BATSBY Sports offers up eight fun facts for Wild Card Weekend, a collection of past and present-day nuggets which could help determine the individual results/team outcomes with this week’s matchups:
FUN FACT #1
Saints quarterback Drew Brees (five 5,000-yard campaigns) has amassed 300 yards passing and/or three touchdowns in five of his last six home playoff games.
For these postseason outings at the Superdome, the future Hall of Famer averaged 306 yards and 2.5 TDs.
FUN FACT #2
Strange but true: NFL rushing champion Derrick Henry (1,540 yards/18 total TDs) has never cracked the 100-yard rushing mark in eight career outings against AFC East competition.
The only saving grace here: Henry found the end zone four times versus the Jets, Bills, Dolphins and Patriots.
FUN FACT #3
Tom Brady has logged 40 postseason games in his decorated career (easily an NFL record); but during this span, the Patriots legend has played only three times on Wild Card Weekend (2-1 mark) — and none since January 2010.
Here are some other Brady-related nuggets:
**Brady accounted for multiple touchdowns in each of the three Wild Card games.
**Charting his last five meetings with the Titans, Brady averaged 295 yards passing and 2.6 TDs.
**Citing his previous eight home playoff games, Brady owns stellar averages of 317 yards passing and 2.6 scores.
FUN FACT #4
Bills tailback Frank Gore (NFL’s third all-time rusher: 15,347 yards) has notched 90 total yards and/or one touchdown in six of seven career postseason outings.
Now for the bad news: As Buffalo’s primary backup, Gore hasn’t reached the 90-yard or one-TD thresholds in his last 11 games.
FUN FACT #5
Receiver A.J. Brown might fall short of winning NFL Rookie of the Year, but he certainly enjoyed the greatest finishing kick of any playmaker from the Class of 2019.
Charting his final six outings, the Titans wideout posted supreme averages of 4.2 catches, 6.5 targets and 101 yards, while collecting five total touchdowns.
FUN FACT #6
The first matchup of Wild Card Weekend could easily be renamed the ‘AFC South Playoff Game Of The Week.’
Citing the previous eight postseasons, at least one AFC South club has represented the division for the 4:30 p.m. game on Wild Card Saturday … with the lone exception involving the 2014 Panthers — one of only two division winners since 1978 to post a losing record.
2011 season: Texans 31, Bengals 10
2012 season: Texans 19, Bengals 13
2013: Colts 45, Chiefs 44
2014: Carolina Panthers (below-.500 division champ)
2015: Chiefs 30, Texans 0
2016: Texans 27, Raiders 14
2017: Titans 22, Chiefs 21
2018: Colts 21, Texans 7
FUN FACT #7
Carson Wentz is vying to become the fourth Eagles quarterback in 36 years to win a home playoff game, with Donovan McNabb, Nick Foles and Rodney Peete — yes, Rodney Peete! — serving as Philly’s other home heroes during that span.
And last but not least …
FUN FACT #8
The Vegas over/under for Vikings-Saints seems a tad low (49.5 points, courtesy of OddsShark.com), considering the following factors:
a) Charting the clubs’ eight head-to-head meetings during the Brees/Sean Payton era in New Orleans (2006-present), the Saints and Vikings cracked the 50-point cumulative mark five different times.
b) Brees has accounted for 26 touchdowns (one rushing) in his last seven games. During this prolific stretch, the Saints have averaged 36.3 points.
c) New Orleans and Minnesota both rank among the NFL’s bottom half with passing yards allowed.
d) The Vikings return their full complement of star playmakers on Sunday, with Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen and running back Dalvin Cook (1,654 total yards/13 TDs in only 14 games) all good to go.
e) Technically, this isn’t a revenge game for the Saints, who rolled over the Vikings on the road last season.
However, this does mark the first postseason meeting of these championship contenders … since the famed/infamous Minneapolis Miracle in January 2018.
In other words, don’t expect Brees, Payton and Co. to ease up on Minnesota, if it’s a blowout-type situation early in the second half.