The NFL has never experienced a playoff weekend quite like this.
The first four games of the 2025 postseason featured a combined 12 lead changes in the fourth quarter, topping the record for the most in an entire playoffs.
The previous high for an entire postseason, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, was 10 in the 2007 playoffs, including three in the Super Bowl when the New York Giants ended New England’s bid for a perfect season. The four winning touchdowns scored in the final three minutes of regulation also set a record for an entire postseason.
The weekend started with a back-and-forth game between Carolina and the Los Angeles Rams that wasn’t decided until Matthew Stafford’s 19-yard TD pass to Colby Parkinson provided the record-tying fourth lead change of the fourth quarter.
Before this season, there had been only four playoff games featuring four fourth-quarter lead changes, with the most recent coming in New England’s overtime win over Kansas City in the 2018 AFC title game.
The wait for another lasted just one day as Buffalo and Jacksonville traded leads in their game before the Bills prevailed 27-24 on Josh Allen’s 1-yard run with 1:04 left for the fourth lead change in the final quarter.
The next game that day featured three more, with San Francisco topping Philadelphia 23-19 in a win capped by Brock Purdy’s 4-yard TD pass to Christian McCaffrey with 2:54 left.
The other fourth-quarter lead change came Saturday night when Chicago became the fourth team in NFL history to win a playoff game after trailing by at least 15 points at the start of the fourth quarter. The last time that happened came in Super Bowl 52 when New England rallied from 28-9 down at the end of the third quarter — the game had been 28-3 — to beat Atlanta 34-28 in overtime.
The win was the record seventh this season for the Bears when they trailed in the final two minutes and the third this season in six games that they trailed by double digits in the final five minutes. That matches the total of the other 31 teams combined. The rest of the league was 3-158 in that scenario.
What made the game even more odd was the fact that the Bears never ran a play on offense while leading the game. Chicago scored a field goal on the opening drive but allowed a touchdown by Green Bay.
The Bears didn’t go ahead again until Caleb Williams’ 25-yard pass to D.J. Moore with 1:43 to play. Green Bay then held the ball for the rest of the game, falling short on an incomplete pass on the final play.
This marked just the fifth time in the last 20 seasons that a team won a playoff game without running an offensive play with the lead, with it last happening in Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime win over San Francisco in Super Bowl 58.
Even stranger, the Bears and Packers played three times this season and Chicago ran no plays on offense when leading, compared to 106 for Green Bay. But the Bears won two of those contests, with their only lead in a Week 16 win coming on a game-ending TD pass in overtime from Williams to Moore.
The two late game-winning TD passes from Stafford and Williams on Saturday marked the first time since Dec. 23, 1972, that two playoff games on the same day featured a winning touchdown pass in the final two minutes, according to Sportradar.
The games that day included Terry Bradshaw’s 60-yard pass to Franco Harris known as the “Immaculate Reception” in Pittsburgh’s win over the Raiders and Roger Staubach’s 10-yarder to Ron Sellers for Dallas against San Francisco to cap the first playoff comeback from at least 15 points down to start the fourth quarter.
Points for the defense
The weekend ended with two stellar defensive efforts, with New England beating the Los Angeles Chargers 16-3 and Houston getting two defensive touchdowns in a 30-6 win over Pittsburgh.
The Texans became the eighth team in the Super Bowl era to score two defensive TDs in a playoff game and the second to do it in the last 18 seasons. The other time it happened came in the wild-card round two years ago when Houston did it against Cleveland.
According to the NFL research department, the Texans became the second team to get multiple defensive touchdowns and allow no touchdowns in a playoff game. Chicago did it in a 73-0 win over Washington in the 1940 NFL championship game.
The Patriots will next host the Texans in the first playoff game featuring two teams that didn’t allow a touchdown in the previous round of the playoffs since the 2002 NFC title game. Tampa Bay beat San Francisco 31-6 in the divisional round that season and Philadelphia knocked off Atlanta 20-6.
NFC West teams fill up division round
The wins by the Rams and 49ers give the NFC West three of the four teams in the NFC divisional round along with No. 1 seed Seattle and a chance at having both conference finalists.
This marked just the fourth time in NFL history that three teams from the same division made it to the divisional round in the same season, with it last happening in 2022 when Philadelphia beat the New York Giants in one game and Dallas lost to San Francisco in the other.
It also happened in the NFC Central in 1997 with Green Bay, Minnesota and Tampa making it and in the 1992 NFC East when Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington did it.
If Los Angeles wins at Chicago to advance to the NFC championship game against the Seattle-San Francisco winner, it would be the 21st time that one division had both title game participants and the fourth for the NFC West.
The Rams and 49ers split title games with Los Angeles, winning in the 2021 season and San Francisco in 1989. Seattle beat the 49ers at home in the 2013 season.
Seventh seed struggles
This marked the sixth season since the NFL added a seventh playoff team in each conference, and the results haven’t been good so far.
With the losses by Green Bay and the Chargers, those seventh seeds are now 1-11 in the wild-card round, with the only win coming in the 2023 season when the Packers beat the Cowboys 48-32.
Eight of the other 11 games were won by double-digits by the No. 2 seed, with the average margin of victory in those 11 wins being 12.4 points per game.
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