NFL Playoffs 2014-15: Week 17 Preview, Predictions for Final Field

As we head into the final Sunday of the 2014 regular season, only one potential playoff team has its January destiny set in stone. The New England Patriots clinched home-field advantage in the AFC following the Broncos' loss Monday night, giving Bill Belichick the option to rest his starters.

After that? Anarchy. While 10 of the 12 possible teams have punched their ticket, New England is the only one that knows where it's headed. The Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions could go from first-round bye to hitting the road in Wild Card Weekend in the NFC. The struggling Broncos are suddenly massive Steelers fans as they hope to clinch their own first-round bye in the AFC.

In all, four division champions will be crowned, and one wild-card team will fight its way through the murky mess of mediocrity to head to either Indianapolis, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh.

The AFC North, NFC North and NFC South provide the most straightforward answers. The Steelers and Bengals will close out the 2014 regular season on the bright lights of Sunday Night Football, with the winner taking the division crown and loser grabbing the conference's fifth seed. Cincinnati is 7-2 since its shaky start, while Pittsburgh has taken three straight, including a 42-21 win over the Bengals in Week 14.

The Bengals will enter Sunday knowing the last game was closer than the final score indicates. Andy Dalton threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns, and the Bengals averaged 4.2 yards per carry, but two big fumbles helped swing the difference. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 350 yards, Le'Veon Bell rushed for 185, and the Steelers scored 24 fourth-quarter points.

“I am really looking forward to it,” Steelers safety Mike Mitchell told reporters of the rematch. “You learn from your mistakes, and that's what is awesome about divisional games compared to nondivisional games. You only get one shot at those guys, so if they do something on you, then you might have to wait one or two years to play them again.”

The Bengals are looking for their first repeat as division champions in franchise history. The Steelers haven't taken home a divisional crown since 2010 and will make their first postseason appearance since the following season.

The NFC North provides a similar high-profile battle. The Packers and Lions head into Lambeau Field with identical 11-4 records and dreams of earning a first-round bye. A conference record tiebreaker gives the victor of Sunday's matchup a week off regardless of what happens with the Dallas Cowboys and either NFC West team.

Detroit earned a surprising 19-7 victory over Green Bay in Week 3. Aaron Rodgers was held in check to only 162 yards passing in a game that dropped the Packers to 1-2 and left many wondering if Green Bay's vaunted offense had been overhyped.

Nope. Rodgers has been arguably the NFL's best player since that loss, emerging as a clear MVP favorite while leading the Packers to 10 wins in 12 games. Rodgers' performance has nonetheless tapered off over the last two weeks, throwing one touchdown against two interceptions. To make matters worse, Rodgers is dealing with a calf injury suffered in Sunday's win over Tampa Bay.

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

"I'm sure we can adjust accordingly if I'm not ready to fully move around," Rodgers told reporters. "But I'd like to think with the Christmas holiday and everything that comes with it, that I'll be able to move around well enough."

Regardless of who comes away with the win, both NFC North representatives should be a tough out. The Packers have the best offense in football and the Lions the sport's best defense, per Football Outsiders' DVOA metric.

The same cannot be said for the NFC South, which could be called a dumpster fire, but it's the holiday season and I wouldn't want to insult dumpster fires. Carolina and Atlanta will slap-fight Sunday for the right to host a home pulverization the following weekend. The winner will become the first losing team to win a division since the Seahawks in 2010.

That's about where the similarities end. The Panthers and Falcons are each cap-strapped franchises burdened by bad contracts of years past and relying on the guile of their few stars to pull through. Matt Ryan and Cam Newton, franchise quarterbacks who deserve far better, seem destined to mosey through their careers underappreciated.

Also somewhat underappreciated? The quietly crazy race for the AFC's final wild-card spot. Four teams come into Sunday with an opportunity, each carrying varying degrees of likelihood. 

For the Chargers, it's simple. Beat Kansas City on Sunday, and you're in. For the Chiefs, it's much more complicated. Andy Reid and Co. need to take down San Diego and have the Texans and Ravens both get upset by division rivals. The problem here is that those "rivals" are Jacksonville and Cleveland, respectively. The Browns would have a fighting chance if they weren't auctioning off their starting quarterback spot at the Horseshoe Casino due to injuries.

“I’ll tell you the same thing I just told the team, ‘You can’t worry about all that,’” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, per Tod Palmer of The Kansas City Star. “Some of us have been through it, where we’ve had to have those things happen. Sometimes they happen, sometimes they don’t. But you can’t control any of them.”

Odds are, the Chiefs aren't making the playoffs. But as we saw last season—where a confounding series of losses and poor calls threw the Chargers into the playoff mix—anything can happen. Ten teams may know they're going to the playoffs, but nearly every game this week has some meaning.

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