B6 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2021 WACO TRIBUNE-HERALDSPORTS

REMATCHES ON TAPNFL | PLAYOFFS

Ravens at Titans isamong most intriguingwild-card games

BARRYWILNERAssociated Press

The field for the Super Bowl chase isset, from the rested in Kansas City andPittsburgh to the relieved in Cleveland,

Chicago and Los Angeles. There are somepowerhouses and some pretenders — and ateamwith a losing record.The reigning Super Bowl cham-

pionChiefs (14-2) andGreenBay(13-3) earned each conference’slonebye in the expandedplay-offs. And no, adding a thirdwild-card entrant is not whya 7-9 club made the field.Washington“earned”that spotbywinning theabysmalNFCEast that displayed inthefinale of the reg-ular season whyNFC Least hasbeen so appropri-ate amoniker.Sowhile New

York Giants fansscream that Ea-gles coach DougPederson didn’ttruly play tobeatWashing-ton on Sundaynight, it shouldemphasizedthat the Giantswent 6-10, arecordmore in linewith relegation thanreward.Besides, coach Ron Rivera

dealing with skin cancer andquarterback Alex Smith return-ing froman injury thatnearly costhim his leg, those are redemptiveand rewarding plots.“This one’s special just becauseof

how hard it was,” Rivera said. “Howtougheverythingwas,how it’s beenontheguys, theorganization.There’s agreat groupofyoungmen in thereandwe’re trying todo things theright way. It’s really a cool thingto comeout andget thedivision.”As for the spoils, here’s who

plays in the wild card round andhow itmight look.

Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggscelebrates a touchdown catch

during a game earlier thisseason in Foxborough, Mass.

Saints quarterbackDrew Brees sets tothrow a pass duringa game earlier this

season in NewOrleans.

SATURDAY

Indianapolis (11-5) at Buffalo (13-3)FrankReich has been a hero inWest-

ern New York since engineering thegreat comeback in NFL history whilereplacing the injured Jim Kelly in a1992opening-roundmatchupwith theHoustonOilers.Reichnowcoaches theColts, andhe’ll remainheroic inBuffaloif theygoquietly againstwhathasbeenthe league’smost impressive teamoverthe last month.Thismight beColtsQBPhilipRivers’

final game,but it’s the Indydefense thatmust stand tall here. That’s a tall ordertheway JoshAllen,StefonDiggs and theBills are going.

Los Angeles Rams (10-6)at Seattle (12-4)It’s a third go-around for the NFC

West rivalswho split during the regularseason. Both have strong defenses andbeen spotty onoffense,LosAngeles farmore so than Seattle.The Rams clinched their spot in the

playoffswithout the inconsistent JaredGoff (thumb surgery) at quarterback.The Seahawks have no issues at thatposition with Russell Wilson, thoughhisfirst half of the seasonwas far betterthan the last twomonths.

Tampa Bay (11-5) at Washington (7-9)The Washington story for sure is

uplifting, particularly the way Ri-vera is leading a change in culture fora franchise so desperately needing it.And the last three teams to capture di-vision titles without a winning recordalso pulled off upsets in the wild-cardround.Don’t look formuch of that in prime

time, not with Tom Brady leading theBuccaneers,who are balanced enoughto threaten anyone. You rememberBrady. If not, tune in to this one andsee him likely dismantleWashing-ton’s impressive but inexperi-

enced defense.

SUNDAY

Baltimore (11-5) at Tennessee (11-5)The Titans rode Derrick Henry’s

rushing power, agility and underratedspeed to a stunning upset in Baltimorea year ago. They still are riding Henry,who became the eighth player to gain2,000 yards on the ground in a season.Tennessee also can throwtheball betterthan it could last season.Alas, the Titans barely play any de-

fense.Sowith theRavenshavingamorediverse but just as effective runninggame and a sturdy D— not to mentionthe memories of that beatdown lastJanuary —Henry and Co. have an evenbigger task ahead inBaltimore this time.

Chicago (8-8) at New Orleans (12-4)TheBears,perhaps theotherNFC in-

terloper, almost belong in theLeast,uh,East. They went from 5-1 to 5-7 beforefinishing strongly enough to sneak in.Their defense is dangerous if not quiteMonsters of the Midway, and they cancompete when they run the ball well.If theSaints get someof their running

backs back from the COVID-19 list —particularly scoring machine AlvinKamara — they will be favored heavily.This could beDrewBrees’ last shot at asecondNFL title, too.AndNewOrleanshas a defense tomatch Chicago’s.

