There’s always a barber willing to cut your favorite NFL running back into the back of your head.
The Cheat SheetBy Kevin McGuire on

I wasn’t going to watch Homeland last night, until I did

I was scanning my Twitter feed while watching the NFL playoffs when I read a couple of tweets from people I follow that chose to live tweet their Homeland experience. So rather than saving it for the DVR this evening, I dug in and watched the season premiere. I’m not sure what the rules are regarding live tweeting shows, but I feel that it should be banned during playoff games airing on network TV. Agree? Disagree? Let me know. Anyway, we have a packed Cheat Sheet to get your week started on the right foot, so get yourself your mug of coffee and sit back and enjoy.

Aaron Rodgers works his magic to help stun Cowboys

This is why you never leave any time for Aaron Rodgers to do work.
This is why you never leave any time for Aaron Rodgers to do work.

Well, it took a while but the football Gods finally rewarded fans with a playoff game that was actually entertaining. Outside of last week’s College Football Playoff national championship game, we witnessed two blowout college football playoff games, four non-inspiring Wild Card matchups in the NFL playoffs and Saturday’s so-so doubleheader of divisional round playoff action. But Sunday gave us the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers exchanging 50-yard field goals in the final two minutes to decide a playoff game with a thrilling finish with a little bit of everything.

The red-hot Packers were led to a very strong start with Aaron Rodgers doing his thing once again. You had to have a feeling things were going well when this exchange happened…

The Packers built a 28-13 lead going to the fourth quarter, but the Cowboys battled back with two touchdowns to tie the game with 4:08 to play at 28-28. And that is when the fun truly began. Mason Crosby booted a 56-yard field goal to give the Packers a 31-28 lead with 1:33 to play, but the Cowboys answered nearly a full minute later when Dan Bailey sent a 52-yard field goal through the goalposts.

It appeared as though this one was destined to go to overtime, especially with the Packers facing a 3rd and 20 with 12 seconds to play from their 32-yard line. And that is when Rodgers pulled out an incredible throw that was hauled in with an incredible effort by Jared Cook to keep his feet in bounds before getting a chance to stop the clock as he fell out of bounds with three ticks on the clock remaining. It was the very definition of a “clutch play.”

But, this moment would belong to Crosby, who booted a potential winning field goal from 51 yards just moments after having his first successful 51-yard attempt wiped out by a Cowboys timeout.

When you’re hot, you’re hot. One guy betting the Packers each week may be even hotter than Rodgers and the Packers…

The Cowboys may have lost, which is unfortunate if only because we will no longer get to watch runs like this by arguably the NFL’s best running back, Ezekiel Elliott…

The Seahawks lost on Saturday to the Atlanta Falcons, but at least they fared well in the trash talk battle between Doug Baldwin spitting fire while down 17 in the fourth quarter and Earl Thomas taking a shot at Tom Brady for some reason. Of course, the Falcons got the last laugh on the scoreboard and with a dig at Russell Wilson.

Matt Ryan and the Falcons host the Packers for the NFC Championship Game next Sunday.

Steelers back in AFC Championship for first time since 2011

After kicking their way to a playoff win, the Steelers better hope they saved some touchdowns in reserve for next week.
After kicking their way to a playoff win, the Steelers better hope they saved some touchdowns in reserve for next week.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers pushed back their start time to provide for the safety of fans traveling to the game in not-so-ideal weather conditions. Those who braved the elements for a makeshift night game were treated to the best defensive battle of the playoff yet but a large majority of them went home disappointed after not yielding a single touchdown in the game and still losing. Chris Boswell was a clean 6-for-6 on field goal tries to account for all of the scoring by the AFC Championship-bound Steelers in an 18-16 win.

For the Chiefs, there were some classic moments from the Andy Reid School of Clock Management that had to leave you scratching your head with the Chiefs down eight and time starting to become a serious issue.

https://twitter.com/smartfootball/status/820849057505693696

Credit Reid where credit is due, because he did make some solid offensive calls to pick up a critical fourth down conversion and a touchdown and would-be-game-tying two-point conversion if not for a holding penalty on the two-point try. The Steelers came up with the stop on the second attempt at the game-tying score and were forced to put the game in the hands of the defense, and it almost worked.


Things got a little heated after the game too…

The Steelers will move on to play for the AFC championship for the 15th time in franchise history, which is just an amazing testmane to the long-term track record of the franchise. The Steelers hit the road to play the New England Patriots, who are certainly no strnager to the AFC Championship Game. Amazingly, this will be just the third time the two franchises have clashed with the reward of going to the Super Bowl on the line.

Big Ben vs. Tom Brady. It’s on. Bring your own hanky.

