***** Official 2021-22 Wild Card Weekend Thread *****

[Millennial_Messiah]

Saturday, Jan. 15
AFC: 4:30 p.m. (ET) No. 5 seed Las Vegas Raiders at No. 4 Cincinnati Bengals (NBC, Pea , Universo)


AFC: 8:15 p.m. (ET) No. 6 New England Patriots at No. 3 Buffalo Bills (CBS, Paramount+)



Sunday, Jan. 16



NFC: 1:00 p.m. (ET) No. 7 Philadelphia Eagles at No. 2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (FOX, FOX Deportes)

NFC: 4:30 p.m. (ET) No. 6 San Francisco 49ers at No. 3 Dallas Cowboys (CBS, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime Video)

AFC: 8:15 p.m. (ET) No. 7 Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 2 Kansas City Chiefs (NBC, Pea , Telemundo)



Monday, Jan. 17


NFC: 8:15 p.m. (ET) No. 5 Arizona Cardinals at No. 4 Los Angeles Rams (ESPN/ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes)




The NFC's top-seeded Green Bay Packers and the AFC's No. 1 seed, the Tennessee ans, are on bye.

[Millennial_Messiah]

i'd be very surprised if new england beats the raiders because it would require that they meet in the AFC championship game

though as raiders are the 5 seed, we could theoretically host the championship game if one of the patriots/steelers gets there as well

raiders @ bengals
patriots @ bills
steelers @ chiefs

if the raiders upset the bengals, most likely scenario (chiefs beat steelers, bill beat pats) is we get to play the ans round 2 and duck mahomes/allen for at least one more round

I think the Patriots should be favored over Buffalo. Especially @ Buffalo . Will Hunting

[Will Hunting]

I think the Patriots should be favored over Buffalo. Especially @ Buffalo . Will Hunting

IMO the Patriots had a 6 game winning streak that led to a lot of undeserved hype but they're still by and large a pretty mediocre team.

[FrostKing]

49ers over Cowboys in a classic

Then off to Lambeau for another late finish

[DAF86]

Bengals over Raiders
Bills over Pats
Chiefs over Steelers

Bucs over Eagles
Niners over Cowboys
Rams over Cardinals

[DeadlyDynasty]

Chiefs 31, Steelers 15
Bills 24, Patriots 21
Raiders 30, Bengals 27 (OT)

Buccaneers 45, Eagles 9
Cowboys 23, 49ers 21
Rams 30, Cardinals 22

[Robz4000]

Chiefs over Steelers
Bengals over Raiders (assuming Burrow and Mixon are healthy)
Bills over Pats

Niners over Cowboys
Bucs over Eagles
Rams over Cards

[Mark Celibate]

Chiefs over Steelers
Raiders over Bengals
Pats over Bills

Bucs over Eagles
49ers over Cowcucks
Rams over Cardinals

feeling like a lot of road teams will win this week tbh

[Mark Celibate]

the Dallas game is the most obvious upset tbh. You have a hot team playing a bunch of frontrunners "led" by the Black Jared Goff who gets the deer in the headlights look whenever he faces a good defense. I already know that the 9ers will win like 24-21. Dallas will be shutdown for 3 quarters before Garbage Time Joe Montana leads a heroic comeback against prevent defense bringing the team within 3 for another moral victory loss.

mainstream media/sub 80 IQ Cowboy fans (which is 90% of the fanbase) still falls for his pre-game spearchucking, chest beating antics calling him a "leader" when he runs up the score against terrible teams while pointing the finger elsewhere whenever he predictably sh!ts the bed in big games

[Millennial_Messiah]

Chiefs crush Steelers at home
Raiders win at Cincinnati
Patriots beat little brother Bills again

Eagles stun Tompa Bay on the road
Cowboys beat 49ers at home
Rams hold off Arizona at home

[SpursforSix]

the Dallas game is the most obvious upset tbh. You have a hot team playing a bunch of frontrunners "led" by the Black Jared Goff who gets the deer in the headlights look whenever he faces a good defense. I already know that the 9ers will win like 24-21. Dallas will be shutdown for 3 quarters before Garbage Time Joe Montana leads a heroic comeback against prevent defense bringing the team within 3 for another moral victory loss.

mainstream media/sub 80 IQ Cowboy fans (which is 90% of the fanbase) still falls for his pre-game spearchucking, chest beating antics calling him a "leader" when he runs up the score against terrible teams while pointing the finger elsewhere whenever he predictably sh!ts the bed in big games

Yep. Arizona was for sure the better matchup.

