NFC Wild Card Playoffs - New York Giants v Minnesota Vikings
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The busiest day of the NFL postseason continued the momentum from Saturday's surprising doubleheader. The Miami Dolphins were double-digit underdogs to the Buffalo Bills with a third-string quarterback, yet led in the second half and took the Bills to the brink. The early afternoon game was a classic showcase between two AFC East rivals in the postseason, even if the Bills are moving on.

The New York Giants stunned the Minnesota Vikings to become the first road team to win on Super Wild Card Weekend. New York won its first playoff game since its Super Bowl XLVI victory over the Patriots and advanced to the divisional round for the first time in 11 years. The Giants will play the Philadelphia Eagles next weekend. 

The Cincinnati Bengals survived the Baltimore Ravens in a AFC North thriller on Sunday night. Cincinnati will play Buffalo in the divisional round next Sunday, while the Jacksonville Jaguars will play the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday. 

With Sunday's wild-card games in the rear view, here's what we learned from both contests and how that will carry over to the divisional round and next season. 

Josh Allen's mistakes continue to keep opponents in games

Josh Allen's giveaway issues have been at the forefront for parts of the season, and the turnovers reared their head in Sunday's win over the Dolphins. The league leader in giveaways in the regular season with 19, Allen's turnover issues allowed the Dolphins to climb out of a 17-0 hole and take a 24-20 lead early in the third quarter -- giving Miami an opportunity at a major upset. 

Allen threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. The Dolphins scored 17 points off Allen's three giveaways, making the game much closer than it needed to be. The Dolphins had just 231 yards of offense and averaged just 3.3 yards per play, yet the Allen mistakes kept Miami in the game until Devin Singletary rushed for the game-sealing first down with 1:16 left. 

In addition to Allen's three turnovers, he also almost lost a fumble in a 34-31 game with 5:12 to play. Allen has to take care of the football and get the turnover issues corrected in time for Buffalo's next game against the Bengals, as a better team -- not one starting a third-string quarterback -- would have given Buffalo an early exit. 

Mike McDaniel's clock management costs Dolphins upset 

Mike McDaniel is a polarizing head coach, but nearly all of the pundits who support or are against him questioned how poor his clock management was late in Sunday's loss to the Bills. The Dolphins had several occurrences in the fourth quarter which they struggled to get a play off -- a major problem on the road with a third-string rookie quarterback.  

The slowdowns of getting up to the line forced McDaniel to burn timeouts in the second half, setting the stage for his biggest blunder of the game. The Dolphins trailed 34-31 and faced a fourth-and-1 from the Dolphins' 48-yard line with 2:29 to play. McDaniel didn't have his team break the huddle until less than 10 seconds to play on the play clock -- and Miami had an extra 10 seconds because the officials bumped the play clock back to 25 seconds. The Dolphins had 51 seconds to snap the ball and didn't, taking a delay-of-game penalty and setting up a fourth-and-5 -- which they didn't convert. 

McDaniel burned three timeouts to avoid delay penalties due to the crowd noise and lack of communication in getting to the line. On the crucial delay of game, McDaniel said he thought the Dolphins got a first down on the play before. 

The Dolphins fought hard, but this was bad situational football by McDaniel -- especially with a third-string quarterback and a banged-up offensive year. McDaniel didn't have a banner first year in multiple areas and needs to improve his in-game situations for Year Two. 

Daniel Jones earned a contract extension from the Giants

Daniel Jones played well in the Week 16 loss to the Vikings, but he was an elite quarterback in Sunday's upset win over Minnesota. The Giants quarterback completed 24 of 35 passes for 301 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions (115.7 rating) -- as New York put up a road season-high 31 points.  

Not only did Jones dominate with his arm, but he set the franchise playoff record for the most rushing yards by a quarterback (78) and became just the third quarterback in NFL history to throw for 300-plus yards and rush for 75-plus yards in a playoff game. Jones was the first player in league history with 300-plus passing yards, 70-plus rushing yards, and two-plus passing touchdowns in a playoff game.

This performance capped a season which Jones threw for 3,205 yards, rushed for 708 yards, and combined for 22 touchdowns. He had the lowest interception rate (1.1%) in the NFL and threw just five interceptions on the year. Add in this playoff win -- with how he played -- in Year One under Brian Daboll, the Giants have no choice but to give Jones a contract extension.  

Justin Jefferson is shut out in final quarter -- by own team 

The secret toward beating the Vikings in 2022 has been to shut down Justin Jefferson. Who would have thought Jefferson's own team would be the one keeping the ball out of his hands?

Not only was Jefferson held off the score sheet in the fourth quarter of Sunday's loss to the Giants, he didn't have a single target come his way. For the league leader in catches and receiving yards to not get a ball thrown his way, that's malpractice. 

Jefferson had four targets on Minnesota's first drive, having four catches for 30 yards. The rest of the game? Jefferson had three catches for 17 yards on five targets, and the Vikings just had 17 points on those final seven possessions. 

Jefferson was held under 50 yards receiving in four of the Vikings' five losses this season. When he gets held in check, the Vikings lose. Minnesota lost its first one-score game as a result of not targeting Jefferson when the offense needed him most. 

Bengals offensive line could be weakness in postseason again 

The Bengals have plenty of offensive firepower with Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. They only could muster 234 offensive yards and averaged 4.3 yards per play in hanging on to beat the Ravens. There's a reason why Cincinnati wasn't as productive against an aggressive Baltimore defense. 

Cincinnati lost left tackle Jonah Williams for the game with a knee injury, the third starting offensive lineman to go down in the last three weeks. Right tackle La'El Collins is out for the season with a knee injury suffered in Week 17 and right guard Alex Cappa went down with an ankle injury in Week 18. 

The result in Sunday's wild-card victory was painful for Burrow, who was hit eight times and sacked four. Not only does that typically lead to a loss, but the Bengals averaged just 2.8 yards per carry. Cincinnati will have to make sure Burrow is protected at all costs heading into Buffalo, or the Bengals will go home earlier than expected. 

They won't get away scoring 17 offensive points against the Bills. 

John Harbaugh's clock management on final drive a head scratcher

Credit to the Ravens for putting up a fight against the Bengals with Tyler Huntley. Even with Huntley playing above expectations, his head coach did his No. 2 quarterback zero favors in the final minute of the game. 

The Ravens had the ball at the Bengals' 28-yard line with 1:20 left when Huntley completed a pass to J.K. Dobbins that went for 11 yards to the Bengals' 17. John Harbaugh then let 33 seconds run off the clock before Huntley snapped the ball and threw an incomplete pass to Mark Andrews on a short pass. That's a lot a time for a pass that wasn't going to get a lot of yards. 

Kevin Zeitler followed with a holding penalty to take the Ravens back to the Bengals' 27, followed by two Huntley incompletions to Andrews. The Ravens had just 15 seconds left when Harbaugh finally used the first of his three available timeouts (could have used one in the 33 seconds he killed earlier). Huntley then had to do a Hail Mary on fourth-and-20 from the 27-yard line when the Ravens could have used the time wisely to get closer to the end zone once they got to the Bengals' 17. 

Harbaugh wanted to save the timeouts for the red zone, but the holding penalty took that away -- which is understandable. There is no excuse for blowing 33 seconds off the clock with a No. 2 quarterback, which is what hurt Baltimore's chances of tying the game late. 

The Huntley fumble that was returned 98 yards the other way in the fourth quarter was a 10- or 14-point swing, but Baltimore still had a chance to win or force overtime on that final drive. Harbaugh froze in the final minute with his clock management, which is uncommon of him.