THE HFL CRIMSON CHRONICLE

Four games decided who plays for a conference championship, and two of them were decided by exactly one point. Cincinnati remains the league's only unbeaten team, shutting out the side that ended Denver's perfect season a week earlier, 23-0. Green Bay beat the only team that beat it all season, 35-9 — a wider margin than the two teams' first meeting was close. Houston outlasted a 440-yard night from Miami by a single point in this issue's Game of the Week, and Washington held off Arizona by the same margin in a game with seven combined turnovers. Four teams are left, and both remaining games are rematches of results already on the schedule.

Divisional Round Scoreboard

Eight teams played. Cincinnati and Green Bay, the two conference top seeds, had the week off.

Around the League

The All-HFL Weekly Team

Four games, and the honor roll is built straight from their box scores.

Streaks & Trends

• Two of the round's four games were decided by exactly one point — Washington over Arizona and Houston over Miami.
• Cincinnati is the only unbeaten team left, and won its game by the widest margin of the round: 23.
• Green Bay outscored the only team that beat it this season by 26 points the second time around. See this issue's Feature Story.
• Bijan Robinson produced 212 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns in a one-point win — the biggest individual day of the round, on either side.
• Two defensive touchdowns this week — Mac Heath's interception return for Green Bay and Jonathan Greenard's fumble return for Washington.
• Philadelphia out-gained Green Bay by 38 total yards and lost by 26 — the only team this round to gain more yards than its opponent and still lose.

Milestone Watch

• Cincinnati, AFC. The Bengals are 17-0 across the regular season; a divisional-round win keeps them the only team in either bracket that has not lost all year.

Record Book Watch

Nothing in the tracked single-game top fives moved this week. Riley Patterson's 63-yard field goal is four yards short of the tracked top five; Bijan Robinson's four touchdowns and Baker Mayfield's four touchdown passes both sit outside their categories' top fives as well.

Feature Story: Green Bay Settles the Score

Jayden Daniels missed just one throw all afternoon, finishing 13-for-14 for 264 yards, and put three different receivers in the end zone: Matthew Golden, Luther Burden III and Antwon Finley. Trevor Etienne added a rushing touchdown, and Green Bay's defense scored one of its own — Mac Heath returned an interception 41 yards, one of two picks thrown by Caleb Williams, who finished 6-for-15 for 52 yards. Jonathan Taylor gained 179 yards from scrimmage, and Philadelphia still finished with 38 more total yards than Green Bay. None of it mattered.

The pick was built on one fact: Philadelphia already had the answer once. It didn't have it twice. Green Bay is the top seed in the NFC for reasons that had nothing to do with the one game it lost, and Sunday was a reminder of what the other sixteen looked like. The Packers host Washington for the conference title; Philadelphia's season, and the case for picking against Green Bay, both end here.

Building Something: Arizona

Arizona went to Washington at 13-4 and lost by one point in a game with seven combined turnovers — not a moral victory, but a measurement of how close the margin actually was. Brock Purdy went 19-for-28 for 345 yards and a touchdown, and Rod Gosener caught five passes for 118 yards. Riley Patterson made a 63-yard field goal, the longest anyone kicked this round, on a day he also missed one. The Cardinals' three giveaways were the difference in a game decided by one point; take away any single one of them and the season is still going.

Press Row & Transaction Wire

Rookie Watch

One rookie quarterback played this week. He was close to perfect.

Nicholas Battle, QB, Bengals. Thirteen completions on thirteen attempts for 124 yards and one touchdown pass, and the Bengals held Tennessee scoreless — seven days after Battle threw five interceptions in the regular-season finale. Cincinnati is 17-0 with him starting every game.

Conference Championship Preview — Week 21

Two games, no byes, both rematches of a regular-season result.

Jenna's Picks — Divisional Round: 2-2

The desk owns both misses without much of a defense to offer. Cincinnati over Tennessee was the safe half of the round and it held. Dolphins over Texans and Eagles over Packers were not close to it: Houston has now won two of its last two by identical one-point margins, and the Eagles pick has already been covered above at some length. The postseason record is 6-4; the season total is 207-72-1.

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's poll asked which divisional-round matchup readers were most looking forward to. The two votes cast split evenly between Titans-Bengals and Eagles-Packers — and both turned into the round's most decisive results, decided by 23 and 26 points.