Wild Card Picks

I'll be citing the picks of the experts at Yahoo! and ESPN that I compared myself to during the regular season. This being the playoffs, I'm presenting my picks in descending order of confidence, as I did last year. I'm not assigning some silly point value or anything in the post-season, just doing a simple, straight-up right/wrong count, so the order doesn't really do anything other than allow me to try and point out I wasn't totally confident in a prediction should I be wrong.

Sort of.

Anyway, here's the four games this weekend:

Atlanta Falcons over Arizona Cardinals
I'll stand by my earlier assertion that the Falcons are the losers in the NFC Championship. I know it's kind of a silly little spot to see them ending up, but I've been dismissing the Cards all year, seeing as how worthless the NFC West is. I'm not terribly confident about how the Falcons' defense will slow down Arizona, but they've managed to keep opponents low on the scoring all year. If they can hold the Cardinals to field goals while establishing their very capable running game, they should be well on their way to a convincing victory.

Indianapolis Colts over San Diego Chargers
San Diego's pass defense is second-to-last in the league, and the Colts are going to have to rely on a big game from Peyton. And I'll take relying on a big game from Manning over relying on a big game from LT, who has only recently regained some semblance of the back he's been hyped as.



Philadelphia Eagles over Minnesota Vikings
I've got a hard time trusting Philly (I mean, c'mon ... they tied Cincinnati), but one interception aside, Donovan McNabb hasn't erred ever since he was benched. The Eagles, as a team, looked impressive against Dallas, while you already have to be speculating about whether Minnesota sticks to one quarterback for the entire game.


Baltimore Ravens over Miami Dolphins
I'll probably still be sporting the Ricky Williams jersey on Sunday, but Ray Lewis has been unbelievable this season and the Ravens defense would be getting a lot more hype if the equally stellar squad in Pittsburgh hadn't won the division. It's not unreasonable to think Baltimore could make it all the way to the Super Bowl.