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NFL Playoff Schedule 2017: Wild Card Matchups, Bracket Dates and Start Times
- Updated: January 2, 2017
After scratching and clawing for four months to reach the NFL playoffs, teams now know that one loss will be enough to end their season.
The Wild Card Round will begin Saturday and conclude on Sunday, with 12 Super Bowl contenders falling to just eight by the end of the weekend. The New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons are safe with a first-round bye, but eight other teams will have to fight hard to survive.
Here is what fans should look forward to in the upcoming week.
You can view the latest bracket at NFL.com.
Wild Card Matchups
Miami Dolphins at Pittsburgh Steelers
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It’s a relative surprise to see either of these teams in the postseason after terrible stretches earlier in the year.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had four losses in a row in the middle of the season and trailed the Baltimore Ravens in the division. They turned things around in a hurry, rattling off seven-straight wins and are suddenly one of the hottest teams in the NFL.
“We ready ourselves for the playoffs now, and we do so with great excitement,” head coach Mike Tomlin said after the Week 17 win over the Cleveland Browns, per the team’s Twitter account.
Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins were at one point considered one of the worst teams in the NFL after a 1-4 start and the only win coming against the Cleveland Browns. They turned things around against these Steelers, which was the first of six straight victories.
The Dolphins finished with nine wins in the final 11 games and enter the postseason with a lot of confidence.
Of course, the big question mark is whether Matt Moore is up to the task of leading his team to a playoff win. The backup quarterback has filled in for the injured Ryan Tannehill and has played well, but an aggressive Steelers defense could cause problems.
If the Dolphins want to advance, Moore and Jay Ajayi will need to figure out how to match Ben Roethlisberger and Le’Veon Bell in production.
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