Biggest Takeaways from NFL's Sunday Wild-Card Action

The Wild Card games lived up to their name on Sunday as the Dallas Cowboys pulled out a late 24-20 win against the Detroit Lions amid dubious officiating and an unraveling narrative for a certain quarterback. 

The evening drama made up for the early matchup, a game that was far closer than it should have been at halftime and showed its true colors when the Indianapolis Colts pulled away in the second act to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-10. 

There was plenty to glean from both games, however. Let's take a gander at some of the takeaways from Sunday's action.

Andrew Luck is better than Andy Dalton. This is a given, right? 

In the days leading up to the AFC Wild Card tilt between the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals, we got this hot take from former player Troy Brown of Patriots Wednesday Live (via CSNNE.com):

'He's a good quarterback against bad football teams,' Brown told Gary Tanguay about Luck, the much heralded No. 1 draft pick out of Stanford, who has a playoff win under his belt. 

What? said Tanguay. He asked Brown to repeat what he told him earlier about the QBs.

'You mean about Andrew Luck being just as good as Andy Dalton?' Brown said. 'You look at the numbers and some of his numbers are better. And all this hype being around Andrew Luck? All these people build up Andrew Luck.'

Brown doubled down on his proclamation on Twitter by saying he had done his homework. Then reality set in.

Luck shredded the Bengals defense for 376 yards and a touchdown, despite the best efforts from some of his receivers to sabotage his day by dropping passes or garnering bad penalties. His touchdown strike to Donte Moncrief was a thing of beauty.

Dalton, meanwhile, looked like Luck all right—if the game was being played on Bizarro Earth. Or, perhaps more apropos, he looked like "Playoff Andy Dalton."

He averaged an ugly 4.4 yards per attempt while completing just over half his passes for 155 yards and a bag of disappointment. He has now thrown a grand total of one touchdown to six interceptions in four playoff appearances, never looking like he belonged.

Granted, the Red Rifle was playing with one hand tied behind his back without star receiver A.J. Green or starting tight end Jermaine Gresham, but he is clearly not in Luck's league, as if that weren't evident before Sunday's poor outing.

While Luck still may have a ways to go before truly earning "elite" status, let's avoid reaching on opinions like this.

Tony Romo just cannot win big football games, right?

Well, that narrative is dead, though it should have been put to sleep years ago. Sure, the polarizing Cowboys quarterback has provided fodder for his critics with epic meltdowns from time to time, but Romo's failings have overshadowed an excellent career.

Not so anymore, at least not according to his playoff showing Sunday.

Romo exorcised his big-game demons with a gutsy performance against a swarming Detroit Lions pass rush, throwing for 293 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the 24-20 victory.

More important, Romo's well-documented late-game failures evaporated alongside Detroit's hopes as he marched the offense down the field for the game-winning score. He topped off the clutch drive with a strike to receiver Terrance Williams, delivered while getting clobbered for what seemed like the 25th time in the game. 

It wasn't pretty at times—that Lions pass rush is going to give him nightmares Sunday night—but Romo served up some steaming crow to his biggest detractors on Sunday night. 

Redemption has come, at least for one week. A few more performances like this will bury Romo's critics once and for all.

Adam Vinatieri is an android sent from the future to kick footballs. 

At 42 years of age, the Indianapolis Colts kicker is the oldest player in the NFL. He is also the best kicker in the game, with apologies to Baltimore's Justin Tucker.

At one point late in the regular season, Vinatieri hadn't missed a kick—he made the first 29 of the season before yanking one against the Tennessee Titans in Week 17. 

Vinatieri has made the most of his time with the Indianapolis Colts, now nearing the same amount of time as he was with the New England Patriots. The veteran hit some huge field goals that propelled the Patriots to championships, and he has started to make his mark for the Colts in the playoffs.

The clutch veteran was automatic against the Bengals, hitting all four of his attempts when the offense sputtered. One of those was a 53-yard attempt that he made seem like a chip shot.

If the Colts find themselves in a close game these playoffs, they can rest easy knowing they have the most clutch postseason kicker of all time playing the best football of his career.

The Detroit Lions stole a page from Washington's game plan against the Dallas Cowboys from earlier this season, and it almost worked.

It was that shocking loss at home where quarterback Tony Romo was knocked from the game with injury. His absence for much of the game was probably the biggest reason they lost, but the Cowboys' inability to pick up the blitz was their biggest downfall that day.

The Lions blitzed Romo into oblivion—particularly during the first half Sunday—generating six sacks and 10 quarterback hits overall. It was good defensive scheming, but even worse blitz recognition and blocking on the part of the Cowboys offense.

