NFL playoffs schedule: Full slate with kickoff times for divisional round

There weren’t any exciting, close games in the first weekend of the NFL playoffs, but the second week might make up for it.

There are some great matchups for the NFL’s divisional round, as we’re down to eight teams on the road to Super Bowl LI.

 

Seattle Seahawks (11-5-1) at Atlanta Falcons (11-5)
Saturday, 4:35 p.m. ET
Fox

These two teams played an entertaining game in Week 6 at Seattle. The Seahawks took a 17-3 lead into halftime. The Falcons outscored them 21-0 in the third quarter. Seattle rallied to score the final nine points, including a game-winning field goal in the final two minutes. The Falcons’ final chance ended when Richard Sherman grabbed Julio Jones’ arm on a fourth-down pass but no penalty was called. These two teams also played a classic playoff game at the end of the 2012 season, with Matt Bryant hitting a 49-yard field goal with eight seconds left to win it for Atlanta.

 

Houston Texans (10-7) at New England Patriots (14-2)
Saturday, 8:15 p.m. ET
CBS

The Texans took a strange path to the divisional round. They benched struggling quarterback Brock Osweiler late in the season, won the division with Tom Savage at quarterback, went back to Osweiler for a wild-card playoff game after Savage suffered a concussion, and are sticking with Osweiler after Saturday’s win over the Oakland Raiders. The defense, led by Jadeveon Clowney, allowed the fewest yards in the NFL this season. The Texans’ defense has a huge challenge in New England though. The Patriots are 11-1 with Tom Brady in the lineup this season, and the only loss with Brady came when he threw incomplete from the 1-yard line on the final play against Seattle. The offense, led by Brady, is efficient. The defense has played much better late in the season as well. Not many people will pick the Texans to win this one.

 

Pittsburgh Steelers (12-5) at Kansas City Chiefs (12-4)
Sunday, 1:05 p.m. ET
NBC

The Steelers struck early and often in a win over the Dolphins. The strength of the Steelers is obvious: They have a very good quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger and arguably the best running back (Le’Veon Bell) and receiver (Antonio Brown) in the NFL. Bell and Brown scored multiple touchdowns in an easy win over Miami, the first time they had both score multiple touchdowns in the same game. Pittsburgh has not lost since the Cowboys beat them in the final minute on Nov. 13. Kansas City caught a break when the Raiders, without injured quarterback Derek Carr, lost in Week 17. That opened the door for the Chiefs to win the AFC West and get a bye. Rookie Tyreek Hill (12 total touchdowns) and tight end Travis Kelce give the Chiefs some dangerous elements in their offense. Kansas City has been to the conference championship game just once since Super Bowl IV, and that was at the end of the 1993 season. They’re one win away from going back.

 

Green Bay Packers (11-6) at Dallas Cowboys (13-3)
Sunday, 4:40 p.m. ET
Fox

Aaron Rodgers will try to hit more Hail Mary passes as he takes the Packers into Dallas. Green Bay has won seven in a row, counting Sunday’s 38-13 win over the New York Giants, and Rodgers has thrown 22 touchdowns and no interceptions in his last eight games. The Cowboys were one of the best stories in football this season, with rookie quarterback Dak Prescott and rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott leading the way to a No. 1 seed. It has been a long time since the Cowboys have played in the NFL’s conference championship weekend. The last time the Cowboys won a divisional round playoff game was against the Philadelphia Eagles on Jan. 7, 1996. The Packers beat the Cowboys in the divisional round two years ago, a game that is remembered for Dez Bryant’s controversial non-catch in the fourth quarter.