NFL Playoff Predictions: Andy Dalton Will Lead Bengals to Upset of Texans

Cincinnati Bengals rookie Andy Dalton has the poise and composure of a veteran NFL quarterback, and those qualities will help him lead his team past the Houston Texans in the wild card round of the playoffs.

Dalton was a winner from his college days at TCU, and he has brought that same attitude to the Bengals, who were not among the teams football experts expected to be in the playoffs this year.

The Bengals' opponent on Saturday is the Houston Texans, who won the AFC South division at 10-6 but have some real issues at quarterback.

T.J. Yates is leading the team at quarterback since Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart were lost for the season with injuries, and Yates has been unimpressive in his brief time as the starter.

Yates and the Texans come into the playoffs with a three-game losing streak, and two of those defeats were to the Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers, who are both terrible. Yates threw no touchdowns in those three losses and was picked off twice.

Dalton, on the other hand, helped the Bengals win two of their last three games to earn the final AFC wild card playoff berth. He also has thrown five touchdown passes with just one interception in his last six games.

While Yates won't have to lead the Texans offense by himself, he will have to make plays. The Bengals have the ninth best passing defense, and their run defense is equally as good.

Cincy's rushing defense allows only 104 rushing yards per game, which is good considering Houston has the second best rushing attack in football.

I understand that Yates' best win of the season was against the Bengals in Week 14, but the playoffs are a different animal. The Texans franchise has never been in the playoffs, so the crowd and atmosphere will be incredible, and it will be interesting to see how Yates handles it.

The Bengals will be looking for revenge on Saturday, and Dalton has experience in big games. Last season at TCU he defeated a talented Wisconsin team in a hard fought Rose Bowl victory.

Yates isn't coming into this game with a ton of confidence, and as a team the Texans have been poor in the last three regular season games.

If the Bengals can hold the Texans rushing attack to just 101 yards like they did in Week 14, they will upset the AFC South champs and march into the divisional round to face the New England Patriots.

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