Zane Gonzalez's 37-yard field goal as time expired gave the Washington Commanders their first playoff victory in 19 years, a thrilling 23-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Gonzalez's third field goal of the night, which bounced off the right upright before landing over the crossbar, allowed Washington to advance in the post-season for the first time since Jan. 7, 2006, when it also defeated the Buccaneers in Tampa during the wild-card round.

The sixth-seeded Commanders will next face the NFC's top playoff seed, the Detroit Lions, on the road next Saturday in the divisional round.

Jayden Daniels capped an impressive post-season debut by orchestrating the game-winning drive, a 10-play, 51-yard march that followed a 32-yard field goal by Tampa Bay's Chase McLaughlin that tied the score at 20-20 with 4:41 remaining.

Daniels threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns without an interception to become the first rookie quarterback to win his first playoff game while on the road since Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks did so during the 2012 season. 

FINAL: @JayD__5 and the @Commanders fight their way to the Divisional Round#WASvsTB pic.twitter.com/sLXpKB1iMM

— NFL (@NFL) January 13, 2025

Baker Mayfield also threw for two touchdowns for Tampa Bay, but had a costly fumble on a botched exchange with wide receiver Jalen McMillan early in the fourth quarter that the Commanders recovered at the Buccaneers' 13-yard line. Four plays later, Daniels found Terry McLaurin on fourth down for a 5-yard touchdown that gave Washington a 20-17 edge with 9:46 to go.

Mayfield, who finished 15 of 18 for 185 yards, had put Tampa Bay up 17-13 late in the third quarter with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Bucky Irving.

The teams went into half-time even at 10-10 following Mayfield's game-tying 1-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans with 10 seconds left in the second quarter. Washington had taken a 7-3 lead earlier in the period on Daniels' 10-yard touchdown strike to Dyami Brown.

Both McLaurin and Brown recorded 89 receiving yards for the Commanders, while Evans led Tampa Bay with seven catches totalling 92 yards.

In NFL history, there have been three instances of a team having 0 turnovers and 0 punts in a game behind a rookie starting QB. All three were by the Commanders and Daniels.

Hurts, defence help Eagles advance with win over Packers

Jalen Hurts threw two touchdown passes in his return from a concussion, and the Philadelphia Eagles got another stout performance on defence to advance to the NFC divisional playoffs with a 22-10 win over the Green Bay Packers.

Hurts put up just 131 passing yards after sitting out the Eagles' final two regular-season games, but did not commit a turnover to outplay counterpart Jordan Love and help NFC East champion Philadelphia extend its season.

The second-seeded Eagles will host a divisional round game next Sunday against the winner of Monday's game between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams. 

Love was intercepted three times as Green Bay failed to duplicate last season's feat as a No. 7 seed, when the Packers upset the second-seeded Dallas Cowboys on the road in the wild-card round.

The Packers also lost an early fumble when Keisean Nixon had the ball dislodged while returning the opening kickoff, with the Eagles recovering at Green Bay's 28-yard line. The turnover set up Hurts' 11-yard touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson for a 7-0 lead just 1:39 into the contest.

Philadelphia tacked on more points by the end of the first quarter on one of Jake Elliott's three field goals and held a 10-0 advantage into half-time.

Green Bay finally got on the board on Brandon McManus' 26-yard field goal with 5:46 left in the third quarter. The Eagles quickly answered, however, with a five-play drive culminating in Dallas Goedert's 24-yard touchdown catch in which the tight end stiff-armed a Packers defender three times before crossing the goal line. The score put Philadelphia up 16-3 after Elliott missed the extra point.

BEEP BEEP DALLAS GOEDERT COMIN' THROUGH@goedert33 | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/IPBaiA61Az

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 12, 2025

The Packers then marched 78 yards in nine plays to get within 16-10 on Josh Jacobs' 1-yard touchdown run four seconds into the fourth quarter, but were stopped on downs on their next possession before Love threw a game-sealing interception with under two minutes left.

NFL rushing champion Saquon Barkley ran for 119 yards on 25 carries for Philadelphia, while Jacobs produced 81 yards on 18 attempts for Green Bay.

Bills pull away from Broncos, set up clash with Ravens

The Denver Broncos opened the scoring in Sunday's AFC wild-card playoff game in Buffalo, but it was all Bills after that.

Josh Allen threw two second-half touchdown passes to lead the second-seeded Bills to a 31-7 win over the overmatched Broncos, which set up a divisional round game next Sunday against the third-seeded Baltimore Ravens and a matchup between this year’s MVP favorites in Allen and fellow quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Allen was his usual excellent self against Denver by making plays with his legs and arm, as he completed 20 of 26 passes for 272 yards while also running for 46 yards.

In a play that broke the game open, Allen scrambled and found a sliding Ty Johnson in the back of the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown strike on fourth-and-one to extend Buffalo's lead to 21-7 with 3:06 remaining in the third quarter.

Allen’s second touchdown was a 55-yarder to Curtis Samuel on the first play of the fourth quarter to give him 23 touchdown passes in the playoffs, surpassing Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the most in franchise history.

Locked in for the Divisional Round.https://t.co/tqdfSEfwOm | #BALvsBUF pic.twitter.com/kr0tGYpFUH

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 13, 2025

James Cook rushed for 120 yards and scored on a five-yard run early in the second quarter to give the Bills their first lead. Denver scored on its opening drive with a 43-yard pass from Bo Nix to Troy Franklin – the first touchdown in NFL playoff history from a rookie quarterback to a rookie receiver.

The Broncos managed just 154 yards of offense after that drive, however, and held the ball for 23 fewer minutes than the Bills in their first playoff appearance since winning the Super Bowl in the 2015 season.