Sarcastiholic

2010 NFL Season – Conference Championship Picks

Getting these picks in under the wire…

I’m going with the home teams on both games. I have to figure that there will be an upset in one of these games, but I have to go with the simple basis that the two home teams are the statistical favorites to win and I’m sticking with that.

Maybe I’m taking the easy road out, but there it is.

2010 NFL Season – Division Round – Pick Results

I really didn’t think I could do that much worse with my picks in this round of the NFL Playoffs. Just goes to show, that if you put your mind to it, you can really screw up.

0 for 4.

I have to let that sink in for a little bit more…

Ouch. Bad picks all around.

Hats off to those jerks from New York in the big upset of weekend. The New York Jets’ defense kept the mighty Charger offense to just 7 points until the final minutes of the game.

2010 NFL Season – Divisional Round – Cowboys at Vikings

The first game of Sunday will feature the last NFC matchup between the Vikings and the Cowboys. This game really doesn’t give me anyone to root for.

One hand, the Cowboys are probably my least favorite team in the entire NFL. America’s Team? No wonder the rest of the world hates our guts.

On the other are the Minnesota Vikings. As a Bears’ fan I really can’t root for success by these guys and Brett Favre in particular.

This does not mean that I can’t or won’t enjoy this game. They actually match up pretty well. Both teams feature a solid running complemented by a groups of young, and upcoming wide receivers all led by gunslingers at the quarterback position.

Tony Romo’s idol growing up in Wisconsin? Hmm… I guess that would be Favre.

I like the even matchup of the Cowboys’ enormous offensive line against the Vikings’ defensive ability to stop the run and get pressure on the quarterback. That should make for some good battles in the trenches, and that’s where it all starts after all.

Meanwhile, Dallas’ front seven have been playing outstanding football and they will get to tee off against a Vikings team that will need to prove that their line is as good as the pundits have claimed.

The play of the secondary has been the Achilles’ heel of both of these teams throughout the regular season. However, the Dallas secondary has played better over the final games of the season whereas the Vikings have been flat.

Actually, the Vikings have been flat on both sides of the ball for their final games of the regular season and that is not the way you want to enter the playoffs.

Dallas is feeling their oats, and the Vikings are not.

Turnovers will be the key to the game (as they usually are). And staying true to form, I expect Brett Favre to have a meltdown by throwing the ball up for grabs. I also expect for the Dallas defense to swarm on Adrian Peterson and get him to cough up the ball like he often does.

Dallas wins.

2010 NFL Season - Division Round - Cardinals at Saints

No team has ever won a Super Bowl after losing their last three game of the regular season. But that’s just what the New Orleans Saints are going to try and do.

First off, they will have to beat the Arizona Cardinals who just piled on 51 points against one of the league’s best defenses last weekend. In order to do so, the Saints are going to have get back to their average of 31 points per game instead of the meager 15 points per game that they averaged over their final three games. The Saints offense needs to get rolling early and Darren Sharper has to come up with some big plays.

No, strike that…

Darren Sharper is going to have to come up with some HUGE plays to limit what the Cardinals are capable of doing if they are firing the ball like they did last week. Kurt Warner put together the highest rated passing performance in the modern era of the NFL against the second ranked defense.

There is no reason to think that he will not be able to repeat that performance this weekend against a soft New Orleans’ defense which ranked 25th overall and 26th against the pass. The Saints’ pass rush performed slightly better in the overall standings with a rank of 13th in the NFL but they will have to get consistent pressure on Warner in order to give their secondary any chance at limiting the Cardinals’ offensive production.

On the opposite side of the ball, the Arizona Cardinals have the 6th ranked pass rush and will definitely be doing everything they can to pressure Drew Brees into making bad decisions. The plus side for the Saints is the simple fact that Brees does not tend to make a lot of bad decisions having finished the regular season with only 11 interceptions, a 70.6 completion percentage, and a 109.6 percent passer rating.

