There’s nothing cooler than saying “win or go residence” in relation to the NFL playoffs. Everyone knows and have recognized perpetually that that is the case, however really saying it out loud rocks.
Throughout the subsequent few days we’ll watch six playoff video games that carry this distinction. Twelve groups will enter, six will go away and legacies might be altered perpetually. Drama. Chaos. Magnificence.
In terms of issues like these the chalk consequence is hardly the most typical one. Sooner or later we’re certain to see an upset or two with the favored crew getting bounced.
Listed here are two prospects of that all through Wild Card Weekend.
Houston Texans over Los Angeles Chargers
For the needs of our dialogue we might be defining upsets alongside the strains of how our buddies at FanDuel Sportsbook have these video games listed. That’s the most goal manner in my thoughts and you might be caught right here so right here we go.
The Houston Texans are the most important residence underdogs of the Wild Card Spherical as, on the time of this writing, they’re simply narrowly edging out the Los Angeles Rams. Houston is +3 whereas the Rams are +2.5, though clearly the Rams recreation isn’t working below regular circumstances so defining their “residence discipline benefit” this week is not possible.
It goes with out saying that this Texans crew has limped to the end line and completed in order AFC South Champions. You could recall that they dropped a literal deuce on the scoreboard on Christmas Day of all issues. Put merely, it has been unhealthy.
However can we actually belief the Chargers that a lot? I admit that a few of my tentativeness right here is needing to see it to consider it. Perhaps that’s the place I’m coming from deep within the recesses of my thoughts.
I’d simply say although that I believe we’ve got taken who the Texans have been these days, which has been very unhealthy and actually issues, and forgotten that they had been at one cut-off date a crew we believed drastically in. And whereas I acknowledge that the Chargers of Jim Harbaugh are usually not the Chargers of outdated… they continue to be the Chargers. If anybody can discover a option to breathe life right into a down Houston crew… it’s them.
Inexperienced Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles
I’d prefer to assume that I’m a really unbiased particular person round right here, however you must know that I’m SB Nation’s resident Dallas Cowboys particular person as I oversee our Cowboys web site Running a blog The Boys. Moreover, this time final 12 months the Cowboys had been getting ready because the No. 2 seed within the NFC and winners of the NFC East to host the No. 7 seed Inexperienced Bay Packers. Dallas misplaced that recreation, in embarrassing trend, and have become the primary No. 2 seed to ever lose within the Wild Card spherical in NFL historical past (this has solely been potential since 2021 to be clear).
Can the Eagles fall sufferer to Jordan Love and Co. in the identical manner that the Cowboys did? I believe that Philadelphia runs a significantly better soccer group than Dallas does so I’m not attempting to equate them in that sense, however past the Cowboys meme-ness of final 12 months’s lesson it did serve for example that this may certainly be completed.
I’d enterprise to say that we’ll assume the Packers are some form of paper tigers what with how they haven’t crushed any good groups. Isn’t that probably the most predictable narrative, although? Oh! The crew who couldn’t beat anyone confirmed up within the playoffs! That’s such an in fact factor to occur.
Let me be very clear in saying that I believe the Eagles are the crew to beat within the NFC. The truth is, let me be much more clear and say that I believe that is their most troublesome recreation standing between them and a visit to New Orleans. The Eagles could be an underdog in all probability to the Detroit Lions which might put them in a harmful area. It’s a very completely different factor to be the crew with nothing to lose, the best way Dallas was final season, and that’s not precisely a task through which I believe all of us belief Nick Sirianni to tread flippantly.
If pushed I’d say that I really feel twice as assured in my Texans choose because the Packers one. However each stay potential in my thoughts. Let’s dance.
