To Check for Playoff Winners.
The word for the weekend is consensus. I don’t remember a set of playoff games that had everyone in the public so much on the same page. I could be totally off, but my perception is that a lot of people are agreeing on what is going to happen over the next two days. Baltimore has no chance in Denver. Same for Houston in New England. In the NFC, Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers on a personal revenge mission is going to beat SF and Atlanta is a soft 1-seed ripe for an upset. Most picks I’ve seen haven’t strayed too far from this formula, so let’s see what we’ve got here…
JCK, 2-2 Last Week
- Baltimore (+9.5) over Denver
- Green Bay (+3) over San Francisco
- Atlanta (-2.5) over Seattle
- Houston (+9.5) over New England
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Nichols, 2-2 Last Week
- Denver (-9.5) over Baltimore
- Green Bay (+3) over San Francisco
- Atlanta (-2.5) over Seattle
- New England (-9.5) over Houston
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Big Dub, 2-2 Last Week
Denver (-9.5) over Baltimore. Here’s the scary thing for Denver: Pey-Pey is gonna have to play in some very cold conditions. Here’s the good news: Denver gets to run the ball against a horrid run defense.
Green Bay (+3) over San Francisco. Kaepernick ruins everything.
Seattle (+2.5) over Atlanta. The Seahawks matchup well against the Falcons in every department possible. This is a worst-case scenario for Atlanta, but at least we get a rematch between Green Bay and Seattle.
Houston (+9.5) over New England. The Pats have not been all that dominant at home in the post season over the last couple of years. Their defense make me nervous to lay this big of a number against an offense that has the potential to put up points.
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DC, 3-1 Last Week
Denver (-9.5) over Baltimore. Denver might have the best offense in the postseason, and the line is telling me that DEN wins this in a blowout. I’m going with the better offense in this game.
Green Bay (+3) over San Francisco. Aaron Rodgers > Colin Kaepernick
Atlanta (-2.5) over Seattle. My take on Seattle is that the offense is running through Marshawn Lynch. Stop him and you’ve got a mishmash of short passing and wobbly long passes to the outside. The line is giving too much credit to Seattle here: ATL 27 SEA 13.
New England (-9.5) over Houston. This line seems four points too high: Vegas is telling me that HOU is D-O-N-E.
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Kraft, 4-0 Last Week
Baltimore (+9.5) over Denver. Back & forth on this one. When in doubt take the points. First game was within reach until Flacco decided to throw a back breaking 97 yd pick 6. Manning is a .500 Playoff QB.
Green Bay (+3) over San Francisco. Don’t trust Kaepernick in his 1st playoff start…GB actually ran the ball last week and the defense has been getting better vs the run. They make Kaepernick beat them, which won’t happen. Rodgers plays his usual game with a couple plays that no one else in the league can make in front of his hometown crowd.
Atlanta (-2.5) over Seattle. Hate this pick. Hate this team. But at the end of the day, I think there is too much on the line for ATL. This has to be the biggest game of Matt Ryan’s career. If not now, when? Does anyone know any Falcons fans? Do they exist? Hopefully the GB freight train crushes your dreams next week.
New England (-9.5) over Houston. The Oilers have gone from one of the most confident teams through 10 games, to a painful team to watch. They don’t look sure of anything they do on the field. Not a good time to visit Foxboro with a rested Pats team with a healthy Gronk. Ryan Mallett may have a higher QB rating than Schaub.
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Grossy, 4-0 Last Week
New England (-9.5) over Houston. I spent way too much time thinking about these, because of that 4-0 last week. Can you say .500 coming? This was the one I was most comfortable with, despite Arian Foster’s bulletin board material. The Pats real weakness is stopping the pass, and Matt Schaub is broken. Not broken? The Pats offense, who trounced Houston once and will do it again. The Texans just won’t be able to keep up.
Baltimore (+9.5) over Denver. Could a week off finally slow Denver’s momentum a little bit? I doubt it, but in freezing conditions I’d expect things to be a little less dynamic. Peyton’s going to have a glove on and admittedly doesn’t have the same “feel” in cold conditions. If Flacco can manage to not hand Denver an easy TD or two, I think the Ravens should be able to stay within this generous spread. There are bound to be some nervous moments in this drive toward the Manning/Brady Bowl.
San Francisco (-3) over Green Bay. Because I haven’t heard a single person pick the Niners. I don’t even know someone who considered it. It’s been a lifetime since the Niners beat the Packers in week 1, but what should we take from that game? Maybe that the Aaron Rodgers “revenge” factor isn’t what it’s made out to be? He backed off on the revenge in the opener just in case they’d meet later in the playoffs? And, what can he do about his defense which allowed 30 points to the Alex Smith version of the Niners in week one?
Atlanta (-2.5) over Seattle. I’m too heavily invested in this one. Emotionally. I should probably have done what I did last week. Pick Seattle–be happy if I’m wrong. But, I don’t want to be a total fraud. I’m picking Atlanta because, I think they are actually a bit underrated at this point. It’s in Atlanta. Seattle has no Chris Clemons. And, Atlanta has had a knack of winning close and ugly this year. If I’m wrong about this one, I hope I’m wrong about Green Bay, because if I’m not, Seattle’s going all the way to the Super Bowl.
3-Putt Territory 