NFL Division Sunday

Kyle Kirms
Jan 18
4 min read

TEXANS @ PATRIOTS - 3:00 PM

Same graphic.

We've been here before.

In fact, when it comes to Houston... we've definitely been here before. The Houston Texans are the only team in the NFL that has never reached a conference championship game.

New England never seems to lose in this round.

But maybe they've turned a corner. Heading into last week, this is what we were looking at. CJ Stroud had never won a road playoff game before.

Good news... that's come to an end... and that's huge for Stroud and Houston fans.

Offense looked great.

But are our concerns for CJ Stroud on the road gone? He fumbled 5 times and turned it over 3 times.

5 fumbles set a record for a QB in a playoff win.

And we just saw New England's defense put Justin Herbert in a pretzel for 60 minutes.

When we look at the full season numbers, I feel like this is deceiving on both sides.

This is the healthiest the New England defense has been since early November. Christian Gonzalez cleared concussion protocol.

So I guess the question is... now that New England's healthy, do we just disregard the previous 7 games where they were terrible against the run?

If this was a 2 months ago, I'd say "who cares? Houston can't run the ball"... but the Texans have themselves a rushing attack brewing here.

Woody Marks 19-112 in Pittsburgh.

Steelers had been great up front.

So that's the question you need to answer... do you disregard the previous 7 games because the Patriots defense is healthy? Or do you disregard the last 2 games because they played a MIami team that quit and a Chargers team with no offensive line?

Now what about the Patriots pass rush? They were relentless against Justin Herbert last week. We know CJ Stroud's history... on the road under pressure is not the spot you wanna back him.

Remember there's no Nico Collins. Houston is 2-0 without Nico Collins this season.

Kirk had 144 yards in Pittsburgh.

The tough part is New England's defense against the pass.

They didn't do anything to Justin Herbert that other defenses do.

Eagles did the same thing.

The other legitimate QB on this list is Josh Allen.

Josh Allen was efficient in that game. Buffalo had a 60.7% success rate per dropback.

New England's defense seems to be getting more and more aggressive though.

I personally think CJ Stroud can make throws on this Patriots secondary.

Now on the other side, we've got a battle.

Both units in good shape.

The criticism of the Patriots offense is that they played pretty much the entire season against bad defenses... well the Chargers are definitely not a bad defense. The eye test doesn't match the numbers.

Houston's defense definitely passed the eye test.

I'm not sure if we can count on New England to run the ball here.

And as far as Drake Maye... the Chargers defense was giving him problems. He was sacked 5 times.

Now we did see a couple quarterbacks have successful games against Houston.

What I just saw Houston do to Aaron Rodgers tho... that was assault and battery. Anderson and Hunter against a rookie LT and LG.

Gotta step in front of one of these.

I took Houston +3.5 cuz I think the number should be 3. I kinda think we're gonna see a snowver.

RAMS @ BEARS - 6:30 PM

History.

Same graphic.

Rams have had success in this round.

Rams offense isn't the problem.

Dotson is back. Adams is back. Adams became the 1st player in NFL history to lead the NFL in receiving TDs with 3 different teams.

Stafford sprained his finger but X-Ray's negative.

This offense was great last week. It's been consistently great for two months.

It wasn't Stafford's greatest game ever last week. Carolina's blitz packages actually were able to throw him off a bit.

That's what the Bears do.

If you're counting on the Bears defense to slow Stafford down in this game... then you're gonna need some help from the weather.

According to KillerSports. 110 yards vs Jets.

Now we just saw Jordan Love go into Soldier Field and have an efficient game throwing the ball on this Bears defense.

Plus we're talking about the Bears run defense with no TJ Edwards. So Stafford's gonna have run support. But with CJG and Kyler Gordon both healthy, if there was ever a situation where the Bears could play well against Matt Stafford, it's this one.

Chicago's been struggling against the run.

Rams didn't run the ball a ton last week but when they did hand it off, they were successful.

On the other side of the ball, this is where we have some concerns for the Rams.

What is going on here?

It's not that the Panthers completely lit them up or anything.

What is going on here?

The Bears did just lose their starting LT Trapilo... but they also activated Braxton Jones who was the original starter.

Good news for the Rams is the Bears run game seems to be slowing down.

But Caleb Williams has really come a long way. Look at the season long numbers.

But Caleb Williams has really come a long way. Look at the season long numbers. You'd think the Rams pass rush should be a nightmare matchup for Caleb Williams.