Divisional Round Thoughts
I don’t know about you, but I find the winnowing of the NFL playoff field from the Wildcard Round to the Divisional Round to be the most jarring transition in the NFL calendar.
When the playoffs begins, we drop down from 32 teams to 14, trimming half the league from consideration. But we all know it’s not really a drop from 32 to 14. Plenty of teams have already been eliminated well in advance of the conclusion of Week 18, either literally or practically, and there are always a good number of teams who were never contenders to begin with.
But the drop from 14 playoff teams to just eight is jarring. It’s only a little smaller, by percentage, than the haircut from 32 to 14, but it feels more substantial. All six of those teams that disappeared from the NFL landscape were battle scarred and tested, even if not all of them were necessarily supremely deserving of a playoff berth. Say what you will about the Carolina Panthers, for example, but they still earned their spot (for whatever that’s worth in the NFC South). They scratched and clawed (cat puns not intended) to get there, and they fought to the very end. At least they were theoretical Super Bowl contenders, unlike the Titans or Raiders or any number of other teams whose playoff runs were never more than a fever dream.
Now, though, you look around and see the truth: we’re coming right down to it. There just aren’t many teams left. The inevitable has come for so many teams already, and now we begin the true process of boiling off the dross from this field of contenders.
Here are my thoughts on this weekend’s games, ranked from least interesting to most interesting.
4 - Texans @ Patriots
I can’t find the intriguing thread in this one. If both teams play their best, we’re probably looking at a defensive slog. I just find myself not terribly interested in either of these teams, and it’s kind of disappointing that one of them is going to end up in the AFC Championship.
3 - Rams @ Bears
Sorry, Bears! I still do not believe in you. If you were a good team, you would not spend half the game getting boat raced. If you were a good team, it would not have come down to the Packers having a shoelace-tripping competition to get you to the divisional round. If you were a good team, you would be about your own thing and not worried at all about the Packers. If you were a good team, you would not spend the offseason you are about to enter talking about how you got farther than the Packers. The Packers have spent 30 years going farther than you could dream, but you’ve spent all that time saying “but you didn’t win the Super Bowl.” Well, you’re about to not win the Super Bowl. Enjoy it!
2 - Bills @ Broncos
I am all in on the Bills. They’re the only team I really want to see win the whole thing this season, though I wouldn’t complain about the Rams. But I think this game is functionally the AFC Championship. I am impressed by what the Broncos have built under Sean Payton in a short time (a pretty strong defense of “retread” coaches, in my opinion) and I think they’ve got the goods to go the distance. I’m very intrigued to see if the Bills, perpetually bordering on the football team version of whatever a “flawed genius” is on a team level, can answer their challenge. They’re a tough question to solve, and I can’t wait to see how the Bills try to solve them.
1 - 49ers @ Seahawks
Divisional intrigue carries the day for me here. I’m pretty sure the Seahawks are firmly, flat out better than the 49ers. They should win. But as we KNOW VERY WELL FOR REASONS WE DO NOT NEED TO DISCUSS, sometimes familiarity from divisional competition can affect games in unforeseen ways. I think that alone is enough to carry this game to the top of the intrigue chart. I’m excited to see what ends up happening.
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