NFL Playoffs 2012: Full Divisional Round Picks and Predictions

The Divisional round of the NFL playoffs are a few short days away, with the weekend's four contests determining which two teams from each conference will go on to their respective championship games.

This ever-important weekend features eight of the year's very best teams and a few of the league's all-time greatest players.

That makes predicting just what will happen this weekend difficult, but not impossible. In the following slides, I provide my picks and predictions for each of the four games this week.

New Orleans Saints at San Francisco 49ers

The New Orleans Saints travel to San Francisco to take on the 49ers in what is the most compelling matchup of the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

This game features the Saints' league-leading offense up against the Niners' bruising defense, the likes of which New Orleans hasn't faced all year.

For the 49ers to win, they need to put pressure on Saints quarterback Drew Brees, cover his receivers well and force the squad off the field. The San Francisco offense is well-suited to controlling the clock, with their run-heavy approach that is augmented by quarterback Alex Smith's conservative passing game.

While the Saints are heavily favored in this game, if San Francisco can pick Brees off two or three times and hold them to 25 or fewer points, they have more than a good chance of winning.

Considering doing so has been the team's calling card this season, it's not a foregone conclusion that the red-hot Saints will be heading to the NFC championship game when the day is done.

I see the Saints ultimately struggling in this game and the Niners ending the day with the upset victory thanks to their conference-best defense displaying unrelenting pressure.

Denver Broncos at New England Patriots

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow proved that he can throw—and complete—deep passes in his team's wild-card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. That should benefit his team this week when they travel to Foxboro to take on the New England Patriots and their 32nd-ranked pass defense.

Tebow is going to need all the help he can get, however, with his own defense having the enormous task of stopping Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his myriad of reliable receiving targets.

For the Broncos to win, they'll have to stop Brady. Even if Tebow manages to throw for over 300 yards for a second consecutive week, he will still need to put up 30 or more points to come close to besting the high-scoring Patriots.

That's going to be tough—even though he threw for 316 yards last week, he still completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes. He will have to complete well more than that to score the kind of points the Broncos will likely need to best New England.

The Denver defense could make Tebow's efforts easier if they put enough pressure on Brady and keep his receivers continuously covered. However, consider the trouble they had doing so when the Patriots bested the Broncos 41-23 in Week 15, it isn't likely they'll manage to stiffen up on Saturday night.

Denver had quite a run this year, but that's all going to come to an end this week. The Patriots should notch themselves a decisive win and a spot in the AFC championship game.

Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens

The Houston Texans face the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday afternoon in a contest between two very well-matched teams.

Both the Texans and Ravens rely more heavily on their defenses and running games instead of their quarterbacks to win, and they will be employing this strategy yet again when they meet this week.

The Texans had a decisive, 31-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals last week. They did so by putting constant pressure on Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton, picking him off three times and holding their running game to just 32 total yards.

To beat the Ravens this week, they'll have to be as successful in their defensive strategy. Ravens running back Ray Rice is the centerpiece of his team's offense, and if they can shut him down and put the game in the hands of quarterback Joe Flacco, they'll have a good shot at keeping Baltimore's score low.

However, the Ravens have one of the top defenses in the NFL, and running the ball won't likely come as easily for Texans running back Arian Foster as it was last week against the Bengals.

If the Ravens effectively stop Foster, then it's going to be a low-scoring defensive grind that may end with only a single offensive touchdown scored.

Though the Ravens are favored, the Texans were truly impressive last week. While I believe Baltimore will win this contest, Houston has enough going for them that if they handed the Ravens their first home loss of the season, I wouldn't be surprised.

New York Giants at Green Bay Packers

At first glance, it appears that the New York Giants have little chance of beating the Green Bay Packers on Sunday evening, considering how unstoppable the Packers have seemed all year and the fact that they've already fallen to Green Bay in Week 13.

But one look at the way the Giants dominated the Atlanta Falcons last week portends that it's not going to be easy for the defending Super Bowl champions to reach the NFC Championship Game.

On offense, the Packers are far more explosive than the Giants, but the Giants have a great deal of talent in their own right and have bested their last three opponents by wide margins.

The Giants need to exploit the Packers' weak secondary while also using their strong defense to keep quarterback Aaron Rodgers off the field if they are to win this week.

That's a tall order, considering only the Kansas City Chiefs have been able to hold Rodgers and his many offensive weapons down this season. The Giants defense is better than the Chiefs, however, and they have far more to play for on Sunday than Kansas City did in Week 15.

The Packers have faced a number of high-caliber opponents this year and emerged with convincing wins. The fact that they're playing this game on their home field only makes the case for a Green Bay victory all the stronger.

There is reason to think that the Giants can pull off the upset victory, but it's going to take quite the effort on both offense and defense to do so. The Packers are favorites for a reason, and I'm picking them to win this week.