This year’s divisional round is finally here, which means we are ever so close to Super Bowl Sunday. There are a great slate of games this weekend, many that I can honestly say made me think twice before predicting the games. Let’s get right into the predictions!
AFC:
Indianapolis Colts vs. Kansas City Chiefs (Home) – Colts win 35-31
In what is an extremely 50/50 game to predict, we have the red hot Colts going into Arrowhead Stadium against the AFC’s best Kansas City Chiefs. Throughout most of the regular season, we have seen the absolute dominance the KC offense has over all defenses they faced, and I feel as if that won’t change here. Despite the loss of RB Kareem Hunt, the Chiefs should still pile on points. On the defensive end is where it gets interesting though. The Chiefs run defense is one of the worst in football and their secondary is questionable at best. This comes as a major red flag against a team that just had their star running back (Marlon Mack) run for just under 150 yards, and lead receiver (T.Y. Hilton) catch for almost 100 yards on the Houston Texans defense that is ranked amongst the league’s best. This will inevitably be an extremely high scoring game, that will come down to a late game defensive stop to win it. I am just not sure if the KC defense is capable of making such a stop. Indy wins a nail biter.
Los Angeles Chargers vs. New England Patriots (Home) – Chargers win 27-21
The Chargers find themselves in a very interesting position. They just came off of a huge win over a team that exposed many of their flaws just a few weeks before, and now have all the confidence in the world to compete for a Super Bowl title. I feel as if their mission is to not only win their franchise’s first title, to finally add some true history to this team, in addition to getting QB Phillip Rivers his first ring. Stats show that Rivers is the best quarterback in terms of passing yards made and touchdowns scored, to have yet made a Super Bowl appearance. There is a major obstacle standing in front of their aspirations, in the New England Patriots. They once again had a dominant season, especially at home where they finished 8-0. As history has shown as time and time again, QB Tom Brady and his Patriots are not a team one has a good time facing in these sort of “high stake games.” There is a big talking point with these year’s Pats though. That is that Brady, at least during the regular season, has began to show some signs of age and slight deterioration of play. Some of his weapons, especially TE Rob Gronkowski, has really dropped off in play, as well. The Patriots’ defense has also been as “iffy” as it’s been in a while. These signs lead me to believe that despite their strong home record, this year’s Pats are indeed capable of losing in the postseason before reaching the Super Bowl. If the LA Chargers can play as well as a cohesive unit that they did during their Wild Card game against the Ravens, I think they can very well defeat the Pats in a close game. It’ll be a very interesting watch this weekend.
NFC:
Dallas Cowboys vs. Los Angeles Rams (Home) – Rams win 27-17
The Cowboys beat the Seattle Seahawks last week and what was a close, well fought out game. They have the advantage of home field, which I believe truly helped them get the edge over the Seahawks. Unfortunately for them, they find themselves away from home in the hostile LA Coliseum, against one of the NFC’s strongest teams, the Rams. I think Dallas has the ability to keep it close for most of the game, but in the 4th quarter will give up a big score or two to LA, which will solidify their loss. The Rams now have superstar RB Todd Gurley back and a team that is determined to go far in this year’s playoffs.
Philadelphia Eagles vs. New Orleans Saints (Home) – Saints win 31-24
The defending Super Bowl champs moved on to the divisional round thanks to a miss (or blocked, depending on the perspective) game winning field goal attempt by Chicago Bears’ kicker Cody Parkey. To Philly’s credit though, QB Nick Foles kept them in the game, even when it looked like the Bears would break away. Foles looks to be in peak Super Bowl form as of late, which means he’ll be a handful for any team he faces. Even with Foles’ heroics, I still think it’ll be extremely tough for the Eagles to win at the Superdome against these New Orleans Saints. This Saints team has proven to be the strongest team, not only in the NFC, but in the entirety of the NFL. They will be looking to make a strong impression for their Super Bowl odds in front of their home crowd. I think the Eagles can make it interesting for the most part, but the Saints will prove to be too strong to beat.