Updated NFL Playoff Bracket: Divisional Round set
By Josh Hill
The first weekend of the NFL Playoffs is in the books, but what does the Divisional Round look like?
With the first weekend of the NFL Playoffs in the books, the teams who survived can now take a little bit of a breather as they prep for the Divisional Round of action. For the teams who earned byes on the first weekend of the postseason, it’s now time to get ready for a taste of the action with every game officially set.
The AFC side of the bracket was set on Saturday, as the Chiefs and Steelers will move on to the next round. Houston appeared as a playoff team in name only and the Bengals embarrassingly lost control of their tempers and their lead over the Steelers in the closing minutes of that game.
As a result, here’s what next week’s schedule will look like:
Saturday
2 Patriots vs. 5 Chiefs — 4:35pm ET on CBS
Sunday
1 Broncos vs. 6 Steelers — 4:40pm ET on CBS
On the NFC side of things, we didn’t have to wait until the final game of the weekend to see where everyone would play next weekend. The Vikings losing to the Seahawks meant that Seattle punched a ticket to Carolina next weekend, sending the winner of the Packers-Redskins game to Arizona.
Saturday
2 Cardinals vs. 5 Packers — 8:15pm ET on NBC
Sunday
1 Panthers vs. 6 Seahawks — 1:05pm ET on FOX
Both of the NFC games are rematches of contests we saw earlier in the year. While Seattle copied their success against the Vikings in the Wild Card, they’ll look to reverse fortune against a Panthers team that beat them at home earlier this season. Ditto for the Packers, who were blown out by the Cardinals in Week 16, with that game also being played in Arizona.