Cleveland (11-5) at Pittsburgh (12-4)This had to be the topper for the

weekend’s action. One of the grandrivalries of the sport, and it just wasplayed out inWeek 17— albeit with theSteelers resting a bunch of regulars.Yet PittsburghpushedCleveland to thelimit before the Browns snapped theleague’s longest playoff drought, dat-ing to 2003.Can the Browns win again in the

wild-card matchup? Sure, as long asthey get their ample running game go-ing and don’t have another COVID-19outbreak like the one that hit in the lasttwo weeks. The Steelers have lost fourof their last five,but they alsohavewon17 straight at home against Cleveland.BenRoethlisbergerwill bebackandhe’s23-2-1 inhis career against theBrowns.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson breaks freefor yards during Sunday’s game in Cincinnati.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS

TOMWITHERS—ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLEVELAND—Amidamasked,muted celebration in the lockerroom after the Browns ended theNFL’s longest playoff drought,coach Kevin Stefanski asked for agame ball and then told Pro Bowlguard Joel Bitonio to step forward.Stefanski flipped the ball to Bi-

tonio, who had survived sevenlong seasons, 0-16 in 2017, theJohnny Manziel mess and numer-ous coaching changes.“You’regoingtotheplayoffs,75,”

Stefanki told Bitonio.Twodays later,nothing iscertain

with theBrowns.Positive COVID-19 tests have

knocked Stefanski, Bitonio, widereceiver KhaDarel Hodge and atleast two assistant coaches outof Cleveland’s wild-card game atPittsburgh on Sunday night — theBrowns’ first playoff appearance

since the 2002 season.The Browns announced Tues-

day—18yearstothedaysincetheirlast playoff game — that Stefanskitestedpositive for the coronavirus,which has plagued the team in re-centweeks and has thrownCleve-land’splans thisweek intodisarrayfor thewild-card game.In less than 48 hours, joy for the

Brownsandtheir fans long-suffer-ing fanswas all but extinguished.“Very sad,” Browns center and

NFLPA President JC Tretter said.“It’s really unfortunate.”Now, after beating the Steelers

last Sunday to make the playofffield,theBrownsare implementingcontingency plans drawn upwhenthe pandemic began.Stefanski,whoinhisfirstyearre-

turned the Browns to respectabil-ity, can only coach virtually fromhome this week. He’ll be replacedby special teams coordinator MikePriefer, and the Browns will havetomake other staff adjustments astight ends coachDrewPetzing anddefensive backs coach JeffHowardare also out.Despite the Browns’ issues —

they now have eight rotational

players and five coaches on theCOVID-19list—leaguespokesmanBrianMcCarthysaidthegameisonschedule.McCarthy added the league is

continuingtoconductcontacttrac-ing to identify any possible high-risk close contacts.NFL rules statethat anyone testing positive mustbe away from the team at least 10days.“If any players or personnel are

identified as such, they would re-main apart from the team and fa-cilities for five days from the lastexposure to a positive individual,”McCarthywrote inanemail.“Theywould be eligible to return to theteamandplay in the game.”It’s still possible the Brownswill

lose other players after contacttracing is completed.The genomic sequencing con-

ducted by the league and itsmedi-calpartner lastweekshowedCleve-land’s cases were unconnected,meaning the cases came fromout-side andweren’t spreadwithin theteam’s headquarters.Tretter said on a union confer-

ence call that he expects thebuild-ing to remain closed Wednesday,

when the Browns were scheduledtohavetheirfirstpracticethisweek.Tretter saidhehadbeen in touch

withBitonio.“I feel for him,” Tretter said.

“Obviously with what he’s gonethrough, what he’s endured overhis career and finally finding thatsuccess for thefirst timeandthen itbeingtakenawayat the lastsecond,it’s hard. I feel for all the guys thatwon’t be able to play for the firstplayoff game.“Extremely tough. This is just

a terrible scenario for him and foreverybody involved.”Because Bitonio and Hodge

played in the 24-22 win over theSteelers last Sunday, there wouldseem to be concern that somePittsburgh players could be in-fected.However, McCarthy said the

league has “found no evidence ofplayer-to-player transmissionfrom practices or games through-out this season.”With Stefanski out, coordinator

Alex Van Pelt will assume Cleve-land’s play-calling duties.SteelerscoachMikeTomlin,who

spent a fewminutes speakingwith

Stefanski on the field Sunday, saidhe’s not concerned about playingthe Browns twice in eight days.“I have complete confidence in

the protocol outlined by theNFL,”Tomlin said. “We work hard toadhere to it; if we do that, we willminimizerisk.That’smymentalityregarding it, so I won’t spend a lotof timeworryingabout thosecom-ponents.”The Steelers have their own

COVID-19 issues.Startingcorner-back Joe Haden and tight end EricEbron missed Sunday’s loss afterbeing placed on theCOVID-19 listadayearlier.Hadentestedpositive;his status for the playoff game re-mains uncertain.Cleveland has been one of the

teamshit hardest by thevirus.TheBrowns were without six players,including star cornerback Den-zel Ward, and three assistants lastweekend for their biggest game inyears after a rash of positive tests.Also, star defensive end Myles

Garrett missed two games aftercontracting COVID-19. Garretthashadadifficult time shaking thediseaseandrecentlysaidhewasstillundergoing breathing treatments.

Cruel twist: Browns lose coach for playoffs due to COVID-19Two days aftercelebrating return toNFL playoffs, Clevelandhas been knocked flat

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