I don't think the Cowboy defense can handle what SF will bring. Great running game, good to great WR, not to mention Kittle.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Yep. Arizona was for sure the better matchup.

I don't think the Cowboy defense can handle what SF will bring. Great running game, good to great WR, not to mention Kittle.

Dallas does well against bad QBs. The D-line and Parsons will feast on that inaccurate pocket statue.

Murray is a nightmare matchup. Dallas has always struggled against run first QBs.

[SpursforSix]

Dallas does well against bad QBs. The D-line and Parsons will feast on that inaccurate pocket statue.

Murray is a nightmare matchup. Dallas has always struggled against run first QBs.

That's not absolute. Dallas lost to Bridgewater and Carr. Jimmy G is as capable as those two PLUS he's under a way better coach that knows how to use all of his offensive players.
Samuels, Aiyuk, and Kittle are no joke. And Jennings looks to be damn good as well. And a very good running game.

I'd say it's the most complete offensive team they've seen in a while.

[Millennial_Messiah]

That's not absolute. Dallas lost to Bridgewater and Carr. Jimmy G is as capable as those two PLUS he's under a way better coach that knows how to use all of his offensive players.
Samuels, Aiyuk, and Kittle are no joke. And Jennings looks to be damn good as well. And a very good running game.

I'd say it's the most complete offensive team they've seen in a while.

Carr is in the Stafford tier... one tier above the Garoppolo's. Bridgewater, yeah I agree, but that game was a real fluke... if you watched the game, that was an exemplary "any given Sunday" game... the better team did not win, the extremely lucky team did. 0/3 on 4th and short in the first quarter, punt blocked forward recovered by the kicking team... lolwut. That game almost shouldn't count.

Samuel and Kittle are elite and guys like Aiyuk and Juszczyk are versatile and nice to have, but the offense is far from complete and far from the well oiled machine they were in 2019. Their run game is RBBC, featuring no stars and a decent amount of trick plays... we need to be on the look out for that, but their interior run game has also been hit-or-miss this season. The defensive secondary for the 49ers is atrocious and has been so since the Shermanator got hurt and declined. Their base front 7 is pretty good especially against the run, so I wouldn't run it too much. The ticket to the next round will be to air it out and don't rely on checkdowns and screens except when to confuse their pass rushers.

[SpursforSix]

Carr is in the Stafford tier... one tier above the Garoppolo's. Bridgewater, yeah I agree, but that game was a real fluke... if you watched the game, that was an exemplary "any given Sunday" game... the better team did not win, the extremely lucky team did. 0/3 on 4th and short in the first quarter, punt blocked forward recovered by the kicking team... lolwut. That game almost shouldn't count.

Samuel and Kittle are elite and guys like Aiyuk and Juszczyk are versatile and nice to have, but the offense is far from complete and far from the well oiled machine they were in 2019. Their run game is RBBC, featuring no stars and a decent amount of trick plays... we need to be on the look out for that, but their interior run game has also been hit-or-miss this season. The defensive secondary for the 49ers is atrocious and has been so since the Shermanator got hurt and declined. Their base front 7 is pretty good especially against the run, so I wouldn't run it too much. The ticket to the next round will be to air it out and don't rely on checkdowns and screens except when to confuse their pass rushers.

Who cares if their running game is RBBC? It's based on scheme and not having to rely on one player to make it work. And when it doesn't work, they have enough receiving talent to switch gears. I have no faith in the Cowboys secondary to be able to handle Samuel, Kittle, and whoever is third. Aiyuk is good and I'd never really heard of Jennings until I watched the last game. But he looks legit enough to be another threat. Made some great catches and looks to be good after the catch. Other than Tampa Bay, I don't see any other team on the Cowboy's schedule that had that kind of starting depth.

