NFL Playoffs 2017: Schedule, Odds and Predictions for Saturday Divisional Games

Fear not, football fans—your weeklong absence of NFL action is over. The postseason is set to pick back up Saturday with two exciting divisional round matchups.

In the afternoon, we'll get the Seattle Seahawks vs. Atlanta Falcons. On Saturday night, the New England Patriots will host the Houston Texans. Both games should present their own brands of excitement, even if one of them is expected to be a blowout.

Let's take an in-depth look at Saturday's action. We'll examine the schedule and the latest odds—courtesy of OddsShark. We'll also make our picks against the spreads and go over some of the top storylines heading into the day.

Divisional Round, Day 1

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Seahawks Need to Reverse Road Woes

If the Seahawks are going to pull off the upset, they're going to have to match points with the league's most prolific offense. During the regular season, the Falcons averaged an impressive 33.8 points per game.

Thanks to an offensive line that is rated just 30th in run blocking and dead-last in pass blocking, the Seattle offense was wildly inconsistent during the regular season. Seattle scored 25 or more points nine times but also scored 10 or fewer points four times.

All four of Seattle's offensive duds came on the road.

This sets up a potential mismatch for the Seahawks as they roll into Atlanta. The offense has been more consistent when playing at CenturyLink Field.

Part of the strategy for Seattle has to be controlling the clock with the ground game. This should help keep some of the pressure off quarterback Russell Wilson; it should also help keep Atlanta's potent offense on the sideline. This is what the Seahawks did on Wild Card Weekend against the Detroit Lions.

Thomas Rawls finished that game with 161 rushing yard and a touchdown. He did a better job of creating yards after contact in that game and could be called upon to do the same against Atlanta.

Jared Dubin of CBSSports.com recently explained why running the ball might be smart against the Falcons:

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Though [Rawls] averaged a very impressive 3.08 yards after contact per attempt during his first season with Seattle, that figured dropped to just 2.17 per carry in his second season. He ramped that up to 3.0 per carry against the Lions last week, though, and luckily for the Seahawks, the Atlanta run defense isn't exactly the stoutest unit in the league, either.

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Atlanta is ranked just 27th in run defense.

Game (Time, ET)	National TV	Live Stream	Line	Prediction
Seattle at Atlanta (4:35 p.m.)	Fox	Fox Sports Live	ATL -5	ATL
Houston at New England (8:15 p.m.)	CBS	CBS Sports Live	NE -15.5	NE

Prosise Could Be on Verge of Return

Fortunately, the Seahawks might not have to rely entirely on Rawls in the backfield. There's a chance that fellow back C.J. Prosise makes his return from a fractured scapula, according to Curtis Crabtree of Sports Radio KJR: 

The Seahawks have been without the rookie since he suffered the injury in Week 11.

“He made it through practice all this week,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said of Prosise, via the team's official website. “We’ll just take it day to day, take it to the stadium and see how it goes."

Prosise proved to be a nifty change-of-pace back this season. Though he carried the ball only 30 times in his six appearances, he averaged an impressive 5.7 yards per carry. The rookie was even more dangerous as a receiver. He caught 17 passes for 208 yards and an average of 12.2 yards per reception.

Prosise's most notable game, of course, came during the team's Week 10 win in New England. The Notre Dame product rushed for 66 yards and caught seven passes for 87 more yards.

If Prosise is able to go Saturday, he should be a boon to both the rushing attack and the passing game. As an outlet receiver out of the backfield, he should also help turn back the Falcons pass rush.

Texans Embracing Underdog Role

The Texans are considered big underdogs in their game against the Patriots, and it's easy to see why. Even though Houston boasts a strong defense—it allowed an NFL-low 301.3 yards per game in the regular season—the team is going up against the hurricane of razor blades known as the Patriots offense.

Even though he hasn't had star tight end Rob Gronkowski for much of the year, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is having perhaps the best season of his career. In 12 regular-season games, he passed for 3,554 yards with 28 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

Pro Football Focus rates Brady first overall among all quarterbacks for the year.

In addition, Brock Osweiler and the Texans offense will have to face a Patriots defense that allowed an NFL-low 15.6 points per game during the regular season.

Instead of being deterred by the perceived mismatch, though, the Texans appear to be motivated by it.

“That kind of boosts us up a little bit,” Texans defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said, per Alex Marvez of Sporting News. "It’s like, 'OK, we’re going to show them.' One of the mentalities this week going into this game is we’re the underdogs. We’ve always been underdogs all season. Let’s go out there and prove to them why we’re here in this second round now.”

This kind of us-against-the-world mentality might provide the best chance for Houston to pull off an upset. On paper, it's a huge mismatch, but games aren't played on paper. The Texans will still have to play a nearly perfect game in order to win, but the added motivation of being slighted could play a role.

Rankings courtesy of Pro Football Focus.