Scooter Tuning Pics » This could very well be a repeat of 2011, when

Some juicy rematches highlight wild-card weekend Prince Amukamara Jersey , in which, well, just about any of the eight teams advancing wouldn’t be a surprise.Seattle beat Dallas early this season, and Baltimore handled the Los Angeles Chargers late. The Colts and Texans split two games. Only the Eagles and Bears didn’t face off.“That was a different time of the season,” says Seahawks defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., who played for Dallas. “I think we both were at different places in our growth for the season. I think we’re both two different teams right now.“They’re coming off of a win streak and the quarterback and the running back and the receiver and the whole offense is really clicking. It’s really challenging for us to get this together, but it’s going to be a really good game. They’ve been effective certainly on the run, they’ve been effective in the pocket and with his mobility. We have our work cut out for us.”All eight teams do in a round with nothing but toss-up games.The action begins with the two AFC South teams meeting in Houston on Saturday afternoon. The scene shifts north and west in Texas to Dallas for the prime-timer between the Seahawks and Cowboys.On Sunday, the Chargers come across the country to Baltimore, then defending champion Philadelphia is at Chicago.Awaiting the results are top seeds Kansas City (AFC) and New Orleans (NFC), plus No. 2s New England (AFC) and the Los Angeles Rams (NFC).Indianapolis (10-6) at Houston (10-6)Way back in the first half of the season, these were struggling squads. Houston lost its first three games before reeling off a nine-game winning streak to surge to the top of the division. Indianapolis was 1-5 and has lost just once since Oct. 14, when it fell to the Jets, of all people.“It feels like we’ve been playing in the postseason for quite a while now and I don’t think anybody’s approach will change in this locker room,” Andrew Luck says. “If you’ve played five, six, seven years in this league, you’ve overcome something. So there are a lot of folks who have overcome a lot.”The Colts don’t let any defenders get to their quarterback, a stunning turnaround. Last season, which Luck missed with a right shoulder injury https://www.thebearsfanshop.com/Adam-Shaheen-Jersey , Indy allowed 56 sacks, most in the league. In 2018 with Luck: 18, an NFL low.Indy also has two sensational rookies in linebacker Darius Leonard , who had 163 tackles, and guard Quenton Nelson .Neither team allowed a 100-yard rusher in 2018. Texans DE J.J. Watt , who along with Luck is a leading contender for Comeback Player of the Year, had an AFC-leading 16 sacks, 25 quarterback hits, 18 tackles for losses and forced a career-high seven fumbles, which tied for most in the NFL.“To be able to get back to the top level of the game and know that I still have things to improve on and things that I want to get even better at, it’s exciting,” Watt says.Seattle (10-6) at Dallas (10-6)The Seahawks’ 24-13 win vs. the Cowboys got them back on track on their way to an unexpected playoff berth in a rebuilding year. Seattle’s the first team with a 1,000-yard rusher (Chris Carson) and three men with at least 300 yards on the ground since the 2001 Steelers, and led the NFL in rushing. The Seahawks also led the NFL with a plus-15 turnover margin; their 11 giveaways tied for third fewest in league history.But Dallas, which has lost three straight to Seattle, with one touchdown scored in total, was 7-1 at home this season. It also will run the ball first with Ezekiel Elliott.“I just think over the course of the early part of the season, we learned a lot,” coach Jason Garrett says. “We learned a lot of things from the experiences we’re having and I think we’ve grown. Guys have played more, they’ve played more together Mitchell Trubisky Color Rush Jersey , and I think we’ve benefited from that.”Los Angeles Chargers (12-4) at Baltimore (10-6)Two weeks ago, the visiting Ravens beat LA and moved atop the AFC North, which they then clinched last Sunday. Now comes a redux, and the Chargers will have top running back Melvin Gordon back, a real boost.They will need a balanced offense, with Gordon’s running complementing the passing of Philip Rivers, and a defense that can solve the speed and moves of Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson. Since Jackson replaced an injured Joe Flacco at quarterback, the Ravens are 6-1. Jackson and fellow rookie Gus Edwards give them a formidable running game to go with the No. 1-ranked defense in yards.“They just never let you get comfortable as an offense,” Rivers says. “It’s always something trying to keep you off-balance. “It’s going to be back and forth. There will be times where we pick everything up just right and do everything just right. There will be other times where we’re going to have to, again, manage all those things that they do so well.”Philadelphia (9-7) at Chicago (12-4)Thirty years ago, they played the “Fog Bowl” at the old Soldier Field. There isn’t a whole lot of clarity about this matchup, either.The Bears, paced by a strong version of the Monsters of the Midway, have been the better team all year. But they are generally playoff newbies, and they face perhaps the most resilient team in the league.Philly has been ravaged by injuries, yet here it is, making big plays on both sides of the ball thanks greatly to the veterans who had such a big role in its roll to the title a year ago: Nick Foles, Zack Ertz, Lane Johnson Pat O'Donnell Jersey , Fletcher Cox, Malcolm Jenkins. The Eagles still have to produce on the field, but their credentials are valid.