NFL

Here’s How The NFL Playoff Picture Shook Out

Well, it took until the very last regular season game for it to happen, but the NFL’s playoff matchups are finally set. The four games next weekend are all over the map, featuring both potential shootouts and potential defensive slugfests. Oh, and also TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW. The following is a quick look at those games, plus how the divisional round is set to shape up.

Saturday

Cincinnati Bengals (6 seed) at Houston Texans (3 seed), 4:30 p.m. Eastern, NBC: My brain is still having trouble processing this as a playoff game. Sure, the Bengals have had some good seasons in recent years, but those were the Carson Palmer-Chad Ochocinco Bengals. These Bengals went 4-12 last year and traded Palmer because he refused to play for them. And the Texans? Sure, they have plenty of talent, but they also have an apparent hex haunting their quarterbacks, they closed the year with three straight losses, and their last game ended like this.

And yet, here we are. it’s a credit to how well the new Bengals QB-receiver tandem of Andy Dalton and A.J. Green performed in their rookie years, as well as the rushing attack of the Texans (Arian Foster and Ben Tate combined for over 2,000 yards in the ground). Additionally, major credit to Dalton for leading the Bengals to a playoff berth despite his hair color.

Detroit Lions (6 seed) at New Orleans Saints (3 seed), 8 p.m. Eastern, NBC: Two quarterbacks (Matthew Stafford and Drew Brees) who both threw for over 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns operating in a climate-controlled dome that ensures Mother Nature can’t do anything to mess with them, combined with the storyline of the Lions’ return to the playoffs after an absence of more than a decade? We approve.

Sunday

Atlanta Falcons (5 seed) at New York Giants (4 seed), 1 p.m. Eastern, FOX: This is…a game, I guess. Receivers like Roddy White, Julio Jones, and Victor Cruz, so that might be fun. The Falcons get another chance to break through in the playoffs, so that’ll be something to follow. And maybe the Giants are peaking at just the right time again, leading to a deep playoff run few saw coming. But you just know most people will be talking about…

Pittsburgh Steelers (5 seed) at Denver Broncos (4 seed), 4:30 p.m. Eastern, CBS: The first instinct here is to say the Steelers will harass Tim Tebow, make his life miserable, make him look like he doesn’t belong in the NFL, and just generally trample the Broncos every which way. And the teams’ relative records suggest that. But look at the Steelers’ schedule this year: they’ve played some close games against mediocre teams, especially on the road. Hell, they just did it yesterday, squeaking by the Browns, 13-9.

Combine that with Rashard Mendenhall getting hurt yesterday, Ben Roethlisberger probably still not being 100 percent, and the Broncos having an awfully good defense and home field advantage, and this one could come down to the final minutes. And you know who’d have the ball for the Broncos then. If they manage to knock off the defending AFC champions? You won’t hear the end of that one for a while.

And as for the next week, the following Saturday, the higher-seeded of the two NFC winners travels to San Francisco to play the second-seeded 49ers at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, while the lower-seeded AFC winner will be rewarded with a trip to Foxboro to take on the Patriots at 8 p.m. Eastern. On Sunday, the higher-seeded AFC Wild Card Weekend winner takes on the Ravens at 1 p.m. Eastern, followed by the lower-seeded NFC winner playing Matt Flynn Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in Green Bay at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. And that’s your 2011-2012 NFL playoff picture. Should be fun. And once again: TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW

Getty photo, by Matt Sullivan