THE HFL CRIMSON CHRONICLE
Denver's perfect season is over. Tennessee, the seven seed at 8-9, wins 16-13 in Denver behind three Harrison Butker field goals and two Joey Bosa sacks, and the Broncos are held to their lowest point and yardage totals of the year. Arizona beats San Francisco by a point, Houston is outgained by 131 yards and wins anyway, and Philadelphia runs for 267 in a 41-3 rout. Eight teams remain, Cincinnati is the last unbeaten one, and the bracket reseeds for the divisional round.
Denver was 17-0. Tennessee was 8-9, the last team into the AFC bracket, and the only club in either conference that finished the regular season under .500. Tennessee won 16-13 in Denver, and the perfect season is over. Harrison Butker kicked three field goals, Joey Bosa had two sacks, and the Broncos managed 253 yards and 13 points — both their lowest figures of the year. Cincinnati, idle this week, is the last unbeaten team standing. Eight teams are left.
Wildcard Weekend Scoreboard
| Jets | 35 | Texans ★ | 38 |
| Buccaneers | 31 | Commanders | 34 |
| 49ers | 45 | Cardinals | 46 |
| Eagles | 41 | Saints | 3 |
| Chargers | 35 | Dolphins | 38 |
| Titans | 16 | Broncos | 13 |
Cincinnati and Green Bay had the week off as the two conference top seeds. The other eighteen teams were already done for the year.
Houston was outgained 466 yards to 335 and won anyway, because the ball kept changing hands in one direction. The Texans finished plus-three on turnovers and scored twice on defense: Tre'von Moehrig returned an interception 47 yards for a touchdown, and Noah O'Neil returned a fumble for another. Quintin Warner was 20-for-24 for 312 yards with three scoring throws, Zay Flowers caught five passes for 112 yards and a score, and Jason Sanders hit from 58.
Riley Leonard threw for 367 yards and four touchdowns for New York and was intercepted three times — by Moehrig, Nick Bolton and Joey Porter. Jameson Williams caught six passes for 203 yards and two scores, and Darrius Patterson added 103 yards and two more, which is a great deal of production to put on the board and still go home. Houston, the four seed at 11-6, was the lowest-seeded home team to survive the round.
Around the League
The number everyone has been carrying since September is gone. Denver, 17-0 and the league's highest-scoring team at 39.1 points a game, was held to 13 by a Tennessee defense that spent the afternoon in the backfield — Joey Bosa two sacks, Daiyan Henley one. Harrison Butker went three-for-three with a long of 57 and scored nine of Tennessee's 16 points by himself. Marvin Daniels caught the only score the Titans managed. See this issue's Feature Story for the full account.
Ninety-one points, and one of them was the difference. Blake Corum ran 14 times for 163 yards and scored twice, DeVaunte Whitley scored once rushing and once receiving, and Brock Purdy went 20-for-25 for 236 yards and three scores while Arizona converted 77.8 percent of its third downs. San Francisco matched nearly all of it: Cam Ward threw four touchdown passes, De'Von Achane ran for 116 yards and scored twice, and Kevin Winston Jr returned an interception 47 yards for six. Riley Patterson's 65-yard field goal was the longest anyone kicked this week. Arizona, the three seed, goes to Washington.
Washington's quarterback threw for 279 yards without a touchdown pass and the Commanders still put up 34, because all of it went in on the ground. Anthony Richardson Sr ran for two scores and 59 yards, Rachaad White and rookie Ben Sykes added one apiece, and Chase McLaughlin made both his attempts, the longer from 61. Washington picked up 25 first downs and converted 71.4 percent of its third downs. Tampa Bay finished three points short with Tucker Kraft catching ten passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns — see Building Something, below.
Philadelphia won by 38 with 83 passing yards. Caleb Williams attempted eight passes, completed eight, threw two touchdowns and ran for a third; Jonathan Taylor carried 21 times for 262 yards, the biggest rushing day of the round by 99; Davon Barton scored twice, once rushing and once receiving. The Eagles committed no penalties and gave the ball away not at all. New Orleans, a division winner at 10-7, was limited to 175 yards and seven first downs — the fewest of its season in both — with Lamar Jackson going 21-for-30 for 152 yards. Gunnar Helm's five catches for 60 yards were about the only thing that went right.
Baker Mayfield needed 22 throws. He completed 15 of them for 309 yards and four touchdowns — two to Terry McLaurin, one each to D.K. Metcalf and N'Keal Harry — and rookie Carlos Wiggins turned four carries into 85 yards and a score. Los Angeles had more first downs, 26 to 15, and could not convert the difference: Shane Dressler threw for 323 yards and three scores and ran for another, Alec Westbrook caught six passes for 88 yards and two touchdowns, and Tua Tagovailoa scored on a carry of his own. Two giveaways and a missed field goal are what separated the Chargers from a second week. Miami, the three seed at 13-4, hosts again.
