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Cincinnati at Tennessee
The pressure of winning a single playoff game is now off the Bengals, so that is good. However, there is a new pressure: the Bengals have never won a postseason game on the road. Yes, that’s right, the Bengals have won six playoff games in their history, and all of those were played right in Cincinnati. This game, however, is in Nashville. Not an especially long road trip, but a road trip nonetheless. So for Cincy to win, they would have to do something that has never been done in franchise history. Whether or not that is too much of a tall order for them remains to be seen.
Tennessee may see the return of Derrick Henry, who was a real force for the Titans earlier this season. However, that is still a question that is up in the air yet. Even if he does wind up playing, there ae questions about just how effective he will be, since he may be less than 100 percent. He now has a steel plate in his foot. Seriously, he does (see the link to the article below for verification, if you like). So that remains an uncertainty.
Still, the Titans were the number one seed for a reason. They were a tough, physical team, very much in the mode of their head coach, former Patriot Mike Vrabel. They can both score points and win in shootouts, or on the other extreme, they can win low-scoring, mostly defensive games. They held six opponents to 17 points or less this season, including two playoff teams. And they certainly know how to win against playoff caliber teams, having beaten a number of them earlier this season in consecutive weeks. Remember, they downed the Chiefs, Bills, and Rams in quick succession. More recently, they also squeaked out a win over the 49ers. So this team knows how to play in tough games.
Yet, the Titans suffered from something that plagued almost every NFL team this season, including the Bengals. Namely, they were inconsistent. They could look awesome one week, having beaten a number of winning teams and amassing an impressive win streak themselves, only to fall flat at home and lose to a 1-7 team, and then follow that up by getting blown out. So the Bengals can feel confident that they have a chance in this one, because the Titans can and have been stopped, even at home.
Both of these teams have been kind of up and down. The Bengals also enjoyed some impressive wins against playoff teams, including the Chiefs, the Raiders (on the road in Las Vegas) and a season sweep of the Steelers, and both of those were blowout wins. However, the Bengals also fell flat a number of times, like getting swept by the Browns (one of those games was a blowout loss at home), and another loss to the lowly Jets. They did beat the Raiders last weekend, but winning at home against a team that just barely qualified for the postseason is very different than going on the road to face the top seed in the conference.
In short, neither team is exactly a sure thing. However, it feels like the Titans are the better overall team going into this one. With home field advantage, and the possible addition of Henry, they are my pick to take this game.
My pick: Tennessee
San Francisco at Green Bay
at
Green Bay Packers
The 49ers were impressive in earning the only victory by a road team in last weekend’s Wildcard games. They jumped out ahead early, and always seemed tom dictate the tempo, ultimately sending Dallas to defeat.
Now, the Green Bay Packers present a whole different challenge. The Cowboys have been kind of an up and down team all season, and really, through the course of many years now. The Packers, meanwhile, were the most consistent winning team in the league, the team with the best overall record. So Green Bay is a far more experienced team than Dallas was. Also, the Packers should also enjoy a stronger home field advantage than did the Cowboys, given that it is supposed to be frigid for this game, with temperatures well below freezing at Lambeau Field. Those are some of the obvious differences.
However, this has one major similarity: it is starting to be a classic playoff rivalry. These two teams met four years in a row back in the nineties, and then met once in 2001. The Packers won the vast majority of those meetings, winning four of the five, although the Niners won the most memorable meeting, often known as “The Catch 2.” Still, remember that in this rivalry, the 49ers have held the advantage in recent playoff meetings. They met three times in the 2010’s, with the 49ers winning each of those meetings, and the most recent meeting was just two seasons ago, when San Francisco advanced to the Super Bowl.
That should give the 49ers some confidence that they can beat the Packers. Yet, that was in San Francisco. This time, it will be at Green Bay. Also, the Packers have won the last two meetings between these two team, beating the 49ers both this season and last season, and winning by some margin both times, as well. But we can also wonder whether the 49ers were the same team, because they were riddled with injuries until quite recently this season.
So this is the ninth playoff meeting between these two franchises – eclipsing the Giants-49ers playoff rivalry, my personal favorite - since their first playoff meetings following the 1995-96 season. The 49ers were the defending champions then, and the Packers pulled off a huge win against the heavily favored Niners. They would beat San Francisco the next season en route to their first Super Bowl title in just under three decades. That marks the only time to date that the winner of the playoff meeting between these two teams went on to win it all. However, the winner of this particular playoff rivalry did advance to become NFC champions three other times. And whoever wins this one figures to have a real shot at winning the NFC title game to reach Super Bowl LVI.
However, the Packers also should feel confident that they can and perhaps should win this game. After all, they are the number one seed for a reason. They worked hard all season so that they could get the playoff bye, and then earn home field advantage throughout. If it means anything, it should mean something for the Pack this weekend. After all, they were the only team in the league to sport a perfect 8-0 record at home, and the conditions should prove pretty brutal for this weekend. There might be snow early, the temperatures are supposed to remain well below freezing, and by game time, the wind chill factor is expected to make it feel like well below zero. All of those factors should help the Packers.
My pick: Green Bay Packers
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