Gridiron Digest Wild Card Weekend Extravaganza and Divisional Round Preview

Overtime games. Comebacks. Quarterback injuries. Controversial calls. An upset that may have marked the end of an era. Wild Card Weekend had it all, and Gridiron Digest wraps up all of this weekend's action while looking ahead to answer questions about next week's playoff showdowns.

Among the questions we'll consider along the way:

• Can Kirk Cousins win a playoff game on the road? Oh wait, he just did. Well, can he win another playoff game on the road?

• Will conservative play-calling doom the Seahawks against the Packers?

• Will utterly random play-calling doom the Texans against the Chiefs?

• Did beating the Patriots transform the Titans into a Team of Destiny?

• Is the 49ers offense built to find the weaknesses in the Vikings defense?

• Will big plays be enough for the Chiefs against the Texans?

• Will a hot start be enough for the Packers against the Seahawks?

Plus: Jason Garrett finally updates his Facebook status, Tom Brady and Drew Brees face uncertain futures, Dan Snyder celebrates Thanksgiving in January and much, much more! 

Divisional Round First Look: Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers

Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

The Fail Mary. The onside kick disaster in the 2014 playoffs. The Packers and Seahawks have produced plenty of memorable moments, and they are often dueling for NFC supremacy. In a divisional round full of new faces and unexpected matchups, an old-fashioned Russell Wilson-Aaron Rodgers shootout feels comfortably and excitingly familiar. 

How the Packers got here

Aaron Rodgers had one of his typical late-career seasons:

• Two or three passes per game no other mortal could make

• About a dozen passes per game during which he looked at his receivers as if they were something moldy he found in the back of the fridge and began scrambling around in search of a 60-yard touchdown

• A few overthrows per game to convince Packers fans he just needs more weapons, though more than half the quarterbacks in the league would sacrifice a kidney to have Rodgers' weapons

• Final overall stats that look great if you ignore the fact a quarterback of Rodgers' reputation should do more than avoid interceptions and beat the tar out of the Raiders

The typical Rodgers season did not turn into a typical 10-6 Packers disappointment this time because newcomers Za'Darius Smith and Preston Smith juiced up the pass rush and new head coach Matt LaFleur emphasized running back Aaron Jones as a rusher and receiver, balancing the offense enough to keep things moving when Rodgers was in a finicky mood.

How the Seahawks got here

Jadeveon Clowney knocked Carson Wentz out of the game Sunday in the first quarter. The Seahawks offense then overcame coordinator Brian Schottenheimer's obsession with handing off for no gain when Wilson connected with DK Metcalf for a 53-yard touchdown that provided enough margin for error for their defense to stave off a spirited comeback attempt by Josh McCown.

When the Seahawks have the ball

The Packers pass rush should have a big day against the injury-riddled Seahawks offensive line.

Za'Darius Smith lines up everywhere from the edge to three-tech (with another pass-rusher like Kyler Fackrell or Rashan Gary at his shoulder) to blitzing linebacker, forcing opponents to find him before figuring out how to block him. Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine likes to threaten with five or six pass-rushers before dropping a few of them into zones, and the Smiths are so effective that three-man rushes sometimes get to the quarterback. All the talent and subterfuge could overwhelm the Seahawks offensive line. 

Schottenheimer kept the Eagles in the game on Sunday with his predictable play calls whenever the Seahawks fell behind the sticks: runs on 2nd-and-long, receiver screens and other give-up-and-punt calls on 3rd-and-long. Wilson has experience overcoming Schottenheimer's game plans, of course. But the Seahawks must put up more than 17 points if they hope to win next week. 

When the Packers have the ball

The Packers outscored opponents 108-56 in the first quarter during the regular season but were outscored 116-83 in the second quarter. Their offense typically looks efficient for the first set of scripted plays, with Rodgers content to work within the structure and distribute the ball. After the first three-and-out, everything comes unglued for a while.

Sometimes, the Packers pull themselves together thanks to Jones' rushing (with the help of a stellar offensive line) or Rodgers' bombs; sometimes (see the narrow wins over the Panthers and Washington) they just futz around and wait for time to run out.

