Winners and losers from Wild Card Weekend in the 2019 NFL playoffs

Andrew Luck got the postseason started with a masterful performance against the Texans.

The NFL playoffs kicked off with Wild Card Weekend Saturday, beginning with the Colts stomping the Texans from start to finish, 21-7.

Indianapolis jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first half and — even if they didn’t score at all in the second half — that was enough of a lead that Houston was buried early and couldn’t come back.

Up next is an NFC matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys. The first round of the postseason will wrap up Sunday with a game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens, followed by a duel between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears.

We’ll be keeping track of all the winners and losers from the first weekend of the playoffs right here:

Winner: Colts quarterback Andrew Luck

One of Luck’s passes was tipped and bounced into the arms of Texans defensive tackle D.J. Reader. Other than that, it’s hard to find many negative things to say about Luck’s start to the playoffs.

Luck completed 19 of his 32 passes for 222 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He also added 32 rushing yards.

Luck entered Saturday with just a 70.8 passer rating in six previous postseason starts. His good day against the Texans will help raise that mark a bit.

Loser: Texans’ third down defense

Houston wasn’t particularly good on any down Saturday, but third down was especially bad. The Colts converted their first seven third downs of the day — including every single one in the first half.

Analytics said the Texans’ struggles on third down were something we all should’ve seen coming:

The Colts finished the day with nine third down conversions. The Texans couldn’t force punts and get off the field, and that buried them early against the Colts.

Loser: Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson

There was a lot of reason to be excited for Watson’s playoff debut. After all, this was the quarterback who pulled off a come-from-behind win in a national championship against Alabama.

Watson didn’t have that magic Saturday, though.

He finished 29 of 49 passing with 235 yards one touchdown and an egregious interception in the first quarter:

Watson missed DeAndre Hopkins in the end zone on a fourth down just before halftime, and overthrew Ryan Griffin in the third quarter on what could’ve been a huge play, if not a touchdown. Watson was also lucky to avoid his second interception when he hit Colts cornerback Pierre Desir in the chest.

He finally got a touchdown in the fourth quarter when he hit Keke Coutee in the flat, but it was too little, too late. His last chance at keeping the comeback alive ended when the Texans turned the ball over on downs with just over four minutes left.

Watson had a great year and he has a bright future, but his postseason career got off to a surprisingly poor start.

Winner: Colts wide receiver T.Y. Hilton

It wasn’t quite Hilton’s usual domination of the Texans, but he did enough to back up his “second home” comments about NRG Stadium. He said that to reporters in December after a 199-yard day in Houston and it peeved Texans cornerback Jonathan Joseph who said “that’s for clowns.”

Well Hilton started his day with 63 yards on the Colts’ first possession of the game — just a couple hours after showing up to the stadium in a clown mask:

Hilton finished with 85 yards on five receptions — below his usual average in Houston — but that’s a good enough day to count as tally in the win column for the receiver.

Winner: Scott Linehan, Cowboys OC

If the Cowboys offensive coordinator really was in danger of losing his job, he’s not anymore. Linehan called a good game for Dallas, especially in the second half. It was a nice even balance of running and passing, all of it centered around Ezekiel Elliott.

It helps to have the Cowboys defense backing you up too.

Winner: Ezekiel Elliott

Jason Garrett made all his people play last in a meaningless Week 17 game against the Giants. Except for Elliott. The rest did him good. He gouged the Seahawks for 137 rushing yards on 26 carries and scored a touchdown.

Loser: Brian Schottenheimer, Seahawks OC

He spent most of the first 58 minutes of the game doing whatever he could to keep Russell Wilson from throwing the ball. Which is as dumb as it sounds. When they finally got creative, it worked. Two option plays by Wilson on the same drive converted a third down (something Seattle didn’t do very well on the night) and scored a touchdown. There’s outside the bun thinking, and there’s Schottenheimer’s offense.

Loser: The narrative

Jason Garrett didn’t screw it up. The Cowboys didn’t choke. Dallas is legitimately going to be a tough team to beat ... until they’re inexplicably not.