NFL Wild Card Weekend -- Nazareth, live from Philadelphia

[outofplace]

Saturday
L.A. Chargers (-2.5/42.5) at Houston, 430, CBS
Pittsburgh at Baltimore (-10/43.5), 8, PRIME

Sunday
Denver at Buffalo (-9/47.5), 1, CBS
Green Bay at Philadelphia (-4.5/45.5), 430, FOX
Washington at Tampa Bay (-3/50.5), 8, NBC

Monday
Minnesota (-1.5/47.5) at L.A. Rams, 8, ESPN/ABC

One thought from each game...
LAC-HOU: Remember how much we loved the Browns last year and then Houston blew the doors off of them in this exact spot? The Texans are a total enigma. They haven't played a truly meaningful game since beating Indy to basically wrap up the South back in October. They've been locked into the 4 forever. I don't think Harbaugh will let Houston sneak up on the Chargers, and Houston is awfully banged up at the skill positions.

PIT-BAL: If Lamar loses to this broken Steelers team at home, hoo boy. I know it's a division game, and weird things happen, but Pittsburgh doesn't have the horses to pull this off.

DEN-BUF: Nice run by Denver to get in, but this is too tall of a task for Bo Nix.

GB-PHI: How healthy are these quarterbacks? Fully loaded, the Eagles are the better team by a fair margin.

WSH-TB: The moment hasn't seemed to big for Daniels at any point this year, save for maybe the first half of the season opener in, um, Tampa. Mayfield is a dog, and I expect this to be a scrap that comes down to the final minutes, like most of the Commanders' games of late.

MIN-LAR: Was Sunday a blip or do we have some concerns about Darnold in a big road spot? The Rams spent the back half of the season winning low-scoring games. Can they hang in a shootout?

The Steelers have been terrible for a month, but they did beat the Ravens once and nobody knows how to frustrate Lamar Jackson as well as they do. It is easy to forget the Steelers were missing three of their four starters in the secondary for that ugly loss in Baltimore. Those guys should all be back and the Ravens might be missing Zay Flowers. I still expect Baltimore to win and it could be by double digits again, but I wouldn't be shocked at all to see the Steelers find a way to ugly it up enough pull this one off. Of course, Russell Wilson and George Pickens will have to be a hell of a lot better than they were last week against the Bengals to make that happen. I'm not sure their offense can get it done against anybody right now.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

That was the year of the players' strike and season was reduced from 16 to nine games.

And also the season that a placekicker was named league MVP.

 

[Batman]

This might be a dumb question, but that's how you learn, right? And I saw it asked in a Facebook group and didn't rightly know the answer to it.
If the Giants and Jets, or Rams and Chargers both earned the right to host their conference championship games, how would the NFL handle the scheduling? They can turn the stadium around overnight, so earlier in the playoffs they can arrange the schedules where they have that time if they're both to host. But how would they manage it when both games are set in stone for the same day?
Would they just play one on Saturday and one on Sunday (or Sunday/Monday)? Would they try to do some convoluted doubleheader with a couple hours in between to get everyone in and out?
After the Jets and Giants sharing a stadium for 40 years, I'm sure there is a contingency plan in place, right?

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

This might be a dumb question, but that's how you learn, right? And I saw it asked in a Facebook group and didn't rightly know the answer to it.
If the Giants and Jets, or Rams and Chargers both earned the right to host their conference championship games, how would the NFL handle the scheduling? They can turn the stadium around overnight, so earlier in the playoffs they can arrange the schedules where they have that time if they're both to host. But how would they manage it when both games are set in stone for the same day?
Would they just play one on Saturday and one on Sunday (or Sunday/Monday)? Would they try to do some convoluted doubleheader with a couple hours in between to get everyone in and out?
After the Jets and Giants sharing a stadium for 40 years, I'm sure there is a contingency plan in place, right?

This is a dumb question because the Four Horsemen would arrive moments after the Jets and Giants both reached the conference championship game as the higher seeds, thus canceling said conference championship games.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I'm sure there is a contingency plan, although when they thought about the Jets and Giants both hosting a conference title game, it probably was on page 11,243 of the NFL Manual right behind "What to Do if a Meteor Hits the Super Bowl Fan Zone." My guess is the most logical thing would be to take the early Sunday game and move it to Saturday night. With the two week break, there's no competitive advantage.

 

[ChrisLong]

I think it has happened a couple of times at So-Fi. Most recently, IIRC, the L.A. Bowl followed the next day by the Chargers.

 

[playthrough]

When was the last time the AFC South winner's game wasn't the first of wild card weekend? Might have to go back to Manning's Colts days.

 

[Batman]

I think it has happened a couple of times at So-Fi. Most recently, IIRC, the L.A. Bowl followed the next day by the Chargers.

I remember covering the Cotton Bowl on a Saturday when the Cowboys played the next day, as well. Within an hour of the game ending they were pulling up the turf with the bowl logos and laying down the turf with the Cowboys logos.
But those weren't games that were planned for the same day, without a lot of flexibility in the schedule because of TV and other logistics.

 

[Roscablo]

I have no real link, but on one of those FB posts it said at least in the past for the Jets and Giants the games would be on Sunday and then Monday. It would have to be something like that, either Saturday-Sunday or Sunday-Monday. You can turn an arena around in a few hours but not a stadium, especially on a championship day.

 

[Cosmo]

When was the last time the AFC South winner's game wasn't the first of wild card weekend? Might have to go back to Manning's Colts days.

Actually wasn't that long ago. Seahawks-49ers two years ago. Raiders-Bengals the year before that.

The Texans, however, have been in the first wild card slot every time they've made the playoffs.

 

[da man]

I'm sure there is a contingency plan, although when they thought about the Jets and Giants both hosting a conference title game, it probably was on page 11,243 of the NFL Manual right behind "What to Do if a Meteor Hits the Super Bowl Fan Zone."

I don't think so. Both the Giants and Jets have played in multiple conference championship games since they started sharing a stadium.

 

[HanSenSE]

I think it has happened a couple of times at So-Fi. Most recently, IIRC, the L.A. Bowl followed the next day by the Chargers.

There were a few times in the 80s when the Dolphins hosted a playoff game a day or two after the Orange Bowl (when both were at the Orange Bowl) and the King Orange logo was still visible at midfield. But I think the Orange Bowl still has a grash field then.