Divisional Round Picks and Takes

The only thing I can predict with full confidence about this weekend’s Divisional Round is that it won’t be more predictable than last weekend’s Wild Card Round (don’t give me this Super Wild Card nonsense, there was nothing super about it).

Blowouts, duds, the Cowboys stepping on a rake, the Dolphins laying an egg in a cold weather game, Joe Flacco turning into a pumpkin and the Browns in general just not having nice things. Who could’ve seen all that coming?

Now we’re onto the Divisional Round and the grim reality that we have just seven football games for us to enjoy between now and August. All we need is a presidential-style debate between Bill Belichick and Jim Harbaugh on why they should be the next head coach of the Falcons and we’d be complete.

Ravens over Texans: Still conflicted on the 9.5-point spread. It’s a lot of points with a Texans team I can see hanging around with a Ravens team that had a tendency to let teams hang around during the regular season. Either way, I still say the Ravens are the class of the AFC and will be one of the two teams in Las Vegas next month.

49ers over Packers: When at full strength this season, the Niners have rolled against inferior opponents. As great as the Packers have played for two months now, they’ll still be an inferior opponent when they go into Santa Clara this weekend. And I just don’t see the Packers defense stopping Christian McCaffrey. 

Lions over Buccaneers: The Lions win over the Rams last weekend, Detroit’s first playoff win in 32 years, and the ensuing scenes at Ford Field was far and away the highlight of last weekend. More importantly, it was a tough, gritty win against an experienced Rams team. The Bucs are coming off a dominant win on Monday, but that game had more to do with how bad the Eagles were than anything the Bucs did.

Chiefs over Bills: Upset pick of the week, as far as Kansas City can actually be an underdog. I trust Reid and Mahomes more than I do Allen and McDermott. The already-banged up Bills suffered more injuries they didn’t need in their win over the Steelers on Monday.