NFL Playoff Picks: Projecting Each Underdog on Wild Card Weekend

The NFL regular season was filled with unpredictability—will the postseason continue that trend or will the game's elite dominate? 

Let's take a look at how the four underdogs will fare in this weekend's opening round. 

Denver Broncos (vs. Pittsburgh Steelers)

Can you find anyone outside of the Denver Metro area that has the Broncos in this one? I can't. After two-straight awful showings from Tim Tebow, not much faith is being put in Denver's chance to upend the Steelers, a club loaded with playoff experience and success. 

It'll be interesting to see what head coach John Fox does with Tebow. Will he "let him loose" and allow the typically inaccurate quarterback to throw it often? Will he revert back to the days when Tebow threw less than 10 passes a game? 

Pittsburgh will be without center Maurkice Pouncey and safety Ryan Clark, which are both significant losses. 

While I don't expect this to be a total blowout like many are predicting—mainly because I have faith in what Fox will do with his offensive game plan—the Steelers are the far superior team with a stifling defense. 

They'll get the job done and advance to the divisional round.

Detroit Lions (at New Orleans Saints)

This is easily the most offensively intriguing matchup of the weekend, with Matt Stafford and Drew Brees—two 5,000-yard passers—going head-to-head.

There is receiving talent galore in this one, and although Calvin Johnson is the go-to guy for Detroit, Titus Young, Nate Burleson, Tony Scheffler and Brandon Pettigrew have emerged over the last month of the season. 

Meanwhile, we all know Brees distributes the football to all his pass-catchers.

Don't be shocked if both quarterbacks throw for over 325 yards with three touchdown passes.

In what should be a tightly contested, back-and-forth shootout, expect the Saints to emerge victorious at home.

Too much offense to handle.

Atlanta Falcons (at New York Giants)

The Falcons and Giants are evenly matched clubs, both with deep receiving contingents, poised quarterbacks and respectable defenses that can get after the passer. 

Both enter the game hot, with the Falcons winning three of their last four and the Giants winning their final two games. 

I expect Atlanta to get out to an early lead because of their trio of special pass-catchers in Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez and the emerging Julio Jones. 

However, Eli Manning has been tremendous in the second half.

After wearing down the Falcons' offensive line, Jason Pierre-Paul and company will force Ryan into a few hurried decisions which will result in a few critical turnovers. 

As usual, the Giants get it done late.

Cincinnati Bengals (at Houston Texans)

Cincinnati and Houston are two more teams with similar makeups. They have two rookie quarterbacks who will start for the first time in NFL playoff history, while their defenses are equally as stout despite having underperformed over the last three weeks of the season. 

The Texans' dynamic ground duo of Arian Foster and Ben Tate will not be easy to corral, but the Bengals have an underrated pass rush that should fluster T.J. Yates. 

Andy Dalton won't put up eye-popping numbers, but the Bengals have tailored their offense to methodically move the ball before taking the shot down the field to A.J. Green. 

Due to Cincinnati's efficiency on offense and Yates' struggles, I like the Bengals in this AFC showdown.