Unbelievable. I have no idea why this guy didn’t get more votes for MVP.

Peyton Manning finished with 16 interceptions, a 68.8 completion percentage, and a 99.9 percent passer rating.

Unbelievable. I won’t even get into the Chris Henry argument…

Anyway, despite the overall unbelievable play of the New Orleans’ offense during most of the season, I can’t get past the fact that they were totally flat for the last month of the season. I just do not see how they can pull off a win against this Cardinal team, right now.

Cardinals win.

2010 NFL Wildcard Pick Results

Most of these games were rematches from Week 17, and the results were pretty much the same – the teams that played in Week 17 came out to play in the playoffs.

Teams that took the week off, played like it.

And I picked like it… 1 of 4 on Wild Card Weekend. That was pretty bad. I’m guessing that a psychic hotline would have come up with a better list of winners than I did.

“Of course I’m taking the Jets! What’re you, a friggin’ idiot? Now about your love-line…”

Jets at Bengals:
The New York Jets came out running the ball and their defense did the rest as they blanketed the Bengals’ passing game keeping them to only 146 yards on 36 attempts. Chad Ochocinco got the luxury treatment on Reevis Island and had only 2 catches for 28 yards (both of which were in the 4th quarter). About the only player that showed up on the Bengals’ side was Cedric Benson who rushed 169 yards on 21 attempts. Unfortunately for the Bengals it was not enough to push them into next week.

Eagles at Cowboys:
The Dallas Cowboys’ defense ripped into the Eagles’ offensive line for a second straight week and their secondary continued to play with abilities that they had not shown all year. Michael Vick made the only big play on offense for the Eagles with a 76 yard TD to Jeremy Maclin. The Eagles threw the ball with McNabb gaining 230 yards on 36 attempts but everyone knew they could throw the ball. The lack of a running game really hurt them while Dallas was able to gain almost two hundred yards on the ground helping them to hold onto the ball for a 20 minute differential in time of possession. The Eagles only rushed for 43 yards (not counting some scrambles by McNabb).

Ravens at Patriots:
Baltimore showed up at Foxboro to play. New England did not. New England won the coin toss, and it was the only thing that went right for them all day. Actually, considering that the Patriots deferred the ball to the Ravens and Ray Rice scored an 83 yard TD on the first play from scrimmage, maybe it can’t be considered a positive at all. On the Patriots’ first offensive possession, Terrell Suggs stripped the ball from Tom Brady and the Ravens ended up scoring another TD on their ensuing possession. Down 24 – 0 at the end of the 1st quarter, the Patriots’ defense was able to hold the Ravens to only 9 points for the remaining 3 quarters but they could never gain control of the game from the Ravens’ defense and rushing attack. Tom Brady was only to muster 154 yards on 42 attempts and the ground game was only able to contribute 64 yards to the game. 3 turnovers by Brady, short fields, and a lack of halftime adjustments gave the Patriots’ their worst playoff performance since the Bears routed them in the Super Bowl twenty-five years ago.

Packers at Cardinals:
The final game of the weekend pitted the Green Bay Packers against the Arizona Cardinals in what turned out to be the shoot out everyone had been waiting for all weekend. While there were never any lead changes in the game, the Packers were able to close the gap after being down 17 – 0 at the beginning of the second quarter and push the game into overtime. Both quarterbacks combined for 9 touchdowns and over 800 yards. Warner had five touchdowns and only 4 missed passes. Obviously, defense wasn’t much of a factor in the game, until the final play in overtime, when Karlos Dansby stripped the ball from Aaron Rodgers and ran it in for the game winning touchdown. A lot of sportwriters are saying that this game sealed Warner’s enshrinement in Canton. I can’t argue against it.

There were a lot of teams that fell flat in the first round of the playoffs but I have to believe that the Divisional games will feature some better matchups. I don’t want to have to shoot my television again because that’s becoming a really expensive habit.