Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
All the important details to know for Saturday’s NFL wild-card games.
The Kansas City Chiefs don’t play a game this week, but there are six wild-card games this weekend, three of which take place today. Below are all of the important details about those three postseason matchups, including how to watch and stream online. If you have questions about the games, reach out to us on Twitter @TheChiefsWire.
Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts game day inactive lists for Wild Card weekend.
Here are the full game day inactive lists for the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts ahead of their Wild Card meeting at Bills Stadium on Saturday:
Games previews:
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Buffalo City Hall hangs Bills banners.
Downtown Buffalo is ready for the playoffs.
On Friday ahead of the Bills’ first playoff game at home in 25 years against the Indianapolis Colts, City Hall got a facelift.
Located in Niagara Square, some new banners were draped over the pillars outside the front of the building. So far, the signs appear to commemorate the team’s recent AFC East title win.
The Bills shared a photo of it on social media on Friday. Check it out below:
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Buffalo Bills WR Stefon Diggs, WR Cole Beasley to play in Wild Card vs. Indianapolis Colts.
Listed as questionable no more?
It was anticipated by most that wide receiver Stefon Diggs would play in the Bills’ Wild Card matchup against the Colts. That’s because the man himself said so this week. But now it appears that Cole Beasley will be good to go, too.
According to ESPN’s Jeremey Fowler, the Bills will have both Diggs and Beasley in their lineup on Saturday.
Diggs suffered an oblique injury against the Dolphins in Week 17. Beasley injured his knee in Week 16 vs. the Patriots and did not play in Buffalo’s season finale.
The Bills host their first home playoff game in 25 years on Saturday. Both Diggs and Beasley were named All-Pros on Friday as well.
For full confirmation, we’ll have to wait until the Bills announce their full list of inactive players ahead of kickoff. That typically takes place 90 minutes before kickoff, which will be at approximately 11:30 a.m.
Check back with Bills Wire for that update as well.
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Buffalo Bills are team most-picked to win over the entire Wild Card weekend.
The Buffalo Bills are a touchdown favorite heading into their first home playoff game in over two decades against the Indianapolis Colts. If you’re thinking that’s a big gap, the so-called “experts” take it a step even further than that.
NFL PickWatch polled analysts, writers and the talking heads on television from across the country this week and among them, the Bills (13-3) have the most backing. Not just “most” in terms of this game, either… of all Wild Card weekend games.
Per the poll, 95 percent of experts pick Buffalo to top the Colts (11-5). More picked the Bills than even the Saints (94%) over the Bears and Bucs (93%) over the Football Team.
But of course, we don’t have a full house here. We’ve got a couple of folks that have picked Indy to win.
Following the game, if the Bills do win, feel free to remind a couple of them about their picking against the Bills on social media. Some of those include Jarrett Bell (USA TODAY), David Boclair (Sports Illustrated) and Will Brinson (CBS Sports).
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Buffalo Bills call up WR Duke Williams, OL Jordan Devey for Indianapolis Colts Wild Card Meeting. WR Kenny Stills not called up.
Wide receiver Kenny Stills will not be making his Buffalo Bills debut against the Indianapolis Colts. The Bills (13-3) announced two players were elevated from their practice squad on Friday ahead of this weekend’s Wild Card matchup.
Neither one was Stills.
Instead, wide receiver Duke Williams and offensive lineman Jordan Devey were called up.
Both Devey and Williams have appeared in one game during the regular season for Buffalo and did so together. That game was Week 7 against the New York Jets. The Bills won that game, 18-10.
Stills was signed on Monday and some speculated he could be used by the Bills on Saturday. That now won’t happen.
In terms of Devey and Williams’ selections, the only injury concerns come via the wideout. Buffalo’s wide receiver room has seen two players listed as questionable heading into this game and both are receivers, Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley. Most expect Beasley not to play but Diggs’ status is still up in the air.
Worth noting is that Devey and Williams being elevated does not mean they’re playing. Buffalo could still make both inactive on game day despite calling the pair up.
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Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts key matchups for Wild Card round.
The Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts. Win or go home.
While the stakes are high, this outing is still the same between the Bills (13-3) and Colts (11-5). It’ll be the games within the game that make all the difference.
With that, here are three key matchups to watch in Saturday’s Wild Card matchup as Buffalo hosts Indianapolis:
Indianapolis Colts LB Darius Leonard on facing the Buffalo Bills, LB Tremaine Edmunds in NFL Wild Card matchup.
