Conference Championship Picks: So Close

Got three of my four picks last weekend right, bringing my playoff prediction record to 5-3. Perhaps more amazingly to me, it also makes me look smart in the sense that three of the four teams I had in this round of conference championships back when I made my predictions for the season in September actually got this far. The only question now, of course, is whether I stick to my guns.

At this point, I really don't see any reason not to. In all honesty, this season is pretty much at risk of playing out exactly as I expected (and feared, to some degree). Of course, we saw unlikely underdog comebacks (Cleveland Cavaliers) and historic curses being broken (Chicago Cubs) in 2016, so there's still some small hope that maybe we'll get a couple more surprises.

It's not completely unrealistic, but the NFL has to be salivating at the prospect of two weeks of buildup to a Brady-Rodgers meeting in Super Bowl LI. That's not to say these outcomes will be rigged, as I'm guessing we'll get at least one (hopefully) two close games this weekend. If nothing else, there should be a whole lot of scoring. Still, there's almost a sense that a New England-Green Bay rematch is preordained. 

Continue reading, I guess, if you want to see me try to talk myself out of that conclusion.

Divisional Playoff Picks: Keep Hope Alive

So I got half of my picks last weekend right, and damned if those games didn't live up to the subtitle of my post. Four games and not one offered a compelling finish.

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.

Wild Card Picks: Hot Garbage

Well, looking back on my shorter predictions for the year, it looks like I got five of the eight division winners right and had seven of the 12 playoff teams correct. Three of my final four and both of my Super Bowl teams are still alive, so there's that. 

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.