Panthers, Broncos wrap up No. 1 seeds

It might have taken them years to get here, but Marshall and Fitzpatrick know they’re in this together, regardless of the winding paths they took.

But that was not to be. That was just enough to give the Steelers a chance to try and make a deep run in the playoffs and get well-deserved recognition in this week’s installment of three up, three down. Pittsburgh will be the No. 6 seed and travel to AFC North rival Cincinnati for an 8:15 p.m. game on Saturday. After all, as much fun as the wins over the Giants and Patriots were last month, with their season on the line, the Jets came up short as they so often have in the past.

Ryan did not have a good first season coaching the Bills.

Fitzpatrick was acquired in a trade with Houston for a sixth-round draft pick last March and was expected to be a backup. On Sunday, he threw three.

“It was a bad decision and a bad throw”, Davis said.

Fitzpatrick has failed to make the playoffs in 11 seasons, and Marshall has not advanced in his 10 seasons. Pittsburgh did its part, then earned a wild-card berth when the Bills beat the Jets.

Sammy Watkins has had bigger days.

“All you can ask for in this game is an opportunity and as poorly as we played in the first quarter, as slow as we were going there, we picked it up and had an opportunity in the end to win the game”, Fitzpatrick said. He can cover, but not the way he once could. “He threw for a lot of yards and got some touchdowns”. He spent 11 seasons proving he was a quality quarterback who could lead a team into the playoffs. Fitzpatrick completed 16 of 37 passes for 181 yards. Manziel, who spent time at a treatment center during the off-season, made headlines earlier in the week after a video was posted to Instagram on Christmas Eve showing him rapping and holding a can of alcoholic beverage. It was on Revis for not being able to cover, and on the coaching staff for not making an adjustment. The Jets had three drives in the fourth quarter. Along with receiver Eric Decker and running back Chris Ivory, the Jets had two 1,000-yard receivers and a 1,000-yard rusher in the same season for the first time in team history. He carried the ball six times! Six!

He was in position to play the hero in the place in which he had worked for four years and enjoyed some of his best moments, yet also some of his worst.

Roethlisberger took advantage of injuries in the Browns secondary throughout the game. The power back ran with authority, at one point ripping off a 58-yard run. That’s an incredible total – Hall of Fame Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach never had more than 339 yards in a game in his entire career.

“A huge point of the game”, Fitz said. Ryan’s all-in plan to build up the running game and pass defense looked like he took the same blueprint he used to build the Jets with him when he packed his bags for Western New York. He has to show he can be more than a one-read quarterback, that he can go through his progressions and connect with that second and third option.

NOTES: Wilkerson broke his right leg Sunday and will have surgery to fix the fibula within the next week….

The Seattle looks like the most risky team in the National Football League right now with an incredible defence and Russell Wilson playing out of his mind.

Fitzpatrick thrived in Chan Gailey’s offense after being reunited with his former coach in Buffalo, where the quarterback had three solid seasons as the regular starter from 2010-12. In order to shut down the Bills’ offense, all the Jets had to do was to contain Watkins.

It was a harrowing sight to see Muhammad Wilkerson carted off of the field with a towel over his head, with what we later learned to be a broken leg. He was in the midst of his best year as a pass rusher with 12.5 sacks.

Trouble is, the defense’s inconsistencies were one of the key reasons the Bills missed the playoffs.

As the Steelers began to pull away, fans watched what was going on in the Jets-Buffalo game even closer because even if Pittsburgh pulled off the win, playoff hopes still hinged on the Jets.