SI:AM | Underdogs Look to Keep Rolling in the Divisional Round

Plus, how the Chiefs got their new receivers up to speed.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I hope the Giants make it worth canceling my Saturday-night plans to watch the game.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏆 Divisional deep dive

🏈 Mahomes’s “rogue ninjas”

☘️ What the Celtics proved last night

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The NFL’s Elite Eight

Technically, there are eight teams left with a chance to win this year’s Super Bowl. Realistically, ahead of this weekend’s divisional round, there are six teams (the Chiefs, Bills, Bengals, Eagles, 49ers and Cowboys) that wouldn’t be shocking champions and two (the Jaguars and Giants) that any NFL observer would be stunned to see in Arizona next month.

Can any of the lower seeds pull upsets this weekend? Our experts are split. While all five have the Giants and Jaguars losing (to the Eagles and Chiefs, respectively), all but Gary Gramling believe the Bengals will top the Bills in Buffalo. Gramling, meanwhile, is the only one who’s picking the Cowboys to beat the 49ers. Let’s look at all four games in a little more detail.

Jaguars at Chiefs (4:30 p.m. ET tomorrow on NBC)

Depending on which version of the Jags shows up, this could be a laugher or a thriller. If it’s the Jacksonville team that went down 27–0 in the first half against the Chargers last week, go enjoy a nice dinner before the night game. If it’s the version that mounted a furious comeback in the second half, the Chiefs will have their hands full. Keeping up with the Chiefs’ NFL-best offense will be the challenge for the Jags. Traveling to Kansas City to face a rested, more talented Chiefs team makes it difficult to envision how Jacksonville emerges with a win.

Giants at Eagles (8:15 p.m. ET tomorrow on Fox)

It’s easy to see why the MMQB staff is all in agreement that Philadelphia will win this one. The Eagles are the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The Giants, after going 9-7-1 in the regular season, are clearly a step or probably two behind them. Philadelphia won both regular-season matchups, but don’t write the Giants off just yet. There is reason to be concerned about Jalen Hurts after he missed two games with a shoulder injury. He did return for the season finale at home against the Giants but didn’t look like the MVP candidate he proved himself to be before the injury. (He completed 20 of 35 passes for 229 yards with an interception.) With the Giants resting their starters because their playoff position was already locked in, the Eagles got a 22–16 win against third-string quarterback Davis Webb. If Hurts is limited by the shoulder tomorrow night, the Giants might stand a chance.

Bengals at Bills (3 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS)

Neither of these teams looked great last week as they both squeaked out wins over teams playing with backup quarterbacks. The Bengals’ offense sputtered against the Ravens, accumulating just 234 total yards. Cincinnati won thanks to Sam Hubbard’s miraculous 98-yard fumble return in the fourth quarter. The Bills, meanwhile, built a 17–3 lead against the Dolphins and their third-string quarterback, Skylar Thompson, but withstood another Miami comeback attempt to advance.

The mood around this game will be a strange one. It will be emotional for the teams to meet again after their first game saw Damar Hamlin collapse on the field. But at the same time, a trip to the conference title game is on the line.

Cowboys at 49ers (6:30 p.m. ET Sunday on Fox)

I had my concerns about the Cowboys after they laid an egg against the Commanders in the regular-season finale. Dallas, playing with an outside chance to clinch the No. 1 seed, got smacked 26–6, while Dak Prescott completed just 38% of his passes. In his final seven regular-season games, Prescott threw 11 interceptions. But the Cowboys were brilliant in Monday’s win over the Buccaneers—a game that, as Michael Rosenberg wrote, was a reminder that Dallas is a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The Niners are an even more legitimate Super Bowl contender and will have the advantage of playing at home in this one. Can San Francisco keep riding its elite defense to victory?

The best of Sports Illustrated

Peter Joneleit/AP/Shutterstock

• In today’s Daily Cover, Alex Prewitt explores how the Chiefs kept their offense rolling with so many new additions at receiver:

[E]ntering a divisional playoff matchup against the Jaguars, the Chiefs’ receiving corps has also never been more dangerously deep; this year, for the first time in his NFL career, [Patrick] Mahomes has thrown multiple touchdowns to five receivers, led by lone holdover Mecole Hardman (four) and [JuJu] Smith-Schuster (three). It is an unsung group, one that lacks in national hype (if not hyphens). But together they have breathed personality into the roster, complemented [Travis] Kelce and brushed aside any doubts about how they would fare in [Tyreek] Hill’s stead.

• Here is a more detailed divisional round preview from the MMQB team.
• Mitch Goldich ranked all 16 possible Super Bowl matchups.
• With the news that men’s basketball coach Mike Brey will step down at Notre Dame after the season, Pat Forde reflects on his legacy and the one thing missing from his tenure.
• Rohan Nadkarni spoke with Aaron Gordon about his important role for the first-place Nuggets.
• Chris Mannix was in Boston last night where the Celtics pulled off an impressive comeback win over the Warriors.
• The Buccaneers fired offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.
• The Storm, obviously, will retire Sue Bird’s number.
• Deion Sanders just had his first major recruiting coup at Colorado.
• Flyers coach John Tortorella doubled down on his support of Ivan Provorov’s refusal to wear a Pride Night jersey.
• Here are the odds and spreads for the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

Tickets to the Cowboys’ divisional-round clash with the 49ers break $1,000.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Rasmus Dahlin’s long pass to set up Dylan Cozens’s overtime winner for the Sabres.

4. Manchester City’s Julián Álvarez giving his shorts to a fan after beating Tottenham.

3. The final two minutes of the fourth quarter of Celtics-Warriors.

2. Johnny Cueto’s entrance at his Marlins introduction.

1. Stephen Curry’s buzzer beater from well behind the half-court line to end the first half.

SIQ

On this day in 1950, the Lions selected Notre Dame end Leon Hart with the first pick in the NFL draft. Hart is one of four players to win the Heisman Trophy and a national championship in the same season and then be selected first in the NFL draft immediately afterward. I’ll give you one of the others (Angelo Bertelli), but can you name the remaining two? (Hint: Both played college football in the last 20 years.)

Yesterday’s SIQ: On Jan. 19, 1981, which sports icon talked a man out of jumping off a ledge in Los Angeles?

• Magic Johnson
• Muhammad Ali
• Billie Jean King
• Ted Williams

Answer: Muhammad Ali. The unidentified 21-year-old man was standing on a ledge on the ninth floor of an office building and threatening to jump. A group of onlookers gathered on the street below, some of them, according to reports, urging the man to jump.

One of the bystanders was Howard Bingham, Ali’s public relations manager. Bingham asked police whether Ali might be able to help. The cops told him no, but Bingham called Ali, anyway.

“About four minutes later, Ali comes driving up the wrong side of the street in his Rolls-Royce with his lights blinking,” Bingham told reporters.

Police officers had already been trying for hours to convince the man to come back inside by the time Ali arrived. The boxer talked to him for about 20 minutes before he was able to convince the man to climb back over a railing to safety. In this CBS news footage you can see Ali help the man to safety.

“I hate to see anybody take his life,” Ali told the Associated Press. “Saving a life is more important to me than winning a world championship.”

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