And just like that, we’re left with eight.
It’s officially offseason for three quarters of the NFL, including six teams that were freshly dispatched over Wild Card Weekend. I’ll take a peek at what’s next for those half-dozen organizations, with a few really interesting quarterback situations among the topics of conversation.
But the real meat and potatoes is the upcoming Divisional Round. Pound for pound, this is the best football weekend, I say. And after five of the six wild-card games were decided by two or more scores, getting four bangers in this round would really hit the spot.
On paper, the matchups look pretty terrific, simmering to a full-on boil by Sunday night.
The Texans kick off the weekend, coming off their best showing in at least a month. Can they go back to Arrowhead and catch the Chiefs sluggish off their extended break?
Commanders-Lions is our Saturday night special, as fascinating of a matchup as you could hope for at this stage. Jayden Daniels vs. the injury-riddled-yet-resilient Lions defense.
The fearless, fighting Rams will be flying into Philadelphia on emotion, having just taken out the 14-win Vikings with relative ease. Are the Eagles on upset watch in Sunday’s opener?
Capping it all off is the presumed centerpiece of the weekend: Ravens at Bills. You know the storylines, headlined by arguably the two most dangerous quarterbacks in the NFL right now. It just feels like a true toss-up game, so much so that I bumped the Ravens up in these rankings, putting them right on the Bills’ heels. Had Buffalo not rallied after an opening haymaker by Denver to ultimately blow out the Broncos, I probably would have jumped the Ravens ahead of the Bills. Sunday night will determine whether I made the right call or not. The way Baltimore is playing, I’m prepared to look bad.
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