NFL Picks 2015: Divisional round

The regular season champ ran into some difficulty last week with his picks. Tony went just 2-2, due in large part to his faith in Cincinnati.

Everyone else sensed the Bengals’ meltdown coming. Andy nailed the Green Bay win over Washington, to finish with the week’s only perfect record.

Where the road teams swept last week, most expect a resurgence of home team dominance in the divisional round.

Here’s who we’re picking.

Maggio’s Take: For me it’s a toss-up between Carolina/Seattle and Kansas City/New England for most intriguing game of the week. The former is a matchup of the two likeliest MVP candidates at quarterback, and I wonder if the Seahawks’ near-playoff-death experience will spark them going into Charlotte. The latter is interesting because the Chiefs defense has been so good and the Patriots offense so mediocre the last several weeks that I think Kansas City can pull this one out–even if Jeremy Maclin doesn’t play. I just don’t know how much Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman can impact the game in the first outing for both in several weeks, though that’s obviously the X factor.

Vomhof’s Take: Looks like a bounce-back week for the home teams. Carolina-Seattle is, without a doubt, the must-watch game of the week, but I’m also really intrigued by the Kansas City-New England matchup. The Chiefs are red-hot, the winners of 11 straight games. That Pats, meanwhile, have lost back-to-back games and four of their last six. While it’s hard to ever pick against Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in the postseason, the Chiefs have a better shot at the road upset than most people think.

Tony’s Take: Another weekend with a slate of games that on paper intrigues—this might be the most balanced postseason we’ve seen in the last 10 years. Can the Chiefs continue their hot streak against a Patriots team that has appeared vulnerable over the last month. Will Ben Roethlisberger be able to take the field against Peyton Manning, starting his first game since week 10. Can the somewhat re-surgent Packers move the ball against Arizona the same way they did against Washington? But the most intriguing of all is the hottest team in the league—despite eking out a Wildcard win against the Vikings—match the hottest team from the whole season, in Cam Newton and the Panthers. Two strong defenses, two athletic quarterbacks that sometimes have to make something out of nothing. The biggest difference in this game might end up being the time zone, with an western division team essentially kicking off at 10am their time—historically not a positive thing for the road team.

Andy’s Take: This is typically my favorite week of the football season. That holds true this year. Are the Packers back or was the win against Washington due to the Redskins winning a weak division? Can the Chiefs stay hot? Can the Patriots’ WRs perform in their first week back from injury? Does Pittsburgh have the firepower to go at Denver with their stars all hobbled? The one game that stands out to me, however, is the Seattle/Carolina tilt. It’s this year’s dominant regular season team hosting the conference’s Super Bowl representative for the last two seasons. And I’m guessing it won’t be the third coldest postseason game in history this week, so the offense will probably look a little stronger.