The NFL playoffs are finally starting, and this weekend there were some interesting matchups. The Saints played the Carolina Panthers, the Falcons played the Rams, the Chiefs played the Titans, and the Bills played the Jaguars.
The most intriguing matchup to me was between the Saints and the Panthers because these two teams are division rivals and both of them have the potential to win the Super Bowl. I definitely gave the Saints a slight advantage over the Panthers in this game, because of a couple of factors.
First, the Saints were playing at home in New Orleans, and every football fan knows that it is nearly impossible to beat the Saints when they are playing at home. Second, the Saints have a very balanced offense this year, which is very different than previous years. Normally, they rely on Drew Brees to lead the offense, but this year, rather than just having Brees throw the football the entire game, the Saints now have two very strong running backs that have played phenomenally this year. The Panthers on the other hand, have had some very inconsistent play from Cam Newton this year, so it was hard to predict which Newton would show up for this game.
Newton has proven that he is a top-tier quarterback in the NFL, and since this was a playoff game, I assumed that Newton would play lights out, but as I stated before, he has been very inconsistent. The Panthers also do not have a balanced attack like the Saints do this year, and the wide receivers for the Panthers have not been providing Newton with much help either. However, since Greg Olsen is now back playing for the Panthers, this gave Newton more help on offense, and with Jonathan Stewart being pretty healthy, this definitely increased the Panthers chances of winning this game as well.
Another interesting playoff matchup this weekend was between the Falcons and the Rams. I thought that this game would be very unpredictable simply because the Falcons have been very inconsistent this year too. The Rams have played amazingly all year, but they did lose their starting kicker for the remainder of the season, and we all know how vital it is to have a good kicker.
Also, the Rams have a very young team, and for most of them, this was their first playoff game. It is important for players to have prior playoff experience, but I do not think that this hurt the Rams chances of winning this game. They have a very good coach in Sean McVay, a pretty solid young quarterback in Jared Goff, a great running back in Todd Gurley, and a very strong defense. We all know that the Falcons have Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, and Devonta Freeman, but this is simply not the same Falcons team that went to the Super Bowl last year. I expected this game to be very competitive.
I did not think that the other two playoff match-ups would be as competitive as the first two that I analyzed earlier. I thought that the Jaguars would easily beat the Bills because the Jaguars simply have a much better team. As long as Blake Bortles did not make mistakes, the Jaguars should win the game convincingly.
I also expected the Chiefs to have a solid victory over the Titans because the Chiefs roster is much better than the Titans. Alex Smith has proven that he is a very good quarterback, and even though the Chiefs struggled in the latter part of the year, I think that the team has found their stride once again, and I did not expect to see a close game.
This was a very fun weekend for football fans everywhere, and this year’s NFL playoffs should be very exciting too.