Boston College Football: The Official NFL Playoffs Rooting Guide - Divisional Round

Boy that Wild Card weekend was fun, wasn't it?

Here's a quick recap:

-Saturday began with Brian Hoyer playing as bad as Tony Eason did in Super Bowl XX. Only Bill O'Brien never pulled Hoyer and let him play the whole game. It went about as well as expected.

-Saturday ended with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati with a display of professional wrestling where a football game broke out. Personally, I was waiting for Stone Cold Steve Austin to go out to the 50 yard line and get in the middle of it.

-Sunday began with a game that was so cold, I froze watching it on television. Seriously. I was sitting on my couch under a sherpa blanket with flannel pants on because I thought it was ridiculous. And then Blair Walsh went full Ray Finkle on us.

(Fast fact: I have a friend of mine who lives in Minnesota and goes to Vikings games religiously. I have no idea what he did to keep warm, but I assume it involved a Bud Light slushie)

-Sunday ended with Green Bay reminding us they're still Green Bay.

ON WITH THE DIVISIONAL ROUND GAMES!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

#5 Kansas City Chiefs at #2 New England Patriots
4:35 PM, CBS

The Chiefs did very bad things to the Texans last week, while the Patriots presumably spent their bye trying to get whatever's left of their offensive line healthy.

In terms of BC rooting interest, the Chiefs have nothing going on, and neither really do the Patriots. New England does have six guys who were on ACC schools, though their degree of ACC-ness varies. The Chiefs have one.

And if you think I'm telling you to root against the Pats, well then you're out of your mind. First person to make a deflated balls joke gets banned. No I'm not joking. If you don't get banned, then I'm taking umbrage with my editorial staff.

Side note: this is a fun rematch for me. We haven't forgotten, Kansas City. We haven't forgotten.

Rooting Interest: DO YOU HAVE TO ASK??? Patriots

#5 Green Bay Packers at #2 Arizona Cardinals
8:15 PM, NBC

Fun fact from last week - the betting line had the Washington "YOU LIKE THATs" as a one point favorite over the Packers. That indicates to me that people really liked the team coached by Jay Gruden but couldn't quite go all the way in when they drew the Packers. Maybe it's the playoff experience factor, and maybe it's the frightening realization that Green Bay could've woken up from what was a late season slide. That's exactly what happened.

Arizona might be the best all-around team in the playoffs. They have a great defense, timely offense, and a couple of really deep threats. Carson Palmer is really experiencing a renaissance in the desert and is the perfect quarterback for that team. Plus, how can you not love John Brown's touchdown dance or Bruce Arians' fly fashion sense. Seriously - he's approaching Walt Frazier levels of swag in some ways.

Let's get to the serious stuff - the BC rooting interest. You already know about BJ Raji for the Packers.

But believe it or not, I think the rooting interest has to swing to Arizona. Why? Because they have MOAR EAGZ.

Arizona actually has two Boston College players, though none will dress or be active. Ifeanyi Momah was in the process of converting to tight end when he was placed on Injured Reserve (during the preseason, if memory serves), and John Wetzel is on the practice squad.

I think you go with Green Bay based on game day, but they need more Eagles to shore that up. GET WITH IT.

Rooting Interest: Green Bay

Sunday, January 17, 2016

#6 Seattle Seahawks at #1 Carolina Panthers
1:05 PM, Fox

Seattle presumably has defrosted enough to play in this game, where they have to travel east for a 1 PM game at Carolina. That's almost not fair. Teams from the west coast NEVER play well when they have to play a 1 PM game on the east coast. Taking into consideration the three hour time difference to the west coast, it feels like a 10 AM game for the players. I'm not even sure of the last time a Seahawks fan (NO I WILL NOT CALL YOU "12's") woke up that early because, you know, Seattle's weird.

Onto rooting interests. Joining Seattle's Kevin Pierre-Louis in the Divisional Round is some Kuechly guy that's pretty good. He was also pretty good at BC.

Sorry KPL.

Rooting Interest: Carolina

#6 Pittsburgh Steelers at #1 Denver Broncos
4:40 PM, CBS

Peyton Manning coming off the bench to "lead the Broncos" to victory and the top seed in the AFC will be made so great if Ben Roethlisberger's broken into 72 pieces body leads the Steelers past them.

There are no Eagles on the Broncos. Pittsburgh has Tyler Murphy and Shakim Phillips.

I don't like either of these teams. So BC makes picking things very easy.

Rooting interest: Pittsburgh because THEY HAVE PEOPLE