NFL Playoff Preview And Predictions.
NFL Playoff Picture Preview And Prediction.
Last We Hear, It’s Been Too Long. Yes, It Took A While, But We Get There. Where We Belong.
“Don’t Tell Me You Knew It Would Be Like This All Along….”
It Had To Unfold Just Like This. The Seventeen Game Season Would Play Out Just As Our Crystal Ball Foretold And Inscribed It Across The Sky: Down To The Last Second Overtime That Push The Raiders Into The Playoffs.
“I Saw It All Fro. This Prediction Proof Class.”
The Titans Would Play Half of The Season Without Derrick Henry Win A Frantic And Frenzied AFC That Had Supposed To Belong To Just One team In The Preseason. We HAd To Know The Cheifs Would Lose a Step. The Bills, Presumed AFC Favorites Struggle To The End To Win AFC East. Because The Patriots And Their Rookie Quarterback Bear Trap Them Before A Late Season Three Game Run Freed Josh Allen Some. But oh Allen’s hand Has Been As Steady As The Standings. The Patriots Were Good. But We Knew That Would Be The Case After A down Year.
“The NFL never allows you to rest easy and never assumes anything.”
Suppose the AFC Final Playoff Picture Came Together Scramble cropped Mess Of Teams Mesh in Togetherness. The Team favorites To Win In This 7 Player Scrapbook Could Be The One Living On The Edges.
Temptation Abound all Over The Boards. Should I Tag Along With Just About Everybody And Bet On The Chiefs? Their Offense Can Be Incendiary At Times, and When The Offense Isn’t Inn High Gear, The Defense Can be Opportunistic. They Won The AFC The Past Two Season And Beat Damn Near Everybody They’ve Faced In The Conference All Season. The Defense, Just Another Top Tier All-Suspect Team Honors. But It’s Been Actively Improving All Season. They're Talented With Chris Jones And Tyran Matthieu To At Times Be A terror. Whichever Chief’s Team We Get In The Playoffs In Won't Much Matter In The First Round. The Drew The Favor Of The gods By The Faulty Chargers Wit And A Late timeout. Then Again, It May Matter More Than Any Other Round. One Of the Few teams The Chief Lost Too, The Tennessee Titans. They Have The Bye And A Chance To Get Healthy And Coordinated. Tennessee Isn’t exactly A-Team Any one Fears. That’s Because They Have A Quarterback Who can Only Be Describe As Mediocre-Plus And A Defense That Can Hold Things Close But Won’t Win The Match For you.
It's Easy To Forget The Bucs Are defending Their Championship In This Season On Unbridled Parity. It's Even Easier To Overlook That heir Heralded “health and harmony” Now twisted to Turmoil And Thorns(torn). Never Less, This Bucs, As Constituted remains Overall, A. better offensively And Defensively Unit From The One That Won The Superbowl A Year Ago. Their Primary Competition Remain A Mostly Unchanged Packer’s Team. Matt LaFleur Inherited A Winner, Three Ago, And He finished 2021 With the best Winner Record of Three Years, But He Also Inherited The team’s playoff Woes A decade Old. They're Both looking Down On A Field Of The NFC team Far less Frightening than The One They Had Their Way With Last Year Despite The Better Overall Win Percentage. Would A Healthy Green Bay Team Stand A greater Chance than The One That Got Handled In Last year’s Championship Round? So Many Questions. Those And Many More Will Be Answer And Replace With Other Questions.
The playoffs begin Saturday, Jan. 15, And Run into A Monday night game for the first time. Two Saturday games kick off at 4:35 p.m. The Sunday slate will feature an afternoon, late afternoon, and night game. The Playoffs are kicking off with No. 5 seed Las Vegas Raiders (10-7) at No. 4 Cincinnati Bengals (10-7).
