The NFL playoffs have begun!

Sunday 5:47 pm
Redemption! DeMarco Lawrence made up for his earlier mistake, sacking Matthew Stafford on fourth down to win the game for the Cowboys, as Romo kneels to make it a 24-20 victory over Detroit.

For Following Football fans, we nailed both of today's games, and lost both of yesterday's. (Apologies for never getting to publish it. Those of you insiders know why things behind the scene at FF have been off-kilter for a couple of weeks.) We had Pittsburgh over Baltimore by five (the line was 3.5, closer than we were); Arizona even with Carolina (the line was 6.5 Carolina's way, obviously on track); Indianapolis by five over Cincinnati (favored by four, and they won by 16); and Dallas by four, which is what they just won by (they were seven point favorites). So we went 2-2, which puts our pro record for the actual blog site at 13-20, with two washes. 

Sunday 5:40 pm
You're up four, two minutes to go, and the other team fumbles right into your hands. If you're anyone except Dallas' DeMarcus Lawrence, don't you just fall on the ball and let your offense run out the clock? The former Boise State player (sigh...), however, wanted to do something more - what, glorious? - and tried to juke people in front of him, whereupon he also fumbled the ball, right back into Lion hands, thereby providing the visitors a chance to return to their drive with a legit chance to win the game (now down four with a minute to go).

Sunday 3:14 pm
Aaaaaaaaaand there it is! Reggie Bush runs around a great block by WR Golden Tate on an 18-yard run to the corner of the end zone to complete the 99.9 yard touchdown drive. It took seven-plus minutes and 15 plays, along with that penalty on 4th down, but the Lions are now 2 for 2 on drives, while Dallas is 0-2.... ESPN says that's the first 99-yard drive in the playoffs since 2001.

Sunday 3:04 pm
Great first TD by the Detroit Lions to go up 7-0 early, lucky punt roll for Dallas that (combined with a Lions penalty) put the visitors on literally the few-inch line. But thanks to a running into the punter penalty in the end zone, the Lions are now on what could end up becoming an epic 99.8 yard drive if they can keep it going past midfield!

Sunday 2:20 pm
Cincinnati just had NO chance today against Indianapolis, or anyone else, for that matter. Too many receivers gone, no weapons for Andy Dalton to use whatsoever. Yes, he's now ohfer four, but don't hold this one against HIM. (For that matter, both of yesterday's losers, the Steelers and the Cardinals, were victims of MAJOR injuries that were the direct cause of their failures on offense.) Not sure the Colts have the weapons to run with the Broncos, but at least they're going to have a shot next week, where the Bengals wouldn't.

Saturday 9:02 pm
The most likely "upsets" of a home team were in the two games today - Baltimore's playoff experience and Arizona's sub-.500 opponent made them that way - and it's looking like we'll get one for two, as Terrell Suggs' interception between his thighs led to a Flacco TD pass which puts the Ravens up 30-15 with half a quarter to go. The lack of a run threat for Pittsburgh will cost them a playoff run, it seems...

Saturday 7:52 pm
Baltimore up 10-9 on Pittsburgh in a classic Northeast brawl, and their secondary's holding up so far! The Steelers are dealing well without LeVeon Bell to this point, too.

To finish up the 27-16 Carolina victory: they held Arizona to a playoff record low 78 yards of offense, and it can't help but bring to mind what the Cardinal radio team brought up as the end was in sight: "When we look back at this season, we won't be able to help wondering what might have been." Given their injury list, including multiple quarterbacks, we won't be able to help agreeing with them. Carolina made enough mistakes that we suspect Carson Palmer could have exploited successfully...for that matter, they wouldn't have been 11-5, either.

And for the record book: Teams under .500 entering the playoffs are now 2-0 in their playoff openers...

Saturday 5:23 pm
Listening to Mel Kiper is usually entertaining - to his credit, he's always brutally honest. On ESPN radio this morning, he offers that there were two teams going into the playoffs he knew he would pick against when the playoffs came: Arizona and Carolina. Imagine his disappointment when they ended up playing each other...and as the game continues, he was right. Neither team should win; neither team deserves a playoff win.

According to our tiered rankings for Week 17, the Cardinals should have been favored, but that doesn't account for the rise of the Panthers in the last few weeks and the fifth string quarterback Arizona's been forced to use now. It probably shouldn't be a surprise that Carolina's up 27-14 in the fourth quarter and en route to a defeat next round in the cold of either Washington or Wisconsin...