NFL Playoff Predictions: Projecting Wild Card Weekend's Biggest Losers

In every football game, there's a winner and a loser. It's just the nature of the game, and thus, the nature of the NFL playoffs, which start this weekend.

Eight teams will be competing in four games to move forward in their respective conference's postseason brackets, with the winners having the Super Bowl on their minds and the losers hoping that next year is better.

There will be big wins and, in turn, big losses. But not all of them will be big in the sense of blowout wins; some are just big because it represents the end of a special season.

The Denver Broncos play host to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon as a heavily overmatched team unlikely to defeat their playoff-experienced opponents. This is, after all, a team that reached the Super Bowl just one season ago.

Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow spent the majority of his starting career this season harming his team very little, except for in the team's last three games. In those games, he was forced to throw the ball—something he's not effective at doing—and it cost his team both wins and points each time.

Against a defense as strong as Pittsburgh's, and trying to match an offense as productive, Tebow is sure to fold and the Broncos will fall with him. While it's impressive what Denver has managed to do this season, they're just no match for the powerhouse Steelers and they're certain to lose by a significant margin.

While the Detroit Lions aren't going to lose by a large margin this week, it's still going to be a big loss for a team with high hopes and expectations heading into the 2011 regular season.

They are scheduled to take on the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome, a place the Saints haven't lost all year. That undefeated home stand includes a Week 13 contest against the Lions that ended 31-17.

While the Lions should put up more than 17 points in the their second meeting this weekend, it won't be enough to best the Saints and their league-leading offense.

It will be a close game between two high-scoring teams, but the Saints will come out on top. Considering this is Detroit's first playoff appearance since 1999 and first winning season since 2000, the Lions' loss will be huge.