2017 Wild Cards to trip aces

Bokolis bangs out a 3-1 wild card round, only getting tripped up by some soft Saints defending down the stretch.

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You can whinge about the Titans being (more often) on the right side of some dodgy officiating.  Bokolis prefers to see this as Andy Reid getting hungry and swallowing the useful part of his playbook.  After all, the motivation for picking against the Chiefs is that Andy Reid always does this and the Chiefs having lost five consecutive home playoff games.

While the Titans were struggling to find their feet, at least they were tackling.  If you have that, you'll always have a shot.  Bokolis always says that this game is 90% hitting, so I was thinking, like the Ravens did to Jamaal Charles when he was running free on them a few playoffs ago and flipped the game, it's time to put one on that little muthafucka Tyreek Hill.  The Titans did one better, doing the honors on Kelce, spooking and chastening Andy Reid in the process.

The Chiefs had a 18-point lead at the half.  The officials were no help, but the coaching lost them this game.

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The Falcons victory was so straightforward that Bokolis didn't even lock in on this game.  It was said that first-time playoff QBs were 1-10 in the last 11, with that one win coming against another first time starter.  It was also said during the week that the Falcons came to work all-business this week.  There might have been something to that, as, right from the beginning, you could see the Rams were not fully there.  The inefficiency in the passing game was comprehensive, as everything seemed off the whole time.  The Falcons, far from explosive on offense themselves, did what was necessary to keep the ball moving and let their defense deliver.

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Speaking of inefficiency, the Jaguars and the Bills were all the worst parts of Andy Reid's playbook.  Speaking of first-time playoff QBs, we had two in this game. If there was a game where the line was too high, this was it.  There was one touchdown, scored on 4th and goal, and it had to survive a review.

Bortles was most only effective running.  Given that he couldn't make an accurate pass when guys were open and wasn't taking chances down the field, it was strange that the Bills didn't account for his running.

But Bokolis doesn't want to be harsh; if you give up 10 points in the sun, you expect to win.  But the Bills had QB, Bokolis doesn't even know his name, who I wouldn't let that guy QB in the family Thanksgiving game, much less in a NFL playoff game.  With a hobbled McCoy to boot, it seemed like half the Buffalo first downs were by accident.  When they did break off a run, there was holding.  When the QB was slammed to the ground on the final drive and the backup came in, I joked that the in-game money line on the Bills must be +10 million and that he was more likely to throw one for six the other way to blow the cover.

Luckily, the DB didn't catch it cleanly and had to go to ground to complete(?) the interception.

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Bokolis thought that the Saints would win this game by 10-11 points.  When they were up 14-3 even though the Panthers had done reasonably well on (passing) offense, I had this one in the bag.  At 21-9 and, with the theme continuing, I spent halftime looking for the bow.  But, the game was at an inflection point, especially with the Panthers receiving the kickoff.

We got to the 4th quarter at 24-12.  The Panthers soon had a 3rd and short inside Saints territory.  Because, from the living room, Bokolis knows everything and anything, it smelled like a play-action pass.

Olsen got a clean release, picked up 20 or so yards, then subsequently caught his touchdown.  On the TD, it was so obvious to Bokolis that this was where the play was going that I wondered why the safety didn't rotate (and why the slot guy lined up on Olsen doesn't see that).  Newton has shown a marked bias towards his tight ends in the best of times; he is certainly going to favor Olsen here.

After the Saints restored 'parity' and, with another receiver out of the game, they again decided that there was someone to cover other than Olsen and McCaffrey.  They left a linebacker on the latter, who promptly shook his marker and scampered another 50 yards to the endzone.

They had to figure out how to hang a loss on Bokolis somehow.   It's on to the divisional round.  While the AFC will feature nobility at home and big numbers, the NFC will be wide open.  I will spend the next week- about 10 minutes of it, anyway- deliberating over whether to lay the two touchdowns on New England.