NFL Playoff Predictions: Top Seeds That Will Be Exposed

The New England Patriots will not return to glory in 2012.

Quite simply, their defense is too terrible to warrant a fourth Super Bowl title in just more than a decade. The Patriots rank 31st in the NFL this season in yards allowed, giving up 411.6 yards per game en route to letting up 21.4 points per game by the opposition.

That shaky defense will have New England on exposure alert this winter, along with a couple of other top seeds.

San Francisco 49ers

The Niners owe their superb season to turnovers. Unfortunately, turnovers aren't always a guarantee in the playoffs—just ask the Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions, who missed their opportunities on Saturday and are now vacation bound.

San Francisco sports a plus-28 turnover differential heading into the postseason, the best in the NFL by far. The 49ers forced 38 turnovers this season and only turned it over 10 times themselves. On the positive side, San Francisco is taking care of the ball on offense, but on the glaring negative side, the Niners are relying on rare postseason mistakes to keep up their winning ways.

San Francisco has intercepted 23 balls this season and will likely need at least one or two to beat the Saints in the divisional round. Too bad for them Drew Brees was near perfect against the Lions on Saturday night and hardly demonstrates the ability to turn the ball over. Brees should play well against San Francisco's 16th-ranked passing defense as well.

Regardless of what Jim Harbaugh and company can do against the run this postseason, they aren't long for the playoffs considering the Saints can and will pass them into the ground. 

Houston Texans

Although the young Texans aren't one of the top two seeds in the AFC, they are considered to be one of the conference's top seeds and teams this postseason. Behind the New England Patriots, no team has a better turnover differential than the Texans in the AFC, who were plus-seven through the regular season.

Unfortunately, Houston ranked behind bad teams like the Bills, Jets and Jaguars in total takeaways this season. Sure, Houston looked dominant at home on Saturday against the Bengals, turning rookie quarterback Andy Dalton over three times, but that kind of boost is far from guaranteed on the road against experienced playoff teams, like the Baltimore Ravens, Houston's next opponent.

The Texans failed their two road tests at New Orleans and at Baltimore earlier this season, so there is little proof to suggest Houston can travel this winter and make believers out of the casual observers. A third-string quarterback can only take a team so far at this level, and the Ravens aren't the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that finished the seasons just 1-7 against winning teams.