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Biggest turning points from Saturday’s NFL divisional playoffs

Saturday’s NFL divisional playoff games certainly kept us on our toes.

Starting out the action early, the Kansas City Chiefs went into Gillette Stadium to challenge the New England Patriots. This one was full of ups and downs, but in the end the Chiefs had more downs than ups in the 27-20 win for the Pats.

Closing out the evening, the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals put us through plenty of stressful moments during their epic battle — a battle that went into overtime. The home team proved too resilient in the end, and an all-time great stole the show to give the Cardinals a 26-20 win.

These were the biggest turning points from both games.

Tom Brady comes out razor sharp

The Patriots didn’t feel the need to run the ball even once during their opening drive.

Instead, Brady came out firing, completing 8-of-11 passes for 80 yards, including eight-yard touchdown to Rob Gronkowski. The future Hall of Famer was on point, and his scoring pass to Gronk was a thing of beauty — a back-shoulder pass that was utterly defenseless.

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The Chiefs were on their heels defensively from the get-go and had no answers for the quick-pace offense.

Of note, Gronkowski and Julian Edelman — both of whom were coming off of injuries — combined on five catches for 67 of Brady’s 80 total yards on this first drive.

Before anyone had a chance to catch their breath after the opening kickoff, the Patriots had a 7-0 lead.

Dirty hit by Danny Amendola sparks Patriots’ offense

The Chiefs missed out on a terrific opportunity after a long punt return and were forced to punt inside New England territory. Dustin Colquitt hit a perfect pooch to pin the Patriots inside their own five yard line.

However, on the play, Amendola speared a Chiefs player who was setting up to down the ball — one of the dirtiest plays we’ve seen in a long time (watch here). But it ended up costing the Patriots just two yards because it was half the distance to the goal, rather than your standard 15-yarder.

Many people, this scribe included, believe Amendola should have been ejected for the dirty play.

One would think such a play would inspire the Chiefs to come out and shut down the Pats, but instead the Patriots were the ones who immediately benefited. Brady promptly led an 11-play, 98-yard touchdown drive which he finished off with a rushing score.

At this point, the Patriots led 14-3 with just over three minutes left in the first half.

Mistakes by Alex Smith cost the Chiefs a touchdown before halftime

Courtesy of Jake Roth, USA Today Sports

Smith had a rough first half.

Making matters worse, his troubles cost the Chiefs a touchdown right before halftime.

He needed two timeouts earlier in the game to avoid delay of game penalties. Then after leading Kansas City’s offense down the field on an impressive drive into New England’s red zone, he finally did incur a delay of game after missing Travis Kelce on what should have been a touchdown.

It was a double-whammy. The Chiefs had the momentum to score, but two costly mistakes by Smith cost the team in a big way.

Instead of heading into the locker room at halftime down 14-10 with some positive mojo, they settled for a field goal and it was 14-6.

Knile Davis fumble leads to second touchdown by Gronkowski

After the half, Kansas City came out firing. After the kickoff landed them at their own 25-yard line, the Chiefs marched down to New England’s 42-yard line.

On the eighth play of the drive, though, Knile Davis fumbled the ball on a terrific play by Chandler Jones, allowing Donte Hightower to recover it for the Patriots.

As had been the case throughout the first half, New England’s offense then made minced meat out of Kansas City’s secondary, going 69 yards on five plays.

Brady picked up chunks of 18, 14, 16 and 16 yards, finishing the impressive drive with his second touchdown pass of the night to Gronkowski, giving the Patriots a huge 21-6 lead.

Alex Smith does his best Houdini act

With the air seemingly out of Kansas City’s sails, Smith figured out a way to make the ship run against the current on his next drive.

The tough-minded quarterback led the Chiefs on an impressive 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive in what has to be one of the most impressive responses we’ve seen in a while to adversity.

The pinnacle of the drive came on a busted play. Smith was flushed out of the pocket and appeared to be headed for a sack or throw-away, but instead, we witnessed an act of brilliance.

Avoiding defenders three times, he maneuvered himself into an opportunity to throw the ball deep downfield to Jason Avant on a third-and-seven, converting on the 26-yard strike. The miraculous play (watch here) kept the drive alive and sparked a touchdown.

He finished off the drive with a 10-yard pass to Albert Wilson in the end zone, giving the Chiefs a fighting chance, down 21-13 in the middle of the third quarter.

Andy Reid clock management dooms the Chiefs

Courtesy of USA Today Images

After the Patriots scored another two field goals to go ahead 27-13, Smith and the Chiefs engineered an impressive, long and rather time-consuming drive at a time that they needed to score fast to have a shot to win.

In the end, they did score. But it was a 16-play drive that took 5 minutes, 16 seconds off the clock to give Kansas City a 27-20 deficit with 1:13 left when they attempted the onside kick.

Gronkowski recovered the kick, and the Patriots cruised to the end of the game in the victory formation after a crazy catch on a tipped pass by Edelman, sealing the game.

It was classic Andy Reid. You know, the same coach who had the Philadelphia Eagles operate out of a full huddle, down late in Super Bowl XXXIX?

The real kicker was when the Chiefs, inside the Patriots’ five-yard line, actually huddled after a failed running attempt. Precious seconds just ticking off the clock while fans screamed in agony, “Why, Andy Reid, why!?!?!”

The Chiefs had a real shot to make a last-minute run at victory if only they had scored sooner. Unfortunately for their fans, Reid’s unbelievable clock mismanagement cost them that chance.

Bruce Arians goes for it on fourth-and-one at Green Bay’s 10-yard line

The head coach of the Arizona Cardinals hates to settle. Arians has made a name for himself by always pushing for more, which is why his offense pushes the ball downfield in the passing game more than any other in the NFL.

