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

This Week, My Friends Will Call Me a Traitor

It rolls around every four years. It's a time when I choose my favorite team over the hometown team and get a lot of trash talk from my friends. It's time for the Steelers to play the Rams. And even though the Steelers winning the game would serve both teams best, the Steelers for playoff position and the Rams for draft position, it will still look like a betrayal to many of my friends.

When watching your team, even if it would be better for your team to lose, it's still difficult not to get caught up in the game and find yourself cheering for your team. It happened to me, just last week. I attended the Rams/Bengals tilt with my friends Sam, Matt, and their friend Craig. Going into the game, I certainly was hoping for a Rams loss. Winning could do the Rams no good and I was hoping for Cincinnati to get on a roll heading into their Week 17 match up with the Ravens. But after being in the Ed Jones Dome with thousands of Bengals fans and witnessing the Rams getting hosed by the refs on one of the Bengals' two touchdown drives, it still ticked me off to watch the Rams lose to them. So while it's all well and good for my friends to say they don't care about this week's game, I'm certain that if the Rams were to somehow pull ahead, I'd receive a drove of text messages about it. As for the Rams, I don't expect them to produce much on the field, but maybe we'll get another gem from Harvey Dahl (video below).

The Rams game was excruciating aside from Dahl's choice words, which livened up the stadium. The bright side was, I still had my favorite team, the Steelers, for a fall back. I wore my Pittsburgh cap to the game and didn't get a word of smack talk from any Bengals fans. It's good to have a back up.

I hope the Steelers realize that this week and decide to sit Ben Roethlisberger. He looked awful on Monday night against the 49ers and let's face it, the Steelers' defense alone should be enough to defeat this year's pitiful version of the Rams. Stick Charlie Batch in there. Have him hand of the ball to a solid running back in Rashard Mendenhall and just run it down the throat of the Rams, who have the worst rushing defense in the league (It's worse than the Raptors' new alternate uniforms). The Steelers can probably knock off the Browns in Week 17 with Batch in there too, but I'm fine with Big Ben playing again if he looks better. I just don't think it's worth risking your starting quarterback when in all likelihood, you can win without him, because in the playoffs, they won't win without him.

A quick side note for hockey fans: if you haven't been following HBO's show, 24/7, which follows the two clubs on the way to the Winter Classic (the Rangers and Flyers this year), you probably missed this clip of Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. I was on the floor the first time I watched it and it literally had me rolling. It's definitely a show worth watching if you have HBO (Or I could just be realistic and say the internet, as I'm sure it's floating around somewhere). Enjoy, eh?!

Blues Streak Heads to Music City

The Blues are certainly showing this season the true meaning of home-ice advantage. They're off to a 12-3-1 start at Scottrade Center, which ranks second in the NHL, trailing only Detroit for the best home record in the league, based on points obtained out of points possible.

The Blues haven't gone to Motown yet this season, but they are off to a 2-0 start against the Red Wings and have won three straight against them, including the magical 10-3 win I witnessed last season at Joe Louis Arena with my friends Dave, Tyler, Dan, and Julie. So while the Blues did that against the Red Wings' backup's backup's backup due to a rash of goalie injuries, it was impressive nonetheless. And looking again at the current season, I can't remember the last time that the Blues started out a year 2-0 against the Wings, even with both games being at home. I still think they the Wings will take a step back once Nicklas Lidstrom finally retires and I still think that Jimmy Howard is not a good goalie for a number one, but for the time being, the Red Wings are still a force to be reckoned with, as much as I hate to admit it. After all, look at what Detroit did with another mediocre goaltender in Chris Osgood for years?

The Blues are now 12-2-3 since they put Ken Hitchcock (happy birthday to Hitch, btw)  in charge and with the way the team is playing under him, there's no reason to believe that they can't compete for the division title. The way the conference is shaping up so far, it looks like the Central Division winner will get either the one or two seed, as the Pacific Division is struggling and could possibly only send their division champion to the playoffs. It's still early and that could change, but it doesn't look like Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago, defending conference champ Vancouver, or the Blues are going away any time soon. The Blues have a big test tonight in Nashville. The Predators, like the Blues, are on a four-game winning streak and are just coming off a third period comeback win over Detroit on Thursday. If the Blues go hard in the first, perhaps they'll catch the Preds in a bit of a let down. Not that the Blues have needed any help lately, though.

Adios, El Hombre!

I don't know why I seem to write more when I'm angry. My friends and family will tell you that I'm not an angry person. Aside from yelling at sporting events or when they're on tv, most people have never and probably will never hear me yell.

