N.F.L. Playoff Predictions: Our Picks in the Wild-Card Round
The New York Times
The postseason’s first weekend will see the third matchup between the Patriots and the Bills, and for the Cardinals and the Rams.
The N.F.L. playoffs are here and with them comes the added theater of the first Monday night wild-card game and two matchups of teams meeting for the third time this season that will anchor the postseason’s opening weekend.
Saturday night’s Patriots-Bills III and Monday’s third contest between the N.F.C. West-rival Cardinals and Rams sandwich a weekend where parity — and familiarity — should be on display. A rematch between the Raiders and Bengals, and a contest between the Cowboys and the 49ers, two of the N.F.L.’s most-storied franchises, should also ramp up the drama after Las Vegas and San Francisco both needed overtime to claim their playoff spots.
This weekend, though, the N.F.L.’s sudden-death overtime rules will apply: The length of the extra period stretches to 15 minutes from 10, and there won’t be any question of whether to kneel since the games will continue until someone scores.
