One Storyline for Each NFL Wild Card Weekend Game

We made it to Super Wild Card Weekend!

The NFL Postseason is here!

The red rope has been drawn, and we’re only going to be talking about the matchups with ONE headline in what’s to be one of the most entertaining slates of football of the year.

The fans of the rest of the teams, happy mock drafting for 2026!

Los Angeles Chargers at Houston Texans // The Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting “It’s Not Your Fault” Bowl

The young quarterbacks of these teams have been deemed social media darlings that have been on the losing end of the stick in terms of the excuses surrounding what’s preventing them from being at the top of the league. In our most Robin Williams voice possible, we collectively on social media have posted videos of their incredible throws and have said, “It’s not your fault.”

Before, it was Justin Herbert on a cursed Chargers team coached by Brandon Staley with no team identity, culture, or life despite his laser arm talent coming out of college with only cursed shortcomings and an inexplicable 24-0 blown playoff lead in his tenure. In steps, Jim Harbaugh to make him a turnover-proof game manager who can still sling it with a defensive identity, a strong offensive line, and a run game with a revived JK Dobbins, and Herbert now has everything that he didn’t, and they’re back playing football in January!

CJ Stroud is on the other end of that similar downswing- we know that he has unbelievable arm talent with the best rookie season in NFL history at the time, a postseason win, and thus got a media tour where many preseasons had them as Super Bowl sleepers. Fast forward to now, and despite winning the AFC South and getting the inevitable Saturday afternoon playoff slot Houston always gets, the energy feels low surrounding OC Bobby Slowik and the penalized offensive line and a skill position group that lost  Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs for the remainder of the season. It’s not your fault, CJ.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens // Can You REALLY Throw Out the Record Books?

The Baltimore Ravens getting their defense in rhythm, giving Lamar a deep receiving threat in Zay Flowers in year two of Todd Monken, and inserting Derrick Henry into the backfield has taken them to another level heading into the postseason in which they’ve had their hiccups to their superiors that’s put us in a “we’ll believe it when we see it” state. However, this feels genuinely different, and they’re peaking at the right time.

Meanwhile, the Steelers overperformed in Mike Tomlin fashion to take the Russell Wilson-Justin Fields tandem to get 10 wins, but they ended the year on a four-game losing streak and look like what we expected them to be preseason (including a loss to Baltimore this month).

The only thing the Steelers, and the Baltimore skeptics have going for them, is that you could point out that Lamar has a 2-3 record against the Steelers and say “In the AFC North, the blood rivalry runs deep and you can throw out the record books!”

Can you really, though?

Denver Broncos at Buffalo Bills // Dueling Bizarro Rosters

PHOTO: ClutchPoints

The Broncos and Bills have almost the inverse of a roster makeup in what makes them go. The Bills have the playoff pedigree based on MVP candidate Josh Allen doing superhuman highlight plays that put the team on his back with plays that feel like he controls the game in the same way that an NBA superstar has the ball the whole time can make magic happen in a way that football players just shouldn’t; while James Cook has been reliable as his #2 in the backfield, it’s largely Allen propelling a weakened skill position group by comparison to years’ past cursed Buffalo teams, and they have a middling defense that can still get thrown on.

The Broncos, on the other end, are all Sean Payton infrastructure to make rookie Bo Nix’s life easy so as to not make mistakes. They have the #1 ranked offensive line, a dominant secondary, a simple offense where Nix can make easy throws and avoid mistakes, and a run game that shuffles from three different choice running backs per game. Sean Payton staked his reputation sticking his neck out for the old rookie Nix, and it took them this far, and the team makeup of these rosters is fascinating.

Green Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles // Trust vs Talent

The Packers are THE trustworthy organization in that they operate like a machine- there are no owners to run the show, and Titletown has gone from Bart Starr to Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to now Jordan Love and the youngest roster in football that was near the Super Bowl just last year. They don’t have a clear #1 receiver, and it hasn’t seemed to matter- Matt Lafleur has made Josh Jacobs (and Malik Willis as a backup quarterback!)’It is easy to control the game where you just trust the competent organization; they have a poor record against the top of the league, but rarely will they put up a dud of a performance.

The Eagles may have the most talented roster on both sides of the ball, assuming Jalen Hurts plays and clears concussion protocol. The weakness last season in the secondary was addressed brilliantly in the draft, and they just happened to add Saquon Barkley as a 2000+ yard rusher on the season. There just isn’t the same level of trust there- whether it’s the “Philadelphia blown leads” chaotic energy where there’s always a teenage girl-level locker room problem, whether it’s Nick Sirianni being a loose cannon coach who shaves his head while being on the hot seat and yells at his own fans to prove them wrong, or something in the galaxy emitting from the Liberty Bell, you just can’t trust them for some reason until you see the confetti. We’ll see if their talent can win out.

Washington Commanders at Tampa Bay Buccaneers // The Moxy Bowl

Is there anyone having more fun in football than likely Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels or Baker Mayfield reviving his second life in Tampa Bay?

We expected very little out of a rebuilding Washington team with a first-year coaching staff and a rookie quarterback behind a barren roster, yet Washington’s offense put up historic numbers the first two months of the season (16-0 Patriots-level efficiency), and Daniels has smiled the whole time. 

Meanwhile, Baker Mayfield, a rookie runningback in Bucky Irving, and the “death, taxes, and Mike Evans going for 1000 receiving yards” Buccaneers are back in the postseason with Liam Coen drawing up deep ball plays for Mayfield that make him grin from ear-to-ear as they have the third-best offense in football. There’s so much unexpected moxy and greatness out of this game.

Minnesota Vikings at Los Angeles Rams // The Mustafar “Battle of the Heroes”

The legendary Star Wars battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan on Mustafar, set to “Battle of the Heroes,” features the former Padawan taking on the Jedi Master.

We’re getting that here in Kevin O’Connell, likely coach of the year of the Vikings that took Sam Darnold and a team expected to win 6.5 games this year against his former coach in, Sean McVay, when they were on the Rams staff together. No one knows each other better than them, and it’s going to have the same palpable lava and hardcore John Williams score playing as warrior Matthew Stafford and Kyren Williams take on the Vikings-vaunted blitz from DC Brian Flores to end the first weekend on Monday.

PHOTO: ClutchPoints