive to pull the upset, and they got it with a pass interference call and then Kyle Rudolph’s rumble down the sideline.
I know the Seahawks were 10-6 and the Falcons of 17 years earlier were 14-2, but in my judgment, this was a more-complete team the Vikings were playing in sub-zero freezing on Sunday than in January 1999.
And the Vikings had ‘em beat, and then Walsh missed a 27-yard field goal. It didn’t cost the Vikings a Super Bowl trip, but it cost them a chance to stay alive.
Considering odds faced, effort expended and victory guarantee provided, it puts Walsh’s missed 27-yarder ahead of Anderson’s 38-yarder for worst-ever missed field goal for the Vikings.
The Star Tribune’s Jim Souhan might as well be cast in the old “Hee Haw” segment “Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me”:
There is always another generation to disappoint. The Minnesota Vikings have been losing games like this for 50 years, but they had not choked in a playoff game in six years, and they had not lost a home playoff game with an improbably missed field goal in 16, not until Sunday afternoon, when Blair Walsh smother-hooked a kick that missed its intended target and squarely struck millions of frostbitten and jangled nerves.
The Vikings’ playoff game against Seattle began with an homage to Vikings tradition and Minnesota weather, as Bud Grant braved subzero temperatures in a golf shirt at midfield for the coin flip, and it became the ultimate homage to the dark side of Vikings lore, the shadows that haunt the franchise like a child’s closeted ghosts.
If you had never seen the Vikings game or visited Minnesota before, sitting in the stands on Sunday would have explained everything: The natives’ imperviousness to cold, the fans’ whistling-through-the-graveyard passion, and the despair of a frigid walk to an icy car in weak, winter sunlight in the wake of another inexplicable loss. This was Frozen remade as tragedy.
When the Norse gods of disappointment demanded their periodic sacrifice of an innocent psyche on Sunday, it was Walsh’s turn to fail. He powered three field goals through the uprights and heavy air to give the Vikings a 9-0 lead, had done as much as a kicker can do to be a football hero, until the fourth quarter arrived and the Vikings’ demons joined the huddle.
Mike Zimmer’s defense had intelligently contained Russell Wilson all game but on the first drive of the fourth, Wilson turned mistakes by both teams into the first of four game-turning plays.
A shotgun snap flew over his head. Wilson turned, inserted his mouthguard, made a sliding recovery, began looking downfield as he rose to his feet, skated around overeager cornerback Captain Munnerlyn and found Tyler Lockett for 35 yards to the Vikings’ 4. Two plays later, Seattle scored to make it 9-7.
Two plays from scrimmage later, Adrian Peterson fumbled. Inexcusable Play No. 2 led to a Seattle field goal. It was 10-9.
Inexcusable play No. 3 arrived with less than five minutes remaining. Wilson lofted a pass to the left. Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo dove, got both arms on the ball, and dropped it as he hit the turf. Had he caught it the Vikings would have been near midfield.
Despite their mistakes, the Vikings would not implode. Their historical failures are not rooted so much in collapse as in excellence betrayed. They would have their chance.
Another defensive stand gave the offense the ball at the Vikings’ 39 with 1:42 remaining. Seven plays later, Walsh jogged onto the field to attempt a 27-yard field goal. Walsh planted his foot strangely close to the ball and yanked the kick to the left, like a bad golfer trying to overcompensate for a slice.
Teammates bowed their heads. Zimmer bent over, hands on knees. Thousands of fans who had sat in the cold for four hours recoiled. The Vikings’ failures are stunning yet predictable. “It’s shocking,’’ defensive end Everson Griffen said. “It’s very disappointing that we lost and the only thing we can do now is … I really don’t know.’’
“It’s a chip shot,’’ Zimmer, the pragmatist, said. “He’s got to make it.’’
By missing, Walsh joins the 12th man in the huddle, the Favre interception, Gary Anderson’s miss, Darrin Nelson’s drop and four Super Bowl losses in the franchise’s virtual museum of malaise.
Well, Cincinnati has as many Super Bowl rings as Minnesota. The Bengals squandered a comeback and lost to archrival Pittsburgh 18-16.
The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daughterty:
A game that descended into brutal, chaotic farce was won by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night.
The cool every Bengals player promised during the week was nothing but hot air. When the Bengals needed to play with poise, they committed two personal fouls on the same play. And that was the ballgame.
Seven is worse than six was worse than five. Every Bengals playoff loss is a stab in the same eye. Resurrecting reasons to believe gets harder each year. The Bengals aren’t the Cubs. We don’t find their losing lovable. We’d need another 100 years for that.
But make no mistake: Playoff L No. 7 of the Marvin Lewis Era was the worst. Given the sadness, skepticism and cynicism provoked by the previous six, that’s saying something.
It could also be the most telling.
Mike Brown is Mike Brown, so there very likely will be no change at the top. But if any game would force that, it would be this one. Too many players were out of control. That’s on the head coach. Too many stupid things happened. Passion has its place in football. Reckless stupidity does not.
I won’t go into detail about the game, its frantic finish yet another eye-stab. You saw it. You don’t need to read about it.
It’s mindless to blame a few plays or a few players for a loss that had more twists than a medieval thumb screw. It might have been easier had the Bengals lost 15-0. Chalk it up to another playoff fade. Only, they didn’t fade. They took the lead, 16-15, and with a first down at the Steelers’ 26 with 1:36 left, had the game won.
Only this is January and these are the Bengals so Jeremy Hill, bless him, fumbled. Then Ben Roethlisberger, whose right shoulder was ground meat, took Pittsburgh 74 yards in nine plays. Chris Boswell kicked a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds left to send Cincinnati to its most crushing loss in … forever.
You saw that.
So here’s the thing, and it is indisputable: You cannot launch yourself at a defenseless receiver’s head, after a pass sails uncatchably high. You can’t be pushing and shoving after the referees tell you to stop. This has nothing to do with curses or bad luck or “choking’’ or any of the millions of other reasons we’ve used to rationalize the postseason carnage.
It has everything to do with playing smart, poised, selfless football.
“We fought, then unraveled when it counted the most,’’ Michael Johnson said. “Roethlisberger didn’t hurt us on that last drive. We hurt us on that last drive.’’
Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones are terrific football players, whose games feed off emotion. Emotion without control is dangerous. The Steelers had 22 seconds left in their season when Roethlisberger threw incomplete across the middle to Antonio Brown. It would have been 2nd-and-10 from the Bengals’ 47, a bad place for Pittsburgh to be with no timeouts and needing 15 yards at least for a chance to kick a wet ball in the pouring rain through the uprights.
Instead, Burfict drilled Brown with a vicious headshot: Fifteen yards. Jones went ballistic at the call, wouldn’t stop: Fifteen yards. The ball ended up at the Bengals’ 15, where Boswell chip-shotted the game-winner.
Afterward, Burfict said little. Jones said less, except to stage an expletive-fest on Instagram, against the referees. He doesn’t get it and, at age 32, he likely never will.
No one is a bigger stickler for decorum on the field than Marvin Lewis. And yet he enjoys players who live on the edge of control. Always has, since the days of Odell Thurman. That’s fine: Every team would like to have players with the talent and fury of Burfict and Jones.
But when the fury escapes from the leash and costs you games, the coach is going to be the one held accountable. The irony is, Lewis likely saved Jones’ career, and gave life to Burfict’s. Now, he’s open to criticism because he can’t control their behavior on the field.
The Packers return to Arizona Saturday night. If they win, they will either go to Carolina again or host Seattle again. Two of the four remaining AFC teams are Kansas City and Denver, which were also on the Packers schedule.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
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