Do I stick with that Super Bowl pick though? That's actually a tougher questions. It's still very much a feasible pick, although the path for my predicted NFC winner is going to be far tougher than the one for my predicted AFC winner. And as usual, I'm pretty much hoping I'm wrong because God, the last thing I need is another Patriots title or the possibility of another Packers championship. Dear God, give us fresh blood, NFL.
This weekend's round of games does very little to compel interest here. Aside from the last game of the weekend in Green Bay, most of the other three contests appears to be either forgone conclusions or simply uninteresting matchups.
This season has not exactly provided me with a lot to root for, what with the Bears finishing with the worst record they've ever had since the league expanded to a 16-game schedule. Cowboys fans have reintroduced themselves as being worthy of consideration for most annoying fans in the sport of football, so a Super Bowl against the Patriots would just be filled with two weeks of awful fans.
Even the underdogs I'd be tempted to root for have seen their chances dramatically hampered by injuries or unfortunate luck. Both the Raiders and the Dolphins lost their starting QBs. The Texans remain a mess at that same position. Perhaps there's some hope for the Chiefs and Falcons, but I remain somewhat skeptical that either team is going to suddenly do better than the letdowns we've come to expect both clubs to deliver.
Then again, 2016 gave us a Cubs World Series and an NBA title in Cleveland. So if the pattern holds true, then maybe there is some hope that we're about to be in store for something special. We can only hope.
Anyway, here's my predictions for the first round in the usual descending order of confidence:
Pittsburgh Steelers over Miami Dolphins
No Tannehill, no chance. As unbelievable as that might sound, the Fins got smacked around by the Pats in Week 17 and I don't expect them to fare any better against a Steelers squad that's considered to be perhaps the best chance of knocking off New England before the Super Bowl. Miami will need a lot of lucky breaks to pull off the upset here, but I just can't see any way the Pittsburgh offense doesn't roll and run up a pretty sizable margin of victory.
Seattle Seahawks over Detroit Lions
Really, really love Detroit just because it's just such a long-suffering fan base and I had a co-worker in Austin who was a Lions fan. The team has had a magical year, but they really struggled down the stretch. The Seahawks admittedly aren't the dominant defense they were in the two years they made back-to-back Super Bowl visits, but there's still enough talent here to get to the next round. Detroit might make this a game, but I'm fully expecting another heartbreaker.
Oakland Raiders over Houston Texas
The one everybody's OK with skipping. If David Carr were still around, there might be a lot more Oakland fans. Instead, we get a third-string QB. And I'm actually optimistic that Connor Cook is going to surprise a lot of people. He seems like the unlikely hero we tend to get every once in a while in the playoffs. That, and Brock Osweiler has been a dramtically overpaid disaster. The boos will be heavy if he falters in this one, and it's tough to imagine Houston pulling this one out without a competent QB or J.J. Watt.
New York Giants over Green Bay Packers
I'll just go ahead and say that whichever teams wins this will probably be my pick to go to the Super Bowl. Both teams closed the year on a hot streak, and I'm leaning Giants because their defense looked better than the Pack's. I'm fully aware that if Aaron Rodgers continues playing like he has over the last several weeks, it will still take a Herculean effort from the New York defense to contain him. But Eli and company have gone into Lambeau and won before. I'm really not going to be surprised when they go and do it again.
As was the case last year, I'm holding off on my usual playoff graphic style until the seeding is sorted out after this round. Here's the temporary format, bound to be redone after some upset this weekend:
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