The wild-card round made one thing clear: there is no single blueprint for being clutch. The only part that really matters is winning.
Some wowed with out-of-structure plays or found gaps in the defense for huge gains. Others simply executed the offense at a high level and put their teams in a position to win.
Some did both.
What united all of them was timing. Each delivered on the final offensive drive of the fourth quarter on Super Wild Card Weekend, leaving little room for the opposition to respond or allowing their own defense to deliver the final crushing blow that ended the game.
Four of the six matchups were decided in the final three minutes, guided by quarterbacks who led sensational, go-ahead touchdown drives when their teams needed them most.
A quick recap, for those who may have already forgotten:
Rams 34, Panthers 31: Matthew Stafford led a seven-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Colby Parkinson with 38 seconds left. Bears 31, Packers 27: Caleb Williams led a six-play, 66-yard drive that ended with a 25-yard touchdown pass to receiver DJ Moore with 1:48 remaining. Bills 27, Jaguars 24: Josh Allen led a nine-play, 66-yard drive that ended with his 1-yard rushing touchdown with 1:04 left. 49ers 23, Eagles 19: Brock Purdy led a 10-play, 66-yard drive that ended with a 4-yard touchdown pass to running back Christian McCaffrey with 2:59 remaining.All four engineered their game-winning drives in different ways, but the result was the same – and that, in itself, showcased how varied the definition of “clutch” can be when it comes to quarterback play on the NFL’s biggest stage.
What’s most interesting, though, is how differently these quarterbacks closed out their wins. Let us explain by looking at the different ideas of clutch that occurred in these four matches.
Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills: Accuracy
Many will point to Allen’s legs as what separates him from the rest of the winning quarterbacks from this past weekend. The Bills quarterback rushed five times for 22 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter before a couple of kneel downs.
But Allen’s arm put him in a position to score from the ground. He delivered crisp and accurate passes throughout the game, but was especially sharp in the fourth quarter.
He did so both overall and specifically under pressure (like this crucial 38-yard strike to Brandin Cooks) or on late downs.
ALLEN TO A WIDE OPEN COOKS. 36 YARDS.BUFvsJAX on CBS/Paramount+Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/lt9NbExrlx
— NFL (@NFL) January 11, 2026Allen posted a perfect 100% well-thrown rate in the fourth quarter against the Jaguars and did not throw a single pickable pass on those 11 attempts. He was the only QB with at least five fourth-quarter attempts to accomplish that last weekend.
During the regular season, he led the NFL in passing plays of 25 yards or more and ranked fourth in completion percentage and yards per attempt in the fourth quarter of seven-point games.
Some of this comes from pure talent, but Allen is also playoff-tested. This game was his 14th career postseason appearance, which is the most among the winning quarterbacks from the wild-card round.
Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears: Explosive Plays
Williams has been a polarizing quarterback throughout his young career, and that narrative continued in his first career playoff game.
He had the lowest completion rate and catchable-ball rate (CTBL) among all 12 quarterbacks in the wild-card round at 52.2% and 56.5%, respectively. These numbers didn’t improve in the fourth quarter when he completed just 50% of his passes with a 55.0% CTBL rate.
But, as Williams has done all season long, he excelled on big plays that moved the Bears into scoring position in the fourth quarter. On his game-winning drive, Williams completed passes of 12, 23 and 25 — the last being the touchdown to Moore with 1:48 left in the game.
Including the playoffs, Williams has a league-best 27 pass plays of at least 25 yards in the second half. Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams, Chicago’s next opponent, is second with 24 such plays.
This has been a trend for the Bears this year. Chicago ranks 11th in the NFL with a 9.3% explosive pass play rate in quarters one through three (including the wild-card round), but that number jumps to a league-best 14.4% in the fourth quarter.
Some of this can be attributed to Ben Johnson’s play-calling, but Williams also knows how to extend plays with his legs. The Bears allowed the highest pressure rate in the wild-card round and the third-highest pressure rate in the fourth quarter, yet Williams finished with the lowest sacks per drop-back rate and sacks per pressure rate both over the entire game and exclusively in the fourth quarter.
Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers: Methodical Drives
Purdy overcame arguably the roughest playoff performance of his career to pull off a comeback win over the vaunted Eagles defense. And he didn’t do it by being more accurate or more explosive.
Purdy did it by sticking with the game plan and moving down the field methodically. He only had two true offensive drives in the fourth quarter: One ended in his second interception, and the other ended in the game-winning touchdown.
Purdy pulled off the comeback by chipping away at the Eagles defense until the 49ers were in scoring position. His average air yards in the fourth quarter was 6.75, which ranked last among the wild-card round quarterbacks. Purdy’s longest passing attempt was 16 yards downfield to receiver DeMarcus Robinson.
San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan didn’t need to rely on explosive plays to win the drive. His team’s 5.9% explosive play rate in the fourth quarter ranked sixth among the 12 playoff teams, but fifth among the six teams that won. This isn’t a knock on Purdy’s playmaking ability as much as it is just trust in the quarterback and the offensive scheme.
Considering Shanahan and Purdy are headed to their third divisional round in four seasons, it’s clearly working.
Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams: Offensive Execution
Stafford is the most veteran quarterback of this group. He’s played in just 10 postseason games but has 17 full seasons of experience under his belt.
So it makes sense how he orchestrated the Rams’ game-winning drive at the end of their 34-31 win: He just executed the offense.
Stafford finished the fourth quarter with an 80.0% in-design rate, meaning the majority of his passing attempts unfolded within the designed play instead of more out-of-structure situations.
That led to the best fourth-quarter offensive success rate among the playoff teams as well.
(ID% – In-Design Rate, which measures throwing in structure and not, for example, off scrambles)He completed 6 of 7 passes for 71 yards on the final drive of the game and 12 of 18 overall in the fourth quarter for 143 yards and two touchdowns with just one pickable pass. Stafford also had the second-fastest release time in the fourth quarter among all 12 quarterbacks.
Head coach Sean McVay has perfected the offense under Stafford, which is partly why the team ranked No. 1 in offensive success rate scoring this year. That faith bore out in the final drive of the game to stave off a valiant upset bid by the Carolina Panthers.
The True Definition of Clutch
The wild-card round made one thing clear: there is no single blueprint for being clutch. The only part that really matters is winning.
When the margins are thin, the clock is running out and teams need points, style points don’t matter. All four QBs showed the ability to shine in the clutch in completely different ways.
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