This weekend provides another step for 8 teams to ascend to Super Bowl 58 which will be played at state of the art Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Sunday, February 11th at 5:30 PM CT on CBS. No.1 seeds the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers are in action against upstarts the Houston Texans and the Green Bay Packers respectively. The Chiefs and Bills resume a rivalry with, amazingly, Patrick Mahomes playing his first road playoff game ever in the National Football League. That’s 15 games before this Saturday. He’s defeated the Bills twice in Arrowhead Stadium in the postseason. He’s on the road this time.

And the story of the year, the Detroit Lions, which won their first playoff game since January 8th, 1994, 32 years, will host the Tampa Bay Bucs at Ford Field.

Here are predictions for this weekend’s contests.

Last week: SU-4-2, ATS, 3-3

Saturday

Houston Texans (11-7, 4-4 Away) @ Baltimore Ravens (13-4, 6-3 Home)

M&T Stadium, 71,108

3:30 PM CT

ESPN

Joe, Troy, Lisa, Laura

Yella, John Hussey

Ravens by 9

Houston is a thrilling young team led by their electric 22 year old rookie quarterback Coleridge Bernard “C.J.” Stroud. It’s not out of the question for the Texans to upset the Ravens, but I’ll take Lamar and his stellar defense in a close one however.

Ravens 20, Texans 17

Green Bay Packers (10-8, 5-5 Away) @ SF 49ers (12-5, 5-3 Home)

Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA., 68,500

7:15 PM

FOX

Kevin, Greg, EA, Tom

Rane, Alex Kemp

Niners by 9 1/2

I really like this electric young team led by their stellar 25 year old quarterback and Bakersfield, California native Jordan Love to possibly pull off an improbable upset in the Bay Area. The Niners have the horses for sure, so it’s hard to go against them. It was beyond stellar what the Packers did in Dallas last Sunday in a 48-32 victory. Love threw for 272 yards and 3 TDs, and, like Stroud against the Browns last Saturday, posted a 157.2 quarterback rating. 158.3 is perfect, so that’s almost a perfect performance. It seemed perfect. But I’ll take Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuels and Nick Bosa to advance and host the NFC Championship Game. Still, I like the Packers to make them earn it, and the Packers future is very bright. Could be rainy Saturday in Santa Clara, so I’m going with a lower scoring game.

Niners 24, Pack 21

Sunday

Tampa Bay Bucs ((10-8, 5-4 Away) @ Detroit Lions (13-5, 7-2 Home)

Ford Field, Motown, 65,000

2 PM CT

NBC

Mike, Cris, Melissa

Wood, Bill Vinovich

Lions by 6 1/2

I don’t like what I’m seeing from Jared Goff and the Lions. I Love what I’m seeing from them. Bake Mayfield is playing at a high level as well, but give me Goff and the Lions to move on to the NFC Championship Game, which would be played in Detroit if the Lions and Packers win. If the Niners win, the game will be played on the left coast regardless of who wins the Lions-Bucs.

Lions 34, Bucs 27

Kansas City Chiefs (12-6, 6-2 Away) @ Buffalo Bills (12-6, 8-2 Home)

Highmark Stadium, Orchard Park, N.Y., 71,608

5:30 PM CT

CBS

Jim, Tony, Trace, Jay

Mark’s Cleaners, Shawn Hochuli

Bills by 3

That’s just astounding to me that this is Patrick Mahomes first road playoff game after playing in 15 straight home playoff games. He’s 12-3 in those playoff games. Both teams braved the bitter January weather at their respective stadiums last weekend to emerge victorious, both in impressive fashion. Always hard to go against Mahomes. I’ve been burned by him before, including last season in Super Bowl 57 against the Eagles, a 38-35 Chiefs’ victory. But I like Josh Allen this time. Give me Allen and the Bills to win this encounter with the home field advantage as the difference.

Bills 24, Chiefs 20