Stats And Grades Solicited From ESPN And ProfootballFocus
Bucs Vs. Eagles
Tom Brady And The Bucs Draw A Favorable Matchup With The 7th seed. It’s The Wise and Age Against The Fervent And Youthful. The Should Handled The Eagles Easily. And Look Forward To Rams Or Cards Winner. Well, There Could Be More To It Than Just The Bucs Showing Up A taking The Win. Aside From The Noted Degree In These Two Teams Lets Say Status, Offensive Philosophically These teams Are Divergent. The Bucs Are The Best passing Team both In Number 307.6 Yards Per Game, 5226 yards On The Season In Production As Well As the Highest Graded Meaning Overall Effectiveness. It’s the Only Offense Of Its Kind. The Bucs Are The General Example Of Not only A Modern Offensive Model But ultramodern Mold. The Bucs Are Wounded Beast, Absence Two OF Its Top 4 targets Buts, But on The Season The Saints Remain the Only team That Could Give Tom Brady and Co. Trouble. The Eagles Are One Of The Best, if Not the Best, Rushing. Number 1 in Yards Per Game, And Attempts, Graded In The Top Ten. The two Teams Meet in week 6. The Eagles Are The Only Team In The Playoff Ranked In The Bottom Quadrant Of The NFL In Total Offense. The Two Team Meet-Up Back In Week 6. The Bucs Nearly Doubled Up The Eagles In Yardage 399 To 212. The Bucs Under The Radar Defense Held Jalen Hurts, Who Is his Team’s Offense(Hurts Leads the Eagles In Passing And Rushing) Eagles To a 28-7 deficit. Hurts Rallied The eagles Late To finish with A Final Score Of 28-22.
On the season, The Bucs Had Score Nearly 5 Points Per Drive And Had a Gritty Habit Of Tethering Scoring Drives On a Team That Doesn’t Have The Fire Power to Stay In tow. The Eagles Have A Top Ten Passing Defense. And Impressive Defensive Front, Lead By Javon Hargrave And Nick Barnett, And Josh Sweat, Who Are Crazy good At rushing the Pass. Some Stand By The Reported Beliefs That Brady Hates To Get Hit And “Dirty.” Great. Unfortunately, So Did The Pats, Bears, And Panthers twice. More Unfortunately, Outside Of The Patriots, None Of Those Team Mention Were top In Total Points Allowed. Neither Were The Eagles—the Bucs Finished Third In Scoring Defense. You Get The Idea. The Old Adage. Air Beats Ground. “I Have The High Ground Anakin.”
Bucs 34- PHI 17
The Most Intriguing Matchup Of the NFC First Round.
“Cowboys, they’re good enough to beat anyone and inconsistent enough to lose to anyone.” Perhaps I’m The Only One Not Drinking The Kool-Aid This shear, But This Cowboy’s Team Could Rank Amongst The Most Overrated Cowboys Team In The History Of The Franchise. Of course, These Are The Dallas Cowboys Infamous For Their Share Overrated-Ness. After Their Win Over The Patriots Week 6, The Boys Have Played effectively Against Mostly Mediocre Teams. And Somehow, The Offense Found Itself In A Somnolent Trance Along The way. Coming Alive To Distance Itself From The rest Of NFC East. The Niners Are Rolling After A Win Over Division Winner Ram’s. This Niners To Remain Uber Talented Unit That Struggled With Injuries Much Of The Season, It Still A Top In total Scoring Defense. Offense The Niner’s Should Have No Trouble Moving The Ball Against The Cowboy Defense That’s Aggressive But Vulnerable Over The Middle and Out On The Boundaries. The Niners Have All The Momentum Heading Into trailing 17-0 in the second quarter, and the fourth quarter after punting down seven points after the two-minute warning. The Cowboys Won A Mostly Meaningless Game Against A Resting Eagles Who have Just As Little Right To Be In The Playoffs As The Cowboys Do. These Niners are A Dynamic Offense San. Francisco has skill position players to match up and Line Up against anyone. If Jimmy G can Find A Rhythm, Expect The Niners To Pressure The Cowboys Corners Like The Cardinals Did Two Weeks Ago. Jimmy Had A Few “ugh” Moments. Real Head Scratchers Against The Rams Sunday But His second Half Of Football Would be One To Marvel.
