It’d be silly to say the Divisional Round is where the playoffs really start, but it sure feels that way sometimes.

The first round played out basically as expected. Even the two upsets — Commanders over Buccaneers and Rams over Vikings — weren’t huge shocks, and even if I expected the Chargers to beat the Texans, the Texans proved the worth of their higher seed by pummeling Los Angeles into submission.

But this weekend? This weekend we’ve got some real big boy football going on.

The Eagles and Rams is a tasty matchup on the NFC side, pitting Sean McVay’s resurgent Rams offense against Vic Fangio’s mighty Eagles defense. It’s quite a comeback story for the Matthew Stafford-era Rams, if you ask me. Two years ago it didn’t look like Stafford had anything left, but lately he’s been more than good enough to get the job done, and with Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua in fine form, they’re as dangerous an offense as anybody.

Meanwhile, in the AFC slate, there’s a case to be made that the Ravens/Bills tilt might be the de facto Super Bowl. With respect to the defending champs, I don’t think the Chiefs are as battle tested this season as either the Ravens or Bills, and assuming Kansas City knocks off Houston, they’ll play host to a hungry and talented team that may have already knocked off the AFC’s next best team.

And should we assume that the Chiefs will get things done against the Texans? They did it once this year already, but the Chiefs have hardly been a sure thing this year, which seems strange to say about a team that went 15-2 in the regular season and could probably have beaten the Broncos pretty easily had they had something to play for in Week 18. But it’s true: the Chiefs have needed borderline divine intervention to squeak out a few of their wins this year, and if they end up in a close game again, who knows if their luck will hold.

The one sure thing seems to be the Lions handling the Commanders. Respect to Washington this year; Dan Quinn and Jayden Daniels have done wonderful things together in their first year as a head coach/quarterback tandem. But the Lions have played consistently great football this year, and I’d expect them to hammer the Commanders this weekend.

The point is, this is a good slate of games, and it’s going to set up quite a menu for the championship round and beyond. I wouldn’t love seeing the Chiefs in the Super Bowl again and you’ll never find me wishing success on the Lions, but there’s really no configuration of championship round and Super Bowl matchups that wouldn’t feature good and interesting football and storylines.

Here are my picks for this weekend. Bummer to not see the Packers out there, but that just means there’s more to look forward to next year.

Normally, this post would be restricted to The Power Sweep’s supporters on Patreon or Substack, but I’ve unlocked it just for fun. Enjoy!