Who Americans wants to win this weekend's NFL playoff games
- Americans want the Chargers to beat the Patriots by an 18 percentage point spread
- Respondents to our survey are split on the Colts-Chiefs game
- The New Orleans Saints are the most preferred Super Bowl champ, with 32 percent of people ranking them in their top two.
It's the second round of the NFL playoffs, with eight teams vying for four chances to make the AFC and NFC championship games. For fans of the 24 teams who are vying for excellent tee times at the golf course right about now, it can be challenging to figure out a rooting interest for some games.
INSIDER ran a SurveyMonkey Audience poll that ran January 10-11, 2018 where we asked respondents to rank the eight remaining NFL teams based on how happy they would be if the team won the Super Bowl. All told, 1,050 respondents were presented with the question, with 794 opting to answer and ranking at least one team.
We went through each of the four games this weekend.
Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs
America is split on this game, with 51% of Americans pulling for Andrew Luck and the Colts to beat Kansas City. The two-percentage-point difference for Saturday afternoon's game is the closest of the divisional round. Overall, 12% of respondents most wanted the Colts to win the Super Bowl this year compared to 13% who ranked Kansas City as their number one choice.
Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Rams
The Dallas Cowboys are the team that the most respondents selected as the franchise they most wanted to see win the Super Bowl of the eight remaining teams, with 18% flagging Dallas as the preferred franchise for a ring. This doesn't mean most people like them, though: 54% of respondents ranked the Los Angeles Rams higher than the Cowboys, an 8-percentage-point spread.
Philadelphia Eagles at New Orleans Saints
The Saints are the most popular franchise this year, with 32% of people rating them as their first or second choice to win the Super Bowl. Philly is reasonably well-liked as well, so only 56% of raters pulled for the Saints over the Eagles, a 12-percentage point spread.
Los Angeles Chargers at New England Patriots
A full 41 percent of respondents placed the New England Patriots as their last- or second-to-last choice to win the Super Bowl. The Chargers are the overwhelming preference to win this game: 59% of respondents ranked them higher than New England in their ranking for teams they wanted to win the Super Bowl, an 18 percentage point spread that is unmatched in any other game this weekend.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,116 respondents, a margin of error plus or minus 3.09 percentage points with 95% confidence level.