The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans closed up the Wild Card round on Monday night. The Texans put on a show in Pittsburgh defeating Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers 30-6 scoring 23 of their points in the fourth quarter alone.
The weekend kicked off with the L.A. Rams vs the Carolina Panthers in a close matchup. L.A. jumped out to a 14-0 lead early in the first quarter, but Carolina scored two touchdowns before the half cutting L.A.’s lead to three. L.A. outlasted Carolina beating them 34-31.
The Green Bay Packers were in Chicago to face the Bears on Saturday in a game where Green Bay was favored. The Packers jumped out to a 21-3 lead in by halftime but it was Chicago’s fourth quarter comeback that was the difference. Caleb Williams led Chicago’s 25-point quarter that gave them the 31-27 edge in the end.
The Buffalo Bills were in Jacksonville to take on the streaking Jags who just left Denver a couple of weeks handing the Broncos their only home loss of the season. The Bills lead 10-3 by the half but Jacksonville kept pace in the second half but in the end it wasn’t enough to hold of Josh Allen and the Bills. Buffalo beat Jacksonville 27-24.
The San Francisco 49ers were in Philly on Sunday to face the defending champions, the Eagles. The Eagles led 13-10 at half but it was San Francisco’s defense that kept Philly in check only allowing two field goals in the second half. San Francisco beat Philadelphia 23-19.
On Sunday night the Chargers went to Foxborough to face the New England Patriots. The game was a pretty uneventful game until the second quarter where the Patriots scored a field goal and L.A. answered with a field goal of their own. The Patriots entered the half leading the Chargers 6-3. The Chargers would not score again however, the Patriots added 10 more in the second half adding to their lead and the win, 16-3, New England.
This weekend welcomes the divisional round with the Bills coming to Denver (Saturday, January 17, @ 2:30 p.m.), the 49ers heading to Seattle to face the Seahawks (Saturday, January 17, @ 6 p.m.), the Texans head to Foxborough (Sunday, January 18, @ 1 p.m.) and the Rams head to Chicago to face the Bears (Sunday, January 18, @ 4:30 p.m.).
In other sports the Denver Nuggets have continued to show the league just how deep their bench is by winning games they shouldn’t be winning without MVP Nikola Jokic. Since last Monday the Nuggets went into Philly to beat the 76ers without any of their starters, then they went to Boston to play the hottest team in the NBA and beat them without key players.
The Nuggets returned home last Friday and lost to the Atlanta Hawks but defeated the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night 108-104.
This week the Nuggets are on the road to face the New Orleans Pelicans and the Dallas Mavericks.
Despite the Avalanche being on a historic run they have lost three of their last five games including a loss at home on Monday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Avs remain 9-points ahead of the Dallas Stars and nearly 14 points ahead of the first place teams in the Eastern Conference.
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