NFL Play-offs: Simon Veness expects unexpected this weekend

There are around 25,000 high schools in America, the vast majority of which have major sports programmes. This year's NFL rosters were drawn from 1,370 of them, in 48 states (plus from six other countries and American Samoa).

Just like Green Bay. After Week 13 - a 40-10 Thanksgiving Day shellacking by Detroit - they were in third place in the NFC North, didn't have a viable quarterback and looked like they would struggle to win a game, let alone the three they needed, plus three losses for the Lions and two for Chicago. Let's put those odds, conservatively, at 60-1, and, we are off past the X Files and on to the Outer Limits, a brain-bending, logic-breaking, gravity-defying alternative universe where anything is possible, including an 8-7-1 team hosting a 12-4 powerhouse (yes, many US pundits are back to debating the merits of a division winner automatically having the rights to a home game). So, when we consider the full eight-team line-up for this weekend (all live on Sky Sports 1 HD, by the way - every glorious minute), we have to be acutely aware of how we got Here before we can work out how to get There. And, when 'There' is MetLife Stadium on Sunday February 2, we still have a fair bit of considering to do. It doesn't quite start with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that are Messrs. Brees and Foles but it might as well. The oddsmakers rate the Eagles 2.5-point favourites over the Saints, which might make conventional sense seeing as Sean Payton's men are only 3-5 on the road this season and have NEVER won a play-off game away from the cosy confines of their dome home. But this is the NFL 2013/14 and conventional wisdom has been locked away in the Twilight Zone of sporting misadventure. So expect a New Orleans win as the NFL's No.2-rated passing attack takes on the league's 32nd-ranked passing defence, and to heck with the bookies.

Unexpected

Prior to that, Indianapolis get to entertain Kansas in a battle of 11-5 teams that we have already seen this season, albeit at Arrowhead Stadium, where Andrew Luck and Co won convincingly. Again, Las Vegas reckons the Chiefs will edge this one, but Simon Says, not on your betting Nelly. Everything we've seen recently tells us to expect the unexpected, so it's easy to see the Colts taking charge early and winning at a canter (ahem). Then it's Sunday, and two more episodes of our footballing Wheel of Fortune. First, Cincinnati get to entertain those freaky Chargers in a second return match-up from the regular season. The Bengals won that one, in San Diego, 17-10, and gave Philip Rivers conniptions with their defensive alignment, but that was before the last-gasp four-win streak that brought Mike McCoy's outfit to the gridiron promised land and, with Andy Dalton prone to multiple INT outbursts, the sporting gods could easily decree another upset here. Finally, it is the Green Bay Houdini Act at home to the 49ers, and the return match of Week 1, when Colin Kaepernick did his best Joe Montana impression and riddled the Packers secondary for a whopping 412 yards and three touchdowns. Aaron Rodgers matched him for TDs, but the scoreline was 34-28 against him. Now, in the freezer of Lambeau Field, the two will go head-to-head for the third time in little more than 12 months (as the 49ers also got the better of last year's Divisional Round match-up), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, if you like. Where this one ends up is absolutely anyone's guess. Except that we already know that it's not guesswork. It's another Tale of Mystery and Imagination - and the likelihood is that the unlikely will again be firmly to the fore. So, count on Rodgers to make up for the last 12 months in one fell swoop. And then we'll be on to the next instalment of our Magical Mystery Tour - final stop, New York.