Purdy, Lawrence, Jones have memorable NFL playoff debuts – Bally Sports

A trio of NFL playoff quarterback newcomers provided some memorable playoff moments.

Brock Purdy, Trevor Lawrence and Daniel Jones all won in their first career starts in the postseason with performances for the history books. This marked the first time since the 2017 season that three QBs won in their first playoff starts in the same postseason.

Purdy became the first rookie quarterback to account for four touchdowns in a playoff game as he became the first rookie QB to win a playoff start since Russell Wilson in 2012.

Picked 262nd in the draft as “Mr. Irrelevant,” Purdy was the lowest-drafted rookie quarterback to win a playoff start, going 110 spots after T.J. Yates, who won for Houston in 2011.

The only rookie QBs to throw for more yards in a playoff game than Purdy are Wilson, who threw for 385 yards against Atlanta in his second playoff start in 2012, and Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh, who had 335 in his first playoff start against Chicago in 1937.

Lawrence followed up four first-half interceptions with four TD passes to lead the Jaguars to the third-biggest comeback in playoff history when they rallied from 27-0 down to beat the Chargers 31-30 on Saturday night.

The only bigger playoff comebacks came when Buffalo rallied from 35-3 down to beat Houston 41-38 in overtime on Jan. 3, 1993, and when Indianapolis came back from a 38-10 deficit to beat Kansas City 45-44 on Jan. 4, 2014.

The comeback was the third by the Jaguars from at least 16 points down in their last 10 games, after doing it once in the first 455 games as a franchise. Jacksonville had been 1-125 when trailing by at least 16 points before this recent run that started with a 27-20 win over Las Vegas in Week 9 after getting down 17-0.

Lawrence joined Ben Roethlisberger (2020 season against Cleveland) as the only QBs with at least four TD passes and four interceptions in the same game.

Jones took until his fourth season to make it to the postseason but made the wait worthwhile when he threw for 301 yards and rushed for 78 yards in a 31-24 win over Minnesota.

Jones joined Steve Young and Lamar Jackson as the only QBs to throw for at least 300 yards and rush for at least 70 yards in a playoff game. But Jones is the first to do it in a win and the first to do it with at least two TD passes.

The wins by the Cowboys and Giants, gave the NFC East three teams in the divisional round with first-place Philadelphia having gotten a bye.