RealGM

For the wildcard round, I have

Indianapolis over San Diego
Atlanta over Arizona
Baltimore over Miami
Philadelphia over Minnesota

Yes, all four road teams. Thanks, realignment...

Who've you got?

BOLD = LOCK of the week

San Diego over Indy

Ariz over Atlanta

Baltimore over Miami

PHILLY OVER MINN

I think the Chargers are on a roll with their last 4 games, but Indy peaked too soon. 9 in a row means they are due for a loss. And the game is in San Diego.

The Cardinals are so up and down it isn't funny. One game Warner lights is up, the next they all stink. I just have a feeling this is the game which will see the Cardinals play well. Also there is some wishful thinking as I would love for them to have to come to Carolina next!

The game that has me the most unsure is the Ravens vs Dolphins. After what Pennington has done for Miami, not to mention the Tuna and Coach Sporano (sp?), I find it very hard to pick against them. Especially since they are at home. But I just believe that Raven defense along with Flacco and the Raven's running game will lead Baltimore to victory.

The lock for me must be Philly. Not only b/c Philly just got a reprieve and destroyed Dallas with the opportunity, but Minn. is just not looking impressive at all lately. They played a great 2nd half against us to beat us, but have not looked all that good since. I think Jimmy Johnson gets that Philly defense all set to blitz Tavarus Jackson and make his day miserable.

We are the same on 2 and going opposite on 2. Let's see who gets them right. Will be interesting.

Bye Bye Atlanta. Ryan made some Rookie mistakes, but considering it was his first Playoffs, it was to be expected. He'll learn from it and get better. Now if Philly wins tomorrow, we get Arizona at home - and I like that matchup, especially if Bolden is nursing a sore hammy.

Bye Bye Colts. They fall in OT to a Charger team who was without LT since the 2nd qtr. But Sproles was terrific. But he was almost the goat. He fumbled going into the endzone in the 2nd half and they had to get a FG in the last 30 sec to send it to OT.

Funny thing, all 4 road teams were favored this weekend. Today, both home teams held serve. But tomorrow I expect both road teams to win, or at least Philly to win. I would not be shocked to see Miami hold serve in their house, but I expect the Ravens to do it.

Ravens take care of Miami in a dominating fashion today. What a terrific defense, and Flacco is a very mature Rookie. That is a scary team.

So, Baltimore will travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans. What a conflict that will be next week. San Diego travels to PA to take on the Steelers. That will be a war also. I'm gonna have to wait till later in the week to find out the injury status on some important players before I could try to call either of those 2 games. Either way, they will both likely be very close games. Just a terrific final 4 teams in the AFC.

Excellent! Philly does the job on Minn. Now the Playoffs are set the way we wanted!
Philly goes to NY for what will be a true old fashioned war. They hate each other and no doubt there will be some major hitting and some very sore bodies following that game. There will be some players who will quite likley miss the NFC Championship, so that bodes well for us. And we get the easier of the games playing host to the Arizona Cardinals. Cannot take them for granted, but I would much rather face them than Minny. Arizona is an up and down team, and after a good game against Atlanta, they ae due to come back down to earth.

Funny how the Colts and Falcons had such better records than their hosts yet they fell. I don't care that I picked them - I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. I don't think it's fair to say Ryan was making rookie mistakes (he looked poised, I thought) when Arizona's defence played cartoonishly well. I don't think we'll see that again in years. I missed the fourth quarter and OT of the Colts/Chargers game to go see a girl. Yeah, I'm soft. So are the Colts.

I had the Ravens and the Eagles winning, but wow. Those were decisive games. I was thinking Steelers/Ravens AFC Final before the playoffs, and Panthers/Eagles as well. I would love to see both.

Brian Dawkins is still the man. Ed Reed is the budding adolescent or whatever of NFL secondaries.