The Saturday slots on the NFL wild-card schedule have long been seen as a dumping ground for the league’s least tantalizing playoff products, and this year’s doubleheader did little to challenge that notion.
The Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers combined for seven turnovers in an error-riddled affair, while the Baltimore Ravens kept a solid distance from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both of the higher seeds are moving on after a day somewhat devoid of on-field drama.
Still, there was significant fallout for both the rest of the playoffs and the offseason. Here are the winners and losers of Saturday’s action:
Winners
Derrick Henry
Almost five years ago to the day, Henry bulldozed the top-seeded Ravens for 195 yards in the Tennessee Titans’ 28-12 divisional-round romp. Though the prolific running back didn’t end up topping his playoff career high, Baltimore is surely happy that he’s now on its side. Henry rushed for 186 yards on 26 carries, with his 44-yard scoring scamper in the third quarter helping pad the team’s cushion. Meanwhile, Tennessee holds the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and is resetting once again.
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Nico Collins
It took a while for him to get involved in the game plan, but Collins proved to be perhaps the central figure in stabilizing things for C.J. Stroud to ignite the Texans’ offensive turnaround, finishing with seven catches for 122 yards and a touchdown, with the score sparking a run of 23 unanswered points. The Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell injuries were major hits to the Houston passing attack, but Collins reinforced he’s a true WR1 given no other Texans player had more than 34 receiving yards.
Todd Monken
The Ravens’ offensive coordinator doesn’t need to answer any concerns about de-emphasizing the ground game in the early going after last year’s AFC championship game loss, though a third-quarter three-and-out in which the team looked to air it out was more than a little puzzling. Still, Baltimore rumbled for a postseason franchise-record 299 yards on 50 rushing attempts, including Lamar Jackson playing a central role early with 11 first-half carries. The Ravens didn’t make the most of their opportunities after halftime, but Monken still set the unit up for success – and put together a fine showcase for his abilities at a time when he’s drawing interest from the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars and Las Vegas Raiders for their top coaching job.
Steve Spagnuolo
The playoff matchups are still to be determined, but barring the Denver Broncos upsetting the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, Saturday’s results are setting up for the Kansas City Chiefs to get a rematch against the Texans. Just three weeks ago, Chris Jones teed off against this struggling interior, notching four quarterback hits. To negate the interior pass rush, Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik resorted to repeatedly calling wide receiver screens that went nowhere. Nice cap to the week for Spagnuolo, who drew interview requests from three teams – the Jaguars, Raiders and New York Jets – during the bye week for the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Will Anderson Jr.
Even after winning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, it feels like the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NFL draft is not receiving his proper due. Maybe the defensive end’s performance Saturday – 1½ sacks, two pass deflections and three quarterback hits – will help change that. Beyond the top candidates that have dominated the discussion for the award for the past few seasons, Anderson could be a dark horse candidate for NFL Defensive Player of the Year next season.
Derek Stingley Jr.
Let’s keep the recognition coming for the Texans’ stars. Two days after he was named to the All-Pro team for the first time in his career, Stingley notched two interceptions, a forced fumble and five passes defensed against Justin Herbert. After being overshadowed by 2022 draftmate Sauce Gardner early in his career, Stingley has entrenched himself as one of the league’s elite cornerbacks and the cornerstone of perhaps its top young secondary.
Losers
Mike Tomlin
As the league’s longest-tenured head coach, Tomlin has long been the picture of stability for a franchise that fends off entropy at every turn. And while you can put much of the blame on GM Omar Khan for an inherently flawed roster, how can things stand in Pittsburgh after the four-game skid to end the regular season was punctuated by this flop? The Steelers got dismantled by Tomlin’s own vision for the organization: a hard-charging run game buttressed by an opportunistic, playmaking defense. With the team having lost its last six playoff games and yet to reach the divisional round since the 2017 season, Pittsburgh enters the offseason with massive uncertainty at quarterback and throughout its defense. The standard is the standard, as Tomlin likes to stay – but clearing the bar of nine-plus regular-season wins followed by a seat at home in mid-January isn’t going to save him from questions of whether it’s time to make drastic changes.
Justin Herbert
Whether it was Anderson screaming off the edge unblocked for a sack, the receiving corps’ repeated blunders or just offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s play-calling, Los Angeles did its star quarterback few favors. Still, there’s no escaping the star signal-caller’s culpability in yet another postseason whiff after he threw a career-worst four interceptions. His cross-field shot that was nabbed by rookie Kamari Lassiter and off-the-mark pick-six to Eric Murray were particularly ill-advised. Now 0-2 in the playoffs, he’ll join the AFC’s other top quarterbacks not named Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow in facing heightened scrutiny over his playoff track record.
Chargers’ receiving corps
Ladd McConkey set the rookie record for receiving yards in a playoff game with 197 on nine catches, but a unit that was widely questioned heading into the season played a major part in the season-ending unraveling. Will Dissly’s drop of a fourth-quarter pass bounced into the arms of Stingley, and Quentin Johnston couldn’t haul in a fourth-and-1 pass on which he ran his whip route short of the sticks anyway. With Joshua Palmer – who was inactive Saturday due to a foot injury – set to become a free agent, there are lots of questions about this group (outside of McConkey) heading into next season.
Steelers defense
Russell Wilson and George Pickens were the subjects of heavier ridicule, but there’s no understating what a letdown this unit was. Three weeks ago, Pittsburgh allowed Henry to break loose for 162 yards on 24 carries as Baltimore racked up 220 yards on the ground. That should have been a nadir for the group, but giving up a postseason franchise-worst 299 rushing yards was the actual low point. Steelers defenders seemed to grumble their way through the end of the season as they botched the basics. And when you account for the fact that Pittsburgh allotted more cap space to its defense than any other team in 2024, the returns look even worse.
Jim Harbaugh
For a while on Saturday, no one really did have it better than him. Everything seemed to be breaking the Chargers’ way early, with the Texans either unable to move the ball or looking like they were trying to outright give it back. Yet in a decidedly un-Harbaugh-like performance, Los Angeles mustered just 50 rushing yards on 18 carries and three points off three Houston turnovers. His inaugural season with the Bolts should still be considered a success given how quickly he built a foundation for the future, but this finish will be hard to stomach for a franchise that’s still in search of its first playoff win since the 2018 season.
Amazon Prime Video
In taking over for Peacock as the broadcaster for the league’s second exclusive streaming game, Amazon didn’t have any sort of Mike Tyson-Jake Paul debacle. But the game itself got out of hand and was unquestionably a dud. Maybe it still pays off for the bottom line, but it seems like a long shot that many people were scurrying for a subscription at any point after the first quarter.
Buffalo Bills
Hosting a divisional date with Jackson and the surging Ravens would be quite the reward for a team that likely would still need to face the two-time defending champion Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in the AFC championship game. And that’s assuming Josh Allen and Co. can get past the Denver Broncos on Sunday. This is the setup that Sean McDermott’s crew had to expect, but the Steelers pulling the upset and allowing for a matchup with the Texans surely would have been preferable.
