Before I get into predictions, I have to address the black and gold elephant in the room. My Steelers should be playing this weekend, but instead they played themselves out of it. I don’t care about Lev not showing up. I don’t care about all the drama with everyone all year. I don’t even care about the awful reffing in a few games down the stretch. At the end of the day, you have nobody to blame when you go out and lose to OAKLAND and DENVER and TIE THE BROWNS. Even the Chargers debacle can be overlooked if y’all win one of those games. The sheer amount of talent on this team should mean a division title ever year, EASILY. You should be competing for a ring every year, but you never do. Whatever. Even without the Steelers, there’s a solid slate of games this weekend. Let’s start with the least interesting one.
Bears 27, Eagles 10
Sorry, Nick. The Eagles are the worst Wild Card team of the bunch. Not a bad thing this year when they’re all actually good, but still. The Bears will be eager to eat up a playoff win in their first appearance since the 2010 season. Their defense will ultimately prove too much at home.
Colts 38, Texans 37
You know it was a wild year when the AFC has 2 compelling games on the first weekend, a pleasure we’ve missed out on the last few years (looking at you, Jaguars vs. Bills). These 2 teams are hot. They also both lack an imposing defensive presence, so we may be looking at a shootout. It has a last second shootout-y feel to it, and the “rivalry” element only adds to the fun. Colts at the buzzer.
Seahawks 23, Cowboys 17
Screw the Cowboys. Year after year we see mediocre quarterbacks stumble in the playoffs, especially ones who have little experience/have never won on the big stage. Dak is both of those things. Russell Wilson is neither one. He’s been there, done that, has one ring, should have two, and has also never gone one and done. The score won’t really do this one justice, but the 12s (ugh) get a win anyway.
Ravens 20, Chargers 9
My regular season predictions were wrong. Maybe I’ll be wrong again. Regardless, I see the Ravens winning this one. They already beat the Chargers pretty easily two weeks ago in LA, and now they come home to an always raucous crowd in Baltimore. The Chargers have never been a team that’s good in prime time, so the 1 o’clock time slot could play to their advantage, but that’s about all they have going for them. The Ravens defense made Rivers look pretty stupid in December, and there’s no reason to believe that’ll change.
There’s my untrained, “biased” predictions for the Wild Card Round. Again, let me reiterate that the Steelers should totally be playing this weekend and they kinda chose not too. It’s nice having no bad teams or Kirk Cousins in the playoffs. We might actually be in for a good matchup every game. See you next week for the “Why I Was Wrong.”
Anderson Burke
CC Sports Weekly 