One question for every playoff team:
The NFL playoffs begin this weekend. They have 12 teams. We have 12 questions.
1. Can you trust the Seahawks on the 1-yard line? Not in a big game. The goalline blunder in the final minute in the season finale – a delay of game penalty pushed the ball back to the 6 – sparked memories of the horrendous sequence that lost Super Bowl XLIX. This time, it cost Seattle a division title and a home playoff game. Maybe Marshawn Lynch is rusty, but he demonstrated earlier in the fourth quarter with a soaring 1-yard touchdown that he still carries some “Beast Mode” mojo at the goal line – if he can just get the chance.
2. Can Mike Vrabel show the Titans what it takes to win in Foxborough? It was striking that Elandon Roberts on Dec. 29 became the first Patriots linebacker since Vrabel to score a touchdown while playing on offense … while former Belichick pupil Brian Flores guided Miami to an upset win. Now Vrabel, the Titans’ coach, gets a chance to try beating his legendary former boss. Vrabel knows better than most that gashing Belichick’s defense with new NFL rushing champ Derrick Henry – who rushed for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns at Houston in the finale – could be the difference. Belichick typically has the upper hand in matchups against former Patriots. But with Flores and Houston coach Bill O’Brien handing Belichick L’s during the past month, Vrabel is positioned to make it three in a row.
3. Is Lamar Jackson destined for a Super Homecoming with the Ravens in Miami? With Jackson undoubtedly establishing himself as the favorite to collect the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award while sparking Baltimore to 12 consecutive victories, the bottom-line mission is to win a Super Bowl in his second NFL season – supported by a balanced team with an emerging defense. A newly minted MVP hasn’t won a Super Bowl since Kurt Warner capped the 1999 season in the winner’s circle with the Rams, but since Jackson has been bucking trends – he broke the single-season rushing record by a quarterback while leading the NFL with 36 TD passes – it would be fitting to close with a bang in Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium, about 25 miles from Jackson’s hometown of Pompano Beach.
4. Can the Packers win away from Lambeau? By one measure, the hottest team in the wide-open NFC field is sitting in Green Bay. The Packers have the NFC’s longest winning streak at five games and won back-to-back road games to lock up the No. 2 seed. Yet Green Bay’s worst loss this season came in a 37-8 thrashing at San Francisco in Week 12, which followed another West Coast stinker in Los Angeles against the Chargers.
5. Is Dalvin Cook healthy enough to boost the Vikings? The shoulder injury that kept the star running back out of the past two games coincided with the backto-back losses to close out the regular season for Minnesota. That’s not a good omen for January. When the Vikings have been at their best this season, quarterback Kirk Cousins was lethal with play-action passes that exploited defenses needing to account for Cook’s threat in the running game.
6. How much does losing a bye hurt the chances for the Patriots to get back to the Super Bowl? Tremendously. New England has advanced to nine Super Bowls during the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era but has never made it that far without having a first-round bye. That’s why the upset loss against Miami in the season finale was so huge, dropping the Patriots to the No. 3 seed and ending a streak of nine consecutive years with a first-round bye. Since 2001, the Patriots are 27-7 in postseason with a bye but just 3-3 without a bye. An even worse sign exists in an inconsistent offense that has struggled.
7. Can the Saints avoid another heartbreaking elimination? Last season ended with the blown non-call of pass interference in the NFC title game. Before that, the “Minneapolis Miracle” left New Orleans reeling. Sean Payton & Co. has demonstrated much resilience in positioning for another run, but there will come an added layer of difficulty of needing to win outdoors after the first round if the Saints are to truly make amends for the playoff gaffes of the past.
8. What’s the JJ Watt factor worth for the Texans? A whole lot, provided that Watt – returning from surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle – can perform at anywhere close to the level he’s demonstrated in winning three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards. Watt returned to practice on Dec. 24 and has gradually increased his load. With Watt missing the final eight regular-season games, the Texans finished with just 31 sacks, tied with the Bengals for sixth fewest in the league. His presence would also likely impact bookend rusher Whitney Mercilus, who had just two of his 71⁄2 sacks this season – and began a career-long streak of seven games without a sack – after Watt went down in Week 8.
9. Will the Chiefs regret having the worst run defense in the playoffs? After squandering home-field advantage in the last AFC title game because it couldn’t contain Tom Brady in crunchtime, the Chiefs spent much energy during the offseason to upgrade the defense. It’s taken some time to mesh, but lately the Steve Spagnuolo-coordinated unit has hit a sweet stride. Since Week 11, Kansas City has allowed an NFL-low 11.5 points per game while winning six consecutive matchups – the longest streak in the AFC after Baltimore. Yet Kansas City also brings the worst run defense of any playoff team (26th, 128.2 yards per game). Of course, if the Patrick Mahomes-driven offense lights up the scoreboard, the Chiefs could find themselves covering for the run defense with the pass defense.
10. Will the “Underdog” thing work again for the Eagles? Sure enough, the NFC Least champions open the playoffs against Seattle as underdogs at home. Haven’t we been here before? The Eagles (9-7) might want to break out the dog masks that became a signature mark during their Super Bowl run two years ago. This time, there’s no Nick Foles. But they still have that underdog quality, with non-household names such as Greg Ward, Boston Scott and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside filling in to play major roles to offset the injury rash at the skilled positions. It’s also notable that Carson Wentz – injured for the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, giving way to Foles – has been phenomenal in using the weapons (seven TDs, zero interceptions) during the four-game winning streak that secured the division title.
11. Have the 49ers had enough lastminute drama? You can’t say (and neither can we idiots who didn’t see it coming quite like this) that the 49ers haven’t earned the top seed in the ultracompetitive NFC. They have been battletested in pulling off a remarkable flip from the 4-12 finish last season while demonstrating crunchtime poise. Before the thriller on Sunday night, each of their previous four games came down to the last play. And a loss against Seattle in October went to overtime. Sure, the close calls could have gone either way, but they’ve survived to ensure homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
12. Are the Bills destined for another one-and-done playoff experience? At this point, it’s little more than a coincidence that second-year quarterback Josh Allen wasn’t even born the last time the Bills advanced past the first round of the AFC playoffs. But it’s still a fact Buffalo heads into the playoff opener at Houston with a streak of four consecutive defeats in the wild-card round – including the ancient history that was three such losses during the mid-to-late 1990s. More recently, Bills coach Sean McDermott took the Tyrod Taylor-quarterbacked 2017 team to a first-round loss at Jacksonville.