NFL Playoffs 2014: Teams Destined to Struggle in January

December 28, 2013   ·   Josh Cohen   ·   Jump to comments

They fought all season to make the NFL playoffs, but some teams are not positioned to succeed once they get there.
Not everyone will be playing their best football at the most important time of the year. After qualifying on the strength of a 16-game track record, the last squads standing will face the sudden-death format of the postseason. If they're not peaking now, everything they have won prior may have been for naught.
Then again, sometimes a team's inevitable playoff difficulties are not its own fault. The machinations of postseason scheduling can result in an especially unfavorable road to the Super Bowl, dashing hopes before January play has even begun.
 
New Orleans Saints
Here is Exhibit A on the subject of unfavorable draws.
For the sake of argument, let's say the New Orleans Saints take care of business against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 17, while the Atlanta Falcons upset the Carolina Panthers. In this hypothetical, the Saints sneak ...

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