San Francisco 49ers/Seattle Seahawks: San Francisco impressed in its win over the Eagles last weekend, the game looking like it could go either way till the end, trick plays brilliantly executed to ensure victory, big defensive stands taking out the Super Bowl Champions. Seattle looks to be an even tougher opponent who they've already played twice this season, the classic divisional game, I love it when this happens in the playoffs. The Seahawks let in the fewest number of points in the entire league let alone 79 fewer than the 49ers, their offence also scoring the third highest number of points in the NFL, whoa Nelly, those stats are crazy. In 2025, they beat Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Houston, Minnesota, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Carolina, while also splitting their games with the Rams and San Francisco, also falling to the Bucs in Week 5, they've only lost one game since then. Their quarterback, Sam Darnold, if I'm not mistaken, has won 29 games in the last two years, with different teams, that's got to be some kind of record, although he came up short in the Wild Card Round last year. They played in the last week of the season and I imagine the 49ers really wanted to win the game, once again, if I'm not mistaken, they would have won the division with the win and would have had the best record in the NFC. In that game, they only let Seattle score 13 points but only scored 3 themselves, for such an explosive offence, that must have been highly frustrating. The Seahawks play in a dome so the January weather shouldn't be a factor, the fans likely no rowdier than those from Philadelphia, although I really don't know much about such things. This is a divisional game though so the outcome remains uncertain, so many times division rivalries producing shocking outcomes that statistics can't predict. Seattle's pretty freakin' good though on defence and offence and they're playing at home. But they don't seem to have as many active Broncos connections. Picking San Francisco on the road!
Houston Texans/New England Patriots: both these teams won their Wild Card games with similar styles that ruthlessly afflicted, their opposing quarterbacks with inadequacy as they helplessly tried to pull drives together. Justin Herbert and Aaron Rodgers are no slouches when it comes to winning games. But in the odd instances when they had three or four seconds to make a play (when they weren't getting smoked), as they looked down field, there was no one to throw to. Houston didn't play that well on offence until the 4th and neither did the Patriots (throughout the game) honestly, but both teams still lived to see another day, thanks to the resilient focus of their defences. Sometimes when your offence doesn't play well and you still come up with the win, it plays exceptionally well the following week. Unfortunately, both of these teams are in that scenario so even if both offences play well one of them still has to lose. I doubt either offence will make as many mistakes, and if they do, their defences should back them up, it's great to see two teams who are so evenly matched. Their might be snow on Sunday. The Texans have won three of their last 5 games versus the Patriots with one win coming in New England, but this is a much stronger Patriots team that shouldn't be quite so easy to overcome. They didn't play during the regular season so there are no fresh stats to examine, they have met twice in the Divisional Round, with New England winning both times. Houston has in fact lost in the Divisional Round 6 times in a row, while the Patriots have won 8 times in a row in that very same Round. So far in 2025, the Texans have won 10 in a row, and New England, 14 of their last 15. I don't want to irritate either team by not picking them, because I didn't pick either of them last week as well, it seems like the Patriots are destined to win another, but could this finally be Houston's Divisional Round year? It is more exciting to see a team who's never made the Conference Championships win, than one who won them 9 times in the last twenty-five odd years though. Picking Houston on the road. Turnovers may decide the outcome.
Los Angeles Rams/Chicago Bears: the Bears had an impressive comeback win last weekend and the Rams came close to blowing it, so it will be interesting to see what happens this freezing Sunday in Chicago. Both teams played in tough divisions where the competition was fierce, the Bears finishing 3-4 including last week's Wild Card win, Los Angeles winning 4 out of 6. They've only met twice in the playoffs after so many many years of existence, the Rams emerging victorious in 1950, Chicago shutting them out in 1985 (on the way to a Super Bowl win). Los Angeles has the better stats on offence and defence but can they play in the cold?, they did well enough last January in Philly (losing 28-22), but didn't really start to shine until the 4th. Chicago got away with one last Saturday so like Houston and New England it's time to shine, if they can just get their offence going earlier in the game things likely won't seem so wild and chaotic. They've met 97 times in total with the Bears leading the all-time edge, but the Rams have developed a winning tradition in the last decade that may challenge Chicago's rule. The Bears have won 6 of their last 10, but L.A has won 3 of the last 5 (Chicago winning most recently), Chicago leading all-time 55-39-3, they first played in 1937 (a Bears win). Chicago hasn't had much success in recent years so it would be cool to see them win, but the Rams seem like the better team who'll come out on top if they don't beat themselves. I'm getting too old, I don't like to choose, unless it's the Broncos seeking playoff wins. But if Los Angeles wins, they'll play the winner of the 49ers/Seahawks game, and for me that's a cooler scenario. Picking the Rams on the road. Hoping they bring some sweaters.
*Stats from the Football Database, Wikipedia, and NFL.com.
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