Cincinnati Bengals over Las Vegas Raiders: My confidence level in picking this game is completely nonexistent. The Raiders aren't remotely imposing, yet they've been hanging around and winning games in crunch time-which seemingly makes them well-suited for the tense playoff environment. On the other hand, there's the Bengals who have a flashy offense led by budding star QB Joe Burrow and a defense that has been pretty decent for the bulk of the year, but they haven't won a playoff game in 31 years and have been as erratic as any team that made playoffs this year save for the Steelers and maybe the Eagles. Ultimately, Burrow's track record of being a fearless player who steps up at the biggest moments, the Raiders lack of consistent pass rushers outside of Maxx Crosby and having the homefield are enough for me to lean towards the Bengals.
Buffalo Bills over New England Patriots: A Bills-Patriots showdown in Orchard Park will be played in brutal weather for the 2nd time season, with the current game time temperatures projected to be below zero. Given the way Patriots stuck it to the Bills in their snowy, comically windy early December meeting, it would be reasonable to assume that the Patriots will win because of their advantage in the running game. While there would be many more shocking possible outcomes this weekend than a Bill Belichick-coached team topping the Bills on a night where passing the ball will be much harder than usual, having any high degree of faith in the Patriots' ability to win a game against a real opponent right now would be flat-out irresponsible. Not only are the Patriots 1-3 since picking up the win in that now infamous weather game-including a pretty lopsided loss to the Bills at Gillette Stadium 3 weeks ago, Mac Jones hasn't been very sharp for much of the past month (his torching of the Jaguars 2 weeks ago shouldn't be taken seriously) and the Bills rushing attack led by Devin Singletary has gotten much better over the past month-putting a Pats defense that just got shredded by Duke Johnson last week in Miami at a serious disadvantage.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Philadelphia Eagles: The Eagles are the only playoff team that failed to win a game against another playoff team this year, going a whopping 0-6 in their games against the other teams that are in competition for the 2021 Lombardi (they were 9-2 against non-playoff teams). Expecting them to finally end that drought during a road playoff date with the Tom Brady-led Buccaneers would be the dictionary definition of insanity. Jalen Hurts lives and dies by the RPO-which isn't likely to be very successful against the stout Bucs front and as good as the Eagles secondary has been this season, Brady shouldn't have too many issues moving the ball against them.
San Francisco 49ers over Dallas Cowboys: Unless having their available starters beat up on the Eagles backups in last Saturday night's meaningless regular season finale proves to be some kind of magic cure all for their significant offensive problems they've displayed in most of their games since early November, the Cowboys are almost certainly doomed to fail on Sunday. A physical, hard-nosed team on both sides of the ball that's been playing their best football of late like the 49ers is a nightmare matchup for a soft Cowboys team-who in addition to their aforementioned offensive woes have repeatedly proved they're not built for these big moments ever since the end of their 90's dynasty.
Kansas City Chiefs over Pittsburgh Steelers: The holy trinity of things (The Colts choking in Jacksonville, Brandon Staley's timeout, Daniel Carlson's reliable kicking) that lead to the Steelers making the playoffs will be running through my head while I'm watching this farce of a team get blown by the Chiefs. Is it too late to just remove the Steelers from the field and replace them with the Chargers? Now, THAT would be a contest worthy of the prestigious Sunday Night timeslot opposed to this sad matinee bullshit that will stinking up a great primetime slot.
Los Angeles Rams over Arizona Cardinals: Wrapping up the week in the 1st ever Monday night Wild Card showdown is a choose your choking fighter situation as both of these NFC West foes are limping into the playoffs. Currently, the Cardinals can't score in the redzone or stop shooting themselves in the foot with procedural penalties while Matthew Stafford is doing everything he can to cost the Rams games-throwing a staggering 8 INT's in their past 4 games including 3 straight multi-INT outings. Considering the poor discipline and execution they've both been displaying in recent weeks; coaching is likely going to be the deciding factor her-which means I have to pick to the Rams since Sean McVay has been to the playoffs multiple times before and is a significantly better game manager/play caller than Kliff Kingsbury is.
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