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Get ready for what might be the best weekend of the NFL season

Jim Reineking   Paste BN

This is the Paste BN Sports NFL newsletter, 4th and Monday. If this newsletter isn't already getting conveniently delivered to your inbox, click here to subscribe.

It's the divisional playoffs. Welcome to what many consider the best weekend of the NFL season.

The divisional playoffs have featured some of the most epic games in league history: The Minneapolis Miracle, the Tuck Rule game, the Fog Bowl, the Epic in Miami, Red Right 88, Ghost to the Post, the Marathon by the Lake, the Cowboys' Hail Mary game, the Immaculate Reception, the NFL's longest game and that dramatic Chiefs-Bills game three seasons ago.

That's A LOT of awesome NFL lore!

Sports fans can only hope that at least one of this weekend's games can someday be mentioned in that pantheon of all-time football classics. 

To prepare for the playoff action, we've provided your Friday must-reads 📜:

💣 Bold predictions for divisional playoffs

📺 NFL playoff watchability rankings: Which divisional playoff games are best?

📈 Which NFL playoff team is biggest Super Bowl threat?

And, here, we've carefully selected an X-factor for each of this weekend's NFL divisional playoff games:

✖️ Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs — LB Will Anderson Jr.: The Chiefs and Texans played recently, and it did not go well for Houston. Last week, Anderson, Danielle Hunter, Azeez Al-Shaair and Mario Edwards Jr. made life miserable for Chargers QB Justin Herbert up front, while Derek Stingley Jr., Kamari Lassiter and Eric Murray were trouble on the backend. The Texans defense will need to replicate that performance if the team has any chance of knocking off the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. Anderson, who had a sack and a half and three QB hits against the Chargers, will need to hear his name called often in this one.

✖️ Washington Commanders at Detroit Lions — QB Jayden Daniels: In Sunday night's thrilling wild-card win over the Buccaneers, Daniels became the fourth rookie quarterback to win his first career playoff start on the road. He threw for 268 yards, rushed for 36, and had two touchdown passes with no interceptions. It was an impressive performance. Now, the task gets dramatically more difficult against a bona fide Super Bowl contender in front of the feisty Lions fans at Ford Field.

✖️ Los Angeles Rams at Philadelphia Eagles — RB Saquon Barkley: Nearly two months ago, the Eagles went into SoFi Stadium and clobbered the Rams on "Sunday Night Football." Barkley was a one-man wrecking crew that night, rushing for a career-high 255 yards (that's the ninth-best single-game total all-time) and scoring two touchdowns. After a less-than-stellar showing from Jalen Hurts in the wild-card win over the Green Bay Packers, the Eagles could rely heavily on Barkley to send this team to the NFC title game, especially if the weather plays a factor.

✖️ Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills — QB Lamar Jackson: If Jackson aims to be a destroyer of the postseason narratives that have dogged him throughout most of his career — two of his four playoff defeats have come in the divisional playoff round — winning Sunday's heavyweight showdown in chilly Orchard Park, New York, would be a good start. He'll need to out-play the Bills' Josh Allen, who did not play well the last time these two teams met, which was way back in Week 4.

NFL news, notes and analysis

➤ How hard is it to sack Jayden Daniels? "Ever seen a chicken in a chicken coop? That’s what it’s like," said the Lions' Za’Darius Smith.

➤ 8 possible Sam Darnold landing spots: The vagabond quarterback's final two games only add more intrigue to whatever the next phase of his professional journey holds, Nate Davis writes.

➤ Cowboys' coaching search sure to be a wild ride thanks to Jerry Jones: There's no job in sports like head coach of the Cowboys. Expect Jerry Jones to ignite lots of drama in the search for Mike McCarthy's replacement, such as reaching out to Deion Sanders.

➤ Ranking the NFL's six* open head coaching jobs: The Cowboys' job is both alluring and challenging thanks to several unique factors. But where does the position rank among the NFL's best?

➤ The 'Sean McVay Effect' is real: NFL coaches are now the youngest among MLB, the NBA and NHL. Does that correlate to performance? Paste BN Sports' Coaches Project dives into the data.

➤ Mike Tomlin is not the problem for the Steelers. It's actually this: It's clear the Steelers had the worst roster in the playoffs, Mike Freeman writes.

NFL playoff schedule

DIVISIONAL ROUND

Saturday, Jan. 18

Sunday, Jan. 19

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Sunday, Jan. 26

  • NFC championship game, 3 p.m. ET (FOX)
  • AFC championship game, 6:30 p.m. ET (CBS)

SUPER BOWL 59

Sunday, Feb. 9

  • AFC champion vs. NFC champion (in New Orleans), 6:30 p.m. ET (FOX)

WILD CARD WEEKEND

🏆 All-time Super Bowl winners

NFL classic: Straight from the YouTube algorithm 🏈🎞️

This is where we reprise some NFL lore and recall a classic, memorable game from yesteryear.

During the 2001 season, the upstart Philadelphia Eagles under third-year head coach Andy Reid went up against the mighty "Greatest Show on Turf" St. Louis Rams in the NFC championship game.

The winner would go up against plucky underdog Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 36.

This would be the first of three consecutive conference championship defeats for the Eagles before they would finally break through during the 2004 season to reach Super Bowl 39.

But in 2001, the Eagles were decided underdogs against the Rams at the Dome at America's Center. However, the Eagles were worthy adversaries for the Rams, who were trailing at halftime and finally took the lead late in the third quarter in a 29-24 win.

While Kurt Warner had a pedestrian performance (212 yards, one touchdown), Marshall Faulk picked up the slack by rushing for 159 yards and two touchdowns. A week later, the Rams were upset by Brady and the Patriots in the Super Bowl, 20-17.

In all, the Eagles and Rams have met three times in the playoffs. They squared off in the 1949 NFL championship game, which the Eagles won, 14-0. Then, 40 years later, the Rams defeated the Eagles, 21-7, in a wild-card playoff game.

📸 NFL teams wearing alternate or throwback uniforms

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