NFL Playoffs 2012: 5 Biggest Fails from the Divisional Round

Week 19 of the NFL season is now in the books and what an eventful one it was. Many of us saw San Francisco upset Drew Brees and New Orleans Saints in a game that came right down to the wire.

We also saw Tebow Time come to an end (for now) in a blowout loss to New England. The Ravens sneaked past the Texans, and the New York Giants took it to the defending champs from Green Bay.

The following slideshow displays the five biggest fails from the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

New Orleans Defense

This is pretty self explanatory. Any time you give up 36 points to San Francisco, you know just about everything went wrong.

This was the 49ers' second-highest point total of the year, next to a Week 5 blowout over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The game also saw Smith set a season high in passing yards (299) and tie a season high of three TD passes.

Now, I know it sounds like I’m completely discrediting the 49ers offense, but I’m not. All I’m saying is that it’s playoff time and the Saints team defense played to the level of teams like the Bucs and the Rams.

Denver Broncos

Very few people thought the Broncos would knock off Tom Brady and the Patriots in New England, but most expected them to at least put up somewhat of a fight.

Denver got man-handled in pretty much every aspect of the game. Ten points against one of the worst defenses in the league...really?

Then 35 points allowed in the first half. I know it’s Brady, but come on. What happened to the “superstar” defense that got them where they were in the first place?

Referees

We have seen just about everything from NFL referees this year: good, bad and ugly. This week was pretty ugly.

Let’s start with the inconsistency on “helmet to helmet” calls. On the first drive of the Saints game, Drew Brees dumps it off to Pierre Thomas, who gets absolutely rocked by Donte Whitner. Thomas is out cold before he hits the ground and everyone’s talking about what a great play it was.

Fast forward to Sunday night: Giants DE Osi Umenyiora sacks Packers QB Aaron Rodgers and gets flagged for a hit to the head. OK, the league is trying to protect the QBs, but a little consistency wouldn’t hurt.

Just this weekend, officials have made very questionable calls leading to four points for San Francisco, 14 points for the Packers, 21 points for the Patriots and a loss of seven points for the Texans as well as the Saints.

Jacoby Jones

The play of WR/PR Jacoby Jones pretty much determined the whole game for the Houston Texans in their 20-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Houston scored on their first drive of the game and then stopped the Ravens on their opening drive. Things looked great early on with Houston up 3-0 and getting the ball back.

That was until Jones tried to field the punt off a bounce—not smart. He fumbled and the Ravens got the ball inside the Houston 5. They went on to score and lead 7-3.

Jones struggled throughout the game with the fumble and a few returns that went for negative yardage.

With Houston only losing by seven, his fumble certainly doesn’t help how he’s going to feel over the course of the offseason.

Green Bay's Miscues

The defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers came into their first playoff matchup as the No. 1 seed in the NFC with a 15-1 record.

The Pack never held a lead in Sunday's game as the whole offense was never really in rhythm.

Green Bay had four turnovers in this game: three fumbles by John Kuhn, Ryan Grant and Aaron Rodgers, along with a Rodgers interception.

It wasn’t just turnovers either. Throughout the game there were several drops, missed passes and miscommunications that forced punts.

For a team that was supposed to repeat, their performance against the Giants was certainly disappointing.