Recent history

Rodgers and Wilson each threw two touchdowns in the Seahawks' 27-24 home victory over the Packers last November, with Wilson hitting Ed Dickson for the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. The only thing missing was the stakes. Both teams were bobbing around .500 at that point, with the Packers destined to miss the postseason and the Seahawks to lose in the first round due to, ahem, conservative offensive play-calling.

Bottom line

The Seahawks are doomed if they play the way they did on Sunday against the Packers. But the Seahawks played that way for most of December. All the Packers have to do is stay out of their own way and let guys named Smith and Jones (and Rodgers) do what they do best.

Divisional Round First Look: Tennessee Titans at Baltimore Ravens

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Who can possibly upset the best team in the AFC? Perhaps the team that just upset the greatest team of the 21st century.

How the Ravens got here

Lamar Jackson forced the NFL to reimagine the possibilities of an option-based offense, helped the Ravens pummel opponents like the Patriots and Texans and may have shifted the balance of power of the entire AFC. Sheesh, where have you been?

How the Titans got here

They weathered the Foxborough Mystique. They defied the dying embers of Brady magic. They overcame the Patriots and turned the football world upside down.

Derrick Henry was a human battering ram, rushing 34 times for 182 yards and one touchdown. Ryan Tannehill threw an early touchdown to the legendary Anthony Firkser before turning into a human handoff dispensary. And with the Titans clinging to a 14-13 lead in the second half, the defense forced Brady and company to punt four times before Logan Ryan punctuated the upset with a pick-six in the final seconds.

When the Titans have the ball

Expect Henry, Henry and more Henry. The Titans wanted to pound the ball and keep things simple against the Patriots, and they are sure to want to do something similar on Saturday to keep the ball out of Jackson's hands. 

Needless to say, the Titans will also need more than the 72 yards Tannehill had Saturday, when he was under siege every time he dropped to throw and courted disaster when he fumbled twice in the second half (the Titans recovered both fumbles). Getting more might be tough, though, against a secondary that overcame a spate of early-season injuries to become one of the best and deepest in the NFL, led by Earl Thomas, Marlon Humphrey, midseason acquisition Marcus Peters, Jimmy Smith and Brandon Carr.

The Ravens pass rush is fueled by no-names like Matt Judon and Tyus Bowser, but don't confuse name recognition with capability. No franchise in the NFL slow cooks middle-round draft picks into valuable contributors on defense quite like the Ravens do.

When the Ravens have the ball

The groundbreaking Ravens offense is built upon fundamental football principals that would make your father's high school coach nod and smile. The inside-outside option rushing threat strains defenders by forcing them to read and react at the line of scrimmage. The constricted formations create space on the outside for Jackson and others to turn the corner for big gains. And the tight-end-heavy personnel groupings and constant play-action create deep mismatches. It's simple, elegant and nearly impossible to defend, especially when the Ravens are ahead of the sticks and ahead in the game.

The Titans defense practiced against Marcus Mariota and variations of the team's own option-tinged "exotic smashmouth" offense under various coordinators in the last few seasons. That experience might give them a very slight edge in stopping Jackson.

Recent history

The Ravens shut the Titans out 21-0 in October 2018, with Mariota enduring 11 sacks while Joe Flacco led the long-forgotten and never-lamented old paint-by-numbers Ravens offense. 

Bottom line

Either this is an utter mismatch or the Titans are a "Team of Destiny" because they beat the Patriots. It's more likely that the Titans beat the Patriots simply because the Patriots are not very good anymore.

Divisional Round First Look: Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers

Brett Duke/Associated Press

OMG, Kirk Cousins won a playoff game! And all it took was a pair of All-Pro-caliber performances from edge-rushers Danielle Hunter and Everson Griffen. And also lots of rugged running by Dalvin Cook. And some missed field goals, clock mismanagement and overcomplicated play-calling from the Saints.

