Super Bowl 2015: Odds and Predictions with Playoff Field Set

There are 20 teams in the NFL that have already deemed this season a failure. But there are also 12 teams that still have the ultimate dream alive—winning the Super Bowl. 

Below, I'll take a look at the odds of those 12 teams, along with providing my own predictions for how this year's playoffs will unfold. In 12 cities, hope still springs eternal. Let's see which team will ultimately be left atop the NFL.

Super Bowl Odds

Team	Odds
Seattle Seahawks	11-5
New England Patriots	3-1
Green Bay Packers	6-1
Denver Broncos	13-2
Dallas Cowboys	17-2
Pittsburgh Steelers	14-1
Indianapolis Colts	28-1
Carolina Panthers	33-1
Baltimore Ravens	40-1
Cincinnati Bengals	40-1
Detroit Lions	40-1
Arizona Cardinals	66-1

Predictions 

It's really hard to like the Arizona Cardinals, on the road, with either Drew Stanton or Ryan Lindley starting at quarterback. The Cardinals lost two in a row to finish the season, they're without Andre Ellington and the Carolina Panthers are playing their best football of the season at the moment. 

The Panthers have won four in a row, they're giving up just 10.7 points per game in that span and Cam Newton looks like the player who took the league by storm early in his career, not the injured, slumping version from earlier in the year. With the defense waking up and the Panthers peaking at the right moment, it's hard to see the Cardinals coming into Carolina and leaving with a win.

The Dallas Cowboys facing the Detroit Lions feels like more of a tossup, meanwhile. The Lions are a mediocre 4-4 on the road this season, but that's offset by a Cowboys team that is just 4-4 at home. The difference in this game could be the absence of  Ndamukong Suh, who was suspended for a game after stomping on the leg of Aaron Rodgers on Sunday, per Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com.

Add in the fact that defensive lineman Nick Fairley likely won't be able to play due to injury, and Detroit's biggest strength this season—its ferocious defensive line—will be severely weakened against Dallas. That's bad news against one of the league's most balanced offenses, and Dallas will escape this one with a win.

It doesn't really matter which teams win this weekend, of course, because neither the Seattle Seahawks nor Green Bay Packers are likely to lose a divisional round game at home. The Seahawks have lost just twice at home since last season, including the playoffs, while Green Bay has yet to lose at home this season. 

That means the Seahawks are likely to return to the NFC Championship and beat the Packers for a second time this season. The Seahawks are red hot, having won six in a row and nine of their last 10, making them a team nobody wants to face at the moment. 

After the Seahawks won their final game of the season against St. Louis, head coach Pete Carroll talked about his team's resiliency after a rough start to the season.

"All you guys kept talking about how you can't do this and you can't get to this point again and you can't come back and all this stuff," he told the Associated Press, via ESPN. "You can. You can do it. And we did it to this point. And we'll see how we'll do in the playoffs. We got back to division champs and that's pretty rare. I'm really proud of that."

The Wild Card Round in the AFC hinges on the health of one player: Le'Veon Bell. If he's unable to play against the Baltimore Ravens this weekend after suffering a knee injury, the Steelers are going to have a hard time getting past their hated rival. Baltimore may have backed its way into the playoffs, but it did split the series with Pittsburgh this year.

It seems a stretch that Bell would play, so expect Baltimore to move on. 

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts essentially boils down to one question: Which quarterback would you rather have in a big game, Andy Dalton or Andrew Luck?

The answer is Luck, of course. And a Colts team that quietly won five of six down the stretch. The Colts have their flaws, yes, but Luck is enough to overcome most of them against Cincy. 

However, he won't be enough to get the Colts past Peyton Manning, C.J. Anderson and Demaryius Thomas. The Broncos are simply too balanced for the Colts to overcome, though that contest should be a fun one. Meanwhile, Joe Flacco and the Ravens have knocked off the New England Patriots in the past, but they aren't nearly good enough to do that this time around. 

That sets up another January matchup between Manning and Tom Brady. Yes, New England won the matchup between these teams in Week 9, but that was before the Broncos really discovered their running game behind C.J. Anderson. 

The Broncos rebuilt their defense for this very matchup, and their newfound running game will serve them well. Most folks will like the Pats in this one, but don't be surprised when Denver pulls off the victory. 

And don't be surprised to see Manning and company get past Seattle this time around. The Broncos are the one team in the league that has the type of offense that can trouble the Seahawks—remember, they took them to overtime in Seattle earlier in the year—and their defense is improved enough to give Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch trouble.

The Broncos won't be blindsided by the Seahawks twice. Expect them to win this year's Super Bowl.