For football fans, the most wonderful time of the year, the NFL playoffs, have finally arrived. Though it is sad there are only four more weeks of action left in the season, seeing the 14 remaining teams slug it out on the way to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas should be a blast. This season’s last act of NFL action starts this weekend with Super Wild Card Weekend. Here’s the schedule for the six-game slate followed by some notable numbers for the weekend that you can use at the water cooler, share on a Zoom call or tell the dog from your couch.
Saturday
4:30 p.m. 5 Cleveland at 4 Houston (NBC, Peacock, Telemundo)
8:00 p.m. 6 Miami at 3 Kansas City (Peacock Only)
Sunday
1:00 p.m. 7 Pittsburgh at 2 Buffalo/ (CBS, Paramount+)
4:30 p.m. 7 Green Bay at 2 Dallas (FOX, FOX Deportes)
8:00 p.m. 6 Los Angeles Rams at 3 Detroit (NBC, Peacock, Universo)
Monday
8:00 p.m. 5 Philadelphia at 4 Tampa Bay (ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, ESPN+)
1: The amount of games Miami has won against teams that made the playoffs this season. The Dolphins finished the season 1-5 against playoff teams, with their lone victory coming in Week 16 against the Cowboys. Against playoff opponents, the Dolphins averaged 17.7 points. Miami put up 35.5 points per game in their other 11 matchups during the regular season.
3: Members of the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line (guard Landon Dickerson, tackle Lane Johnson and center Jason Kelce) who were selected for the Pro Bowl this season. When the Eagles take on Tampa on Monday night, Philly’s offensive line will be going up against a Buccaneer front seven that includes former Pro Bowl selections Shaquille Barrett, Lavonte David, Vita Vea and Devin White.
5: The date in January of 1992 when the Lions last won a postseason game. If the Lions can beat the Rams on Sunday at Ford Field and win their first playoff game since Detroit scored a 38-6 victory over the Cowboys at the Pontiac Silverdome, it would end the third-longest streak without a postseason victory in league history. The Cardinals went 51 years and five days between postseason wins, from Dec. 28, 1947, to Jan. 2, 1999, and the Lions went 34 years and seven days between playoff victories, from Dec. 29, 1957, to Jan. 5, 1992, per the NFL.
9: The number of years between playoff starts for Cleveland quarterback Joe Flacco. Handed the reigns by the Browns in Week 13 and 4-1 as a starter this season headed into Saturday’s matchup with the Texans, Flacco last started a playoff game on January 10, 2015, for the Baltimore Ravens. Only Doug Flutie, who started a playoff game for the Bears on January 3, 1987, and then started a playoff game for the Bills on January 2, 1999, went longer between postseason starts, according to ProFootballTalk. (The Bills lost.)
10 degrees: Temperature that’s expected in Kanas City on Saturday night when the Dolphins come to town to take on the Chiefs. With expected wind gusts of up to 29 mph and a slight chance of snow in the forecast, the “feels like” temperature will range from -17 to 1 degree. As of now, the Chiefs are 4.5-point favorites, a number that may creep even higher considering the Dolphins have lost their last ten games with temperatures of 40 degrees or below. Three of those losses have come under the watch of head coach Mike McDaniel.
16: The age gap between 22-year-old Texans starting quarterback C.J. Stroud and the aforementioned Flacco, who is 38. It’s the fifth-biggest age difference between two starting quarterbacks in NFL postseason history and the biggest in a game that doesn’t involve Tom Brady.
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The groundbreaking series premiered on cable on January 10, 199920.78%: Pittsburgh’s win probability against the Bills, calculated by the Action Network‘s Bettingexpert’s supercomputer. That’s the lowest win probability of any team on Super Wild Card Weekend. According to the computer, the Steelers’ odds of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy are just 0.45%. The 49ers have the best odds to win Super Bowl LVIII (31%) followed by the Ravens (19.5%).
23: The league-high passing touchdowns Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott threw from Weeks 10 to 18 to close out the season. While leading the Cowboys to a 7-2 record over that span, Prescott also led the league in passing yards. His opponent on Sunday afternoon, Green Bay QB Jordan Love, ranked second in passing yards (2,439) and passing touchdowns (20) over that same span as the Packers went 6-3.
23: Years since the NFL playoff field features three franchises that have never played in a Super Bowl: Cleveland, Detroit and Houston. In 2000, the three franchises that qualified for the postseason without having previously made the Super Bowl were Baltimore, New Orleans and Tampa Bay. The Ravens made the big game that season and won Super Bowl XXXV. The Bucs went on to win Super Bowl XXXVII two years later and the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV in 2009.
200: The number of NFL employees who were recently emailed a voluntary buyout package by the league. The buyout includes three weeks’ salary for every year worked in the league office, plus bonuses. The deadline to accept is in late February, according to CNBC.
17.9 million: The average number of viewers per NFL game across all networks for the regular season, up by 7% from a year ago. That’s the NFL’s best figure since 2015. With viewership up in both the female and under-35 demographics, the NFL claimed 93 of Nielsen’s top 100 broadcasts in 2023.
$110 million: The amount NBC paid for the rights to put an NFL playoff game exclusively on a streaming service — Peacock — for the first time. Although Saturday night’s game between the Dolphins and Chiefs will appear on linear TV in Miami and Kansas City, fans in other markets will have to use Peacock if they want to tune in. If you don’t have Peacock, Kansas City defensive end Charles Omenihu is here to help.
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