Wild Cards.

The NFL playoffs got under way with the so-called Wild Cards games. The Chiefs, Cowboys, New Englandand the Falcons took last weekend off. And the games were between the Texans vs Oakland, Seattle vs Detroit, Green Bay vs the Giants and Pittsburgh vs Miami. The Texans and Green Bay did better than expected and Detroit and the Giants did worse.

Quarterbacks played a huge role as expected. In fact, other than its superb quarterback, Detroit was outclassed. Oakland did not make a trade for Romo and could not make the grade against the Texans, who are probably the weakest team remaining. Aaron Rogers played like a man possessed and his hail Mary pass was a beauty to behold. Rothlisberger played well as expected, but ended up with an injury. He says he will play next week.

The next round is between Dallas vs the Packers, Falcons vs Seattle, New England vs the Texans and the Chiefs vs the Steelers. The Cowboys, Falcons and New England are favorites but the Chiefs and Steelers are hard to predict because the performance of Rothlisberger is an unknown factor.

Another game hard to predict is the Cowboys vs the Green Bay Packers. Were the Packers peaking at the right time or was it that they were better able to withstand the cold? One can cite the dropped passes by Odell, but the Packers had the better offence and came on strong. I think it boils down to one thing: will Dallas be able to run the ball? If they do, Green Bay will be hard pressed. Besides, Dallas has one pass rusher that needs to be double-teamed routinely. It should be a good game.