NFL Playoff Bracket 2012: Patriots and Ravens a Lock for AFC Championship Game

It's never a good idea to take anything for granted when it comes to the NFL playoffs. The saying goes that anything can happen on any given Sunday, and the point is proven a lot during the playoffs.

Sometimes, it's even proven on Saturdays.

Because of this reality, I don't like to use the word "lock" when discussing the NFL postseason. There never are any locks.

And that, my friends, makes this year's AFC playoff bracket an exception. Take one look at it, and you'll notice that the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens are a lock to meet in the AFC Championship Game.

The Patriots and Ravens are easily the two strongest teams in the AFC, especially when you compare them to the other four teams that made the cut. The Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos and Houston Texans are all riddled with problems at the moment, and it's just plain impossible to envision any of the four getting hot.

All four of these teams will be in action this weekend, and the Texans and Steelers are consensus favorites to survive and advance.

The Texans are hosting the Bengals, who struggled on the road and failed to succeed against the AFC's better teams during the regular season. Even despite Houston's injuries, the Bengals are going to be overmatched in this game. Eventually, they will be overwhelmed.

The Steelers are as weak as they've ever been right now, but they're more than a match for the Broncos. The Broncos haven't been able to get anything going on offense in the last three weeks, and they will be facing one of the league's very best defensive teams in the Steelers. Unless Tim Tebow starts completing passes at a freakish pace, the Broncos are going down.

If so, that would mean the Steelers would play the Patriots in the divisional round, and the Texans would head to Baltimore to take on the Ravens.

At full strength, I would like Pittsburgh's chances of upsetting the Pats in New England. But they would be going into this game with a gimpy Ben Roethlisberger, a gimpy Maurkice Pouncey and no Rashard Mendenhall. It would be up to Pittsburgh's defense to dominate the Pats like it did in Week 8, and that's not going to happen. The Pats were in a funk offensively the first time they played the Steelers, and they caught fire and went on a roll soon after. 

Plus, the game will be on New England's turf. The road was not kind to the Steelers in 2011, especially down the stretch.

Meanwhile in Baltimore, the Texans would be even more overmatched. The Ravens absolutely dominated teams at home during the regular season, including the Texans way back in Week 6. The Texans are a much weaker team now than they were back then, and the Ravens seem to be at full strength. An upset will not be in the cards.

When (not if) things go according to this plan, you'll have the Ravens and Patriots in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium. Check and mate.

As for who will win, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Wild Card Round (Jan. 7 and 8)	Divisional Round (Jan. 14 and 15)	Conference Championship (Jan. 22)
Cincinnati
Houston	Lowest Surviving Seed (Pittsburgh)
	New England	TBD (Baltimore)
		TBD (New England)
	Highest Surviving Seed (Houston)
Denver	Baltimore
Pittsburgh