NFL Playoff Picks: Teams That Will Cruise to Victory on Wild Card Weekend

Cruising to victory in the NFL is pretty rare. I would say that an easy victory would be 10 points or more. These three teams are going to start NFL Wild Card weekend and their postseason march off with a bang by cruising to a first-round victory.

New Orleans Saints

The Detroit Lions gave up 480 yards passing and six touchdowns to a backup quarterback last week against the Green Bay Packers. What do you think the all-time leading passer will do against them? Matt Flynn has nothing on Drew Brees.

Brees will pick the Lions defense to pieces on Saturday night. The only way Detroit has a legitimate shot of winning is if they can outscore New Orleans.

I don’t see it happening.

Whenever you are in a shootout, there is a good chance of the score being more than 10 points just because of the mistake factor. If Matthew Stafford throws an interception, they could be down another seven points.

Which quarterback do you trust in the postseason? Stafford, who is in his first postseason start, or a Super Bowl MVP?

I’ll take Brees.

Prediction: New Orleans wins, 41-30.

New York Giants

There is no questioning that the Atlanta Falcons are a quality team this season. However, they do have a history of being unable to win playoff games. They were 13-3 last season before being shellacked by the Green Bay Packers at home.

When the New York Giants are motivated, there are few teams that are better. Motivation is what drives this team and they are motivated to win another Super Bowl. Look how well they played against the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys.

They have a history (this season) of playing down to their competition. They struggled in Arizona and lost to Seattle, just to name a few instances.

New York will be fired up on Sunday.

Eli Manning will look sharp against an average Falcons defense, Ahmad Bradshaw will continue to run hard and Victor Cruz will continue to dance in the end zone after scoring crucial touchdowns.

Atlanta is accustomed to playing in a dome. Most dome teams struggle to play outdoors especially when it’s cold. It should be interesting to see how Atlanta fares outdoors.  

Prediction: New York wins, 31-21.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Even though Ben Roethlisberger is hampered by his high-ankle sprain and the Steelers are without Rashard Mendenhall for the postseason and possibly longer, the Pittsburgh Steelers shouldn’t have too much to worry about if they play their game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

Ryan Clark will be missing in action for safety precautions, but Pittsburgh is known for stopping the run. Tim Tebow and the Broncos run the ball better than anybody in the NFL at 164.5 yards per game.

Advantage Pittsburgh.

If Dick LeBeau plays press-coverage on the receivers, playing man-to-man defense while the others focus on the run game, Pittsburgh should see great success on defense.

Losing Mendenhall isn’t that big of a loss once you dig inside the numbers. Isaac Redman is averaging more yards per carry this season and shows an ability to break tackles unlike Mendenhall who goes down like a wet noodle. If he can stay away from the turnover bug (two fumbles last week) the Steelers should be fine in that category.

Roethlisberger is the difference maker. If he can move well enough around the pocket he should have his success against a pass defense that can be torched.

He made the NFL Pro Bowl this season.

Prediction: Pittsburgh wins, 24-10.