NFL Playoff Bracket 2012: Which Rematches Are Bubbling on Horizon?

With Wild Card Weekend approaching, the NFL playoffs are expected to be as exciting as ever.

That being said, there are two games this weekend that are regular season rematches (Cincinnati at Houston and Detroit at New Orleans).

It appears there will also be some rematches during the Divisional round. So, here are three rematch games on the horizon in mid-January.

Steelers at Patriots

With a win over Denver the Pittsburgh Steelers would travel to the AFC's No. 1 seed in New England. In their regular season bout, Pittsburgh won, 25-17, at home and held Tom Brady to just 198 passing yards.

Well, New England, for one, is much better since then, and they are way, way better than the Denver Broncos. Plus, how great of a matchup is the Steelers defense for New England's offense? Much more fun to watch than the Broncos as the Pats wiped them off the field.

Questions loom, such as: Can Pittsburgh contain Rob Gronkowski and Wes Welker while also getting pressure on Tom Brady? How effective will Pittsburgh's ground game be and how close to 100 percent is Ben Roethlisberger?

We know that coach Bill Belichick will have to get pressure on Big Ben, otherwise his pass defense will get burned by Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown.

Any way you slice it, this is a great rematch between two of the NFL's premier QBs and head coaches.

Add in a playoff atmosphere along with the chance of some possible weather implications and Pittsburgh vs. New England is one underrated rivalry.

Texans at Ravens

There's two major differences in this game and both affect the Houston Texans.

The first is that they have rookie QB T.J. Yates under center and WR Andre Johnson returned in Week 17. Thanks to a home win over Cincinnati, the Texans make the trip back to Baltimore.

Johnson was out in their first meeting and it was before Schaub went down, so the Ravens have some altered game-planning to do.

As for Houston, it comes down to not turning the ball over while establishing the ground game throughout.

The way through for Houston is for their defense to really step up and shut down Baltimore.

It's a battle of two of the NFL's top five defenses against both the pass and run, and the dark-side will determine who wins.

Both have an excellent pass rush also, so whichever passing offense can be more effective will be crucial.

Can T.J. Yates keep playing above his potential and how much of an impact will Andre Johnson make?

We know Joe Flacco can be solid, however, his career postseason rating of 60.0 and TD-to-INT ratio of 4-7 must improve.

Giants at Packers

They met at Lambeau Field in the 2007 NFC title game, Brett Favre's last game as a Packer, but lost in OT and earlier this season in the Big Apple, Green Bay won, 38-35.

So it's safe to say at least in this century there's been a bit of history between two of the NFL's most legendary franchises.

In defeating the Atlanta Falcons at home in the Wild Card Round, the Giants head to Lambeau since New Orleans ousts Detroit again at home.

This time however, don't expect such a high-scoring affair. For one the weather will have an impact on the two pass-oriented offenses, so it comes down to who can run the ball and stop the run.

Both give up a lot of rush yards per carry, but Green Bay has the more opportunistic defense (34 turnovers forced). Not to mention they have the more effective rushing attack as New York ranks dead last in averaging just 89.2 rush yards per game.

Now, New York has a much better pass rush (48 sacks), however, their pass defense is arguably just as bad as their rushing attack.

Aaron Rodgers is a bit more mobile than the sneaky Eli Manning, plus, WR Greg Jennings is expected to return.

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