Two Wild Card Round upsets we have to see this weekend
The 2023 regular season is officially over, but the real season has arrived in the form of the 2023-2024 playoffs.This first round, dubbed Super Wild Card Weekend after the NFL decided to add two more playoff teams to the mix, kicks off the tournament this weekend and there are plenty of exciting matchups to watch.As […]
The 2023 regular season is officially over, but the real season has arrived in the form of the 2023-2024 playoffs.
This first round, dubbed Super Wild Card Weekend after the NFL decided to add two more playoff teams to the mix, kicks off the tournament this weekend and there are plenty of exciting matchups to watch.
As always, people want to see the underdog pull off an upset and/or go on a run no one saw coming. It's happened plenty of times in the past: The 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers and 2010 Green Bay Packers both won Super Bowls as the sixth seed in their respective conferences and even the 2007 New York Giants and 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a Lombardi as No. 5 seeds.
So, out of the six matchups this weekend, there are two upsets we all need to see. And it's not just for the sake of seeing an upset – these would have big-picture ramifications, as well.
Houston Texans over Cleveland Browns (-2.5)
The Texans are playing at home, so Vegas really doesn't like them for some reason. It's an interesting spread, especially how well C.J. Stroud is playing.
The Browns have an excellent defense and Joe Flacco is playing some of the best football of his career after he was plucked off the couch just five or six weeks ago. It's easily one of the best stories, along with Stroud, of 2023.
Will the Browns defense make Stroud look like a typical rookie? He was out with a concussion the last time these two teams met, so we don't have any priors to go off. But, obviously, how Stroud plays will determine who wins this game.
Here's the big picture aspect of this: If the Texans win and the rest of the AFC games are chalk, then this upset would set up a Texans-Buffalo Bills showdown and a Baltimore Ravens-Miami Dolphins rematch.
Who wouldn't wanna see Stroud and Josh Allen play each other? We deserve it after all the QB injuries we had to deal with this year.
Los Angeles Rams over Detroit Lions (-3)
This is easily the biggest storyline of the weekend: Jared Goff hosting his old team in Motown.
As great a story as the Lions are, the Rams are a better story. Sean McVay has done a tremendous job with a team that hardly anyone saw winning as many as six games – much less make the damn playoffs. It just goes to show what good drafting, along with good coaching, can do for a team.
Therefore, we need to see this underdog story continue. The Lions are fun to watch, but so are the Rams. And, a Rams win, along with NFC chalk sets up yet another Rams-San Francisco 49ers trilogy that is always fun to watch.
These results would be great and they'd set up the Divisional Round for some great matchups. But, as long as we just get good football, at the end of the day, who cares what ultimately happens?
