NFL Playoffs 2012: Teams That Are Super Bowl Longshots

It took a months-long lockout and a crazy regular season to get to this point, but the field for the NFL postseason is all set.

The playoff schedule kicks off this weekend and will culminate in Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5. One team will fulfill its Super Bowl dreams, and the other 11 will crash and burn along the way.

While you have to feel good about a couple of teams, there are a couple of teams that are lucky to be in the playoffs at all. They've gotten to this point, but it's virtually impossible to see them going all the way to the Super Bowl.

In particular, there are four teams that I have marked down as Super Bowl long shots.

4. New York Giants

You have to give the Giants credit. For a period of four weeks, they looked dead in the water, yet they wrapped up their regular season with three wins in their final four games to win the NFC East.

In the grand scheme of things in the NFC, winning the East doesn't mean much. It was easily the most mediocre division in the conference this season, and the Giants won it because they managed to be less mediocre than the other teams in the division.

The Giants' biggest problem is health. They were weak entering the season, and they didn't get any stronger as the season went along. Their defense is beatable, and their offensive has been rendered one-dimensional.

On the bright side, the Giants will at least be able to open the playoffs at home, meaning they might be lucky enough to advance. It will be a moot point if they do, though, as there's just no way the Giants are going to be able to win on the road if they have to plan in Green Bay, San Francisco or New Orleans.

The NFC is wide open this season, but the Giants aren't going very far.

3. Houston Texans

Top to bottom, the Texans are one of the strongest teams in the league.

The only trouble is that they're only going to be able to go so far with their current situation at quarterback. Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart are long gone, and the latest word is that rookie T.J. Yates has a bruised left shoulder. He's going to be able to play, but he will be vulnerable.

The Texans will look to win games with suffocating defense and their elite rushing attack, but to make it all the way to the Super Bowl they're going to need Yates to step up.

Given Yates' inexperience and his limited skill set, that's simply asking too much. 

The Texans will probably be able to survive the wild card round. But once they have to hit the road, they'll be overmatched.

2. Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals are a good young team, but they overachieved in 2011. Plain and simple.

Part of the reason we know this is because the Bengals just couldn't cut it against the AFC's better teams. They lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens twice each, and they also dropped games to the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos.

All four of those teams have made the playoffs. The Bengals have to start on the road against the Texans, but they would also have to play any one of the other three teams on the road if it came to it.

The Bengals will be capable of winning games like these in the future, but not this year. They have too much inexperience on offense, and their defense isn't good enough to win games on its own.

Expect the Bengals to make a quick and quiet exit from the playoffs.

1. Denver Broncos

I'll go ahead and admit that I was pretty high on Denver's chances a couple weeks ago before the Broncos finished the season with three straight losses.

It's hard to like their chances now. The weaknesses in Denver's defense got exposed in the final three weeks of the season, and Tim Tebow played downright horrible football.

I have faith in the ability of Denver's defense to turn it around, but it's pretty hard to have faith in Tebow (as strange as that sounds). He hasn't done anything to show that he can win when he has to throw the football, and his running won't work very well against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round.

Even if Tebow and the Broncos survive, they would be looking at a road matchup against either the New England Patriots or Baltimore Ravens, and they're not good enough to beat either team.

It pains me to say it, but Tebow Time has run out.