2021 NFL Playoffs: The Year of Firsts

By Jeremy Platt, Staff Writer

2020 was a year filled with firsts. First time trying different things. First time feeling different emotions. First time truly being stuck in your house. Just as your life was filled with firsts, so was the National Football League (NFL). The 2020 season was strange. It was the first time in NFL history that a game was played on every single day of the week. As the year turned, the oddities seemed to get even stranger. The 2021 NFL Playoffs have been one of the most unusual playoff seasons the NFL has ever witnessed.

In the offseason, the NFL Players Association agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The biggest rule change was an additional playoff team in each conference. So for the first time in NFL history, there were 14 playoff teams. The Wild Card round lived up to its name. It was wild. Nickelodeon streamed its first game. In that game, the New Orleans Saints absolutely dominated the Chicago Bears. For the first time ever, a team with a temporary name, the Washington Football Team, made a playoff appearance that resulted in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Additionally, in the National Football Conference (NFC), the Los Angeles Rams upset the Seattle Seahawks, meaning that Seahawks quarterback (QB) Russell Wilson lost his first ever home playoff game. The Rams were underdogs by over three points, but were able to come up with a surprising win, despite some of their star players suffering injuries. Samo senior and lifelong Rams fan, Apollo Stephano (’21), was thrilled about the Rams upset victory.

“I was so excited to go to the next round but I was also scared that [Rams wide receiver (WR)] Cooper Kupp and [Rams defensive tackle] Aaron Donald were hurt,” Stephano said.

In the American Football Conference (AFC), the Indianapolis Colts were defeated in a super close game by the Buffalo Bills. This was the final game for the Colts’ potential Hall Of Fame QB, Philip Rivers. The Bills won their first playoff game since 1995. Another team that snapped their playoff drought was the Cleveland Browns who won their first playoff game since 1994. The Browns’ victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers was improbable because their head coach, Kevin Stefanski, was stuck at home fighting COVID-19, while Special Teams Coordinator, Mike Priefer, served as acting head coach. Baltimore Ravens’ QB, Lamar Jackson, also got his first career playoff win after beating the Tennessee Titans.

The madness continued in the Divisional round. The Green Bay Packers started the weekend by crushing the Rams. The Packers were led by QB Aaron Rodgers and WR Davante Adams, who made the Rams defense look like a junior varsity team. After that game, the Bills faced off against the Ravens. The Bills, who were led by QB Josh Allen and WR Stefon Diggs, took command of the game and defeated the Ravens. The next morning, the Kansas City Chiefs, who were fresh off a bye week, defeated the Cleveland Browns in what seemed to be the craziest game of the playoffs so far. However, Chiefs star, QB Patrick Mahomes, had to leave the game early after suffering both a concussion and turf toe. Before exiting, the Chiefs were up by 16 points, but the Browns started to gain momentum once Mahomes went down. Browns QB, Baker Mayfield, got the game to a difference of just five points, where a touchdown could win the game for Cleveland. All the Browns defense needed to do was stop the Chiefs backup QB, Chad Henne, with just over a minute left to get the ball back and potentially win the game. Henne made a miraculous play on the fourth down to seal the game for the Chiefs and send Kansas City to the AFC championship game for the third year in a row. The final matchup of the Divisional Round featured two of the greatest quarterbacks of all time: Tom Brady and Drew Brees. This was the first time these two quarterbacks met in the playoffs and it will be the last. Brady and the Buccaneers upset the Saints, which ended up being Brees’ final game of his career.

The trend of firsts continued in Championship weekend. Brady played in the NFC Championship game while Rodgers hosted, a career first for both of them. The NFC Championship game resulted in the Buccaneers upsetting the Packers. The Packers were favored in this game by over three points, but Brady surprised the Packers and eliminated Rodgers’ MVP season. In Brady’s first season as a Buccaneer, he will be taking them to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2002. Coincidentally, the Super Bowl is also in Tampa Bay, which is the first time a team has played a Super Bowl in their home stadium. In the AFC championship game, the Chiefs defeated the Bills despite Mahomes being injured from head to toe. This makes Patrick Mahomes the first quarterback to go to back to back Super Bowls before turning 26.

The early playoff success of Patrick Mahomes:

2017:	Lost Wild Card to Tennessee Titans (21-22)
2018:	Lost AFC Championship to New England Patriots (31-37)
2019:	Won Super Bowl against San Francisco 49ers (31-20)
2020:	Advanced to Super Bowl against New England Patriots (TBD)

The stage is set. Buccaneers vs Chiefs. Brady vs Mahomes. The Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T) vs. the Kid. In a year of firsts, this will undoubtedly be a legendary game to culminate one of the most unlikely NFL seasons ever. Feb. 7, 3:30 P.M. on CBS. See you there.