Category: 2021 NFL Playoffs

Wild-card playoff preview: What the Cardinals must do to beat the Rams

If the Arizona Cardinals are to win the first playoff game of the Kliff Kingsbury era, they’ll need to focus on these three things.

The Arizona Cardinals and the Los Angeles Rams faced off twice in the regular season, with decidedly different results. Arizona whomped up on the Rams 37-20 in Week 14, and Sean McVay got Kliff Kingsbury back in Week 14 when the Rams won, 30-23.

On Thursday, Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury discussed the challenges of facing one team three times in the same season.

“We’re starting from scratch, there’s no question. Normally I like to get ahead, but it was hard to get ahead not knowing who your opponent was going to be. We really dabbled in a few of the possible opponents, watched some tape on each one, so it’s been a busy week trying to get caught up because we’re not in our regular process. Anytime you play a team three times, you have film from previous games you can look at, see what went worked, what didn’t, how you can adjust things, how they can adjust things, and just kind of do your best from there.”

If the Cardinals are to do their best, and win the first playoff game of the Kingsbury era, they’ll have to pay attention to these three things.

2021 NFL playoffs: How all 12 teams can win their wild-card games

With Super Wild-Card Weekend upcoming, Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield have detailed tape/stat breakdowns detailing how all 12 teams can win.

[mm-video type=video id=01fs7gafb19vgjfway20 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fs7gafb19vgjfway20/01fs7gafb19vgjfway20-82b3f67fa5a54b981e0c9594ebedd5db.jpg]

Starting on Saturday, we have quite the wild-card round to kick off the NFL playoffs.

The NFL expanded the playoffs last season for the first time since 1990, adding a third Wild Card team in each conference and creating “Super Wild Card Weekend”with three Wild Card games on Saturday and three games on Sunday.

With the addition of a Monday night game to the 2021 season slate, Super Wild Card Weekend will now have two Wild Card games on Saturday (4:30 PM and 8:15 PM ET), three on Sunday (1:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 8:15 PM ET), and one on Monday (8:15 PM ET).

On Saturday, the Las Vegas Raiders play at the Cincinnati Bengals (NBC, Peacock, Universo, 4:30 PM ET) and the New England Patriots visit the Buffalo Bills (CBS, Paramount+, 8:15 PM ET).

On Sunday as the Philadelphia Eagles visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (FOX, FOX Deportes, 1:00 PM ET), the Dallas Cowboys welcome the San Francisco 49ers (CBS, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime Video, 4:30 PM ET) and the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to face the Kansas City Chiefs (NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, 8:15 PM ET).

Super Wild Card Weekend concludes with the Arizona Cardinals visiting the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night (ESPN/ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+ ESPN Deportes, 8:15 PM ET).

At Touchdown Wire, we’ve got you covered with all the matchups. Using tape analysis and advanced metrics, Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield have put together pieces on how each of these 12 teams can advance to the divisional round.

Wild-card playoff preview: What the Eagles must to do beat the Buccaneers

If the Eagles are to unseat the defending champion Buccaneers in the wild-card round, they’ll have to do these three things.

When the Eagles came into their Week 6 Thursday night game with the Buccaneers, they were in trouble. There were serious questions about first-year head coach Nick Sirianni and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, the offense with quarterback Jalen Hurts hadn’t figured itself out quite yet, and the 2-3 team did not have the look of a playoff entrant at all.

In the game itself, the Buccaneers proved to be the superior team — not a surprising result from the defending Super Bowl champs. Tom Brady and his crew put up a 28-7 third-quarter lead before the run-averse Eagles finally put things together and closed the gap to 28-22 with two Hurts rushing touchdowns.

Both Sirianni and Gannon seemed to grasp clues about their players that propelled them forward, and over time, the Eagles became a different team. This is now a run-heavy offense with great productivity and efficiency, which allows Hurts to develop as most second-year quarterbacks should — in a system where he doesn’t have to do everything, and with a defense that can get things done… to a point.

The Eagles bottomed out at 3-6 in Week 9 after a 27-24 loss to the Chargers, and they then rattled off six wins in their final right games to earn themselves a rematch with the champs.

Here’s how Sirianni’s team can create a different result this time around.