Come to think of it, Cousins spent most of Sunday's 26-20 overtime win handing off and tossing the ball into the flat. But he did hit Adam Thielen for a 43-yard bomb to set up the game-winning end-zone fade to Kyle Rudolph. And if he is good enough to do that, then the Vikings may be good enough to upset an opponent that has yet to galvanize a big-game reputation of its own.

How the 49ers got here

They lost just three games this season, by a total of 13 points, all of them on last-second plays or field goals. Yet their relative lack of playoff experience and star power, plus Jimmy Garoppolo's unassuming "system quarterback" attributes, make them appear more vulnerable than the typical 13-3 team.

How the Vikings got here

We covered that in the intro. 

When the Vikings have the ball

The 49ers defense was playing at historic levels until it was ravaged by late-season injuries. The team hopes to have edge-rusher Dee Ford (hamstring) back next week, but Ford did not practice during the bye week. Safety Jaquiski Tartt (ribs) is expected to return, and ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that linebacker Kwon Alexander (pectoral) could also be back a week ahead of schedule.

The Vikings offensive line was inconsistent-at-best for much of the season but blasted holes for Cook while protecting Cousins well for most of Sunday. It needs to produce an encore performance, especially if the 49ers defense is at close to full strength.

When the 49ers have the ball

Here's a December feature about the 49ers offense that is full of stats, breakdowns and videos. The short version: The 49ers do many of the same things that the Ravens do, like using constricted formations full of tight ends and fullbacks to create space on the edge and confound run keys. But instead of running like Lamar Jackson, Garoppolo distributes the ball to a diverse group of playmakers. Thirteen different players caught touchdown passes for the 49ers, and six different players rushed for touchdowns in the regular season as Kyle Shanahan schemed to get the ball to whomever the defense least expected. 

The best way to beat the Vikings defense is to block Hunter and Griffen as well as you possibly can and challenge cornerbacks Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes deep. That sort of primitive football is the one thing the 49ers aren't very good at. The Saints don't excel at let 'er rip tactics, either, and look where it got them.

Recent history

Garoppolo threw three interceptions and was sacked three times in the 2018 season opener, a 24-16 Vikings victory. The 49ers have changed a lot since them. The Vikings have barely changed at all. 

Bottom line

This game is a great example of the value of home-field advantage and a bye week. The possible returns of Ford, Tartt and maybe Alexander, coupled with the rigors for the Vikings of playing in New Orleans and San Francisco on back-to-back weeks, should turn a potential tough test for the 49ers into a romp.

Divisional Round First Look: Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

The Texans upset the Chiefs 31-24 in a sloppy Week 6 matchup full of penalties, turnovers, missed field goals and missed opportunities. The Chiefs are healthier and less self-destructive now than they were in October, and the Texans barely squeaked past the Bills on Saturday, but the winner of this game might once again be the team that makes the fewest mistakes.

How the Chiefs got here

The Chiefs overcame a midseason injury to Patrick Mahomes and a midseason habit of critical blunders against AFC South foes to win their final six games. Explosive plays by Mecole Hardman and Damien Williams helped them come back against the pesky Chargers while the Patriots fell flat against the also-pesky Dolphins in Week 17, which is why the Chiefs are here and the Patriots are not.

How the Texans got here

The Bills outmuscled, outhustled and outcoached the Texans for two-and-a-half quarters but could mount just a 16-0 lead because the Bills offense had little more than a few trick plays up their sleeves. Deshaun Watson, J.J. Watt and DeAndre Hopkins then carried their coach and teammates on their shoulders (that is the autofill explanation for every Texans victory), sparking a comeback that eventually ended in a 22-19 overtime win.

When the Texans had the ball

The Texans offensive line must play better than it did Saturday. Watson was sacked seven times and wriggled out of trouble or pinballed off tacklers many other times to find Hopkins or scramble for positive yardage (or both). 

The Texans offense was at its best in the Chiefs upset, balancing runs with passes, distributing the ball to people not named Hopkins and sustaining three methodical 75-plus-yard touchdown drives. It was at its worst against the Bills: a few playground highlights separated by ineffective, almost randomly-selected plays.

