Playoffs, Part Deux

Hello world,

Well, this long time NFL fan is back again for another round of the playoffs. Eight teams remain in the tournament, but only four will win this weekend.

By the way, just as an aside... this is not exclusively an NFL blog, or even a sports blog per se. In the month of January, however, it naturally trends towards that theme... as it is the topic I'm most likely focused on, as a 25 year follower of professional football. Also... I have changed the name of the blog. It was called "The Random Thoughts and Creative Works of Mike Kinnaly" and while that is still the main theme of the blog... it is now titled "The Other Side Of The River."

But I digress.

Last week I came on here, prior to the kickoff of the wildcard weekend, and let the whole world know which four teams I thought were going to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs. Keeping in mind that my regular season record for picking games was 174-82, with a winning percentage of over .500 in every single one of the 17 weeks, and finishing in the double digit win column (10 or more correct) in 10 of those weeks... I figured I'd probably do very well with the playoff contests.

So... how accurately did I predict last weekend's games? Well, I got four out of four... wrong!

Let's take a brief look back on what went wrong...

Green Bay vs Washington.... It's not so much that I over-estimated the Redskins, I think it's more I underestimated the Packers in this one. I considered it a toss up even before the game, but I gave the edge to the home team. I really wish I had double checked that one!

The Kansas City/Houston game... on second thought, let's move on...

Seattle/Minnesota... the Seahawks might just be the luckiest team in all of sports. As for the Pittsburgh/Cincinnati game... what can I say? The Steelers gave that game away, and the Bengals turned right around and gave it back to them.

Which brings us to the divisional round, and my picks for this weekend's games...

Kansas City vs. New England... I'm a Patriots fan, so naturally I would have to pick them to win. However, in taking a closer look, it would seem that after picking all four games wrong a week ago... that if I really wanted the Patriots to win, then I should pick against them, right? There's been some strange things going on in Foxboro over the course of the last week. Chandler Jones, Rob Gronkowski.... but perhaps the most bizarre of all? Bill Belichick shows up at Tuesday press conference with a black eye. When asked about it, he mumbles "I think I'll live." The next day, he was reported to have been seen at the facility carrying a pair of boxing gloves.

On to the game...

I think New England wins it. Score of 28-10. Next!

Green Bay vs Arizona... The Cardinals are not the Redskins. Green Bay will face a much tougher challenge going up against an Arizona team that blew them out just a few weeks ago. I think the score will be closer this time, but the outcome is the same. Arizona wins, 31-24.

Seattle vs Carolina... Tough one. The Carolina Panthers had the best regular season record. The Seattle Seahawks are the defending NFC champions. Two young, very great quarterbacks.  Two of the top defensive units in football. I think both teams make great plays on both sides of the ball, but something tells me Seattle is going to find a way to win at the end... like they have done in so many playoff games before. 28-24.

Pittsburgh vs Denver... The injuries on the offensive side for the Steelers may well just be the deciding factor in this match-up. Antonio Brown and Deangelo Williams not in the line-up, and Big Ben at less than 100% is not a favorable match-up against an elite defensive unit. I would have actually liked to see the Steelers win this one, as that would mean an extra home game for the Patriots... but Denver has the advantage, and a 20-10 victory.

Well... thanks for reading! Enjoy the games!