NFL Championship Game Preview: ABF--Anyone But Favre

Well, here we are. One Afternoon of football away from figuring out who will be playing on football's biggest stage.

Jets vs. Colts

The Jets are definitely the surprise team of the playoffs. I keep picking them to lose. However, they keep winning. The have a coach who is on the complete opposite of the Subway diet (Rex Ryan), they have a rookie quarterback who didn't exactly light the world on fire (Mark Sanchez). They almost didn't even make the playoffs.

The Colts have been the dominant AFC team this year. If they would have gone for perfection and not let Curtis Painter play a half against the Jets, the playoff structure would look much different and the Jets wouldn't even be here. Originally, I thought bad karma would catch up to the Colts here and they would lose the AFC Championship game. That was assuming San Diego won their match-up against the Jets. While Peyton Manning isn't mister big game, his superior skill and extensive playoff experience should be enough to get past a Jets team that hasn't been this far in over a decade.

Colts 31 Jets 10

Saints vs. Vikings

Should be the more interesting of the two games. The Saints are looking to get to their first Super Bowl..........ever. The last time the Saints were in the NFC Championship Game they got clobbered by the Bears. Three years later and they get another chance against another team that I despise (Vikings) and their starting QB who has gone from my favorite player to least favorite player in two short and tumultuous years. While the spot for my favorite NFL team will NEVER be up for grabs, the Saints have a chance to be my second favorite team by bringing the Vikings season to a bitter end.

The last time Brett Favre got this far in the playoffs, the Packers had every chance to win but ultimately failed when a threw an interception RIGHT AT a second string player from the Giants. Point being Brett Favre has been the opposite of clutch for the past 12+ years. That and the Vikings always find ways to not win games, Saints in a rout.

Saints 56 Vikings 10

NFL Divisional Preview: Who Knows, maybe i'll correctly pick a game this week

So, last weekend's Wild Card ending was soul-crushing in so many ways. For the second time in three years, the Packers end their season by losing a game in OT......but the show must go on

Cardinals vs. Saints

Hey, the Cardinals are who we thought they were, The Packers defense took the weekend off and handed it to them. The Saints are struggling but anytime you got Drew Brees at QB you have a chance to light up the scoreboard. Plus both of these teams are equally capable of being utterly incompetent on the defensive end. The Packers and Cardinals may have combined to break a bunch of playoff records last weekend. I wouldn't be shocked to see those same records being broken this weekend. Definitely a lot of potential for an Arena Football Style score.

Saints 70 Cardinals 56

Ravens vs. Colts

Not sure which direction I want to take here. I'm still not sold on the Ravens being Super Bowl bound despite their win over New England. The Colts are way more talented but since their starters haven't gotten serious playing time in almost a month, they probably won't bring their A-game. Colts ain't going all the way but they at least live to see another week.

Colts 28 Ravens 14

Cowboys vs. Vikings

It would be totally sweet if these teams could lose to each other. There is absolutely nothing redeemable or likable about either team and their QBs (Romo and Favre). A match-up between two QBs who horribly under perform in the clutch, either way whoever wins is getting ambushed by the Saints. Since Tony Romo has never held the Packers hostage I will begrudgingly pick him to win his second playoff game.

Cowboys 17 Vikings 10

Jets vs. Chargers

So they Jets have a nice little win streak going and somehow found their way to the second round. They were playing a team from Cincinnati which these days is a victory for the opposing team regardless of it's the NFL (see above), College Football (my body is probably still mad at me for this one) or College Hoops (i've seen Cincinnati's basketball team choke in the clutch twice in the last week in a half while working out at the gym).

In addition to being immensely more talented, the Chargers have played so well, they couldn't lose even if they wanted to. Another advantage for San Diego is they play the weakest team that made it to the second round.

Chargers 35 Jets 21

Sports/Music Crossover: Aerosmith

Well, it was a bizarre day in the Music world as it was reported that Steven Tyler is leaving Aerosmith. I decided the timing was ripe for a sports/music cross-over posting to use some Aerosmith songs to talk about random sports-related stuff that is on my mind.

"Dream On" -Allen Iverson

The A.I. era in Memphis seems to have ended before it started. Despite obvious evidence (last year in Detroit) A.I. seems to think hes still an elite player and is above being a 6th man. When your not even starting for Memphis...the evidence is definitely working against stardom.

"Same Old Song and Dance" - Michael Redd

Redd has been the #1-guy on the Bucks for the last few years. He also has been highly injury prone and played a full season 3 times. New year...same ol result...Redd has already had his first injury and its not even mid-November.

