The two top seeds, Denver and Seattle, both posted victories in their first playoff games to advance to the conference title games Sunday.
But Denver’s overtime 33-30 victory over the Bills was a costly one for the Broncos because quarterback Bo Nix suffered a broken leg late in the game and will miss the rest of the playoffs. They will now try to beat the New England Patriots in the AFC title game with Jarrett Stidham, a former Patriot who hasn’t thrown a pass in the regular season, at quarterback.
The loss was devastating for Buffalo as Josh Allen had one of his worst games, throwing two picks and fumbling twice. And in the aftermath, coach Sean McDermott was fired after nine years. There was a lot of controversy over the officiating, particular a Denver interception when the defender ripped it out of the receiver’s hands when the Bills thought it was a catch and down by contact. That set up the game winning field goal along with the help of a controversial pass interference call. But the Bills got a break when a lineman wasn’t called for an apparent hold in the end zone that would have given the Broncos the victory and kept them from getting Nix hurt.
The Patriots beat the Texans, 28-16, in a mistake-filled game as Drake Maye fumbled four times and lost two while C.J. Stroud threw four picks. It put the Patriots back in the conference title game for the first time since Tom Brady left. With Nix out, they have a good shot at the Super Bowl but have to play better than they did against the Texans.
In the NFC, the Seahawks routed the 49ers, 41-6, who beat the Eagles in Philadelphia a week ago to end their bid for a repeat but were no match for the Seahawks. All the injuries finally caught up with the 49ers.
By contrast, the Rams beat the Bears in Chicago in an overtime. Caleb Williams made one of the best plays of the year on fourth down at the Rams 14. He retreated to the 40 with three Rams chasing him and heaved a pass in the end zone for a touchdown. Coach Ben Johnson decided not to go for two to try to win and sent the game into overtime. Williams then threw a pick in overtime to send up the Rams’ game winning drive although D.J Moore ran a poor route on the play. Now the Rams will try to win their third straight road playoff game in Seattle to make the Super Bowl. They are the only wild card team left in the playoffs.
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