On Sunday night, the No. 2 seed AFC East champion New England Patriots defeated the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Chargers to advance to the Divisional Round for the first time in seven years, locking up a matchup with the winner of Monday night's game between the No. 5 seed Houston Texans and the No. 4 seed AFC North champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
As expected, the NFL confirmed that the Patriots' Divisional Round game would be contested on Sunday, rather than Saturday, even before the Texans-Steelers game started.
The NFL has never had a Monday night Wild Card winner play the following Saturday since adding the Monday night game in 2021, and it made things easy in terms of Houston knowing where and when they'd play next week with a win, even before the game started.
Just take a look at the first four years of the playoffs since the NFL took one of the three Saturday games and moved it to Monday.
The Los Angeles Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night four years ago, then went on to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the following Sunday. Three years ago, it was the Dallas Cowboys beating the Buccaneers on Monday night, before going on to play the San Francisco 49ers the following Sunday.
Then two years ago, the Buccaneers beat the Eagles on Monday night, then went on to play the Detroit Lions the following Sunday. In fact, due to snow, Monday had two games that year, with the game between the Steelers and Buffalo Bills rescheduled from Sunday. Likewise, the Bills won and didn't play again until the following Sunday, when they squared off against the Kansas City Chiefs.
One year ago, the Rams beat the Vikings on Monday night, then went on to play the Eagles the following Sunday.
It never made any sense for the NFL to deviate from this approach, and they didn't this year.
Interestingly enough, the Monday night game has always featured a No. 5 seed vs. a No. 4 seed, but that also makes sense due to the fact that teams are effectively reseeded ahead of the Divisional Round.
The team with the lowest remaining seed moves on to face the top-seeded team in the conference, while the other two winners square off, meaning that the winner of the No. 5 vs. No. 4 game is guaranteed to have the same Divisional Round opponent, regardless of who wins. Everything else for the following weekend is then effectively able to be place ahead of time.
The only things that weren't confirmed ahead of Monday night's game were next Sunday's kickoff time and TV network, but that changed shortly after the game, a game in which Houston's defense dominated to secure the 30-6 victory.
It was tight through the first three quarters, but two defensive touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including a 33-yard fumble return touchdown by Sheldon Rankins and a 50-yard pick-six by Calen Bullock, all but put the game away.
All in all, the Texans came away with the win after a 23-point fourth quarter, clinching their first road playoff win in franchise history. They had previously been 0-6, though all six of those losses had come in the Divisional Round. This year's playoff appearance is the Texans' ninth in franchise history, and the previous eight had all come with them as AFC South champions.
Following Houston's dominant defensive showing on Monday night in Steel City, their game at Gillette Stadium, where they are just 1-7 all-time (and 0-2 in the playoffs) was officially scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. CT, with live coverage set to be provided by ABC and ESPN.
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are set to serve as the announcers, just as they did on Monday night, but there will be no ManningCast on ESPN2 like there was for the Wild Card game.
Texans must make the most of NFL's scheduling method
Yes, the Texans have one less day to prepare than the Patriots, but it's still the best-case scenario for a team that played in the Monday night Wild Card game. It also justifies the NFL's decision not to put an AFC game on the Saturday of Wild Card weekend, since the winner could have potentially ended up with two extra days of rest heading into the Divisional Round, rather than one.
What makes little sense, however, is why Sunday's second scheduled Divisional Round game is an NFC game set to feature the No. 5 seed Los Angeles Rams and the No. 2 seed Chicago Bears, giving them more than a week off between games since both of those teams played this past Saturday.
Meanwhile, the No. 6 seed San Francisco 49ers, who played Sunday, have been scheduled in a Saturday night time slot against the No. 1 seed Seattle Seahawks.
From a rest standpoint, it would have made far more sense to switch these two games, and it still would have retained the NFL's standard practice of having one AFC game and one NFC game on both the Saturday and the Sunday of the Divisional Round.
It's not at all fair, but that's not the Texans' problem. Houston always knew coming into their Monday night game that they would not get a full week of rest afterward with a win, but they entered that game knowing the NFL wouldn't completely screw them over by inserting them into Saturday's schedule either – or by making them play against a team that played the previous Saturday.
If the Monday night Wild Card game is indeed a mainstay, as it appears to be, let's hope the NFL never deviates from that approach.