The weekend featured four wildcard games and not single wildcard team advanced.  Here are some of my initial thoughts from the opening weekend of the playoffs:

Saints Looking Super - New Orleans broke the postseason mark for total yards with 626 and Drew Brees accounted for 466 of them through the air as the Saints pulled away from the Lions late.  With the team clicking on all cylinders, the Saints are going to be a tough out. They are the key challenger to the Packers in the NFC, but now have to hit the road to take on a rested 49ers’ team.

Tebow Stuns Steelers – The Broncos were eight-point underdogs at home to a beat up Pittsburgh team that lost even more key players during Sunday’s tilt at Mile High Stadium. Tim Tebow turned in his best effort in weeks, including a game-winning 80-TD strike on the first play of overtime as Denver dashed the Steelers’ playoff hopes with a 26-23 win. Ben Roethlisberger made it through the game on his bum ankle, but he was clearly limited. It will get much tougher next week for Denver as they head to New England.

A Giant Effort – If defense wins championships, you have to like what you saw from the Giants on Sunday in their 24-2 domination of the Falcons.  The G-Men got their ground attack going well too as Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs combined for 172 yards. Since dropping a 38-35 heartbreaker to the Packers on December 4th, New York has now won four of their last five including three straight. The latest run resembles made by the 2007 Giants’ squad on their way to becoming improbable Super Bowl Champs. They’ll have to play even better next week as they head to Lambeu Field to face to the top-seeded Packers.

Bengal Blowup – Making their third playoff appearance in seven years, the Bengals once again came up short as they to the Texans in Houston 31-10.  Kevin Watt returned the first of three Andy Dalton interceptions for a touchdown in the final minute of the first half as Houston took a 17-10 lead that they would never relinquish. The Bengals’ offense showed its inexperience as it struggled in a raucous environment.  Cincinnati was the surprise team of the season, but the loss dropped them to 0-8 against playoff teams and marked the sixth time they’ve loss over their past nine contests.

STAT PILE
*Texans’ RB Arian Foster picked up 102 of his 152 rushing yards prior to initial contact Saturday. That comes after getting just 17 yards before contact against the Bengals in Week 14.

* The Bengals are the 1st team in NFL postseason history to play 4 consecutive playoff games, score first in each and lose each of the four games.

* Saints’ QB Drew Brees finished the regular season with seven straight 300-yard or more passing games and finished Saturday’s contest vs. DET with 466 yards passing.

* Calvin Johnson is the third player since the merger with 200 receiving yards and 2 TD catches in a playoff game. It marks the third time over the past four weeks that Johnson has eclipsed the 200-yard mark. He has caught 36 balls for 771 yards and a six touchdowns in that span.

* Entering Sunday, Eli Manning had been flagged for intentional grounding 11 times in his career (since 2004). Only Matt Hasselbeck (12) had more during that span.

NFL 2011 nfl playoffs, wildcard weekend, tim tebow, drew brees, ahmad bradshaw, andy dalton