"Make It"- Tyreke Evans

If his recent performance holds up, it looks like Evans will make it in the NBA barring injury and legal trouble. Evans has helped Sacramento not totally embarrass themselves thus far and helped the Kings improve slightly since losing Kevin Martin to injury.

"F.I.N.E"-Chris Kaman

Before the season started, Blake Griffin injured himself and hes expected to be out for another month. Kaman has been the winner (and my Fantasy team) in this situation as hes off to the best start of his career and busting out a 23-10 so far....

"What It Takes"-Cavs

What Cleveland needs to do to keep LeBron James on the Cavs. They do have a couple advantages. LeBron is a local kid and may not want to leave his roots. Also, the Knicks/Nets are both terrible teams. The Cavs may not have the best supporting cast but its an improvement from a couple years ago and the Knicks as a team are so ravaged beyond belief that not even LeBron can help them.

"Crazy"- Warriors

If championships were won on internal chaos, bad D and inflated egos...the Golden State Warriors would be defending champs. Last year Golden State was anything but golden regressing deeply from the team that upset Dallas a couple years ago. Looks like some things never change.

"Draw The Line"-Sammy Sosa

If your drawing the line between normal and bizarre, the recent Sammy Sosa pictures definitely cross that line. It already was a bad year for Sosa as a positive steroid test was revealed this summer. Its definitely taken a bizarre turn the last few days with pictures coming out with his skin appearing to be bleached....definitely falls under the category of if they wrote about it but didn't show any pictures, I probably wouldn't believe it....definitely one of those you couldn't make it up type of things....also the first and last time I mention it

"My Fist Your Face" John Riggins/Dan Snyder/Redskins

As bad as the Packers have been....I can at least think to myself things such as "At least i'm not A Redskins fan". In addition to routinely losing to the worst teams in the league (The Packers are at least 2-1 in this department).

Their coach, Jim Zorn defines ineptness. Their owner, Dan Snyder spends money in all the wrong places. One of their ex-players John Riggins has openly ripped Dan Snyder. I say they settle their differences and have a Family Guy-style fight (either in the veins of cleveland vs. quagmire or in the peter griffin vs. the giant chicken vein)...my vote is for option B

"Train Kept A-Rollin"-Saints/Colts

While both games were a bit close for comfort, the Saints and Colts kept a-rollin towards possible 16-0 seasons and their inevitable match-up in the Super Bowl.

"Rag Doll"-Packers O-Line

Cause, the Packers O-Line has been chewed up like a rag doll. Seriously, at this point there are probably high school teams in Wisconsin that could protect Aaron Rodgers better than the Packers. It reminds me of that NFL Draft commercial from a few years back where they photo-shopped the Texans "O-Line" out and showed footage of David Carr being sacked.

It was funnier a few years ago but considering ESPN will probably replace that footage with Aaron Rodgers getting sacked within a few months.....the comical value goes down. Through 8 games, Rodgers has been sacked 37 times...the single season record is 76.......this record could change hands by the end of the season.

What I found most important about the weekend in football

Things I drew from the weekend of action:

Packers Win, Bears Lose, Vikings Lose (Finally)

There's not much that can be drawn from the Packers win today. The fact that the Packers blew out the Browns 31-3, Rodgers had a good game, Ryan Grant got 148 yards but they were playing the Browns so that was to be expected. The Packers now sit at 4-2 but playing the Lions and Browns aren't the best barometers for whether this team is a contender or pretender. We'll get a better answer when the Packers have their highly anticipated rematch against the Vikings.

Coming into Sunday's Bears-Bengals game there was the sub-plot of Cedric Benson alleging that he was blackballed by the Bears and that this caused it to take longer for him to get his second chance. Regardless of whether or not these allegations are true, Benson made the Bears pay by racking up 189 yards and helping the Bengals blow out the Bears 45-10

Well....it was a matter of when...the Vikings finally lost to the Steelers. Brett Favre started to show signs of being in last-season form by throwing a 4th quarter-pick six to close out the game.

49ers QB Controversy Brewing:

Going into today, it was a given that Shaun Hill had a grip on the 49ers QB job and Alex Smith was penciled in as one of the biggest draft busts in the past few years. Well, thats not how things looked today. After a terrible first half, Hill was benched and Alex Smith was given a chance to see what he could do. While he didn't bring the Niners all the way back...he threw 3 second half TDs turned a sure-fire blowout into a game that was interesting up until the final minute.......

Withe the 49ers struggling, it should be interesting to see how this affects the rest of their season. Does Shaun Hill get another chance to make something out of the football season or does Alex Smith get a shot of redemption?