The All-HFL Weekly Team
Six games, and the honor roll is built straight from their box scores.
QB, Dolphins
HB, Eagles
WR, Jets
TE, Buccaneers
REDGE, Titans
FS, Texans
K, Titans
Streaks & Trends
- Denver's 253 total yards and 13 points were both season lows, and they arrived in the one game the Broncos could not afford them. The Broncos had not been under 21 points in any regular-season game.
- Cincinnati is the last unbeaten team. The Bengals did not play this week and open the divisional round against the side that ended the other perfect season.
- Philadelphia gained 267 rushing yards and 83 passing yards and won by 38. Caleb Williams did not throw an incompletion.
- Washington scored four times on the ground and not once through the air, yet still put up 34 against a defense that had allowed 26.1 points a game.
- Four defensive touchdowns across the round — Tre'von Moehrig and Noah O'Neil for Houston, Marshon Lattimore for Tampa Bay, Kevin Winston Jr for San Francisco.
- Five of the six games were decided by three points or fewer — four by exactly three, one by a single point. The exception was Philadelphia's 38-point margin in New Orleans.
Milestone Watch
- Jahmyr Gibbs, HB, Broncos. Eighteen carries for 92 yards and no rushing touchdown — one of only two games all season in which he failed to run for a score, the other being Week 16. He did catch seven passes for 45 yards and score that way. His year ends at 3,218 rushing yards across all eighteen appearances, with the 3,126 he gained in the regular season standing as the single-season mark.
Record Book Watch
Nothing in the tracked single-game top fives moved this week. The round's best marks — Jonathan Taylor's 262 rushing yards, Jameson Williams's 203 receiving yards, Riley Leonard's 367 passing yards, Riley Patterson's 65-yard field goal — all sit outside the top five in their categories.
Feature Story: Tennessee Ends the Perfect Season
Denver finished the regular season 17-0, scoring 39.1 points and gaining 408 yards a game. On Wildcard Weekend the Broncos gained 253 yards, scored 13 points, gave up three sacks and took four penalties for 49 yards. Tennessee, 8-9 and seeded seventh, won 16-13.
Tennessee did not do this on offense. The Titans gained 274 yards, ran for 26 of them, and converted 27.3 percent of their third downs. Dak Prescott went 26-for-45 for 266 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and Marvin Daniels caught seven passes for 62 yards and the single score Tennessee produced. The rest of it was Harrison Butker, three-for-three with a long of 57, providing nine of the sixteen points — and a defense that took Denver's offense apart piece by piece. Joey Bosa had two sacks. Daiyan Henley had another. A Broncos attack that averaged 408 yards a game finished with 253.
Jahmyr Gibbs, who spent the year rewriting the rushing record, carried eighteen times for 92 yards. He had cleared 92 in fifteen of his eighteen appearances. Warren Davis threw for 159 yards, a touchdown and an interception in what became the only Denver defeat of the year, and Mark Nixon scored the Broncos' rushing touchdown. Denver was flagged four times; Tennessee was not flagged at all.
What it leaves behind is a bracket nobody drew in September. Tennessee is the only side remaining with a losing record, and its reward is Cincinnati — the other 17-0 team, rested, at home, and now carrying the whole weight of the perfect-season story by itself. The Chronicle spent eighteen weeks writing about two unbeaten teams. One of them is out, and the club that did it spent eighteen weeks going 8-9.
Building Something: Tampa Bay
The Buccaneers went to Washington as the NFC's seventh seed, 10-7, against a side that had gone 15-2, and lost by three. That is not a moral victory, but it is a measurement, and the measurement says Tampa Bay sits closer to the top of this conference than its seed suggested.
Justin Herbert was 21-for-30 for 308 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. Tucker Kraft caught ten passes for 156 yards and two scores — no tight end in the league gained more receiving yards this week. Deebo Samuel Sr added 85 yards and a touchdown, Marshon Lattimore returned a fumble for six, and Greg Rousseau got home for a sack. The Buccaneers were good on 71.4 percent of their third downs, matching Washington exactly. They lost on two giveaways against one takeaway, and by three points, which is a thinner set of reasons than most seventh seeds get to point at.
