Bleacher Report's Post-Divisional Round Weekend Awards

The NFL's "Final Four" for the 2014 season is set.

On Saturday, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks advanced to their respective conference championship games. They were joined on Sunday by the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts.

It was a weekend of football action that had something for everyone. Thrilling comebacks. Trick plays. Controversial calls. And a healthy dose of sour grapes.

With that in mind, and with only two more games remaining before Super Bowl XLIX, here's a look back at the best and worst of the divisional round from the 2015 playoffs.

Team of the Week

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

Winner: Seattle Seahawks

As hard as it may be to believe, it's been a decade since we saw a defending Super Bowl champion win a playoff game. Ten years of one-and-dones or the champs missing the postseason altogether.

Well, that streak is over, courtesy of the Seattle Seahawks.

The Carolina Panthers hung with the Seahawks for three quarters of Saturday night's game, but the Seahawks reeled off 17 unanswered points over the first 10 minutes of the final quarter to blow the game wide-open.

The Panthers were able to score a garbage-time touchdown to salvage a semi-respectable 31-17 final score, and they actually outgained the Seahawks. But make no mistake, the Seahawks were dominant on both sides of the ball in the second half.

As ESPN Stats and Information pointed out, quarterback Russell Wilson was essentially flawless for the Seahawks in the game:

"

Seattle will get to host next week's NFC Championship Game, and since drafting Russell Wilson in 2012, the Seahawks are 25-2 at home (including the postseason). Wilson improved to 5-1 in his postseason career as a starting quarterback with his first career three-touchdown playoff game. During the entire 2013 postseason, Wilson totaled three touchdown passes (over three games).

Wilson especially shined on third down, which wasn’t his strongest area during the regular season.

On Saturday night, Wilson completed all eight of his third-down pass attempts for 199 yards and three touchdowns. During the regular season, Wilson had a pair of touchdowns and four interceptions on 128 pass attempts. His 48.8 Total QBR on third down during the regular season ranked 22nd of 33 qualifying quarterbacks.

"

Now the only thing standing between Wilson and the Seahawks advancing to Super Bowl XLIX is the Green Bay Packers. Seattle thumped the Packers by 20 in Seattle way back in Week 1. 

Honorable Mention: The New England Patriots have had their share of troubles with the Baltimore Ravens in the postseason of late, and for much of Saturday's game, it appeared that history was going to repeat itself. Twice in the game the Patriots trailed by 14 points.

Well, it took every play in the playbook and a couple that may have been made up on the fly, but the Patriots became the first team in NFL playoff history to erase two 14-point deficits, with a late Tom Brady touchdown pass propelling New England to a 35-31 win and their fourth straight AFC Championship Game.

As head coach Bill Belichick told ESPN, "It was a wild game, but I'm just thankful our players hung in there and made the plays they needed to make."

That may well be the most emotion Belichick has shown, well, ever.

Coach of the Week

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Winner: Bill Belichick, HC, New England Patriots

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has his detractors. To them, Belichick is evil incarnate, a black-hearted cheater who will do anything to win, rules be damned.

In fact, just a few days ago, Hall of Fame coach Don Shula referred to Belichick as "Belicheat" while speaking with Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Those detractors got some additional ammo in that regard Saturday, but we'll get to that in a bit.

However, whether you love him or hate him, there's one thing that cannot be denied about "Darth Hoodie."

The man wins football games.

Saturday's victory over the Baltimore Ravens gave Belichick his 20th postseason victory, tying the 62-year-old with legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry for the most in NFL history.

The game forced Belichick to dig deep in his bag of tricks. There was a touchdown pass by wide receiver Julian Edelman and a number of plays where the Pats confused the Ravens by using only four offensive linemen.

It's the latter that brought about claims that Belicheat was at it again, although the coach brushed aside those criticisms while talking with Lee Schechter of ESPN:

"

It's a play that we thought would work. We ran it three times, a couple different looks. We had six eligible receivers on the field, but only five were eligible. The one who was ineligible reported that he was ineligible. No different than on the punt team or a situation like that.

"

Haters are going to hate, but like it or not, Belichick and Landry now have two things in common: postseason wins and fashion sense.

OK, on second thought, maybe it's just the one thing.

Honorable Mention: It's become pretty clear that the players for the Indianapolis Colts like playing for Chuck Pagano. Cornerback Darius Butler told Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star as much before Sunday's big game in Denver:

"

If you've been around the game long enough, you know it's not always the most talented teams that win it all. It's such a team sport that you have to buy into something. You have to be all in for it to work. If you go out there with your own agenda, it's not really going to work. You have to have each other's backs out there. We do.

