Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 1306 Home Curse
Indeed, the league has been looking forward to the strong rise of the new generation to complete the renewal. The veterans' firm dominance at the top of the league is not conducive to the future advancement of the entire project.

However, from another perspective, veterans have been polished and matured for many years, and have influence and appeal. They are always a guarantee for box office success. If all the veterans are eliminated at once, both ratings and stadium attendance will face severe challenges, which is not a good thing for the league.

In other words, the replacement of the old with the new is inevitable, but it cannot be too slow or too fast.

Everything requires timing.

Yesterday, Brady's magic was gone, and he couldn't even get in front of Levi or Jackson, and his season journey came to an abrupt end.

People cheered.

Today, Brees was also in trouble. The New Orleans Saints struggled particularly hard against the Minnesota Vikings, whose offense and defense exploded.

The alliance was stunned.

"13:10".

At the end of the first half, Brees still held on to the score and did not allow the Minnesota Vikings to completely widen the score.

In the 2017 season, the Minnesota Vikings relied on their excellent defense to reach the NFC finals, but unfortunately, the monotony of their offensive tactics became an obstacle, and they finally lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. This year, Cousins, who had a desire to prove himself, took over the offensive group and completed the last piece of the puzzle.

At the beginning of the second half, Cousins ​​once again led the team to advance, and finally the running back completed a one-yard touchdown run, further pushing the New Orleans Saints into the abyss.

"20:10"

The score remained the same until the fourth quarter. With less than six minutes left in the game, the New Orleans Saints were still trailing by two possessions. Kamara, the running back who had performed well in the past two seasons and claimed to be ready to challenge Levi, was invisible throughout the game, running the ball seven times for only 21 yards, and even as a wide receiver he did not make any achievements. This was a key factor in the New Orleans Saints' offense being unable to open up the situation.

The New Orleans Saints are standing on the edge of a cliff, their lives hanging by a thread once again.

This time, Brees stepped up again.

He first led an 85-yard drive and finally scored a touchdown with a 20-yard pass to the end zone; then the New Orleans Saints defense completed a crucial defense, striking out the opponent and winning Brees a chance to play again.

Brees used a smooth and unstoppable attack without any coordination to destroy the Minnesota Vikings' defense. Although he was finally stopped by the opponent, he still won a valuable opportunity for the New Orleans Saints to equalize with a 49-yard free kick before the end of the game.

New Orleans Saints' newly signed kicker Wil Lutz tied the score with a buzzer-beating free kick.

"20:20".

For the second consecutive season, and the second consecutive playoff game across seasons, the New Orleans Saints needed to go to overtime to decide the outcome.

however--

For the second consecutive season, fate played a joke on the New Orleans Saints, and the Minnesota Vikings guessed the coin correctly and won the opportunity to attack first.

Cousins ​​knew his time to shine had come, and this time, he seized the opportunity.

Four minutes and thirty-three seconds, seventy-five yards of advancement, and finally a four-yard short pass to seal the victory.

Touchdown, overtime buzzer beater.

Everything was over, just like that. Cousins ​​did not give Brees a chance to play and ended the game cleanly.

Boom, boom, boom, the entire alliance went crazy.

"26:20".

The Minnesota Vikings defeated the New Orleans Saints and advanced to the next round, where they will go to the Bay Area to challenge the San Francisco 49ers, the No. seed in the National League.
Brady lost. Brees also lost.

The end of an era. If one veteran loses, the league may be in an uproar, with all kinds of reactions; but if two veterans lose, people can't help but sigh at the passing of time. Those legends who once stood at the top and called the wind and rain were ultimately unable to withstand the power of time, which is a pity.

Like the New England Patriots, the New Orleans Saints' upset loss was also historic.

This is the first time since 2010 that the New Orleans Saints have suffered consecutive playoff losses.

Meanwhile, this was the sixth consecutive playoff loss for the New Orleans Saints that came within one possession.

Finally, this is the first time in NFL history that a team with 13 wins and 3 losses in the regular season lost in the wild-card game.

It was not just an upset, it was definitely a shocking upset, an upset worth mentioning in the history of the New Orleans Saints team and the history of the NFL.

Shocked and impacted are far from enough to describe people's feelings. The buzzing sound throughout the entire league could not be stopped at all.

However, this is still not the end.

Less than two hours after this wildcard game ended, the last wildcard game began.

"Fourth seed Philadelphia Eagles vs. fifth seed Seattle Seahawks".

This is undoubtedly a very special match.

Even though the Philadelphia Eagles were the fourth seed and were playing at home, the Seattle Seahawks, with 11 wins and 5 losses, actually had a better regular season record than the Philadelphia Eagles, with 9 wins and 7 losses.

Moreover, the Seattle Seahawks just defeated the Philadelphia Eagles on the road in Week 12 of the regular season this season.

So, although the Philadelphia Eagles have a higher seed ranking, professionals generally prefer the Seattle Seahawks.

The ending... is indeed the case.

"17:9".

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Philadelphia Eagles fairly and advanced to the next round with their heads held high.

Philadelphia Eagles had a bad year. The main quarterback Wentz suffered a concussion after being hit and sacked in the first quarter and was directly declared out of the game.
This time, the Philadelphia Eagles did not have "Saint Nick" Foles to save the game, and veteran quarterback Josh McCown, who had been wandering in the league for 17 seasons, was unable to turn the tide.

This was the first time since Week 2017 of the regular season that the Philadelphia Eagles failed to score a touchdown in a game, and their offense was completely silent.

What's worse is that other teams often have an advantage when playing at home, but the Philadelphia Eagles suffered an unprecedented three-game losing streak in the wild-card game at home.

That is to say, in the wild card game, the Philadelphia Eagles won on the road, but inexplicably suffered three consecutive losses at home.

This... is really laughable.

For the Philadelphia Eagles, after witnessing Wentz's MVP-level performance in the 2017 season, they chose to bet on this quarterback; however, for three consecutive seasons, Wentz's injuries at critical moments completely ruined the team's efforts throughout the season, and the Philadelphia Eagles had to consider-

How much youth does Wentz have left to squander?

Although the outcome of the game was not suspenseful, although the game process was not exciting enough, and although the Seattle Seahawks' victory was not an upset, the defensive battle in this game was still exciting enough; and the fact that the fifth seed overturned the fourth seed is still an objective fact in front of us.

So, should this be considered a cold open?

Then, inadvertently, people noticed something:

Except for the Houston Texans, the other three wild-card games were all against the superiors. Is this some kind of home-field curse?

(End of this chapter)