NFL playoff action entertains viewers

By Joe Laurich, staff writer
Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons
Aaron Rodgers will look to win the second Super Bowl of his career, but first he has to get through Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game. Rodgers is playing at an MVP-level this year.

The Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs took place last weekend and gave viewers four games that didn’t disappoint. 

The first game of the weekend featured the NFC’s best team in the regular season, the Green Bay Packers, who took on the Los Angeles Rams in what was touted as a battle between the Packers’ high-scoring offense against the Rams stout defense. 

The Packers offense showed off what they were capable of early on, taking a 19-10 lead into the half before winning 32-18. 

The Packers will return to the NFC Championship game for the second year in a row. Last year, the Packers got blown out by the San Francisco 49ers in that game, but they’ll look to have a better showing this year.

In the second game on Saturday, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills took on Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. While both teams feature high-powered offenses, it was defense that won the day as the game was low-scoring throughout. 

The highlight of the game was Bills’ cornerback Taron Johnson’s 101 yard interception return for a touchdown, and the Bills took home a 17-3 win. 

They’ll face the reigning Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, in the AFC Championship game next Sunday. 

The Chiefs played the Cleveland Browns on Sunday in a game that was exciting until the very last play. 

Cleveland hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2002, but following an injury to Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, they had a great opportunity to upset the heavily favored Chiefs, as they had the ball trailing 22-17. 

However, the Browns failed to score since Mahomes’ backup-Chad Henne-made two great plays, scrambling for a big gain on third and long. He completed a pass to Tyreek Hill on fourth and inches to clinch the win for Kansas City. 

The final game of the weekend was one of the most exciting, as it pitted two all-time great quarterbacks against one another, while Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced off against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. 

In Brady’s first year with the Bucs, he was looking to take them to a conference championship game, a place where he’d been many times with the New England Patriots. 

With a little help from his defense, he was able to do just that as the Bucs beat the higher-seeded Saints 30-20 in Drew Brees’ last game in the NFL. The Bucs defense got three interceptions off of Brees to send Brady to his  remarkable 14th conference championship game appearance.

This weekend, we’ll find out which of these teams will be heading to Tampa Bay for Super Bowl LV.