"

Well, on Sunday, Butler and the Colts got the chance to show Pagano how much they value him.

Credit a fantastic game plan from Pagano and his staff. Credit the Colts defense for successfully implementing that plan. Credit the team's mascot if you want.

The proof is in the proverbial pudding, as in the pudding the Colts beat out of Peyton Manning and the high-powered Denver Broncos offense en route to a 24-13 win.

Goat of the Week

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

"Winner:" John Harbaugh, HC, Baltimore Ravens

The Harbaugh brothers share many things in common. Both are fiery coaches who are beloved by their players. Both have coached in the Super Bowl.

And both have a disconcerting tendency to get a bit whiny when things don't go their way.

As Chris Wesseling of NFL.com reported, for John Harbaugh, it was the Patriots' trickeration with their offensive front in the second half of Saturday's game:

"

It's not something that anybody has ever done before. The league will look at that type of thing, and I'm sure they'll make some adjustments and things like that.

We wanted an opportunity to be able to identify who the eligible players were, because what they were doing was they would announce the eligible player and Tom (Brady) would take it to the line right away and snap the ball before (we) even figured out who was lined up where. And that was the deception part of it. It was clearly deception.

The officials told me after that they would give us the opportunity to do that, which they probably should have done during that series but they really didn't understand what was happening. I had to go take the penalty to get their attention so they can understand what was going on.

"

The penalty Harbaugh received for walking onto the field eventually led to a Patriots touchdown, but it had to be done to expose Belichick's illegal chicanery, right?

Well, sure—except that it wasn't illegal even a little bit, at least according to ESPN's Kevin Seifert:

"

The Patriots' scheme was legal, even if it pushed the envelope on the NFL's attempt to legislate substitution deception out of the game. Vinovich followed protocol, which gives him discretion on how much time to allow a defense to react to substitutions. Ravens coach John Harbaugh erred by not calling a timeout to give his defensive players their assignments. Finally, it's likely that the NFL's competition committee will at least review the Patriots' formation this offseason to ensure it complied with the NFL's sportsmanship code.

The Patriots' reputation as NFL rule-pushers, punctuated by their 2007 discipline for videotaping opponents illegally, surely has played a role in Sunday's swelling emotions. In the end, however, there isn't much to dispute here. Their scheme was legal and sound. Vinovich handled it as well as could have been expected. A creative innovation caught the Ravens by surprise, and they didn't adjust in time. So it goes.

"

In other words, Harbaugh got caught with his pants down, and rather than call timeout, he instead decided to throw a temper tantrum that cost his team 15 yards.

As Patriots quarterback Tom Brady told ESPN's Lee Schechter, "Maybe those guys gotta study the rulebook and figure it out."

(Dis)Honorable Mention: If you turn on a sports talk show on television or radio over the next several days, you won't have to wait long to here this topic discussed.

Peyton Manning: Postseason choke artist.

I wasn't going to pile on. To say that Manning "choked" is to deny that the Colts defense played a fantastic game. 

However, a look at the stat line Manning posted (26-of-46, 211 yards, one touchdown, one fumble lost) in Sunday's loss—which dropped Manning's all-time playoff record to 11-13—tells a sobering story. The story of a 38-year-old passer who spent much of his last game of the 2014 season looking every bit his age.

Was this his last playoff game, period? 

Play of the Week

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Winner: Julian Edelman's touchdown...pass

As I mentioned earlier in this article, the New England Patriots used every page in the playbook to down the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday.

As ESPN reported, that meant dialing up a pass play for wide receiver Julian Edelman, who played quarterback in college:

"

With the ball at the New England 49, Brady threw behind the line of scrimmage to Edelman on the left side. The Kent State quarterback then lofted a deep pass to a wide-open Amendola after cornerback Rashaan Melvin came up toward Edelman.

'We've had it in for 10 weeks, and the coaches finally got to call it,' Edelman said. 'I had to loosen up the arm a little bit.'

"

The play, which knotted the score at 28, drew raves from tight end Rob Gronkowski, according to Kevin Duffy of Mass Live:

"

Edelman's pass was amazing. It was right on the money. Couldn't ask for a better pass and a better route from Danny. You never know who's going to get their number called and everyone stepped up today and did a great job. It was awesome.

"

For his part, Edelman was a bit more self-depreciating, telling Duffy, "I’m not gonna lie, I thought I overthrew him."

Nope. He put it right where he needed to.

Honorable Mention: In each of the past three seasons, the Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers have met in Charlotte during the regular season. All three were close, hotly contested affairs.

