Daniel Jones passed for 301 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 78 yards in his first career playoff game for the New York Giants, a 31-24 victory over Minnesota in the wild-card round.
Saquon Barkley rushed for two scores, including the tiebreaker midway through the fourth quarter.
Jones became the first quarterback in NFL history to hit these thresholds in a postseason game: 300-plus passing yards, two-plus passing touchdowns and 70-plus rushing yards.
First-year head coach Brian Daboll’s team advanced to play No. 1 seed and NFC East rival Philadelphia in the divisional round next weekend.
Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins went 31 for 39 for 273 yards and two scores and a rushing touchdown to cap the game’s opening possession. Justin Jefferson, the NFL’s leading receiver, had only one catch after halftime and finished with 47 yards.
Trevor Lawrence followed four interceptions with four touchdown passes, rallying the Jacksonville Jaguars to a 31-30 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night.
Lawrence engineered the winning drive, highlighted by Travis Etienne’s 25-yard run on a fourth-and-1 play, and put the Jaguars in position for Riley Patterson’s 36-yard field goal on the final play. It capped a 27-point comeback, the third largest in playoff history.
Lawrence completed 28 of 47 passes for 288 yard.
The Jaguars became the first team in the Super Bowl era to win a playoff game with a turnover differential of minus-5 or worse. Teams with that margin had been 0-19.
CHARGERS COLLAPSE
Justin Herbert threw for 273 yards and a touchdown without an interception, but the Chargers’ offense was largely ineffective after a 62-yard TD drive that made it 24-0 midway through the second quarter. Los Angeles finished with 320 yards of offense and 18 first downs, and it produced only three points on four second-half possessions.
UP NEXT:
The Jaguars will take on top-seeded Kansas City next weekend. The Chiefs won their regular-season meeting.
Defensive end Sam Hubbard returned Tyler Huntley’s fumble 98 yards for a tiebreaking touchdown in the fourth quarter, helping Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Baltimore Ravens 24-17 in an AFC wild-card game on Sunday night.
Facing third-and-goal at the 1 with about 12 minutes left, Huntley tried to go over the top of the line for the go-ahead score. But he was stood up by Germaine Pratt and stripped by fellow linebacker Logan Wilson.
The ball went right to Hubbard at the 2, and he took off down the field for the longest fumble return for a touchdown in NFL postseason history. It also was the longest go-ahead TD in the fourth quarter in the postseason.
Baltimore drove down to the Cincinnati 17 in the final minute, but Kevin Zeitler was flagged for holding and Huntley threw incomplete to the end zone on the final play.
Playing behind a patchwork offensive line, Burrow passed for 209 yards and a touchdown for the AFC North champions. He also had a 1-yard touchdown run a week after the Bengals beat the Ravens 27-16 in the regular-season finale.
Next up for Cincinnati is a trip to Buffalo for a rematch of their Week 17 game that was canceled after Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field. With Hamlin watching from home, Buffalo advanced with a 34-31 victory over Miami on Sunday.
Josh Allen shrugged off three turnovers by throwing two touchdown passes 3:11 apart in the third quarter, and rallying the Buffalo Bills to a 34-31 win over the Miami Dolphins in an AFC wild-card matchup on Sunday.
Cole Beasley scored the go-ahead touchdown with a 6-yard catch, and Gabe Davis extended the lead to 34-24 with a 23-yard TD reception in a game where Buffalo squandered an early 17-0 lead.
The Bills defense, which forced six punts and two turnovers, then held on to secure the win when Miami turned the ball over on downs on its final possession.
Allen finished 23 of 39 for 352 yards and three TDs, but also threw two interceptions, which resulted in the Dolphins scoring 10 points. He also lost a fumble while being sacked by Eric Rowe, with Zach Sieler recovering the ball and returning it 5 yards for a touchdown to put Miami ahead 24-20, just 61 seconds into the third quarter.
As the AFC’s second seed, Buffalo advances to host the third-seeded Cincinnati Bengals who defeated Baltimore on Sunday night.
The Dolphins played tough in a game they entered as 13 1/2-point underdogs. They were down numerous starters and trailed 17-0 with 12:46 left in the second quarter when Tyler Bass hit a 33-yard field goal.
The Dolphins defense and special teams made up for an offense that was down to its third-string quarterback in rookie Skylar Thompson. Miami rallied to tie the game by taking advantage of two interceptions and Cedric Wilson’s 50-yard punt return.
Thompson, a seventh-round pick out of Kansas State, finished 18 of 45 for 220 yards with a touchdown pass and two interceptions. He was making his third career start in place of Tua Tagovailoa, who is still in the concussion protocol and with backup Teddy Bridgewater dealing with a dislocated pinky finger.
San Francisco rookie quarterback Brock Purdy threw three touchdowns, leading the 49ers to a 41-23 win against the Seahawks.
Purdy finished 18-of-30 for 332 yards with three TD’s and a rushing score in his postseason debut.
In the process, Purdy not only became the lowest-drafted rookie quarterback to start and win a playoff game, but he also set a few other records:
–Purdy became the first rookie quarterback to win a playoff game since Russell Wilson in 2012.
–At 23 years and 18 days, Purdy is the youngest player in NFL history with 300-plus passing yards and three-plus touchdown passes in a playoff game, surpassing Dan Marino.
–Purdy is the third player in NFL history with 300-plus yards and at least four total touchdowns in his playoff debut, joining Matthew Stafford (2011) and Kurt Warner (1999).
— With a streak of seven consecutive games with multiple passing touchdowns, Purdy tied Justin Herbert for the longest streak by a rookie in NFL history. It also is tied with Steve Young for the second-longest such streak in 49ers history.
–Purdy became the first player taken with the final pick of the NFL draft in the common era (since 1967) to record a postseason touchdown of any kind.
UP NEXT:
In the NFC divisional round, the Niners will take on the winner of tonight’s Dallas Cowboys-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game.
