After last night's dual debacle, I'm just going to ignore any of that happened and instead focus on the upcoming NFL playoffs. Now, I haven't watched a ton of NFL this year, but if reading sports articles for practically my entire life has taught me anything, it's that watching a lot of something probably makes you worse at predicting it. So, let's take this match up by match up. In order of when games will be played, we'll start with Cincinnati at Houston. I have to admit I didn't realize the Bengals made the playoffs. I knew they had a better than expected year, but I didn't think they did that well. Houston is a very banged up and, if their loss at Indy says anything, a very undisciplined team. Maybe it's just because I think Andy Dalton's TCU team really got the screws last year, but I'm going to pick the Bengals here. As for a score, I don't know. 17-14, does that sound about right? Sure, why not. 17-14, Cincinnati. Next up, we have the Lions taking on the Saints. The Lions should be a feel good story, just a few years removed from 0-16 with no sense of direction. A couple drafts later, there's direction. The problem is they are a dirty team with an especially dirty defense and a coach who sure comes off as a scum bag. The Saints on the other hand have a coach I really like in Sean Payton, a historically prolific offense, and are led by one of the best Boilermakers to come out of the Cradle of Quarterbacks, Drew Brees. I might have my black-and-gold glasses on, but I think the Saints win fairly easily. Plus, it's in their building this year instead of having to play out in Seattle like last year. 35-10, New Orleans. After we all have a good night's sleep, we now get to feast our eyes on the Falcons going to New Jersey to play the Giants. The Giants, from what I gather, are one of the more schizophrenic* teams in the league, and it starts with Eli Manning not knowing what level of quarterback he really is. The problem is, the Falcons are much the same way. If the Falcons realize they win much more often when they are primarily a running team, they'll take this one, but I've got a sneaking suspicion they won't. Still, it'll be a tight game, I think. 21-17, New York.** *I actually spelled that right the first time. I feel I deserve a ribbon or something. **Normally I'd need to indicate which New York team I meant, but since Rex Ryan's mouth has outgunned his team (again), we all know we're talking Giants on the field. To round out wild card weekend, we get a situation like the Colts going to San Diego a few years ago, or the Saints in Seattle last year. The Broncos get to play host to the Steelers. Now, the Steelers are clearly the better team, but I've seen this situation play out a couple times, and the better team was given and early (and probably unfair) boot out of the playoffs. Plus, as much as he annoys the holy hell out of me, the team starting winning once Tebow took the reigns. I can't explain it, but those are the facts. I'm going to take the Broncos here, even though most of me is telling me it's a bad idea. 13-10, Denver. Just to round things out, that would send the Bengals to New England, the Broncos to Baltimore, the Saints to San Fransico, and the Giants back to Green Bay. I think the Patriots would beat the Bengals fairly handily, and same for the Ravens over the Broncos. I'm going to take the Ravens in a minor upset to make the Super Bowl from the AFC from there. On the NFC side, I'll take the Saints over the 49ers in a somewhat embarrassing game. The Giants gave the Packers a hell of a game in Lambeau earlier this season, but I don't see it happening again. That'll set up the Saints and Packers in one hell of a showdown for the NFC championship that really could go either way. I'll take the Packers, partially for marital harmony, partially because they did win 15 games this year, and the Saints didn't. That would set up the Packers and Ravens for a Super Bowl in Indianapolis. Somehow, that would be seem very poetic for Baltimore to get some sort of revenge by winning that game, moreso for being the underdog and all. But, I don't see anybody beating the Packers outside of possibly the Saints, so I say the Packers become your back-to-back Super Bowl Champions.I'll revisit this as teams inevitably change, but that's my early predictions. I didn't do so badly on the baseball side of things, and put it in record there that the Cardinals had made a believer out of me even thought I stuck with my early predictions mostly for the sake of it. I don't think I'll be happy if my football predictions go better than my baseball ones, but that would be just like life, wouldn't it? Comments are closed.
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