Saints keep on keeping on:

For a while, it looked like the Dolphins were going to pull off a major upset against the undefeated Saints. However, the Saints demonstrated an ability to play through adversity and from behind to keep their record unblemished.

College Football Thoughts:

TCU won yesterdays only game between two top-20 teams by destroying BYU yesterday. They were (somewhat) awarded by the BCS rankings by bypassing Boise State to get to 6th in the BCS rankings.......also their victory over Clemson looks better after Clemson upset the Hurricanes

Still the BCS rankings weren't good to the TCUs/Boise's of the world. TCU is ranked behind an Iowa team (that squeaked by a perennially average Michigan State team) and a 1-loss USC team that lost to an improving but still mediocre Washington Squad......Boise took care of business and they were "awarded" by being dropped to 7th...............much of this talk is probably counter-productive as the championship game is likely to be Texas vs. Alabama/Florida

Well......Game 6 of the ALCS is about to start..........here's to a good game and the Angels forcing a 7th game

Lots of stuff to talk about.....some NFL, some BCS, some Playoffs?!

Alright, so Saturday was a pretty busy sports day where the Angels-Yankees game overshadowed a pretty good slate of college football games. Today was a strong follow up to yesterday but with no one particular event overshadowing the crowd......my observations from the day in sports

The Saints can and will beat anyone in the league

Going into today, the one non-Packers game that I anticipated the most was the Giants-Saints game. Both teams were undefeated and the upper-hand in the NFC was at hand. The Saints ended up winning the game 48-27. The final score does not do service to how one-sided this affair was. Dree Brews and Marques Colston had their way with the Giants defense. It is scary how good the Saints are with their high-octane offense complemented by a competent defense. At this point, I wouldn't be shocked if the Saints go marching to their first Super Bowl this year.

The Vikings have got to lose at some point.......

The Vikings were thiiiissss close to choking in the 4th quarter against the Ravens. The Vikings D had a bad breakdown in the 4th allowing the Ravens to get back into the game. Joe Flacco had an excellent game and deserved to win this one. If only their kicker would have made the last-second field goal. Still, there is no way Favre keeps up his strong performance this year.....they've narrowly escaped defeat twice and their defense hasn't exactly been top-shelf.

The First BCS Standings are out.....

The top 3 are Florida-Alabama-Texas as expected. While the voters are stretching to place less deserving one-loss teams to pass Boise State on a weekly basis (USC replacing Virginia Tech in this regard)....I was glad to see Boise State being 4th in the BCS standings.....they were dropped to 6th in the AP despite winning their game last week......seriously if two of the top 3 lose, Boise stays undefeated but Boise gets passed up by a 1-loss team...that will only escalate the calls for a playoff.......weak conference or not...if a non-BCS team is one of two teams to run the table they at least deserve a chance to prove they are worthy of winning a national championship....

Whatever dignity the Titans had left is gone....

The first few weeks of the season the Titans were 0-3 but they were at least competitive in their losses. The last couple weeks, things had gotten progressively worse. Today, they bottomed out. I didn't know it was physically impossible to give up 5 touchdowns in a quarter in an NFL game but the Titans proved it was possible today. This is the thing you normally see when Florida schedules some cupcake 1-AA team...........seriously, when I saw that New England went up 45-0 scrolling across the bottom of my tv....I pretty much did a double take.....this goes to prove that any given year a team can go from 13-wins to a laughing stock and vice versa.....

At least today...the Dodgers weaker pitching staff is coming back to bite them

When I previewed the Dodgers-Phillies NLCS series, the one thing that stuck out to me is the discrepancy between pitching staffs. The Dodgers had been getting by on Randy Wolf, Vicente Padilla, etc. However, when your facing Cliff Lee in the playoffs, you can only go so far. The Dodgers started Hiroki Kuroda started and abruptly got rocked for 6 runs in 1 1/3 innings....as a result, the Dodgers have had no realistic shot to go up 2-1 in the NLCS...that combined with the Dodgers offense no-showing leaves the Phils up 8-0 in the 8th and the Dodgers moving one-step closer to having their season ended by the Phils.........

What is it with NFC teams losing to the laughingstocks of the NFL

This is something the Redskins have turned into an art-form. They have found ways to lose to the Chiefs, Lions and Panthers.........not exactly the most imposing schedule. But their divisional rival Eagles one-upped them this week by losing to the Raiders. The Raiders haven't shown this much fight since Tom Cable confronted his assistant in the pre-season. The Eagles may still have a winning record at 3-2 but any team that loses to the Raiders can NOT be taken seriously and from here I see the Eagles joining the Redskins in irrelevancy this year......and for the Redskins, their bad loss puts Jim Zorn one step closer to getting fired........