Playoffs? You Wanna Talk About Playoffs?

My New Year’s Resolution is to never miss another week of updating my blog…unless of course I am stranded in the desolate wilderness of the Northeast Kingdom with only *gasp* dialup. On second thought, my actual New Year’s Resolution is to finish my half-completed segment on Johnny “Wu San Gui” Damon and post it. I have already seen at least one article containing a similar opinion to mine so there are (thankfully) a few observers that haven’t panicked yet. Check back later to read my baseball segment; for now, let me get back to the sport at hand. This weekend the NFL playoffs begin and I for one am excited…

Last Week (although I didn’t post them):
9-7

And this week….Wildcard Madness!!
Only one of these games is a sure thing and that involves one team beating a team that has two more wins than them. Without further ado…

Washington (10-6) @ Tampa Bay (10-6):
The Buccaneers are of course the home team here but I see both teams being fundamentally flawed and consistently inconsistent. Both teams have shown the ability to look great one week and abysmal the next. But, I have more faith in the ‘skins who have two offensive studs (Clinton Portis and Santana Moss) who have remained dependable throughout the season. I have no idea what they’re going to get from Mark Brunell (especially with his knee injury), but those two guys have been constants all year. Chris Simms has made a lot of strides this year but I am still remembering the shellacking they took against the Patriots a few weeks ago when he couldn’t muster a single point out of their offense. Cadillac Williams? I have no idea what kind of rushing stats he is going to put up. In a match-up of pretenders, I’ll take the road team here, who have won five in a row…but I wouldn’t put any money down on it.

My Pick: Redskins

Jacksonville (12-4) @ New England (10-6):
I would like to note that the Jaguars nearly lost to the Texans (twice) and beat the ‘9ers by a score of 10-9. Their gaudy record is deceiving (they only beat three teams with winning records) and despite the difference in their records, the Patriots are a far superior team. New England has everybody back healthy now and they look a lot like the team that beat the Eagles in Jacksonville last season. If the Pats are going to get knocked out of the playoffs, it sure as hell isn’t going to be this week…

My Pick: Patriots
My SAFE PICK OF THE WEEK

Carolina (10-6) @ New York (11-5):
This one is another toss-up…The Giants are looking pretty beat-up right now but the Panthers look to me like they are also pretenders, while the Giants seem like potential contenders. Tiki Barber is going to have another huge game. The question is of course, what is Eli Manning going to do? Jake Delhomme is an above average quarterback and should throw a touchdown or two to Steve Smith. Can Eli put something together this week and give them the balanced attack that they will need to advance? I think he will but I wouldn’t put any money on it…

My Pick: Giants

Pittsburgh (11-5) @ Cincinnati (11-5):
The first two games this season in this very evenly-matched rivalry have both gone to the road team, but I think that the Bengals may find a way to break that trend. The Steelers have won four in a row while the Bengals faltered and lost their last two but keep in mind that Cincinnati has been on cruise control for the last couple weeks with little to play for. I see little evidence to persuade me to pick the Steelers. As long as Willie Parker is the number one back, Pittsburgh will not have the consistent running game it needs to hold down a team like the Bengals. Parker has been inconsistent all year in every respect except one: his average yards per carry have dropped off by an astonishing 2 yards per carry from the 3rd quarter to the 4th. This statistic sums up why Willie Parker will never be a reliable NFL back; a dependable starting running back gets stronger as the game goes on while Parker weakens, which is why he should be a change of pace runner instead of the number one guy. It should also be noted that not only does he not finish well, he doesn’t start well either, averaging only 3 yards per carry over his first 5 carries of the game. Note too that Parkers’ inconsistency has mirrored that of the Steelers: he averaged 5.3 yards per carry in Pittsburgh wins this year and only 3.3 in losses. Parker’s inability to establish the running game early will help put the Steelers into a hole that I can’t see them digging themselves out of. They can’t win a shootout with the Bengals and that’s what I forsee happening if they can’t establish the run early.

My Pick: Bengals