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Bill Barnwell, ESPN Staff Writer
Some years, it feels like the best teams in football are flawless. This isn’t one of those years.
Most people had the 49ers as the class of the NFL, but they were stomped by the Ravens at home two weeks ago. The Eagles can’t even beat the Cardinals. The defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs lost three of four games in December. And while the Ravens are unquestionably a great team, they lost to the Colts and Steelers earlier this season and have the sort of recent playoff track record that will leave people skeptical until proved otherwise.
Those weaknesses should make for an entertaining postseason. In a season where there might be only one great team in either conference, we should get a competitive few rounds in the playoffs. Advancing out of either bracket to the Super Bowl might be less about how good you are and more about whether you come across a team that can exploit your weakness at the wrong time.
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I’m going to run through the nine teams that have already clinched a playoff spot and talk about those weaknesses. (Sorry, Bills and Jaguars fans, but your teams should have clinched before Week 18!) I’ll identify what has given each team trouble during the regular season, whether there’s a reason to believe it won’t be a problem during the playoffs and a potential opponent that might be able to exploit that weakness in the weeks to come.
I’ll go in reverse order of Super Bowl odds, per ESPN’s Football Power Index, starting with a team that has gotten hot late in the season.
Jump to a team:
BAL | CLE | DAL | DET | KC
LAR | MIA | PHI | SF
