Playoffs in the NFL

The road to the Super Bowl begins in earnest on Saturday as the NFL playoffs kick off with Wild Card Weekend.

For fans of Baltimore, Green Bay, Kansas City and San Francisco, it's a time to enjoy the bye week, relax and scout potential foes. For Tennessee, New England, Buffalo, Houston, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Orleans and Minnesota, it's win or weep.
Houston will open the postseason slate for a second consecutive season as the AFC's No. 4 seed Texans host the No. 5 seed Buffalo Bills in the weekend's first matchup. Led by star quarterback Deshaun Watson, and getting a massive boost from J.J. Watt's return from a pectoral injury, the Texans are looking to avenge last season's Wild Card loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

To do so, they'll have to get past a Bills team that exceeded all expectations in the AFC East thanks to a defense that's been among the NFL's best, limiting teams to fewer than 300 yards per game while forcing 23 turnovers.
If the Texans pull off the victory, they will move on to face either the Chiefs or Ravens on the road. That will depend on the outcome of the second AFC matchup of the week between the Patriots and the Titans.
A whirlwind final week of the season cost New England a first-round bye, while the No. 6 seed Tennessee Titans captured the final wild card with a 35-14 victory over Houston. Now the No. 3 seed, the Patriots will attempt to prove their dynasty hasn't ended yet against Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, who won three Super Bowl titles as a player with New England and helped establish the franchise as a powerhouse.
At the end of it all, the top-seeded Ravens will welcome the lowest-remaining seed to Baltimore for the Divisional Round, while the highest remaining seed will ship off to Kansas City to face the No. 2 Chiefs.
  

Get ready for the Chiefs

Sunday's slate opens with what on paper seems like the game of the weekend when the No. 3 Saints try to avenge the Minnesota Miracle from 2018 and knock off the No. 6 Vikings. If that wasn't enough to get New Orleans motivated, it also has the weight of a blown call in last year's NFC Championship game that kept the Saints from the Super Bowl.
With Kirk Cousins running the offense, Stefon Diggs continued terrorizing cornerbacks in a 2019 season that saw him go from exploring a trade out of Minnesota to surpassing 1,000 yards for the second straight season. He'll be the Saints' top priority on defense after his 61-yard touchdown reception as time expired knocked New Orleans out of the playoffs two years ago.

Yet it's the Saints who are entering Sunday with the stronger offense. Led by the league's newly minted all-time passing leader in Drew Brees, wideout Michael Thomas and running back Alvin Kamara, New Orleans boasts the third-highest scoring team in league at 28.6 points per game—which explains why the Vikings-Saints game has the biggest spread of any Wild Card Weekend matchup. If there's one game that's likely to turn into shootout, this is it.

The opening weekend of the playoffs closes with No. 5 Seattle against No. 4 Philadelphia, two veteran teams that are still tough matchups in the playoffs.
The Seahawks just barely missed out on winning the NFC West in Week 17, but it gets a favorable matchup in the Eagles. The NFC East couldn't trip over itself enough this season and sends a 9-7 Philadelphia team to the postseason where it hopes an experienced roster can guide it back to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years.
It won't get many favors along the way.

The highest NFC seed to advance out of Wild Card Weekend will travel to Green Bay to face the No. 2 Packers, while the No. 1 49ers will host the lowest remaining seed.

The Gunslinger