Comprehensive Report Card Grades for Every NFL Offense on Wild Card Weekend

Offense ruled the NFL regular season, and during the Wild Card Round we saw even more offensive explosion. 

Let's hand out grades to all eight offenses that played over the weekend.  

Cincinnati Bengals 

The Bengals were relatively successful moving the football in the first half against the Houston Texans, but were stymied for most of the second stanza. 

Andy Dalton's three interceptions ultimately doomed Cincinnati, but their inability to establish the run certainly didn't help the rookie signal-caller.

As a team, they ran for 76 yards on 19 carries, and Cedric Benson accounted for only 14 of those yards.

A.J. Green was held in check by Johnathan Joseph and led the team with five catches for 47 yards. 

Great experience for a young club, but a game everyone on the Bengals offense would like to forget, immediately. 

Grade: D

Houston Texans 

To alleviate an immense amount of pressure from T.J. Yates, the Texans implemented the perfect game plan. 

They played to their strength, which is running the football with Arian Foster and Ben Tate, and it most certainly paid off. 

Foster ran for 153 yards on 24 carries and scored two touchdowns, including a 42-yard TD scamper that put the game away in the fourth quarter. 

Yates wasn't asked to do much, but intelligently stayed away from the big mistake. He nearly threw a pick-six that could have swung momentum back to the Bengals, but the next play he delivered a perfectly-thrown ball to Andre Johnson for a 40-yard score. 

Great balance in this one for the Texans. 

Grade: A- 

Pittsburgh Steelers 

What was wrong with the Steelers against the Broncos? Their offense clearly wasn't clicking like it did for the majority of the regular season. Ben Roethlisberger made a handful of improvisational plays, but his speedy receivers were blanketed down field for the majority of the game. 

The loss of Rashard Mendenhall didn't seem to be a major factor, as Isaac Redman accumulated 121 yards on the ground on a mere 17 carries. 

After a scorching start to the season, burner Mike Wallace cooled off to end the year and hauled in only three catches for 26 yards against Denver's secondary. 

The Broncos pass-rush was the difference.

Grade: C+

Denver Broncos 

Whether you like him or not, think he's going to be a great NFL quarterback or believe he's not a viable starter, you must admit that Tim Tebow was tremendous against the Pittsburgh Steelers' stingy defense. 

He completed only 10 passes, but made three connections down the field that ultimately were the difference in this stunning upset. 

Demaryius Thomas torched solid corner Ike Taylor all afternoon, and the Broncos did manage 139 yards on the ground—although they came on 34 carries.

Eric Decker was injured early, but it didn't matter. 

Grade: A- 

Detroit Lions 

The Lions offense was certainly not the reason they lost to the New Orleans Saints on Saturday.

Matthew Stafford (380 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions) countered Drew Brees (466 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions) for the first three quarters, and Calvin Johnson proved that he is not only the best receiver in the game, but is the best by a wide margin. 

The difference between these two clubs was the running game. The Saints ran for 167 yards on the ground, while the Lions mustered only 32 ground yards. 

Grade: B+

New Orleans Saints 

Has New Orleans set the record for the most records broken in one season yet? If not, they've got to be close. 

Their offense was as efficiently electric as I've ever seen it. Total mastery by Brees, his receivers, the running backs and Sean Payton as a play-caller. 

I mean, 626 yards? 

The Superdome truly is the highlight factory. 

Grade: A++++

Atlanta Falcons 

The Falcons were surprisingly flat and out-of-sync against the Giants all afternoon in MetLife Stadium. Matt Ryan was frequently flustered by New York's terrorizing pass-rush, and Michael Turner carried the ball 15 times for 41 yards. 

Julio Jones led the team with seven catches for 64 yards. 

Roddy White only caught five of his 12 targets, and Atlanta failed to make any big plays down the field. 

Grade: D-

New York Giants

While their defense totally dominated, the offense wasn't bad either. 

With the Falcons' game plan focused around limiting Victor Cruz, Eli Manning calmly looked for his other skilled pass-catchers—most namely Hakeem Nicks—and was extremely successful through the air. 

Mario Manningham even got back in the action with four grabs for 68 yards and a touchdown. 

The X-factor for this club is their running back duo. 

Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs ran for a combined 155 yards.

It was a stellar, all-around effort by the G-Men. 

Grade: A

Follow @christrapasso