{"id":393753,"date":"2026-01-07T11:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T11:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393753\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T11:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T11:10:07","slug":"nfl-play-off-preview-why-road-to-super-bowl-is-most-unusual-in-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393753\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL play-off preview: Why road to Super Bowl is &#8216;most unusual&#8217; in years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Rams kick off Wildcard Weekend at Carolina, who became the seventh team ever to make the play-offs with a losing record (8-9) having stumbled to the NFC South title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">LA must hit the road but Stafford led the league for passing yards and touchdown passes while Puka Nacua posted a career-high 1,715 receiving yards. The Rams also hope to have fellow receiver Davante Adams back from injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A host of injuries late in the season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/american-football\/articles\/cnv26qd01v7o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">most notably to Micah Parsons,<\/a> has halted Green Bay&#8217;s momentum but they will have quarterback Jordan Love (concussion) back for just the third play-off clash in the NFL&#8217;s oldest and most-played rivalry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Although Chicago surpassed pre-season expectations by winning the NFC North, the pressure is on to avoid going out of the play-offs with what would be a third straight defeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The NFC&#8217;s other wildcard match-up sees injury-hit San Francisco visit defending champions Philadelphia, who rested most of their starters last Sunday after recovering from a wobble to clinch the NFC East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After being dumped out by Kansas City in four of the past five years, Buffalo&#8217;s reigning MVP Josh Allen hopes to finally reach the Super Bowl, but the Bills must hit the road after New England ended their recent dominance of the AFC East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And they must visit a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/american-football\/videos\/cgqzdy1vg38o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacksonville team on an eight-game win streak,<\/a> with Trevor Lawrence looking like the &#8216;generational talent&#8217; he was billed as when the Jaguars made him the number one draft pick in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Patriots aim to avoid an upset at home to the Los Angeles Chargers, whose quarterback Justin Herbert hopes to claim his first play-off win in his sixth year in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Houston&#8217;s league-leading defence is sure to put four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers under pressure but the 42-year-old, who could retire at the end of the season, can target DK Metcalf again as Pittsburgh&#8217;s top receiver returns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/american-football\/articles\/cjdr4n0vj0zo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">from suspension<\/a> for Monday&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rams kick off Wildcard Weekend at Carolina, who became the seventh team ever to make the play-offs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-393753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}