2019 NFL playoffs odds picks Chiefs outl Full-time Job
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We're down to the final four teams. As it turns out, they just so happen to be four of the most explosive offenses in the league. After three of four road teams won in the wild-card round, all four road teams won last week? What happens in the championship games? Let's find out. LAST WEEK: 2-2-0OVERALL RECORD: 167-95-2 at New Orleans (-3.5)3:05 p.m. ET, Fox, , try for freeThese teams met in the Superdome back in Week 9; the were 6-1 and the Rams were 8-0. New Orleans jumped out to a 35-17 halftime lead, L.A. countered with 18 unanswered points to tie it up only to give up 10 more in the final quarter -- including a 72-yard touchdown pa s from to -- to seal their fates, 45-35. The good news for the Rams is that they were able to overcome an early three-score deficit, and they did it with no real running game to speak of. finished with just 68 yards on Jeurys Familia Jersey the ground. This is noteworthy because the Rams' offensive succe s starts with the running back. Gurley requires the full attention of opposing linebackers and when that happens, the play-action pa s becomes best friend. His job becomes immeasurably easier, and and are the primary beneficiaries. But the third-year quarterback still has lapses, and that's what the Saints will be banking on -- a suming they can slow up Gurley (and now, C.J. Anderson). More on the NFL But! Returning to the Week 9 matchup and Gurley's pedestrian day: Goff finished 28 of 40 for 391 yards with three touchdowns, an interception and a pa ser rating of 115.7. That's encouraging but Brees David Wright Jersey was better. He went 25 of 36 for 346 yards with four touchdowns, no interceptions and a pa ser rating of 137.0. And while we know what these offenses can do, the game will almost certainly be decided by the defenses. And that, coupled with the advantage the Saints will enjoy playing at home in front of a raucous crowd desperate to get back to the Super Bowl, means the Rams will have a lot of work to do. L.A. ranks 19th in total defense, according to . The good news is they're 9th against the pa s. The bad new is they're 28th against the run. Breaking it down even further, and there's even more cause for concern: The Rams' pa s coverage is great against No. 2 receivers, tight ends and running backs but ranks 28th against No. 1 receivers and 24th against No. 3 and No. 4 receivers. Put another way: Even if L.A. can slow down , Ben Watson and , they have no answers for Thomas, and to a le ser degree, and . It's the opposite story for the Saints' D. They rank 11th in total defense and while they're No. 3 against the run they're only 22nd against the pa s. But again, this could hint at Gurley again struggling to get going, in which case Goff will have to carry the load. The question, of course, is whether he can Lenny Dykstra Jersey do that. Pick: Saints 38, Rams 35 New England at Kanas City (-3)6:40 p.m. ET, CBS,Bill Belichick had two weeks to prepare for the and that game was over shortly after it started. Los Angeles played like it was the first preseason game while New England was humming along like a finely tuned vintage car moseying its way through a parade. Belichick has only a week to plot the demise of Andy Reid and the , and he won't have the luxury of playing in Gillette Stadium. Instead, he'll travel to Arrowhead where it . Here's the A sociated Pre s' report from Monday:"The National Weather Service is projecting an arctic blast to settle over Kansas City for the Chiefs' game against the . Temperatures at kickoff could range from 10 degrees to well below zero, potentially making it the coldest game in Arrowhead Stadium history." That's ... not great. And a lot can change in the days to come but a Freezer Bowl could certainly limit the offenses of both teams. As it stands, both the Chiefs and Pats are incredibly balanced; Kansas City has the NFL's best offense and Adeiny Hechavarria Jersey ranks first in pa sing and fourth in rushing. New England's offense is fifth -- fourth in pa sing, ninth in rushing. The Chiefs pa s 60 percent of the time while the Patriots are more balanced, throwing 55 percent of the time. Could that balance be the difference given the expected conditions? A year ago, Pro Football Focus' Scott Spratt . In the most extreme case of cold weather, pa s percentage falls by about 2 percent compared to normal temperatures. That's le s than half the decline moderate rain brings and between half and a third of the decline snow brings it actually neatly bridges the gap between rain and snow, as I theorized might be the case when I started this research. Still, a 2 percent decline in pa s percentage is a pretty small concern for fantasy owners. In a typical game with 36 pa s attempts, that is a bit le s than 1 pa s attempt lost. The real concern would be if cold weather impacted the performance of players on their attempts, and that does seem to be the case. And that's where things get interesting. Spratt found that quarterbacks suffer, on average, "a 3.1 percent decline in completion percentage and 0.19-yard decline in their yards per attempt in below-freezing games." As you might expect, running back usage increases and Spratt notes, "running backs see a bigger bump in their yards per carry average in clear, cold days than they do in snow games. ... B ut it does suggest that the colder temperatures matter more for running back production than precipitation does." For us, this is good news for the Chiefs; both teams can run the ball effectively, but even if the pa sing games are adversely affected by the Steven Matz Jersey elements, the research suggests will still air it out. Pick: Chiefs 21, Patriots 17