Can Momentum Carry The Bills To Super Bowl Glory?
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The NFL Playoffs begin on Saturday with Super Wild Card Weekend. Over three days, six teams will advance to the Divisional round, where the number one seeds - Baltimore Ravens (AFC) and San Francisco 49ers (NFC), return to action after their bye week.
At the start of the season, the goal of all 32 NFL teams was to make the postseason, but as injuries hit, hopes fade one week after the next.
The quarterback is arguably the most demanding position in all of sport and keeping the first choice signal caller fit and healthy is key to achieving a team’s goal.
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This season, the NFL has seen 66 starting quarterbacks in the regular season, so it’s no coincidence that 12 of the 14 teams that have reached the playoffs have been able to name their number one quarterback throughout the season.
It’s often said in sport that it’s more important how you finish, rather than how you start. With this in mind, our NFL experts looked at which team has the greater momentum going into the playoffs, in terms of wins, points differential and strength of opponent over their last five games of the regular season.
Bills Building Momentum At Just The Right Time
Beware the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo’s chances of making the playoffs were 14% after losing 37-34 to the Eagles in Philadelphia in Week 12. They are currently third favorites with most sports betting sites to win Super Bowl LVIII next month.
They went into their bye week concerned about missing out on the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.
Whatever head coach Sean McDermott said to his coaches and players during their bye week, it has worked. Knowing there was no margin for error in their final five contests, the Bills had no choice but to treat their remaining schedule as playoff matches.
That philosophy has served them well as they ended the season with five straight wins. They are the only team to finish with a five-game winning streak, and makes them a dangerous proposition in the playoffs.
Many on their roster including quarterback Josh Allen, have four years worth of playoff experience which they can call upon to bring the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Buffalo for the first time ever.
Ravens Ready To Make Run For Super Bowl
The Baltimore Ravens would probably have joined the Bills at the top of our table had they not rested their key players ahead of their season finale at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers’ 17-10 win secured their own playoff spot.
The Ravens had already secured the AFC’s number one seed before their final regular season game, so it made sense for them to rest quarterback and MVP front runner Lamar Jackson.
Before that, Baltimore was riding a four-game winning streak against teams with a combined record of 42-26. In those four matches, they outscored their opponents by 73 points.
Jackson will have had the best part of three weeks off, a rarity in the NFL to prepare for his next game and Ravens fans will hope their star quarterback is not rusty on his return.
Sports betting apps have the Ravens as favorites to be the AFC's representative in next month's Super Bowl.
Eagles Have Had Their Wings Clipped
After beating the Buffalo Bills 37-34 in Week 12, the Philadelphia Eagles were soaring with a 10-1 record. They were favorites with the leading sports betting, but few expected the sudden change of fortune.
Instead of winning the NFC East, earning the number one seed, having home advantage throughout the playoffs and having this weekend off, the Eagles lost four of their final five games to finish second to the Dallas Cowboys in their division.
Any momentum and form the Eagles had has gone following back-to-back losses to struggling Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants, who won a combined 10 games this season.
As a result, they now have to travel to Atlanta to beat the Falcons to keep alive their Super Bowl hopes.
Form Deserted For Depleted Dolphins
After beating the Dallas Cowboys 22-20 in Miami, the Dolphins had a chance to be the number one seed in the AFC. All they had to do was win their final two games to do this.
However, a 56-19 loss to the Ravens ended those hopes. They still had a chance to win the AFC East for the first time since 2008 if they could beat Buffalo on home soil. A 21-14 loss saw the Dolphins fall from the second seed to the number six seed.
The losses in personnel have been just as significant. Key defenders Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips are done for the season, while Jerome Baker, Xavier Howard and Andrew Van Ginkel are likely to miss this weekend’s trip to Kansas City to face the defending champions.
Missing so many leaders on the defensive side of the ball adds to the pressure already on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and the offense to win their first playoff game since December 2000.
Methodology
To compile our form guide for the 14 teams taking part in this season’s playoffs, we used three determining factors.
The first was wins over each team’s last five games. If there was a tie, we used the winning percentage of their opponents in those five matches.
If teams were still level after that, we used points differential to break the tie.
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