SI:AM | Putting the ‘Wild’ in ‘Wild Card’

Plus, the 49ers were the weekend’s most convincing team.

Good morning, it’s Monday, Jan. 16, 2022. I’m Josh Rosenblat. Who else didn’t leave their couch for more than 10 hours yesterday?

In today’s SI:AM:

🗽 N.Y.’s franchise QB

🐆 An unforgettable comeback

🔴 Can anyone stop the Niners?

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The divisional round is (almost) set

Underdogs gave the favorites scares throughout the weekend, with the Jags and Giants able to come through and pull off the upsets when looking at the pregame odds. So what chances can we give them of pulling off another one? (We’ll have more on the Niners, Bengals and Bills below.)

Let’s start with New York, which will travel to Philly next weekend. Like its matchup with the Vikings yesterday, the Eagles are a familiar foe, with the Giants playing (and losing) to the top seed in the NFC twice already this season. By this point, we, as a football-watching public, know a few things about New York: The coaching staff has been elite, they play a style that tends to keep opponents within reach and they have game-changing talent on the defensive line. But one new thing we may have learned in its 31–24 win is that it has a quarterback who might be able to take it the distance.

Daniel Jones had the best game of his career in the biggest game of his career, becoming the first quarterback in postseason history to throw for at least 300 yards and two touchdowns and also rush for at least 70 yards. In August, the franchise declined to pick up Jones’s fifth-year option, making his future in New York cloudy following this season. And you couldn’t really blame them after three underwhelming seasons. But the No. 6 pick in the 2019 draft is making it hard for the Giants not to keep him around, Conor Orr writes.

Jones was always a good quarterback. It took only four years for the NFL to figure that out. Enjoy pretending you thought otherwise. You’ll be in good company this week.

Facing the Eagles with a spot in the NFC title game on the line is a completely different challenge than going up against a Vikings defense that is, in Orr’s words, “among the worst in recent NFL history, less reliable than that wooden boardwalk roller coaster on the pier.” But here’s the thing we now know about Jones: He’ll give the Giants more than a fighting chance.

The other young QB who made major headlines this weekend was Trevor Lawrence. Like Jones, he was a high draft pick (No. 1 in 2021), had a tough start to his career and is enjoying success under a new regime in ’22. Unlike Jones, he had to march his team back from four interceptions and a 27–0 deficit to win a playoff game. Orr, again, writes:

We can call Saturday, and Jacksonville’s 31–30 wild-card win over the Chargers, the night Lawrence arrived in the NFL. And, like the self-help guru says, it necessitated a trip through the worst of it all. Take your pick of the platitudes. It’s always darkest before dawn or, as John Wooden said, things work out best for those who make the best out of the way things work out. Lawrence became the first player in modern NFL playoff history to throw three picks in one quarter. He was the first to throw four in a playoff half since Brett Favre in 2001. He was also damn near perfect in the second half. The Jaguars became the first team in NFL history to win a playoff game in which they were minus-five in turnover margin and just the 29th team to do it … ever.

The Jaguars will take their playoff journey on the road to Kansas City next week in a matchup that pits coach Doug Pederson against his mentor, Andy Reid, and also Lawrence against the likely MVP Patrick Mahomes. Jacksonville’s run of seven wins in eight games began following a 10-point loss in K.C. in November. But even if it isn’t able to keep that stretch going in the divisional round, that second half against L.A. on Saturday night was among the most significant 30 minutes of football in the 28-season history of the franchise.

As for this weekend’s favorites, the 49ers waxed the Seahawks after a slow start (more on them in today’s Daily Cover story), the Bills overcame a feisty effort from the banged-up Dolphins and the Bengals needed a 98-yard fumble return touchdown to avoid falling to the Ravens. The Bengals and Bills will match up next week. The Cowboys are road favorites tonight against the Bucs, with the winner traveling to San Francisco.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Cary Edmondson/USA TODAY Sports

• The 49ers were certainly not an underdog Saturday, and they proved why in their 41–23 win over the Seahawks. Today’s Daily Cover story by Greg Bishop focuses on just how good this squad can be.

San Francisco didn’t simply untangle those sentiments; they took a sledgehammer to them, then shoved the remnants into a trash compactor, then turned that into something more like … gold. In came Christian McCaffrey, the shifty, versatile running back from Carolina. Back came many of the 49ers’ injured cornerstones. Into the spotlight trudged (Brock) Purdy, the final pick in last year’s draft—Mr. Quite Relevant right now. The Niners won 10 straight, netting the NFC’s No. 2 playoff seed, which sent the NFL’s hottest team careening, it seemed, back to the game they lost to Kansas City three years ago.

• The Bills edged out the Dolphins, but they’re nowhere close to their peak, Michael Rosenberg writes.
• Chris Mannix and Howard Beck evaluate which NBA teams will be buyers or sellers ahead of the trade deadline.
• Top-ranked U.S. woman Jessica Pegula cruised in her first-round match at the Australian Open, and she’s also keeping a close eye on the NFL team her parents own as they push toward a Super Bowl, Jon Wertheim writes.
• Justin Barrrasso writes that there needs to be more accountability for Dana White.
• Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and staff member Chandler LeCroy were killed in a car accident early Sunday morning.

The top five...

… plays in the Chargers-Jags game:

5. Justin Herbert’s arm angle to get this pass around an on-rushing Josh Allen.

4. Asante Samuel Jr.’s impressive effort on his third pick of the game.

3. Drue Tranquill’s split-section reaction to haul in an interception.

2. Doug Pederson’s bold fourth-down call with under a minute and a half to play.

1. Riley Patterson’s game-winning field goal as time expired.

SIQ

When the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals announced on this day in 1988 that they were moving to Phoenix, which of the following cities was not also hoping to land the team?

• Jacksonville
• Memphis
• Baltimore
• Nashville

Friday’s SIQ: Oilers star Connor McDavid, who turned 26 on Friday, made history in 2016 when he became the youngest player to be named the captain of an NHL team. Who held that distinction before him?

• Sidney Crosby
• Jonathan Toews
• Wayne Gretzky
• Gabriel Landeskog

Answer: Gabriel Landeskog. McDavid was 19 years, 266 days old when the Oilers named him captain, compared to 19 years, 286 days for Landeskog. Sidney Crosby held the record before him at 19 years, 297 days.

Technically, the youngest captain in NHL history before McDavid was Vincent Lecavalier, who was 19 years, 315 days old when the Lightning made him a captain for the 1999–2000 season. But Tampa Bay had three captains that season, so that makes Landeskog the youngest solo captain pre-McDavid. (Don’t NHL teams have alternate captains for a reason?)

Oddly, Lecavalier lost the “C” on his chest rather quickly. After serving as co-captain in 1999–2000, he was the sole captain the following season. But in ’01–02, the Lightning opted to go without a captain. Landeskog, meanwhile, is in his 10th season as the captain of the reigning Stanley Cup champs. He’s the fourth-longest tenured captain in the NHL behind Alexander Ovechkin, Jonathan Toews and Crosby. —Dan Gartland

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