Wild Card Saturday Madness

What a Wild Card weekend this was.

On Saturday, the Houston Texans eked out their 22-19 OT thriller over the Buffalo Bills. Quick notes:

• With the Bills up 16-0 and dominating the game in the 3rd quarter the whole momentum of the game shifted when QB Josh Allen, who had been playing outstanding football, fumbled on a scramble where he failed to protect the ball.
• Then after losing the lead, with the score 19-16 Texans and having driven the Bills into FG position to tie the game, Allen does the unthinkable 2 plays in a row—-by taking 2 sacks for huge losses.
• Couldn’t believe on the 2nd one that the Bills didn’t try their hot K Stephen Hauschka on a 58 yarder instead of trying to pass on 4th and 23.
• Couldn’t believe either that the Texans elected to go for it on 4th an 1 instead of kicking a FG that would have put them up by 6 with a little over 1 minute left and with the Bills out of timeouts.
• Worried that the sacks would be a career-long stigma for Josh Allen and then watching him inexplicably try to lateral a ball to one of his OL, who alertly swiped the ball out of bounds—-it felt like a relief to see Hauschka tie the game and take Allen off the hook.
• Cardinals related players: the Bills’ WR John Brown and OLB Lorenzo Alexander—-both have thrived since leaving the Cardinals. Texans’ TE Darren Fells is a positive factor in their offense.
• BA admitted recently that Deshaun Watson was going to be the Cardinals’ choice with the #13 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft—-that is until the Texans (who bizarrely were able to trade their starting QB Brock Osweiler to the Browns as a salary dump) convinced the Browns to trade them the #12 pick. Coincidentally since then the Browns and Cardinals have taken Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray with the #1 picks in the 2018 and 2019 NFL Drafts.
• How many NFL games win up in a 19-19 tie? In order for this to happen the Bills had to score 1 TD and kick 4 FGs—-while the Texans pulled off the more improbable result by scoring 2 TD and converting both 2 point conversions and kicking 1 FG.

In the nightcap, the upstart Tennessee Titans upset the New England Patriots in Foxboro, 20-13. Quick Notes:

• What were the odds that the once 8-0 2018 World Champion Patriots would lose their last two games of the 2019 season at home to the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans, both to coaches (Brians Flores and Mike Vrable) who either played or coached under Bill Belichick?
• Oh the irony of Vrable using Belichick’s milk the clock on punt delay of game ploys. The NFL has to change this totally non-sensical flaw in the rules asap.
• Game MVP? RB Derrick Henry. Young stud RBs, baby! Playoffs chock-full of them!
• Rumors here in Foxboro are that Tom Brady wants to play in LA for the Chargers or in SF for the 49ers. If the Rams could pull some strings, one has to winder whether they would make a pitch for Brady. But, it appears, at least for now, that Brady is wide open to leaving the Patriots and taking the romance out of the iconic player sticking with his one and only team theme.