With one team still to be determined — the winner of tonight’s game between the Rams and Seahawks will win the NFC West and be seeded fourth — the matchups have, otherwise, been set for next Saturday, Jan. 8 and Sunday, Jan. 9 for the first round of the NFC and AFC playoffs.
NBC has two games next Saturday as part of their deal covering the NFL. At 3:30 p.m., the Saints, who are the No. 5 seed, play at either St. Louis or Seattle, depending on who wins tonight. Even though the Saints have a better record than both teams, they have to play on the road because they are a wild card and the Rams or Seahawks will be division champions. Unfair? Maybe, but that’s the way the system is set up.
At 7 p.m. Saturday, the wild-card Jets, seeded sixth in the AFC, will face the third-seed Colts at Indianapolis.
The Sunday matchups are as follows:
At noon on CBS, the fifth-seeded Ravens will travel to Kansas City to play the fourth-seeded Chiefs. Then, at 3:30 p.m. on Fox, the NFC sixth-seed Packers will be at Philadelphia to face the No. 3 seeded Eagles.
All times listed here are Central Standard Time.