NFL Playoff Bracket 2019: Predicting Super Bowl winner entering Week 14

AFC Divisional Round

3 Houston Texans at 2 New England Patriots

Considering that we just saw the Texans host the Patriots on Sunday Night Football and handle the defending Super Bowl champions in a much more decisive fashion than the 28-22 final score would indicate, this might seem like an easy pick. The New England offense and Tom Brady look entirely problematic and the defense, though great, was proven to be imperfect by an aggressive gameplan from Houston.

While that may all be true, the Pats are a different animal in January. Brady turns it up a notch, as does Bill Belichick. And with New England still owning home-field advantage for the Divisional Round, it’s just too hard to talk yourself into them losing. Instead, the cold weather gets to Watson and the Texans offense against this elite defense and the Patriots pick up the win to move to yet another AFC Championship Game.

Winner: Patriots

4 Kansas City Chiefs at 1 Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens are a much different team than the one that lost to the Chiefs in Arrowhead back in Week 3. Since then, Lamar Jackson has turned it up another notch as a leader and playmaker but, perhaps more importantly, the defense has added Marcus Peters and gotten healthy in the secondary. With that being the strength of their defense, they are much better now.

While that may be true and while this matchup is at M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore’s style of defense just seems too problematic against what Kansas City can do. They have so much speed and so many weapons to rely on defensive backs covering while blitz packages aim to get to Patrick Mahomes. This one could be a shootout but I like the matchup and experience better for the Chiefs, even on the road.

Winner: Chiefs