NFL playoffs

Road to the Lombardi trophy starts now.

After 17 weeks the NFL, celebrating its 100th season, hits it's the most significant month with the playoffs and the chance to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, which this year is being hosted by a former favourite host in Miami, Florida. The last time the city hosted the Super Bowl was 10 years ago, between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. If you want to read what happened then below is the link to that Super Bowl.
https://marksworldofsports.blogspot.com/2019/01/no8-saints-end-katrina-nightmare-with.html

San Francisco have home-field in the NFC

One of the teams from that Super Bowl the New Orleans Saints are back in the Super Bowl after a battling regular season for the NFC which until last night in which 4 teams were going for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. New Orleans despite winning their previous game against the two-time contender Carolina Panthers missed out because of Green Bay winning their game against Detroit on a last-second field goal. The only game that Green Bay had to watch was the Seattle vs San Francisco game on NBC's Sunday Night Football to see if the so-called "Road to Miami" would go either through sunny California or freezing Wisconsin. That left 3 teams with a 13-3 record, however, because of tiebreakers the 49ers and the Green Bay Packers had secured a bye to the second round of the playoffs.

Eagles flying to the playoffs

However one of the most baffling battles was in the NFC East as 2017 champions the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Dallas Cowboys were locked in a struggle to win their division which came down to a showdown in week 16 and went the way of the Eagles. Philly qualified despite having a 9-7 record and got through because of them only winning their division. The two Wildcard teams went to the Seattle Seahawks who went toe-to-toe with the 49ers for the NFC West and had a chance to win the division on the Sunday Night Football match mentioned earlier. The other team was the Minnesota Vikings who had finished with a 10-6 record and lost the NFC North to the Packers.

Lamar Jackson's Baltimore Ravens have home-field advantage.

Meanwhile, in the AFC, the road is going through Baltimore after an MVP style season when he led the Ravens to the NFL's best record of 14-2 and home-field advantage for the first time in their history. The second seed went to the Kansas City Chiefs who only secured the seed after Sunday's games which included replacing the defending champions the New England Patriots.

The Patriots finishing in the wildcards is a massive shock as the last time they went through the wildcards was in 2009. And they don't usually play well at that stage of the season. As the CBS commentary crew showed that when they had a bye in the playoffs, they go to the Super Bowl whereas when they play in the wild card round their record is 3-3.

Taking the 4th divisional seed was the Houston Texans with a 10-6 record and winning the division for the 4th time in 5 years however they had to battle against a tough Tennesee Titans team in their own division and had to wait until week 16 of the regular season to clinch it. Meanwhile, the Titans took the 6th seed as they finished with a 9-7 record and had to secure their playoff spot on Sunday and pray that Oakland or Pittsburgh didn't win their matches. Joining the Titans in the Wildcards is the Buffalo Bills who are back for the 2nd time in 3 years. Buffalo aren't strangers to the playoffs, having been perennial contenders in the 1990s with 4 straight Super Bowl appearances but got stuck in a division with a red hot New England and an occasional fight against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. Buffalo had been the quiet team that no one knew about until Thanksgiving Day when they went to Dallas and just dominated the Cowboys in Dallas.

Former Teammates meet on Saturday.

The Playoffs start on Saturday as the AFC handle their wildcard games. First up is the Buffalo Bills vs the Houston Texans and then the Tennesee Titans take on the New England Patriots in Foxborough. The Texans want to get a big run through the playoffs as they get there but stumble at the first hurdle. Meanwhile, Buffalo will want to show that they are the future of the AFC East. Tennesee, who have former Patriot linebacker Mike Vrabel as head coach, is looking to end the Patriots dynasty that has been around since 2001. Meanwhile, New England is looking to do the same feat as I mentioned earlier about Buffalo in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, in the NFC, they play their games on Sunday the first game will be a repeat of the 2017 divisional match between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings. However this time the Saints are looking for revenge, and they have home-field advantage for this game, unlike 2 years ago. Then the last game of the weekend will be the Seattle Seahawks at the Philadelphia Eagles. These two are coming in with different form levels with the Eagles on a winning run through December, and the Seahawks have been on a 2 game losing streak.

Drew Brees(pictured) and the Saints looking for revenge

The winners of the games will meet the other 4 teams left in the playoffs next weekend. And I'll be back with a review and a look to those games, but the Road to Miami has officially begun.

KROMark