Don’t think many people thought they would be saying that after taking out the Green Bay Packers in week 17 to win the division. Washington has won its last five games as home underdogs, so a minor upset appears to be in the cards here. Alex Smith and the Kansas City Chiefs open the playoffs on the road against the Houston Texans. The Steelers and Bengals should be a very good game to watch and it is one that could come down to the final minutes. Both teams hate each other, and Cincinnati’s home field advantage could be the difference that the Bengals need.
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But the Pack has tons of playoff experience, and the Redskins did not beat a team that finished with a winning record all season.
No. 6 Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 3 Cincinnati Bengals: After splitting their regular-season matchups 1-1, these two teams will get a third chance to break the tie to see which one will have the bragging rights at the end of the campaign.
All things point to the Bengals losing this game, but CBS Sports predicts the Bengals will escape with a 23-20 victory. Andy Dalton is out with a thumb injury, which means A.J. McCarran will start his fourth consecutive game against one of the lowest ranked passing defenses in the league.
As long as McCarron doesn’t have a awful game – and he hasn’t thrown an interception in his three starts – I like the Bengals to get the win.
These two teams split during the regular season, and both have looked shaky the past few weeks. Pittsburgh, which will be without RB DeAngelo Williams (ankle), had to win four of its past five games to get into the postseason. Then I saw their record: they’re a contender! That is not how you win a game, especially if you have the leading rusher in the National Football League on your team.
Ulrey: The Packers haven’t looked like the Packers of late, and a lot of that has to be attributed to the fact that Jordy Nelson has been out this season.
Houston won one game all season where its opponent scored 20 or more points, while it was 8-0 in games where the opponent failed to hit that mark.
888 Sports has the tightest odds of any other sportsbook for this game, with the Redskins as marginal favorites at 1.82, while the Packers are at 2.02. The Texans defense could be sneaky as their price makes them a bit more intriguing than Kansas City however Kansas City generally does not turn the ball over that much. The Texans offense was mediocre, ranking 19th overall, but impressive considering the number of quarterbacks who started for the team. While they have some questionable losses this year, they are an extremely risky team going into the playoffs. Ultimately, it is going to take them down, and this is the week. West and Ware carried the ball over 230 times combined but the duo fumbled just once – combined – the entire season.
Seahawks (-4.5) at Vikings: No Marshawn Lynch for the Seahawks, who destroyed the Vikings recently.
One caveat seems to be the cold weather might bother Seattle?
The Texans are undefeated (2-0) all-time in the playoffs at home. Crennel’s players have played well all season and helped overcome the Texans offensive troubles to have winning a 2015 campaign.
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Kansas City does everything pretty well, though we all know by now that they don’t create a ton of explosive plays in the passing game. Back the Steelers to win in Cincinnati for the second time this season.
