Go beyond the scoreboard
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1
Baltimore and San Francisco in the Super Bowl?
It makes sense, right? The two top-seeded teams advance through the playoffs to meet on the NFL’s biggest stage. Surprisingly, it hasn’t happened that often.
Philadelphia and Kansas City were both No. 1 seeds last season and faced each other in the Super Bowl. Before that, however, the last time the top seeds met in the final game was 2017, when the Eagles beat New England.
The pairing of the two No. 1 teams has happened 13 times since the 1975 season, when the league implemented playoff seeding.
After a disastrous season, expectations were low for the Rams but, as with Sean McVay’s first season ahead of a Super Bowl, the roster has been revitalized.
As for the Ravens and 49ers this season, their first tests come Saturday against a pair of upstarts. Baltimore plays host to Houston, which features rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, and the 49ers host Green Bay, which was 3-6 through 10 weeks before getting hot.
A look at those two Saturday divisional games:
2
NFL honors — Houston at Baltimore
Quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) led the Ravens over the Texans in the season opener, 25-9.
(Nick Wass / Associated Press)
The quarterbacks will be center stage when Houston plays at Baltimore, with the Texans’ Stroud, the likely offensive rookie of the year, sharing the stage with the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, on track to win his second NFL most valuable player award.
Even though his team was a league-best 13-4 this season, Jackson still is looking to carry over that success into a postseason, where he is 1-3 as a starter.
“Just keeping my mind focused on the assignment,” Jackson told reporters this week. “Not letting anything enter into my mind that would mess up my thoughts for the game.”
The Ravens are looking to host the AFC championship game for the first time, something the Kansas City Chiefs have done in each of the last five seasons.
In a sense, Baltimore is back where it started, as the Ravens opened the season at home against the Texans, rolling to a 25-9 victory.
The Chargers should do everything possible to land Jim Harbaugh as their new head coach, writes L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke.
Houston mustered just three field goals in that game, although Stroud threw for 242 yards in his NFL debut. The second overall pick from Ohio State would go on to throw for 4,108 yards with 23 touchdowns and five interceptions this season, guiding the Texans back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
With their 45-14 thumping of Cleveland in the wild-card round, the Texans became the fourth team in NFL history and first since 2009 to win a playoff game with a rookie head coach and rookie quarterback.
Houston coach DeMeco Ryans, a onetime Texans linebacker named defensive rookie of the year in 2006, almost instantly reversed the fortunes of a downtrodden franchise, one of four NFL clubs that has yet to play in a Super Bowl.
Ryans told reporters this week that he and Stroud have similar mindsets.
“We come from winning cultures and winning teams,” said Ryans, who was San Francisco’s defensive coordinator. “So really it was up to us to get this team going.”
3
Familiar foes — Green Bay at San Francisco
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) stands on the sideline after injury his elbow against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship game last season.
(Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
The 49ers and Packers have a rich history in the postseason, although the matchup might be new to a lot of their current players.
The 49ers have reached the playoffs 12 times since last winning the Super Bowl in the 1994 season and played Green Bay in 10 of those postseasons, most recently in 2021.
But San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy hasn’t played the Packers, and Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love hasn’t played the 49ers.
This game pits the seasoned 49ers, who made it to the NFC title game in Philadelphia last season, against the Packers, the league’s youngest team.
“Obviously, yeah, experience is huge in these situations,” Love told reporters this week. “But I think we’re just confident in our whole team and what we’ve got. And now it just comes down to execution, making the most of the plays we have, and I think that’s what we’re doing.”
The NFL divisional round playoff matchups are set, with Jared Goff and the Lions vs. Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers offering an intriguing showdown.
Love was tremendous in the 48-32, first-round shocker over the Cowboys, throwing for 272 yards with three touchdowns with no interceptions.
“Man, Jordan Love. Wow. That’s about all I can say, is wow,” Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur said after the game. “What he did, the poise he shows, the command he shows.”
The 49ers have come close to the mountaintop in recent years, including blowing a 10-point lead to Kansas City in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl in the 2019 season, losing the NFC Championship to the Rams in the 2021 season, and falling apart in the conference title game at Philadelphia last season when they lost Purdy to an elbow injury.
“You always remember those moments,” San Francisco linebacker Fred Warner told reporters. “It’s important during those times like last year in Philly, and you see the confetti coming down, you see them with their hats and T-shirts on the stage. They’re happy and you’re standing there watching it all happen.
“I can put myself right back there in that moment. The part that sucks is you can’t just blink and you’re right back into having an opportunity to go back and do it again.”
But here they are.
Sam Farmer predicts the four winners in the NFL playoffs’ divisional round and who will be advancing to the conference championship games.
