The NFL regular season wrapped up on Sunday; so everything is all set for the playoffs. There are four games this week in the wild card round with two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. Let’s see who’s playing when and against who.
The wild card round opens up on Saturday afternoon with the Houston Texans hosting the Indianapolis Colts.
The Texans got into the playoffs by winning the AFC South with a record of 11-5. Indianapolis got into the playoffs by winning their win and our in game against the Tennessee Titans last Sunday night.
Since these teams are in the same division they have already faced off against each other twice this season. In Week 4 the Texans beat the Colts 37-34 I Indianapolis, but the Colts got their win back in Week 14 24-21 in Houston. Can the road team keep winning games or will the home team pick up a playoff win?
The playoff move into the NFC for the second game on Saturday as the Dallas Cowboys host the Seattle Seahawks.
Dallas won the NFC East with a record of 10-6 while the Seahawks also had a 10-6 record and claimed the first wild card spot.
Seattle picked up it’s first win of the season in Week 3 by beating the Cowboys 24-13. That Week 3 match up was played in Seattle; so will have to see if the outcome of this game is different with Dallas as the home team.
On Sunday we move back into the AFC for the first game of the day as the Baltimore Ravens host the Los Angeles Chargers.
Baltimore took care of their own business on Sunday beating the Cleveland Browns to win the AFC North and get into the playoffs and the right to host Los Angeles in the wild card round. Now the Chargers on the other hand clinched a playoff spot a few weeks ago, but even with a 12-4 record Los Angeles had to settle for a wild card spot.
These teams just met a few weeks ago in Week 16. Baltimore won that match up 22-10 in Baltimore. Interestingly Lamar Jackson threw for more yards against the Chargers 204 than he did against any other team in his seven starts.
Can the Ravens defend their home field again or will the Chargers find a way to advance into the second round.
The wild card round wraps up with the NFC North champion Chicago Bears hosting the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
This is the only game in the wild card that features two teams that didn’t face each other during the regular season.
The Bears where a surprise team this season posting a 12-4 record and featuring the #1 defense in the NFL. The Eagles on the other hand had their struggles this season and needed some help to get into the playoffs. Oddly that help came from the Bears who beat the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17 to allow Philadelphia to get into the playoffs by beating the Washington Redskins 24-0 in Week 17.
The Eagles have been playing better football as they’ve won 5 of the final 6 regular season game and are on a 3 game winning streak heading into the playoffs. Now the Bears may be the hottest team in football coming into the playoffs. Chicago has won 9 of it’s final 10 regular season games. That only loss was in overtime to the New York Giants in Week 13. That puts the Bears on a 4 game winning streak heading into the wild card round.
Who do you have winning these four Saturday playoff games? Even though there are two games on Saturday you’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out who myself, Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy picked to win those Saturday games. Tune into Sports Time Radio at 10:00 a.m. as Mr. Fantasy and I will breakdown the Saturday games and preview the Sunday games. You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you mi it live you can head over to TuneIn.com and listen any time you want.
While we’re on the NFL in have to wonder if there is a team in more turmoil than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers where 9-6-1 this season and just missed out on making the playoffs, but they had a strange season.
It all started out for the Steelers when Le’Von Bell didn’t report to training camp. From then on there was a week to week saga on if Bell would be showing up or not. As we know Bel never did end up playing a down this season, but James Connor did a solid job of filling in for Bell. Of course the Le’Von Bell drama wasn’t the only thing that the Steelers had to deal with.
Heading into the final week of the season wide receiver Antonio Brown was questionable on the injury report with a knee injury. Apparently this knee injury had never came up before, but it ended up keeping Brown out of the Steelers Week 17 match up with the Cincinnati Bengals.
As it turned out like it always seems to with Brown there was more to the story. Reports came out that he wasn’t hurt, but was being disciplined for his behavior. Then it was reported that he left the stadium at halftime of the Steelers/Bengals game. Adding to things the Steelers had what they call exit meetings on Monday after the game against the Bengals since they missed out on the playoffs. I’m sure you can make just one guess on who was the only player not to show up for those interviews; you nailed it Brown. No there are new reports out that brown has asked for a trade, but those have been denied by Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
Brown is still one of the top receivers in the game, but you have to wonder if the locker room would be a better place without him. Of course his production would be difficult to replace on a team that already has to make sure that they’ll be able to replace Bell next season.
If your the Steelers; what do you do with Antonio Brown?
Sports Time Radio 