NFL Playoff Preview

There are many sports holidays that I celebrate: MLB Opening Day, the first two days of the NCAA basketball tournament, and the opening of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Today, I celebrate another: the beginning of the NFL playoffs.

Wild-card weekend starts with the Houston Texans hosing the Cincinnati Bengals.I don't see the Texans, who haven't won a single game since clinching their first playoff spot in franchise history, turning it around now. Much of the Texans' success came early in the season when they had Matt Schaub at quarterback. They're now on their third string QB after Matt Leinart got injured in his first outing, and I just dont see rookie T.J. Yates making the plays that a team needs to win playoff game. And sure, the Bengals are also starting a rookie at quarterback, but Andy Dalton was a first-round pick and looks like a starting NFL quarterback. He has poise as well as a talented supporting cast with quick receivers and the rejuvenated Cedric Benson at running back. And speaking of the Bengals speedy receivers, here's my favorite moment of the season from that group:



I'm taking the Bengals 20-13.

The late game on Saturday could turn into a shootout between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints. The Lions put up 41 points last week at Lambeau Field and now they'll be back inside, which will just add to their speed. The Saints can score with anyone, so I think the difference in this game will be experience. The Saints have been there before and are just two years removed from winning the Super Bowl. The Lions haven't been to the playoffs since I was walking the halls of Parkway Southwest Middle School on a regular basis. I see the Lions putting up a fight and keeping the game close early, I just don't see them pulling it off.
I'll go with the Saints 41-30.

Sunday's games will probably both be a little ugly. The Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants have both been winning ugly for a while. A quarter of the Giants wins this season were against the Dallas Cowboys, which if you watched this season, you'll know that wasn't much of an accomplishment. For me, this game comes down to the experience factor. Tom Coughlin is a Super Bowl winning head coach (and God bless him for that!) and he has a quarterback in Eli Manning that has proven he can win in the playoffs. We're still yet to see if Matt Ryan of the Falcons can do the same and winning on the road won't be easy. I think Ryan's going to have to wait at least one more year before he gets that monkey off of his back.
I'll take the Giants 27-23

The weekend closes in the Mile-High City with the Denver Broncos hosting my Pittsburgh Steelers. I don't like my team's chances of going all the way now that we're down to our third-string running back and Ben Roethlisberger still nursing his high-ankle sprain, but they're not going to lose to Tim Tebow. Tebow and the Broncos offense only managed three points at home last week against the lowly Kansas City Chiefs. Even without Ryan Clark, who will be sitting out due to his sickle cell trait which makes it dangerous for him to play at that altitude, I fully expect the Steelers defense to dismantle Tebow and the Broncos. One of their top offensive linemen will miss the game and their top running back, Willis McGahee, is a bit dinged up as well. The illustration on the right is what I expect to happen this Sunday. Just insert James Harrison for Bane and Tim Tebow for Batman. In this case, it's a metaphor, but I wouldn't put it past Harrison to go for the real thing.

I'll take my Steelers this week, 17-9.

Photo from DC Comics

Football observations for Week 2

First, let's backtrack and look at college for a second. Miami beat 17th ranked Ohio State 24-6 yesterday. While I was happy with the outcome, since Miami isn't going anywhere this season anyway, I'm sad that no one billed that game as the Cheaters Bowl 2011.

A quick look at my teams:
The Steelers should bounce back this week for four reasons. 1. The Seahawks suck. 2. The Steelers are at home. 3. The Steelers turned the ball over seven times last week and if they don't come out angrier than a Nazi on fire, there is something wrong with them. 4. The Seahawks are a west coast team and are playing at 1 pm ET. West coast teams typically do really poorly in that scenario, especially when they have to travel all the way across the country. (Thanks to Dan the Clark for pointing that last one out).

The Rams, unfortunately, are in trouble. Steven Jackson isn't playing (or at least he shouldn't) due to his pulled quad muscle. Sam Bradford didn't look sharp at all in the new offense last week and will be without his favorite target in Danny Amendola. And he's going to have to deal with a defensive line that's far superior to that of the Eagles, and the Philly D-line made Swiss cheese of the Rams'  O-line last week. The Rams' front five have to get better this week, or we could have a blowout loss to go with an 0-2 record. Defensively, the Rams will be without Ron Bartell (probably for the year) and some of their tackling looked like the Rams from the 1-15 season. Sure, Eli Manning isn't going to run circles around the Rams like Michael Vick, but I hope tackling drills were a part of practice this week.

Thoughts and Questions Around the NFL:
Parlay bet of the week. Look for the Redskins and Bills to both start 2-0. We'll name it the Professor Chanderbhan effect, after my DC native friend who recently moved to Buffalo.

When was the last time the Lions were a favorite over a team that made the playoffs the previous year? It was probably before the last ice age, but I expect this to hold up and am taking the Lions over the Chiefs.

If the Eagles are scheduled to play the Browns in Cleveland next year when the two teams meet, will PETA protest Vick going into the Dawg Pound? I'm taking the Eagles over the Falcons this week and the Colts over the Browns. The Colts looked bad last week, but they didn't lose a home game to the Bengals a la the Browns.