Sunday 1/6/19 (Wildcard)

Los Angeles Chargers, 23 Baltimore Ravens, 17

QB Phillip Rivers and the Chargers offense battled valiantly against the Ravens staunch defense to the tune of five field goals and a hard-fought goal-line TD for RB Melvin Gordon, but this game played out on the other side of the ball.

The Chargers used their recent knowledge of the Ravens' new run-first offense to their advantage. As the first team to face QB Lamar Jackson twice, they had him entirely figured out. They brought in safeties to spy and fill the gaps for Jackson and the Ravens running game. S Derwin James, S Jahleel Addae and S Adrian Phillips essentially played the Linebacker position. The Chargers recognized everything the Ravens were doing, and it showed. The Ravens achieved their third 1st down with 8:04 in the 4th quarter after six straight 3-and-outs.

With 9:02 remaining in the game, QB Lamar Jackson had 25 passing yards. With a Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco sitting on the sideline, Baltimore called for their once favorite son.

Now, someone from the future may take a glance at the box score and think nothing of the 194 passing yards next to Lamar Jackson's name. To give credit where credit is due, the Ravens suddenly started moving the ball at this point. They needed some defensive drops and fortunate bounces to get there, but they ran two long TD drives for touchdowns to WR Michael Crabtree.

When Los Angeles went 3-and-out. The Ravens had a hope and prayer with 45 seconds, no timeouts to go 66 yards. As if part of an instructional video on ball security, Lamar Jackson finally lived out the consequences of poor ball security on a strip-sack forced by DE Uchenna Nwosu. Jackson tied for the league lead in fumbles (12) during the regular season despite starting only 7 games, and had fumbled twice already in this game. Amazingly, he only lost 4 out of 14 prior to this season-ending fumble.

MVP : DE Melvin Ingram was everywhere. He had 7 solo tackles, 2 sacks, forced a key fumble and received the game-deciding fumble.

Philadelphia Eagles, 16 Chicago Bears, 15

The Double Doink.

3 quarters of quality, hard-fought football largely emanating from the interior defensive lines, one could easily argue Eagles DT Fletcher Cox and Bears DT Akiem Hicks as the key factors in the game through 3 quarters. The score was 10-9.

The 4th quarter had a lot in store. Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky had a wobbly day, he did not throw an interception but that was certainly more because of happenstance than skill. Suddenly, Trubisky got hot and drove 80 yards in under 3 minutes, receptions of 19, 34 and 22. The final to WR Allen Robinson (10 rec for 143 yards) to go up 15-10 with 9 minutes remaining in the game.

After a pair of punts and down by 5, Eagles QB Nick Foles drove the Eagles to the 2-yard line where the #1 Chicago defense put together 3/4ths of an epic goal-line stand. The oldest and smallest player (RB Darren Sproles) was stopped for no gain twice, followed by an incomplete pass to WR Alshon Jeffery. On 4th-and-2, the season on the line, Foles found WR Golden Tate sprinting to the right on the goal line for the 2-yard TD.

With 10 seconds remaining in the game, K Cody Parkey hit the upright (doink) for the 6th time this season, then the crossbar (doink) and to the turf below. The ball could have easily bounced off the crossbar and in, it amounts to a literal coin flip for an NFL playoff game or as play-by-play announced Al Michaels instantly coined:

The Double Doink.

MVP : A 60-yard drive and a 4th down go-ahead TD are small potatoes for the man who won the Super Bowl, QB Nick Foles. However, we must still remember that this is a team with a back-up QB who actively took the ball in the final seconds and threw a TD to win the game.