It adjusted enough during the second half to get Romo some breathing room, and the offense was able to get things going in an eventual victory. Opposing defenses have surely taken note, however.

It was a great defensive showing in victory for the Indianapolis Colts. 

They allowed just 254 total yards against Cincinnati and that formidable run offense, holding Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate Jeremy Hill to just 47 yards on 13 carries.

Even better, quarterback Andy Dalton had just 155 yards on the day, failing to get anything going.

It was a dominant defensive showing, but how much can we read into it? After all, the Carolina Panthers set a NFL postseason record by holding the Arizona Cardinals to 78 total yards Saturday, but it came against quarterback Ryan Lindley's flailing offense.

Dalton is certainly better than Lindley, but his lack of weaponry was surely a factor in the poor offensive showing. Stud receiver A.J. Green was ruled out of the game with a concussion. Starting tight end Jermaine Gresham—Dalton's safety blanket in recent weeks—was also ruled out with a back injury.

Still, the Colts were aggressive, and it paid off—they had three sacks and six quarterback hits, and defensive backs got their hands on nine passes. They will need to continue that against quarterback Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos next week, a much-taller task.

It didn't work out for Matthew Stafford, but the Detroit Lions quarterback had himself a nice showing against the Dallas Cowboys.

The oft-maligned, sixth-year quarterback has had his ups and downs in the NFL, but he can hold his head high after a quality performance in Dallas. Stafford said after the game, via Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press, "We gave ourselves a chance. We battled, man. (We) just didn't make enough plays to get it done."

He started hot, taking the Lions to an early lead with a bullet receiver Golden Tate turned into a 51-yard touchdown.

Stafford threw darts all game, even on near-misses like a would-be touchdown that linebacker Bruce Carter barely tipped at the end of the first half. Unfortunately for Lions fans, their QB couldn't replicate counterpart Tony Romo's heroics with two minutes left in the game.

Maddeningly inconsistent throughout his career, the big-armed quarterback showed he can step onto the big stage and perform well in the face of a hostile crowd.

The Cincinnati Bengals laid yet another egg on Wild Card Weekend, losing to the Indianapolis Colts in spectacularly mediocre fashion and squandering another nice season. 

Marvin Lewis came came under fire after the Bengals folded in the opening week of the postseason a year ago, so it's only fitting his seat warmer will be turned up to 11 after this loss, right?

Well, not so fast.

Lewis may get a free pass for yet another early exit in the playoffs, and for more than just the illness that overcomes Bengals fans when thinking about life before Lewis, when the team was better known as the Bungles.

Cincinnati was decimated by injury this time around, perhaps giving Lewis an excuse for this year's playoff failure. The offense couldn't move the ball, but it was hardly Lewis' fault that Green and Gresham were inactive, right?

The thinking is simpler over at FoxSports.com:

The fact that Lewis' 0-6 postseason record continues to dominate the conversation is concerning for Cincinnati. But don't expect upheaval despite Lewis' failures in the playoffs. In 12 seasons, Lewis has won 100 regular season games and three division titles, but most importantly has the backing of ownership. 

As frustrating as early playoff exits have been for Bengals fans, Lewis' overall performance won't rate expulsion from the team. Not yet, anyway.

As nice as the win was for the Dallas Cowboys, it was marred by an officiating scandal.

The Detroit Lions were driving down the field, dagger in hand, looking to plunge it into the hearts of Cowboys fans and into the end zone. 

Stafford took the snap past midfield on 3rd-and-1 and launched a pass 20 yards down the field at tight end Brandon Pettigrew, who was blanketed by Anthony Hitchens. The rookie linebacker committed what looked like a defensive pass interference, which was the call on a penalty.

Then, the officials made a controversial call: They picked up the flag after announcing the first down for the Lions. Worse, they did it with nary an explanation on what seemed like a legitimate penalty. 

It was more than a curious reversal on a penalty that had already been announced; picking up the flag changed the complexion of the game in a big way. The Lions could have put the game away with a touchdown or at least extended their lead with a field goal, putting more pressure on Romo in the waning minutes of the game.

Instead, the Lions took a delay-of-game penalty to create more space for their punter, Sam Martin, who promptly shanked the kick to give the Cowboys good field position.

Romo did the rest, and the Cowboys won a close game.

True, the Lions still had the game in hand had they been able to stop the Cowboys. They could have also been bold and gone for it on 4th-and-1 to continue that march to ice the game.

Nothing can stop the conspiracy theories that will flow this week, however.

As fun as those conspiracy theories might be, the best anyone might be able to do to fix a game is to alter the odds. Again, the Lions had a chance to win the game after the favorable reversal. 

Still, the NFL has plenty to explain when the officiating goes sour, and this is one of those situations.

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