The regular season is officially in the books and the mad dash to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas is down to just 14 teams. The playoff bracket is set and we’re now looking forward to Super Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, which will kick off on Saturday.
For the Ravens and the 49ers, they get to sit back and enjoy their hard-earned first-round bye. For the rest of the remaining playoff contenders, however, the slugfest begins now there are a ton of fantastic matchups on deck, including Matthew Stafford facing his former Lions team and Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys hosting his former Packers.
Here’s an early look at the opening round of the NFL playoffs and some notable storylines for each matchup.
AFC wild card round lookahead
*The Baltimore Ravens are the No. 1 seed and have a first-round bye.
Pittsburgh Steelers (7) at Buffalo Bills (2)
Sunday, Jan. 14 at 1 p.m. ET (CBS)/stream on Paramount+ (click here)
Pittsburgh finds itself in the playoff for the first time since 2021 and has notched double-digit wins for the first time since 2020. They’re in the postseason after riding a bit of a carousel of quarterbacks. Kenny Pickett got injured during the year, Mitch Turbisky came in as the initial starter, but Mason Rudolph ultimately found himself as the starter, and the offense has played well with him under center. In fact, he’s 3-0 as a starter this season and is completing 74.3% of his passes while the Steelers offense is averaging 27 points per game. He has found success with chunk plays as all three of his passing touchdowns have been for 60-plus yards, but the Steelers have also utilized their backfield well with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. A big development for this week, however, comes on the defensive side of the ball as pass rusher T.J. Watt — who finished the year with 19 sacks — suffered an MCL sprain that could sideline him for this matchup.
As for the Bills, they are arguably…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-nfl-wild-card-playoff-lookahead-opening-round-features-matthew-stafford-heading-back-to-detroit/
Author : Tyler Sullivan
Publish date : 2024-01-08 06:00:00
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