For three quarters of Saturday night's playoff game in Seattle, it looked like the game would follow that script. Even once the Seahawks went up 24-10, the Panthers embarked on a drive that appeared set to get them back in the game.

That is, until Seattle safety Kam Chancellor sealed the deal by returning a Cam Newton interception a franchise-record 90 yards for a touchdown.

The play caused fans at CenturyLink Field to erupt to the point that the stadium once again registered on the Richter scale, but teammate Richard Sherman told Kevin Patra of NFL.com he wasn't surprised in the least:

"

Kam doesn't get the respect he deserves. Any time you say another strong safety is playing better than him, then you're not watching tape. Who else is playing better? Show me the tape. Show me the playoff tape. Show me in a big game that somebody else played at a higher level, and I'd appreciate it.

"

Think Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers are looking forward to facing Chancellor and that defense again in Seattle?

Yeah, me neither.

Drive of the Week

Elsa/Getty Images

Winner: New England Patriots' game-winner

This one's a fairly easy call, especially since only one game over the weekend was decided by a game-winning, fourth-quarter drive.

Don't look at me, Dallas fans. I didn't reverse that call.

Of course, that drive brought a little controversy with it as well.

On the third play of a drive that began with just over 10 minutes left in the game, New England Patriots running back Shane Vereen appeared to fumble. That gave the ball to the Baltimore Ravens in Patriots territory up three points.

I say "appeared to fumble" because replays showed Vereen's knee was clearly down before the ball came out. The Patriots challenged the ruling, and the call was reversed.

Yes, Virginia, the officials occasionally get it right.

Seven plays later, Tom Brady found Brandon LaFell from 23 yards out to put the Patriots up 35-31.

LaFell gave his quarterback all the credit for the play while speaking with Phil Derry of Comcast SportsNet New England.

"[The window] was real tight," LaFell said. "The guy was grabbing my arm. It was just a perfect throw. All I had to do was stick my arm out."

Brady returned the favor:

"

Jojo got a great release, so it made it easy on me. He made a great catch. They guy looked like he had his right arm kind of arm-barred, and he caught it with his left and was able to get his right hand on it, so it was a great play. We needed it.

"

We'll just give credit for the drive to the whole team.

Honorable Mention: It isn't that often that a drive that results in a field goal will turn many heads. However, this is the postseason, where every possession is amplified.

When the Indianapolis Colts took possession at their own 34-yard line with 12 minutes and change left Sunday against the Denver Broncos, they were nursing an eight-point lead.

It wasn't especially pretty, but the Colts pounded their way down the field, setting up an Adam Vinatieri field goal that would wind up being the last score of the game.

Not only did Vinatieri's 30-yarder put the Colts up two scores, but the team chewed over half the fourth quarter off the clock in the process, putting the Broncos in desperation mode the rest of the way.

Best Decision

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

Winner: Indianapolis Colts' defensive game plan

As I wrote earlier in this article, the easy takeaway from Sunday afternoon's upset in Denver was that Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning once again went splat in the postseason.

That may well be, but Manning had a lot of help in that regard. And it wasn't from Nationwide.

No, a masterful game plan from Indianapolis head coach Chuck Pagano, one that the Colts implemented with near-flawless perfection, was a big part of Manning's "failure" in the divisional round.

Of course, it didn't look like that would be the case at first. Denver drove the field with ease on its first possession, with Manning finding Demaryius Thomas from a yard out to give the Broncos a 7-0 lead.

It was both the Broncos' only lead and only touchdown of the game.

ESPN's Mike Wells gave his game ball to the entire defense:

"

The entire Indianapolis defense gets this ball. They shut down Manning and Denver’s offense the entire game outside of a touchdown on the opening drive. They gave up only 288 yards of total offense to the Broncos.

"

With that said, though, it would be remiss to not extend those accolades to the coaching staff.

And I never remiss.

Honorable Mention: We've already been over Bill Belichick's clinic on coaching a playoff game. The wonky formations. The trick plays.

As Belichick told Mike Reiss of ESPN, it was all about upping your game as the stakes increase:

"

I’ve been doing this a long, long time. There’s nothing like a playoff game. There’s nothing like a playoff win. The regular season is great, but when you play these games it’s single-elimination and the urgency and what’s at stake for you and your team and what you’ve worked five-plus months for to get to this point all comes down to one game or in some cases, one play or one series or whatever it is. That just heightens everything. After this weekend we’ll be one of four teams still playing. It will be an honor to be in the AFC Championship Game this year.

"

I swear, between that and Belichick's comments from earlier in this piece, I think he may be hopped up on something.

Next thing you know he'll hug someone. Or smile.

And that's terrifying.

