Saturday #4 Houston Texans vs. #5 Kansas City Chiefs - 4:35 PM Houston is an ugly team that despite playing well recently seems like one of those teams that limps into the playoffs. Jeckyl & Hyde at it's finest with their defense, they're pretty screwed if this turns into any kind of shootout. Kansas City has a very good defense and a ball control offense that can put up points against a defense that isn't well gameplanned. If the Chiefs can limit DeAndre Hopkins & JJ Watt then they should win this game by two scores. Andy Reid is one of the better game-planners in the NFL, so I tend to see this being a boring 31-17 game where Kansas City is really in the drivers seat the entire time. #3 Cincinnati Bengals vs. #6 Pittsburgh Steelers - 8:15 PM The obvious story line is Andy Dalton's thumb, although A.J. McCarron and his holy ways has filled in admirably throwing 6 touchdowns and no interceptions in the 3 games he's started (2-1 over that span). Cincinnati hasn't won a playoff game since 1990 and had to be furious with the draw of facing the Steelers in the first round. The Steelers secondary sucks, although they're good for a pick 6 here and there. Pittsburgh will also likely have a banged up DeAngelo Williams active, but slowed down with a knee injury. Do you take the complete team minus their quarterback, or Roethlisberger & his offensive weapons? I see a close typically ugly AFC North matchup in the Steelers squeaking by 24-21. Sunday #3 Minnesota Vikings vs. #6 Seattle Seahawks - 1:05 PM Everyone is all over the Seahawks jock and rightfully so with the way they finished their season. They could be their own worst enemy though in playing a team in Minnesota whom they could certainly be looking past towards facing Carolina the following week. This is all setting up somewhat nicely for Minnesota by having the game at home at 10:05 Pacific Time for the Seahawks, in what's supposed to be one of the coldest games in Minnesota history (with temperatures hovering below freezing at kickoff). Expect a heavy running game from both sides, and perhaps some missed field goals, extra points or special teams to play some sort of role in this with Seattle's electric punt returner Tyler Lockett. I personally think Seattle still wins this game easily, as their pass rush is going to be all over Bridgewater when he finally needs to make plays. Seattle wins 29-19. #4 Washington Redskins vs. #5 Green Bay Packers - 4:40 PM Kirk Cousins or Aaron Rodgers? Everyone is taking Aaron Rodgers obviously, but not this year IMO. Cousins has thrown 22 touchdown's in the past 10 games versus only three interceptions. Green Bay's offense is just disgustingly out of sync and as someone whom is not a fan of Aaron Rodger's I look forward to seeing them lose this one 24-17. Who do y'all got?
Why the Fuck are there 2 AFC games on Saturday and 2 NFC on Sunday? Not a Hawks fan, but you have 2 hosting cities in the Central Time Zone. So lets have the two teams in the Eastern Time zone host the the 2 later games. And have the one team from the Pacific Time zone play in the earliest game on either day. Complete stupidity.
I don't believe they give two licks about that. They wanted to put the most intriguing matchups in the best time slots or at least as they saw fit. If Seattle wins, I would assume they get the 'most prime time' game vs. Carolina.
Yes - but it still should be 1 AFC and 1 NFC game each day. For Networks - first game on Saturday is the one turd time slot, so that game makes sense. The late Sunday is the cream spot and they love Rodgers. And while Pitt is popular and has a tremendous old fan base, Seattle is really one of the younger generations version of the old Cowboys and Steelers. I am a school teacher and I can tell you, I see a hell of a lot of Seahawks jeresey's running the halls. The could have easily flipped those two games and had that game in prime time on Saturday, which they think is prime - but in reality I think most football fans prefer the 1 pm Sunday game to the late game on Sat. Then the Pitt/Bengals which is great and intriguing if you are a AFC North fan or Pitt fan still in a good spot on Sunday.
This is an interesting weekend in that usually in the playoffs, the assumption is that the home team has a big advantage. I would think that most of the experts will be taking the road team in every single game this weekend, as the wildcard teams appear to be the better teams or have the QB. I think that home field will hold in 3 of the 4 games despite the above. Minnesota, Redskins and Bengals (Marv gets a PO win) KC is the only team to go on road and win as they are way too much for Houston to handle.
Predictions? Chiefs 17 Texans 16 - would not be surprised if the result was the exact opposite. I have a little more faith in Smith than I do in Hoyer, but these are pretty evenly matched teams. Steelers 24 Bengals 20 - another absolute toss-up game. I really feel for the Bengals, they have a very good team but are forced to go with an inexperienced QB against a very dangerous Steelers offense that will be almost impossible to hold under 20. I don't like the Steelers D but they will force a critical turnover out of McCarron. Ben and Brown will do their thing. Seahawks 27 Vikings 16 - the brutal weather may keep this game closer than it otherwise would have been, as this is the biggest mismatch of the weekend. Bridgewater is just not good enough to beat this D, and AP can only do so much. Expect Wilson to play an efficient game and Seattle to get Lynch some quality reps. Redskins 27 Packers 24 - always dangerous picking against Rodgers, and this will be Cousins first playoff appearance, but the general malaise hanging over the Packers the last half of the season is too much to overlook. Something is just off with them, and the Redskins have enough momentum to squeak by (before getting annihilated by the Cards next week).
I want whoever can beat the P*ts in the AFC championship game and if that fails whoever can beat the P*ts in the SB. Other than that...don't care.
agreed. i believe KC will play the P*ts if they beat the Texans, so i'll be rooting for them to get hot..
Same game on abc and espn at the same time. Has that ever happened before? Sent from my KFASWI using Tapatalk
We need NE to have the toughest road possible. Likely that PIT beats Cincy and will go to Denver, so between KC and Houston, who has a better shot @ NE? Right now I'm thinking KC, so hoping for them to win tomorrow for that reason. That Monday night beat down last year was cool.
IMO Wildcard Weekend favors the underdogs, for betting only Next weekend its all favorites, the higher the spread the better
