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Judging NFL playoff overreactions: How far can an injured QB take you?

Jalen Hurts showed no ill effects of his shoulder injury against the Giants, but things figure to get tougher in the Championship round. Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

The whole Overreactions thing can get in your head, man. Like, I've been watching the Bengals for the past two months thinking, "What if they're really the best team in the league and most people just haven't realized it yet?" and wondering if I was overreacting.

I'm starting to think I was not.

In the press box Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium, after Patrick Mahomes sprained his ankle, someone sitting near me professed aloud a belief that the Chiefs could not win the game if he didn't come back 100 percent. That, I thought, is an overreaction. And it was.

In the buildup to the Giants-Eagles game Saturday night, I started to let it creep into my head that Jalen Hurts' shoulder injury was the kind of thing that could level the playing field and give the Giants a chance.

That was a major overreaction.

So, yeah. By this point in the season, on Sunday nights, I'm pretty much thinking in overreactions. So the fact that the NFL season is down to its final four does not mean it's time to stop. Quite the contrary, in fact. We hereby present the divisional round edition of the Overreactions column.