NFL Playoff Talk

January 5, 2012

The best time of the football season is here. The NFL playoffs. Let’s all hope university presidents take note of just how popular a playoff system is.

I am going to spend some time reviewing the upcoming AFC and NFC playoffs while giving you my Super Bowl picks.

Though I am sure there will be some surprises, picking the games this year may seem relatively easy. Especially if you do it by process of elimination. Especially in the AFC.

I see only three AFC teams that are even playing like playoff teams. They are New England, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. The other three, Denver, Houston, and Cincinnati, are not playing real well of late. This could be explained quite simply by the quarterbacks. The before-mentioned teams have Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, and Joe Flacco while the struggling teams I mentioned have the overrated Tim Tebow with the Broncos, T. J. Yates, a rookie with Houston, and Andy Dalton, a rookie with the Bengals.

Lets dig a little deeper. Does Denver have a chance at home vs. the Steelers this week when Tebow has as many losses over the past three weeks, three, than Big Ben has in his playoff career? Yes, Roethlisberger has a 10-3 playoff record that includes two Super Bowl wins. So, yes, I will take the Steelers this weekend.

The other AFC matchup this weekend is Cincinnati at Houston. I really think this will be a one-and-done for the Texans. Houston may have finished as the No. 3 seed, but they’ve lost three consecutive games heading into the playoffs. This is primarily due to Yates, their third string quarterback, being pressed into duty. Now he is hurt and his backup is Jake Delhomme. And we all know how Jake has been playing the past few years. That alone has me taking the Bengals this weekend.

That leaves Cincinnati travelling to New England and Pittsburgh travelling to Baltimore the following week. I see the home teams winning. New England will put up 40 on the Bengals while the Ravens will be too much for the injury depleted Steelers. Pittsburgh lost it’s All-Pro RB in Rashard Mendenhall to a knee injury and Big Ben is still ailing from a high ankle sprain that has limited his mobility.

The New England-Baltimore AFC title game will be great matchup. Recent history tells us that the Ravens will win this one. We will take a look at it down the road in these pages.

The NFC will give us better games this year. The tide has turned and most of the best teams are now in the NFC. As good as Green Bay has been this season, I can see New Orleans, San Francisco, and even the New York Giants beating them if they play their best game. New Orleans can score with them. San Francisco can slow them down with its defense. And New York almost beat them in December.

I am sure the Packers have heard how hard it is to win consecutive titles. Only three teams have done that in the past two decades. The answer to that trivia question is Dallas, Denver and New England. Like I spoke of earlier, it will not be an easy road. The Saints are riding an eight-game win streak. The 49ers have won 13 games behind first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh. The Falcons were the NFC’s top seed last season while the Detroit Lions and New York Giants have upset potential.

Okay, back to the beginning. This week we have Detroit traveling to New Orleans and Atlanta going north to meet the New York Giants.

After watching Green Bay’s second string quarterback, Matt Flynn, throw for a team record six touchdowns against Detroit last week, I just don’t see how the Lions think they can stop Drew Brees of the Saints. Detroit, like Houston in the AFC, will be a one-and-done team. The best game of the weekend will be in New York. This one is a toss up for me. Atlanta is playing its best football at the right time and who knows how the inconsistent Giants will be. I think I will go with the Falcons in this one.

That would leave us with Atlanta at Green Bay and New Orleans at San Francisco. The Falcons are not one of the teams I listed above that can beat the Packers. The Saints and 49ers could be a classic. New Orleans can look ordinary on the road against above average defenses. San Francisco has a great defense and everyone knows the Saints prefer to play indoors on a fast track. They will not see those conditions in San Francisco. I will take the 49ers here.

That gives me San Francisco at Green Bay for the NFC title and a berth in the Super Bowl. We will discuss that one later.

Sid’s Bowl Picks

The college football bowl season is almost complete and I am not doing too bad. Still, I am sure there are many of my sports-educated readers out there who are doing better.

Thus far, with six games remaining as of Monday (I wrote this on Monday, January 2nd), I am 12-5.