I used to say that Divisional weekend was the best weekend of football of the year. You have 4 games with the best 8 teams of the year. With this new system I don't know anymore (Did you know the Cowboys became the first team in NFL history to lose to a 7 seed in the playoffs? It's true!! I've read it like 5000 times since sunday night!! Who knew!!!). My playoff challenge is still alive but barely. I went 4-2 in round one...the Browns and Cowboys let me down, what else is new? Here are the match-ups and their respective lines: Texans at Ravens (-9.5) Packers at 49ers (-10) Buccaneers at Lions (-6) Chiefs at Bills (-2.5) I just love that 49ers line. They're still sleeping on the Packers. That's the only pick I'm certain of so far. Anyone but the 49ers. ANYONE.
Woke up to the news that Mike McCarthy is coming back. I'm really pissed but not surprised. It stopped being about winning a Super Bowl a long time ago, no matter what Jerry Jones says.
Cowboys Twitter is in total meltdown mode. I had never seen anything like this. Jerry is sure banking on all of us getting over it by the summer but it feels like it won't be enough. It will be interesting to see what happens...
Since they have done nothing yet, I expect the Eagles to retain Sirianni. I'm not a fan of it. I hope I'm wrong no matter which way they go. My rooting interest in this week's games: TEXANS at RAVENS - Rooting for the upset big time. My father just passed away on Tuesday, and since he was a Steelers fan I must root against the Ravens in his honor. PACKERS at 49ERS - Go! Pack! Go! The 49ers are my most hated team left in the playoffs despite my brother being a fan of them. I would Love an upset here (see what i did there?). BUCS at LIONS - I'm going to pull for the Lions because of their past failures and I think they would have a better shot against SF should they both advance. CHIEFS at BILLS - I'm rooting for the Bills. Chiefs have had too much success and I'm getting sick of them even though I still have love for Big Red.
I'm so sorry for your loss, Chuck. There are no words when these things happen. (I'll post my picks later).
Here are the picks. Let's roll...I'm feeling 85% confident. Ravens -9.5 over Texans "Beware of the team that looked too good in round one". The Texans season has been a smashing success and they should be regulars in this round for the next decade, but I think the inexperience will finally catch up to them. Lamar and the Ravens look like they're on a mission and it's really hard to pick against them. Packers +10 over 49ers I hate the 49ers with passion. I despise Kyle Shanahan. I believe he's the biggest lie in football history. Collapse after collapse in the playoffs and Super Bowls prove it, and he always gets a free pass. It's always someone elses's fault. He's like the Anti-Dak because Dak keeps getting blamed for things out of his control like blown coverages on defense. I expect and want the Packers to prove last week was no fluke and at least make things interesting and keep it close... Lions -6 over Buccaneers I absolutely love this Jared Goff redemption tour. I bet it felt amazing to beat the Rams and especially McVay, the one that gave up on him just like that right after taking them to the Super Bowl. Good for you, Jarred. And Baker Mayfield might not be so far behind. He joined HOF QBs like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner as the only QBs to win playoff games with different teams (I think Montana too? Not 100% sure and I'm too lazy to google it). But I like the Lions more. Chiefs +2.5 over Bills Never bet against Mahomes under any circumstances. So what if this is his first ever playoff game on the road and a non-neutral site? He's still the best QB in the league and I expect him to continue to prove it. Speaking of comparisons, Josh Allen is white Dak Prescott. Another guy who always gets a free pass and I can't understand why. Round 1 record: 4-2. Can't lose anymore... EDIT: Wait, no...I just remembered Montana made it to a championship game with the Chiefs so he definitely won at least one playoff game with two different teams. I'm still right because he's in the HOF too. Good company for Baker.
That may change for one of them this year... Do you not like Allen? I don't have a strong opionion of him either way but I would prefer the Bills over the Ravens or Chiefs.
I don't like Allen's coverage. It's like the standard is different for him. He was playing horrible the first months of the season, but everybody focused on how Dak was beating up and "padding his stats" against bad teams. Then he got better and was automatically included in the MVP talk. Dak put MVP numbers all season long but he was dismissed because he was "beating bad teams". This is not college where you choose your opponents, the schedule is set months in advance. Dak had 15 INTs in 2022 and the media ate him alive. Allen threw 19 picks this year and the media praised him for being a gunslinger and taking risks. I don't get it, really, and at this point, I'm tired of asking. I refuse to believe it's the obvious reason... It comes down to this: when the Cowboys lose, it's always Dak's fault. No matter if the defense gave up 40+ points. When the Bills lose, it's never Allen's fault, no matter if he threw 4 picks.
I don't know man...earlier in the season Josh was getting ripped hard. I remember segments on ESPN about him being overrated.
Ha. I stopped watching ESPN a long time ago because Stephen A. became the face of the channel and I can't stand that guy. I mostly watch NFL Network and listen to podcasts now from The Ringer and The Athletic and I might stop soon because they're pissing me off too. At least I got a very good analysis of the Cowboys beatdown the other day...unbiased, clear and to the point. That's the kind of coverage I want. Just tell me what happened, I'll draw my own conclussions.
These days I watch so little of sports media. I pretty much will just listen to Philly sports radio in the morning and watch the games themselves.
It's the hot take era. It's like a competition to see who can say the most outrageuous thing and get the most clicks and likes. Just the other day I saw that Stephen A. Smith's show broke its ratings record on monday. Just like Pat McAfee when Rodgers was talking nonsense during the season. I've been training myself to ignore those outrageous tweets but it's really hard!! Social media...another thing I should probably quit.
Dak's Brother wants him out of Dallas, Micah's hinting that we're gonna miss him when he's gone, CeeDee's mom is going off the rails. The dysfunction is hillarious. All that drama and no success... Oh, well...it's divisional playoff weekend. Let's enjoy some high quality football.
I’m so disappointed that the Packers didn’t pull off the upset. It was there for them. The missed FG, turnovers, and early penalties really hurt them.
