The playoffs are here! The most glorious time of the year is upon us, with the 2023 NFL regular season coming to an exciting end and a wide-open race remaining for a Super Bowl. You could convince me to play any game between any team on either side of the draw.
In fact, I would believe you if you told me [insert any team here] beat [insert any team here] in the joker round. Even the Steelers beat the Bills! Maybe. Anyway, let’s rank the Super Wild Card Weekend matches from best to worst. I hope you like the flavor of REVENGE.
The super rare Double Revenge Game™️ with Matthew Stafford returning to Detroit to play against the Lions in Detroit for the first time since being traded to the Rams. Of course, the Stafford trade featured Jared Goff going from Los Angeles to Motown, which means it’s an even bigger revenge play for the Rams’ former first-round pick. Stafford also went No. 1 overall, which gives this a little more juice, I guess, not that a playoff game in Detroit needs extra juice. Just ask Stafford: He played 12 years for the Lions and this will be his first-ever playoff game at Ford Field. The last time these two teams played after the trade, Stafford completed 69 percent of his passes while throwing for 334 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Quite an effort! Goff was far less impressive, but he really became a viable franchise quarterback under offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. The Rams are as hot as any team in the NFL lately, the Lions are hosting their first playoff game in forever and if it was Stafford who broke their soul in Detroit, that would be hard to stomach.
A rematch of the Germany game from earlier this year, this game looks like a disappointment, but not because of the quality, but rather because of the way the Dolphins came from a tie to win the AFC East is one loss away to the Bills on Sunday night. season finale and now I have to travel to Kansas City to face Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, with Andy Reid having a week to rest his guys and start thinking about different matchups he could have. The real spice comes in the form of this revenge game, with Tyreek Hill making his highly anticipated return to Arrowhead Stadium in the playoffs. The Chiefs stifled him on the road earlier this year and he was relatively quiet against the Bills, but it’s safe to say he’ll be highly motivated to show up and produce in front of his former team and his former quarterback -back. That line has already jumped a half point in the half hour after the Dolphins game ended.
Speaking of revenge games, what do you think of Mike McCarthy’s old team versus Mike McCarthy’s new team? There’s no more Aaron Rodgers for Green Bay, of course, which is a shame because it would have given this game some SERIOUS juice. But there’s still a lot to love about this game…literally. Jordan Love looks like the Packers’ next franchise quarterback, justifying the front office’s decision this year to move up and grab him despite Rodgers’ presence on the roster. Love was extremely eventful, making this match a real wild card. It’s felt like Green Bay has been a thorn in the playoffs in the Cowboys’ side for a while now, but Dallas is probably just happy the 49ers aren’t on deck. I would expect the Cowboys – who have completely dominated at home all year – to regain some momentum and wouldn’t be shocked if this game progressed relatively quickly compared to the Cowboys (-7).
You could reverse numbers 4 and 5 on this list and I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to it. But I’ve seen Philly and Tampa play and I’m not sure I’m excited to see their offenses. On the other hand, here we have a sneaky and fun little clash between two absolutely shocking playoff teams. The Browns were projected by Vegas as a postseason club before the season, but they started FIVE QUARTERBACKS and will deploy Joe Flacco for this game. Houston has been great against the run but has struggled against the pass lately – I’m absolutely excited at the prospect of catching some JANUARY JOE and maybe even FEBRUARY FLACCO in the playoffs this year. And what’s left to say about CJ Stroud? The dude is nailed and really fought Saturday night for Houston against the Colts in a win-win game that ultimately won them the division when the Jaguars pissed their leg against the Titans on Sunday afternoon. Voters for the NFL Honors Awards should wait and nominate the winner of this game as Coach of the Year, because the battle between Kevin Stefanski and DeMeco Ryans could be something to behold.
The Bills’ win on Sunday night also moved this game down and, frankly, the idea of this game is much more exciting than the game itself. The Eagles are struggling, and the defense has been particularly porous in the second half of the season. Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown both suffered ugly injuries Sunday in a blowout loss to the Giants that followed a blowout loss to the Cardinals, the combination of which caused the Eagles to lose their stranglehold on the NFC East and allow the Cowboys to steal the division title. This is a remarkable change in events. Baker Mayfield raked in $1 million from the Bucs making the playoffs and this line should be nerve-wracking for Eagles fans because it’s so small. The Bucs have played some really bad offensive football over the past two weeks, but they certainly have the weapons to light up Philadelphia’s secondary if they can do it again. I’m cautiously optimistic that we could get some fireworks between these two pass funnel defenses.
6. Bills (-10) vs. Steelers
Don’t call me a company man! This game is by far the worst on the wild card list and quite the dagger since CBS would have gotten Bills@Dolphins if Miami had won on Sunday night. It’s still a “good” game in the sense that both fan bases should be excited and you have the super rare COLLEGE REVENGE (?) ANGLE, with Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott both having attended William & Mary ( thanks to my colleague Ryan Wilson and pod friend Joe Person, both of whom also went to W&M!). But we probably won’t have TJ Watt for this game with an MCL sprain (fellow JJ Watt reported it was just a grade 2 sprain, so Watt may return but probably not for this game), which will cause problems for Pittsburgh’s defense. If Josh Allen cuts down on turnovers, it could be a blowout, but the Steelers will be playing with house money after sneaking into the playoffs thanks to the Jaguars’ failures on Sunday. Mason Rudolph will start but let’s not sleep on Mitchell Trubisky’s revenge angle if Rudolph struggles here.
