So two right, two wrong for me in the first week of the playoffs. A lot of other observers certainly did a lot better. But if I want to feel somewhat better about myself, I'd point out that I had all four of the AFC teams playing this weekend being active in this round in my pre-season predictions. Yes, completely different matchups, but let me enjoy the sunshine where I can find it please.
It once again appears that all the home teams this weekend are overwhelming favorites, but we know that there's bound to be at least one underdog that leaves us stunned. Maybe it won't have to be the result of some very questionable officiating.
The whole descending order of confidence was fairly accurate last week (in the sense that my two least confident were the ones I missed), so let's stick with that methodology:
In a strange sense, I do kind of find myself rooting for the sub-.500 Panthers to just go on to win the whole thing and make a bunch of idiots upset. But in the very real sense that they're going to Seattle this week, I'm not picking against the defending champions. The Seahawks proved to be the best team in football over the final weeks of the regular season, and I'm not expecting them to have too many issue advancing to the NFC Championship here.
Again, I view this is a win-win. If Dallas advances, I don't have to listen to my fairweather Packer-lovin' mother-in-law pretend to be some sort of diehard Green Bay fan until next year. And if the Cowboys lose, then they finally get what they should have had coming to them last week (in my mind and probably many others, although, yes, Detroit admittedly could've done more to help themselves) and we don't have to see any more shots of Chris Christie's blubbery, bridge-blocking ass on TV in a stadium suite. The Pack became very popular favorites to win the whole thing this year after the team began dominating competition following the slow start, and I just feel that the officials assigned to this game are going to make sure that there's no possible way they can be viewed as having any sort of Dallas bias, possibly meaning that Green Bay maybe even gets a bad call or two even though I'm not sure they'll need the help.
So I should have stuck with my gut from the beginning of the year, as the Ravens indeed upset the Steelers last week. That said, I'll go with my first inclination that had the Pats winning it all this year, and thus making it to the AFC Championship. Yes, the fact that Baltimore has gone into Foxboro twice before in the playoffs and left victorious did give me pause, as Justin Forsett has been something of a revelation this year. Then again, Rob Gronkowski has also returned to dominating form, and I simply stand by my original feeling that New England is going to find its "mojo" and take the first steps to another Super Bowl run.
And keeping with my original AFC Championship pick, I'll go with the Colts to pull off the weekend's lone upset. I'll admit that Indy has their flaws, but similarly, Denver has also looked beatable at various points this season. This isn't quite the godly Peytom Manning we were seeing last year, and I just get the impression that we could be bound for one of his more forgettable postseason performances this week. I'd guess that the Broncos get out front early, but Andrew Luck leads a dramatic comeback.
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