NFL Playoff Schedule 2012: Players Who Will Fail in Wild-Card Round

With a great game in the NFL Playoffs, a player can transform himself into one of the elites in the league. However, these players will fail in their wild-card game this weekend, and thus will send themselves away from the spotlight of being among the greats in the league. 

Denver Broncos: Von Miller

Von Miller started this year as a candidate for AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year. However, since he suffered a broken thumb against the San Diego Chargers in Week 12, he hasn’t been his same dominating self.  

Before the injury, Miller was a beast, leading this Denver defense by making tackles and putting pressure on quarterbacks. In his four games before the injury, Miller’s tackle numbers increased every week, from five to 10. While the tackle numbers were impressive, Miller was able to accumulate 4.5 sacks.  

However, since the four games after his injury, Miller has seen his tackle numbers dip from five, to one and last week to zero. Miller has only one sack within that period.  

Miller’s injury will keep him from putting pressure on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and will prevent him from taking down Pittsburgh’s speedy receiver, Antonio Brown. 

Houston Texans: Arian Foster

Foster had a great season rushing for 1,224 yards, 10 touchdowns and averaging 4.4 yards per carry. However, one of his lowest rushing totals came against this Cincinnati Bengals team, when he rushed for 41 yards on 15 carries, only averaging 2.7 yards per attempt. 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to Texans fans, since the Bengals rank sixth in the AFC in rushing defense. The Bengals only allowed opposing running backs to average 104 yards per game, while holding them to under four yards per carry. 

The Bengals will contain Foster again, which will frustrate a Texans' fanbase that is getting to watch their team in their first ever postseason game. 

Atlanta Falcons: Matt Ryan 

Matt Ryan has had another year where he threw for over 3,000 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and a passer rating either near or over 90. 

However, Ryan has failed to win a playoff game, and has had subpar stats in each of his postseason appearances. 

In two games, Ryan has three touchdowns to four interceptions, a 66 completion percentage and a passer rating of 69 against Arizona in ’08 and 72.8 against Green Bay in ’10. Both games ended with the Falcons losing by a combined score of 45-78. 

Ryan’s third playoff game will end in another playoff failure because of a relentless Giants passing attack that averaged almost two sacks per game. 

With a healthy Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck, plus the emergence of Jason Pierre-Paul, it will lead to Ryan running for his life and making poor passes that are intercepted. 

Detroit Lions: The Entire Secondary

The Lions secondary is coming into their wild-card game against the Saints after being ripped to shreds by Green Bay Packers backup quarterback for Matt Flynn, who threw for 480 yards and six touchdowns on the final week of the season. 

Allowing six touchdown passes is awful, however, four of Flynn’s touchdowns were for over 35 yards. 

When Saints quarterback Drew Brees ripped the Lions secondary apart for 342 yards and three touchdowns in Week 13, only one of those touchdown passes was a bomb (a 67-yard completion to Robert Meachem). 

The wild-card game will see the Lions secondary get picked apart again by Brees. 

These four teams will all end their season this weekend after these players fail to show up big. 

Wild Card Weekend Playoff Schedule

Date/Time	Home Team	Road Team	Channel
Sat. 1/7 4:30 PM	Houston Texans	Cincinnati Bengals	NBC
Sat. 1/7 8:00 PM	New Orleans Saints	Detroit Lions
Sun. 1/8 1:00 PM	New York Giants	Atlanta Falcons	FOX
Sun 1/8 4:30 PM	Denver Broncos	Pittsburgh Steelers	CBS

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