Wild-card playoff preview: What the Buccaneers must to do beat the Eagles

In the 2020 season, on their way to the second Super Bowl win in franchise history, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had by far the league’s best injury luck. Regression hit the Bucs like the proverbial ton of bricks in their attempt to run it back – from …

In the 2020 season, on their way to the second Super Bowl win in franchise history, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had by far the league’s best injury luck. Regression hit the Bucs like the proverbial ton of bricks in their attempt to run it back — from the receiver corps to the defensive line to the linebackers to the secondary (especially the secondary), head coach Bruce Arians and his guys have had a heck of a time fielding a competitive group at times.

And yet… the Bucs come into the 2021 wild-card round with a 13-4 record (two more games than they won in the 2020 regular season), Tom Brady ripping up the league at age 44, and some key players returning from injuries and COVID concerns. After all kinds of agita, the Bucs are in their best possible shape to climb the ladder once again. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough.

In the wild-card round, the Bucs will face an Eagles team that looks radically different than it did in Week 6, when Tampa Bay overcame a furious second-half Philly comeback to emerge victorious, 28-22. The Bucs have won seven of their last eight games, and outside of a Saints team Brady and Co. just can’t seem to figure out, they’ve looked every bit a Super Bowl contender against most opponents — even with all the injuries, and Antonio Brown being, y’know, Antonio Brown.

But before we can crown the Bucs once again, they’ll have to get past these Eagles, who are quite a bit spicier than they were in the first half of the season.

Here’s how they can pull that off.

The one potentially fatal flaw for every AFC playoff team

Each AFC playoff team has a potentially fatal flaw, and here’s the one thing that could boot each of the seven teams out of the tournament.

No matter how your regular season has gone, if you’re in the playoffs, none of that stuff matters. There are all kinds of examples of low postseason seeds doing it right on the road when it counts, and making their improbable Super Bowl dreams come true. The 2020 Buccaneers achieved just such a feat, winning all four of their postseason games on the road, and giving Tom Brady his seventh Super Bowl ring.

Every team in the tournament has a shot at the title with the big reset, but every team in the tournament also has potentially fatal flaws that could have them falling short when it counts the most.

Here, by order of playoff seed, is the one potentially fatal flaw that could boot each of the AFC’s Super Bowl LVI hopefuls off the map.

The one potentially fatal flaw for every NFC playoff team

Each NFC playoff team has a potentially fatal flaw, and here’s the one thing that could boot each of the seven teams out of the tournament.

No matter how your regular season has gone, if you’re in the playoffs, none of that stuff matters. There are all kinds of examples of low postseason seeds doing it right on the road when it counts, and making their improbable Super Bowl dreams come true. The 2020 Buccaneers achieved just such a feat, winning all four of their postseason games on the road, and giving Tom Brady his seventh Super Bowl ring.

Every team in the tournament has a shot at the title with the big reset, but every team in the tournament also has potentially fatal flaws that could have them falling short when it counts the most.

Here, by order of playoff seed, is the one potentially fatal flaw that could boot each of the NFC’s Super Bowl LVI hopefuls off the map.

2021 NFC playoff picture: Packers edge out Bucs, Cardinals for top seed

Here’s a look at the NFC playoff picture heading into Week 15 in the NFL.

The cream is rising to the top in the NFC. A preseason pick of the Packers wasn’t exactly unique, and they’re living up to those expectations after a decisive 45-30 win over Chicago Sunday. The Cardinals had some early buzz as contenders in the NFC, and of course, there’s the defending champions.

It’s Packers-Bucs-Cardinals in the NFC, and with the Cowboys and the Rams right behind them, it seems the race to the postseason in the NFC will be as exciting as it’s been in years (pretty exciting in the AFC too).

Here are the seeds heading into the Week 15 slate of games.

2021 AFC playoff picture: 3-way tie at the top

Here is how the AFC looks in terms of playoff seedings entering Week 15.

The real season for the contenders starts in Week 15. With four games remaining, the top playoff seeds in the AFC — the Patriots, Titans and Chiefs — have faced different challenges to get to the same 9-4 record.

New England started off slowly but are the league’s hottest team, having won seven straight after a 2-4 start. The Chiefs, similarly, found much more success as the season has worn on, winning six straight after a 3-4 start. The Titans, presumed to be finished after losing MVP candidate Derrick Henry to a foot injury, have held firm in his absence, and can clinch the AFC South with a win over the Steelers Sunday and a Patriots win over the Colts Saturday.

Here are the rest of the seeds in the AFC entering Week 15.