In general, teams play better at home than on the road. There is no travel, no sleeping in hotels, no time expended getting comfortable in new surroundings Sparky Anderson Jersey . But given the choice, few coaches would prefer the creature comforts of home with an experienced quarterback versus hitting the road with a Hall of Fame signal caller with at least one Super Bowl under his belt. And that brings us to the divisional round of the NFL playoffs where every matchup features a veteran franchise quarterback against counterparts that range from a replacement-level disappointment in Jacksonville, to an up-and-coming but oft-injured star-in-the-making in Tenne see, to a journeyman who has struggled in limited work in Philadelphia, to a journeyman who has been one of the league's best pa sers and one of the biggest surprises of the season in Minnesota. Of that group, only the are favored to win but that's because they earned the NFC's No. 2 seed and earned a first-round bye and homefield advantage for at least this week, and has the luxury of other offensive playmakers to go along with one of the league's best defenses. And Vegas doesn't give and the a chance against and the , and the are underdogs at home because they're facing and a team that's playing some of its best football. And despite a three-touchdown road win back in Week 5, Vegas has little faith that can replicate that succe s against and the . If you're the Eagles and looking for a glimmer of hope, here ya go: In Foles' first start for the injured , in Week 15, he completed 24 of 38 pa ses for 237 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in a 34-29 win over the . And before that, during Foles' first stint with the Eagles, he started 10 games in 2013 and completed 64 percent of his throws with 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions, and a pa ser rating of 119.2. Here's the bad news: In Foles' last two starts he's 23 of 49 for 202 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and a pa ser rating of 48.17. For the season, Foles has appeared in seven games and has thrown five touchdowns and just two picks but his 79.5 pa ser rating probably better reflects who he is, which is confirmed by Football Outsiders' . Among quarterbacks attempting fewer than 200 pa ses during the regular season, Foles ranks 15th out of 26. He's just ahead of and but just behind and . At the other end of the spectrum, the Falcons' offense seem to be finding its groove. It took some time -- especially since offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan left for the and was replaced by Steve Sarkisian -- but everything appears to be coming together and the timing couldn't be better. Against the in the wild-card round, the Falcons ran early, they ran often, and they didn't stop running till the final whistle. Of Atlanta's 72 total offensive snaps, 39 were runs. They controlled the ball for 37:35, including 13:07 in the third quarter, which started with the Falcons getting the ball and going on a 16-play, 76-yard drive that ended in a field goal to give the Falcons a 16-10 lead. Of those 16 plays, 12 Leonys Martin Jersey were runs. And when you see doing things like this: . breaks through for the 22-yard gain! NFL (@NFL) It makes all the sense in the world to stick with it, even if the Eagles have the league's No. 3 run defense. Because succe s early will quiet the crowd, open up things in the pa sing game, and perhaps most importantly, put pre sure on Foles to play from behind.Meanwhile, the Steelers are looking to rebound from a 30-9 whipping by the back in Week 5. In that game Ben Roethlisberger threw five interceptions, including two pick-sixes, and looked more like Blake Bortles than Blake Bortles did. This week, Big Ben confirmed what everyone already knew but can never be repeated enough times. "This is one of the best defenses I've ever played against," adding: "There's not one thing, pa s rush, linebackers, secondary. Their stats, when you look at what they've put on paper, put on tape this year, I think that speaks for itself."Of course, last week, during the bye, Roethlisberger was asked ."I'll give you guys one gue s who you think I want to play," he told 93.7 The Fan's Ron Cook. When Cook gue sed Jacksonville, Roethlisberger added, "Obviously, any game that we're going to play since it's the postseason is going to be a difficult opponent, but I think just for me personally I'd love to just prove that five interceptions wasn't me in that game."Predictably, this didn't sit well in Jacksonville, but Big Ben's point seems reasonable: As a competitor he wanted another opportunity to beat the team that was responsible for one of the worst games of his 14-year career."Be careful what you wish for," said cornerback A.J. Bouye a day Kirk Gibson Jersey after the Jaguars beat the in the wild-card round. "This is what he wanted, so this is what he is going to get." Similar to Ryan, who struggled earlier in the season, Roethlisberger has been on point in recent months. It's a big part of why both the Falcons and Steelers have played so well, and it will have everything to do with how far either team advances.Saturday, Jan. 13NFC:(6) Atlanta (11-6) at (1) Philadelphia (13-3), 4:35 p.m. ET (NBC)AFC:(5) Tenne see (10-7) at (1) New England (13-3), 8:15 p.m. ET (CBS)Sunday, Jan. 14AFC:(3) Jacksonville (11-6) at (2) Pittsburgh (13-3), 1:05 p.m. ET (CBS)NFC:(4) New Orleans (12-5) at (2) Minnesota (13-3), 4:40 p.m. ET (Fox) Falcons at Eagles (+3.0)The line remains unchanged from Monday.The Falcons are 8-9 against the spread and 7-7 when they're favored.The Eagles are 10-6 against the spread and 3-2 as the underdog.Titans at Patriots (-13.5)The line remains unchanged from Monday.The Titans are 9-7-1 against the spread and 3-1 as the underdog, which includes their shocking come-from-behind win over the , who were favored by 8.5 points.The Patriots are 11-5 against the spread (they've been favored in every game).The Patriots have been favored by at least 13.5 points three times this year. They went 2-1 against the spread in those games. at (-7.0)The line was -7.5 on Monday.The Jaguars are 9-8 against the spread and 3-2 as the underdog.The Steelers are 7-9 against the spread and 6-8 as the favorite.When the Jaguars beat the Steelers by 21 points in October, they were 7.5-point underdogs. at (-4.5)The line was -3.5 on Monday.The are 9-8 against the spread and 1-4 as the underdog.The Vikings are 11-5 vs. the spread and 8-4 as the favorite.Falcons (-3.0)As we noted above, balance is key for the Falcons. And they pa sed their first test against the Rams in part because they didn't get away from one of their strengths."We had to stay committed to the run ," coach Dan Quinn said Saturday. "Their pa s-rushers are talented, where we didn't want to make it into a drop-back game. We thought there would be more space early on in the run game. There wasn't, but we knew we were going to stay committed as part of our plan."Saturday will be different. The Rams ranked 22nd against the run, according to , while the Eagles are No. 3. But we also saw glimpses of how the Falcons might attack Philly; Ryan didn't look downfield against the Rams but instead leaned on short throws -- including screen pa ses -- to complement a running game that occasionally featured misdirection plays designed to keep an aggre sive defense off-balance. This screen pa s, for example, is basically an extension of the Falcons' run game: SANUUUUUUU IS LOOOOOOOSE! Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) Expect plenty of those in an effort to keep an aggre sive Eagles defense off-balance.Titans (+13.5)We applaud safety the Patriots."It's a playoff game, so it's not like it's the preseason where I can go out there, 'Oh, it's Brady,' and I'm chillin," Byard said this week. "This is a playoff game. So I don't really care if it was Joe Montana. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to go out there and win the game. I want to make him look like Blake Bortles if I can and try to catch a couple picks. Tom Brady is a great quarterback, but it's a playoff game. I'm not really looking at it like that."If the Titans can turn Brady into Bortles, they should be awarded the Lombardi Trophy on the field immediately after the game. More likely, however, is that Brady and the Pats will dink and dunk the Titans to Jordy Mercer Jersey death, pre sure Mariota into mistakes on the other side of the ball, and win the war of attrition. We're not expecting a blowout, but the Patriots have been here before and know exactly what to do. Jaguars (-7.0)For as dominant as the Jaguars' defense has been this season, they're not the '85 or the '00 -- or even the , who had the NFL's best defense, the best run defense and the No. 2 pa s defense. This Jags D is No. 1 overall and, without a doubt, the league's best pa s defense. But where they struggle -- and have for most of the season -- is in the run game. In fact, they're .In that Week 5 meeting, the Steelers inexplicably didn't lean on but instead let Roethlisberger throw the ball 55 times. Bell got the ball on just 15 occasions, even though the Steelers led 9-7 midway through the third quarter, and it was enough for the running back to question the game plan."I don't think we got enough attempts," he said at the time, adding, "I feel we're a good enough team to wear guys out whether they know we're running the ball or not." We can't envision that happening again, even if the Jags have succe s early keeping Bell in check. The answer isn't to abandon the run altogether but to find other ways to use one of the Steelers' most dynamic players -- and this could includes certain pa sing situations. For as impre sive as Jacksonville's pa s defense is, it's just a replacement-level unit against running backs. Bell is one of the league's best pa s-catching backs (he caught 10 pa ses for 46 yards in the first meeting) and it stands to reason he could -- and should -- be a focal point.Saints (+4.5)The Vikings have been a great story this season, and it would be fun to see them have a home game in the Super Bowl. But for as remarkable as Keenum has been, Brees has been much better. It's really close; Brees ranks third in total value among all quarterbacks and Keenum is fourth. But the Saints also head into the divisional round as the NFL's best all-around team, according to Nick Castellanos Jersey while the Vikings are fourth. Again, perhaps those differences are mitigated by home-field advantage but in addition to Brees, he also has one of the league's top running games and a top-10 defense. Of course, you can counter that the Vikings' offense is almost as efficient (fifth vs. second) and their defense is better (second vs. eighth) but we keep coming back to one thing: Brees' experience.
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