January 1, 2008

NFL Wild Card Predictions

January 1, 2008, 2:43 PM | 3 Comments

Happy New Year! Today I decided to go back over each week of picks to check and make sure that I had been adding things up correctly. What I found out is that I had actually been tallying my total incorrectly since week 12, showing an extra 4 games in the loss column and bumping the total amount of games played out of whack (which is what prompted me to check my numbers in the first place).

So, all of my posts have been updated to show the correct records/percentages and other related items and in case you missed my update at the end of last week’s post, it turns out that this has been my best year (at least for the regular season) ever. I finished off the regular season with a nice 172-84 record (.672) which is better than the 160-96 in 2006 and 163-93 in 2005.

As expected, the majority of voters picked Tom Brady as this seasons MVP in last week’s poll, and I think we should be hearing the results of the Associated Press vote soon, with Brady probably wrapping up the 2007 MVP. Last week’s game between the Giants and the Patriots was a great game to watch, and seeing so many historical marks in the same game is great for the NFL. I’m glad the Giants came out and played the way they did and made a great game of it, that was a decision from head coach Tom Coughlin that really took some stones.

Wild Card Weekend is always an exciting weekend of football and anything’s bound to happen. For some reason, this year’s wild card field seems to be a lot better than in previous years, and for the division winners that are hosting these wild card games, they’d better be prepared because on paper, these wild card teams may actually be the better team.

If you’re the visiting team on Wild Card Weekend, you want to be getting hot at the right time and have major momentum heading into the playoffs. That’s really the only way you’re going to make an impact. So, who has the Mo’ at the start of the playoffs? Well, I really think all of the WC teams do, but the team that I think has the most going for them is the Washington Redskins. Winners of their last 3 out of 4 games, the Redskins are looking good behind QB Todd Collins.

On the other side of that coin, I think there are some division winners who look like they’re going the opposite direction, with the Steelers being the head of that pack.

So, this week’s playoff poll wonders which wild card team you think has the best chance to go all the way to Super Bowl XLII in Arizona? As hot as the Redskins are right now, my pick is for the Jaguars, who have matched up extremely well against the class of the AFC this season. They could do some serious damage, but they must get off to a great start this week in Pittsburgh.

Here are my picks for this week’s Wild Card action.

Away	Home	Comments	Pick	Result
Redskins (9-8)	Seahawks (11-6)	See below:
Seattle has become a one-dimensional offense and the only reason they won their division is because of the weak competition. Matt Hasselbeck is a great QB, but you need more than a good passing offense to win in January. Washington has been great over the past 4 weeks, and I think they’ll eek out a win this Saturday.
Jaguars (12-5)	Steelers (10-7)	See below:
The Jaguars have done it once already this season (beaten the Steelers in Pittsburgh), so we know they can get the job done. This time will be a lot harder though, because Pittsburgh can look at how the Jags were able to beat them, and what they need to do to stop them. With that said, I think Jacksonville is still the better team which is obvious by their record (and the fact that Jacksonville has had a much harder schedule).
Giants (11-6)	Buccaneers (9-8)	See below:
The Giants come into this round of the playoffs as a battle tested team. Down the stretch, I fully expected them to tank and miss the playoffs, but they found ways to win when they needed to and looked great against the Patriots last week when they really had nothing to play for. How good will they be when their season (and probably Tom Coughlin’s job) is on the line this week in Tampa? The Buccaneers could still win though, they’re a great team with some good veterans, but I still have to pick the Giants. This could be the closest match of Wild Card Weekend.
Titans (10-7)	Chargers (12-5)	See below:
Who would’ve thought that the Chargers would be in this situation after their 1-3 start this season? Not I. They’ve started to form themselves back into the team we all thought they would be going into this season, it just took a while for them to stop talking and actually do something about it. The Titans will probably pose a good challenge, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they won this game. Yes, Vince Young has a tendency to perform well in big games, but let’s face it, last week’s game against Indy (where they rested a lot of starters) isn’t exactly a measuring stick of where the Titans are right now. I’ll take the Chargers this week, although not comfortably.

Here we go! Yes, I know I’ve gone a little risky and picked 3 of 4 visiting teams to win this week, but I think I’m fairly sound in my reasoning. It should be an exciting run up to the Super Bowl and I can’t wait to watch it all unfold! Don’t forget to check out this week’s Expert Picks over at ESPN, and check back after the weekend for some more comments and updates.

Update: Well, 3-1 to start the playoffs is a pretty good start :) That brings my season total up to 175-85. By a long-shot, the best game of the Wild Card weekend was definitely the Jaguars/Steelers match, and it was also the closest (making me wrong about the Giants/Bucs game). Even though I had no real rooting interest in any of the teams playing, it was still a ton of fun to watch! Catch you next week for my divisional picks.

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