Playoffs feature several rematches; Texans v Baltimore, Broncos v Patriots and Giants v Packers

Saints/49ers

The NFL
Divisional Playoffs begin with the NFC on Saturday, January 14 at 2:30 Central
when the New Orleans Saints take on the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park. The number 3 seed Saints come into San
Francisco with a 13-3 record on the season.
The 49ers are the number 2 seed in the NFC with a 13-3 record. The
game will be aired on Fox.

Drew Brees
and the prolific offense of the Saints have won 9 straight with Brees racking up 600
yards in each of the Saints last two games.
In their Wildcard Weekend matchup against the Lions the Saints picked up
a playoff-record 626 yards in a 45-28 win.

Brees threw for 466 yards and completed 33 of 43 passes in that
game. The question will be can the San
Francisco defense do anything to slow down or stop the Brees juggernaut.

The 49ers and Saints did not meet in the regular season, but the Saints did beat the 49ers in preseason play, 24-3.

Broncos/Patriots

The AFC
matchup will have the number 4 seed Denver Broncos facing the Number 1 seed New
England Patriots in Gillette Stadium in Foxboro Massachusetts starting at 7:00
pm Central on CBS Television. The
Broncos are coming off a Tim Tebow miracle one-play overtime defeat of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and may prove to be a tougher opponent than the Patriots
had expected.

“We were
able to do some good things (against Pittsburgh) and in the passing game had
some big plays, and I think we had a lot of confidence going in. We just needed to get a little momentum and
get things going. DT (WR Demaryius
Thomas) really stepped up and (TE Daniel) Fellis really had a huge game. A lot of guys really stepped up. They made me look better than I really am, so
it was good,” Tebow said.

Will that
win and the confidence carry over against the Patriots?

“Every
week is a new week,” Tebow said. “You
can’t focus on the past whether it was good or whether it was bad. We can’t be thinking about last week when we’re
in Foxboro. We have to be focused on the
Patriot and what they’re doing.”

The
Broncos finished the regular season at 8-8, while the Patriots were a 13-3
team.  The Patriots destroyed the Broncos in week 15 in Denver 41-23.

Sunday

Texans/Ravens

On Sunday
the AFC Divisional Playoffs continue with the number 3 seed Houston Texans
taking on the number 2 seed Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore. The game will air at 12 noon Central time on CBS.

The Texans
lost a game in week 6 of the regular season in Baltimore with the Ravens coming
out on top 29-14.

The Ravens
were successful in shutting down Texans RB Arian Foster in that game, holding
Foster to just 49-yards. The Texans
defense did not fare well in the first meeting between these two teams giving
up over 400 yards to the Ravens. That
game was the first without Mario Williams who tore a pectoral muscle in week
5.

The Texans
think it will be different this time around. Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips who
reportedly just removed himself from consideration for the head coaching
position with the Tampa Bay Bucs said, “We weren’t playing the run great early
in the year. Everybody said we weren’t going to be very good against the run,
that kind of stuff and we didn’t play great in that game against the run, but
after that I think we played tremendously strong against the run.”

Phillips
said, “I think we ended out fourth in the League and we played a lot of good
backs after that. So, you know I think we improved a lot even though we didn’t
play as well as we wanted to I think we improved a lot after that ballgame,
because of the mistakes you make. You learn from your mistakes, too.”

Brian
Cushing acknowledges that the defense will have to play better on Sunday if the
Texans are come away with a win.

“Well,
I still remember after the game coach was just talking to us and basically just
telling us it wasn’t acceptable and it kind of, I think it hit home to a lot of
guys, because it was probably, as a team, as poor as we could play and we felt that
we kind of fell apart defensively,” Cushing said.

“We gave up some big plays and we really look
back on it and really just emphasize a lot of small things and we just started
playing a lot better team defense. I think there was a big key switch between
Brooks (Reed) and Connor (Barwin). I think that helped out a lot and it’s just
a game of confidence. When you start playing better, when you start feeling
better, making more plays, it starts to grow and you know I think this team and
its defense has really got that confidence,” Cushing told reporters.

Giants/Packers

The final
showdown in the NFC will see the number 4 seed New York Giants (9-7) take on
the near perfect (15-1) number one seed Green Bay Packers in Green Bay starting
at 3:30 Central on Fox. That infamous
frozen tundra is under more than 4 inches of snow today with wintry weather predicted
over the weekend.

This will
come down to the NY Giants ability to shut down Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers. Green
Bay’s offense has been monstrous, but Rodgers has had to put up big numbers
because of a shaky defense.

In
December the Packers defeated the Giants 38 – 35. Expect this one to be a high scoring shoot
out as well.

Next Week
-

The winners
of this week’s matchup will meet in their respective league Championship Games
on Sunday, January 22.

The AFC
game will be held starting at 2:00 pm Central on CBS and the NFC will kick off
at 5:40 pm on Fox.

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About Ethan Edwards

Ethan Edwards is the Senior Writer for
TheCypressTimes.com.

Edwards’ work focuses on topics ranging from
Christian opinion, national news, world news,
Christian Persecution and politics.

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