January 16, 2006

Belated NFL playoff predictions

Since I was away from a computer for a while, feel free to believe or not believe the following predictions for games already completed:

Tampa Bay over Washington: Gah. I knew that Tampa's defense would dominate, but I did not anticipate Washington actually being able to score points anyway. Loss.

Carolina over NY Giants: The Panthers were my preseason pick to win the NFC, so I wasn't surprised by this result. I do expect the Giants to be pretty good next year, though. Win.

New England over Jacksonville: Really, was anyone outside of Florida surprised by this result? Win.

Pittsburgh over Cincinnati: Sure, Cincy won the division. I thought that Pittsburgh was the better team. Looks like I was right this time. Win.
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Indy over Pittsburgh in a squeaker: Pittsburgh played well down the stretch and the Colts struggled with some serious adversity, which is why I thought it would be close. Great game, but tell me the truth: had anyone ever heard of the "his knee was still down so it wasn't a fumble" rule before? Does anyone besides me think that the NFL entered this piece of crap into the rulebook last night to cover its ass today? It was the "tuck rule" part deux. Make up shit and then pretend it had always been there. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but something really stunk about that call. Steelers managed to win in spite of everything. Kudos to Bill Cowher for for not coaching like a pussy this year. He went for on 4th down at midfield nursing a small lead instead of wimping out and punting. It was the correct call. And now Pittsburgh heads to their 6th AFC championship game in 12 years. Sure, they've only won one so far, but there are a lot of AFC teams that would gladly trade places with them. I happen to root for one such team. Loss.

One other benefit of a Steelers' win is that John Cole came in off of the ledge on his own. Until next week, of course.

Denver over New England: Plummer finally sheds the undeserved label as a choke artist and the Broncos win their first playoff game since a guy named Elway was QB. And with Indy out of the way, Denver probably likes their chances for going to the Superbowl. Denver, by the way, was my preseason AFC champ/Superbowl champ pick. Which means that they'll probably lose next week to Pittsburgh, giving Steeler fans some redemption for last year's meltdown against the Patriots. Win.

Seattle over Washington: The better team won. And they were still the better team even without the services of Shaun Alexander. Win.

Carolina over Chicago: Two strong defenses, but only one decent offense. Bears' fans should be optimistic about next year. Win.

Playoff record so far: 6-2.

Predictions for next week: I picked Carolina and Denver before the season began, so I'll stick with them, which probably means they'll both lose. We shall see.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 10:25 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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