NFL Wildcard Week Preview

Some teams swept into the playoffs while others had to fight till the end to have the chance to play in January. No matter what it took for these teams to make it, the tables are now even. Whether you’re the Green Bay Packers or the Denver Broncos, you made the playoffs and your record doesn’t mean anything except maybe one week of rest. Here’s a look into each game for the Wildcard week.

Byes: Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens.

Cincinnati Bengals (9-7) at Houston Texans (10-6): A battle of rookie quarterbacks is the headline in this game. Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton, the 2^nd round draft pick out of TCU, will be taking on Houston’s TJ Yates, the 5^th round pick out of North Carolina. Houston was looking like one of the best teams in the AFC till injuries of starting QB Matt Schaub and back-up Matt Leinart. The Texans lost three consecutive games to end the regular season, their last win coming in a 20-19 battle against their playoff opponent Bengals. Both teams have obvious weaknesses. The Texans weak spot is the passing game with TJ Yates in. The Bengals are 1-7 against teams with winning records which shows they struggle against good teams. With two of the best defenses in the NFL this game should be a low scoring battle. Both defenses rank among the top 10 in both rushing yards and passing yards allowed. While the Texans have never played in a postseason game the Bengals have also had some playoff struggles, not winning a postseason game since 1990. If Houston wants to win this game they will need to shut down star rookie sensation A.J. Green. Green in his rookie season has been the best wide receiver on the team putting together 1,057 yards and 7 touchdowns. On the other side of the field the Bengals will need to stop the 2010 rushing leader Arian Foster and back-up running back Ben Tate. Foster has 1,224 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns while Tate has 942 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns. If either team can accomplish these feats they have the edge and will most likely move on to play another week. Going in I’m giving the advantage to the Bengals.

Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) at Denver Broncos (8-8): Two dominant defenses face off in this battle. The Steelers have proven over the years they are one of the best defensive teams in the NFL and showed this again in 2011 by ranking 1^st in passing yards allowed and 8^th in rushing yards allowed. The Broncos defense doesn’t look good when you look at season stats but led by Von Miller and Brian Dawkins this defense can compete with any offense when locked on. Pittsburgh will need very little help defending the passing game considering the Broncos offense is 31^st in passing yards with only averaging 152.1 passing yards per game. The passing may not be good but with more rushing yards per game than passing the Broncos average 164.5 rushing yards per game, which is 1^st in the NFL. Quarterback Tim Tebow is part of the reason, averaging 5.4 yards per carry. After a 7-1 start in his first 8 starts this season Tebow has finished losing his last 3 games. There are concerns for the Steelers on their offense also, Ben Roethlisberger, the running game and one of the worst offensive lines in the league. Their star quarterback Roethlisberger missed the season finale against the Rams due to a high-ankle sprain he suffered two weeks earlier against the Cleveland Browns. As the toughest quarterback in the league Roethlisberger should be fine but if the injury messes up his pocket movement the Broncos defense could put a pounding on him. The Steelers could have trouble running the ball after losing their starting running back Rashard Mendenhall to an ACL tear. With Mendenhall out the Steelers will be giving more attempts to Isaac Redman who averaged 4.4 yards per carry in 110 attempts this season. The Broncos need to limit Ben Roethlisberger’s pocket movement and send in a mix of blitzes to try and take advantage of his injured ankle. Pittsburgh must take advantage of the weak passing skills of Tebow and force him to commit turnovers. Advantage here goes to the Steelers.

Detroit Lions (10-6) at New Orleans Saints (13-3): Two of the top offenses will almost assure an exciting shootout in New Orleans. With two quarterbacks that exceeded 5,000 yards on the season this could be the highest scoring game throughout the playoffs. The Saints have a nice running defense but the Lions compete strictly with their passing game, the Saints are 30^th in the league for passing yards allowed. The Lions are also bad on defense ranking 22^nd in passing yards allowed and 23^rd in rushing yards allowed. The big difference in these teams is their running game. The Lions rank 29^th in rushing yards while the Saints rank 6^th. The Saints will be looking to add on to their recent postseason success while the Lions will be looking for their first playoff win since 1991 and to prove they are contenders after becoming the first team to ever go 0-16 only three years ago. The two teams already faced this season when the Saints beat the Lions 31-17 in New Orleans. This was the first of two games missed by pro bowl defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh due to being suspended for stomping on Green Bay’s Evan Dietrich-Smith. With Suh in this game could be completely different. Suh has little stats to show this season yet his teammates numbers are starting to improve due to Suh being double to triple teamed on most plays. The main worry for the Saints should be controlling wide receiver Calvin Johnson who had an amazing 1,681 yards receiving and 16 touchdowns this season. Detroit will need more help to win this game, with playing such a balanced offense the main thing they can do to shut it down is hope their linebackers can make the open field tackles and fill the gaps on running plays. With an 8-0 record at home this season the Saints are no doubt the favorites here.

Atlanta Falcons (10-6) at New York Giants (9-7): With two of the better passing games in the NFC and weak passing defenses this game has potential to put up some big numbers. While both teams can produce in the passing game the Giants are ranked dead last in rushing yards, while the Falcons rank 17^th. With such a bad rushing game for New York there will definitely be a struggle against a solid running defense in Atlanta that ranked 6^th for rushing yards allowed. No doubt to me this game has the best wide receivers. With two superstars each the Giants will hope for big numbers from Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks while the Falcons put their hope in Roddy White and rookie Julio Jones. Each set of receivers combined for a total of over 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns this season. With only a 4-4 record at home the Giants home field advantage seems to mean less than it would for most teams. The weakness for the Giants is the lack of a solid rusher, while the Falcons showed little effort to make the big plays. In five games against playoff teams the Falcons scored fewer than 23 points each game and had a 1-4 record against them teams. Atlanta will need to get off the track of medium gain plays every attempt and throw in some big time play attempts to throw the defense off. The Giants will need their secondary to tackle well and not let receivers Roddy White or Julio Jones get any amount of space between them and their defenders. Atlanta will need defensive end John Abraham, who has 104.5 career sacks, to put pressure on quarterback Eli Manning and prevent the Giants weak running game from making big plays. Atlanta gets the edge in this game.