Which Wild Card team has best chance at upset?
Mike Florio and Peter King look at the Wild Card teams that have the best chance at pulling off an upset in the Divisional Round this weekend.
Video Transcript
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MIKE FLORIO: Welcome to PFT OT on Yahoo Sports. Peter King, Mike Florio here. Getting you ready for the divisional round of the playoffs. And Peter, three of the teams are big underdogs.
The Titans going to Baltimore. The Vikings going to San Francisco. And the Texans returning to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Chiefs. Even though the Texans won during the regular season, the Chiefs are heavy favorites in this one.
Of those three, which do you think is the most likely to advance to the conference championship game?
PETER KING: What if I said zero?
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No, I think, you know, as I look at this field right now, one of the things that I find most interesting-- and I'm going to take the Minnesota Vikings-- one of the things I find that's most interesting about it is that the Vikings have so many elements in place, you know, to play a really good road playoff game.
Here's what they have in place. They have a tremendous defensive front, which we saw over the weekend how it can wreak havoc with Drew Brees.
Jimmy Garoppolo playing his first NFL playoff game. This is a huge factor. This pass rush against Garoppolo.
Number 2, they have a secondary that played better in this game than it had played this year. Seems like it's a little bit healthier. And the added bonus of having very good linebackers in coverage to do battle with George Kittle.
Number 3, they have one of the top five running games in football right now. They need-- you know, Bill Cowher used to always say this, Mike, about going on the road with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He said, we were always a big game for the team that we went into to play.
And so I always used to tell the players, you've got to withstand the storm right at the beginning. And that crowd in Santa Clara is going to be huge early on.
So the Vikings, whether they're playing defense or offense, has got to take the crowd out of the game early. The way you do that is with a running game that gets some first downs, and with a front seven that forces a couple of punts on the first two series of the 49ers.
Look, if I had to go to Vegas and bet $5 on this game, give me San Francisco. But with those three options, I will take the Minnesota Vikings. I think they are most playoff ready to play a really good game this weekend.
MIKE FLORIO: And you know, Peter, there was a time when the teams that earned the byes were much more vulnerable in the divisional round than they are now. In recent years, those teams were more likely to advance.
But that rest period, and you're playing a team that has a jolt of confidence coming from winning in the wildcard round, and I think that victory over the Saints does wonders for Kirk Cousins and his teammates in Minnesota. And if you can catch them wobbly early, if you get him with a surprise left hook, that can change everything because the pressure is on the 49ers.
There is no pressure on the Vikings. They're supposed to lose. They're the six seed. They should already be home.
The 49ers are the ones who have earned that spot, where everyone is expecting them to advance. And I could see the Vikings giving them a hard time.
I also could see the Titans giving the Ravens everything that they can handle because--
PETER KING: Yes, yes.
MIKE FLORIO: That's going to be a close game. And if it's a close game, you know, it's more likely that the one seed is the one that seizes up in the fourth quarter, realizing we're supposed to win this game. And this could still go either way.
And I really do feel like it's much more of a toss up than the other games because it's going to be old school football. It's going to be grind it out. It's gritty and dirty, the way the Titans like it. And it's the way the Ravens do it. And I could see that game going either way.
PETER KING: Mike, two points. Number 1, I do not remember a year with two six seeds that are as threatening as these two six seeds. You look at these two games coming up-- the six at the one.
Is it a gimme for either one? Not at all. And it should be, shouldn't it? Shouldn't a 14-and-2 team playing at home off a bye have a gimme game? They should, but they're not going to.
And the second thing is, this has the feel of an NCAA tournament game, a basketball tournament game, 2 versus 15. The Tennessee Titans are 15. They're the mid-major team in the Mid-American Conference that can go in and wreak havoc in this tournament.
MIKE FLORIO: All right, for more PFT OT on Yahoo Sports videos, check us out throughout the postseason.
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