NFL Playoffs: Divisional Round

Bears over the Seahawks. Raise your hand if you had both of these guys playing in the 2nd round of the playoffs when the season began. This league is crazy and this game proves it. Actually last week proved it too. The Seahawks played out of their mind last week offensively. Hasslebeck got himself another year in Seattle as a starter with his near perfect game against the Saints porous defense. Thankfully for my Rams, that's a good thing. Hasselbeck never had much of a "prime" but I would say based on the last few years he's well past that prime. Of course people have gotten hot in the playoffs before and ridden the wave for 2 or 3 games. Maybe the hawks will go surfing on Hasselbeck's arm. More likely though the Bear defense will come crashing down on him and the Seattle offense like a Tsunami. The Bears, in my mind, catch a break by avoiding the Saints and instead should get a pretty easy path to the championship game. The Saints meanwhile are heading home after an 11 win season. You can talk all you want about how if they were really championship worthy they should win their game, even on the road, but I'm not buying it. Home field is an advantage otherwise teams wouldn't try so hard to get it. Seattle played better than New Orleans last week and they deserve to move on but a 7-9 team does not deserve a home game in the playoffs. Period.

Patriots over the Jets. Here go the bigmouths again. Jet coach makes an ass of himself. Jet's defensive back makes an ass of himself. Same old, Same old. Here also comes a repeat: Tom Brady is going to make mincemeat of New York/Jersey's secondary.

I think the Jets got lucky many times this year. I think they got lucky against the Colts. Overall they probably have the better team but Indy had that game won and they let it slip away. I really need to find a new AFC team to root for. Manning plays tight in the playoffs. He always has. Even his SuperBowl victory was a so-so game for him. It's frustrating to watch. I'll always wonder how he would have fared with Dallas Clark and Austin Collie to throw to.

Steelers over the Ravens. At some point you think maybe the Ravens will thump the Steelers. They have similar philosophies and similar players. Probably come down to a field goal.

Falcons over the Packers. Rodgers looks great but so do the Falcons. It's really a "pick em" game.