Press Row & Transaction Wire
Press Row
Nothing reached the desk this week, so the Chronicle is going to stop asking an open-ended question and start asking a specific one. This issue's Press Row question: what should your divisional-round opponent be worried about? One sentence. Answer it on the Chronicle's submission page and it runs next issue with your name and your team on it. Direct invitations this week go to nam23 (Texans), hypnotic01 (Packers) and skeem__ (Broncos) — two coaches with a game left, and one who has earned the right to say something about how the year ended.
Transaction Wire & Injury Report
Nothing crossed the wire this week. The injury report is unchanged from last issue: no player was added to it and no player came off it between the regular-season finale and Wildcard Weekend.
Rookie Watch
One rookie quarterback's season ended this week. The other did not play, and is still unbeaten.
Warren Davis, QB, Broncos. Sixteen completions on 26 attempts for 159 yards, one touchdown, one interception — in the only game Denver lost all season. It is a strange line to end a strange year on: a rookie who never took a defeat until January, and then took the one that mattered.
Nicholas Battle, QB, Bengals. Idle on the bye, with Cincinnati at 17-0. He gets Tennessee next, which is a rather different assignment than it looked like seven days ago.
Carlos Wiggins, HB, Dolphins. Four carries, 85 yards, a touchdown, and a 74-yard burst inside it. Twenty-one yards a carry in a playoff game is a small sample and a loud one.
Ben Sykes, HB, Commanders. Five carries, 26 yards, and one of Washington's four rushing scores. A rookie back getting goal-line work in January says something about what the staff thinks of him.
Divisional Round Preview — Week 20
The bracket reseeds: the best surviving seed in each conference hosts the worst. Eight teams are left, all eight of them play, and four games decide who plays for a conference title.
Cincinnati (17-0) has not lost and has not played in a fortnight. Tennessee (8-9) has not been anybody's favourite in months and just held the highest-scoring offense in the league to 13. The two did not meet during the regular season. The desk is picking the unbeaten team again, seven days after that exact reasoning cost it a game, and is aware of how that reads.
Miami (13-4) gained 440 yards and scored 38. Houston (11-6) gained 335, was outgained by 131, and advanced on takeaways and two defensive touchdowns. Only one of those things is repeatable. They did not play each other this year.
Green Bay (16-1) lost one game this season: by a single point, at home, to Philadelphia in Week 11. Philadelphia (12-5) arrives having run for 267 yards in a 41-3 win, with the back who gained 262 of them. The desk is taking the road side, and the reason is sitting right there on the schedule.
Washington (15-2) converted 71.4 percent on third down and scored four times on the ground. Arizona (13-4) put up 46 in a one-point win and moved the chains on 77.8 percent of its own. Two offenses that do not waste possessions, and no regular-season meeting to go on.
Jenna's Picks — Wildcard Weekend: 4-2
Two misses. The Jets over Houston was a defensible call that turnovers ruined. Denver over Tennessee was not a call so much as a reflex: the Broncos were 17-0, so the Broncos were the pick, and the thinking stopped there. That is the same reflex being applied to Cincinnati above, which the desk is choosing to say out loud rather than quietly. The regular season closed at 201-68-1; the postseason opens at 4-2.
Questions from the Desk
No letters reached the desk this week, so these three questions are the Chronicle's own and are labelled as such. The real mailbag runs with your name on it.
League Poll
Last issue asked which side looked like the biggest threat to spoil a Bengals-Broncos meeting down the road. Every vote cast went to Green Bay — and while the question turned out to be aimed at the wrong pairing entirely, the voters were onto something. The Packers are still here, still the NFC's top seed, and now hosting the one team that has beaten them. Nicely done, whoever you are.
Eight teams left, four games, nobody idle. Cincinnati carries the unbeaten record alone now. Tennessee carries a losing record into the divisional round and has earned every bit of the trouble it is about to cause somebody. Green Bay hosts the one side that solved it. Miami and Houston meet for the first time all year with a conference title game on the other side of it.
Press Row has one question this week and it takes fifteen seconds: what should your divisional-round opponent be worried about? Answer it, and it runs next issue with your name on it. The poll is live below.
Until next week, the Chronicle stands with all 32.
— Jenna Tulls, Senior HFL Correspondent
Press Row
What should your divisional-round opponent be worried about? One sentence.
Sign in with Discord to answer. It runs in the next issue with your name and your team on it.
Beat Jenna
Every Game of the Week pick, scored. Jenna is 7-1 on the 8 games she has called.
| Member | W | L | Beat Jenna | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MrPlanters NE | 7 | 0 | 1/5 |
| 2 | luke2612 | 1 | 0 | 0/0 |
| 3 | skeem__ | 0 | 1 | 0/0 |
| — | Jenna Tulls DESK | 7 | 1 | — |
Discussion
No comments yet.
Sign in with Discord to join the discussion.