There may be nothing cooler than saying “win or go residence” in the case of the NFL playoffs. Everyone knows and have identified ceaselessly that that is the case, however really saying it out loud rocks.
Throughout the following few days we’ll watch six playoff video games that carry this distinction. Twelve groups will enter, six will depart and legacies will probably be altered ceaselessly. Drama. Chaos. Magnificence.
Relating to issues like these the chalk final result is hardly the commonest one. Sooner or later we’re sure to see an upset or two with the favored staff getting bounced.
Listed below are two prospects of that all through Wild Card Weekend.
Houston Texans over Los Angeles Chargers
For the needs of our dialogue we will probably be defining upsets alongside the strains of how our associates at FanDuel Sportsbook have these video games listed. That’s the most goal means in my thoughts and you’re caught right here so right here we go.
The Houston Texans are the largest residence underdogs of the Wild Card Spherical as, on the time of this writing, they’re simply narrowly edging out the Los Angeles Rams. Houston is +3 whereas the Rams are +2.5, though clearly the Rams recreation is just not working beneath regular circumstances so defining their “residence subject benefit” this week is unimaginable.
It goes with out saying that this Texans staff has limped to the end line and completed in order AFC South Champions. Chances are you’ll recall that they dropped a literal deuce on the scoreboard on Christmas Day of all issues. Put merely, it has been unhealthy.
However will we actually belief the Chargers that a lot? I admit that a few of my tentativeness right here is needing to see it to consider it. Possibly that’s the place I’m coming from deep within the recesses of my thoughts.
I’d simply say although that I believe now we have taken who the Texans have been these days, which has been very unhealthy and actually issues, and forgotten that they had been at one cut-off date a staff we believed drastically in. And whereas I acknowledge that the Chargers of Jim Harbaugh usually are not the Chargers of outdated… they continue to be the Chargers. If anybody can discover a strategy to breathe life right into a down Houston staff… it’s them.
Inexperienced Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles
I’d prefer to assume that I’m a really unbiased particular person round right here, however you must know that I’m SB Nation’s resident Dallas Cowboys particular person as I oversee our Cowboys web site Running a blog The Boys. Moreover, this time final 12 months the Cowboys had been making ready because the No. 2 seed within the NFC and winners of the NFC East to host the No. 7 seed Inexperienced Bay Packers. Dallas misplaced that recreation, in embarrassing style, and have become the primary No. 2 seed to ever lose within the Wild Card spherical in NFL historical past (this has solely been potential since 2021 to be clear).
Can the Eagles fall sufferer to Jordan Love and Co. in the identical means that the Cowboys did? I believe that Philadelphia runs a a lot better soccer group than Dallas does so I’m not attempting to equate them in that sense, however past the Cowboys meme-ness of final 12 months’s lesson it did serve for example that this will certainly be completed.
I’d enterprise to say that we’ll assume the Packers are some form of paper tigers what with how they haven’t overwhelmed any good groups. Isn’t that essentially the most predictable narrative, although? Oh! The staff who couldn’t beat anyone confirmed up within the playoffs! That’s such an in fact factor to occur.
Let me be very clear in saying that I believe the Eagles are the staff to beat within the NFC. In truth, let me be much more clear and say that I believe that is their most tough recreation standing between them and a visit to New Orleans. The Eagles can be an underdog in all probability to the Detroit Lions which might put them in a harmful house. It’s a very completely different factor to be the staff with nothing to lose, the way in which Dallas was final season, and that isn’t precisely a task wherein I believe all of us belief Nick Sirianni to tread flippantly.
If pushed I’d say that I really feel twice as assured in my Texans choose because the Packers one. However each stay potential in my thoughts. Let’s dance.