The Ravens, as mentioned before struggled at the end of the regular season, only winning once in their final five games of the year. They were however successful in beating the Colts at home last weekend in the Wild Card. As for the Broncos, they are coming in hot, having won their last eleven games of the regular season. The big talk of course has been around Denver's quarterback Payton Manning. He had a great regular season in his return from major injury last year. The only knock on Payton is that he isn't as great in the playoffs as he is during the regular season, only compiling a 9-10 career record in the playoffs. The upside to this is that in his career, Payton is 7-2 lifetime against Baltimore. Yes the Ravens are a good football team, and yes everybody wants to see Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis get his ring on his last ride, but Denver is gonna be too much to handle. Denver's defense is better then the Indy defense the Ravens faced last week. As for the Bronco offense, they have a healthy Manning, plus he has two healthy targets to throw to in Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker and it will be too much for the Ravens. i'll take Denver by two touchdowns.
Next up is the Saturday Night game which has the Green Bay Packers hitting the road to take on the San Francisco 49ers in San Fran. The kickoff for this game is set for 8PM. The Packers playoff history has been well documented, as they have won a total of 13 NFL Championships, the last one coming in 2009. Including the Packers win over the Vikings last week, Green Bay is now 30-19 all time in the Playoffs. As for the 49ers, this is the 2nd straight year they have made the playoffs after missing it every year since 2002. San Francisco has played in five Superbowls in the history of the franchise and they have won all five games, the last title coming in 1994. The 49ers are 27-19 all time in the Playoffs. In head to head matchups during the playoffs, these two teams have met five times, with the Packers winning four of the five. The lone win for the 49ers against the Pack was in 1998. These two teams met once during the regular season, and it was the opening game of the year back on September 9th. It was a game at Lambeau Field and the 49ers came away with a 30-22 victory.
Both teams went on to win their respective divisions this season, but the Packers finished 11-5 and won five of their last seven, despite losing the final game of the regular season. The 49ers won their division with a record of 11-4-1, and 5-2-1 in their last eight games. Things look a bit different for the 49ers since the Packers last saw them On opening weekend, Alex Smith was the starting quarterback for the 49ers, and now its Colin Kaepernick. Yes the 49ers have done pretty well with Kaepernick under center but it's a different team for sure then with Alex Smith. As for the Packers, they have gotten hot at the right time, knocking off the Vikings last week. Plus the Pack is getting healthier, and will have Charles Woodson back at Corner Back this weekend. The Pack is fully healthy and have the better team statistically then the 49ers do. Finally the Packers have picked up wins against tougher teams during the regular season then the 49ers have. Green Bay is the better team and will prove it on Saturday. This game will be the best game of the weekend but Packers take it by a touchdown.
Now we move on to the Sunday games. We start it off with the 1PM game which has the Seattle Seahawks going south to play the Atlanta Falcons. For the Seahawks they have played in one Superbowl in their history and they fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers back in 2005. Including last weeks win over the Redskins, the Seahawks are 9-11 all time in the playoffs. As for the Falcons, this is the third straight year of making the playoffs for the team. Atlanta's best playoff run was in 1998 when they lost in the Superbowl to the Denver Broncos. All time the Falcons franchise is 6-11 in the playoffs. These two teams have never met before in the playoffs, and they didn't play each other during the regular season.
This one may be a close game to call. Seattle is coming in red hot. Including last week's win over the Redskins, Seattle has now won six straight games. The last team to beat the Seahawks was the Dolphins back on November 25th. Atlanta stumbled, loosing the last game of the regular season to Tampa Bay, but Atlanta did manage to win seven of their final ten games to close out the regular season. This one is a close game to call but I give the Falcons the edge, and for two reasons. One, Seattle is going to be without one of their best pass rushers in Defensive End Chris Clemens, who had 11 sacks and has been a big threat in the pass rush game. Also Falcon's Quarterback Matt Ryan is an unreal 33-4 all time at home in the Georgia Dome. With Clemens being out, Ryan is gonna have more time in the pocket and will light up the Seahawks defense. Atlanta wins it by a pair of touchdowns and celebrates their first playoff victory since 2005.
And finally we take a look at the last game of the weekend, a 4:30 kickoff with the New England Patriots playing host to the Houston Texans. The Texans have made the playoffs in back to back seasons and are coming off their victory last week against the Bengals. With the win the Texans are now 2-1 all time in the playoffs. Meanwhile the New England Patriots have played in seven Superbowls winning three of them. their last two trips to the Big Game however have resulted in losses to the New York Giants, last year being the most recent. All time the Patriots are 23-16 in the playoffs. These two teams have never met before in the playoffs. They did play once during the regular season, it was back on December 10th and the Patriots CRUSHED the Texans 42-14 in New England.
Houston won over the Bengals last week in the playoffs but have stumbled a bit over the past month loosing three of their last five games, including the Monday Night game to the Patriots. New England is coming in hot winning seven of the final eight games of the year. The only loss by the Patriots in that time was back on December 16th at home to the 49ers. For the Texans Arian Foster has been carrying the team, while QB Matt Schaub has struggled pretty bad the past few weeks. The Texans have a good defense but the one the Patriots have is better and this will just be a dominate performance by the Patriots. new England wins it by two touchdowns easy.
So there you have it my predictions for the divisional round of the playoffs. So just kick back, relax and enjoy some great football!
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