In the first quarter Saturday night in Arizona, Arians had a chance to secure three points with a chip-in field goal. The Cardinals had marched down to Green Bay’s 10-yard line and faced a fourth-and-1 situation.

Any other coach would have taken the three points. It’s the safe, reasonable thing to do, after all. But not Arians.

Instead, the ballsy head coach called a running play, and David Johnson delivered a first down, setting up a gorgeous touchdown reception (watch here) by Michael Floyd from Carson Palmer to put the Cardinals up 7-0.

Patrick Peterson’s pick-six nullified by penalty

Instead of jumping out to a 14-0 lead, the Cardinals ended up allowing a field goal and found themselves in a 7-3 dogfight.

Peterson jumped in front of an Aaron Rodgers pass down near the goal line. He picked it off and then took the ball 99 yards for a touchdown, but the play was called back due to an illegal hands to the face penalty by defensive lineman Frostee Rucker.

Rucker got his hands up under the helmet of an offensive lineman, bringing the play all the way back and sucking the life out of what was a raucous crowd at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Needless to say, Arians was not pleased by the development.

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It was a huge turning point in this game, because Rodgers and Co. scored on a field goal three plays later, capping off a 17-play, 85-yard drive that killed the momentum previously enjoyed by the Cardinals at home.

Arizona’s defense holds strong before the half

Rodgers and his offense put together two drives in a row that garnered the Packers just six points. Why is this remarkable? Because Green Bay ran 34 plays for 156 yards and got into the red zone during both drives.

Utilizing a no-huddle offense, Rodgers had his offense going and the Cardinals’ defense reeling. Defenders were gassed, especially because Arizona wasn’t able to substitute players, so the pass-rush that dominated Green Bay’s offensive line during the regular season was almost invisible for most of the second quarter.

However, once the Packers got into the red zone the Cardinals tightened up defensively and got much-needed pressure on Rodgers. Another noteworthy point is that Rodgers only managed 121 yards on 16-of-26 passing during the first half.

In the end, the Cardinals took a 7-6 lead into halftime, thought things certainly could have turned out much differently.

Ha Ha Clinton-Dix picks off Palmer, Eddie Lacy sparks lead for Green Bay

Courtesy of USA Today

After showing outstanding stoutness in the first half, Arizona’s defense made the first takeaway of the game early in the third quarter when Rashad Johnson picked off Rodgers.

Thankfully for the Packers, the turnover didn’t hurt, because the game’s second turnover was forced soon after when Clinton-Dix took the ball away from Palmer to give the ball back to Green Bay inside its own 20-yard line.

This play set up a couple of big runs for Eddie Lacy, including a 61-yarder in which nobody (Lacy included) could believe he was still running towards the end. Of course, to nobody’s surprise, it was his signature spin move that triggered the huge gain.

Once in the red zone, Rodgers finally broke through with a touchdown to Jeff Janis, putting Green Bay over Arizona by a score of 13-7 with 10 minutes still remaining in the third quarter.

Damarious Randall intercepts Carson Palmer in the end zone

Down 13-10 early in the fourth quarter, Palmer had engineered a six-play, 59-yard drive down to Green Bay’s 10-yard line.

At worst, you’d expect the Cardinals to score on a field goal to tie the game and at best a touchdown would give them the lead. Unfortunately, there was a fate worse than that in store for Palmer, who badly underthrew the speedy John Brown and was picked off by Randall in the end zone.

It was the second interception of the second half for Palmer, who was far from sharp in this contest.

While the Packers didn’t score any points on their next drive, the momentum lost on the turnover was significant.

Miracles really do happen

 Dec 27, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15) celebrates a play with teammates against the Green Bay Packers at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Palmer should have been intercepted for the third time down by the goal line with just a few minutes left in the game. But instead, Sam Shields dropped a sure pick-six, giving the Cardinals new life and another opportunity to pull ahead of the Packers late in the game.

What happened next will likely be replayed for years to come.

Palmer dropped back to pass and launched a quick pass to Larry Fitzgerald in the front of the end zone. The ball was tipped, though, and bounced up into the back of the end zone, where Floyd waited for it to drop into his arms for the score.

It was an incredible, improbable and perhaps divinely inspired play you have to see to believe (watch here).

Floyd’s second touchdown of the game put the Cardinals up 17-13 with just over three minutes left to play, and then the Cardinals added another three points on a field goal, going up 20-13 with under two minutes remaining.

Aaron Rodgers pulls off unbelievable Hail Mary

He should have probably been sacked. The game should have been over. There were more than one occasions on the final drive in regulation in which these statement were true.

But Rodgers isn’t human, and instead of the game ending on a sack, he converted a fourth-and-20 from his own end zone. Then he pulled off one final pass off with zeroes on the clock from the Arizona 41-yard line a little while later to give his team a chance to win.

Somehow, some way, Janis came down with the ball in the end zone. The ball bobbled a bit but ultimately it was clearly a touchdown (watch here) that tied the game after the extra point went through the uprights.

It was a toss only Rodgers could make, and it extended this instant classic into overtime, where another phenomenal performer took the game over.

Larry Fitzgerald takes the game over in overtime

It was just your standard busted play. Palmer scrambled out of the pocket and found Fitzgerald open near the left sideline.

We see them in every game. They don’t usually go for 75 yards, though. Then again, Fitzgerald isn’t your average NFL receiver, and he wants a championship so bad he can taste it.

Two plays later, Fitzgerald ended the game by scoring on a well-designed shovel pass (watch here).

He simply would not be stopped.

Fitzgerald finished the game leading all receivers on either team with eight catches and 176 yards, and he basically won the game all by himself in overtime.

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