Eight is now four after the NFL’s Divisional Round and thankfully it produced some much more competitive games than Wild Card Weekend.
Three of the four were decided by one score and in a season that has been highlighted by the resurgence of defence, two were sealed by last gasp interceptions.
And after all is said and done, the most remarkable thing of all is that after years of ineptitude, incompetence and other unpublishable descriptors, the Detroit Lions are one game away from the Super Bowl.
Let’s get into our weekly recap with the 5 Lessons Learned from the NFL Divisional Round.
1 – Coaching adjustments make the difference
Given their history of playoff meltdowns at the most inopportune times, you could have forgiven the Ravens for starting to panic when they went into halftime tied 10-10 with the Texans.
But instead of starting to press and trying to force it, they made some smart adjustments and wound up cruising to the biggest win of the Divisional Round.
The second half was all one-way traffic as the Ravens outscored the Texans 24-0 and it was all on the back of MVP-elect Lamar Jackson who showed us why he is in line for his second award.
It was an uneven first half for Jackson that ended with this sack at the hands of Christian Harris who was giving the Ravens all sorts of fits.
A couple of strategic shifts later and he could not be stopped, throwing his second touchdown pass of the game in between a pair of rushing scores and he simply took over.
When you have a Ferrari like Jackson, you always make sure you’re in position to make the most of having a Ferrari.
2 – 49ers do just enough
There is no need to sugar coat it, San Francisco was awful for the majority of that game on Sunday and can consider themselves very luck they get to play next week.
Perhaps they were a bit rusty after securing the NFC’s top seed in Week 17 and having essentially three weeks off.
Losing one of their key playmakers in Deebo Samuel on the first possession didn’t help either, but even with those excuses, they were still well off their usual level.
Brock Purdy was inaccurate and really struggled with his accuracy in the rain, you could tell it was in his head.
Green Bay had their chances to put the game away but allowed the 49ers to hang around and the home team did what good teams do, overcame their self-inflicted struggles and found a way to win.
Christian McCaffrey was the man going down the stretch, with a pair of second half touchdowns to go with some big carries.
It’s a nice position to be in when you lose your best receiver and your quarterback has a bad day, so you can still rely on the NFL’s touchdown leader to carry the load.
They’ll have a week to dissect what went wrong and work out where they need to get better ahead of the NFC Championship.
3 – Green Bay is not going away
It was a heartbreaking end to what was on the whole a very successful season in Green Bay.
An ugly interception from Jordan Love on the Packers’ final possession that sealed the win for San Francisco.
In the moment it would have been a tough pill to swallow, dropping a winnable game because they could not put San Francisco away, but it should not take away from the season as a whole.
This was supposed to be a rebuilding year with a first time starter at quarterback replacing a legend and a very young group of skill players around him.
Instead they won nine games, got into the playoffs and bludgeoned Dallas in the Wild Card round, all with one of the youngest rosters in the league.
Love showed enough to give Green Bay a reason to commit to him for the foreseeable future, Aaron Jones remains a really good (albeit injury prone) running back and the pass catchers at receiver and tight end all offer something unique.
There will be no shortage of competition in the division and NFC as a whole, but Packers fans have plenty to be optimistic about even after this loss.
4 – Jared Goff is better than he gets credit for
There is plenty for neutral observers to be happy about with Detroit’s resurgence, but few storylines are better than Jared Goff’s.
Let’s not sugar coat it, he has drawn plenty of criticism since being drafted first overall by the LA Rams in 2016, but he’s playing better than ever under Dan Campbell in Detroit.
Something about this system seems to bring out the best in him and it has shown in the last two games, guiding Detroit to their first NFC Championship Game in over three decades.
Against Tampa Bay, Goff was efficient and effective, throwing a pair of touchdown passes including this huge one to Amon-Ra St Brown to give the Lions a two score lead late.
Taking Detroit to the final four puts him in some impressive company, even if Goff would be the first to admit he’s not quite on the level of the other guys on this list.
He has really settled in to life as a Lions player and the fans have definitely embraced their signal caller.
Not a bad effort for a guy who was included as a throwaway in the Matt Stafford trade and he is making sure that the Lions don’t have to worry about the quarterback position for a while yet.
5 – Josh Allen cannot do it all himself
Believe you me, in the last three weeks he has tried to carry the Bills to their first Super Bowl title, but he is just one man.
But with the Bills now headed into another offseason where they are left to wonder “what it” the Bills are finding themselves facing a real dilemma.
On his day, Allen is unstoppable whether it is making a great pass with his arm or deciding to take it in himself as a ball carrier.
It leads to some of the best plays you will see, but it also poses a massive problem for the Bills.
During the season they have to keep him under wraps while still winning enough games to play at home in January, and for that they need a roster that can carry the load.
There are some solid players there, James Cook and Dalton Kincaid have been good, reliable targets but the decline of Stefon Diggs was troubling and he is no guarantee to come back, especially with the expectation of 100 catches and 1500 yards.
This draft is so important for the Bills finding another receiver who can come in and help carry the load.
On the other side of the ball there is the obvious excuse of injuries, but these are mostly the same guys in the past that have helped them come up short.
In the big games, Josh Allen can do it himself but not every time and when you need to score 30 points to get by Kansas City, Cincinnati and Baltimore, it’s got to be more than a one man band.
Then there’s the Sean McDermott factor, he has also been a major problem at times with his impulse control issues (among other things) and there are questions over his long term future.
Changes are coming in Buffalo, but they have to work out where they need to address first to get the best out of their all-star quarterback.