Potential Super Bowl Teams and Important Divisional Game Schedule

These NFL playoffs have among their guests one of the oldest franchises in the league, the Detroit Lions, and the youngest, the Houston Texans, who in addition to presenting a complicated history in recent years have never played a Super Bowl.

In the case of the Lions, they will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday, January 21. Detroit won a playoff game last week for the first time since the 1991 season when they reached the Conference finals, in a year in which they also won 12 games like this time, in fact it is the highest number of victories they have had in 94 years of history.

Coincidentally, Detroit and Tampa are two of three teams that have had a winless season at Super Bowl time. The Lions were the ‘laughing stock’ in the 2008 schedule (0-16) and the Buccaneers in their debut year, 1976, with a record of 0-14.

From then on, Detroit spent several years with a losing record, despite various changes and the fact that their bad seasons allowed them to obtain first college selections, nothing happened with them, until this year when they were champions of their division and showed a solid offense.

This is the third season of the combo formed by coach Dan Campbell, quarterback Jared Goff, with his 4,575 yards and 30 touchdowns, and receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who had more than 1,500 receiving yards.

The Buccaneers, with nothing to lose

The Lions’ rival will be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who in the divisional round gave the finishing touch to the Philadelphia Eagles who were unable to get out of the bad streak they fell into towards the end of the season.

After the end of the Tom Brady era, the Buccaneers opted for Baker Mayfield to be the new quarterback, and he did not show anything outstanding. In fact, Tampa made it to the playoffs by being in the weakest division in the league and despite tying a 9-8 record with the New Orleans Saints, they got the ticket based on the results between them.

Without elite offense or defense, since it was twenty-third in yards achieved and allowed, Tampa has advanced with the minimum, by beating Carolina in week 18 with field goals, or by the rival disaster like the Eagles.

Historically they have met 61 times, with 32 wins for Detroit and 29 for Tampa, one of those in the 1997 playoffs. In this season’s game, the Lions won 20-6.

The Texans, the dark horse?

In the American Conference, the leaders and favorites Baltimore Ravens will have a difficult mission against the Houston Texans, the youngest team in the NFL.

Of his 22 seasons, 11 have been with a negative record and, in fact, they had three disastrous years, (4-12, 4-13 and 3-13-1) until this year, and thanks to three divisional victories and the defeat of Jacksonville in week 18, the Texans qualified for their seventh playoffs.

Although this year was considered to be a restart of the project, Houston found a diamond in quarterback CJ Stroud, possible winner of the Rookie of the Year award, who surpassed 4,000 yards and has formed a successful partnership with receiver Nico Collins who had 1,297 yards.

After defeating Cleveland in the wild card, the Texans will test their quality against the Baltimore Ravens, a team that has had its starters rested for at least two weeks, a factor that could work against them.

Baltimore was the fourth best offense in points and sixth in yards, while on defense they were sixth in yards and the one that allowed the fewest points to rivals. This, coupled with the experience that Lamar Jackson has gained, makes them the favorite team to reach the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.

If we go back in history, they have faced each other 13 times, with a very dominant balance in favor of Baltimore with 11 victories to two for Houston, and their only duel in the playoffs was in the divisional division of the 2011 season, a game won by the Ravens by 20 -13.

When and where to watch NFL divisional games?

Saturday January 20

3:30 p.m.

• Houston en Baltimore Canal 5 y ESPN

7:00 p.m.

• Green Bay on San Francisco Channel 5 and Fox Sports

Sunday January 21

2:00 p.m.

• Tampa Bay in Detroit Channel 5 and Fox Sports

5:30 p.m.

• Kansas City at Buffalo Channel 5 and ESPN

2024-01-18 21:34:00
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