Sunday Games:
Houston Texans (12-5, 1-0 in playoffs) at New England Patriots (14-3, 1-0 in playoffs)
This should be an intense game. Figure it will likely be old school kind of playoff football. Neither team is flashy, and defense likely will dictate the tempo. Under such conditions, mistakes will be critical, particularly since the forecast calls for snow.
Both teams have tough, even elite, defenses. New England's is a bit underrated, but the Texans have a defense that was so good that it had people standing up and taking notice. That defense ranked close to the top in many key categories, including both overall yards and points allowed. The Patriots struggled to score 16 points last weekend against the Chargers. Frankly, they might be lucky if they score as many points as that in this one.
Yes, I know that the Pats offense ranked near the top of the league, statistically. On average, they scored nearly 29 points per game. But they were not playing defenses on the caliber of what they will face in this game against the Houston Texans.
By the way, don't overlook what Houston can do on offense. Statistically, they were a middle of the road kind of an offense. Yet, their running game was highly effective last weekend at Pittsburgh, which also was played in frigid conditions, as this one will be. If the Texans can establish their running game, and if C.J. Stroud avoids some of the glaring mistakes that he made in an uncharacteristically mistake-prone game last weekend, they can win. Especially if they do not make the critical mistakes, especially turnovers.
In the end, expect this to be a tough game from beginning to end. It is absolutely critical for the Texans not to turn the ball over, not to give the Pats chances with unforced errors. If they manage to do that, they should win. On the other hand, if they turn the ball over and play as sloppy as they seemed to last weekend, it should be the Pats who emerge victorious.
For now, I cautiously will pick the road team, mostly on the sheer strength of their defense, which feels like it was built for a potentially long playoff run in January.
My pick: Houston
LA Rams (12-5, 1-0 in playoffs) at Chicago Bears (12-5, 1-0 in playoffs)
Well now, it feels like the weather could be more of a factor in this game than in the earlier game, simply because the Rams, historically, do not have a fantastic history when playing in incliment weather.
The last time that the Rams had to play a postseason game at Soldier Field, it proved to be a disaster. They got shut out, 24-0. I even remember that game. That said, that was against the legendary '85 Bears, who probably were the most dominant single season team that I have ever seen. Don't expect this version of the Bears to be that good.
Still, the fact that this game will be played in frigid Chicago, possibly under snowy conditions, might bode well for Da Bears.
Yet, the Rams played well in the snow last year in the playoffs against the Eagles. Remember, they gave Philly the toughest challenge that the Eagles would face in the playoffs, en route to that Super Bowl title. This Rams team feels possibly even better than that version of the Rams from last year. And remember, they played surprisingly well in the cold and the snow.
So while the Bears do enjoy home field advantage, and they look like they are flying high after knocking off their division rivals, the Packers, this should be a much tougher contest. These two teams do not really have all that much familiarity with each other, which makes it a bit trickier to predict an outcome here.
That said, I am going for the road team to pull off an impressive win in the cold and possibly the snow, to advance to Seattle for what then would be an interesting NFC title game against division rivals with considerable familiarity with one another.
My pick: LA Rams
No comments:
Post a Comment