NFL Playoff Picks: Predicting Winners for the Divisional Round

Now that the Wild Card Weekend has concluded, it's on to the Divisional Round with some exciting matchups.

Three of the four games are regular season rematches (Denver at New England, Houston at Baltimore, NY Giants at Green Bay) and all of the remaining teams won their division. Talk about an elite eight. Here are my picks for the divisional round.

Saints at 49ers

These two teams are polar opposites.

The Saints love to air it out, gain a big lead, then run the rock to close out the contest. Defensively, they're simply in the business of slowing the opponent down enough to give their offense a major advantage.

San Francisco however, loves to pound the rock and control the game tempo. The 49ers defense is excellent at owning the trenches and forces a lot of QB pressure to assist the coverage.

For New Orleans to win they must simply score early and often as San Francisco isn't built to score quickly, let alone numerous times in the need of making a comeback.

The 49ers on the other hand, need to get Frank Gore going early and often while also pressuring Drew Brees. Regardless of the amount of success San Francisco has on offense, they don't have a chance without keeping New Orleans one-dimensional and getting to Brees throughout the game.

No lead is safe against New Orleans, so the 49ers need to blitz early and often while literally running as much time off the clock as possible on offense.

Brees has had such great pass protection all season, that even if New Orleans slows down to scoring just 24 or 31 points. San Francisco isn't that explosive unless they force turnovers.

Saints 30, 49ers 20

Broncos at Patriots

The second divisional round game is a rematch from the regular season as Denver takes on New England. This time it's a home game for the Patriots after winning in Mile High, 41-23.

Obviously, the key for Denver is to get big plays and establish a running game. Although the Broncos are beginning to hit a rhythm on offense, they must not abandon their strength, which is running the football.

Defensively, they must get pressure on Tom Brady. In the first game the Broncos did get two sacks and three additional QB hits, but in order to slow down Brady, a constant barrage of sacks and pressure is needed.

On the contrary, the Patriots defense must blitz Tim Tebow. The Steelers respected his ability to scramble a little too much and neglected to send six or seven rushers on a consistent basis.

There's a difference between blitzing and stacking to box to stop the run. Pittsburgh over-loaded the box which created openings in the secondary. However, if New England simply blitzes six or seven guys while playing zone coverage, that's their best bet.

We still see Tebow's inaccuracies when under pressure, so sending six at all times to cover all bases must happen. As for Brady, we know the Pats' will score virtually at will as they are much healthier than Pittsburgh and the Broncos don't have an answer for Rob Gronkowski.

Then again, who does?

Patriots 35, Broncos 21

Texans at Ravens

For the second time this season the Houston Texans must travel to Baltimore to take on the Ravens.

There are however, some major differences this time around.

Receiver Andre Johnson is back, but Houston is without its top quarterback Matt Schaub. The interesting aspect about this game are two top-five defenses battling while the offenses are similarly equal in rushing and passing.

Texans rookie QB T.J. Yates has a lot of confidence and being that receiver Andre Johnson is out wide, the Ravens have a whole new set of problems in pass defense. Therefore, they must blitz Houston constantly to shutdown running back Arian Foster.

Doing so will force Yates to beat them which is where the blitzing comes into play. Double coverage on Johnson would force Kevin Walter and Owen Daniels to beat single coverage while Yates has limited time in the pocket.

On the flip side, Houston needs linebacker Brian Cushing to spy Ray Rice all game long. Cushing is the best man for the job to isolate Rice while Wade Phillips blitzes elsewhere. Joe Flacco has to prove he can play well on a consistent basis in the playoffs, however, the Texans are coming in with attitude.

The difference in this game will be the receiver who steps up in crunch time, Torrey Smith or Andre Johnson? Because both QBs get blitzed hard and the running backs have limited production.

Texans 13, Ravens 10

Giants at Packers

The final game of the weekend is another rematch as the New York Giants travel to legendary Lambeau Field to play the Green Bay Packers.

As we know, the Giants upset the Packers in the 2007 NFC title game thanks to Brett Favre's careless OT interception. This time around though, Green Bay has a much more prolific QB in Aaron Rodgers.

In the first meeting Rodgers threw for 369 yards and four TDs (one pick) while New York's Eli Manning was almost as impressive with 347 yards and three TDs (also one pick). The difference was that Eli's pick went for six points courtesy of Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews.

The divisional game will be eerily similar as both still have explosive offenses and the ability to run the ball effectively at will.

But, the sole difference lies in each team's pass rush.

New York has arguably the NFL's best set of pass-rushers in Chris Canty, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Pierre-Paul. Green Bay's Clay Matthews has seen a lot of double-teams this season and the Packers pass rush has been down.

Favoring Green Bay though, is their opportunistic defense (league leading 31 picks) and the inconsistency of Eli Manning. He can be interception prone and Aaron Rodgers rarely makes mistakes. Not to mention the Giants turnover differential is only plus-seven to Green Bay's plus-24.

Packers 31, Giants 24

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