Questions for each of the 12 NFL playoff teams
Chief among them: Who can stop Patriots?
With the NFL postseason kicking off this weekend, here’s a look at one pressing question facing each playoff team:
1. What makes the New England Patriots such enticing Super Bowl favorites?
Balance. For all of the mojo flowing from Tom Brady’s socalled revenge tour after his Deflategate suspension, New England is the only playoff team with an offense and defense both ranked in the top 10. While the offense has reinvented itself to account for the loss of tight end Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots developed a defense that allowed the fewest points (15.6 a game) in the league. The rate of turnovers and sacks isn’t as high as previous units, but New England thrives in situational football on third downs and in the red zone. Then there’s home-field advantage. In the Bill Belichick era, the Patriots have advanced to the Super Bowl in four of the previous five seasons in which they were the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
2. Is Aaron Rodgers poised to run an even bigger table
with the Green Bay Packers?
There is nobody hotter in the NFL than the Green Bay quarterback. Sure, his declaration about running the table while saddled with a four-game losing streak might have been expected. But the rub is how Rodgers stepped up his game and his team followed suit. During the six-game winning streak, Rodgers has passed for 15 touchdowns with zero interceptions. Can he keep it up? With Rodgers in such a groove and the defense (13 takeaways in the past four games) playing better, the Packers have the look of a team that could stay hot for an extended run. Game on.
3. Can the Seattle Seahawks get back to the Super Bowl without Earl Thomas?
The all-pro safety, done for the season with a broken leg, is the essential center fielder for the Legion of Boom. The void created by his absence has been glaring. In two of their four games without Thomas, the Seahawks yielded 38 and 34 points, respectively, in losses at Green Bay and against the Arizona Cardinals — the highest totals they allowed all season. They also gave up 23 points in a too-close-for-comfort win against the San Francisco 49ers. And for the first time in since 2011, Seattle didn’t lead the NFL in scoring defense. Yes, with two Super Bowl appearances in the previous three seasons, Seattle has demonstrated an ability to hit a playoff gear. But that’s a much tougher task without Thomas, especially given the potential of a divisional-round matchup at the Atlanta Falcons, where the NFL’s most prolific offense awaits.
4. Can the Dallas Cowboys’ overachieving defense thrive under playoff pressure?
While the emergence of rookies Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott fuels much buzz, the Rod Marinelli-coordinated defense has been better than expected. By total yards allowed, it’s an average unit, ranked 14th in the NFL. A more essential statistic: Dallas has allowed the fifth-fewest points in the league (19.1 a game). And with overachievers such as David Irving on the front line reflecting the fly-around mentality that Marinelli preaches, the unit has been especially tough late in games. In back-toback wins against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions, the defense didn’t allow a point in the fourth quarter. Of course, Dallas’ offensive formula — with Prescott and NFL rushing champ Elliott operating behind the NFL’s best offensive line — takes pressure off the defense. Dallas’ 31:55 average possession time is best among playoff teams. Yet stiff tests await, including the possibility of facing Rodgers and Matt Ryan.
5. Are the Pittsburgh Steelers the biggest threat to derail New England?
At least they are relatively healthy and rather hot in matching the Patriots for the NFL’s longest current winning streak at seven games. Sunday will mark the first time Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell will appear in a playoff game together, which is significant, given the what-if scenarios of recent postseason setbacks. But before envisioning matchups against the Kansas City Chiefs and Patriots, there’s the matter of handling the Miami Dolphins’ Jay Ajayi, who had a 204-yard breakout game in October and exposed a shaky run defense that was later stung by LeGarrette Blount and Elliott. Pittsburgh’s defense, despite the loss of monster defensive end Cameron Heyward, has tightened up in recent weeks. It ranked last in the NFL with eight sacks after Week 8 but has tallied 30 since then to rank ninth. But there are still no comparisons to the Steel Curtain.
6. Are the New York Giants doomed by the Bieber Curse?
It was so odd that with a visit to frigid Green Bay looming, Giants star Odell Beckham Jr. and fellow receivers Victor Cruz, Sterling Shepard and Roger Lewis took a side trip to sunny Miami. Beckham surfaced in a Trey Songz Snapchat video, and he and Cruz were photographed with Justin Bieber. Giants coach Ben McAdoo downplayed concern, given that the players were off for a couple of days. Yet without a bye week — remember, the Tony Romo-Jason Witten trip to Cabo San Lucas before a playoffopening loss after the 2007 season came on a bye week — their decision to bolt to Florida represents bad optics, especially when the principles are part of one of the worst offenses in the playoffs. The Giants rank 26th in the NFL in scoring offense (19.4 points a game). This isn’t the same offense that Eli Manning rolled with in winning two Super Bowl crowns. These Giants are carried by their high-dollar defense, not the inconsistent, 25thranked offense that will be hardpressed to win a shootout.
