NFL Playoff Schedule 2021: Wild Card Matchups, Bracket Dates and Start Times

The final week of the NFL regular season wasn't short on drama and surprises.

For Cleveland Browns fans, this weekend will go down in the history books, as Baker Mayfield and Co. broke the league's longest playoff drought—18 seasons—by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-22 and securing the AFC's No. 6 seed. The Steelers were without a number of starters and were already guaranteed the No. 3 seed heading into the weekend.

That didn't stop Pittsburgh from taking Cleveland all the way down to the final minutes, where the Browns got a stop on the Steelers' two-point conversion to seal the victory and the team's first playoff berth since 2002.

After Sunday night's finale between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Football Team, here's where the Wild Card Weekend matchups stand.

Saturday, January 9

1:05 p.m. ET, (CBS): Indianapolis Colts at Buffalo Bills

4:40 p.m. ET (Fox): Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks

8:15 p.m. ET (NBC): Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Washington Football Team

Sunday, January 10

1:05 p.m. ET (ESPN/ABC): Baltimore Ravens at Tennessee Titans

4:40 p.m. ET (CBS, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime): Chicago Bears at New Orleans Saints

8:15 p.m. ET (NBC, Telemundo, Peacock): Cleveland Browns at Pittsburgh Steelers

*Schedule courtesy of NFL Communications

AFC Wild Card Picture

2) Buffalo Bills vs. 7) Indianapolis Colts

3) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. 6) Cleveland Browns

4) Tennessee Titans vs. 5) Baltimore Ravens

Unlike last year's Wild Card Weekend, this one will feature not one, but two matchups between divisional rivals.

In the AFC, the aforementioned Browns will have a rematch with the Steelers in Pittsburgh, and the latter will almost certainly have the starters back that sat out this weekend, including quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. In the two teams' last matchup at full strength, Pittsburgh blew Cleveland's doors off 38-7 in mid-October.

Cleveland has won six of its last eight games, and Mayfield has vastly improved over what he showed against Pittsburgh more than two months ago. Pittsburgh, which had a clear path to the AFC's No. 1 seed a few weeks ago, has now lost four of its last five, including an embarrassing loss to the Cincinnati Bengals two weeks ago.

The team that overtook Pittsburgh—the Buffalo Bills—absolutely demolished the Miami Dolphins while playing its backups to seal the No. 2 seed and its first home playoff game in 25 years.

The Bills will face the Indianapolis Colts, which nearly had the No. 4 seed locked up before a late-game heave from Ryan Tannehill put the Tennessee Titans into field-goal range against the Houston Texans. Backup kicker Sam Sloman then banked a 37-yard field goal off the upright and in to steal back a win and a home game in the Wild Card Round.

Tennessee, meanwhile, will face off with the Baltimore Ravens, a team it beat in overtime in late November. Titans running back Derrick Henry notched another bonkers stat line Sunday with 34 carries, 250 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

He will finish as the NFL's rushing leader with 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns, making him only the second running back in league history to notch 2,000-plus yards and 15-plus touchdowns in a single season.

The Kansas City Chiefs, who locked up the No. 1 seed last weekend, will have the AFC's lone bye and home-field advantage.

NFC Wild Card Picture

2) New Orleans Saints vs. 7) Chicago Bears

3) Seattle Seahawks vs. 6) Los Angeles Rams

4) Washington Football Team vs. 5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Things in the NFC looked much more complicated coming into the day, but the Green Bay Packers' win over the Chicago Bears helped clear things up at the top of the standings, as the Packers will take the No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

The New Orleans Saints easily handled the Carolina Panthers despite not having any of their usual running backs, who were all placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. The big question for the Saints was whether they would play Saturday or Sunday next week. Because they're playing Sunday, they're likely to get star running back Alvin Kamara back.

Even with its loss to Green Bay, Chicago fell back into the No. 7 seed after the Los Angeles Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals and knocked them out of the playoff race. The Bears will travel to face New Orleans, which has won 11 of its last 13 games after starting the season 1-2.

The Seattle Seahawks facing Los Angeles makes up the second divisional rematch of the weekend, with the Rams heading to face the Seahawks at Lumen Field. The teams split their two regular-season showdowns, with Los Angeles winning at home in November and Seattle squeaking out a 20-9 win at home two weeks ago.

In recent weeks, the Seahawks offense hasn't come close to matching the torrid start it opened the season with, so it's probably smart not to expect a high-scoring affair in this grudge match.

The only unresolved matchup left on Wild Card Weekend unsurprisingly came down to the NFC East, which has arguably been the worst division in the NFL this season.

Washington only needed to win Sunday night against 4-10-1 Philadelphia to lock up the No. 4 seed and a home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next weekend. Had the Eagles won, though, the 6-10 New York Giants would win the NFC East based on tiebreakers, and Washington would go home for the offseason.

Midway through the third quarter, Philadelphia benched starting quarterback Jalen Hurts for third-string QB Nate Sudfeld, essentially waving the white flag and conceding the game to Washington. Despite doing their best to hand the game back to Philadelphia, Washington (7-9) ultimately prevailed to secure its playoff berth, a first-round home game and the division crown. There really was no more fitting way for the NFC East title to be won.      

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