Wildcard Weekend 2016

Kansas City Chiefs (11-5) @ Houston Texans (9-7)

The 2016 Kansas City Chiefs will attempt to do what no Chiefs team has done since 1994, win a playoff game. The last victory for the Chiefs was in Houston, and was with a former 49er Quarterback. The stars have aligned again. Will history come full circle? Yes this is Alex Smith and not Joe Montana, these are the Texans not the Oilers but it seems so poetically symmetrical, perhaps it's destiny.

The Chiefs and the Texans did not look like they would make it here. The Chiefs opened their season with a convincing victory over these same Texans, then lost 5 straight games and lost superstar Jamaal Charles for the season. Meanwhile, the Texans lost their own superstar Arian Foster and were embarrassed by Miami in Week 7 in one of the worst defensive performances of the decade. Both teams were 2-5 in Week 7. Since then, the Chiefs won 10 straight and the Texans have defeated their reeling AFC South foes one-by-one. So here we are.

KEYS FOR KC: Keep doing what they are doing, and that's been Rushing and Defense. The O-line has been impressive and the 1-2 punch of RB Charcandrick West and RB Spencer Ware have thrived out of Jamaal's shadow. QB Alex Smith has supplied his usual steady balance of rushing and short passing. The difference has been Defense, under LB Derrick Johnson and a healthy amount of playmakers (S Eric Berry, CB Marcus Peters) which has been relentless.

KEYS FOR HOU: WR DeAndre Hopkins has emerged as new superstar. Be it Mallet, Hoyer, Yates or Weeden, the Texans were able to move the ball because Hopkins was out there hauling in Touchdowns. It still doesn't hurt that QB Brian Hoyer has returned to the starting position. Similar to Kansas City, the Texans Defense has clicked into gear on all 3 levels since their Week 7 embarassment. DE J.J Watt, LB Brian Cushing and the secondary have been one of the best units in the NFL ever since.

Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6) @ Cincinnati Bengals (11-5)

The Bengals have lost four straight Wild Card games. If it's going to be a 5th, it finally won't be the fault of QB Andy Dalton who had the best season of his career but went out with a thumb injury in Week 14 against these same Steelers. Now former Alabama man QB A.J McCarron will take the reigns of this incredibly talented team. The weapons are lined up (WR A.J Green, TE Tyler Eifert, the Giovoni Bernard/Jeremy Hill combo) but can McCarron fire them?

He won't be met with the stiffest Defense, there is certainly no Iron Curtain in Pittsburgh these days. In fact, the Steelers rely on their own high-powered offense to win games now. QB Ben Rothlisberger is launching it to WR Martavis Bryant, WR Marcus Wheaton, the old warhorse TE Heath Miller and the best WR in the NFL, WR Antonio Brown. Without Le'Veon Bell, this offense isn't the pick-your-poison machine it could have been, but they can still chuck it.

KEYS FOR PIT: Mask the loss of RB DeAngelo Williams. The Steelers received a valiant performance from Williams to mask the loss of Bell but who will step in for Williams? If the Steelers can't even pretend to run the ball- the Bengals Defense, with their talent up front, could wreak havoc on Big Ben's pocket. They need a semblance of a run game.

KEYS FOR CIN: Mask the loss of QB Andy Dalton. The Bengals need to put up points and in McCarron's 3 games they've scored 24, 17 and 24. What if they need more than that? Can McCarron do it? RB Jeremy Hill has been force fed carries because the Bengals have been playing very conservative. For their sake, I hope it was purposefully conservative while we ramp up to the playoffs and not conservatism out of necessity. Otherwise, the Bengals may end up playing in a head-to-head QB battle that they can't win.

Seattle Seahawks (10-6) @ Minnesota Vikings (11-5)

The headline for this game on CNN.com is "Insanely Cold". There is talk that this game has potential to be the coldest NFL game of All-Time. The 1958 Ice Bowl was -13 degrees with a wind chill in the -40s, so it's not forecasted as such (right now said to be a high of 0 degrees). Additonally, TCF Bank Stadium has a heated field with heaters on the bench. No such luck for the 1958 guys, sad to say.

The national media coverage is a little off which you'd expect but so is the sports media's coverage. Everyone is calling the game for Seattle because of the Week 13 38-7 beat down the Seahawks handed the Vikings. However, that game was without S Harrison Smith and LB Anthony Barr, two key defensive pieces for the Vikings who were criminally left off the 1st and 2nd All-Pro Teams. For the Seahawks, there will be no Marshawn Lynch nor will there be a Thomas Rawls (who went for 101 and a TD that day). These are factors that swing games. The NFL rarely repeats itself, especially not in extreme cold where there will be variables of how different players handle the weather.

KEYS FOR SEA: Beat the ever living daylights out of 2nd-year QB Teddy Bridgewater again. Bridgewater was no match for the Seahawks in Week 13. For the Seattle D, this season made a 4th straight year allowing the fewest points in the NFL and they are now firmly among the 1980s Bears and 1970s Steelers as an All-Time Best unit. On the other side, QB Russell Wilson will need a few big plays, WR Tyler Lockett is a great candidate for it.

KEYS FOR MIN: A career day from the NFL's Leading Rusher RB Adrian Peterson couldn't hurt. The Vikings were demolished physically by the Seahawks last month. No matter what the Minnesota players, it will have a mental affect. If Peterson can get going early and often, the team's confidence will grow.

Green Bay Packers (10-6) @ Washington Redskins (9-7)

I can't believe I'm about to type out the following sentence: QB Kirk Cousins and the Redskins aerial attack is flying high while QB Aaron Rodgers and the Packers can't seem to move down the field with any consistency. ...Wow, what a time to be alive.

This winter, why is it Kirk Cousins and not Aaron Rodgers that comes into the playoffs with the indisputably hotter hand? For one, Rodgers has had no help from an out-of-shape RB Eddie Lacy, a slowed WR Randall Cobb and group of struggling young WRs. Usually the best player in the NFL can overcome this obstacle, right? Well, that tells you how bad WR Davante Adams, RB James Starks, the injured O-line have been for the last 10 weeks. Green Bay is 4-6 since their late October Bye Week.

In Washington, Kirk Cousins has suddenly emerged as a legitimate Franchise Quarterback because his supporting cast has expanded and thrived. You like that? Washington D.C Fans do. Maybe they didn't predict it when he was drafted in 2012 three rounds after RG3, but they have to pleased with how the chips have fallen. The Redskins Defense has finally lived up to the hype levied on them a few years ago. What a turn of events in the Capital.

KEYS FOR GB: The Green Bay Defense is one of the most over-rated and yet loudly defended units in football. It has been so for the entirety of this decade. The key for Green Bay is not for the Packers Defense to get better but for the Packers offense around Rodgers to recapture that spark and continue carrying the Defense through success.

KEYS FOR WASH: Kirk Cousins is the only QB playing at home this weekend who has thrown a Playoff Pass. He was 3 for 10 for 31 yards in relief of RG3's snapped knee in 2013. I don't think there's any question that getting WR DeSean Jackson, WR Pierre Garcon and TE Jordon Reed going early is the key to defeating Green Bay. If the passing game doesn't click, the Redskins have to hope against an Aaron Rodgers