7. Can the Atlanta Falcons defense grow up quickly enough?
Second-year linebacker Vic Beasley is the new NFL sack king with 151⁄ For a unit that ranked last in the NFL in 2015 with 19 total sacks, that screams progress. But Atlanta’s defense needs more evolution to complement the NFL’s highest-scoring offense. The imbalance is striking. The Falcons ranked last in the NFL in red-zone defense (72.7% touchdown rate), which is why they are the only team in the playoffs to have allowed more than 400 points. You know what they say: Defense wins championships. Including Beasley, the Falcons have done sharp work in the draft room to stockpile impact talent on the defense. But the growing pains make it paramount that Matt Ryan and Co. keep piling on the points.
8. Will the Miami Dolphins turn back to Ryan Tannehill?
Coach Adam Gase has pushed so many correct buttons in guiding Miami to its first playoff berth in eight years, underscoring his smashing debut season as a head coach. He could face a huge decision this week — pending a medical report and perhaps impressions from the practice field — on whether to reinsert his starting quarterback or continue to roll with backup Matt Moore. Tannehill appears closer to returning from the sprained anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee that forced him to miss three games, during which the Dolphins went 2-1 with Moore. There’s no need for Gase to force the issue, but in the playoffs it doesn’t hurt have another option — as starter or in relief.
9. Will the Kansas City Chiefs cash in on their bye?
Andy Reid’s teams are 19-2 during his career when coming off a bye, including the postseason. Now comes the first playoff bye of his Chiefs tenure, as Kansas City played on wild-card weekend (1-1) after two playoff trips in the previous three years. Reid, who was 3-0 after a bye in the playoffs as Philadelphia Eagles coach, will follow his typical plan of giving the players an entire week off to rest up. They’ve earned the break. But here’s the rub: Kansas City’s history at this level is abysmal. Since the playoffs were expanded to 12 teams in 1990, the Chiefs are 1-5 in the divisional round (take a bow, Joe Montana, for engineering the exception), including last year’s loss at New England.
10. What did the Raider Nation do to deserve such bad luck?
Rookie quarterback Connor Cook is poised to make his first NFL start in a playoff game. That underscores the dramatic shift in the Oakland Raiders’ prospects since MVP candidate Derek Carr’s season ended in Week 16 with a broken leg. Cook is expected to get the nod after No. 2 passer Matt McGloin was knocked out last week with a left shoulder injury. Raiders fans had waited since 2002 to field a playoff team again, and Carr’s injury stands as a major setback. Owner Mark Davis, meanwhile, is angling to move the franchise to Las Vegas. For all of the fine rebuilding efforts under general manager Reggie McKenzie and coach Jack Del Rio, the team is poised to bolt from Oakland as early as 2019. It must feel like a different type of Black Hole for the Oakland faithful.
11. Does it matter whether Brock Osweiler or Tom Savage starts at quarterback for the Houston Texans?
Sure it does. When Bill O’Brien made the monumental move of benching a $72 million quarterback (Osweiler) for a firstplace team, the impetus was turnovers. Osweiler had too many, which is no way to complement a defense that lost centerpiece all-pro defensive end J.J. Watt to a season-ending back injury early yet still led the NFL in total defense. So now, with Savage suffering a concussion last weekend, it’s back to Osweiler. The silver lining comes with running back Lamar Miller set to return after missing two games with an ankle injury. Yes, the offense needs to run through Miller more than ever.
12. Have the Detroit Lions run out of last-minute magic?
Detroit won eight games with fourth-quarter comebacks. Then Matthew Stafford dislocated a finger in Week 14 and the season swung with the apparent effects. Stafford’s TD-to-interception ratio through 12 games: 21-5. The past four games: 3-5 (with a lost fumble, too). And, given a rash of backfield injuries, there’s no running game or Theo Riddick catching passes out of the backfield to help bail out the quarterback. It’s no wonder that no team limps into the playoffs with less momentum than the Lions, losers of three consecutive games. Detroit also carries the NFL’s longest active streak with eight consecutive playoff losses. It’s not the best omen for a trip to Seattle, where the Seahawks have won nine consecutive home playoff games.