Our NFL Wild Card Predictions

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It’s finally time for professional playoff football! Analysts argue the Wild Card weekend is not as exciting as the divisional rounds that follow, but we’d beg to differ this year. Across the board, there are some exciting matchups featuring fresh faces in the playoff tournament. Without further adieu, here is our super-expert-can’t-be-argued-against predictions for this weekend’s matchups.

Colts vs. Texans

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One more time for these AFC South rivals to decide who should be crowned the division’s best. It’s hard to pick one here. On one hand you have a resurgent Colts offense behind a healthy Andrew Luck, and on the other hand you have a Texans team that rattled off nine straight wins after a lackluster start and came out about even toward the end of the season. We’ll give it to Houston in a toss-up.

Seahawks vs. Cowboys
Your guess is as good as ours in this one. The Cowboys didn’t play lights out against an admittedly weaker NFC East division this year, winning (or losing) by narrow margins each time. Jason Garrett has been known to be a conservative play caller, and the Seahawks have been here before. Plus, they beat the Cowboys early in the season. Seattle eeks by in a stressful contest.

Chargers vs. Ravens
Philip Rivers and the Chargers were dominant at some points and just good enough at others, but they beat good teams when it was important, and they’ve earned their first place standing in the two-team AFC West. Baltimore may have beaten Los Angeles this year, but they’re riding the rookie wave of Lamar Jackson and it can’t possibly succeed in the playoffs. The Chargers win this one.

Eagles vs. Bears
Does Nick Foles even know what he’s doing? Yet again, the Eagles have limped into the playoffs on the back of their backup quarterback after an injury to Carson Wentz. Three straight confidence-boosting wins will do you a lot in any sport, but not when you have to face a juggernaut of a team that looks nasty on defense and surprisingly potent on offense. In a head-turning game, it’ll be Trubisky and the Bears offense that put their stamp on this game rather than the loaded Chicago defense.

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If all of our predictions pan out, the Texans would move on to play New England, the Chargers would play Kansas City, the Bears would play the Rams, and the Seahawks would play New Orleans. Any of those matchups make for good T.V., and we’ll be back with another prediction next week. Have a good time watching the games, and let us know who you think will win in the comments below!