The National Football League has announced the playoff schedule for the Wild Card and Divisional Round Weekends. There is a new wrinkle this year as ESPN will be broadcasting one of the Wild-Card games and NBC will pick up a Divisional Round game for the first time since the new NFL Television contract went into effect.
2015 Wild Card Weekend
Saturday, January 3rd
NFC #5 Arizona Cardinals @ NFC #4 Carolina Panthers, 4:35 pm ET, ESPN
The weekend will get started off with a match-up between what could be the hottest team and coldest teams in the National Football League. The NFC South Division Champion Carolina Panthers are on a four-game winning streak which saw them beat all of their division rivals en route to the title. It seems unlikely that Carolina would even make the playoff after a stretch of eight weeks in which they did not win. That stretch included six losses, a tie, and their bye week.
Arizona comes into the game struggling as they are on their third quarterback of the season. Ryan Lindley has been the starter as of late after injuries to Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton. There is a possibility that Stanton could play this weekend, we will find out his availability sometime this week.
AFC #6 Baltimore Ravens @ AFC #3 Pittsburgh Steelers, 8:15 pm ET, NBC
The AFC North has been the best division in the National Football League this season and they have deservedly earned three spots in the postseason. The fans will be treated to the rubber match of this year’s series between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Both teams won at home this season with Baltimore winning 26-6 and Pittsburgh winning 43-23.
Baltimore made their fans nervous by waiting until the last day of the regular season before clinching their spot in the postseason. Their game was very nervy as well taking forever to put the pesky Cleveland Browns away. The Ravens have won three of their last four games.
Pittsburgh is riding a four-game winning streak coming into the playoffs. Winning the division is a huge bonus for the Steelers, they have averaged 32.1 points per game at Heinz Field. They are returning to the playoffs after missing out during the last two seasons with 8-8 records.
Sunday, January 4th
AFC #5 Cincinnati Bengals @ AFC #4 Indianapolis Colts, 1:05 pm ET, CBS
Cincinnati should be very excited to play against somebody who is not from their division. Since October 19th, the Bengals have gone 7-3 with all three of those losses coming to members of the AFC North (two to Pittsburgh and one to Cleveland). They do have two wins in division during that streak as well just to note.
Indianapolis is a team that has had some big offensive games in 2014 but they have also struggled at times. That was very evident last Sunday in Dallas where they fell 42-7 to the Cowboys. Which offense will show up against the Bengals on Sunday?
These two teams have met already once this season back in October. Indianapolis won that game handily 27-0 as they completely shut down Cincinnati. The Colts outgained the Bengals 506 to 135. Ironically, Indianapolis has two more turnovers than the Bengals. Cincinnati started that game with eight consecutive three-and-outs in the first half before finishing with 10 three-and-outs in the game.
NFC #6 Detroit Lions @ NFC #3 Dallas Cowboys, 4:40 pm ET, FOX
The Detroit Lions enter the playoffs off of a loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday by a score of 30-20. That marked the end of a four game winning streak but it did propel them into the playoffs for the first time since 2011. It is the second time they have made the postseason since 1999. We will be watching whether Ndamukong Suh is suspended for his stomp on Aaron Rodgers towards the end of Sunday’s game.
Dallas has been the biggest surprise on the season but it has been a very interesting ride. All four of the losses for Dallas have come at the Jerry Dome this season. Their last home game though was a dominating win over the Indianapolis Colts. It will be interesting to see if Dallas can get over the hump and get back into the Divisional Round for the first time since 2009.
Here is a look at the schedule for the Divisional Round