Who is going to Miami

Before we begin I want to establish that despite the 49ers being at home (SHOCK) I do have a pretty strong rooting interest because I’d love to see Jeff Garica win the Super Bowl – he was never given enough respect in San Fran and helped my fantasy team win a couple of championships. Plus I would love to see him holding the trophy and saying “Hey T.O.! Take a good look at this because the only way you will ever touch one is if I shove it up you ass.”

AFC

Wildcard:

1) Chiefs beat Colts. In some ways it seems to be a no-brainer. Larry Johnson will run wild on the Colts defense. But I am hesitant because the Chiefs are not that great besides Scary Larry and the Colts can put up points home. Plus everyone is picking against a 12-4 team at home playing a team that just squeaked into the playoffs thanks the 49ers upsetting Denver (hello Jim). But in the end the Colts run defense is not just 32^nd, it is historically bad (literally one of worst 5 all-time).

2) Pats beat Jets. Not only can the Jets beat the Pats in Foxboro, they did it in Week 10. But I think the Pats are just a better team. And while I know Mangini knows the Pats, his team just doesn’t have that much talent. I do admit I thought about this one though, the Pats secondary is beat up and the Jets can cover their very average WRs. If the Jets do win, they lose in Baltimore.

NFC

Wildcard:

3) Eagles beat Giants. Please. A hot team vs. a .500 club that stumbled in. So long Tiki, it was a nice career, but you were no hall of famer (and boy does that piss me off when people discuss it seriously and then say Curtis Martin, who should be a first ballot guy, probably doesn’t belong. Barber was only considered a good bad for a few years, and was never seen as an elite back in the league. He had fumbling issues and was often spelled. Martin meanwhile just piled up tons of yards non-stop and while never had much flash league insiders always included him in a discussion about the leagues best backs for most of his career).

4) Cowboys beat Seahawks. Seattle is only in because they are in a bad division. The Cowboys’ D is not soft, but they have enough offense to outscore a beat up Seahawks team – especially one missing its top three corners.

AFC

Division:

1) Chargers beat Chiefs. Chargers are simply a better team top to bottom and are playing at home where they handled KC last time.

2) Ravens beat Pats. Ravens D is too tough for Pats offense that is not even close to being one of the best in the league. Their secondary can handle the Pats WRs and McNair won’t be easily put out of sorts by Belichick’s schemes.

NFC

Division:

3) Bears beat Cowboys. The Bears are not going all the way, but the Cowboys don’t really have the defense to beat them. I almost took Dallas here, but Chicago bowed out at this point last year and I don’t think that will happen again. Besides Romo has been playing long enough that I think teams are starting to figure him out.

4) Saints beat Eagles. Even though they played them tough before and I like Garica I am not sure the Eagles have the run defense to win here. I know this now means I took all the favorites in this round which is idiotic and won’t happen. New Orleans and then Chicago are the most likely to lose. I also want to take a moment to talk about the misconception that homefield counts for a lot in the playoffs. This is based on the fact that in the playoffs the home team wins a much higher percentage of the time than they do in the regular season. But there is a funny think about the teams playing a home in the playoffs – they are better. Teams playing at home have better records, they are supposed to win. If the weaker team always hosted games in the playoffs road teams would win more often.

AFC

Championship:

1) Ravens beat Chargers. Poor Marty, he’ll get labeled as a chocker again, but I can’t pick Phillip Rivers against the Ravens D. This also saves us from a million Brees vs. the team that cut him media stories before the Super Bowl because…

NFC

Championship:

2) Saints beat Bears. Neither team is playing great defense, but the Saints have a good QB. Grossman can put together a good game when the pressure is on, but he can’t sustain it. The Eagles would beat the Bears too.

Super Bowl:

Ravens beat Saints. With McNair, Lewis, Mason, the rising Clayton, and Heap, Baltimore will have enough to score on this defense. I’ll be happy to see McNair get a ring, he was a great QB in his prime and never got the credit. He almost beat the Rams after dragging his team back into that game, this time he doesn’t have too.