Worst Decision

Elsa/Getty Images

"Winner:" Joe Flacco's game-sealing interception

In recent years, Joe Flacco has been about as good in the playoffs as a quarterback can get. Over his last five postseason starts entering Saturday's showdown in New England, Flacco had 13 touchdown passes against zero interceptions.

That streak is dead now.

However, despite the fact that Flacco's fourth-quarter, game-sealing interception effectively ended the Ravens' season, James Walker of ESPN isn't going to criticize the decision:

"

Flacco surprisingly took a deep shot when it was second-and-5. He went to the end zone when there was 1:46 remaining in the game. It wasn't the safe decision, but let's be careful about criticizing it.

You can't wring your hands over his decision to heave that fourth-quarter pass. That same attack-style mentality is a major reason why Flacco has become one of the best postseason quarterbacks.

This wasn't Flacco simply chucking up the ball for grabs. Flacco was trying to capitalize on a favorable matchup. He noticed cornerback Logan Ryan, who was on the field because Brandon Browner had injured his knee, had lined up across from his favorite deep threat.

Flacco added to his growing postseason reputation even in a loss. He became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw multiple touchdowns in eight straight postseason games. His 24 playoff touchdowns are the most ever by a quarterback in his first seven seasons in the league. And his streak of 198 passes without an interception (which ended Saturday) ranks as the second-longest in league postseason history.

"

For his part, Flacco simply told Walker, "I took my shot and it just didn’t work out. Didn’t get it there."

It wasn't a horrible throw, or a monumental gaffe on Flacco's part. It was a gaffe, though—and one that came at the worst conceivable time for the Ravens.

Dis(Honorable) Mention: Sunday's reversal in Green Bay wasn't the only challenge that left fans throwing things at the TV.

In the third quarter of Sunday evening's game between the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts, the Broncos appeared to receive a desperately-needed break when Josh Cribbs fumbled a punt return after a big hit.

At least, it certainly looked like a fumble—until an automatic review overturned the call on the field, ruling that Cribbs was down by contact.

That call, combined with the Dez Bryant ruling earlier in the day, led Bleacher Report's Ryan McCrystal to tweet, "The NFL has some serious issues to address with rules and officiating because these calls are taking away from our enjoyment of the game."

And that's after they reviewed the calls to "get them right."

The Bryant call, where the initial ruling of a catch was overturned after Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy challenged, was actually the correct call. It's just a terrible, awful, horrific rule.

With that said, it certainly looked like Cribbs fumbled, and while there are any number of reasons the Broncos lost, blown calls don't help matters any.

For those keeping track, that's at least three pivotal calls in the 2015 playoffs that many will say the officials botched, calls that played big roles in the Detroit Lions, Cowboys and Broncos heading home.

Offensive Player of the Week

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

Winner: Danny Amendola, WR, New England Patriots

Since arriving in New England prior to the 2013 season, wide receiver Danny Amendola has done very little to make the Patriots forget about Wes Welker.

In fact, the sixth-year veteran was something of a forgotten man in 2014, managing only 27 catches for 200 yards and a single touchdown.

Well, Amendola doubled up those scores in Saturday's win over the Ravens, putting forth what Michael Whitmer of The Boston Globe called Amendola's best single-game effort with the Pats:

"

Amendola was responsible for three of the biggest plays the Patriots made in an instant classic that featured momentum swings, comebacks, trick plays, and turnovers. It’s hard to imagine Amendola having a bigger game in the 31 (playoffs included) he’s now played with the Patriots.

'I love playing for this team,' Amendola said. 'We’ve got a great bunch of guys here. We’re a very tight-knit group here in the locker room, and we’ve got a great coaching staff, we play hard for them.'

Amendola finished with five catches for 81 yards, and averaged 25 yards on five kickoff returns. On the whole, those numbers won’t be remembered. What will be remembered were the three clutch catches by Amendola that helped the Patriots advance to the AFC Championship game for the fourth consecutive season.

"

It's hard to argue with Whitmer, and while there may have been players who put up bigger stats in the divisional round, there wasn't one on offense who made a bigger impact.

Honorable Mention: Of course, having Tom Brady as your quarterback has been known to make a receiver's life easier.

With the Patriots gaining all of 14 yards on the ground (the fewest ever in a playoff victory) and not handing the ball off once in the second half, it fell to "The Golden Boy" to carry the Patriots offense.

Carry it he did, to the tune of 367 yards through the air and three touchdown passes.

Those three scores gave Brady 46 career touchdown passes in the postseason and his 19th career playoff victory. Both are NFL records.

