Wildcard Weekend is upon us, and so are picks
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The NFL’s a quarterback’s league, and this slate of playoff teams is a pretty rock solid testament to that.
Seven of the 10 4,000 yard passers are in the postseason, including the top three seeds in each conference.
As such, we should expect to see a ton of truly entertaining games — probably what the league’s had in mind as its continually geared the rules toward more of a passing league.
It all starts this weekend, with a quartet of games which are pretty tough to handicap on first glance. Lets give it a shot.
Jets @ Bengals – This one is tough to call. Throw out this past Sunday — Cincinnati had little, if anything, to play for and didn’t want to show their hand to New York. That said, the Bengal offense is going to struggle again, even at home. Darrelle Revis — he absolutely should be named Defensive Player of the Year — is going to completely erase Chad Ochocinco, and the other Bengal receivers aren’t all that special. Meanwhile, Mark Sanchez is a struggling rookie quarterback facing his first playoff start on the road.
I think the team that wins this is the team that scores on defense. In fact, it wouldn’t shock me if we didn’t see any offensive touchdowns scored in this game. Mark me down for Sanchez to make the key mistake.
The Pick: Bengals 16, Jets 9.
Ravens @ Patriots – Yes, it came with the help of a dubious call or two — most notably the “roughing the passer” call on Tom Brady — but New England already took care of Baltimore once this season without Wes Welker. I expect no less here.
The Pat defense is still very slow on the back end and a top notch passing game should make short work of New England — they are lucky to not be in the NFC — but the Ravens lack the weapons to expose their lack of speed.
Bill Belichick has made a career of taking away the opposition’s best player – Ray Rice, be ready for a long week.
The Pick: Patriots 24, Ravens 13.
Eagles @ Cowboys – If I were a betting man, I stay far away from this game.
Dallas has already knocked Philly off twice, and matchup wise its easy to see why — the Eagles can’t run the ball and the Cowboys awesome pass rush can tee off on the one-dimensional opposition.
Meanwhile, though pressure is the answer in getting Tony Romo off his game, Dallas has discovered its running game, and Romo is prospering as a result.
So I’m picking Dallas for a third time? Well, not so fast.
Everyone has climbed on the Dallas bandwagon — recent history says the fall is swift when this occurs. Likewise, people are completely writing off Philly, which thrives when its backs are against the wall. But besides that somewhat anecdotal evidence, I have no true reason to pick the Eagles here. It’ll be a closer game, but Dallas is playing really good football, and I won’t pick against them simply because “Dallas is due to choke.”
Even though they are.
The Pick: Cowboys 24, Eagles 20.
Packers @ Cardinals — No idea…flip a coin. I really don’t know what to think of the Cardinals. They’ve only really knocked off one playoff team — Minnesota — and
I’m not convinced Kurt Warner is the same guy as a season ago. But he’s a good vet, and they’ve got explosive weapons, good coaching, and will play this one at home. The
Packers, meanwhile, have a ton of weapons, which will help a lot, and a fantastic run defense, which won’t quite as much in the pass happy NFC. Charles Woodson and Anquan Boldin are iffy to play this week, but if Woodson sits, the Cards roll. I will pick them to win either way against a vulnerable Packer secondary.
The pick: Cardinals 30, Packers 27.