Miami Dolphins (7-9) @ New England Patriots (13-3)
Sunday, January 4, 4:25 PM ET
The Patriots don't have the luxury of winning this game and automatically being the #1 seed because of a Week 1 loss to the Raiders, believe it or not. The Patriots will need the Broncos to lose in order to secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, and with the Chargers benching starters, that doesn't appear likely to happen.
The Pats also have to take care of business against the Dolphins, however, who have been a bit of a resilient and interesting team in the second half of the season. Miami played great defense against the Bucs on Sunday, getting their 7th win of the season. And they would probably love to play spoiler against the Patriots.
But that New England defense going up against Quinn Ewers might be overwhelming. I'm keeping an eye on this one, but the Patriots should be able to win this one rather handily.
Prediction: Patriots win 34-13
Baltimore Ravens (8-8) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7)
Sunday, January 4, 8:20 PM ET
The Pittsburgh Steelers are officially on "fraud alert" this week with the Baltimore Ravens coming to town. I will admit, I haven't really been buying what the Steelers have been selling all year, and if they somehow make it past this game, I think they'll be the weakest of the 14 teams in the postseason.
With that said, they've got a shot to get to the dance if they can find a way to stop the freight train that is Derrick Henry. Henry and the Ravens just ran for 300-plus against the Packers, and Henry himself had four rushing touchdowns.
I don't know who really wants to see this Ravens team in the postseason, even if they've been on a bit of a struggle bus this year.
The Ravens are favored by 3.5 and I think that they can cover.
Prediction: Ravens win 23-19