— Commanders 23, Buccaneers 20
Washington drove 51 yards, kicked 37-yard FG at the gun for the win.
Commanders in 2nd half: 36 plays, 197 yards, 13 points.
Third down conversions: Washington 8-15, Tampa Bay 5-9
Washington also converted 3-5 on fourth down.
Commanders advance to play the Lions in Detroit next week.
— Bills 31, Broncos 7
Denver drove 70 yards, scored a TD on their first drive.
Broncos rest of game: 37 plays, 154 yards, no points.
Bills’ lead was only 10-7 at halftime.
Buffalo was 8-15 on third down, Denver 2-9
Bills ran ball for 210 yards (4.8 yards/carry)
— Eagles 22, Packers 10
Green Bay missed a 37-yard FG when they trailed 10-0 in 2nd quarter.
Packers in first half: 30 plays, 77 yards, no points.
Eagles in 2nd half: 32 plays, 175 yards, 12 points.
Green Bay was 7-13 on third down, Eagles 2-11.
Eagles host the Rams-Vikings winner Sunday afternoon.
— Ravens 28, Steelers 14
Ravens in first half: 41 plays, 304 yards, 21 points.
Steelers in first half: 17 plays, 50 yards, no points.
Steelers lost their last five games, after starting season 10-3.
Since 2017, Steelers are 80-50-2 in regular season, 0-5 in playoff games.
Ravens advance to play the Bills in Buffalo Sunday night.
In their last five playoff games, Steelers were outscored 63-0 in the first quarter.
— Texans 32, Chargers 12
Chargers kicked FGs on first two drives, led 6-0 early.
On their next nine drives, Herbert threw 4 INT’s, Chargers didn’t score.
Houston outgained the Chargers, 429-261
Texans ran ball for 168 yards (4.9 yards/carry)
Texans advance to play the Chiefs in Arrowhead Saturday.
Chargers, by the way, haven’t had a home playoff game since 2009.
— New England Patriots hired Mike Vrabel as their new coach; he played for New England from 2001-08, then went 56-48 as coach of the Tennessee Titans from 2018-23.
— Dallas Cowboys blocked the Bears from interviewing coach Mike McCarthy, but starting this week, they can’t block any more interviews with McCarthy, so he may still be interested in Chicago.
— Famous birthdays, January 13:
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 64
Kevin Mitchell, 63
Patrick Dempsey, 59
Curtis Conway, 54
James Posey, 49
Ronny Turiaf, 42
— When Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes was in high school, he threw a no-hitter, striking out 16 guys; the losing pitcher in that game?
Michael Kopech, who has been a big league pitcher since 2018.
— Toronto Blue Jays signed reliever Jeff Hoffman to a 3-year, $33M deal; he had a 2.17 ERA and 10 saves in 68 games for the Phillies LY.
Hoffman has been in the majors for nine years; he is from the same town where I live, albeit the other side of town— he went to Shaker HS, the same school NBA star Sam Perkins went to.
— Atlanta Braves signed IF/1B Garrett Cooper to a minor league deal; he is 34 years old, had a rough year in 2024, hitting .206 for the Cubs/Red Sox- he’s been in the majors for eight years.
— Georgia Bulldogs’ QB Carson Beck is now Miami Hurricanes’ QB Carson Beck; after going 24-3 as a starter for Georgia, Beck is recovering from a season-ending elbow injury that caused him to drop out of this spring’s NFL Draft.
Beck is apparently getting paid $4M to play for Miami next year. Wow.
— Cleveland Browns’ QB Deshaun Watson tore his achilles tendon again, had another operation on Thursday.
Watson has played in only 19 games for Cleveland the last three years, going 9-10 in those games, despite having a guaranteed contract worth $46M a year.
— Atlanta Falcons fired DC Jimmy Lake after only one season; Falcons started the season 6-3, but lost six of their last eight games, giving up 30-44 points in their last two games.
— San Francisco 49ers fired defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen after only one season; 49ers went 6-11, lost seven of their last eight games, giving up 40-47 points in their last two games.
— RIP former Colorado football coach Bill McCartney, who turned the Buffs’ program around in the late 80’s, going 73-19-4 from 1987-94, after going 20-36 his first five years in Boulder.
Back then, Oklahoma/Nebraska dominated the Big 8 Conference, but McCartney the Colorado to a national title in 1990, with Eric Bienemy his best running back.
McCartney’s coaching tree included Les Miles, Rick Neuheisel, Gary Barnett, Jon Embree and Karl Dorrell.
RIP, sir.