The small upside for this observer is that three of my originally predicted final four teams are still alive as we get ready for the league to indeed reduce the remaining teams to that number. I'm not sure that getting three of the four or both Super Bowl participants or that game's winner is really worth anything since I don't gamble, but it'll at least make me feel somewhat better about my pre-season predictive abilities now that I've cut back on the amount of time I invest in such posts.
Perhaps what baffled me the most about anything last weekend is that the tournament bracket I originally downloaded indeed needed to be adjusted but shouldn't have required as much work. All of the home teams won last weekend. Why wasn't that assumed and why wasn't the default lowest-remaining seed after such outcomes closer to the top seed's bracket? It makes no sense to me.
Anyway, I've got much higher hopes for the competitiveness in this weekend's games.
As always, here's my predictions in their usual descending order of confidence:
Well, not really much of a contest for most confident pick this week. And this is the prime time game for the weekend to. Almost certain to be a bloodbath. Trust me, I'm hoping as much as anybody that my New England pick at the beginning of the year proves to be wrong, but I'm not counting on Houston being the team that eliminates the Pats. It would take a truly remarkable performance from the Texans defense to even keep this one close, but I'm anticipating a truly awful performance from Brock Osweiler that basically leaves this one over before halftime.
I can't get a good handle on the Seahawks, and my feelings about the Falcons aren't much stronger. Still, I do know Atlanta had the league's best offense and I don't think Seattle's defense is anywhere near as imposing as it was in either of the two years they went to the Super Bowl. The Falcons kind of got screwed in a loss to the Seahawks earlier this year when officials somehow failed to spot a pass interference so obvious that even I noticed it on my couch. Matt Ryan has already put up some solid numbers against Seattle and his offense only got better since that regular season game in October. Pretty confident that Seattle won't be able to compete in a shootout.
I said last week that I would probably like the winner of the Green Bay-New York game to go all the way to the Super Bowl, and I'm not feeling particularly compelled to back off that belief. Aaron Rodgers is otherworldly good right now, and it will be interesting to see how Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott perform should they be playing from behind. Even without Jordy Nelson, it just seems like Rodgers can make miracles happen with whatever he's got to work with.
My first instinct is the Steelers, and not just because I had them getting to the championship game at the beginning of the year. Rather, I still harbor doubts about a Chiefs squad that always fails to deliver in the playoffs coached by an Andy Reid who is bound to make at least one boneheaded decision that defies all logic. Add to that the very scary potential of that Pittsburgh offense. Still, I've got the nagging feeling (probably helped none by Big Ben wearing a walking boot after last week's game) that something bad is going to to happen to a major player on the Steelers that severely impacts their chances. In the end, I know I'm taking a chance here by picking Kansas City, but I just suspect that the Chiefs are somehow going to find a way to pull this one out.
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