Wild Card Weekend: AFC Preview

The American Football Conference is pretty lopsided in talent and has been for a few years. You look at who the best teams are and immediately there are a few that hop right to the front, like the Patriots, Steelers, and the Broncos (not this season). However, below these great teams, you have a lot of second-tier squads comparatively. In a perfect world, nobody would’ve seen the likes of an Osweiler-lead Texans team in the playoffs, especially without J.J. Watt. The AFC is like the Avengers. The Patriots are Captain America. The Steelers are Iron Man. Everyone else is like Hawkeye, or as some people like to call him, “Bow-and-Arrow Man.” Anyway, here’s what we have for the AFC during Wild Card Weekend.

Miami Dolphins vs. Pittsburgh Steelers – Sunday at 1:05 pm EST

First off, I’d like to say that although the Steelers have proven themselves to have elite talent, sometimes they have trouble getting going against teams that they should be better than. Throughout the season, we have seen the Steelers fall to teams such as the Eagles, the Ravens, and a team called the Miami Dolphins. Admittedly, the Dolphins were at home and Big Ben Roethlisberger got hurt halfway through the game, but Miami was still in charge for the whole 60 minutes of playing time. Jay Ajayi ran for over 200 yards and exploited the defensive struggles the Steelers face. Ryan Tannehill also kept the defense honest with another 200 yards through the air. The Steelers were humiliated and lost the game 30-15. Now Mike Tomlin is a great coach. I’m sure he’ll have a plan when the Dolphins come to town on Sunday.

The biggest thing that the Steelers need to do is make a proper game plan to take on Miami with. This shouldn’t be too tough to do, but nonetheless it still needs to get done. With the likes of Le’veon Bell, Antonio Brown, and Ben Roethlisberger combined with the fact that the game is happening in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field, the advantage clearly goes to the Steelers. If the defense can hold Ajayi back on the ground and do a good job of covering Jarvis Landry, the Dolphins don’t have many weapons beyond that. Defend against Miami’s strengths and everything will go well, but if Ajayi  gets off to the races, then the Steelers will suffer.

The Dolphins strategy going into this game should be to run the ball down the Steelers throat. If Ajayi can get going like he did in some of the games he did this season, he will be absolutely unstoppable. Once the defense starts playing the run all-out, the  Dolphins will be able to toss the ball down the field to Jarvis Landry, who is probably the quietest, most explosive player on the team. Another thing that the Dolphins should be doing is attacking the quarterback and winning the battle in the trenches. If Cameron Wake and Ndomukong Suh can bash Roethlisberger before he can get the ball off, then the Dolphins can win. Wake and Suh can do it, we’ve seen it already this season. But now is their time to prove that they can do it in the postseason. If the Dolphins don’t prevail on defense, then the game is all but lost. It should be a high scoring game.

Oakland Raiders vs. Houston Texans – Saturday at 4:35 pm EST

This is going to be a dog game. If you asked me 2 or 3 weeks ago about who I think would win this game, the answer would be obvious. Derek Carr and the Raiders were rolling over their competition week in and week out throughout this season, but unfortunately, their first winning season since 2002 won’t end as well as some have hoped. The Raiders are starting a dynasty, but due to the injury to Derek Carr, it’ll be difficult to continue on this year. I thought that the Raiders could get by without him for a little while, but they looked absolutely atrocious last Sunday and now their third string quarterback is playing. Latavius Murray and their defense are still capable, but the entire Raiders team looked as though they had lost their mojo. If the Raiders want to win this game, they need to get their energy up and get behind their quarterback.

The Texans are going back to Brock Osweiler after starting Tom Savage for the past couple weeks. While their coach Bill O’Brien seems to know that Brock isn’t the signal caller the team deserves, he is the one that it needs. This week, Tom Savage was going through the concussion protocol, so he will either be the backup or be inactive. Osweiler has to be their starter in this instance, but he shouldn’t be forced to make plays. With a receiving corp that would thrive with any other quarterback, the Texans should have a shot in this game, but if the Texans don’t establish Lamar Miller and continue to go to him throughout the game, then they won’t have a chance.

Earlier this season the Raiders and Texans played a Monday night game in Mexico City. Oakland came out on top 27-20, but there were some awful calls in that game that, in the end, favored Oakland heavily. In my opinion, I thought the Texans played better throughout most of the game, but the Raiders came away with the W. Looking at each team as a whole, I would give this game to the Raiders, but since the injury to Derek Carr, they haven’t been the same. The Texans have only lost once at home this season and have a system in place with a quarterback that has played this season. Osweiler isn’t a good quarterback, but he should be more comfortable at home than Connor Cook is.

Written by Rick Wronski