Divisional Round Weekend

To recap Wild Card Weekend:​

The teams are set:

​

So what's it gonna be? Discuss..........

 

Amazing what momentum will do for teams. Only game I'd even remotely call a "lock" is the Indy/Denver game and that's only if Manning has shaken off his last 4 starts. Can Carolina, Baltimore and Dallas win? Why not...they're all extremely confident and their defenses are playing really well. Right now I like the Broncos, Patriots, Cowboys, and Seahawks.

 

You bring up something that I just don't get or agree with and that's that a team that is geographically located in a cold climate has an advantage over their opponent. Opposing teams have players that played ball in frigid conditions and teams like Green Bay and Minnesota have players that maybe never saw one flake of snow in their entire lives until they moved there. Aaron Rodgers played all of his football in California. Even if those "cold weather teams" conduct their practices in freezing conditions, how many practices is that? Is it enough that it gives them such a distinct advantage? Maybe if someone has been in the league a number of years and played a lot of games in crap conditions I might buy it. I dunno, but I hardly think so.

 

I'd buy that.

I apologize. That was a non-malicious omission on my part. I should have said something along the line of "Aaron Rodgers played all of his football in California, but that's not to infer California doesn't experience wintry conditions, especially in some of the nation's most majestic mountainous regions such as the Sierra Nevadas. Sierra Nevada is Spanish for "Snowy Range" and the Sierra Nevada lives up to it's name, recording some of the heaviest snow falls in the world. Aaron played his ball where hooves and antlers weren't required standard issue football gear as is the case at South Lake Tahoe High School where annual snowfall reaches on average 125 inches compared to alpine skiing elevations where the snowfall averages 300 to 500 inches each year.

I'll be more careful in the future.

 

Damn...I didn't know that Chico was that far north. Any type of weather that makes them blow into their hands to warm 'em up qualifies.

 

wish we had a way to facilitate side bets... I'll take, straight up:

Broncos - Indy's lack of run game + one fumble from Herron will be the difference here.
Patriots - Baltimore's lack of run game and difference makers on offense coupled with the Ravens soft secondary will be their downfall.
Cowboys - Looking for the upset here. Love Greenbay but they won't control the clock like them Boyz
Seahawks - Only way they lose is if they look past Carolina and/or don't take the game seriously. Panthers are a joke.

 

Carolina is in my division so I've really been keeping up with them... If you look at there end of season win streak you'll see it was against crappy / losing teams... So don't get to excited.

The ONLY WAY Carolina wins and even keeps it within 7 is Cam Newton must straight up ball. Which would not only require his accuracy, vision and decision making ability to triple overnight; Kelvin Benjamin is going to have to figure out how to beat large physical corners.

Bottomline is the Hawks beat the Panthers at Qb, RB and defense.. Oh ya and it's in Seattle

 

I would agree with this. The same people who said on the air the Panthers are one of the most underachieving teams in the NFL and just not good have altered course after wins against the Saints, Bucs, Browns and Falcons. Now they're the flavor of the month. The Seahawks defense appears to be so far superior to anything Cam & Co. can offer. Sure Carolina is on a roll and playing with more confidence, but what about what Seattle's done over the last 8 games of the season? So now Carolina will win and I can eat shirt.