After a great first weekend of the playoffs in the wild card, the Chiefs and Eagles finally get the chance to show the NFL world what they have after having a bye last week. The Eagles are at home against the #6 seed New York Giants and the Chiefs, in arguably one of the best home field advantages in football, have the #4 seed Jaguars at home.
Starting off with the Eagles taking on the Giants. The two teams, in the same division, have already met twice this season and the Eagles have taken both of those games. I'll make it simple, the Eagles are the much better overall team that are no doubt taking this game over the overachieving Giants.
The Eagles had a full week off to prepare for their third matchup of the season with the Giants and lets not forget, they are the #1 seed for a reason. They dominated all year and they are only three wins away from that domination paying off into a super bowl title. I have the Eagles winning big at home over the Giants as their brief run will end in Philadelphia.
Moving onto the other #1 seed, in the AFC it is the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Like the Eagles and the Giants, these teams met before in the regular season with the Chiefs pulling out a close one at home against Jacksonville. But the Jags are a totally different team now. The team we saw in Kansas City earlier in the regular season is not remotely close to the team we now are seeing.
The Jags are a very inexperienced, young team with a great head coach taking on one of the most experienced teams in the NFL and one of the best head coaches of all time. If you were picking a David vs Goliath matchup for the weekend, this is it. At the end of the day, I give lots of praise to the Jags for how they turned things around this season, but I still have the Chiefs winning this game in a close one.
Staying in the AFC, the game taking place on Sunday is the Bills and the Bengals. Just a few weeks ago the Bills and the Bengals matched up on Monday Night in a game which was later cancelled because of the injury to Damar Hamlin. The two teams will now finally get the chance to play a full game to see who should advance to the conference championship.
Both of these teams looked a little rusty just a week ago in the wild card round. They both were favored by wide margins and let their opponents stay in the game all the way until the end. I think this is the hardest game to predict this weekend but at the end of the day, going into Buffalo and winning a playoff game, matter of fact a game itself, is one of the hardest things to do in the NFL, so I have the Bills beating the Bengals in a close one. Both AFC matchups will be close games just like last weekend.
Finally, a rematch from last year's wild card between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers. Two of the most storied franchises in football meet in Santa Clara this weekend with a lot on the line. The Cowboys looked like a completely different team from how they ended the regular season last week against the Bucs, but the 49ers are a totally different and better team than the Bucs.
The 49ers are my pick to go to the super bowl in the NFC and beating the Cowboys is just another obstacle in the way for them to get to that point. The Niners are the most complete team still remaining in the playoffs and I think that plays a huge factor to how they compete with other teams down the stretch. I have the Niners winning this one over the Cowboys, breaking Cowboys fans hearts for a second year in a row.
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