Wild Card: Pittsburgh Steelers at Oakland Raiders
Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
The Ravens taking the division title by way of the simplest of tie-breakers (head-to-head) will force Pittsburgh to go the long route if they hope to return to the Super Bowl, the same long route they took in 2005: all road playoff games.
And ironically enough, that journey will begin in similar fashion, with a trip to play Carson Palmer.
This time, they won't knock Palmer out via a questionably legal hit via Kim Von Oelhoffen, but the result will be the same: a decisive Pittsburgh road win.
The Raiders' return to the postseason (never before has a one-game lead in the division on Thanksgiving seemed so huge)is almost as good a story as the Lions'.
But they just don't have the muscle up front on defense to contain the Steelers running game or the speed in the secondary to keep up with Mike Wallace.
Prediction:
Steelers 41, Raiders 17