NFL wild guesses, Wild Card Weekend

Okay, let me check and see who is playing this weekend...now I'm ready to go.

Kansas City at Indy
Somewhere along the way I suggested that Indy would not win again. I think it was last week. Anyway, the reason behind that was that Indy was having a hard time stopping the run. Well, nothing that has happened since should change that thought process. It’s always been a good idea to run the ball, control the clock, and keep the Indy offense on the sideline. They can't score from there. Indy draws perhaps the weakest AFC playoff team, the Chiefs, but what the Chiefs can do is run the ball. Larry Johnson might get 50 carries this game. Since Trent Green has come back from his injury, the Chiefs' passing game has taken a step back, with only one game of the last seven with better than 200 passing yards. In contrast, Larry Johnson has 6 100 yard games in those last 7. Although the Chiefs are 4-3 in those seven, two of the losses are to San Diego and Baltimore, the two best teams in the league. The only hiccup was an O.T. loss to Cleveland. Yeah, Cleveland. Well, two of the wins were against Oakland, but at least the other two were against quality opponents, Denver and Jax.

I just spent a lot of time talking about the Chiefs. Look, I suck at this and I really know nothing about the Colts except they usually score many points. And Payton Manning gags in the playoffs. And it’s the playoffs.

Bottom line, Chiefs run, Colts lose.

Dallas at Seattle
Dallas has lost two in a row. Dallas lost to Detroit last week. Dallas has had ZERO backs run for 100 yards since week 6. Tony Romo has turned the ball over 15 times in the past 5 games. Terrell Owens.

Seattle has won 1 in a row (forget the 3 losses before that). Matt Hasslebeck has been to the Super Bowl. Last year. Shaun Alexander.

Dallas has really not been that good the past few weeks. Sure, it was all rosy after Romo got going, but everyone seems to have figured out how to slow down Romo (or his night life has done that) and there is always so much attention on the Dallas distractions that no one noticed. This will be Romo's meltdown week and everyone will see it. Bill Parcells spends more time apologizing and explaining than he does coaching. These two teams are pretty equal overall, but Seattle has so much more potential, and Mike Holmgren has always been able to keep his teams focused and prepared.

Figure on Seattle winning this one pretty easily, and if they can play like they are capable for a few weeks they have just as good a shot of going back to lose the Super Bowl again. Yeah, the NFC is that weak. Plus I hate Dallas.

New York Jets at New England
Sorry Jets, but I think your season ends this week. Really, I've been picking the Jets to win and watching it happen. Then I look back at the Jets' last six opponents: Houston, Green Bay, Buffalo, Minnesota, Miami, Oakland. The Jets only lost one, but a good playoff team would not have lost to any of them. Now New England has the same problem, sort of, a loss to Miami four weeks ago, but among their 5 wins in the past six are wins against the NFC's best, Chicago, and road wins at Jax and Tennessee (both playoff hopefuls) the past two weeks.

New England is just a far superior team and a playoff veteran. They will not lose to an inferior opponent and right now, that is what the Jets are.

New York Giants at Philly
Philly is hot, on a roll. The Giants made the playoff on a tiebreaker. The Giants did not come close to beating a quality, non-divisional opponent this year. The Giants also almost imploded earlier and got crushed in every way possible 6 out of 7 games before eeking out a win in the final game. The only Giants win in that stretch was against Carolina, who were absolutely horrible at that time. The Giants have played bad and do not trust each other to play well. They get what they hope for?

The Giants won four games in the division (nothing special), and the other four wins were the aforementioned Carolina and Tampa Bay, Atlanta, and Houston. While Philly's wins have not come against much better opponents (Green Bay and Atlanta as their best) this one is all about the streak that Philly is on. Are they that good? Or is it the weak opponents? We'll see next week when Philly has a real opponent. Anyway, no way do the Giants win this game. No way.

This is so going to be a perfect week for me. Just you wait and see.