The NFL is down to their 'elite eight', time to pick the winners and the losers (at least as far as the spread is concerned).
SATURDAY
Indianapolis at Baltimore (-4.0) Baltimore -4.0
A blow out in the making. Peyton Manning is going to look like his brother in this game (and that ain't good). The Ravens defense will pound the Colts offense into submission, and McNair will lead the Ravens offense to the end zone with enough regularity so that the final score won't be close. Ex-Cleveland will trounce Ex-Baltimore.
Philadelphia at New Orleans (-5.5) New Orleans -5.5
Sean Payton, best coach in the league whose last name doesn't start with "B"? The Saints creativity on offense will keep the blitzing Eagles defense guessing, and Bush will break at least one big play, if not two or three. The Saints defense hasn't gotten as much credit for the Saints success as they deserve, but they'll finally expose Jeff Garcia as being Jeff Garcia while bottling up Westbrook. If Garcia is forced to win a game, rather than to keep from losing one, the Eagles are in big trouble. In other words, the Eagles are in big trouble.
SUNDAY
Seattle at Chicago (-8.5) Seattle +8.5
Chicago is vulnerable, and deeply flawed right now as a team. Their defense has not been as invincible as they were at the beginning of the season, and their offense is easily the worst in the playoffs. Seattle has more of a recent history of success within the playoffs, and they have a coach who knows how to get it done. Chicago's last playoff game was their fiasco against Carolina where they allowed Steve Smith to beat them and didn't adjust their game plan to prevent their opponents best player from making them look bad. They may win this game, despite all this, given that Seattle has plenty of flaws of their own, but they won't win by more than a touchdown, so even if I'm not confident that the Seahawks can pull of the upset, I am confident that they can cover the spread.
New England at San Diego (-4.5) San Diego -4.5
The hardest game to pick this week. New England is playing very well together, but San Diego has been the best team in the league, and they have the record to prove it. Two excellent defenses will be trying to stop two excellent offenses. Two veteran coaches will be trying to out guess the other veteran coach. Belichick has a much better record in big games compared to Schottenheimer (Coach B 12-2 3 Superbowl rings v. Coach S 5-12 0 Superbowl rings, hasn't won a playoff game since 1993), and Tom Brady is as close to John Elway as you'll get in the league right now (if anyone can put together a 'Drive II' against a Schottenheimer team, it's Brady), but San Diego's defense is pretty fearsome, and they have LT on offense which is a dimension that New England lacks and will have trouble countering on defense.
I think Saturday will be a day of blowouts, while Sunday could be pretty interesting, but nothing is certain until the games are actually played. Ask 100 folks on Sunday what they thought would happen in the NCAA Championship game, and I don't think you'd get more than 2-3 that would have expected a Florida blowout.
One thing's for sure, all the folks assigned to holding the snaps for point afters and field goals probably did some extra practice this week.
10 January 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Chicago's defense has been over-rated the last two seasons. They have played two soft schedules, even by the pathetic standards of the NFC. They're good, but they're not great.
I see you're drinking again.
After-shave, at that.
Who's been drinking again? Me, or X?
Oh no, not you icepick. xwl has fallen off the wagon (Pats bandwagon, that is) after only one week.
I warned you. Do not bet against this team after week 12. Just don't do it.
ahem.
Post a Comment