NFL's wild-card weekend was full of fourth-down fun and folly along with a dearth of punts

The NFL set a record for fewest punts per game in 2025, and wild-card weekend was filled with fourth-down fun and folly as punters were mostly spectators, especially Chicago's Tory Taylor, who never stepped off the sideline in the Bears' come-from-behind win over the Green Bay Packers.

In all, teams converted 15 of 29 fourth down attempts on wild-card weekend, when there were only 41 punts, nine of them Monday night in the Houston Texans' 30-6 rout of Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bears first-year coach Ben Johnson was particularly aggressive, going for it a half dozen times in fourth down Saturday night, including two backfires in the first half that led to a pair of Green Bay touchdowns and put the Bears in a 21-3 halftime hole.

Caleb Williams was intercepted on fourth-and-6 from the Packers 40-yard line, leading to Jordan Love's 18-yard touchdown throw, and Williams threw incomplete on fourth-and-5 from his own 32. That one led to Love's TD throw on fourth-and-goal from the Bears 2 that gave Green Bay an 18-point halftime cushion.

The Packers couldn't capitalize on another turnover on downs by Chicago just before halftime because Brandon McManus missed a 55-yard field goal on the final play after Williams threw incomplete deep on fourth-and-4 from the Green Bay 37.

When Prime Video's sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung asked the Bears' coach about his aggressive approach and going for it on fourth down multiple times on his own side of the field, Johnson replied, “Yeah, we want to maximize our possessions and we want to go for fourth-down plays.”

Her follow-up was about how to slow down Green Bay's efficient offense.

“That's a big reason why we're being aggressive on offense, so that we can extend our drives and score points ourselves,” Johnson insisted. “It's a really good offense we're going against.”

Although the Bears would convert just twice on their six fourth downs — Green Bay was 3 for 3 on fourth down — that strategy paid off in the end. Williams threw a 27-yard pass to Rome Odunze to the Packers' 30-yard line, which led to the TD that pulled Chicago to 27-24 with 4:21 remaining.

Johnson said the game plan featured an aggressive fourth-down mentality, and "I think where it gets misconstrued is, there’s a lack of confidence in your defense when you do that. I think the opposite, I think it’s because I have confidence in our defense and their ability to stop teams in the red zone."

“I’m never going to apologize for being aggressive or doing things that might be a little unorthodox,” Johnson added, "if it’s what we deem is best for us to win a ballgame.”

Johnson was the Lions' offensive coordinator when Detroit blew a 17-point halftime lead and lost the NFC championship to San Francisco 34-31 after the 2023 season. In that game, Lions coach Dan Campbell went for it on fourth down twice in field-goal range but came up short, later saying he'd do it again if he could.

Those failures didn't curtail the Lions' aggressive fourth-down philosophy, one that Johnson took to Chicago when he was hired by the Bears a year ago.

He had plenty of company over the weekend as a trend from the regular season continued. There were just 3.55 punts per game per team this season and that figure fell in the first round of the playoffs with teams averaging just 3.41 punts per game.

The Panthers and Rams got the fun going Saturday when early fourth-down failures led to touchdowns by each team.

Trevor Lawrence thought he had the first down when the Jaguars went for it on fourth-and-2 from the Buffalo 9 only to see the review reveal his shin had hit the ground shy of the first-down marker, a fourth-down faux pas that proved pivotal in Jacksonville's 27-24 loss to the Bills.

The Bills twice went for it on fourth-and-1 deep in Jaguars territory. Josh Allen had a 4-yard keeper on the first one and was carried 9 yards on an astonishing tush push to the 1 that also led to a Buffalo touchdown.

The 49ers didn't attempt a single fourth-down conversion in their 23-19 win at Philadelphia, where the Eagles were 3-for-5 on fourth down.

The Patriots converted their only fourth-down try, on fourth-and-4 from the Chargers' 30, which led to a field goal. When the Chargers took a delay after failing to induce an offsides call and then punted from midfield, NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth said, “I think Jim Harbaugh's been watching the games this weekend.”

And when Steelers coach Mike Tomlin chose to take the three points with a 32-yard field goal try rather that chancing it fourth-and-3 from the Houston 14 Monday night, ESPN analyst Troy Aikman commented: “We're in a time as we all know when a lot of offenses would be going for it ... But points are going to be (at) a premium. You've got two defenses that are capable of dominating their opponent. Get 'em when you can.”