The Chiefs want the Texans to play catch up all game so they can attack with Frank Clark off the edge and Chris Jones up the middle while safety Tyrann Mathieu patrols the secondary for errant passes. But if the Texans remain balanced, they can exploit a run defense ranked 29th in the NFL by Football Outsiders.

When the Chiefs have the ball

The Chiefs offense produced 21 plays of 40-plus yards this season, the highest figure in the NFL. Hardman, Williams and Tyreek Hill are typically the three fastest players on the field, Mahomes is the league's most gifted pure passer and tight end Travis Kelce is a walking mismatch, so the Chiefs would score a lot of points running a Pop Warner playbook. Andy Reid's intricate game plans and a rock-solid offensive line make the Chiefs offense the most explosive one in the league, if not the most consistent one. 

You may have noticed Watt's return Saturday, not just because his third-quarter sack to force a Bills field goal sparked a rally but also because he got more screen time during the telecast than the hashmarks. (And brother T.J. was on screen so much he should have gotten his own sponsorship.) Watt's on-field impact is too obvious to mention, and while the howling motivational stuff on the sideline may be a little overblown, he really is the type of guy who inspires his teammates. That said, Watt can't cover Hill or Kelce, so the Texans need a plan for when he cannot get to Mahomes.

Recent history

We've already covered the October meeting in some detail. We should also mention that the Chiefs shut out the Texans 30-0 in the Wild Card Round of the 2015 playoffs. Brian Hoyer was the Texans quarterback at that point, so don't read too much into the result, but it is one of the games that cemented the Texans' reputation as postseason bunglers.

Bottom line

Mahomes was gimpy with an ankle injury in the Week 6 upset, and it impacted both his deep accuracy and his ability to escape the pass rush. Mahomes is healthier now, and the Chiefs defense is a little less porous up the middle than it was early in the season. The Texans' hopes rest with Watson making more miraculous plays than Mahomes and the Chiefs making more unforced errors than they do. That's not a very reliable formula for success.

Eliminated Teams Digest

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Let's take one last look at the teams eliminated from the playoffs this weekend as they start making plans for next year:

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles might easily have won on Sunday if Carson Wentz didn't suffer a first-quarter head injury and might have gone even further if they hadn't lost half the roster to a zombie apocalypse this season.

That said, they face tough offseason decisions about several veteran free agents (Jason Peters, Rodney McLeod, Ronald Darby) and must overhaul their receiving corps so they are no longer reliant upon chronically injured (DeSean Jackson), ineffective (Nelson Agholor) and not-so-secretly disgruntled (Alshon Jeffrey) veterans. Throw in the need for speed at cornerback and an impact edge-rusher, and the Eagles' shopping list is long. Just more than $50 million in on-paper cap space won't stretch far enough to meet even half the needs. 

The good news for the Eagles is that all three of their NFC East foes will be starting over with new coaches next year. 

Buffalo Bills

The Bills run the risk of going the way of the 2017 Jaguars and 2018 Bears if they cannot find a way to accentuate Josh Allen's occasional breathtaking scrambles and throws while minimizing his fumbles, baffling last-second decisions, near pick-sixes and long periods of looking like the lost sibling of Blake Bortles and Mitch Trubisky. 

Brian Daboll's conservative game plans (he had exactly enough fresh ideas for the opening drive on Saturday) may be part of the problem, but Daboll appeared to be limiting Allen's decision-making because Allen's decision-making often results in intentional grounding penalties and surprise laterals to unsuspecting teammates.

The team has $88 million in cap space to invest in future weapons, but weapons also might not be the problem. Allen must become the quarterback Bills fans insist he is, not the one he looks like when the rest of the world is paying attention.

New Orleans Saints

Drew Brees is a nominal free agent; there are a pair of voidable phony-baloney years left on his contract, but just ignore them. The Saints can easily use more creative accounting to keep Brees, and they have done a remarkable job keeping their Super Bowl window open for the past three years through clever trades, draft decisions and caponomics.

Unfortunately, dumb stuff keeps happening to them in the playoffs, and they are rapidly approaching the point of diminishing returns with their current veteran roster.

