The NFL Playoffs are here.Two games on Saturday and Sunday with the winners moving onto the divisional round next week.
The home teams are all favored to win with the Chicago Bears being the biggest favorite to knock off the Philadelphia Eagles late Sunday afternoon.
There are three quarterbacks who are making their first playoff start (Mitch Trubisky - Bears, Lamar Jackson - Ravens and Deshaun Watson - Texans) while two of the starting QB's include Super Bowl winners Nick Foles (Philadelphia Eagles) and Russell Wilson (Seattle Seahawks) who will be looking to get back to the big game in a few weeks.
There will be many twists and turns the next couple of weeks as the teams battle it out and the many football analysts will talk and talk and talk about those teams and the individual players of those teams.
Keeping it simple, here is a brief breakdown of the wild card games with the Heftyinfo predictions following up.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 5
Indianapolis Colts (10-6) at Houston Texans (11-5) - Look for the Colts to go after Texans QB Deshaun Watson, who was sacked 62 times in the regular season. Both teams will look to run the football while airing it out with top flight receivers (Colts have T.Y. Hilton and Texans have DeAndre Hopkins). Colts rate the edge at tight end with Eric Ebron, but Houston has many more stalwarts on defense, led by J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney. These two teams split the two games in the regular season.
Seattle Seahawks (10-6) at Dallas Cowboys (10-6) - The Seahawks beat the Dallas Cowboys (Week 3) 24-13 up in Seattle, but this time the game is being played in Dallas. Cowboys "big three" of QB Dak Prescott, RB Ezekiel Elliott and WR Amari Cooper will look to break the solid Seattle defense. Seattle QB Russell Wilson has been there and done that when it comes to playoff football, so the Cowboys defense will have a challenge.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 6
Los Angeles Chargers (12-4) at Baltimore Ravens (10-6) - The Ravens utilized two big plays to win at Los Angeles two weeks ago, 22-10 as the defense sacked L.A. quarterback Philip Rivers four times and picked off two passes. The Ravens with their running attack have caught recent opponents off guard with rookie QB Lamar Jackson leading the way. The Chargers will have the advantage of having seen this type of offense before, so it will be just a matter of executing on defense once the game starts. Chargers have been banged up in recent weeks, but will likely have RB Austin Ekeler along with Melvin Gordon and possibly even tight end Hunter Henry to help bolster the offense.
Philadelphia Eagles (9-7) at Chicago Bears (12-4) - The Bears have arguably the best defense in the NFL this year and the Eagles will be hard pressed to break that defense, which has been dominating opponents the last four weeks. Linebacker Khalil Mack is the leader of the Bears defense so Philly QB Nick Foles will have a real test as he seeks to lead the Eagles back to another Super Bowl run. As long as the Eagles aren't able to mix things up on offense, the Bears should be able to keep this game low scoring. If it becomes a free-for-all (doubtful) then the Eagles rate the edge.
The Heftyinfo picks for the Wild Card Round . . . . . . . (Home teams are listed in bold)
Indianapolis over Houston
Seattle over Dallas
LA Chargers over Baltimore
Chicago over Philadelphia
Last Week's Record - 12-4
REGULAR SEASON RECORD - 169-85-2
Lock of the Week Record - 15-2
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