Wild Card Weekend Round-up: Great Weekend For Boilers

The NFL Playoffs began with six of the 12 teams involved carrying a former Boilermaker on their roster. Three of those teams played in the opening weekend and all three teams won. Now that we're down to just eight teams remaining only two, Denver and Baltimore, lack a Purdue player. The chances are pretty good that at least one former Purdue player will get a Super Bowl ring this year, while Mike Neal and Cliff Avril are aiming for their second.

Here is how the Purdue guys did this weekend:

Kawann Short - Carolina Panthers - Short only had one tackle, but it was for a six yard sack as Carolina turned in one of the best defensive performances in playoff history. Okay, so that performance was mostly because Arizona was playing with a third string QB they normally wouldn't start in a preseason game, let alone a playoff game. Arizona had only eight first downs and 78 total yards. Their touchdown drivers were only 30 yards and 17 yards due to turnovers. Arizona couldn't run and they could not pass. At all.

Shaun Phillips - Indianapolis Colts - Phillips was a late season addition to the Colts, so he has not played a ton. The official game book says that he played, but did not notch any statistics as the Colts won 26-10. While the Bengals won the preseason games between the two 35-7, when the games actually mattered Indy outscored the Bengals 53-10.

Anthony Spencer - Dallas Cowboys - Spencer finished with three tackles, but one was a late sack of Matthew Stafford where he forced a fumble that was recovered by the Cowboys, who immediately fumbled it right back to Detroit. It did not matter in the end, as Detroit later fumbled on the same drive to seal the game that was handed to them by the officials after they called a penalty, announced it, then decided, "nah, let's wave it off."

Players on bye:

Mike Neal and Bruce Gaston - Green Bay Packers

Rob Ninkovich and Greg Orton (injured reserve) - New England Patriots

Cliff Avril - Seattle Seahawks