NFL Wild Card Weekend -- Nazareth, live from Philadelphia

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?

 

Straight up I'd go with Chargers, Ravens, Bills, Eagles, Commanders and Rams.

Until last night, Rams handed Vikings their biggest loss of the season, 30-20, also in L.A. I would be worried if I'm a Vikings fan.

Not so much based on just last night's game, but Vikings have squeaked by in 3 or 4 of their games in the second half of the season.

 

They did all right in that regard against Buffalo.

 

I've recovered from the Sam Darnold experience last night and have actually talked myself into a somewhat plausible scenario:

Packers, Commanders and Vikings all win. Vikings then get to host Commanders in second round.

 

Tampa-Washington is going to be the most entertaining game of the entire tournament. Last team with the ball wins.

 

I’d like this but no way in hell will I approve the use of the word tournament in the context of the NFL. A

 

How about toonamunt?

Or tuna mint.

 

Fair point!

 

I remembered an old NBC promo from way back when calling it just that. So I started down the rabbit hole and whoa …

The NFL once held a Super Bowl Tournament, and it was wild

 

It's a Bill Parcells thing. Deal with it.

 

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

 

Some NFL officiating stats from the Great Goose: Blakeman Crew King of NFL Penalties - Rick Gosselin