The Buffalo Bills must be prepared for Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard on Saturday in their AFC Wild Card showdown. He’s their defense’s lone Pro Bowler this year, the second of his career, and was an All-Pro already.
Not only will they have to be prepped for Leonard himself, but there’s a chip on his shoulder that’s coming full force.
As his accolades show, Leonard is very good. But his draft status displays not every team thought those would come. As a second-round pick in 2018, every team in the NFL, at one point, passed on Leonard at that year’s draft.
Tremaine Edmunds brings that full circle for Leonard. Who was among the teams that passed on Leonard, not once, but twice if you include the selection of Josh Allen as well in the 2018 first round? The Bills. And naturally, who was that other first rounder for the Bills at No. 16 overall? Edmunds.
“Every pick that was a linebacker ahead of me, I held that grudge,” Leonard said this week.
Naturally it’s not like Leonard personally hates the soft-spoken Edmunds. As Michael Corleone once said, it’s strictly business.
“We were at the Pro Bowl together, he’s a great guy,” Leonard said. “But on the field, I’m competing against the opposing offense, and I’m competing against him, because I have a point to prove.”
“Every LB that was picked before me, I’ve beat them,” Leonard said, mentioning a group that includes the Bills from his rookie season. “I want to outplay them. I want to show that team what they could have had.”
Having personally known Leonard as the Colts defender mentioned, Edmunds probably wouldn’t take such a thing personal. In fact, ahead of the upcoming playoff meeting, Edmunds ]sounded all business too, just in a more grounded light.
“I think really the biggest thing is just controlling what I can control and that is what we do on defense,” Edmunds said on Thursday via video conference. “From there, whatever happens, happens. But that’s the only thing I can control.”
“Really solid group,” Edmunds added on the Colts.
Buds or not, there can only be one starting middle linebacker that advances to Round 2.
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Things to watch for and a prediction ahead of the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts in NFL Wild Card action.
The Buffalo Bills are poised to win their first playoff game under the watch of head coach Sean McDermott in this weekend’s Wild Card matchup against the Indianapolis Colts.
The favorite, yes, but the No. 2-seeded Bills (13-3) will not have a walk in the park. The Colts (11-5) might have just snuck into the postseason… but they earned their double-digit wins like everyone else.
With that, here are seven things to watch for and a prediction ahead of the Bills-Colts Wild Card meeting:
What the Indianapolis Colts had to say about facing the Buffalo Bills over Wild Card weekend.
What are the Indianapolis Colts planning to do at Bills Stadium on Saturday? Simple. Play Colts football.
The Colts enter the weekend as the first-ever No. 7 seed in the NFL’s postseason history since the league’s decision to expand the playoffs in 2020. Yes, they know the Bills (13-3) are good, even mentioning Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen as an MVP candidate.
Still, that’s not what these guys are worrying about this week. Word out of Indy has simply been one that Bills coach Sean McDermott would respect. They’re just going to control what they can control.
“The pressure is not on us. We should be loose, aggressive and freed up to play our best game of the year. No one is going to give us a chance,” Colts head coach and former Bills QB Frank Reich said.
Echoing the familiar face to Buffalo was linebacker Darius Leonard. He’s the lone Pro Bowler for the Colts this year and like Allen, earned a big honor on Thursday. Leonard was named the AFC’s Defensive Player of the Month.
“It’s always no pressure,” Leonard said via video conference. “Like coach said, when you’re the seven seed, everyone expects you to fail. That’s the mindset.”
Leonard is even using any “pressure” and turning it into motivation.
“I looked at something today, it was pretty crazy that everybody said the Bills was going to win, everybody is counting up out. We can just go in there and be us, nothing more, nothing less, be us,” Leonard added. “Pressure? Nah. We don’t have any pressure on us. We’re very relaxed.”
Above Reich and Leonard, there’s one guy on the Colts’ roster that stands out the most and perhaps has the most to lose on Saturday. A 16-year vet, quarterback Philip Rivers hasn’t won the big one in his career. It’s not even clear if he’ll be back with the Colts in 2021 just yet. Him winning a championship, potentially, is a legacy thing now.
All things considered, pressure is not a word that even Rivers would use.
“We don’t have to do anything different now,” Rivers said via The Herald Bulletin. “It’s not like, ‘Now we made it to the postseason, so let’s really prepare hard and let’s really put in our best stuff and let’s really try our hardest to do things right.’ If that were to be true, then we’d been cheating each other for 16 games.
“We do have to make some plays, obviously, but you don’t have to do anything unbelievable. Just go play sound football, complementary football together, and we believe if we do that, then it will be enough.”
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