2012 Postseason Rewind: Wild-Card Playoffs

The postseason kicked off in Houston, where the AFC South champs took on Cincinnati. Houston was at the top of the conference for the whole season, but a Week 17 loss opened the door for Denver and New England to sneak past them for the top two seeds and a bye straight through to the divisional round.

Houston never looked like they were playing with much confidence on offense. Unfortunately for Cincinnati, their offense was even worse. The Bengals’ only touchdown of the contest came on an interception. The Texans only scored 19 points, but it was enough, barely, to advance.

Green Bay hosted Minnesota later that evening. As NFC North rivals, they had already played each other twice this season, most recently in Week 17, just one week before. Minnesota won that game at home in a shootout. The loss kept Green Bay out of the NFC’s #2 seed.

This time, they met in Green Bay and Christian Ponder was unavailable. Joe Webb started for him and looked great running the ball as a compliment to Adrian Peterson on the first drive. Poor passing stalled the drive, forcing a field goal, and that’s all they would get until garbage time. Good defense kept the Packers from running up the score, but the 24-10 final is even closer than the game was.

Sunday’s first game featured Indianapolis in Baltimore. The Colts had won 9 of their last 11 and was coming off a win against Houston. Baltimore hadn’t beaten a good team since before their bye week.

In Ray Lewis’s return from injury, the Ravens dominated Indianapolis on defense and Anquan Boldin made a few very impressive catches down the field to give Baltimore’s offense a lift. The Colts never had a prayer.

Just minutes after that game, a few miles down I-95, the Redskins were set to host the Seahawks. The Redskins had won seven straight, including a game against the Cowboys a week earlier to decide the NFC East Champion. Washington got off to a hot start, quickly building a 14-0 lead on their first two drives.

Robert Griffin III was hurt some time during the second drive and was noticeably inaccurate the rest of the game as Seattle slowly mounted their comeback. In the fourth quarter, RG3 took a bad step attempting to recover a botched snap and hurt his knee badly – he would have surgery on his LCL and ACL a couple days later. The Seahawks, meanwhile, completed their comeback, aided by the Redskins not scoring again after their first two possessions.

Tomorrow I will recap the divisional round, followed by the AFC and NFC championships on Friday. Saturday I will briefly preview the Pro Bowl because I have nothing better to do. Keep up with new posts by ‘liking’ my blog’s Facebook page and by following me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.