After a captivating regular season filled with a lot of drama, the playoffs have arrived. There are some big AFC games which include two division battles and a game between two young quarterbacks. We’ll get to see Dolphins Bills for the 3rd time this season, the Chargers facing the Jags on Saturday night, and the Bengals hosting Baltimore for the 2nd straight game. It should be epic.
The 1st AFC Wild Card game is the Chargers against the Jaguars. I feel like both of these teams are playing really well and it should be a close game. The Chargers are finally healthy but could be faced with a problem as Bosa and Mike Williams are questionable. The Chargers at full strength can be a very good team. Since coming back from injury, Keenan Allen has been electric. Him and Williams make a perfect combo and have great balance between them. Williams is great at contested and deep catches while Allen is a really slick route runner and gets a lot of receptions. Adding to their receiver combo, they have a terrific running back who can do everything. Austin Ekeler is really good at running the football and lovely at catching it too. On the other side, the Jacksonville Jaguars have had a remarkable season. Trevor Lawrence has had an excellent year and has carried his team into the playoffs. They’re on a 5 game winning streak and after starting 4-8, they completely turned it around by beating the Titans twice and the Cowboys in a wild one. Travis Etienne has emerged in his 2nd year and has shown his dual pass/run skill. He is fast and has picked up 1,000+ rushing yards this season. After watching the Jaguars play, it’s hard to not root for them. I believe the Chargers will win this game 34-31. When the Chargers have their full complement of players, it is hard to stop them. They have the team to beat anyone but it’s just about how they perform. I think they’ll explode offensively in this game and show they can play any type of game you throw at them. They are sound defensively and just incredible on offense. It will be a tight game but I think Brandon Staley’s team will come out on top against Doug Pederson and the Jaguars.
The next AFC game is at the 1:00 PM slot on Sunday. The Bills and Dolphins have played out two close games this year and this one will be a tiebreaker. Personally, I feel this game deserved prime time just because it adds extra stakes to this game. How fun would it be to see a division battle between Tyreek Hill and Stefon Diggs on primetime. Pretty fun I would imagine but that is not going to happen. A big thing for this game is that Tua is out for Miami. They’ll start rookie 3rd string quarterback Skylar Thompson in this magnitude game. There will certainly be a lot of pressure on him. I feel like if Miami wants to win this game, they have to establish the run game. They have to play small and work up some good drives. Tua loves deep balls and I’m sure they won’t do a lot of those with Thompson. The game can’t rest on the rookie’s shoulders and Miami has to find ways to win other than passing the football. They have to limit the Bills’ points and keep the ball out of Josh Allen’s hands. If they do that, I won’t count them out. For the Bills, things have really clicked for them and they’ve found a lot of different ways to win. They’ve made it easier for Allen by running the football efficiently. It’s taken the load out of his hands and made him play better. Running the football is a key for them along with silly errors. We’ve seen Allen throw red zone picks this year and it absolutely can‘t happen in the playoffs. I think that the Buffalo Bills will win this game 30-16. I just don’t see the Dolphins winning with Tua out. I don’t think that the Bills will play special but just enough to win this playoff game.
The final AFC Wild Card game is a Sunday Night game between the Ravens and the Bengals. These two teams played against each other last week, a game in which Cincinnati won. For the Ravens, Lamar Jackson is unlikely to play which is fairly bad news for them. He is the base of this team and honestly, they struggle without him. They score less points when Lamar is out and in this upcoming game, I’m sure they’ll need to score a lot of points. It comes down to the other guys stepping up now. The running backs will need to step up and Baltimore’s receivers have got to help out the backup quarterback.This team will have to dig deep in order to win this game. The Cincinnati Bengals have looked really hard to beat. Joe Burrow has a world class year and has led this Bengals offense consisting of Higgins, Boyd, Chase, and Mixon to the playoffs. To win, I think they’ll have to control the game and play just like last week. My prediction is that the Bengals will beat Baltimore 27-13. I don’t see a lot of threat on the Ravens side and I don’t think Baltimore have it in them to win. I see a comfortable and easy Cincinnati win on Sunday Night Football.
Some terrific stars are on show this weekend but we might be missing some key ones. Can Brandon Staley lead the Chargers past the Jaguars? Will youngster Skylar Thompson dazzle and upset the Bills on the road? Can the Baltimore Ravens win without their star quarterback or will Cincy come out on top? All this action is packed into 2 days and it should be exciting.
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