• Buccaneers torment Jalen Hurts with unblocked pressure: Tampa Bay's 11 plays with unblocked pressure are the most in a playoff game in the PFF era (since 2006).
• Cowboys' Tyler Smith stays clean on a playoff-record 74 pass-blocking snaps: While he did get beaten on two reps in pass protection, he didn't let up any pressure on quarterback Dak Prescott.
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Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Records are meant to be broken — or at least threatened. With the vast amount of data PFF collects, players set records every week of the NFL season.
Here are five records in the PFF database — which dates back to 2006 — that either went down or came close to it during the wild-card round.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Unblocked Pressure
The Buccaneers’ 11 plays with unblocked pressure against the Eagles are the most in a playoff game in the PFF era.
Tampa Bay hounded Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, blitzing on 27 of his 39 dropbacks. That helped the defense rack up 11 plays with unblocked pressure — two more than the second-place 2019 Bills managed in a wild-card loss. Linebackers Devin White and Lavonte David each notched two unblocked pressures.
DI Calijah Kancey, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Rookie QB Pressures
Kancey’s six quarterback pressures against the Eagles are the most for a rookie interior defender in a playoff game in the PFF era.
Before Kancey's record-breaking effort, the Texans' J.J. Watt (2011) was the only rookie interior defender to generate five quarterback pressures in a playoff game in the PFF era. Kancey finished the wild-card round with five hurries and a sack.
G Tyler Smith, Dallas Cowboys: Clean Pass-Blocking Snaps
Smith’s 74 pass-blocking snaps without allowing any quarterback pressure against the Packers are the most in a playoff game in the PFF era.
The Cowboys stuffed the stat sheet in garbage time against the Packers after falling behind 48-16, but Smith allowing no pressure across such a hefty workload is still a feat. The second-team AP All-Pro now owns the PFF playoff record, previously 65 clean pass-blocking snaps from the Saints’ Jahri Evans and Carl Nicks in 2010.
CB Derek Stingley, Houston Texans: Yards Allowed Per Coverage Snap
Stingley’s -0.13 yards allowed per coverage snap figure against the Browns is tied for second among cornerbacks in a playoff game in the PFF era.
Stingley saw only three targets across 45 coverage snaps, and the lone catch resulted in a six-yard loss. That comes out to -0.13 yards allowed per coverage snap — ranking behind only the Cowboys’ Anthony Brown in 2018 among cornerbacks with at least 25 coverage snaps in a playoff game.
TE Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys: Contested Catches
Ferguson’s five contested catches against the Packers are the most of any receiver in a playoff game in the PFF era.
A contested catch is a contested catch, regardless of the game state. Four of Ferguson’s five such receptions came in garbage time, but he hauled them in all the same to stand alone in the PFF playoff record book. Ferguson parlayed that into an 81.8 game grade, the third-highest mark among tight ends during Super Wild Card Weekend.
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