Quick Incision Like Accuracy And A Gaudy Second Half Comeback If I Sound Like A cowboy Hater, I Don’t Want To, But we All Have Our Bias. Suppose “Autopilot” Mode Continues It's Going to be another Hard Landing to Earth For An unparalleled Delusional Fan Base. On The Other Hand, The Cowboys Pass Rush Has Been On A tear These Past Few Weeks, To Put Things Mildly. A Mighty 339 Total Pressures Of Any Kind On The Season And Pass Rushing Grade Of 78.3. For Context. The Browns Rank One Grade Ahead Have 280 Total Pressures And A Defensive Player Of The year Candidate In Myles Garrett. The Boys Are Expected to Be Full Strength After Wunderkind Rookie Micah Parsons Sat Out of The Eagles Game. The Niners Offensive Line Anchor By One Trent Williams Who Flattens Threat to The Pocket. He’s Grade At An Incredible 98.3 Pass Blocking. The Niner’s Group Has A Pass block Success Rate Of 62% According And Hold Ground And The Highest Grading According To Profootballfocus. The Cowboys Niners are the Most Intriguing Matchup. Both Teams Are “Surging-ish.” Though I would Use That Term Cautiously. Both Are Prone To Mood Swings.
49ers 40-Cowboys 21
The Rams Vs. Cards Are The Most Polarizing Matchup. The Fight Of the Falling That Could Fall Either Way. The Two Team's Spilt the season series. With Rams Winning the Most Recent Matchup Between The NFC west Rivals. In a contorted Jungian Philosophical Paroxysm, Both teams Strengths Are Their Vulnerability. But In Your Vulnerability, You will Find Your strength. It's The passing Game. “I just left it short,” Said Matthew Stafford. You can Read Ad Nauseum Of The Rams’ Quarterback Struggles Lately. More Than The Interceptions That Haven’t Settle Down In The Passing weeks, Stafford Had At Least One over The Past Month. At times, You Get A Glance At Stafford, You Get The Since He’s Shaken In the Pocket. The Rams Offensive Line Had Been One Of The Most Impressive Factors For The team; Now The Pressure Are Pilling up. Surrendering 30 Sacks On the Season. Stafford’s Demeanor More Than Anything Has Taken A Dive. The Former MVP Candidate’s Unflappable Form That Had The Rams Held In High Esteem Early In The Season Has Given way To Hitches And hesitancy On Throws And targets. Every Quarterback Tends To Struggle Under Pressure, But Stafford Play becomes costly. On 26.4% of his Snaps, Stafford Meets pressure. Seven Interceptions, Eights TD, which happens To be The Worst Turnover To Interception Ratio Amongst NFC Playoff Quarterbacks When Under Pressure.
Stafford threw a game-ending interception on a deep ball to Odell Beckham Jr. OBJ Has Had Some of His Promising Career Resuscitated In LA, But He’s Far From A Revelation of Sorts. The Cards Are Coming off Of A mostly Meaningless Divisional Lost To The Wayward Seahawks. Kyler Murray And The Cards Were Lock-In With The Rams In More Than One Way. The Only Possible Caveat Being A Palette Swap of venues. Which Favor The Cardinals Somehow: The Cardinals are 3-5 at home, compared to 8-1 on the road, but have lost their past three at State Farm Stadium. “Don’t He Know He Can Only Get As High AS He Fell?” The Cardinals Are Flying Closure to Earth These Days. But Their Unfaltering Win Over The Cowboys Two Weeks Ago Proved This team Could win Against Playoff Competition. Neither Team As Momentum At Their Side. The Rams Won five in A Row Before Sundays Stumble. The Season Has Had Turbulent Turns At Every Corner Since Their First Loss of the Season Some Weeks Ago. Health Remains A Concern; They Got Running back James Conner Back. What Conundrum Of A Matchup. However, It Plays the Card’s Secondary will Have To Contend With Cooper Kupp. He led the NFL with 1,947 receiving yards on 145 catches with 16 touchdowns. A Battle in the trenches? A Fierce Fight At Flight For Two Passing Attack? A Gutsy Down To Wire Win? I Would Bet The Cards To Make The Play in The End.
