Many people will tell you that the best football weekend of the entire year, in terms of quality and stakes, game after game, is the NFL Divisional Round.
Now it’s here.
Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET, the Kansas City Chiefs will officially open their playoff quest to win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title against the Houston Texans. Then, Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET, the Detroit Lions will begin their playoff quest to reach and win that elusive first Super Bowl in franchise history against rookie sensation Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders.
Sunday’s action begins at 3 p.m. ET as the Philadelphia Eagles host the Los Angeles Rams, and the weekend ends with arguably the game of the year so far as the MVP favorites enter collision with Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills hosting Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens.
Who will win? What will the X factors be?
Yahoo Sports NFL writer Frank Schwab breaks down all four games. Click on the match link to read the individual game preview. (Click on the match to read the individual preview.)
It wasn’t long ago that the Chiefs beat the Texans 27-19 in Week 16. A big factor in that game for Kansas City, and at the end of the season as a whole, was rookie Xavier Worthy. Worthy had seven catches for 65 yards and a touchdown. The Chiefs’ path to winning this game was not complicated: they ran the ball effectively, Patrick Mahomes had an efficient day, Worthy was highlighted and the defense played well, including two quarterback interceptions. Texans CJ Stroud. The Texans need to play a really, really good game against the Chiefs to win. Kansas City should win if they play like they usually do.
Among the Lions’ many injuries this season, it appeared running back David Montgomery was headed for season-ending surgery with a knee injury. But the injury was not as serious as initially feared and the Lions we are confident that Montgomery will play this week. It’s really difficult to stop the Lions’ rushing attack when Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs are at full strength. Will Montgomery look like himself? That would be bad news for a Commanders defense that was 28th in the NFL in yards per carry allowed.
The first time the Rams and Eagles played, Saquon Barkley had one of the best ground games of all time. Barkley had 255 rushing yards, the ninth-most total in NFL history. This game could have been a wake-up call for the Rams defense. Since then, they have allowed a reasonable 104.1 rushing yards per game. The Eagles want to control the game with Barkley and their offensive line. The Rams can’t let the Eagles run wild again. If they contain Philadelphia’s ground game, they might have a chance to pull off an upset.
If you play this game 100 times, each team could win 50. This is a fantastic, balanced matchup between two teams with excellent quarterbacks and other similar strengths. Even though the regular season game was a long time ago and seems unlikely to reflect what we’ll see on Sunday night, it’s hard to ignore that the Ravens absolutely dominated the Bills. They outscored Buffalo 427 to 236. It was the only time the Bills lost by more than one score all season, and they lost by 25. It was one of only three times since the Allen’s rookie season in 2018 that the Bills lost by 20 or more. Is this important for the rematch?
