The regular season has finally come to an end, which means that the REAL season starts this weekend. I know I haven’t posted in quite some time, but I’m finally back and ready to share my thoughts/observations on this year’s NFL playoffs. Luka and I were discussing some potential playoff scenarios and here are my predictions for this weekend’s Wildcard Round.
AFC
3. Houston vs 6. Cincinnati
If I turned the clocks back to the preseason and told you that this would be a playoff matchup, I guarantee everyone would have laughed at me, but here we are. The beauty of the NFL is that you can never know for sure which teams will be good and which teams will be bad (I’m talking to you Philly). Earlier in the season I said that the Texans were playing some of the best football in the AFC, but then Matt Schaub got injured and everything has been going downhill since. Though the Texans have an excellent D and great run game, I’m going to be putting my money on the rookie Andy Dalton to “upset” T.J. Yates and the Houston Texans. However, if Matt Schaub decides to pull a superman and play, I’m picking the Texans to win the super-mediocre AFC championship.
AFC
3. Houston vs 6. Cincinnati
If I turned the clocks back to the preseason and told you that this would be a playoff matchup, I guarantee everyone would have laughed at me, but here we are. The beauty of the NFL is that you can never know for sure which teams will be good and which teams will be bad (I’m talking to you Philly). Earlier in the season I said that the Texans were playing some of the best football in the AFC, but then Matt Schaub got injured and everything has been going downhill since. Though the Texans have an excellent D and great run game, I’m going to be putting my money on the rookie Andy Dalton to “upset” T.J. Yates and the Houston Texans. However, if Matt Schaub decides to pull a superman and play, I’m picking the Texans to win the super-mediocre AFC championship.
Texans 14 – BENGALS 21
4. Denver vs 5. Pittsburgh
I hate most NFL owners and NFL fans, but I especially hate the NFL media. Tim Tebow has been mediocre at best all season, yet every household with access to the internet and/or a television knows the name Tebow. It took him an entire season to complete enough passes to even QUALIFY to have his QB rating calculated, and with a score of 72.9, he sits 27th out of 33 passers...garbage. I’ve been saying for most of the season that the Steelers are headed downhill, but even with a broken Ben Roethlisberger and an aging D, Blitzburgh will bury the Broncos and hopefully shut this Tebowmania up, at least for the duration of the offseason.
Broncos 10 – STEELERS 24
NFC
3. New Orleans vs 6. Detroit
WHO DAT SAID DEY GON BEAT DEM SAINTS?!? This has been a fantastic season to be a Saints fan and an even better season if Drew Brees is your favourite player. Brees has had a once in a lifetime type season and broken many prestigious offensive records. This isn’t another Saints article, so let’s take a look at this game real quick. The Saints easily handled the Lions in their game earlier this season, but had it not been for Detroit’s 67,000 penalty yards, the game could have actually been much closer. Lion’s QB Matt Stafford is extremely inconsistent, but in the past few weeks, him and Calvin “Megatron” Johnson have been piling up the stats. Even with a very volatile offense and a tough defence (when they don’t give up 200 penalty yards), the Lions are no match for the Saints. If Detroit puts up 50 points, Drew Brees will find a way to put up 51, it’s as simple as that. This is almost guaranteed to be a high-scoring shoot out, but I don’t think there’s any real chance that the Lions can upset the Saints. One thing I predict that most people probably don’t expect is that the Saints will shut down Megatron. New Orleans’ defensive coordinator Gregg Williams firmly believes that you shouldn’t let the other team’s best players beat you and always comes up with a way to take the opposition’s most dangerous weapon out of the game. If you don’t believe me, go to 0:42 of this link and you’ll see what the tactic was the last time these 2 teams faced off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0JjyTgme0
SAINTS 42 – 35 Lions
4. New York vs 5. Atlanta
ELLIIII MANNNINGGGGGGG!!! What an absolute stud! To say that he hasn’t had a great year is simply retarded. With the game on the line in the 4th quarter, when it mattered most, only Aaron Rodgers had a better passer rating than Eli. He deserved the Pro Bowl spot and showed me that he is one of the top 5 QBs in the league. Atlanta on the other hand has coasted for much of the season and faced an extremely easy schedule all year. I personally don’t think they’re very good, but on any given Sunday, anyone can come out on top. The G-men are built very similar to the Giants team that won the superbowl in ’07, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they made another deep playoff run this year. Atlanta lucked out by not having to play (re: lose) to the Saints for the 3rd time this season, but I don’t think they have enough experience against good opponents to come away with this game.
GIANTS 24 – 21 Falcons
That’s it for this week. Next week I’ll talk about my take on the Wildcard Round and put up my predictions for the Divisional Round.
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