AFC
Indianapolis at Baltimore
I’ve said before that I don’t trust Baltimore, but I trust Peyton Manning in the playoffs even less. And of course, I get to be nauseated by all the stories about how horrible it was that the Colts’ left town in the dead of night stealing the pro franchise from Baltimore. I moved outside Baltimore my senior year of high school and spent summers during college there, and those people were still whining years later. Let me put my feelings in a nutshell. The Baltimore Colts weren’t’ drawing fans that last year, the team left at night because the state was looking into seizing the team through eminent domain and you can’t whine about how unfair it is that your team left because you stopped going to games then turn around and take Cleveland’s team that regularly filled the stadium and only moved because of the financial incompetence of the owner. I don’t like the Colts, but after all that crap, I don’t like the Ravens either. I wish they could both lose. However, as far as picks go, I’m taking the Ravens. One, I think the stout Colts’ of last week was an aberration brought about by poor Chief’s coaching. Steve McNair is past his prime, but stack the line on him and he’ll have a field day. Two, I will never trust Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning in a playoff game. Three, while the matchup is being billed as the tough Baltimore defense against the high powered Colts’ offense, I’ve been seeing some cracks in that Colts’ offense to end the season. They struggled last week against a mediocre Kansas City defense that was on the field a lot.
New England at San Diego
This is a playoff game that a lot of things seemed to actually favor the visitors. The Patriots are the experienced playoff team with a coach who is 12-2 in the playoffs and a quarterback who is 11-1. Plus, they are on a nice four game winning streak. On the flip side, San Diego has Marty Schottenheimer and his 5-12 playoff record and reputation for choking. A lot. Plus, Philip Rivers is starting his first playoff game (first time playoff quarterbacks historically don’t do crap), and got a little shaky down the stretch. Still, why am I picking the Chargers? Even though Rivers has been a bit shaky, they still haven’t lost since October. Schottenheimer has given his play calling duties to his offensive coordinator. Plus, I’m not all that sold on the Patriots who were actually played even by the Jets for most of that game. Besides, as far as I know, the Chargers are the only team to have two guys on defense (Shawne Merriman and Luis Castillo) who have tested positive for steroids. God only knows how many on the team are just better at masking it. But it still doesn’t matter because the Chargers have LaDanian Tomlinson. You know, the best player in the game. The guy whose worst game against a Bill Belichick defense was 134 yards and two touchdowns. I think the way Tomlinson and their juiced up defense are playing will be enough to overcome Martyball.
NFC
Seattle at Chicago
Rex Grossman is quite simply the most mind-boggling quarterback I have ever seen. This guy had a game with a zero quarterback rating (but only because they won't go into the negatives). He had another with 1.3 quarterback rating and three more where he couldn’t get to 37. For reference sake, 16 quarterbacks averaged an 80 or more quarterback rating with Peyton Manning leading the league with a 101 average. Yet, Grossman also had the same number of games (7) where he topped 100 in passer rating as Manning did. This is taking the Forrest Gump comment about never knowing what you’ll get in a box of chocolates to an extreme. Actually, I always thought that was a dumb comment. You always knew which piece of chocolate had coconut in it. However, the Grossman equivalent of not knowing what you’ll get is opening a box of chocolate and getting a car transmission. His train wrecks aren’t derailments. He drives the engine into a volcano. I’m surprised he doesn’t have gamblers trying to kill him, because he takes everything out of the equation when the Bears play. One of the games that he broke 100 in rating was when the Bears beat Seattle 37-6, but you know that if "Bad Rex" shows up this week, God only knows what will happen. Still, as much as he scares me, I think the Bears still win. Even with Grossman courting disaster throughout the season, the Bears only lost two meaningful games. And it’s not like the Seahawks have shown me anything considering they needed the Tony Romo flub to win last week. And remember this little factoid, Grossman isn’t the holder on field goal attempts.
Philadelphia at New Orleans
Now this game I find intriguing. The Eagles just beat the Giants by a last second field goal. A couple of weeks before, the Saints beat the Giants by 23. Does that give the edge to the Saints. Possibly. However, the Eagles seem to be doing whatever it takes to win during their hot streak. However, the Saints had been hot for awhile except the 16-10 loss in week 14. Of course, the Saints have been the story of the year because of lingering sympathy for the hurricane ravaged New Orleans. Of course, a lot of residents have spent time since the hurricane trying to wipe out any vestige of sympathy for them. What's the over/under on murders during the game? Murders, fraud and abuse of other's generosity. Pretty much how New Orleans was before the hurricane, and what they exported to other markets. As for the game, common sense tells me the Saints. After all, they got a prolific offense with skilled players everywhere. They've had the better defense all year. Yet, I'm not sure. The Saints receivers have been banged up. But the main reason is Brian Westbrook. Disregard the hype about Reggie Bush. He's not even the best running back on his own team. And neither Bush nor Deuce McAllister is better than Westbrook is right now. I'm picking the Eagles in an upset.
To make it more interesting, I decided to
compete against Angus, my surviving pet rat. I would get two peanuts and label them as opposing teams and then offer them to her. Rats love peanuts. They aren't really that excited about cheese, although they are like garbage disposals. They'll eat anything. Based on which peanut she ate, her picks for this round are Baltimore, New England, Philadelphia, and Seattle.And does anyone want to guess which Toys R Us manager wanted to keep Jennifer Miller around after Christmas because she was young and cute?
2 comments:
John Syner
Think older, less hair.
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