YIPPEE-KI-YAY MR FLACCO!

EAGLES @ CARDINALS: Talk about a Conference Championship for the birds! Hahaha. Well now that that's out of the way, on to bigger and better ballyhoo. If anyone said they thought the NFC would comedown to these two teams, than they are a filthy, dirty, no good liar. No one thought it at the beginning of the season. No one thought it half way through the season. No one thought in the last few weeks of the season. No one thought it when the playoffs started. No one thought it even, EVEN, before last weekend. Some people probably still don't think its happening. Some little poindexter might stroll up to you and say otherwise, but rest assured they are a liar. The first clue may be that their pants are on fire.

Now the Eagles are the more playoff seasoned, hard-nosed, dare I say grizzled, team in this affair. Whereas the Cardinals, are well the Cardinals. Right now I would say there are basically two schools of thought on this game. 1) The Cards will win or B) the Cards will lose. Scenario one has people drawing upon the Cards dismantling of the Cards and having a stout defense, stopping two of the best running teams in the league en route to the NFC Championship game. But where has this come from? This hasn't been a defense that has been known to make things happen,which brings us to scenario B. You see as nice a story as the Cards run is, I think, as do many I'm sure, that they are on borrowed time. In other words all goods things must come to an end, but who is to say that won't happen two weeks from now? Me that's who! Well, I mean I don't have any real power or say in the matter,or do I? I don't. But I feel like the clock is striking midnight on this magical Cardinals run. It just pheels like after the Phillies won, things are turning around in Philadelphia. I can't really say I'd be disappointed with either outcome in this one. But I'm gonna go with the Eagles 28-24.
RAVENS @ STEELERS: Alright, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, can we just ease up on the Joe Flacco praise? Don't get me wrong, I like Joe Flacco. I mean, what's not to like? Awesome name, former Blue Hen, etcetera, etcetera. But can we just stop making him out to be the next Stan Humphries! Or some other great QB? I mean he's not exactly putting up blazing numbers or anything. Let's be honest if he didn't have a world class defense at his disposal, would he have gotten this far? Hmmm? Now managing the game is a big part of being a quarterback, but lets not go fitting him for a gold jacket or getting his bust ready for Canton, alright? That's all I'm saying. But onto the game.

This one promises to be a good ol' fashioned, knockdown, drag 'em out, kick ya in the crotch, slobberknocking, put grandma to bed, pass the spicy mustard, crank up the AC/DC, lock up the good china, dog fight! Lewis and Suggs, Farrior and Harrison. Much like the NFC Championship game, I don't really care who wins this one. But unlike the NFC Championship game, rather than being able to be happy with the outcome either way, I will be unhappy with the outcome of this one either, having a general dislike for both teams. While they say its hard to beat a team three times in one season, it has been done. So I don't hold much stock in that, but there is also the fact the Steelers have struggled at home in the Playoffs. In fact the last Super Bowl they went to they did it by winning three road playoff games. As intimidating as the "Ketchup packet" is supposed to be, the Steelers have managed to not have great playoff success there. Interesting? I think so. The Ravens are like the little Steelers. Almost a mirror image, but with slightly less talent. I gotta tell ya I think young Mr.Flacco and the Ravens "D" will keep them in the game, but in the end the Steelers will prevail. Steelers 17-13.

Either way should be a good day of football, enjoy!

"S" MY "D" BCS!

I don't generally watch college football, and part of that is due to the BCS system. Although Will Forte does make a compelling argument.

DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS TOO

Little bit of a time crunch today, but here ya have it:

EAGLES @ GIANTS: Eli's arm gets broken in the second quarter, the road team wins again, Green Man dances the night away! Eagles 27-21. If Eli's arm stays in one piece, um Eagles 23-21.

CHARGERS @ STEELERS: Are the Chargers back to what everyone expected? I dunno, I'm asking you all! Steelers defense is a little tougher than the Colts'. James Harrson stuffs darren Sproles in a trash barrel in pregame, and incurs a penalty. LT watches on from his rocking chair, helplessly, whittlin' away, with a nice afghan draped over him. Steelers 17-13.

DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS: PART ONE

RAVENS @ TITANS: The Titans hardly dominated down the stretch, while the Ravens hardly dominated at any point, in my mind. Well sure, they handled the Dolphins alright, but c'mon. The Dolphins?! If the Pats had Brady, the Bills had Jim Kelly, and the Jets had Chad Pennington, there's no WAY the Dolphins would have even made the Playoffs. I mean its the transitive property of who have they played? Here's the Dolphins last half of the season: wins against Seattle, Oakland, St.Louis, Buffalo, San Francisco, Kansas City, and the New York Jets. Wow, how did they ever navigate their way through that gauntlet of awesome? I dunno where I was going with that. I think the Titanic "D" should pester Joe Flacco "Seagulls" (nickname courtesy of my friend Billyball)all night long and they will win.








Titans 17-13.

CARDINALS @ PANTHERS: Alright, so I was way off in predicting the Cards Wild Card game, but I guess that's why they call it a "wild card". The Cards showed moxie in the franchise's first playoff game in like six decades, but now they are headed to one of the Carolinas, where the Panthers have been practically unstoppable. The Panthers should send the Cards Delhomme for the season.






Panthers 27-20.

WILD CARD WEEKEND PART TOO

RAVENS @ DOLPHINS: In a perfect world there would be no winners in this game, but unfortunately, there are no ties in the Playoffs. Got that Donovan? Now this has the potential to be a good game, which is all well and good. But I'm more interested in the pregame warmups. You read correctly. Joey Porter on one side with Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs on the other side. C'mon! If I'm NFL Films I am getting microphones on them two days ago! But, I guess they will also actually play a football game, and despite my repeated emails to Roger Goodell, there will be a winner, so, ummmm, Ravens 23-21.

EAGLES @ VIKINGS: Both teams seem to be playing their best ball when it counts. This one will either be close or an Eagles blowout. I'm leaning more towards the former, I think. Is the "former" the first thing in the sentence? I never remember that. Well, I think it will be close is what I'm trying to get across. But I think the effort of one individual could tip the scales in the Eagles direction. No, not Donovan McNabb. Not DeSean Jackson or Brian Westbrook either. No, the difference maker on Wild Card Sunday will be none other than............ Green Man
Eagles 17-12.

WILD CARD WEEKEND: PART ONE

Yes folks its time for football's second season! Wild Card Weekend is here! Everything that has occurred over the last seventeen weeks or so is now virtually meaningless. I said virtually. Anyway, on to the picks:

FALCONS @ CARDINALS: This one should be a shootout in the desert. The Cardinals earned a home game by winning the NFC West. As we've mentioned before winning the NFC West is kinda like being the skinniest kid at fat camp, the smartest Congressman, the tallest midget, or the healthiest Burger King menu item. I'm pretty sure the Lions would not have been winless if they played in that division. There I said it! In other words the Cardinals have proven the least of all the division winners, while the Falcons were just one game shy of getting a first round bye. Hmmm, Matty Ice versus the Methuselah of quarterbacks. Let me think. Falcons 31-21.

COLTS @ CHARGERS: The Chargers are the home team with the best chance of winning this weekend, while the Colts have Peyton Manning. This is a battle between two teams who were more or less written off as dead teams walking back in like Week 6. The Chargers surged to win the scrappy AFC West with a whopping 8-8 record. I mean how did they win four straight to get here? Well, they beat the Chiefs, Bengals, Buccaneers and Broncos. Only one of those teams was over .500, and that was Tampa Bay, but they lost their last four games including one to the Raiders, so that's not much to shake a stick at. Okay, okay, the Broncos were over .500 when they played them, but they lost their last three games and four of their last six. In fact against teams with above .500 records this year, the Chargers were a whopping, wait for it, 4-7. But....

before you all go jumping to pick the Colts in this one, lets take a look at that nine straight they won to turn their season around. It started with the Patriots and Steelers, in close games, those we'll count as "good" wins, but the next 7? Texans, Chargers, Browns, Bengals, Lions, Jaguars, Titans. The only team in there that actually gave a crap was probably the Chargers. And beating the Browns by 4, the Lions by 10, the Texans by 6, Jaguars by 7 and the lame duck Chargers by 3 is hardly awe inspiring, Now, I realize that the first couple of Patriot Super Bowl teams did the same thing, playing down to there opponents and winning every game close, but having not played a game that mattered in like 7 weeks could effect the Colts. Plus the Colts have had their troubles with the Chargers in the postseason. So what does this all mean? Well, I think its fairly obvious. Colts 27-23.