NFL Playoffs 2018: Choke jobs yield epic Wild Card Round

Before the NFL Playoffs 2018 get underway, we must admonish the epic choke jobs that went down to get us here. Where there are losers, there are winners. Bring on the crazy Wild Card Round!

A weird thing happened in NFL Week 17. It seemed like the desire to ruin someone’s season was more powerful than the desire to succeed. Choking yielded collapse and a surprising start to the NFL Playoffs 2018.

The Arizona Cardinals had nothing to play for. They went into Seattle and knocked the Seahawks out of the playoffs. The Cincinnati Bengals had nothing to play for. They went into Baltimore and knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had nothing to play for. They did their part in potentially forcing the New Orleans Saints out of a division title and first-round home game. Bring on the crazy Wildcard round!

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate NFL Playoffs 2018 in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

It’s easy to blame Blair Walsh for the Seahawks loss, but you cannot lose to Drew Stanton when he goes 15-of-34, averages fewer than 4.3 yards per attempt, and apparently played with a torn ACL. For the Ravens, Joe Flacco was just a little short on a number of his deep throws. The receivers also had their share of drops. Cincinnati gave him chances, and he couldn’t take advantage. And the supposedly elite Baltimore defense allowed a killer final drive to Andy Dalton. The Saints couldn’t generate consistency on the ground and gave up an 18-point fourth quarter (with the help of a fumble recovery) to the mistake-prone offense of Tampa Bay.

What do you make of these collective outcomes? Is it a confusing case of choking? The potential playoff teams felt the pressure of winning more than their opponents felt the weight of the outcome being meaningless. That carefree attitude played to their advantage as more pressure mounted and games went on. All three eventual losers actually held leads late in the fourth quarter, which would seem to back up this sentiment.

If this is true, though, it makes me think none of these teams deserved to make the playoffs anyway. What type of pressure is this? It’s a Week 17 game against the Cardinals! The Bills and Titans seem like jokes of playoff teams, but they won to get there. That means a little something.

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The 2018 playoff slate would look much, much better with Seattle and especially Baltimore involved. But choking away a final game against an opponent who had nothing to play for is the exact thing playoff teams should be able to easily avoid. No one wants to see Buffalo at Jacksonville next week as an actual, legit playoff game. This is all Baltimore’s fault, not Cincinnati’s.

Dan Salem:

I have a very difficult time asserting that a collective choke job took place in the NFL. Instead I shall point to the true separation in the standings this season from top to bottom. There were very few dominant teams in each conference, namely two in the AFC and three in the NFC. That’s five of twelve playoff teams. There were also five or more truly terrible football teams. Everyone else fell somewhere in the middle between kind-of bad and sort-of good. The NFL Playoffs 2018 now contain some sort-of good teams, thanks to a few kind-of bad teams winning in week 17.

Baltimore would otherwise have choked, if not for two factors. The Bengals were a good bad team this season and the Ravens did nearly the exact same thing last season to miss the playoffs. They choked away their wildcard spot. Now we have a pattern. Its also why division games in the final two weeks are so great. There’s no better matchup more prone for an upset!

Seattle was a bad good team, as I repeatedly noted how they played up or down to their opponents in 2017. In a normal year they would easily be a playoff team. In the AFC they would have easily made it, but the NFC was strong and the Seahawks lost yet another game they should have won. Give Arizona a ton of credit for showing up and winning their coach’s final game before retirement.

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Is the magical run of the Saints over before it began? New Orleans had a poor start to the season, losing two straight to playoff teams, then ticked off eight straight wins. Four of their five losses were to playoff teams, yet the final one versus Tampa Bay is a bad sign going forward in the playoffs. I’m concerned. New Orleans is obviously better, but something happened to the defense against the Buccaneers. Maybe its just a case of already making it and “resting” in Week 17, but momentum is important. Luckily the Panthers also have none, after losing to Atlanta to end the season.