AFC Wild-card Game 1

(5) Buffalo Bills at (4) Houston Texans

Saturday, January 4th, 4:35 p.m. ET / 1:35 p.m. PT

ESPN, ABC

The first playoff game is normally reserved for teams that don’t have a huge draw. Basically, the winner of the AFC South is constantly in this game. Hey, would you look at that . . . it’s the Texans!

Houston hosts another early Saturday playoff game and the Buffalo Bills are coming into town. This is another reason this game is being played in the early time slot. The Bills aren’t exactly the most exciting team in the playoffs. Sure, they play great defense and are well-coached, but we don’t know what version of Josh Allen we are getting.

The Texans should be happy and healthy. They essentially had a bye last week. J.J. Watt is coming back from injury. Will Fuller should play in this game which helps DeAndre Hopkins.

This game will be simulcast on both ESPN and ABC — expect this to continue and expand in the next few years as ABC wants a football property and ESPN won’t want to only play the game on broadcast because they like having it on cable as an option as well — so we get the last of Tessitore and Booger — maybe forever.