Exceptional Milestones Highlight Wild NFL Playoffs

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By: Steve Boltri – Staff Writer

One of the beautiful things about the NFL playoffs is that they are so incredibly unpredictable … except for the Patriots making it to the AFC championship. With its win last Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, New England has advanced to an all-time league-best seventh consecutive conference championship game.

But aside from the Patriots, this year’s playoffs have generated many twists and turns.

Four of the six longest NFL postseason droughts were broken this year; the Buffalo Bills snapped a 17-season playoffless streak, while the Rams, Jaguars, and Titans, all ended droughts of at least eight years. Heading into the conference championships, the Jags are the only drought-breaking team still alive.

A lot of people were thinking that if there was any team that had a chance of taking down the Patriots before the Super Bowl it would be the Pittsburgh Steelers. The only problem with that was the Steelers couldn’t even get past Blake Bortles and the Jaguars.

For the second time this season. On their home turf at Heinz Field.

This marks only the second time in the Steelers’ history that they lost at home twice to the same team in a single season. The only other time it happened was to, you guessed it, Jacksonville, in the 2007-2008 season.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 469 yards and five touchdowns in this year’s 45-42 playoff loss to the Jaguars. Four hundred and sixty-nine yards is the second-most passing yards ever in a playoff game and the most ever in a loss. Five touchdowns is tied for the fourth-most ever thrown in a playoff game, and also the most ever in a playoff loss. It’s also a franchise record.

Another franchise record is the Steelers allowing 45 points in a playoff game, which they have only done one other time; they’ve never allowed more than 45.
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Jaguars rookie running back Leonard Fournette was a big part of Jacksonville’s success against the Steelers this season, rushing for a combined 290 yards and five touchdowns in the two games. According to the CBS commentary team of Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts, Evan Washburn, Fournette is the first player ever to run for five touchdowns against the Steelers in a single season.

The Jaguars had to get through the Bills first, though, and they did so relying heavily on their defense in an ugly 10-3 win. Quarterback Blake Bortles threw for just 87 yards and ran for 88. Yes, you read that correctly, the quarterback ran for more yards than he threw for, in 2018, and his team still won.

Bortles became the first quarterback since 1999 to throw for fewer than 100 yards on more than 20 passing attempts and still win a playoff game. The last quarterback to do so was Steve McNair of the Titans, also against Buffalo, in the famous “Music City Miracle,” which happens to be the Bills’ last playoff appearance before this year.

The wildcard game between Jacksonville and Buffalo is also the sixth-lowest-scoring game in NFL playoff history, and the lowest-scoring since 1997. According to Jim Nantz of CBS, teams allowing between seven and 12 points in a playoff game are 81-9 since 1941. That statistic makes the Bills’ loss even rarer.

As if it couldn’t get any more unpredictable, three of the four starting quarterbacks that remain in the playoffs have never played in a conference championship game. In fact, two of them aren’t even “supposed to be” starting QBs.

The Vikings’ Case Keenum started the season as the third-stringer behind Sam Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater. And Philadelphia’s Nick Foles only played three full regular-season games this year, coming on in relief of the injured Carson Wentz, who led the eagles to an 10-2 start before tearing his ACL partway through the 13th game of the season.

Bortles’ inconsistent play, characterized by too many turnovers and not enough pivotal plays, has often kept him out of the discussion of elite quarterbacks. On top of that, Tom Brady reportedly injured his throwing hand in practice on Wednesday after a teammate accidentally ran into him, so it’s unknown whether he’ll be in full health when the Patriots clash with the Jaguars Sunday.

The playoffs have been filled with abnormal milestones and statistically-improbable events, but there’s still a chance they end with a matchup between the Patriots and [insert any NFC team here].

A Super Bowl featuring New England, which has happened seven times in the Tom Brady era, might be the only thing keeping this postseason from going down as one of history’s weirdest.

Photo Taken From flickr.com