Upon further review: NFL wild-card playoffs

Random thoughts from this week’s games:

There’s little joy in Spudville as we were 2-2 on our wild-card picks with the biggest surprise emanating from Denver, where the Broncos thoroughly outplayed the Steelers on both sides of the ball.

Tim Tebow had all day to throw the ball and was able to make several big plays against the normally stingy Pittsburgh defense.

Tebow averaged almost 32 yards per completion, including the mammoth 80-yard strike to Demaryius Thomas in overtime to send the Steelers home 29-23.

Coming into Sunday’s game, Denver offensive coordinator Mike McCoy was already being mentioned as a candidate for one of the NFL head-coaching vacancies; his masterful game plan against the confused Steelers will boost his stock.

A major part of Ben Roethlisberger‘s game is his ability to avoid sacks and throw on the run. That was virtually negated by the obvious discomfort from his ankle injury. The Denver pass rush routinely steamrolled his protection and caused the Steeler quarterback fits all game.

Despite a valiant fourth-quarter Pittsburgh comeback aided by a critical Willis McGahee fumble, it was Tebow’s ability to slice and dice the secondary, most notably corner Ike Taylor, that propelled the Broncos to victory. Next up for Denver is Tom Brady and the Patriots.

It looks as if the Giants are peaking at exactly the right time. Their defense pitched a shutout Sunday against a better-than-average Falcon offense. Michael Turner was held to just 41 rushing yards while Matt Ryan couldn’t break 200 yards through the air or throw a TD.

Conversely, the Giants were able to run the football effectively with Brandon Jacobs (92 yards) and Ahmad Bradshaw (63 yards), and Eli Manning threw for three touchdowns without an interception in the 24-2 win.

The Giants know they are capable of winning on the road in Green Bay—they did it en route to their Super Bowl victory in 2009—despite entering the week as an eight-point underdog. They played Green Bay tough earlier in the year in a 38-35 home loss when their defense was riddled with injuries. Now that they are playing their best ball of the year, it remains to be seen whether the Giants are any more capable of slowing down the Packers’ juggernaut offense.

When push came to shove we picked Andy Dalton over T.J. Yates in the battle of the rookie QBs in the Bengals-Texans game. While Yates was efficient, Dalton was a deer in the headlights against Wade Phillips‘ swarming defense. The Texans completely shut down the run and forced Dalton to throw 42 times, of which three were intercepted in Houston’s 31-10 triumph.

Arian Foster was great Saturday, rolling for 153 yards and two touchdowns and taking away the urgency for Yates to have to throw the ball. The rookie only had to put it up 20 times and one of them was a TD pass to Andre Johnson, the star receiver’s first playoff score in an illustrious nine-year career.

The Bengals are a team on the rise and making the playoffs was a great step forward, but on Saturday they were outclassed by a Texan team that should not be counted out next week in Baltimore.

In New Orleans, the Saints continued to decimate teams at home by posting 45 points against a game Lion squad that got out early but simply couldn’t keep pace.

The Saints can pass (Drew Brees went for 466 yards and three TDs) and run (their three top runners combined for 164 yards and three scores) seemingly at will on the Superdome turf. Detroit QB Matthew Stafford (380 yards and 3 TDs) showed again why he has gained elite status, but as good as he was it’s virtually impossible for any offense to have to keep playing from behind to win.

Of the four road teams in next weekend’s second round, only the Saints are favored to come away with a victory. Will their explosive offense attack be able to stay on course against a tough 49er defense in San Francisco? We’ll analyze all four games later in the week.