First up,, but with a 3:05 kickoff, its the wild card winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on the NFC North Champion Green Bay Packers in the NFC title game. Tampa Bay reached the title game after beating Washington wild card weekend and New Orleans in the divisional round. This marks the first NFC Title game appearance for the Bucs since 2002 and the 4th time ever they've played in this game. Their only win in the NFC title game came back in 2002. Green Bay got here by beating the Rams in the divisional round. This marks the 2nd year in a row for the Packers in the NFC title game and the 9th time overall, going 3-5 in previous 8 games. This is the 2nd ever meeting between teams in the playoffs, with the Packers winning the only other meeting in the 1997 divisional round.
This is the battle of the old guard of sorts between the quarterbacks. Tom Brady taking on Aaron Rogers is going to be one of those kind of knock down drag out fights. Green Bay can throw the ball, there's no argument there. They have the better shot at the deep game then what the Bucs saw against the Saints last week. Green Bay has the talent to hang with anybody, which is why they finished with the best record in the NFC this year. But the Packers can be shut down and the Bucs have a pretty good defense. Look what they did against New Orleans last week. The Bucs have a balanced attack at both running and throwing the ball. Fournette and Jones make a pretty good one, two punch at being able to run the ball. Evans and Goodwin are pretty good at catching the ball as well, so Tampa has the ability, at least on paper better then Green Bay, to be able to move the ball around. You also have to factor weather into this game too. Brady maybe used to the cold, but some of his backs and receivers might not be as used to it, which could end up helping the Packers a little as far as staying in this game goes. At the end of the day I think that the Bucs might be a slightly hotter team.
Pick: Tampa Bay 30, Green Bay 27
Then, the AFC title game, which kicks off at 5:40, will see the AFC East champion Buffalo Bills taking on the AFC West champion Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas CIty got here after dispatching Cleveland in the divisional round to make it to the AFC title game for the 3rd year in a row. Its also the 3rd time ever that the Chiefs are in the title game. They are 1-1, beating the Titans last year and losing to New England the year before. Buffalo got here by beating Indianapolis in the wild card round and Baltimore in the divisional round. Its the first AFC title game appearance for the Bills since 1993. Buffalo is 8-1 lifetime in the AFC title game, this being the 10th game. This is the 4th ever meeting between teams in the playoffs, with the Bills winning two of the previous three.
The complexity of this game changed greatly last week when Patrick Mahomes left the game with a concussion. There's no way of knowing whether, as of this writing, he's going to be good to go. even if Mahomes does go, there's no way of knowing how effective of a passer he's going to be. Chad Henne is a decent QB at this level, but its a major downgrade from Mahomes if he can't go. And with the way that Hill and Kelce have played in the passing game, its going to make things tough for a good Buffalo defense to deal with. Kansas City already beat the Bills 26-17 back in week six. But this could be a much different situation between then and now and a lot of it is going to depend on QB play and Mahomes health. At the other side of things, Josh Allen outplayed a quarterback with a similar style in Lamar Jackson last weekend. Buffalo has had a pretty balanced attack and their defense has been stiflingly good this year. They got by on the skin of their teeth against the Colts and did a little better against Baltimore last weekend. This one is a little closer to call but I think, with the way last week played out, edge has to go to the team in Blue.
Pick: Buffalo 30, Kansas City 27
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