Quick Hits

There's always a barber willing to cut your favorite NFL running back into the back of your head.
There’s always a barber willing to cut your favorite NFL running back into the back of your head.

– It may not be quite the dedication to getting a tattoo inked on your arm declaring your team the world champs well before the playoffs ever begin, but you have to admire the devotion some fans have when it comes to their hair. Take this Dallas Cowboys fan who just got the face of rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott shaved into his head along with the Cowboys logo. That’s some good work right there. And if it turns out Elliott later faces problems due to an alleged assault, you can just shave it clean and pretend it never existed! Or, when your team gets ousted from the playoffs and you want to erase your shame…

– It seems the length of games is a growing concern around the sports world (true), and the NBA is hoping to find away to shorten the end of games in order to not lose its millennial fans. Yo, us non-millennials would appreciate shorter games too! Don’t forget about us! Also, what is this about a possible midseason tournament?

– Maybe the NBA should focus more on players flopping…

– I am not entirely sure this is how Michael Carter-Williams of the Chicago Bulls had this play chalked up, but you know what, it worked…

https://vine.co/v/53PHv0nheJ1

– Carmelo Anthony was none to pleased with his New York Knicks losing a game recently at the buzzer against the process trusting Philadelphia 76ers, but he seems to have the power to accept a possible trade to only two teams, the Cavs or the Clippers.

– On the ice, Andreas Athanasiou of the Detroit Red Wings has a worthy candidate for goal of the year consideration…

– Here are some fun NFL coaching headlines. The Colts apparently wanted Jon Gruden (no, seriously) and the Jacksonville Jaguars reportedly interviewed Chip Kelly for reasons beyond comprehension.

– Did you know the Big Ten is filthy rich? Well, they’re only going to get even more filthy rich when the new TV deal kicks in.

– It looks like there could be some big news for Toronto Blue Jays fans this hot stove season…

– Let’s throw this one in the pile of perfectly timed hot takes…

– Some people go a little mad when they can’t get out of their phone contract. Some people plow their SUV into the side of the cell phone building to teach those cell phone retailers a lesson.

– Last week in our Monday edition of The Cheat Sheet we touched on Meryl Streep’s criticisms aimed at Donald Trump at the Golden Globe Awards. Ironically, in the same edition, we shared a clip of Star Wars icon Mark Hamill reading tweets from Donald Trump in his signature voice as The Joker from the animated Batman TV series. So imagine my joy when I saw Hamill once again took a Trump tweet reacting to Streep and once again read it as The Joker! If Mr. Hammil happens to be reading this, I would love it if we could make this a weekly feature on the site moving forward.

– The next chapter in the Wolverine franchise from FOX is getting closer and closer with Logan. As we approach the premiere date (March 3) of the latest film set in the X-Men universe starring Hugh Jackman, we have been treated to some new shots from the movie, including a frail-looking Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier.

– And speaking of bad ass superheroes, Ben Affleck would appreciate it if we all just stopped asking him about The Batman, the solo Batman film he is directing as part of the DC Cinematic Universe. It’s really “such a pain in the ass” for our latest caped crusader. In the meantime, if you have ever wondered how Batman would fare against the Power Rangers, you are in luck with this comic book crossover (which I would be OK seeing in film).

– Nintendo held its highly-anticipated presentation to introduce the world to its next home (and portable!) console, the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch will launch on March 3 at a price of $299.99, with a decent number of extra costs on top of that. Liam took care of sharing some of his most anticipated games for the new system launching March 3 (46 days and counting, if you were wondering), and I shared some thoughts as to why the third-party support may look off-putting for now but has promise for a long-term future.

https://twitter.com/bane_biddix/status/820426755030781952

– I feel as though not selling Cadbury OREO Eggs in the United States is a tremendous missed opportunity.

– It can be a little amazing to think that the vinyl music business is poised to a billion-dollar industry in 2017.

– This is a ball made out of metal paperclips.

– If you missed it from last week, “Weird Al” Yankovic fans are finally geting a definitive box set coming their way.

– So Donald Trump is set to become the 45th president, which will be all over the place with merchandise marking the occasion. But here’s a crazy idea, courtesy of the Crazy Ideas subreddit. What if Barack Obama officially resigned on January 19, one day prior to the inauguration of Trump specifically to wreck havoc on all the merchandise?

– And you thought the NFL was the No Fun League. This soccer player got a yellow card after proposing to his girlfriend after scoring a goal. If she said no, then he should have received a red card.

One last gratuitous moment of procrastination

http://i.imgur.com/SFZpckK.gifv

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.

View all posts by Kevin McGuire