Wild Card Thoughts

Are you kidding me?

Field goals of 27 yards and shorter were made at a 99% clip this season. Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh missed a 27-yard field goal with 22 seconds remaining.

The game ended with the Vikings on the wrong side of the 10-9 score. It's real hard to say that they lost since it doesn't feel like they did.

Maybe it's just Vikings fan bitterness but the Seahawks have absolutely no business taking the field against the Carolina Panthers next week. Anything that the Seahawks may or may not accomplish in the coming weeks is a gift. A very generous gift.

All of the talk heading into this game concerned the temperature and how badly the Seahawks were going to beat the Vikings.

It was cold. -6 degrees at kickoff. That chilly temperature put this game #3 on the coldest NFL game list.

1. Dallas Cowboys @ Green Bay Packers: -13 degrees
    -1967 NFL Championship Game
2. San Diego Chargers @ Cincinnati Bengals: -9 degrees
    -1981 AFC Championship Game
3. Seattle Seahawks @ Minnesota Vikings: -6 degrees
    -2015 NFC Wildcard Game

It was cold. Very cold.

This game was a terrific defensive game. It would have been a much better defensive game if Walsh had made that damn field goal. Both teams sport very good, sometimes great, defenses. The cold helped emphasize those defenses as it no doubt played a part in keeping the scoring down.

The Vikings scored first for the only score of the first half. It was a field goal. The Vikings caught the first break of the game when Seahawks punter Jon Ryan had some problems with the snap and ran. He was stopped short of the first down to give the Vikings offense the ball on the Seahawks 29-yard line. A couple of first downs and the Vikings had first-and-goal at the 7. They didn't move it much further and had to settle for a 25-yard field goal by Walsh.

Far too often this season the Vikings have settled field goals in situations like this. The offense gets to the red zone in fine fashion and then they stall. They score a touchdown here against the Seahawks and it's an entirely different game later.

It was 3-0 Vikings at the half. The Vikings offense held the ball for 18:30 of the first half. The Seahawks only possessed the ball for about a minute of the first quarter.

It was 9-0 Vikings entering the fourth quarter.

The Vikings did just about everything right for the first three quarters. Then there were a couple breakdowns. The Seahawks took advantage of those breakdowns.

1) After a couple of first downs early in the last quarter the Seahawks had 1st-and-ten on the Vikings 39. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson wasn't ready for that first down snap and it sailed past him. He hustled back and instead of simply falling on the ball he tried to make something happen. The excitement of the loose ball looked like it got several of the Vikings out of their assignments as they raced for Wilson and the ball. That left receiver Tyler Lockett wide open over the middle of the field for a 35-yard catch and run to the Vikings 4. Wilson's alert play kept his team out of disaster and got them a big play. The Seahawks scored the only touchdown of the game two plays later.

The Seahawks best offensive play of the entire game came about from this fluky, resourceful play.

2) On the ensuing Vikings possession running back Adrian Peterson fumbled the ball after gaining a first down. The Seahawks recovered at the Vikings 40. The Seahawks moved the ball only 12 yards but it was enough to give kicker Steven Hauschka an opportunity to kick a 46-yard field goal. There's the scoring difference in the game.

The 9 points that the Vikings scored wasn't much but it was enough to win a game like this. It would have been enough if not for a couple of lapses over a few minutes of the fourth quarter.

But lapses like that, even as few as two, is enough to cost a team a game like this.

Still, it's real hard to choke down a missed 27-yard field goal.

Someone with much more knowledge on the art of kicking than me broke down this fateful play. The timing between the trio of long snapper (Kevin McDermott), holder(Jeff Locke), and kicker(Walsh) is a finely tuned thing. With the extremely cold weather the snapper and holder wore gloves. This caused slight changes in the grip of the football for both players and as a result slight changes in the snap and hold. Individually, each change wasn't that great. Collectively, it was. As a concession to the cold and the need for gloves it was probably understood before the game between the trio of specialists that they wouldn't worry about the direction of the laces. There was too much risk in the holder spinning the ball to the proper direction while wearing gloves due to the change in grip. Contrary to the long held belief, thanks to the movie Pet Detective, laces aren't guaranteed death to field goals. On this particular kick, Walsh's plant foot was too close to the football. So, there were three factors in play on this kick. The rotation of McDermott's snap was changed due to the gloves which changed the orientation of the ball in Locke's hands. Gloves impacted Locke's ability to spin the ball. Walsh planting his foot too close to the ball sealed the missed 27-yard field goal. If any one of the factors were right rather than wrong, the Vikings win.

Seahawks safety Earl Thomas thought enough of the Vikings effort to enter their locker room and commend them on the game and season. Pretty classy.

The Vikings 2015 season really should be continuing.

There's still a lot of good for the Minnesota Vikings.

This young, talented team was supposed to be a year or two away. They can play with any team in the league. Right now.

A playoff loss is never good but a playoff loss, especially a loss like this one, can be a springboard to something really great. Hopefully this young, talented football team is on it's way to that something.

This is going to be a long offseason. The 2015 Minnesota Vikings were a really fun team to follow and watch. I'm ready for next season right now.