I agree Cowboys will have to air it out but I think SF can do the same to the CB. Plus they have a better run game. If San Fran gets any kind of lead, this game is over.

[spurraider21]

the Dallas game is the most obvious upset tbh. You have a hot team playing a bunch of frontrunners "led" by the Black Jared Goff who gets the deer in the headlights look whenever he faces a good defense. I already know that the 9ers will win like 24-21. Dallas will be shutdown for 3 quarters before Garbage Time Joe Montana leads a heroic comeback against prevent defense bringing the team within 3 for another moral victory loss.

mainstream media/sub 80 IQ Cowboy fans (which is 90% of the fanbase) still falls for his pre-game spearchucking, chest beating antics calling him a "leader" when he runs up the score against terrible teams while pointing the finger elsewhere whenever he predictably sh!ts the bed in big games

still unable to accept that you have a good black qb

[spurraider21]

AFC

Bills over Patriots - the pats beat them once in a game where they got away with only having 3 pass attempts. while it will be cold and possibly snow, we're not going to have those insane winds again. the bills were able to put up points in the last game. i just dont see Mac Jones being able to keep pace and guide the offense to 24+ points that they'll probably need.

Chiefs over Steelers - nothing really needs to be said. i'm just crossing my fingers and hoping Big Ben has one last vintage game in him to knock mahomes out

Raiders over Bengals - purely a homer special. the bengals beat the raiders in vegas this year, though the final score was deceiving. that was a 10-6 game at halftime, and was 16-13 midway through the 4th. bengals piled on late and the final score was lopsided. cincinnati will be cold with about a 50% chance of snow, but honestly i'm not so sure thats beneficial to the bengals. bengals pass protection has been shaky all year (burrow has taken 51 sacks), and i dont think Maxx Crosby will come up empty again like he did in their last matchup.


NFC

Bucs over Eagles - not much to be said. Hurts has moderately surprised me with his play this year, but this is playoff brady at home

Rams over Cardinals - Stafford has been a lot shakier in the 2nd half of the season, but the Cardinals have been in free fall. the rams just have more talent all over the field, and they're at home

Niners over Cowboys - this is the most interesting matchup of the week, and probably the pick i'm least confident in. Shanahan's offense has been ruthlessly efficient, and their bad games (tennessee) have come when Jimmy G just flat out misses too many throws, which is obviously a possibility here. the problem is they typically draw up the offense where he's constantly hitting YAC monsters over the middle of the field on easy completions. i just think the Niners defense will keep the score from ballooning, and as long as it remains a close game, the niners offense can continue being creative.

[Mark Celibate]

still unable to accept that you have a good black qb

I never said Dak wasn’t a good qb. He’s above average somewhere in the 10-12 range.

[Will Hunting]

Hi Mark

[Mark Celibate]

Hi Will, are you still bullying dark-skinned males beneath the rectangular area under the rim..?

[Blake]

Cardinals did all that early season work just to end up on the road in the wild card spot. Smh.

[BD24]

Looking forward to Andy’s multiple pages meltdown afternoon the 49ers beat the boys tbh. Although the packers beating the cowboys would be more sweet….and lead to a far larger meltdown

[Millennial_Messiah]

Cardinals did all that early season work just to end up on the road in the wild card spot. Smh.

They're like 8-1 on the road and 3-5 at home tbh. They're better off that way.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Looking forward to Andy’s multiple pages meltdown afternoon the 49ers beat the boys tbh. Although the packers beating the cowboys would be more sweet….and lead to a far larger meltdown

First scenario wouldn't be a multiple pages meltdown, just a few annoyance posts in the game thread and probably a new Cowboys thread for 2022...

Second scenario would be the end of me tbh, you're pretty spot on with that... but there's no scenario in which GB meets the Cowboys in the second round.

[FrostKing]

Cowboys defense #31 in YAC allowed