Only 12 of the 32 NFL teams remain in contention for Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara on February 7.
The AFC West champions, the Denver Bronco's, the AFC Eastern champs, the New England Patriots, the NFC Western winners, the Phoenix Cardinals and the NFC South champions, the Carolina Panthers with the best record at 15-1 clinched first round playoff byes.
Professional football, unlike baseball, basketball and hockey has no best of five or seven game series in the post season, it's one and done, lose, go home, win, move on.
The teams with the best chance to get the coveted 50th Super Bowl trophy, in my mind are the Seahawks, Panthers, Cardinals or the Chiefs.
The drive to this years Super Bowl begins Saturday with the American Football Conference teams battling it out.
The first playoff game this year will feature the Houston Texans hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. USA Today Sports has the Chiefs as four point favorites on the road against the Texans. Way back in September on opening day, the Texans lost to the Chiefs 27-20 at home. Based on that, and the point spread, this should be a down to the wire nail bitter.
(all point spreads are based on yesterday's USA Today Sports postings.)
The Chiefs are the hottest team in the NFL right now. Since starting the season at 1-5, the team has the longest winning streak in football right now with a current 10 game winning streak. If the Chiefs get past Houston, then win their next two playoff games to get to the Super Bowl, the owners of the San Francisco 49ers are really going to look stupid, much like the bone-headed general management moves of the Oakland Raiders and Oakland Athletics of recent history.
The Chiefs quarter back Alex Smith is the real deal, although not flashy like his former bench warming team-mate Colin Kaepernick, Smith runs smart, and throws the ball out of bounds rather than a risky interception pass in the red zone, much like Joe Montana used to do. Smith has all the components necessary to lead a football team. Although not charismatically athletic as the likes of the Panthers leader Cam Newton, Smith often darts several yards for a key first down on third down plays with his feet, or he can thread the needle with a pin point pass to one of his receivers whose double covered.
Much like the Chiefs opening day seven point win against the Texans, I predict another close win by the Chiefs this Saturday. Saturdays second playoff game is a coin toss, even the odds makers have the game even, in other words, no team is favored to win, no matter what team a better bets on, no points are given or taken away for either team; pickem.'
Division foes, the Steelers will go on the road against the Bengals. The two teams split their regular season mach-ups this year at 1-1. Both teams beat each other on the road, with that being said, the Steelers have the edge this Saturday.
On paper, this Saturday's match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals is must see reality TV moment. This game I believe will come down to the basics, the team that can run or stop the run on defense for the most part will emerge to play again on the weekend of the 16th or 17th. Both the Steelers and Bengals have star receivers and quarterbacks. Steel town with Big Ben Roethlisberger hurling to Antonio Brown for the winning touchdown or 'C' city's Andy Dalton to A.J. Green for the victorious TD?
The first of the two playoff games on Sunday is between the Minnesota Vikings hosting the red hot Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks smoked the Vikings in the regular season 38-7 in Minnesota on December 6, and the seven point favored Seahawks should win easily this weekend. The Seahawks ended the regular season with a 6-1 mark including a 36-6 bombastic win over their division foes, the Phoenix Cardinals on January 3.
The last of the four playoff games this weekend is between the Washington Redskins and the Green Bay Packers. This is another toss a coin to predict the winner. The hosting Redskins are a whopping two point favorite to win this week ends math-up. Both teams have the potential to run the table and seize the Super Bowl.
The Packers with their 10-6 record where often dominate in their wins, yet mostly pathetic in their losses. Which team will appear this weekend? Their NFC Eastern 9-7 champions are equally unpredictable. When the Redskin defense is lights out with their run stopping ability and at the same time quarterback kirk Cousins gets hot with his leading TD receiver Jordan Reed, it seems no team can compete with them.
Sunday's game in Washington will be another must see sporting moment, because the game may go to double overtime.
Currently, I see this years Super Bowl being the Panthers playing the Chiefs or Seattle playing the Chiefs.
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