Eight teams remain in the race to win the Super Bowl and they are all in action in the four Divisional Round games across Saturday and Sunday.
The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers were resting last week after securing the top seed in their respective conferences and they will be joined by the six winning teams from the wild-card round to provide this week's entertainment.
Two recent Super Bowl winners are still in the hunt with defending champions the Kansas City Chiefs visiting the Buffalo Bills in a marquee matchup on Sunday night, while 2021 winners the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are looking to upset the Detroit Lions, who are fresh off their first playoff win for 32 years.
We have picked out an accumulator featuring all four of this weekend's games which you can read below.
Recommended four-fold: Ravens -8.5 v Texans, Packers +10 v 49ers, Lions -6.5 v Buccaneers, Bills to win v Chiefs
- Baltimore Ravens -8.5 v Houston Texans
- Green Bay Packers +10 v San Francisco 49ers
- Detroit Lions -6.5 v Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Buffalo Bills to win v Kansas City Chiefs
Texans @ Ravens
The Houston Texans provided the first big talking point of wild-card weekend with their comfortable 45-14 win over the Cleveland Browns as home underdogs, but they should find the going tougher on the road against AFC top seeds the Baltimore Ravens.
The Texans put in a sensational offensive performance to destroy the Browns defence, which had led the league in yards allowed per game during the regular season. Rookie quarterback CJ Stroud starred in his first playoff game, wide receiver Nico Collins also impressed and the Texans defence made some crucial interceptions to help their team pull clear in the third quarter.
Head coach DeMeco Ryans has done an amazing job in his first year after the Texans went 3-13-1 last time but it will be an even bigger shock if he can mastermind a win, or even a near-miss, against the Ravens.
The Ravens have been sunk in recent seasons by injuries to quarterback Lamar Jackson, but he remains intact this year and is the leading contender to win the league MVP award. The Baltimore defence has been a major factor in their success and they ended the regular season on a run of 10 wins in 11 games before putting out their reserves in a Week 18 loss to the Steelers.
Top seeds can occasionally be rusty in this round after a week off, but the Ravens should be totally aware of that given they lost at home to the Titans when they were seeded first four years ago.
If they can find the form that saw them demolish the 49ers 33-19 in Week 16, they should have too much for the young Houston team and impose their will to record a wide-margin victory.
Jackson to guide the Ravens to victory
Packers @ 49ers
For much of the season, the San Francisco 49ers' greatest rivals for the NFC title appeared to be the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, but both NFC East teams crashed out in the wild-card round last week before the 49ers have even started their playoff challenge.
The 49ers are odds-on to make the Super Bowl for the first time in four years after their rivals' exits but there is work to be done yet.
Their first post-season opponents will be the Green Bay Packers, who took down the Cowboys in their own stadium to become the first seventh seeds to win a game since the playoffs were expanded to 14 teams.
The Cowboys had been unbeaten at home this season, but Matt LaFleur's team raced into a stunning 27-0 lead before winning 48-32. Quarterback Jordan Love has improved rapidly throughout his first full season as the starter for the Packers and has a great connection with his young group of talented wide receivers.
It may be asking too much for the Packers to eliminate the 49ers with another sensational result, but they look to have the potential to at least keep the home team in sight and be worthy of support with a chunky handicap start.
The 49ers at their best can look an unstoppable unit with Christian McCaffrey running the ball and Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle catching passes from unruffled quarterback Brock Purdy, but they have also had less impressive spells, such as losing three games in a row in October and their Week 16 defeat at home to the Ravens.
With another big handicap start, it's worth taking the improving Packers to exceed expectations again.
Packers should have too much for the Cowboys
Buccaneers @ Lions
The Detroit Lions were just about able to make history by winning their first playoff game since 1992 last week but they may not be finished yet and could progress to the NFC Championship Game by a more comfortable margin when they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Lions made the most of home advantage to win 24-23 against a strong and in-form Los Angeles Rams team, hanging on for a memorable victory.
They had previously received a major boost when the Packers' upset win over the second-seeded Cowboys meant that the Lions, as third seeds, would be at home again this week if they won.
They got the job done in a raucous atmosphere and should benefit from another fired-up crowd at Ford Field in this game. The Lions will have had an extra day to rest before the game as the Bucs were the final team to seal their place in this round when beating the fading Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
The Eagles' form had fallen off a cliff in the last two months after their 10-1 start to the year, so it's hard to quantify exactly what the Buccaneers achieved by beating them, and they have often struggled when meeting the stronger teams in the league this season.
One such game was Tampa Bay's 20-6 loss to the Lions at Ford Field in October and a similar margin of victory for Detroit, although likely to come in a higher-scoring game, looks possible this time.
Lions expected Progress
Chiefs @ Bills
The Kansas City Chiefs bounced back to form with a convincing win over the Miami Dolphins in the wild-card round, but they have not looked like the smooth offensive unit we have been used to seeing in the Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes era all season.
They have twice eliminated the Buffalo Bills from the playoffs at Arrowhead Stadium in epic battles, but this time the Bills have home advantage and that could make the difference.
Five of the six playoff games last week were won by the home team, and though the Bills only snatched the AFC second seed on the final day of the season, they appear to be hitting top form at just the right time.
Quarterback Josh Allen led by example in their wild-card win over the Steelers, which was delayed by one day due to a violent winter storm in New York state, throwing for three touchdowns and scoring another on a superb 52-yard run in the first half. That scamper gave his team a 21-0 lead in their eventual 31-17 success.
The Chiefs should provide stiffer opposition than the Steelers as they now rely on their improved defence and also depend more on their running game behind Isiah Pacheco than solely trusting in Mahomes' arm, but Kansas City may not enjoy the experience of playing such a high-stakes game in a hostile atmosphere.
The Chiefs' last 11 playoff games (except their Super Bowl appearances) have all been at home, so this will be the first true road playoff game Mahomes has played in his career.
Reid's team won the AFC West for the eighth successive season but their 11-6 record was their worst for six years and it included a 20-17 loss to the Bills at home in Week 14, when Buffalo held on after moving into an early 14-0 lead.
It may be safer to take the Bills just to win the game rather than cover the small handicap, but they look to have a good chance of finally beating the Chiefs in the playoffs.
