Wild card weekend in the NFL

Quick thoughts on the first round of the NFL playoffs.

Texans 31, Bengals 10

As I've done all year (with some justification, given their history), I underestimated the Texans. It wasn't that I thought much of the Bengals, but with T.J. Yates at quarterback, I didn't think they'd run the ball with great success against playoff defenses. Arian Foster (24 carries, 153 yards, 2 TD) was dominant. As for the Bengals, they looked like the frauds we thought they might be when they stumbled down the stretch. From their own running game (nobody over 34 yards) to Andy Dalton's 3 interceptions to Marvin Lewis' challenges, it was a bad showing for the last wild-card team in a bad conference.

Saints 45, Lions 28

If you'd have told Jim Schwartz before the game that the Lions would lead by 4 at halftime, he almost certainly would have taken it. Yet that's when the game, in my mind, was lost. When an offense as efficient as the Saints' has been steps on its own feet in the form of two lost fumbles, you've got to take advantage of it. Detroit couldn't score either time. The Drew Brees machine didn't do anything wrong in the second half, and the Lions couldn't keep up. By the way, we all expected the Lions secondary to be bad this year. How big a disappointment has what should have been a dominant front four been?

Giants 24, Falcons 2

Maybe as recently as 16 calendar months ago, if you'd have given me the chance to take any player to build an NFL team around, I'd probably have gone with Matt Ryan. His on-the-field ability and upside, plus what seemed like great leadership and intangible qualities, made him seem like a perfect package. After another decent, not great, season and another one-and-done playoff showing, I'm wondering if Ryan would crack my top 10 quarterbacks to build around. He didn't make any catastrophic mistakes Sunday, but he also didn't make any plays. That, more than Mike Smith's fourth-down decision making or anything the Giants did, was what stood out most in this game to me.