NFL Playoff Predictions: San Francisco 49ers and Doomed Division Winners

The easiest way to get into the NFL playoffs is to win your division. The last thing you want to do is get involved in wild-card chases, which are ugly and brutal.

Sadly, things don't get any easier for the division winners once the postseason starts. Some of them can handle being matched up against the best of the best, but others just aren't cut out to go all the way.

We don't need to wait for the postseason to roll around before we can weed out the ill-equipped division winners. There are at least four that already stand out as being totally doomed.

Let's count them down. In order of just how doomed they are.

4. New England Patriots

This year's version of the Patriots has an impressive record, but it is not as good as some of the other Patriots teams we've seen in years past.

The 2011 Pats have one fundamental flaw, and that's that they are incapable of playing suffocating defense. Their defense is a bend-but-don't-break unit, but it breaks more often than it bends.

When this happens, the Pats need Tom Brady and his merry band of pass-catchers to be at their best. They typically are, but we've learned on several occasions this season that they're not unbeatable.

The right defense can beat Brady, and to beat Brady is to beat the Patriots.

We saw this happen in last season's playoffs, of course. We can expect it to happen again this season because there are going to be some very good defensive teams in the AFC playoffs, and because Brady simply is not as perfect as he once was.

Just like last year, the Pats are headed towards a short stay in the postseason.

3. Houston Texans

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the Texans will end up with the AFC's top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

They're going to need it.

The Texans are a superior team, but the injury bug has taken a big bite out of their overall strength. They need everything to go right in order to win games, and that's going to make things pretty dicey once the playoffs start.

Take a look at the current projections for the AFC playoffs (see ESPN), and you'll notice that every team projected to make the cut is capable of beating the Texans. You can certainly expect the Texans to put up a fight, but it's a fight they won't be able to win.

If the Texans were at full strength, they would be favored to reach the Super Bowl. More than anything, they have been doomed by bad luck.

2. San Francisco 49ers

For much of the season, the 49ers survived on the strength of their defense. The fact that they're offense is subpar was hidden from view.

In their last three games, two of them losses, the 49ers' offensive problems have stepped out of the shadows.

Frank Gore has been limited in the two losses, and Alex Smith has been exposed as a quarterback who doesn't have enough help around him. It doesn't help that he doesn't have enough talent to make the best of his situation.

The good news for the 49ers is that their defense is a Super Bowl-caliber unit. But against a superior offensive team like the Green Bay Packers, the New Orleans Saints or even the Atlanta Falcons, the 49ers won't stand a chance.

They're another team that will put up a nasty fight, but they will ultimately be overwhelmed.

As a side note, a playoff loss be the last time you see Smith under center for the 49ers. 

1. NFC East Winner

It's too early to tell who is going to win the NFC East.

I need to see if the Dallas Cowboys can rebound from the horrible losses they've suffered in the last two weeks, and I need to see if the New York Giants can build on the momentum they established in beating the Cowboys on Sunday night.

Either way, this race will likely come down to the showdown between the Cowboys and Giants in Week 17. Whoever wins will be in the playoffs as the NFC East champ.

And then the winner will be promptly escorted out of the postseason.

Let's face facts. The NFC East is the most mediocre division in the NFL, and the Cowboys and Giants are both mediocre teams. Neither is cut out to go on any kind of postseason run.

The sooner we can ignore the NFC East, the better. For such a lousy division, it gets an awful lot of press.