Teddy Bridgewater (also a free agent) is a potential solution for the Saints, but A) several teams with aging quarterbacks may be thinking the same thing, driving Bridgewater's market up; and B) it's easier to say "just replace Brees with Bridgewater" when sitting on your couch than when sitting in Saints headquarters with your money/reputation/future on the line.

New England Patriots

This is the end of the era. You can tell by how hard the people who don't want this to be the end of the era are shouting, hoping, praying and pleading that this is not the end of the era.

Awards Digest

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Defender of the week: Everson Griffen lined up all over the defense and borrowed Dwight Freeney's old spin move to generate 1.5 sacks, but Vikings teammate Danielle Hunter stripped this week's award from him when he strip-sacked Drew Brees to foil a Saints drive in the fourth quarter.

Offensive line of the week: The Titans line of Taylor Lewan, Rodger Saffold, Ben Jones, Nate Davis and Jack Conklin blew the Patriots defense off the line of scrimmage consistently, helping Derrick Henry hammer out 182 rushing yards. The Patriots looked battered and worn down by the Titans in the trenches by the fourth quarter. In Foxborough during the playoffs, that's supposed to work the other way around.

Special-teamer of the week: Titans punter Brett Kern dropped four punts inside the 20, forcing the Patriots to start second-half drives at the 13-, 7-, 11- and 1-yard lines. Honorable mention goes to teammate Dane Cruikshank for downing that final punt near the goal line and setting up Logan Ryan's game-icing pick-six. Vinny Curry's blocked field goal for the Eagles also deserves an honorable mention. Had Josh McCown and the guys from the Wawa parking lot been able to complete a comeback, that block would have been one of the most important plays of the weekend.

Mystery touch of the week: John Brown's throwback touchdown to Josh Allen on Saturday afternoon was a lot of fun, but Brown only earns honorable mention this week. Marcus Mariota wins this week's award for sneaking onto the field to confound the Patriots with some Wildcat trickery. Mariota looked uncomfortable rolling out of the pocket and dumping off a four-yard pass. The last sentence doubles as a concise summary of Mariota's entire Titans career. 

Kicker fail of the week: Will Lutz shanked a 43-yarder after Deonte Harris' 54-yard kickoff return got the Saints close to scoring position in the final seconds before halftime. The Saints, of course, lost in overtime.

Best supporting actor in someone else's highlight: Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes got juked into the parking lot on Taysom Hill's 50-yard bomb to Deonte Harris. He could then be seen jawing at safety Harrison Smith on the sideline. Rhodes may have expected deep safety help on the route. That would explain why he was playing the "get spun around so badly that you are facing the sideline and end up five yards behind the receiver" coverage technique.

No-call of the week: Before complaining that Kyle Rudolph should have been flagged for offensive pass interference on the Vikings' game-winning touchdown, ask yourself if you would have shouted "Let 'em play!" if a flag was thrown, or if you want six-hour games decided entirely by the officials, because that's what we would get if every subtle push-off merited a penalty. It was overtime, it's the playoffs, and not every judgment call by the refs is a miscarriage of justice. So save your howling about calls for the really flagrant errors. Because heaven knows they are coming. 

Coaching Carousel Digest

Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images

Cleveland Browns

Owner Jimmy Haslam said this week the next coach and general manager will both report directly to him, with the coach likely to be hired first, giving him input on the GM selection. This is a "big brother and baby brother run to daddy" corporate structure, with Paul DePodesta still around as the wise neighbor in a baseball cap whose advice is either ignored or taken too literally. 

The only way the Browns can set themselves up for an even more spectacular failure before making an actual decision is if they yoke all the new hires to an impulsive, prickly young quarterback whose backsliding development on and off the field helped topple the last regime. Oh, wait. 

New York Giants

Dave Gettleman's Saturday Night Live skit of a press conference illustrated a major problem that the Giants may face in their coaching search. Stability and tradition used to make the Giants organization appealing to coaches and executives, but top candidates may shy away from a franchise whose front man rambles about "computer guys" and whose recent head coaches had to tiptoe around some sacred organizational cows. (Eli Manning can moo. Can you?)

Baylor's Matt Rhule is the candidate whose name is on everyone's lips, but Rhule walked away from the Jets last year because he wasn't willing to let the front office pick his staff. If he makes a similar decision this year, the Giants will be scooping their coach from the same tier their previous two came from.

Carolina Panthers

Gridiron Digest began hearing soon after Ron Rivera's firing that the Panthers would be Mike McCarthy's top choice if he returned to the NFL. As ESPN's David Newton noted, McCarthy and Panthers owner David Tepper are both Pittsburgh natives. McCarthy also fits the template Tepper said he is looking for: an offense-oriented coach with an old-fashioned approach to team management.

There are other reported candidates among this year's usual suspects (Josh McDaniels, Eric Bieniemy), but it's noteworthy that the Panthers are conducting the most subdued of this year's coaching searches: no weird sound bites or will-they-or-won't-they dramas. An orderly regime change is often the mark of an orderly organization. 

Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins coaxed Chan Gailey out of retirement to replace Chad O'Shea as offensive coordinator. Think of Gailey as Yondu, the blue guy with the magic arrow from Guardians of the Galaxy: He's gruff but fatherly in an outlaw country way, and his wide-open, anything-goes game plans can catch opponents off guard and make lovable misfits look like heroes for a season or two. He would have been perfect for this year's ragtag Dolphins, but he has no track record when it comes to developing young quarterbacks, making him an odd fit for a team that is likely to acquire one before next season. 

Dallas Cowboys

We all the know the couple that ends up making out every time they get together to try to sign the divorce papers. Sometimes, that couple tries to work things out. But if either side has any self-respect, they realize that they are clinging to each other out of fear and desperation and that it would be healthier to let go and begin their new lives.

Update: Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported Sunday evening that Garrett has been finally, mercifully relieved of his duties. Time for both sides to dust off their little black books and update their Facebook profiles with that picture from when they were really committed to the keto diet.

Around the NFL

Tom Canavan/Associated Press

Eli Manning says his Giants career is over: Manning was the quintessential 2010s quarterback. He received far too much credit for his team's success and too much blame for its failures. His athleticism (at his peak) was underrated, and his intangibles (especially during his decline) were overrated. We started the decade wondering whether he was "elite" and ended it wondering if he would ever go away. And lots of people assume he will be a Hall of Famer not because they think he was great but because they think everyone else thinks he was great.

Jets wide receiver Robby Anderson, a pending free agent, tweets that he wants to play in the Super Bowl: There's no place for someone with that kind of attitude on an Adam Gase team. 

Bears general manager Ryan Pace commits to Mitch Trubisky as his starting quarterback for 2020: As Vince Lombardi never said: "Winning isn't everything. The general manager's desire to justify his bad decisions despite overwhelming evidence is the only thing."

Yannick Ngakoue tweets what sounds like a farewell to Jaguars fans: Farewell, Ngakoue. You produced an outstanding 37.5 sacks in your four seasons in Jacksonville, and you deserve to cash in as a free agent. But because your name is so hard to spell, you were always the "others" in the phrase "Calais Campbell, Jalen Ramsey and others."

Tom Brady says it's "pretty unlikely" he'll retire in the offseason: If anyone has an athletic comeback in them at age 43, it's Tom Brady. (Narrator: No one has an athletic comeback in them at age 43.)

Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson and Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander retire after Saturday's wild-card losses: No jokes here. Both were excellent players and tremendous individuals. Brady and Manning-types will forever dominate the headlines, but long-tenured consummate pros like Watson and Alexander constitute the heart and soul of the NFL. 

Digest Sportsbook

Steve Limentani/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Let's make some very preliminary predictions and picks for next week's games (lines via Caesars, against-the-spread trends courtesy of TeamRankings.com and Pro Football Reference).

Tennessee Titans (+10) at Baltimore Ravens

Are you thinking of betting on a Titans game, probably for the first time in your life? Well, here are some things you need to know:

• The Titans are 9-7-1 ATS this year, 17-15-1 in two seasons under Mike Vrabel and 33-32-2 in four straight seasons of 9-7 finishes. 

• The Titans are 6-3 ATS on the road this year but just 10-7 on the road over the past two seasons, counting Saturday's win.

• The Titans are 10-7-1 ATS as underdogs under Vrabel and 10-9 as road dogs during their 9-7 epoch.

• The Titans have only been 10-point dogs once in the past four seasons: to the Jaguars (of all teams) in September 2018. (The Titans covered in a 9-6 victory.) They were only seven-point-plus dogs one other time, in a Thursday night game in Pittsburgh (the Steelers won 40-17).

In other words, the Titans are the most just-above-.500 team to ever keep finishing just above .500, and it has seeped down into the point spread, making it hard to find an edge when betting them.

They're perfectly capable of a backdoor cover, but Gridiron Digest will lean toward the Ravens if the Baltimore skies are clear at kickoff. Just be wary if this spread starts to creep up toward two touchdowns. The house may want to make the Titans more appealing to a public that's meeting them for the first time.

Houston Texans (+9.5) at Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs are 10-1 straight-up but 5-5-1 ATS as seven-plus-point favorites over the last two seasons. The backdoor-cover potential in this game is scary enough to make Gridiron Digest lean toward the Texans. 

Minnesota Vikings (+6.5) at San Francisco 49ers

The Vikings are just 5-12-1 ATS coming off a win over the past two seasons. That's not a trend to bank Junior's college fund on, but it's a reminder that their reputation as heartbreakers wasn't invented in some talk-show laboratory. Gridiron Digest plans to wait for injury reports on 49ers defenders Dee Ford and Kwon Alexander before making the final call. If you can lay a touchdown or less to wager the fully armed and operational 49ers pass rush against Kirk Cousins, then pounce on it. 

Seahawks (+4) at Green Bay Packers

The Seahawks are 8-2-1 ATS as road underdogs over the past two seasons, but whatever: They are the inferior team, they have played lackluster football for much of the past month, and there's a difference between being a road dog and being a road dog at Lambeau in January. There's not enough meat on the bone to take the Seahawks and the points.

Point-Counterpoint

Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

Dan Snyder wishes attendees a "Happy Thanksgiving" at Ron Rivera's Jan. 2 introductory press conference.  

Point: Snyder simply lost track of time because he spent the past six weeks enjoying an all-you-can-eat turkey buffet on his $100 million yacht.

Counterpoint: Gosh, it's not like Snyder to get something totally wrong when it comes to something related to Native Americans.

Richard Sherman earns a $2 million All-Pro bonus and then roasts media members on Twitter who criticized him for negotiating his contract without an agent.

Point: Sherman is being foolish. Every player needs an agent, at all times. Period. (How did I do, Mister Rosenhaus? I delivered your message loud and clear, right? You'll give me the next big scoop about one of your clients before Schefter gets it, right? Please? Pretty please? OH GOD, OH GOD, THIS FIELD IS SO COMPETITIVE I DESPERATELY NEED TO CURRY YOUR FAVOR.)

Counterpoint: Sherman's contract was objectively bad when compared to market value. Also, no one has ever won an argument by offering unsolicited advice on how someone else should manage their money.

Ron Rivera removes the pingpong tables from the Washington locker room in one of his first acts as the new head coach.

Point: That will change the culture. Now players will have no choice during their locker room downtime but to listen to their headphones and scroll on their phones. Like men.

Counterpoint: As usual, the pingpong tables will be donated to NFL teams whose new coaches want to change the culture by increasing camaraderie and treating players as individuals and then donated back the next time the Skins change coaches.

Noted Lamar Jackson-skeptic Bill Polian votes for Russell Wilson over Jackson for the AP All-Pro team.

Point: Look, if we wanted to start using the All-Pro vote to justify our old takes, we should have started by not voting for Richard Sherman so we could say, "Ha ha, told ya that incentive-laden deal was a bad idea."

Counterpoint: I am shocked and offended that someone who spent over 30 years in NFL front offices thinks he's entitled to his own opinion when voting for an All-Star team.