After the completion of a grueling 18 week season, the best part has finally arrived. The 32 hopefuls from September has now been whittled down to just 14 left chasing that elusive and coveted Super Bowl trophy. Every game from here on out is win or go home, and this is a year where it truly feels wide open as no dominant team/obvious favorite emerged from the regular season. Usual favorites like Kansas City, Baltimore, and Detroit did not even make the field, while a plethora of exciting newcomers did such as Seattle, New England, Jacksonville, Chicago and Carolina.
Seattle and Denver have earned the week off by virtue of earning the #1 seed in their respective conferences. The other 12 teams will duke it out this weekend for the right to be in the final 8. With 6 games happening between Saturday afternoon and Monday evening, I wanted to dive deeper into each, predicting some winners and ranking the match ups themselves from least-exciting to can't miss football. Also stay tuned for bonus content at the very end...
6th most exciting: #5 Los Angeles Rams @ #4 Carolina Panthers
Saturday @ 4:30 on FOX
There are 5 match ups that I genuinely believe can go either way, and then one match up where it feels like there is an obvious favorite. This game is that "one", and hence why it ranks last. The Rams feel like a team capable of winning a Super Bowl, the Panthers feel like a team who is just happy to be here.
No disrespect to Carolina, but they have a losing record (8-9) and are only here due to an epic collapse by Tampa in conjunction with Atlanta riding in on a white horse over the final two weeks. The fact that the Panthers lost their final game yet still ultimately won the division and got in is a fitting ending to the pitiful NFC South.
On the contrary, the NFC West was the strongest division in football, not just this year but in the past handful of years. The Rams, Seahawks, and 49ers each won at least 12 games, all 3 are capable of winning the Super Bowl.
Kudos to the Panthers for winning the division for the first time since 2016 and making the playoffs for the first time since 2018. For what it's worth, the last team with a losing record to win a playoff game was, coincidentally, the 2014 Panthers. It's also worth mentioning that these teams did play in Week 13 in Carolina with the Panthers scoring a surprising 31-28 victory. But I'm not expecting history to repeat (on either front).
This feels like a game where Carolina's effort will be there, and the home crowd will be loud and excited to have playoff football in Charlotte for the first time in a decade, but the talent disparity between them and the Rams will ultimately lead to a multi-score Rams victory. The Panthers are a Cinderella who have already outpunched their weight just by getting here and anything further would be icing on the cake. But the Rams have Super Bowl aspirations and a roster and coaching staff capable of reaching that goal. A loss to Carolina would be an astronomically disappointing ending and I just don't see them allowing that to happen.
Rams 28 Panthers 17
5th most exciting: #5 Houston Texans @ #4 Pittsburgh Steelers
From here forward, I think every game will be close. Putting this one second to last is not a knock whatsoever, but rather a testament to how highly I think of the other games. The initial vibe I get when looking at this one is a low-scoring slugfest as both teams lean on their elite defenses. Expect it to be cold as well as this is a prime time kick off in Pittsburgh.
The main storyline for the Steelers is obvious, 42 year old Aaron Rodgers is getting one last shot. The Steelers were the only team willing to roll the dice on Rodgers in the twilight of his career, but their faith in him paid off as Pittsburgh won the AFC North and made it back to the playoffs. Rodgers is probably equally grateful the Steelers were willing to take a gamble on him, it was a long couple years in New York prior and Rodgers hasn't been in the playoffs since his second-to-last season in Green Bay in 2022.
The other big storyline in Pittsburgh is can they finally win a playoff game? The Steelers have lost 6 playoff games in a row dating back to 2017. Mike Tomlin is the longest tenured coach in the NFL currently at 19 seasons, but a 7th straight playoff loss would put his future into question. Making the playoffs every year is great, but at what point are you tired of being always good but never great? This feels like an important game for Tomlin, a win finally gets the monkey off his back and keeps him around, a loss could be reason for concern.
Houston feels like a sneaky dark horse in this whole thing to me. They have an elite defense, a good enough offense, and more experience than every other AFC playoff team except for Buffalo.
