qbgirl

<!–[if !mso]&gt;

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } &lt;![endif]–>

After several days of sulking over Indianapolis’ OT loss to San Diego on Saturday, I decided to emerge and offer my picks for the second week of the playoffs.

We finally get to see what these top seeds can do.  And for some of them, as I discuss below, I don’t think is much.

Baltimore @ Tennessee

I’ve been saying it all season, but I’ll say it again, Tennessee is a fluke success story born of a weak schedule.  The Ravens defense is tight and Joe Flacco has been without error.  Bye bye Titans, see you next season.

Arizona @ Carolina

Yawn-o-rama.  Does anybody care about this game that’s not from Arizona or the Carolinas????  OK, apparently I’m still a little bitter that I don’t have a team to root for anymore.  But, seriously, unless something incredible happens this game is going to be like watching paint dry.  Arizona showed a surprising spark against Atlanta last week, but they were buoyed by the fact that it was their first playoff home game in 40-some years.  On the road the Cardinals have struggled, while the Panthers have never lost a divisional game at home.  Carolina should have no problem pulling off a methodical and predictable win.

Philadelphia @ NYG

The Eagles are pulling off a surprising sprint to the finish line here in the last few weeks.  This is the only game this weekend in which I am not confidant of a winner.  One caveat; if Brian Westbrook doesn’t play, the Giants will have a free pass.   However I would be shocked if that happens, and as of today he is participating in practice.  This game is a good example of momentum vs. establishment.  The Eagles are hot and the confidence which comes with that is not to be underestimated.  I called Minnesota as the winner last week, because I did just that.  The Giants did have a weak finish to the season, which included a loss to Philly.  But with all of that said, I am picking NY.  Manning and Co. do great in a do-or-die situation and that intensity should shine through.  Jeff Feagles is an excellent punter, consistently forcing teams to start below their own 10 yard line.  In short, if NY can bottle Westbrook and special teams receiver DeSean Jackson, they should be hosting the NFC Championship game on the 18^th.

And, the best for last…

San Diego @ Pittsburgh

Words cannot express how badly I want the Chargers to suffer on Sunday afternoon.  In a perfect world the Steelers would hold the ball for more than 40 minutes, sack Phillip Rivers 5+ times, intercept Phil Rivers 4+ times, the refs would miss every Steelers personal foul, while catching every SD false start, and send the Bolts home by a 20-30 point margin.  Alas, this is not a perfect world, but I still think the Chargers season will come to an end on Sunday.  The loss of LT hurts them incredibly and will make it damn near impossible to penetrate the Steeler defense.  As long as Pittsburgh isn’t suffering from a bye week slump, and Roethlisberger is up to snuff, they should have no problem lowering the boom on the San Diego.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS