Monday, January 1

Run for Immortality

With the commencement of the NFL playoffs set the Patriots embark on their journey for four Super Bowls in six years, a feat only accomplished by the Steelers in the late 70’s. The Patriots start their run for Super Bowl immortality against the New York Jets in Foxboro. The Patriots come in as the number 4 seed behind the Chargers, Ravens, and Colts. The Chiefs round out the 6 playoff teams. In the NFC the playoff teams are Chicago, New Orleans, Philly, Seattle, Dallas, and the Giants. I will break down each of the leagues road to the Super Bowl.

AFC

First round byes: San Diego, and Baltimore

Saturday Jan 6th 4:30pm: Kansas City VS. Indy. Indy is the home team and most likely will be favored, however Indy has been playing mediocre football the last month and they look even more vulnerable to the run than earlier in the year. KC comes in with arguably the best rusher in the NFL, Larry “Grandma Ma” Johnson. He should get the ball over 50 times, with 40 of those coming on the ground and slash the Indy D for 200 all purpose yards. This is the year that all the media isn’t slurping the Peyton Manning/Colts Kool Aid. This is the year the media is actually giving another team a shot at the Super Bowl, and I say it is about time and I agree. I have never been on an Indy bandwagon. With all that said I have the Chiefs. Of course since this is the year everyone is expecting the colts to lose, who knows, maybe Peyton can win a game in the playoffs when it matters.

Chiefs 41 Colts 35.

Sunday Jan 7th 1:00 pm. NY Jets VS. New England Patriots. The Jets roll into Foxboro all confident and cocky because no one gave them a shot to win anything this year, let alone make the playoffs. They won ten games in a loaded AFC. Eric Mangini is returning to his old stomping grounds to face his old master. The Jets feel they have a chance to win because they came in to a rainy and wet Foxboro and beat the Patriots 17-14 without Rodney Harrison, Stephen Neal, and Ty Warren. They will all be in uniform this week. The Pats come in playing some very good football since the shutout loss in Miami a few weeks. They have a + 8 turnover margin since Brady called out his team saying they didn’t listen to their coach. Turnovers were a huge problem in back to back wins over the Lions and Bears, but this has been fixed. This could have been a fatal flaw for the Patriots, but not anymore. I think this will be a relatively easy victory for the Patriots. The Jets don’t have enough weapons on offense to beat the Patriots defense, which tied a franchise record for fewest points allowed in a season (2003).

Patriots 30 Jets 14

Divisional Round

KC vs. SD. This is matchup of the top two runners in football. LDT and LJ are both dominant backs who hit the hole hard and are tough to bring down. The teams split the season series. The difference in this game comes from the QB position and defense. KC probably has a slight slight edge over SD because of experience at the QB position; however, SD has a much better defense. SD has one of the best Linebackers in the game, and they are very good at stopping the run. I think even Marty ball cant lose this one. And keep in mind that Marty hasn’t won a playoff game since ’94.

Bolt’s 27 KC 19

New England vs. Baltimore. The Ravens are coming off the bye week and will face a very tough Patriots team that is coming off an emotional playoff victory over the Jets. The two teams didn’t face each other in the regular season. This is a matchup of two defensive juggernauts. They ranked one – two in defense in terms of points allowed per game. The Patriots have a clear advantage on offense. It is a wash on defense; the Patriots have the advantage on special teams. The difference in this game comes with coaching where the Pats have the advantage again. I don’t see Bill letting Steve McNair tear through the Pats defense, but I can see Tom Brady and company pick apart the Ravens defense. I think the Patriots win a defensive chess match.

Patriots 17 Ravens 13.

AFC Championship Game

New England versus San Diego

The Patriots will come into a nice weather stadium to face the very talented Chargers team. The Chargers have a great running game and a good defense. The Patriots have the fifth best run defense in the NFL. I think they can contain LDT, if anyone can. They are practically even in terms of passing defense, so much like the Pats – Ravens matchup this will come down to coaching and special teams. I think the Patriots have the edge in both. I think BB will devise a scheme to send pressure and confuse Rivers, and we all know the shortcomings of Marty Schottenheimer. They have been well documented. This will be a very entertaining game and a very well played game, but I think it will come down to a botched play call on the part of the Chargers. For intensive purposes this is the Super Bowl. The winner of this game will go on to win the Big One. Call me a homer, call me biased, but I have the Pats. I picked them in the preseason to go 12-4 and win the Super Bowl. They went 12-4 and now the Super Bowl part is within reach.

Pats 30 Bolt’s 20

NFC

I don’t really care about the NFC, but I am going to go with the heartfelt story of the Saints to play the Bears in the NFC title game and the saints will win to face the Patriots in the Super Bowl. My prediction on that later on.