Wild Card Picks: Internet Service Restored Just in Time

I remember all too well the struggle involved in trying to post this round's predictions last year from my phone, and the hell if I'm ever trying to do that again. The lack of internet is but one of the many conveniences we are in the midst of dealing with as customers of the fine, heartless corporate giant known as AT&T. Call one customer service representative, and the next will surely tell you that you were misinformed. It's like a game, except that there's no fun.

Without the cable either, I had pleaded to just buy a digital converter. We looked into a dish, but apparently our apartment location doesn't work with the satellite location. So, for this weekend, the plan may very well be the wife and I going to her grandparents' home. They should at least have a rooting interest since Houston's involved. 

NOTE: Like yesterday's post, all of that was written before two very nice AT&T service reps worked very hard to fix our cable issues. So we'll be watching the games this weekend in the comfort of our own home after all.

Just to quickly reflect on how my predictions before the season panned out up to this point, I got every division winner in the AFC correct, but every one other than the South wrong in the NFC. Overall, I was right about the final finishing spots for 10 of the 32 teams, and had only seven of the 16 playoff teams correct—none of which were seeded correctly. But, hey, at least my Super Bowl winner is still alive ... although even that seems debatable, judging by how they've played in recent weeks.

All things considered, I'm interested in seeing pretty much every game. I have my doubts about any one of the eight teams playing this weekend actually making it all the way to the Super Bowl, but there does not appear to be any glaring mismatches. I can very easily see all four games going either way, and I'm trying to go against my rooting interest (although I really don't seem to have a personal favorite in maybe half of these contests) in posting my predictions. We'll see how that goes.


Hey, I was actually able to screencap some other predictions this time! So here's a bigger-than-usual gang from ESPN:

And the experts over at Yahoo:

Now on to my own: 

Green Bay Packers (11-5) over Minnesota Vikings (10-6)

Oh, for how very much I really do the loathe Minnesota, these days I seem to detest my mother-in-law even more (married life!). Seeing as she's a die-hard Packer fan (and has been all the way since they won that last Super Bowl, my wife says), this weekend is one of those rare times I will, in fact, be rooting extremely hard for the Vikes. While those purple-wearing pansies were mighty impressive last weekend at home in the dome and I have continuously noted Green Bay's retched playoff performances at Lambeau in recent years (losers of four of their last six, as I recall), I still just cannot believe that Minnesota pulls this off. In addition to doubts I have about how much longer Christian Ponder can avoid some catastrophic mistakes, this will also be the first time since Week 4 or so that the Packers have all of their wide receivers healthy. There's little question in my mind that Adrian Peterson was the league's MVP this year, and I fully expect another 100+ yard performance from him, but I have the sinking feeling he might be at risk of the type of highlight that Vikings fans don't want to see. 

Seattle Seahawks (11-5) over Washington Redskins (10-6)

I picked Seattle to win its division this year, and felt pretty good about that after the controversial win over the Packers. The Seahawks have been exceeding 50 points on a regular basis to close out the season, and their defense is going to be far quicker than anything Robert Griffin III has seen since, well ... a while. Oh, and then there's the questions about how healthy RGIII is going to be too. I admit to initially picking the Redskins here simply because they're at home and Seattle has sucked donkey dick most of the year on the road, but then I remembered that the Seahawks really got things turned around against the Bears ... in Chicago. Hey, Washington wildly exceeded expectations this year, and the fact that a rookie quarterback and running back had the years they did should make the team's fans quite optimistic. As tempted as I am to think that this year's Skins could be the Cinderella that many people end up rooting for, I think Seattle's going to be around for a while and a lot of people might actually end up favoring them over the top-seeded Falcons if that's how the stars align for next weekend. 

Baltimore Ravens (10-6) over Indianapolis Colts (11-5)

Ray Lewis announced he's retiring at the end of this year, which many people noted was probably timed precisely to motivate the Ravens. My only concern here would be if Baltimore does not give Ray Rice the ball, as it has had a tendency to do far too often. Like the Skins, Indianapolis was a huge surprise this year, and damned if they didn't almost win a division I was fairly certain Houston was going to run away with. As nice of a story as the Colts may be and as much as I'm convinced that time has been running out on the Ravens for a while, I think Baltimore should be able to run its way to victory here. Like RGIII, Andrew Luck gives me some temptation to believe that a rookie's miracle season is going to continue for at least another week, but ultimately I just can't pick against the Ravens this week. 

Cincinnati Bengals (10-6) over Houston Texans (12-4)

So my lone "upset" this weekend is the same one that many other experts have, and one that eliminates my preseason Super Bowl pick in the very first round. Still, in addition to the understandable doubt created by Houston's freefall from top seed with home field to having to play in the Wild Card round, the Bengals have quietly had an impressive year with a run defense that will present a pretty stiff challenge for Arian Foster. And what are we to expect of Matt Schaub this weekend? Seeing as he's thrown just one touchdown compared to three interceptions in the team's last four games, I'm not terribly optimistic. A Cincy team that would enjoy a little bit of revenge for last year's ouster seems pretty well poised to accomplish just that.