It’s That Time Again: Welcome to the NFL Playoffs

Favorites, underdogs and rising stars abound heading into the postseason

From perennial powerhouses such the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills to the scrappy underdogs like the New York Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars, it seems that the NFL playoffs are shaping up to be one of the best postseasons in its history. 

It’s anyone’s game in the American Football Conference. The Chiefs, Bills and Bengals have been neck-and-neck over the course of the regular season, and look to go to war when they inevitably face one another in the playoffs. Then there’s the upstart Los Angeles Chargers and surging Jacksonville Jaguars, who defied expectations as they came down the home stretch of the regular season and look to challenge the big three. It’s a race from all roads to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.

The Chiefs have the #1 seed in the AFC and the home field advantage in the playoffs, despite losing to both the Bills and Bengals. This unique result came about due to Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s injury in their matchup against the Bengals. The game never resumed after Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field and was ruled a no contest, leaving Buffalo and Cincinnati without a 17th game and subsequently leaving the host site of the AFC championship in flux. If it comes down to the Bills vs Chiefs, the game will be played in Atlanta.

Kansas City will face the Jaguars in the divisional round. The Jags came back from a 27-0 first half deficit to stun the Los Angeles Chargers with a final score of 31-30. The Chargers became the first team in NFL history to lose a playoff game with a +5 turnover differential. 

Cincinnati struggled with a shorthanded division rival against the Baltimore Ravens. A QB sneak gone awry for Baltimore led Sam Hubbard to race 98 yards the other way to score for Cincinnati and earn them a 24-17 victory. The Bengals will now face the Bills in a rematch of the Week 17 showdown in Buffalo.

In the National Football Conference, the Eagles and 49ers are the favorites for a championship game. The Eagles had a first round bye and will face off against their division rival, the New York Giants, in the divisional round. The Giants are a scrappy team led by head coach Brian Daboll, whose valiant efforts deserve the NFL Coach of the Year award. Daniel Jones has been a revelation for Big Blue, and Saquon Barkley has come back with a vengeance.

The Minnesota Vikings were 13-4 and the #3 seed in the NFC, but had a negative point differential this season. Minnesota barely escaped New York earlier in the year with a last-second field goal to win 27-24, but New York came out on top this time around with a 31-24 victory and a date in Philly.

On the other side of the bracket, it was yet another division rival showdown with the Seattle Seahawks taking on the 49ers. The 49ers steamrolled the Seahawks 41-23 after a great second half, and will face the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round on Jan. 22 at Levi’s Stadium. They certainly didn’t write Seattle and Geno Smith off in a playoff game, but they definitely wrote back.

And now the 49ers vs Cowboys in a playoff game? There’s not much better than that: the history, the vitriol, the fans. It’s all a postseason could ever hope for.