NFL playoff bracket predictions: Scores, Super Bowl LIX pick - ESPN

With the NFL playoffs finally here, it's time for my annual preview. If you don't have time to watch the postseason this month and the Super Bowl in February, this article makes it really simple: I lay out who will win each of the 13 playoff games and why. No need to tune in.

That's a slight exaggeration. All it takes is one wrong prediction to throw off this entire bracket, and I will consider myself lucky to make it through the first Saturday of wild-card weekend going 3-for-3. All the preparation or research in the world means nothing if a quarterback tears his UCL in the first half, as Brock Purdy did in the NFC Championship Game two years ago, or if the conditions freeze out an entire team, as they did for the Dolphins in Kansas City last year. One bad call or a run of fumble luck could mean a lot more than a team's true level of play against its opponent.

Instead, consider this a guide to what factors might decide games, based on what we know about how these teams performed during the regular season. What were their strengths and weaknesses? How do they match up? If they played earlier in 2024, what factors from that first or second game are likely to recur in the rematch? Is there something about their roster or philosophy that might be different this time around?

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Last season, for example, the Texans faced the Browns just three weeks after Cleveland had marched up and down the field and scored five touchdowns in a 36-22 victory. The Browns were thriving despite a brutal interception rate from Joe Flacco, however, and their defense had slipped after Myles Garrett had suffered a shoulder injury, a trend masked by their unsustainable turnover rate. The Texans promptly torched