4 questions that will be answered in the NFL playoffs’ divisional round

By Hannah Keyser, CNN

(CNN) — This postseason has already set an NFL playoff record with 12 fourth-quarter lead changes — and that’s before we even get to the divisional round this weekend.

The relative parity in the league paved the way for tightly contested matchups in the wild card round. But ultimately six teams were sent packing and now we get to see the remaining eight, including the two top seeds, duke it out for spots in the conference championship games.

Here are the games we’ll be watching:

Saturday

• 4:30 p.m. ET: Buffalo Bills vs. Denver Broncos, CBS
• 8 p.m. ET: San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks, Fox

Sunday

• 3 p.m. ET: Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots, ABC/ESPN
• 6:30 p.m. ET: Los Angeles Rams vs. Chicago Bears, NBC

Last weekend, we learned a lot about the teams that prevailed. Here are the questions that will be answered this weekend.

Can a banged-up Josh Allen survive the Broncos’ pass rush and the altitude in Denver?

Bills quarterback Josh Allen made multiple trips to the injury tent during a physical wild card game against the Jacksonville Jaguars last weekend.

Earlier this week, Buffalo’s injury report listed Allen as “foot/knee/finger,” a testament to the many bumps and bruises he’s nursing at this point in the season. He’ll play, obviously, and continue his quest to seize the moment in a Kansas City Chiefs-less playoff field to finally get his Super Bowl glory.

But, the contact-prone (and some people might say “contact-seeking”) QB will now face a defense that excels at taking down the opposition – literally. The Broncos’ 68 sacks in the regular season were 11 more than any other team and 20 more than any team that made the playoffs.

Allen, the reigning MVP, is the better QB in this matchup, having the edge over second-year Broncos signal-caller Bo Nix, whose only prior playoff start was a loss to Allen and the Bills last season. But not only will Allen face a formidable pass rush, he’ll have to travel to Denver to do so.

The Broncos are healthy, better rested after getting the bye, and for the first time in 10 years, playing a postseason game at home where their acclimation to the mile-high altitude gives them an advantage.

Can the Texans do something they’ve never done before?

The Houston Texans are the NFL’s youngest franchise. But even still, it sticks out that in every one of their prior 23 seasons, they’ve yet to appear in a conference championship game.

Over that same time frame, the Patriots, on the other hand, have played in 12 conference championship games.

This Texans team, however, enters the divisional round on an incredible run – its 10-straight victories are the longest winning streak in the NFL right now and they’re coming off a first-ever franchise playoff road victory. Houston’s defense shone in a resounding 30-6 romp over the Pittsburgh Steelers that featured two defensive touchdowns and four sacks of Aaron Rodgers.

To make franchise history, though, they’ll have to win on the road, again, as underdogs, and potentially without Pro Bowl wide receiver Nico Collins, who is still in concussion protocol after getting injured in the wild card game.

And they’ll have to beat the possible MVP in Pats QB Drake Maye. The 23-year-old looked a little shaky in the first half of his first playoff game last weekend, but he settled down in the second half.

This New England team isn’t the same one that built a dynasty earlier in the 2000s, but taking down the Pats would still qualify as a sign that the Texans are all grown up as a team.

Can the Niners muster any offense in a rematch marred by injury?

It’s a rematch of the Week 18 showdown for the top seed in the NFC that saw the Seahawks prevail by stifling the 49ers’ offense. Seattle’s defense surrendered the fewest points in the regular season, only allowing a single field goal to San Francisco earlier this month. That victory was also part of an NFL-best 6-2 record against playoff teams.

It earned the Seahawks a week of rest while the Niners had to crisscross the country, traveling to Philadelphia for the wild card game and now back to the Pacific Northwest. After they played on Sunday last weekend, San Francisco’s head coach Kyle Shanahan implored the NFL to give his guys a full week of rest before the next round.

Instead, they’ll play Saturday – while their opponent had a bye, the Niners are stuck with a short week for the third time in the past month.

And the same offense that struggled against Seattle so recently will be even more shorthanded in this even higher-stakes matchup after losing George Kittle to a season-ending Achilles injury against the Eagles.

Of course, the injury advantage would tip back the other way if it ends up that Seahawks QB Sam Darnold, currently listed as questionable with an oblique injury, can’t play. Speaking on those reports, Darnold said “nothing to see here” and “feel like I’ll be ready to go for Saturday.”

Can the Bears keep winning like this?

Last week, we wrote that if the Rams advanced, they could be the Super Bowl favorites. Advance, they did. Although the odds still give the edge to Seattle, the Rams are a very close second. Maybe they’re destined to duke it out officially against Seattle in the conference championship.

But first, they’ll serve as the proving ground for Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears to demonstrate that their high-drama overperformance is a trick that they can turn to even against formidable foes.

Against their rival Green Bay Packers, the Bears won in increasingly classic-for-them fashion. Which is to say, Ben Johnson repeatedly went for it on fourth down, which often failed in maddening fashion but worked just often enough.

On top of that, Chicago fell behind early, trailing 21-6 through three quarters, only to rally for their seventh fourth-quarter comeback of the season. Williams held on the ball for what felt like too long at times, only to rattle off the kind of under-pressure passes that showcased the rare physical tools that made him the top overall draft pick in 2024.

After last weekend, the Bears are 3-3 when trailing by 10 points or more in the final five minutes of the game. The rest of the NFL combined is 3-158. That shouldn’t be a replicable skill.

But if it is? Watch out.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.