It’s always a sad time when I know exactly how many football games are left.
Today, on Friday, that number is 15.
Tonight, Ohio State and Texas meet in the Cotton Bowl to decide the final participant in the national championship game.
All I can say is hook ‘em.
Starting Saturday afternoon, there are just 13 NFL games — all playoffs.
The six wild card games are Saturday through Monday. Twelve of the remaining 14 teams must play in the wild card round, with only top-seeded Detroit and Kansas City getting byes.
The better seeded teams host the wild card games, so if a visiting team wins, it’s considered an upset.
Here is a very brief rundown of this weekend’s wildcard matchups.
Saturday
2:30 p.m., Los Angeles Chargers at Houston, CBS. This is one of the more evenly matched games this round and should be close.
6 p.m., Pittsburgh at Baltimore, Amazon Prime. These two meet for about the zillionth time this season. Pittsburgh is trending in the negative direction it seems.
Sunday
11 a.m., Denver at Buffalo, CBS. This is THE game around here, with Josh Allen fans seeming to outnumber fans of the regional team. I have to say it is great that the Broncos have broken the playoff curse and I think Bo Nix is the real deal.
But this is our Josh and the Bills will win this, although it may be close.
2:30 p.m., Green Bay at Philadelphia, Fox. Ugh. Lots of unfortunate injuries for my Packers and I don’t see them overcoming their playoff curse. The Eagles have injuries too and are also trending downward, but this will be tough for GoPackGo.
6 p.m., Washington at Tampa Bay, NBC. This should be one of the more competitive games of the weekend.
It will be fun to watch two teams that I really don’t have a stake in.
Monday
6 p.m., Minnesota at Los Angeles Rams, ESPN. There is a contingency plan to play this in Phoenix at the Cardinals’ stadium if the air quality from the horrific fires in LA doesn’t improve.
The Vikings are the unluckiest team there is. They played for first place and a bye last week and ended up the fifth seed and having to fly to California.
Look for the Rams to win this, no matter where it is played.
With just 15 left to play, I will be watching them all. There will be plenty of time for books when the seasons are over.
Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at: SallyAnnShurmur@gmail.com