Defensive Player of the Week

John Froschauer/Associated Press

Winner: Kam Chancellor, SS, Seattle Seahawks

Yeah, when you cause an earthquake, odds are you're getting some run in this column.

However, Kam Chancellor's 90-yard pick-six was hardly the only play he made Saturday night. As Bleacher Report NFC West Lead Writer Sean Tomlinson wrote, there was his incredible display of athleticism on a pair of field-goal attempts:

"

Yes, that’s a 232-pound safety hurdling an entire offensive line filled with other hulking bodies during a field-goal attempt. He did it once and somehow narrowly missed blocking a Graham Gano kick at the end of the first half.

When that play was nullified due to a false start and Gano was moved back five yards, Chancellor unloaded from his starting blocks again. Once more he launched over a mass of large men, all of whom serve one purpose: to block him. But blocking an airborne safety is not an easy task.

The second time Chancellor treated NFL offensive linemen like Olympic hurdles ended in a kick that was nearly blocked (again), though it was still successfully disrupted when Gano sailed it wide left and well short.

The field-goal sequence to end the first half was the coolest thing in the NFL this season that will be reflected in box scores as pure nothingness and two penalties (Chancellor was flagged for running into the kicker on the second try).

"

Then there was the play before that, when Chancellor trucked Carolina fullback Mike Tolbert to prevent a first down, a play that caused New Orleans Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro to tweet, "Everyone juiced about that FG block, but no one understands the explosion it takes to drop a 270 pound back in the open field."

So he was great against the run, strong against the pass and a special teams maniac.

Other than that, though, he really didn't have that good a game.

Honorable Mention: The easy takeaway from the Indianapolis Colts' upset of the Denver Broncos is that quarterback Peyton Manning "choked" again in the postseason.

However, the fact is that the Indianapolis secondary, led by cornerbacks Vontae Davis and Greg Toler, played an incredible game. Throughout Sunday's contest, the Indy secondary refused to allow Manning and the Broncos to pick up yardage in chunks. Everything was underneath.

We'll give Davis, the best of those defensive backs, the honorable mention nod here, but in all honesty the entire group deserves the award.

Player of the Week

Matt Ludtke/Associated Press

Winner: Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers

Yes, it's a quarterback for the second straight week. It's the playoffs, and as you can tell by looking at the four remaining teams, in the postseason you make it as far as your quarterback will take you.

Granted, for the first half of Sunday's win over the Dallas Cowboys, Aaron Rodgers looked very little like, well, Aaron Rodgers. The 31-year-old was clearly hobbled by his injured calf, and the Packers trailed Dallas 14-10 at the break.

Turns out Rodgers was just lulling the Cowboys into a false sense of security.

Rodgers threw a pair of second-half touchdowns, including a laser to tight end Richard Rodgers (no relation) that gave Green Bay the lead, and by game's end, the quarterback's 316 passing yards and three scores looked like another day at Relaxcorp.

That makes 28 touchdowns and zero interceptions at home this year, if you're counting.

Of course, Rodgers and the Packers won't be at home next Sunday in the NFC Championship Game, but Rodgers told Rob Demovsky of ESPN that, bad wheel or no, he'll be on the field against the Seattle Seahawks:

"

I think I've got 120 minutes left in me. So I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I can play all those minutes.

I've got to give a lot of credit to our training staff. They spent a lot of hours with me this week. They did a great job of getting me ready. My acupuncturist as well. She really helps. I'd like to say thanks to all of the fans and medical people out there who sent in ideas over the hotline. There was some really interesting ones. Kind of wish at some point we could release some of the emails and messages we got, but I know they're all in good faith there, so I appreciate the ideas. But, ultimately, it came down to our training staff, and they helped me get through this one.

"

Maybe the Packers should hire this guy.

Honorable Mention: Granted, his stat line (27-of-43, 265 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions) isn't going to cause any double-takes. Neither is his 76.2 passer rating.

However, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck made the plays he needed to make in winning the biggest game of his career Sunday in Denver. As Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports reported, Sunday's game served as a reminder of just how blessed the Colts have been under center over the last 15 years:

"

Some franchises go decades looking for QB stability, but the Colts went from Manning to Luck, one Hall of Famer to someone who looks like he's headed in that direction. Luck did whatever he wanted against the Broncos. He was great in the pocket, and the Colts' offensive line did a good job erasing Denver’s pass rush. It was a fantastic performance by Luck and Indianapolis’ offense. He spread the ball around to multiple receivers, figured out early that the Broncos were making a mistake shadowing T.Y. Hilton with Aqib Talib and exploited that matchup, and was in absolute control of the game.

"

Now all he has to do is beat Tom Brady.