AFC Wildcard Weekend Preview

Reported by Vincent Checchia

NFL Wildcard Weekend

So, the NFL regular season has just ended and it's time for the playoffs. This weekend is the wildcard weekend. Wildcard weekend is when the 3rd seed versus the 6th seed and the 4th seed versus the 5th seed in both the NFC and AFC. The seeding in the NFC is New Orleans Saints are the third seed, the Philadelphia Eagles as the 4th seed, the Seattle Seahawks as the 5th seed, lastly the Minnesota Vikings as the 6th seed. The seeding in that AFC is the New England Patriots as the 3rd seed, the Houston Texans as the 4th seed, the Buffalo Bills are the 5th seed, and lastly the Tennessee Titans as the 6th seed.

Buffalo Bills @ Houston Texans

This is the first matchup set for wildcard weekend, on Saturday January 4th 2020 at 4:35 P.M. E.T.. This matchup is big for both teams. For Buffalo this is the second time they´ve been in the playoffs this century, and 2nd in 3 years. Last time Buffalo was here they blew it and got beat by the Jacksonville Jaguars in a slug match of a game, but this time it's a whole different team that prioritizes strong and mean defensive with an okay offense. On the other hand is the Houston Texans, who have prioritized offense and this is their second consecutive year winning their division(the AFC South). They're coming off a disappointing 10 and 6 season and a blowout last year in the playoffs from division rival Indianapolis Colts. Now about the game that's going to happen on Saturday. This game will be really close and it will most likely come down to Buffalo's offense and Houston's defense, because Houston’s high powered offense and Buffalo’s mean defense will counteract each other the entire game. So with that being said I have Houston winning this game because I believe their defense is stronger than Buffalo's offense but its a coin flip on this one because you don’t who could have a big game and win. Overall, it all comes down to whether Houston's defense or Buffalo’s offense is better.

Tennessee Titans @ New England Patriots

The second game on Saturday is Tennessee Titans @ New England. Tennessee is coming off a win off division rival Houston with a 9 and 7 record. Tennessee is a very strong run team and a good defensive team. They’re here due to the arrival of new quarterback Ryan Tannahill, who has brought new life to this franchise. He replaced Marcus Mariota and will most likely get an extension from the team no matter how the playoffs go. On the other side is New England who won the AFC East again and are one of the favorites to come out of the AFC East, but they don't have any momentum coming into the game after a demoralizing loss to the Miami Dolphins, meaning that they have to play their first wildcard game since January 10th, 2010. Brady and their offense this season has been complete trash and having been living up to expectations. So their real MVP has been their defense with DPOY(Defensive Player of the Year) candidate Stephon Gilmore. Overall in this game, the Patriots are the favorites by a mile but with the momentum, Tennessee has they could easily win and upset the reigning Super Bowl winners. But what I ́ve learned over the years is that to never count out Brady and the patriots. So for this game, I have the Tennessee Titans upsetting the New England Patriots and moving on to Baltimore.