Graham Mertz (left) of the Houston Texans plays against the Detroit Lions during a preseason game at Ford Field on August 23, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: AFP)
To say that Wild Card Weekend of the 2025/26 National Football League (NFL) season was wild would be an understatement. There were no lions, but the animal kingdom was well represented by eagles, jaguars, bears, rams and panthers! To recap, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Carolina Panthers, 34-31; the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers, 31-27; the Buffalo Bills beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 27-24; the San Francisco 49ers beat the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles, 23-19; the New England Patriots beat the Los Angeles Chargers, 16-3; and the Houston Texans beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 30-6.
The opening weekend of the NFL play-offs had more closely contested games than any previous year, as the first four games of the weekend were all decided by four points or less. No previous Wild Card Weekend had more than three such games, and that only happened one season (2013). It should be noted that from 1990 to 2019, there were four games in the wild-card round, since then there have been six, so the statistics may be a bit skewed, but even then, it is surprising that there have not been more competitive games at this stage.
The results saw two upsets, a comeback for the ages, and the fourth quarter in five of the six games saw offences come to life, after being stifled in the first three stanzas. Defence was the order of the day, as most of the scoring came late in the games, but most telling was the fourth quarter by the Bears last Saturday night, in one of the upsets, and the Texans exploding in the final canto of the weekend on Monday night, to not only send the Steelers packing, but also trigger an addition to the carousel of coaching moves since the completion of the regular season. It was announced on Tuesday that Pittsburgh’s head coach, Mike Tomlin, will be stepping down after 19 seasons, finishing .500 or better in each. Tomlin was hired by the Steelers in 2007 and had a 193-114 regular-season record, tying the legendary Chunk Noll’s franchise record for victories.
The Bears, after trailing 3-21 at halftime, looked dead in the water until quarterback (QB) Caleb Williams found a groove in the second half, leading an 18-point comeback to get past the archrival Packers, including 25 points in the fourth quarter, and registered Chicago’s first play-off win in 15 years. The Texans emerged winners of an ugly game, where they led 7-6 at the start of the fourth quarter. The Pittsburgh offence, with 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers leading the attack, couldn’t get anything going against an elite defence, while the Houston offence was equally inept but, with a 23-point fourth quarter, including two defensive touchdowns, they shut the door on the Steelers, and possibly on Rodgers’ Hall-of-Fame career.
With those games decided, the Divisional Round kicks off tomorrow, for another weekend of high-flying action. The National Football Conference (NFC) West Division has three of its four teams in this round, the top-seeded Seattle Seahawks, the Rams and the 49ers, the other NFC representative being the Bears. The American Football Conference (AFC) top seed, the Denver Broncos, will host the Bills tomorrow afternoon for the opening adventure, while the Seahawks invite the 49ers to Seattle for a thriller tomorrow night. On Sunday afternoon, the Texans travel to New England to tackle the Patriots and the Bears close the weekend in Chicago against the Rams.
The Broncos take the field as slight JustBet underdogs against the Bills, which comes as a surprise since the game will be played at the Empower Field in Denver and the home team shares the best record in the NFL (14-3) with the Seahawks and the Patriots. That said, QB Josh Allen leads a Buffalo attack that was the No 4 scoring offence in the league, averaging 28.2 points per game, against a Denver defence that ranks No 4 in the NFL, allowing just 18.3 points per game, so the expectation is for a hard-fought battle. The Broncos led the NFL with 68 sacks during the regular season and Allen will need to stay upright to pull off the win. This is too close to call, but if I were a betting man, I would go with the home team.
For the second time in three weeks, the 49ers and the Seahawks face off, but this time there is no room for error. Seattle won the encounter a few weeks ago, 13-3, in San Francisco, where their defense limited the 49ers to 173 yards of total offense, but these two opened the season against each other, in Seattle, where the 49ers came away 17-13 winners. JustBet heavily favours the Seahawks, maybe due to the inordinate raft of injuries for the 49ers, but the visitors still have enough firepower in their arsenal to make this exciting. The Seahawks should win, but an upset would not be a surprise.
New England’s QB Drake Maye threw for 4,394 yards (fourth in the NFL), 31 touchdowns (third in the NFL) and eight interceptions this season, averaged 258.5 yards per game and 8.9 yards per attempt, while completing 72 per cent of his throws. He just won his first-ever playoff game last weekend, and is heavily in the running for the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. And if that wasn’t enough, he has also rushed for 450 yards (26.5 per game) and four touchdowns, but he will be up against the top-rated defense in the NFL, allowing only 277.2 yards per game. Wide receiver Stefon Diggs played for the Texans in 2021, when they torched the Patriots 41-21, but he is on the opposite sideline this time around and JustBet favours the Patriots by just over a field goal. Houston has a fair chance in this one, but the defense would need to show up and make the difference, else the home team will take the win.
The Rams will visit Chicago as JustBet favourites on Sunday night, in what promises to be blistering cold weather. The visiting QB, Matthew Stafford, another frontrunner for MVP honours, will be very wary of the fact that the Bears led the league in takeaways (33), including a league-best 23 interceptions, and taking care of the ball will be his priority. That said, Chicago’s overall defense wasn’t very good all season, allowing 6,150 total yards, the fourth-most of any team, and they gave up an average of 5.0 yards per carry, fourth-worst in the league. The visitors should be able to capitalise on this, but QB Caleb Williams and his team have proved their resilience, and the cold weather could be used to their advantage. This one is not for the faint of heart, and it should be a low-scoring affair, with the decider possibly coming in the closing seconds. The Rams are expected to win, but this is hard to call.
There has never been an NFL postseason with more than six games decided by four points or fewer in all rounds combined. With four such games already completed and seven more left to play, chances are that number will be exceeded this year. It’s all or nothing this weekend and all eight teams have their eyes squarely on the prize. Are you ready for some football?
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