Cards 27-Rams 24.
The Steelers are A Whirlwind To Judge. Their Quarterback Has Entered A Stage Of Football That Exist Beyond The World Of Pass It's Prime. I'm Surprised More Time When Ben Drops back To Attempts A Pass And Even More Flummox When Those Pass Attempts Turn To Completion. Big Ben Tapered Enough Of that Competition Together To Get Into The Playoffs. But This Steelers Team Gets Its Steam From Its Formidable Defense That Put the Team in a Position To Win Games Late In The Season. SHOULDERING the Weight Of An Offensive Floundering Bench Press Over Excessive celebrations Or Having Nothing to Celebrate At All. Record Holder And Expected Defensive Player Of The Year T.J. Watt Could Make Sunday One Hell Of Day For Mahomes.
If The AFC North Champion Bengals And Former Champion Ravens Prove Anything: To Beat The Chiefs, Turn The Game Into A Shoot out And Outlast The Chiefs. Or Suffocate The Offense, As Titan Did. The Likely Hood Of Such An affair Is Slim To None, which is Around The same Odd Range of The Steelers making Into The Playoffs. “Man, We Got Some warts,” Tomlin said. “But We’re Here.” The Steelers Finish The Season With A Minus 55 In point Differential One Of The Worst Figures In Recent Memory Out Done By The Raider Who was A Minus 67 This Season. For Context The Ravens, Whom The Steelers Beat Sunday ARe A -5 After Playing Second String Quartbacks For The Better Part Of The Month. Other Notables, The Bills Minus (-57) In 2017 Come To Mind. Differentials Don’t Answer In-Depth Questions As Much As They Give A Strong Quality of Health For A Team On A Season bias, Not Game To Game. More Or Less This Would Be What You expect.
Najee Harris’s Status now stands In Limbo. The Steelers Thousand Yard Rookie Has been Quoted As “dinged Up.” Spinning An Already Worrisome Of Offense Into Disarray. The Odds Dont Favor The Steelers Moving This Unlikeliest Late Season Playoff surge Stories Into A Second Act. But WE’ve. Witness The Improbable A Few Times In The Playoffs By Team Who For All Account Should Be Present.
KC 34- PIT 17
Insert Segway Of Possible Shootout Here.
Two Of the Best Passing Offenses Are Set To Clash When The Raiders Arrive In Cincinnati. Derek Carr Fresh Off Of Salvaging The Raiders Remains A Season With The Jaws Of Life After A FRIGHTENING Series Of Car Wrecks, So To Say, l Mean Tragedies: Are Car Puns In Bad taste Right Now. Derek Carr happens Not to Be In Bad taste right Now. The Raider’s High Octane Ride, It's Been A Mighty Epilogue The Likes Of Which Hemingway, J. R. TOLKIEN Bring To Life On Paper And Imagination. Except This One Played Out On The Fields And The Internet. But Mighty Tragedies And Obstacles Create Character Depth. It's Often The tragedies In The Stories That Create The strength The Main Character Needs In The End. It's the Journey. That Character. That Moxie.
The Raiders Need Every Bit Of It These Past Two weeks. “It’s been a lot of heartaches, a lot of hard times, a lot of fight, a lot of grit. But the job’s not done. So there’s something sick in me that just feels like this is awesome.” Carr Told Washington Post. A Big Win Over The Colts To Stay Alive. A Late Field Goal Over Arch Rival Chargers To Punch their Ticket. On The opposite end Of This Heavy Weight fight, The Bengals. The Steelers And Raider Overcame Difficult Odds To Stay Alive Into This Season. Nobody Saw The Bengals As A Suspected Contender Hidden In Plain. The Fourth Seed In the AFC, The Bengals Are Far Beyond Just Being Present In The Conversation This Far into The Season.
Pick Damn Near Last In AFC All Preseason; The Bengals Are The Hot Choice In The AFC Playoff. You Can't Say enough About How Prolific This offense Can be. Run Pass. Touchdown Efficiency. The Bengals Have It All. Weighted Heavily on Their Starters. The Bengals Top Ten Offense Get Thinner The Deeper The Depth Chart Goes, Beside Wide Receiver of Course. Even Thinner, The offensive line. The Bengals Offensive Line went from A Leaky last Season To A Crack This Season. Burrow Got Sacked 51 Times, Though Not All The Fault Of The Line. But The Line Surrender A Sizable 34. Burrow Has Been Under Pressure 33.3% of His Snap, Leading 6 of 14 interceptions. Tied For Sixth With His Wild Card Foe Derek Carr. Pressure, The Raiders Generate Pressure Like A Flood. The Pass Rush Unit Hold The Trenches And Atop Ten Pass Rush When Rate. Joe Burrow Dropped back 590 On His 630 Passing Snaps. That’s A lot Of Opportunities For The Raiders to Break home. I Know It's Tough To Trust Derek Carr In Important Moments Despite His Success. The Raiders have struggled to run The Ball: their Coverage Unit, It's Good But Not Exceptional. But There’s Something About Overcoming Adversity That Rings Home with me For One Reason or Another. The Bengals Haven’t won A Playoff Game In Nearly A Decade. It’s a “dismal,” Heartrending history that will Continue as the Raiders Rewrite Their History.
The Bills Vs. Patriots.
This One Could Get Ugly. Real, Real, Ugly. And Chilly. New England Will Travel into Familiar Territory When They Take A flight, Or Bus Or Cap Some Few Miles South To Buffalo. Neither of The Bills Nor The Pats is Teams In Mid-Season Form. Only One wishes To be, The Other team, The Bills. Thankfully We won't Have To Speculate Too Much About How A Patriots-Bills Playoff Matchup Would Look. We’ve Seen them Both At Their Best And At Their Worst All Throughout This Hot-N-Cold Season. Sometimes The Best And Bad Took Ground Against Each Other. The Two Spilt Their season Matchups On The Road.
One Bill’s Win In Foxborough. One Patriots Win At Highmark Stadium. So It Makes Little Difference Which Below 40 Degree Venue They Suit Up—their first Matchup. The Patriots set the New standard For winning Divisional Games, which Replace Whatever Standard they’d Set previously.
They Ran the Ball For 222 yards And Passed Three Times With Mac Jones. The Bills Offense Had Little To no Countermeasure. The Patriots Won in The winds—Buffalo’s Revenge Cam Four weeks Later. Josh Allen Put the Pass To work For Himself, Avenged the loss, And Putting A Then frigid Bills Team Back On schedule To Win The AFC east Division In back To Back Season Since The ’90s. Allen Had A Grizzly three Interception And Anemic 120 In A Win Against The Falcons Two weeks ago. The Patriots Are coming off of A tough Lost To Miami. The Final Score 33-24 A Little Duplicitous. New England’s secondary Felt Narrow A Threat from The Dolphin’s passing attack. Yielding 96 yards and a touchdown on 11 receptions In the Season, Completing Lost. This After Blasting The Jags by 40 points In Recovery Of two Game Skid Following A 7 Game Win Streak That Reached Its Peak against The Bills. These Are two of the Most evenly matched Defensively teams in The Playoffs. They say, Don’t bet Against Belichick facing A Team For The Third Time. I Would Have To Agree.
First Round Odd:
Las Vegas at Cincinnati (-6.5)
Pittsburgh at Kansas City (-13)
New England at Buffalo (-4.5)
Philadelphia at Tampa Bay (-9.5)
San Francisco at Dallas (-3)
Arizona at Los Angeles (-4)
