Jacksonville Jaguars (9-8) at Kansas City Chiefs (14-3)
Saturday January 21 4:30pm
Trevor Lawrence and the young Jacksonville Jaguars shocked the NFL world with an impressive 31-30 victory over the LA Chargers last week, erasing a 27 point first half deficit to improve their record to 7-1 since their bye in week 11.
Travis Etienne is becoming the big play threat many expected he could be when he was drafted in the first round. Christian Kirk is earning every penny on his big contract and even Evan Engram is showing up and contributing. Jacksonville lost to the Chiefs in the regular season by 10 points, but they are clearly a better team entering the divisional round.
Unfortunately they’re just not quite good enough. Patrick Mahomes is looking to add to his trophy case after playing at an MVP level this season. Despite KC relying heavily on their aerial attack, they’re also quietly running the ball at a 4.7 ypc rate, which will help them keep the ball away from Lawrence after breaking out to an early lead.
Travic Kelce is still Travis Kelce. Add in Andy Reid’s incredible record in games after a bye and I think the Chiefs will come out hard and fast and leave no doubt who the better team is in this game.
Kansas City – 31
Jacksonville – 21
New York Giants (9-7-1) at Philadelphia Eagles (14-3)
Saturday January 21 8:15 pm
I don’t see a path to victory for the New York Giants this Saturday against the Philadelphia Eagles. While I do strongly believe that Brian Daboll deserves to win the coach of the year for bringing this roster out of the basement and back into the playoffs, their inconsistent second half of the season doesn’t strike fear into the Philly faithful.
The Giants looked good last week against the Vikings (particularly Daniel Jones, who is still trying to prove he belongs as a starter in the NFL), but not many people had much faith in the Vikings to begin with. While Saquan Barkley looks healthy and motivated, and Andrew Thomas is proving he was worth the high draft pick anchoring the offensive line, the rest of the roster still needs work.
The off week for the Eagles was important as the injuries were beginning to pile up near the end of the season. The Eagles will be getting Lane Johnson back, though his torn groin will still require offseason surgery. Nevertheless, one of the league’s best offensive lines is back “almost” full strength allowing them to stifle the Giants pass rush. That’s important with Hurts still dealing with the shoulder injury that had him miss 2 games towards the end of the season.
If he does air it out, AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith have developed into one of the most feared wide receiver duos in the league, with the formidable Dallas Goedert working out of the tight end position.
The Eagles defence has proven to be a dominant force this season, led in the trenches by a non stop pass rush, allowing players like CJ Gardner-Johnson roam free in the secondary taking advantage of any mistakes.
The Eagles match up better against the Giants at almost every position, and while I think Daboll will have his team fully prepared, the more talented group will win out in close game.
Eagles – 27
Giants – 21
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.