NFL 2024-25 (Wild Card)

Fans of teams that just miss the playoffs complaining about why and how they got screwed is just as much of a right of January as fans of bad teams complaining about the win that cost them the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.  This season, it was Bengals and Seahawks fans' turn to whine.  For Cincinnati, it's the Chiefs' fault because of their completely not caring at all against Denver last week.  That had nothing to do with Kansas City having already clinched the 1-seed in the AFC and wanting to rest their starters.  It was entirely because they didn't want the Bengals in the playoffs.  Obviously!

Seahawks fans, meanwhile, were "screwed" by the NFL's strength of victory tiebreaker, which allowed the Rams to clinch the division before the two teams met each other in Week 18.  Seattle won to finish 10-7, the same record as the Rams, and the first four tiebreakers (head-to-head, division record, common opponents, conference record) were all even, so it came down to strength of victory.  I'm still not entirely sure how a team could get screwed by a preexisting tiebreaker, yet somehow Seahawks fans think they were.  Of course, if they had just, you know, beaten the Giants at home, they wouldn't have had this problem!  (Ditto with the Bengals.  If they wanted to be in the playoffs, maybe they shouldn't have started 1-4 and lost to the Patriots!)

Instead, Cincinnati and Seattle are at home watching the playoffs.  And Wild Card Weekend is giving us some intriguing matchups.  Two of the NFC games are Week 1 rematches.  The third is a rematch of the Vikings' only loss this season to a team other than the Lions.  Then in the AFC, you've got hated division rivals meeting for the second time in less than a month and two AFC West teams back in the postseason as wild card teams.

No. 1 seeds Detroit and Kansas City also get to watch Wild Card Weekend from home.  With their bye already wrapped up, the Chiefs didn't care last week and it showed.  The Lions, meanwhile, knew they needed the bye and they played like it last week.  Frankly, they look like the best team in football.  I'll be very surprised if they don't finally make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.

Chargers (11-6) at Texans (10-7): Chargers-Death, taxes, and the Texans hosting the Saturday afternoon Wild Card Game.  That's just another one of those crazy stats.  Houston has made the playoffs eight times.  Eight times they's played the Saturday 4:30 game.  I'm not sure why they're complaining, though.  They're 5-2 all-time in their previous Saturday afternoon home Wild Card Games.  Getting to 6-2 will be difficult against a Chargers team that has proven its plenty capable of winning on the road.

Of course, the Chargers enter with some playoff demons from their last appearance when they blew a 27-0 lead against Jacksonville two years ago.  This Chargers team is better than that one, and Jim Harbaugh is now their coach.  That's the biggest difference between these Chargers and the 2022 Chargers.  Houston obviously has the benefit of playing at home.  The Chargers are the better team, though, so they're the pick.

Steelers (10-7) at Ravens (12-5): Baltimore-When these two met on a Saturday in Week 16 (they're each playing on Saturday for the third time in four weeks), it was the Steelers who had the inside track to the division title.  The Ravens won that game handily, then really took it to Houston on Christmas before beating Cleveland to clinch the division.  Pittsburgh, meanwhile, enters the playoffs on a four-game losing streak that saw them fall from the 3-seed in the AFC to the 6-seed.  Worse, it sent them on the road to face their rival.

Even though the Ravens had already clinched, Pittsburgh went all out against Cincinnati since they wanted the 5-seed.  That, of course, didn't happen, and the Steelers are stuck with the matchup they tried to avoid.  And they didn't want to avoid it just because of the familiarity.  They wanted to avoid it because the Ravens are a legitimate Super Bowl contender.  (Someone posted a graphic the other day pointing out that their Super Bowl titles came 12 years apart with a 31-year-old quarterback each time.  It's been 12 years since they last won, and Lamar Jackson is 31.)  Baltimore has been playing like it for the past month, too.

Broncos (10-7) at Bills (13-4): Buffalo-Denver's last playoff game was Super Bowl 50.  The MVP of that game?  Von Miller...who now plays for the Buffalo Bills!  So, yeah, it's been a while.  But it's great to have the Broncos back!  It took Sean Payton a year, but he put it all together in Year 2 to finally end the Broncos' playoff drought.  And, say what you want about the Chiefs' effort last week, but the Broncos knew that was a must-win and brought that mentality.  There was no way they were losing.

Unfortunately, their return to the playoffs will likely end in Buffalo.  It's funny how everyone was up in arms about Kansas City's lack of intensity in Week 18, yet not a peep about the Bills doing exactly the same thing in a season-ending loss to the Patriots.  Of course, for the Bills, it made even more sense since they knew they were playing this week.  The Patriots game was out of their minds even before New England fired Jerod Mayo.  There will be no hangover and Buffalo will advance to the Divisional Playoffs for the fifth straight season.

Packers (11-6) at Eagles (14-3): Philadelphia-If there's one NFC team I can see beating the Lions, it's Philadelphia.  The Eagles have been one of the best teams in football all season, and they showed it again last week when they sat their starters and still beat the Giants.  They used the opportunity to rest some players, which was important with the number of injuries they've been dealing with.  Now they open the playoffs with a rematch of their opening game in Brazil against the Packers.

Prior to last week, Green Bay's only losses this season were to the Eagles, Lions (twice) and Vikings (twice).  Yet, their 11-6 record was only good enough for the 7-seed in the playoffs.  They're an incredibly dangerous 7-seed, though.  They were also the 7-seed last year, when they went into Dallas and completely dominated the Cowboys before almost winning in San Francisco a week later.  Don't think the Eagles aren't aware of that little factoid.  Philadelphia knows this one will be a dogfight.  In the end, though, the Eagles' offensive firepower should win out.

Commanders (12-5) at Buccaneers (10-7): Washington-I'm still not entirely sure why this one is the Sunday night game (I figured it'd be Ravens-Steelers), but here we are.  A rematch of Week 1, when Tampa Bay came away with a 37-20 victory.  The Commanders are a much different team now, however.  They've won five in a row, and Jayden Daniels really has that offense clicking.  What a difference a year has made in Washington!

The last time Washington made the playoffs in 2020, they played Tampa Bay in a Wild Card Game, and it was the start of the Bucs' run of three road wins before playing and winning a home Super Bowl.  Tampa Bay has won the NFC South every year since then and is meeting an NFC East team in a Wild Card Game for the fifth straight time.  Getting the 3-seed meant they avoided playing the Vikings.  I'm not sure playing the Commanders instead was much of a consolation prize.   Because I see Washington getting its first playoff win in 19 years, when they beat...Tampa Bay (this is the third playoff meeting between these two since 2005, and Washington has had a different team name each time).

Vikings (14-3) vs Rams (10-7): Rams-There's absolutely no chance they would've been able to play this game at SoFi Stadium with the situation in Los Angeles right now.  So, moving the game and moving it when they did was 100 percent the right call.  Although, the Rams are certainly hurt by the venue change much more than the Vikings benefit from it.  Gone is their home field advantage.  Instead, this is a neutral-site contest against a team that had four more regular season wins than they did.

Ultimately, though, I'm not sure it matters.  The Rams beat the Vikings in the regular season and have gotten all of their main weapons back.  They look primed for a playoff run.  Minnesota lost to Detroit and ended up as a wild card team, then drew the Rams instead what, for them, must've been a more favorable matchup against Tampa Bay.  The Rams are obviously playing for a lot more than just themselves, too.  They win it for all of LA on Monday night.

Last Week: 10-6
Overall: 177-95