2 potential upsets for the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs
The NFL playoffs are here and upsets may soon announce themselves
There is nothing cooler than saying “win or go home” when it comes to the NFL playoffs. We all know and have known forever that this is the case, but actually saying it out loud rocks.
Across the next few days we will watch six playoff games that carry this distinction. Twelve teams will enter, six will leave and legacies will be altered forever. Drama. Chaos. Beauty.
When it comes to matters like these the chalk outcome is hardly the most common one. At some point we are bound to see an upset or two with the favored team getting bounced.
Here are two possibilities of that throughout Wild Card Weekend.
Houston Texans over Los Angeles Chargers
For the purposes of our discussion we will be defining upsets along the lines of how our friends at FanDuel Sportsbook have these games listed. That is the most objective way in my mind and you are stuck here so here we go.
The Houston Texans are the biggest home underdogs of the Wild Card Round as, at the time of this writing, they are just narrowly edging out the Los Angeles Rams. Houston is +3 while the Rams are +2.5, although obviously the Rams game is not operating under normal circumstances so defining their “home field advantage” this week is impossible.
It goes without saying that this Texans team has limped to the finish line and done so as AFC South Champions. You may recall that they dropped a literal deuce on the scoreboard on Christmas Day of all things. Put simply, it has been bad.
But do we really trust the Chargers that much? I admit that some of my tentativeness here is needing to see it to believe it. Maybe that is where I am coming from deep in the recesses of my mind.
I’d just say though that I think we have taken who the Texans have been lately, which has been very bad and really matters, and forgotten that they were at one point in time a team we believed greatly in. And while I acknowledge that the Chargers of Jim Harbaugh are not the Chargers of old... they remain the Chargers. If anyone can find a way to breathe life into a down Houston team... it is them.
Green Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles
I’d like to think that I am a very unbiased person around here, but you should know that I am SB Nation’s resident Dallas Cowboys person as I oversee our Cowboys website Blogging The Boys. Furthermore, this time last year the Cowboys were preparing as the No. 2 seed in the NFC and winners of the NFC East to host the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers. Dallas lost that game, in embarrassing fashion, and became the first No. 2 seed to ever lose in the Wild Card round in NFL history (this has only been possible since 2021 to be clear).
Can the Eagles fall victim to Jordan Love and Co. in the same way that the Cowboys did? I think that Philadelphia runs a much better football organization than Dallas does so I am not trying to equate them in that sense, but beyond the Cowboys meme-ness of last year’s lesson it did serve as an example that this can indeed be done.
I’d venture to say that we’ll think the Packers are some sort of paper tigers what with how they have not beaten any good teams. Isn’t that the most predictable narrative, though? Oh! The team who couldn’t beat anybody showed up in the playoffs! That’s such an of course thing to happen.
Let me be very clear in saying that I think the Eagles are the team to beat in the NFC. In fact, let me be even more clear and say that I think this is their most difficult game standing between them and a trip to New Orleans. The Eagles would be an underdog in all likelihood to the Detroit Lions which would put them in a dangerous space. It is a very different thing to be the team with nothing to lose, the way Dallas was last season, and that is not exactly a role in which I think we all trust Nick Sirianni to tread lightly.
If pushed I’d say that I feel twice as confident in my Texans pick as the Packers one. But both remain possible in my mind. Let’s dance.