My friends and family will also (some of them begrudgingly) tell that I'm fairly liberal and usually take changes in stride. But when I heard that a part of my life that has been the same since I was a sophomore in high school was going to be different, it pissed me off. Albert Pujols will no longer play for the St. Louis Cardinals. I dropped an F-bomb as soon as I looked at my phone, especially since I expected my phone to tell me we had resigned him. As soon as the Marlins were out of the bidding, I felt secure that we would bring him back, probably for a stupid amount of money and years, but we'd bring him back just the same. And it wasn't my money, so I was somewhat okay with it. Especially since it would simply be Bill DeWitt Jr. paying for his mistake (not locking him up two or three years ago and not getting into this mess in the first place). But no, DeWitt decided it would be a better idea to let Alex Rodriguez sign a second insane contract. He decided to let Ryan Howard, a clearly inferior player on both offense and defense, a huge five-year deal. And he decided to let the Nationals sign an average (at best) player in Jayson Werth to a  mega-contract. (He looks great on giant posters, though!)

So while I dont' disagree with the Cardinals not matching the offer that the Angels made to Pujols, I'm still furious with them for allowing the situation to arise. And as John Hammond from Jurassic Park would say,"I don't blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they pay for them." Unfortunately, I can't count on DeWitt being eaten by a Dilophosaurus later on.

Dilophosaurus Attack by


Instead, I simply plan to not attend any Cardinals games in 2012. I'll still cheer for them. However, I've been saying since they failed to sign him before spring training, that if they messed up and didn't get Pujols to stay with the team, that I would not be attending any games the following season. I plan on sticking to my guns, just like the front office did on waiting to sign him until he was on the open market.

As for the Angels, they simply fall into a long list of teams that I hate: The Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies, Brewers, Reds, Braves, and Mets. And now the Angels. At least it'll give my brother-in-law, Taylor, something to bond about. We didn't bond much during the World Series. Taylor's a Rangers fan.

Prayers for Rain

Going into Game 5 of the World Series, there were two ways I thought it could end. I thought the Cards could win starts by Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia and take the thing in six games or that the Cardinals could lose the series in seven games. After Kyle Lohse's, well, awful Game 3 start, I didn't believe we could win another game with him starting. While the game ended up being a rout in our favor, a big key to that early was the blown Matt Holliday call at first base followed by a 2006 Tigers-esque Mike Napoli throwing error that allowed the Cardinals to score four runs and build a 5-0 lead. Lohse did all he could to let the Rangers back in the game, giving up two bombs in the next half inning, but luckily Holliday made a great play in left field, catching a fly ball and gunning down Napoli at home to preserve a 5-3 lead. And this time, Holliday didn't even need the benefit of a horrible call. Napoli was obviously out. That being said, Lohse didn't last much longer and the only reason his poor start wasn't too noticeable was because Albert Pujols went off the hook, tying three World Series records(three home runs, six RBIs, and five hits) and breaking two more (first player with four hits in four consecutive innings in the WS and most total bases at 14 in one WS game). 

With all that said, after today's rainout, it looks possible that the Cardinals could still get wins from Garcia and Carpenter, it could just be in Games 6 and 7 instead.of 5 and 6. We of course have to win Game 6 to get to Game 7, but I certainly like our chances much better of both. Garcia's allowed runs in just two innings this postseason out of 18 2/3 at home and just four runs total. So, unless Tony La Russa makes more bonehead intentional walk decisions (and that's entirely possible), I really like Garcia's chances to get a win on Thursday. And as for Carpenter, does anyone remember his last winner-take-all start that he made? I do, but it's a bit hazy as I had a few beers. That was Game 5 of this year's NLDS, when he out-dueled Roy Halladay. Or as it's known in my household, the infamous police noise complaint night. I yelled every couple of innings and we were watching the game on my porch, so yes, it might have been a little bit loud. It was also before 10 pm on a Friday night. In St. Louis, Missouri. I said it that night and I'll say it again. If you don't like playoff baseball, move to Chicago or Kansas City. Both towns are in the Midwest and rarely have to deal with playoff baseball. End tangent. Carpenter was masterful that night, and while he'd have to pitch Game 7 on Friday with short rest, is their anyone else on the roster that you would trust more? And while Mitch Moreland's bomb was surely gone anywhere, anytime on Monday, Adrian Beltre's solo shot to tie Game 5 was probably just a long fly ball in the colder temperatures expected of Busch Stadium on Friday.I'll take my chances. I choose you, Magi-Carp! 

A Statistically Significant Pair of Pumped Up Kicks

For me, sports, especially in the playoffs, are all about patterns and superstitions. I make note of stupid things like what I'm wearing, what I'm doing, and even where I am at the time of wins and losses. I wore the same shirt, without washing it, for five games, and we won the first four until a loss in Game 4 of the NLCS forced me to switch it out. My current shirt, the Matt Holliday number 15 shirt I got on clearance, (because who cares about the number on the back when it's five dollars) is currently on a two-game winning streak and will be on my back tomorrow when I head downtown for Game 1 of the World Series. I'll also be wearing hat number 2, my me shoes (Christmas gift from Natalie pictured here), and my gray shorts. I'm well aware that tomorrow's low is 41 degrees and that rain is also in the forecast. I don't care. Sacrifices must be made.

My liver perhaps understands that best of all. When I drink this postseason, the Cardinals are 7-1. When I don't, they're 0-3. It doesn't take a statistics professor to tell you that there is a significant difference between those percentages (.875>.000).  And it only takes a slightly eccentric baseball fan to tell you that you should ignore sample size and logic. After all, the Cardinals being in the playoffs, overcoming an 8.5 game deficit, the largest in National League history, defied logic too. I'll be playing the odds tomorrow at Paddy O's, because well, the Cards are 2-0 when I have a drink there this postseason. Also, I promise I'm not an alcoholic. I'm drinking a cherry coke right now and haven't had a sip of alcohol since Game 6 ended. I'm simply a baseball fanatic who will do just about anything to see his team win the World Series. Even if it seems stupid to you.

The Cardinals Keep Making Me Look Stupid, but I'm Okay With This

Every time I start to doubt the Cardinals, they do the unthinkable. First, they go 18-8 during September to make the playoffs (thanks Braves). Then, last night in Game 2 of the Division Series against the Phillies, they fell behind 4-0, going up against Cliff Lee, and they came back to win. Lee wasn't exactly Roy Halladay last night, as he was in out of trouble. He gave up a leadoff triple in the first inning and a leadoff double in the second inning and managed to get out of it unscathed both times.

At that point, it's starting to look like one of those nights and one of those series, too. But then, the Cardinals finally managed to string together some hits in the fourth inning and rallied to score three runs. They nearly tied it that inning, as Jon Jay made the final out at home. But after that, the Cardinals knew they were in the game. Even with Carpenter getting lit up early, they were still in the game. We then were witness to the bizarro baseball world. Carpenter was pitching like the Cardinals bullpen for much of the season and the bullpen started pitching like Carpenter. The combination of Fernando Salas, Octavio Dotel, Mark Rzepczynski (or as several of my friends have come to call him, Scrabble), Mitchell Boggs, Arthur Rhodes, and Jason Motte threw six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out six and walking no one. Rhodes struck out Ryan Howard with the tying run at first. The guy should be signing up for AARP, not striking out the guy that hit the ball three miles the day before.  But this shit actually happened.

Now the Cardinals can come home and have a chance to close out the series in four games, without having go to back to Philadelphia. And if the Phillies don't want to throw Halladay on short rest, the Cards could also avoid facing him by closing out the series at home. I'll make this decree just like I've done over the past couple of months and will probably be proven wrong again, but the Cards won't win a Game 5 in Philly against Roy Halladay. That just doesn't make sense. After Lance Berkman's three-run bomb in the first inning of Game 1, that was pretty much all we got. Skip Schumaker got a leadoff single in the second, but after that, Halladay pulled a NASCAR and "shut her down." And while this may seem like my first NASCAR reference since I began this blog close to three years ago, it's really just my first Brian Regan reference. If anything, I'm making fun of NASCAR and how it's not a sport, but just a bunch of red necks turning left. I'm not saying that driving in circles at really high speeds isn't difficult, I'm just saying I don't find it entertaining and a machine shouldn't decide the outcome of something that is actually a sport. There, I said it! End tangent! But yes, Halladay retired 21 consecutive batters after Schumaker's single. He didn't even do that in his first start of the playoffs last year. And that was a no-hitter! So yes, I definitely don't like our chances in that scenario.

Let's just win the next two and not worry about that...

Also, just a word to the Rams' offensive line. Blocking is not optional. It's your job. Maybe, do it? And wide receivers, you should probably receive the ball every once in a while too. I heard an unofficial number today, which was that the Rams had 20 drops in Sunday's game. TWENTY! Bradford's completion percentage could've jumped from 47% to 93%. I don't expect them to catch all of those balls, but even most of them would make Bradford's numbers respectable and he deserves better. I just don't know that he'll get what he deserves this season.

Photo from http://www.batman-superman.com