Joe Flacco
pulled off another playoff upset over his divisional rival. Cam Newton won his
first playoff game facing an injury-riddled team.. The Bengals fell to 0-6 in
the postseason-limelight under Marvin Lewis. The Cowboys scored 17 straight
second-half points to knock off the Lions in the closest of all the wild-card
games.
That summed up
the wild-card round action, but much more went on behind the scenes. But none
of that matters at the moment, because the Divisional Round weekend is knocking
on the door.
The New England
region has been bursting with confidence for the better part of this season,
but as they get ready to host the Baltimore Ravens at 4:35 PM ET today, that
confidence has seen a dip. Ever since the Ravens beat the Steelers last
Saturday, Pats fans have been voicing their nerves.
The Ravens have
won 2 out of 3 playoff games against the Pats, all of which were played at
Gilette. Pats fans remember that playoff loss to the Ravens in 2013 that
prevented them from returning to the Super Bowl, and the loss in 2010 that
knocked them out in the wild-card round. They could have very well lost in 2012
as well, but the trusty Billy Cundiff shanked a 32-yard field goal that would
have sent the game to overtime. So do Pats fans have a reason to be worried?
Yes.
Just think about
where the Ravens hold advantages. They have the better running backs, the
better wide receivers, and a better run defense. It’s not far-fetched to say
that they have a good chance of winning.
But the Pats
have a winning way about them right now. Tom Brady knows that his time to win
another Super Bowl is slowly but surely coming to a close, and this year is as
good as any to make it happen. He has the best receiving core that he’s seen in
a few years, Gronk is healthy, the run game is stronger than it usually is, and
the defense has been holding their own.
I think there
are certain players for each team that are essential to success for their
respective sides. The x-factor for the Ravens is Justin Forsett. It may be a
bit of an obvious one, but he needs to play well if their going to win. More
often then not, Flacco can’t throw the ball downfield until the defense is
forced to guard the run. Forsett needs to get going early, so Flacco can open
up the defense and throw the ball downfield to Steve and Torrey Smith. If
they’re able to do that, the game well weigh to their side of the scale.
For the
Patriots, their x-factor is Julian Edelman. I’ve seen it too many times this
year; the Pats open up the game with short crossing patterns, quick out routes,
mini curls and screens to Edelman. He is the key to their first quarter
scoring. Every defense knows they have to defend the short passes or else Brady
will march down the field without hesitating. This leaves Gronk and Brandon
LaFell open to work the secondary. The Patriots are the hardest team to stop
when they do this, which is why Edelman needs to get involved early.
My pick to win
is the Patriots. If I was a Patriots fan I would be shaking in my sleep, but I
think Brady carries them to a victory at home today.
We head to
Seattle, Washington for the second Saturday game at 8:15 PM ET. The 12th Man at
CenturyLink Field will try their best to put an end to the Panthers’ run. They
have been raring to go since the final whistle of the regular season, and they
finally get back under the bright lights tonight.
On paper, the
Seahawks win 10 times out of 10. But we all know that things don’t always go
according to plan in January. So we can’t count the Panthers out just yet, but
they have a slippery hill to climb in a short period of time (sorry for the
poor rhyme).
Cam Newton will
have his hands full against the Legion of Boom tonight, and if you think
Richard Sherman isn’t going to be all in Kelvin Benjamin’s shirt tonight you
got another thing coming, and that brings me to the reason why Seattle will
win.
The Panthers
have one of the shallowest receiving cores in the NFL, and it starts with
rookie Kelvin Benjamin. He had a great year, and because of that he’ll be the
guy Seattle focuses on. This will leave Jerricho Cotchery as the wideout that
Newton resorts to. He only caught 48 balls and 1 touchdown this year, which
doesn’t look promising.
Greg Olsen will
be the go-to-guy, but expect Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright to be all over him, some
of the best cover-linebackers in the league.
Many things need
to happen for the Panthers tonight, but Jonathan Stewart will be their
x-factor. He’s been running exceptionally well over the last month or so, and
will need to be even better today if the Panthers are going to move the ball up
the field.
As for the
Seahawks, they just need to play their game. Hand the ball to Lynch, run
play-action, hit their quick slants and out routes. As long as the Seahawks
don’t turn the ball over, they should be fine, which is why Russell Wilson is
my x-factor. He doesn’t need to be special, just smart. Wilson is one of the smartest
quarterbacks in the league, and he’ll need to live up to that reputation
tonight. I see him rushing for close to 100 yards, and throwing for 200-250.
The Panthers are good at flushing quarterbacks out of the pocket, but
unfortunately for them, Wilson is one of the best there it is at escaping.
I
have the Seahawks on top in this one.
Check
back tomorrow morning for my analysis on tomorrow’s games, and follow me on
Twitter @coochigross. Be Sure to check out @BSzabo24’s analysis as well.
