Wild Card Reactions: What's the Worst Way to Lose?

There were fans of 20 NFL teams who woke up Saturday and Sunday mornings with envy and jealousy that fans of the other 12 got to enjoy watching their teams in the postseason while they sat at home and debated whether to still wear their Jets/Colts/Falcons/Eagles/Bills/Giants gear. And while being in the playoffs always seems better than not, fans of the Texans, Bengals and Vikings may argue otherwise.

The Texans opened the playoffs by hosting the Chiefs and getting blanked 30-0, the fifth-worst playoff shutout in league history. Brian Hoyer turned the ball over five times, while the Texans resorted to using J.J. Watt in an empty backfield and Vince Wilfork blocking for him to try to find a spark. It didn't work, as Watt was stopped for a one-yard loss.

The Chiefs will next head to Foxboro to take on the Patriots, who are expected to get Julian Edelman back from a foot injury that has kept him out since Week 10. The Patriots' passing offense is significantly better with Edelman on the field, and a win will be a very tough task for the Chiefs, who are 5.5-point underdogs. Making matters worse, Jeremy Maclin looks highly unlikely to play after suffering a high-ankle sprain Saturday, though that's actually good news, as the initial fear was that he tore his ACL. Travis Kelce dominated the looks from quarterback Alex Smith, catching eight of 10 targets for 128 yards, while Maclin was the only other receiver to catch more than two passes. Their lead throughout the game left little reason to pass, but that won't be the case trying to keep up with Tom Brady.

Focusing on the running game, Spencer Ware rushed 16 times for 67 yards and a touchdown while Charcandrick West picked up 26 yards on eight carries. The former seems to have a firm hold on the backfield touches, though if the Patriots get out to an early lead next weekend, Ware's carries will be limited.

Later in the day, Texans fans were left with the question of whether they'd rather lose a playoff game by getting smoked 30-0 or losing one that they led while having the ball on their opponent's 26-yard line with 1:36 left in the fourth quarter.

The Bengals essentially needed one more first down to run out the clock and beat the Steelers 17-15, which would have been head coach Marvin Lewis' first-career postseason victory. Jeremy Hill took a handoff on first down and rushed for six yards, which would have been a great start except that he coughed the ball up and the Steelers recovered. The Bengals were in field-goal range, and hindsight clearly says they should have taken a knee three times and tried for the three points.

Instead, Ben Roethlisberger returned to the game after he was knocked out earlier with a shoulder injury and led the Steelers on a nine-play, 74-yard drive that ended with a game-winning field goal as time expired. Roethlisberger's heroics would have been lauded, except that he could barely lift his arm over his shoulder when he threw and the Steelers benefitted from back-to-back personal foul penalties against Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones, respectively. That gave the Steelers 30 extra yards and moved them into field-goal range. Rookie Chris Boswell nailed the kick and the Steelers will travel to Denver to face the Broncos next weekend.

However, they could be extremely short-handed, as the severity of Roethlisberger's injury is still a question; there are reports that he either sprained his AC joint or separated his shoulder (or both), while Antonio Brown could miss out after suffering a concussion on that final drive when Burfict nailed him viciously in the head, which prompted the first personal foul flag. The Steelers have played without top running back Le'Veon Bell since Week 9, and DeAngelo Williams, who played very well in Bell's absence, did not play Saturday because of foot injury. Fitzgerald Toussaint rushed 17 times for 58 yards, while Jordan Todman had 11 carries for 65 yards, though the former was a big contributor in the passing game, catching half of his eight targets for 60 receiving yards. Toussaint could get plenty of targets next week if Brown is unable to play, as will Martavis Bryant, who made this ridiculous catch earlier in the game:

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Not to be outdone on the heartbreak meter, the Vikings led the Seahawks 9-0 heading into the fourth quarter in what turned out to be the third-coldest game in NFL history. With passing made difficult due to the low temperatures and wind, Russell Wilson failed to throw for multiple touchdowns for the first time since Week 10, while Vikings running back Adrian Peterson rushed 23 times for only 45 yards. Peterson also lost a fumble late in the game that helped the Seahawks eventually kick a go-ahead field goal with just over eight minutes left.

But even after giving their lead away, the Vikings were in fantastic position to win. After forcing the Seahawks to punt, Minnesota got 19 yards on a pass interference penalty drawn by tight end Kyle Rudolph, and he followed that up by catching a 24-yard pass from Teddy Bridgewater to put the Vikings in field-goal range. A few Adrian Peterson carries later and they had a 27-yard field goal lined up with 26 seconds left. A make and they go up 12-10 with seemingly too little time for Wilson to bring the Seahawks back. Instead, kicker Blair Walsh, who was 34 of 39 this season, including 9 of 9 from inside 30 yards, shanked the kick left. Some have blamed it on the ball being held with the laces in, but an NFL kicker still needs to connect from that distance.

Instead, the Seahawks will travel to Carolina to take on the 15-1 Panthers in the divisional round. The two teams met back in Week 6 in Seattle when Cam Newton threw for 269 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for a score. Russell Wilson threw for 241 yards and one touchdown, the fourth game of a seven-game run with only one passing touchdown. Needless to say, the offense is a bit different now, though it's possible Marshawn Lynch returns from his abdomen injury, one that forced the Seahawks to give 21 carries to Christine Michael on Sunday, which he turned into 70 yards.

The other NFC divisional round game will feature the Packers playing at Arizona, a team they lost to 38-8 in Week 16. However, that Packers team looked nothing like the one that beat Washington on Sunday, as Aaron Rodgers led them to a 35-18 win, throwing for 210 yards and two touchdowns. While the Packers looked much improved, mostly because of Rodgers, Yahoo Sports' Scott Pianowski accurately points out that Rodgers finished with only 5.8 yards per attempt, which surely won't be good enough against the Cardinals' defense, which allowed the eighth-fewest passing yards per game (230.4), picked off the second-most passes (22), and allowed the eighth-lowest 6.4 YPA. The Packers may be improving, but they have a long way to go to be competitive with the Cardinals.

In the end, all four road teams won, the first time in NFL history that's happened in the wild-card round. While it's obviously a rare feat, it's worth noting, as NFL Network's Rich Eisen did, that all four home teams started quarterbacks making their first postseason start. QBs in that situation are now 42-53.