NFL Divisional Round

The Wild Card round produced a result that has never been done before.  All 4 of the road team won.  The home teams worked so hard all season to get that home field advantage and left it there on the field.  Now they get to stay home for the second round of the playoffs.  Will the NFL Divisional round of the the playoffs be as exciting as the Wild Card round was?  If history holds true it will be that and more.

This weeks picks are going to be a little more difficult than last week.  I say that knowing that last week I got really lucky in my picks working out.  Vegas has all the home teams as favorites.  Makes sense since they were the better teams during the regular season.  I am pretty sure that it is not going to work out that way.

The Opening game of the weekend is the Chiefs (11-5) at the Patriots (12-4)

The Chiefs are still on a major roll now having won 12 in a row after beating up on the Texans in the wild card round last week.  The Patriots did not finish the season strong.  In week 17 they squandered the number 1 seed in the AFC by losing to the non playoff bound Dolphins.  The usual stuff can be said about the Patriots.  As long as they have Brady, Gronkowski and Billicheck they have a chance to win.  It really does not seem to matter who else is not the team.   I am going to stick with the hot team and say the old guard goes out.

Chiefs 24  Patriots 17

The second Saturday game is the Packers (10 – 6) at the Cardinals (13-3)

These teams met on December 27th in what would be described as a complete blowout.  The Cardinals won that game 38-8.  The next week the Cardinals rolled in to Seattle and the Seahawks destroyed the Cardinals 36-6.    The loss could just have been a hang over and not really sure they could improve their playoff position.  The Seahawks were probably looking to get some revenge for their loss to the Cardinals earlier in the season.  So this blowout probably does not mean a whole lot.  The Packers had a good showing last week against the Redskins.  Not sure that means a lot either since the Redskins defense has not been one of the best lately.   But a win is a win and it was a road win so that accounts for at least something.  History is not good for teams that have been blown out by a team earlier in the season and then play them again in the playoffs.  I do think that this game will be much closer than the game on December 27th.  Not sure the Packers can pull it off though.

Cardinals 31 Packers 29

In the first Sunday game Seahawks (10-6) at the Panthers (15-1)

The Panthers beat the Seahawks early in the season 27-23 with a 4th quarter come back victory.  This game was a close one.  Carolina scored two touchdowns with less than 4 minutes to go in the game for the win.  It is quite a feat beating the Seahawks in their home stadium.  With the game being in the Panthers stadium you would think that things would be a little different this time.  The Seahawks did not play particularly well last week against the Vikings.  Part of that could be attributed to the cold weather.    I think that this is going to be a very close game.    If the Panthers play the way they did in 15 of their 16 games this season they will win and knock the Seahawks out of the playoffs.

Panthers 20 Seahawks 17

In the final game of the NFL Divisional Round the Steelers (10-6) are at the Broncos (12-4)

The Steelers like the Panthers had a come from behind win against the Broncos in Denver.  If thing were equal in this game then I would say the Steelers would win.  The problem in picking this game is that we still do not know if Big Ben and Antonio Brown are going to play.  If they both play and are anywhere near 100% then I think that the Steelers win.  If they cannot play then this game more than likely goes to the Broncos.  Peyton Manning is not going to be any where near the Manning of old.  It is pretty clear that he will never get is arm strength back.  Even with that he is probably the best option the Broncos have to win this game.

Broncos 24 Steelers 23

How do you think this weekends playoff games will go?