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This year’s remaining eight playoff teams present an interesting bit of trivia. No matter which teams match up for the NFC and AFC Championship Games, both matchups are guaranteed to be rematches of regular-season games from this season.
If the Green Bay Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks and advance, they will face a familiar foe. That could be the San Francisco 49ers, who beat Green Bay in week 11, or the Minnesota Vikings, who lost both games to the Packers this season in divisional action. Likewise, Seattle is a divisional rival of San Francisco (splitting their two games) and beat the Vikings in week 13 on Monday Night Football.
The AFC has the same symmetry — the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Chiefs but beat the Texans this year, while the Tennessee Titans downed the Chiefs before splitting their two contests with Houston.
But which — if any — road teams will pull off a victory this weekend? In the opinions of most of APC’s contributors, the answer is none. Predictions for all four games are going overwhelmingly towards the home teams, which makes sense as all are at least four-point favorites. Still, it is stark to see just how heavily the picks skew to the home teams.
As a result, APC as whole expects another pair of #1 vs. #2 matchups in the Conference Championships, which would make this the second straight season that no road teams win in the Divisional Round. Here are our picks for this weekend’s games.