There were some other games this weekend.

It looks like Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers got some of his mojo back. Finally. His offense isn't the well-oiled machine that we are so accustomed to seeing but it was much better yesterday against the Washington Redskins.

The Packers cruised by the Redskins 35-18.

The Packers defense was very active. That activity was as important as the improved play of the offense. They had a helluva time with Redskins tight end Jordan Reed. A lot of teams do. Outside of those problems with Reed, the Packers defense was sound.

No home teams won this weekend. That's much more accurate than saying that all of the road teams won this weekend.

A 27-yard field goal. Come on!

The NFL decided to segregate the two conferences on Wild Card weekend. The AFC games were Saturday and they left a lot to be desired.

The Kansas City Chiefs thrashed the Houston Texans 30-0.

The game was still very much manageable at 13-0 when the Houston Texans had their one true scoring opportunity. It was midway through the second quarter and the Texans had a first-and-goal on the two-yard line. A touchdown there and this game might have been a very different. Trick plays are a tricky thing. If they succeed the coaches are geniuses. If they fail the coaches are idiots. The Texans needed this touchdown so they trotted out defensive end J.J. Watt and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork to form a very beefy backfield. Watt took a direct snap and charged to the right for a one-yard loss. The real backfield came back on the field and Brian Hoyer threw another interception and the Texans best scoring threat of the day was lost. The Texans real runners had found some room to run on the drive. Why not continue that and punch it in from the 2? The Texans are known for bringing in Watt as a tight end in goal line situations. Why not bring him in as a decoy and punch it in from the 2? Scoring just seemed more important than deception at that point in the game. Because this game wasn't a game after this sequence of plays.

Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer had a terrible game. He completed 15 of 34 for 136 yards. Even worse he threw four interceptions and lost a fumble. It's really hard to overcome five turnovers. He's lucky that he didn't have a few more as he was rarely on target.

This was a pretty good defensive game for a while. Both teams have been playing well on that side of the ball since October. That continued Saturday. It was 13-0 at the half. It was a pretty good defensive game as long as J.J. Watt was on the field. He was in and out of the game in the second quarter. It looked like he left the game for good in the third quarter. It was no longer a pretty good defensive game in the second half. The Texans offense was generous with the ball and their defense was on the field too much.

All of the Texans issues in this game takes away from the fact that the Chiefs are on a serious roll. 11 straight wins. Alex Smith was efficient as usual. They ran the ball efficiently. The defense was mostly great. The defense was playing so well that they could limit the snaps of linebacker Justin Houston as he returns from injury.

The only real negative for the Chiefs was the loss of receiver Jeremy Maclin to an injury. He's had serious knee injuries before and he reacted like a player that had suffered another one. Fortunately for the long term, still bad for the short term, the injury turned out to be a high ankle sprain. Maybe he plays next week. He's been terrific this season.

In the second AFC game the official records will show that the Pittsburgh Steelers edged the Cincinnati Bengals in an 18-16 win. A game-winning field goal in the closing seconds. Always exciting. This would have been a great game if there wasn't a bunch of jackasses playing in it. Tension is often high between these division rivals and it showed before, during, and after this game. A bunch of personal fouls, a bunch of pushing and punching, officials standing guard at midfield during pregame warm-ups.

This biggest jackass of all was Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict. This guy has been costing his teams, sometimes severely, since his college days. Probably longer. I watched, stunned, as several of his eruptions cost his Arizona State team a game against Cal. He's a walking disaster for any team that allows him to play for them. He's proven repeatedly that he can't be controlled so this is on his coaches. He tantrums cost his team more than Jeremy Hill's fumble that gave the Steelers their final possession. His ridiculous targeting of Antonio Brown's head gave the Steelers the field position they needed to attempt the game-winning field goal. The personal foul called on Adam Jones that followed Burfict's stunt made the field goal an easier field goal.

This game was an embarrassment for the league. This is mostly on the Bengals. And especially Burfict. But the Steelers aren't innocent or victims of a team without control. It takes two in these ugly things. In the crazy moments at the end of the game that moved the ball from midfield to an easy field goal, Steelers assistant coach Joey Porter was on the field riling up some Bengals. It seemed that Jones' personal foul stemmed from this petty action. What business does Porter have for being on the field? I was surprised that he didn't get a flag of his own. Perhaps canceling out the 15 yards brought about by Jones. That would have made that winning 35-yard field goal a 50-yard attempt.

It's really sad that all of this ugliness is the memory that most will have of this game. It's what first comes to my mind when I think of it. Perhaps because I've been watching Burfict do this shit since his college days. And I'm sick of it. It's a real shame because the incredible touchdown catch made by Steelers receiver Martavis Bryant should be the first memory that comes to mind. His gymnastics, acrobatics, whatever that was made the catch seem impossible. But somehow he maintained control of it throughout the process. He probably still has control of it. It was a beauty in the middle of all that ugly.

In the Divisional Round:

Saturday
Kansas City Chiefs @ New England Patriots
Green Bay Packers @ Arizona Cardinals

Sunday
Seattle Seahawks @ Carolina Panthers
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Denver Broncos

27 yards.