“I know how our team has really fought this last month of the season, last six weeks,” coach Doug Pederson says. “And it does give you a little comfort knowing that we’ve kind of went through this grind and we’re here now and we have to continue to grind and continue to work.“But I don’t think it’s any easier. It’s a different team again. Different set of circumstances. We have to travel. If we’re fortunate to win, we have to be on the road again. It feels different, but the excitement is the same.”There’s no shortage of excitement in Chicago, either. Under first-year coach Matt Nagy, the Bears have moved from last place in the usually difficult NFC North to the top.“I would say last year when we were playing good football, even though we had struggles within the team and struggles would be, you know, everything else was going haywire around us,” DT Akiem Hicks says, “but we were able to pull together and keep fighting. And there was no quit, and you saw that this year when we got into last minutes of the game and still fighting and coming up with those wins. You could tell that guys have that fight in them.” With the loss against the Giants, Chicago fell to 8-4, which as all true Bears fans know is the tipping point for a season. There are those out there with their “probability” and “math” who say that the Bears have a 94% chance of making the playoffs, but true Chicago fans know the truth. It’s time for Nagy to throw in the towel. Just, honestly, he better not have Chase Daniel throw it. It’ll get picked off and run in for six. On one level https://www.thebearsfanshop.com/Kyle-Long-Jersey , this result should not come as a surprise to any fans, given how horribly the season started off with the draft: That draft has provided the Bears with three starts (total) from more than half of its players: Joel Iyiegbuniwe, Bilal Nichols, Kylie Fitts, and Javon Wims. A draft that was led by the Roquan Smith is of course going to be a disappointment, when you consider that Cris Collinsworth’s snake oil flim flam analytics group Pro Football Focus has given Smith a poor grade for the season based on his performance to date: 62.6! Not even 63! And you know it’s science-y because it has a decimal place. You can’t logically argue with a decimal place.This is the same PFF that declared smith “the Perfect LB or today’s NFL’, so it’s obvious that he much have really messed up if they changed their mind already. That kind of inconsistency really has no other explanation.However, enough crying over spilled milk. The draft is over, and with only a starting inside linebacker, a starting interior lineman, and an emerging starter at wide receiver to show for it (besides a rotational piece on the defensive line and a special teams contributor, that is), the Bears have predictably struggled.They just let the Giants beat them! The Giants! That is not something a team heading to the playoffs allows to have happen.Look, someone is going to claim that the defense is first in DVOA through Football Outsiders’ last update (1st vs. the pass and 1st vs. the run), and top five in the following categories: opponent points per game, opponent points per play, and opponent touchdowns per game. That same person is going to ignore the evidence that the Bears allow a massive 7.1 yards per pass, good for only 11th place in the NFL! As everyone knows, the only statistics that matter are the ones that show the Bears are struggling, and it is possible to find statistics that place the Bears outside of the top ten in a few defensive categories. It’s sad Tom Waddle Color Rush Jersey , really, that fans still think this might be an elite unit. The Bears as a team only have 37 sacks at the moment, placing them in a tie for fifth place. How elite can a defense be if it doesn’t place in the top ten percent of this category? Worse, Khalil Mack only has 9 sacks, meaning that he’s not even in the top ten as a player right now. Nine sacks? The Bears gave up two first-rounders for the guy. He should have at least 18 sacks by now for what they gave up!It doesn’t even matter that the Bears lead the NFL with 21 total interceptions, because not enough of those have been returned for scores. Apologists might point to the idea that the Bears lead the NFL with interceptions returned for touchdowns (5), but that’s obviously not representative of the failings of certain individuals on the defense.Anyone who points out that the Bears have two players in the Top 5 in terms of interceptions (Kyle Fuller in second place with 6 and Eddie Jackson tied for fourth place with 4) is going to be conveniently forgetting all of the should-be interceptions those two players have failed to get. Kyle Fuller, especially, has way too many should-be interceptions to be forgiven just because he has made 6 of them. What true fans who rely on the eye test understand is that Kyle Fuller’s league-leading 18 defended passes should actually be counted against him, because they are evidence that he is not getting the job done. However, the defense’s inadequacies barely matter, because of Shouldergate. With news increasingly conflicted about Trubisky’s shoulder, and with the Bears unwilling to actually give Chicagoans access to the MRIs and a chance to interview Mitchell’s physical therapists, we can only conclude that the organization is hiding much worse damage that we feared. This could very well be a repeat of 2011, when Chicago was forced to rely on the services of its backup quarterback for the remainder of a season after a solid start under Jay Cutler.As strange as that last sentence was to type (“after a solid start under Jay Cutler”...huh), everything is now aligned for the Bears to fall to 8-8. They just have to lose to the Rams, a Packers team with nothing to lose, a San Francisco team starting its backup backup quarterback, and a Vikings team that they have beaten already. Game and season over. Obviously.