Well, points certainly were at a premium for Pittsburgh, which hung in there most of the night before the Texans' 23-0 fourth-quarter blitz in what might have been Rodgers' farewell game.

If so, Rodgers' final pass was a pick-6 by safety Calen Bullock, whose 50-yard interception return for a touchdown came on ... you guessed it, fourth down.

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Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson reacts during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Green Bay Packers Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Huh)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Organizers of Australia’s largest free literary festival canceled the event Tuesday after more than 180 writers and speakers withdrew over the scrapping of an appearance by an Australian-Palestinian writer and academic.

The uproar began when the board of the Adelaide Festival, which runs Adelaide Writers Week, announced on Jan. 8 that they had disinvited Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the event “given her previous statements” and citing cultural sensitivities “at this unprecedented time so soon after” an antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

There was no suggestion that Abdel-Fattah or her writings “have any connection with the tragedy,” the board members added.

They didn’t cite any specific statements by the lawyer, academic and writer of fiction and nonfiction that prompted their decision. Abdel-Fattah decried the move as “censorship” and said the announcement suggested that her “mere presence” was culturally insensitive.

By Tuesday, when the event was canceled, most of the programmed speakers had withdrawn. The episode unfolded amid a fraught national debate in Australia about limits on speech following the Bondi shooting.

A father and son who were apparently inspired by Islamic State group ideology are accused of the massacre during a Hanukkah event in December, in which 15 people were shot dead. The surviving suspect, Naveed Akram, has not entered a plea to the dozens of murder, terrorism and other charges he faces.

In the aftermath, the Jewish Community Council for South Australia — the state where Adelaide is located — wrote to the festival to lobby for Abdel-Fattah’s exclusion, the group's spokesperson Norman Schueler told The Adelaide Advertiser. The Premier of South Australia state Peter Malinauskus also supported the writer’s removal.

The Adelaide Writers Week was scheduled to run for six days beginning in late February, as part of a wider annual culture festival. The 2025 literary event was the festival’s 40th and attracted 160,000 attendees.

Born in Australia to Palestinian and Egyptian parents, Abdel-Fattah often writes about Islamophobia and had been invited to speak about her novel Discipline, which follows two Muslims, a journalist and a university student, navigating issues of censorship in Sydney. She has been a critic of the Israeli government and an advocate for Palestinians throughout the two-year war in Gaza.

After the board’s statement canceling Abdel-Fattah’s appearance, other speakers on the program — including British novelist Zadie Smith and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — withdrew from their events too. The Festival’s director quit Tuesday, citing her objections to the board’s decision to disinvite Abdel-Fattah.

Louise Adler, a Jewish Australian, wrote in the Guardian that she could not “be party to silencing writers.” She said 70% of the event's speakers had withdrawn.

Hours later, a statement on the Festival’s Facebook page said that the event would not proceed and that all remaining board members would resign. The statement, which was not attributed to a named individual, offered an apology to Abdel-Fattah for “how the decision was represented.”

Board members wanted to “reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history,” the statement said.

Abdel-Fattah rejected the apology in a post on X Tuesday, lambasting the decision to cancel her appearance as “a blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism.” She said the board had apologized for how her removal was presented but not for the decision itself.

The removal of Abdel-Fattah prompted some sponsors of the event to withdraw, too. The fate of the wider Adelaide Festival was unclear Tuesday, although a new board was due to be appointed Wednesday.

The event is a major draw for the state and generated millions of dollars in revenue and hundreds of jobs in 2025, a report by the festival organization said.

Abdel-Fattah’s exclusion came amid proposed or enacted law changes covering hate speech, protest and guns after the Bondi massacre. New South Wales state, where the shooting happened, swiftly passed a law in December banning protest gatherings during periods following terrorism declarations.

The state is also mulling changes that would criminalize certain chants, including some used at pro-Palestinian rallies.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that he would recall the federal parliament in January to vote on his proposed measures to tighten Australia's gun controls and lower criminal thresholds for prosecuting hate speech. He has also announced a major national inquiry, called a royal commission, into antisemitism in Australia and the Bondi attack specifically.

Albanese said a national day of mourning for those killed would be held on Jan. 22.

FILE - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gestures as she gives her victory speech to Labour Party members at an event in Auckland, New Zealand, Oct. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)