& now the REAL season starts. any true sports fan knows that the regular season (be it 16 games or 162) is nothing more than teams jockeying for the right to take part in the REAL season. lose & go home. no tomorrow... all the cliches that we love to hear them trot out year after year. this time around, we've got no-brainers in the afc & pick-em's in the nfc.
well... i guess there's really no such thing as a no-brainer in the nfl playoffs. take the new york jets at new england. rookie jets head coach eric mangini was on bill belichek's staff for new england's 3 superbowl wins. after falling behind 24-0 at home in week 2, the jets came back to make it close, losing 24-17 after their last drive was intercepted. & in new england in week 10, the jets squeaked out a 17-14 win, bringing to an end the patriots' run of 57 games without consecutive losses (just three games short of matching the 49ers record). but come on... it's new england at home in the playoffs. against chad pennington. & i'm not sure if the patriots have EVER lost at home to the same team twice in one season.
indianapolis against kansas city will be a much better game than it might have been. without a head-to-head matchup this year, we can only speculate on what will happen when larry johnson tries to run rampant through a truly horrible rushing defence. it might well be the worst team indy could have faced in the first round... but like herm edwards says, these are the indiannapolis colts. their lack of playoff success in the past means nothing on saturday. & while my friends agree that it'll be a good game, i haven't found ANYONE willing to pick kansas city to win. i'd do it myself just to be argumentative... but in the last few weeks, peyton manning seems to have found the light switch that he flicked at half-time during the first half of the season, when indy kept going into the locker room at half-time trailing & stormed out to romp through the 2nd half & get the win. & i'm not going against peyton this year... not for the CHIEFS, anyways! besides, indy was one of only two teams to go unbeaten at home this season, while the chiefs have a losing road record.
another division matchup pits the hot-n'-cold ny giants against the out-of-nowhere philadelphia eagles. many (myself included) wrote philly off when mcnabb went down, but in my defence... i didn't know jeff garcia had moved to philly. being a good canadian kid, i remember hating garcia during his championship days in calgary before he bolted south. i'll tell you this... if garcia can get the eagles deep into the playoffs, donovan may find his job in jeopardy. head-to-head, the giants beat mcnabb & co in overtime in week 2, while garcia recovered from nearly costing the eagles the game in week 15 (remember? after rushing for a first-down, he threw the ball into a defender's face, got a taunting penalty, then threw an interception which led to the giants scoring a touchdown to take the lead late in the game) to take the 2nd of three-straight division wins that led to philly catching most nfl pundits unprepared for them winning the tough nfc east. after losing his first game to indy, garcia finished the year 5-0, beating five very good nfc opponents (carolina, washington, ny giants, dallas, atlanta). it'd be philly as a no-brainer... but i can't stand the eagles & i can't stand jeff garcia. so while i don't like the idea of picking TWO mannings in the playoffs... i'm gonna go with the giants on this one. even though i think that's the wrong thing to do on EVERY level.
& the toughest game to pick... dallas at seattle. two of the all-time great coaches go head-to-head in bill parcells & mike holmgren. the question marks around both teams almost off-set each other. is tony romo gonna be able to stop playing like sh!t? did jessica simpson break it off, or worse, did PARCELLS break it off? will seattle play like the defending nfc champions, or like the team that lost regular season games to minnesota, arizona... & san fransisco TWICE. i'm sticking with my earlier dallas pick, but this will be a trial by fire for the soap opera that has been dallas in 2006. ah... a soap opera in "dallas"... THAT takes me back!
huh. apparently, the no-brainers of the afc aren't. the chiefs & jets are both equally capable of beating their hosts this weekend. & the pick-em's of the nfc are only so because of my stubborn unwillingness to support philly or seattle. which makes this year's opening round like EVERY opening round... just a crapshoot. but if any of y'all are damn-fool enough to put stock in MY pix... colts, cowboys, patriots, giants.