Playoff Picks: Wildcard Weekend

Before we get started, I'd like to reiterate a point I think I made in the previous post.

I'm glad Marvin Lewis is coming back and I'm glad he's keeping Carson Palmer.

Fans are almost always wrong and if they are right, it's for the wrong reasons. Calling for the firing of Marvin Lewis and saying that Carson Palmer is now a bad quarterback is shortsighted and frankly ignorant in my opinion. What these people are doing is assuming the blame for the losing belongs exclusively to the most visible parts of the team and that the solution is getting of them in favor of, at least from what I've heard, "anything."

I'm not here to tell you that I know exactly how the Bengals' front office and coaching staff works or that I know the precise percentage of blame to be placed on members of the organization or that I know what the solution is. I am here to tell you that I have watched the Bengals A LOT since the mid-nineties and I am of the opinion that those two guys are a lot closer to being the only things holding the Bengals together than the reason they are failing.

Now, how about some picks?

Saturday, 4:30 pm
New Orleans at Seattle

I've watched a fair amount of the "Bad Bs (The Bills, Browns and Bengals)" this season. I also watched last Sunday Night's play-in game between St. Louis and Seattle. The Browns, Bills and Bengals would all win the NFC West by at least three games. Seattle is a bottom five team in the league.

New Orleans over Seattle, 33-13

Saturday, 8:00 pm
New York Jets at Indianapolis

This is one of the two games where I went to bed last night thinking it was a toss-up and woke up this morning feeling very confident in one team.

I think Rex Ryan is hilarious and I really quite like him however that has no bearing on whether I root for him or not and, in fact, I root against him in most match ups. I find this to be interesting. I don't think I feel that way about anybody else in the league.

Uhh...anyway, this Jets team is really offensively talented (for the record, Mark Sanchez seems to be the weak link) and really overrated on defense. What's happening here is a below-average quarterback with a bunch of bad character over-eager wide outs and defensive players going on the road against Peyton Manning at night. This defense will give Peyton less trouble than the statistically embarrassing New England defense because he is smarter than this defense and the he's not necessarily smarter than Bill Belichick. The Colts are not America's clear favorite in this game, two familiar faces at running back just returned (Addai and Rhodes) and they had to try in the last game of the season. For the record, I'd like to say that the Colts, as bad as they looked at points this season, are Super Bowl contenders in my book.

Colts over Jets, 27-16

Sunday, 1:00 pm
Baltimore at Kansas City

I would love for the Chiefs to win this game. I treated Jamaal Charles as if he were my fantasy son this season. The problem is that I can't get away from what my first instinct was when I watched the Chiefs' opening win against the Chargers.

"This team sucks."

Well, they don't suck, but I do think they are going to lose and here is why:

Matt Cassell, as good as he's been, is not very experienced, does not have a strong arm, does not have a great offensive line and doesn't have a decent wide receiver after Dwayne Bowe. I just think that the Ravens live for those situations. I once bet on the Chad Pennington against the Ravens (for some reason). I forgot that the Ravens consume quarterbacks who don't stretch the field. I think the Dolphins lost by 30.

While no one equals Chad Pennington in having a weak arm, Cassell is no stalwart and I think that means a lot against the Ravens. Just for an example, The Bengals are usually worse than the Ravens and Carson Palmer is often turnover prone. However, Palmer IS a stalwart. He's big and strong with a strong arm. Carson Palmer beats the Ravens most of the time.

It's absolutely possible that none of this will mean anything, but I think it does so here is my pick.

Baltimore over Kansas City, 20-10

Sunday, 4:30 pm
Green Bay at Philadelphia

Both of these teams might be Super Bowl contenders which is sort of sad and sort of awesome. There's only a few things that push the result to me in the Eagles' favor:

-Michael Vick got a week of rest.
-Aaron Rodgers seems to have really bad luck

That's it. I guess I also think that Vick is the type of guy who plays better in the playoffs and maybe a lot better.

Philadelphia over Green Bay, 35-27