The Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs wrapped up over the weekend, and the survivors included the New Orleans Saints, the Denver Broncos, the Houston Texans and the New York Giants.
The Divisional Round is set for this coming weekend with four games that will set the stage for the conference championships.
On Saturday, the Saints will play the San Francisco 49ers at 3:30 p.m. on FOX. The Broncos will play the New England Patriots at 7 p.m. on CBS.
On Sunday, the Texans will play the Baltimore Ravens at 12 p.m. on CBS. The Giants will play the Green Bay Packers at 3:30 p.m. on FOX.
Despite Denver’s narrow escape against the Steelers on Sunday, look for the Broncos to lose big against the Patriots. Tim Tebow might have a Heisman trophy, but he’s no Tom Brady.
San Francisco has overachieved all year, and you can expect their run to end Saturday against the Saints. It’ll be close, but the home field advantage won’t help them much, that is, unless they call Joe Montana out of retirement.
The Giants may have beaten Atlanta on Saturday, but they won’t fair so well against Green Bay. The Packers always enjoy a significant home field advantage, and New York’s defense will have problems against Aaron Rodgers.
Many consider Baltimore to be the dark horse team in the AFC, and they’ll come out ahead of Houston on Sunday. Much was made of Houston’s first ever playoff game and playoff win on Saturday, but the party will be over on Sunday.
If all of those predictions come to pass, you’ll have New England and Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game and New Orleans and Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game. Both conference championship games will be played on Sun., Jan. 22.
As much as folks in our neck of the woods like the Saints, they may have a hard time against Green Bay. The two teams played once in the regular season, way back in Week One at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The Packers won that game, 42-34. Of course, that was before the well-oiled Drew Brees offensive machine got fully cranked up.
Through a quirk in their schedules, Baltimore and New England didn’t play one another in the regular season, so they’ll be strangers when they potentially meet in the AFC title game.
You could argue that people in Alabama have more reason to pull for Baltimore than New England.
There are five former Alabama and Auburn players on Baltimore’s roster. Former Alabama players on the team include defensive tackle Terrence Cody and linebackers Jarret Johnson and Chavis Williams. Former Auburn players on the roster include guard Ben Grubbs and linebacker Josh Bynes.
There are two former Alabama players on New England’s roster, defensive ends Mark Anderson and Brandon Deaderick.
Any of these four of these teams – New Orleans, Green Bay, New England and Baltimore – would make a strong candidate for Super Bowl champion, so it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the playoffs pan out. Whatever happens, we should have plenty of good games to watch between now and then.
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