When I was a sophomore in high school playing on the JV basketball team, we went into our Christmas break undefeated and feeling pretty good about ourselves. Over the break we were scheduled to play one game against a team from the division below us. We practiced a few times, nothing too serious, and went into the game feeling good. But the week and a half layoff killed us and we lost by four, our only loss of the season.
What does that have to do with anything regarding the NFL playoffs in any way, shape, or form? Probably nothing at all. But I just wanted to try to make a connection with teams dealing with a significant time gap between games. As an adage, remember last year the Bucs were happy with their position in the playoffs, I wanna say the fourth seed, and rested starters for a decent amount of time and pretty much knew they were going to take on the Giants. What happened? They came out rusty, and the Giants were able to win. Nobody really knew that it would be en route to the Super Bowl but still. Not to mention at the same time the Giants played their starters all the way through the season and went on to, like I said, win the Super Bowl.
Anyway, all four of these games are rematches from the regular season, and three out of the four of them could go either way. I'm pretty set on throwing out the regular season matchups because now it almost seems irrelevant. So if you want to say that the Titans and the Steelers are going to win based on their regular season matchups, go ahead. But enough beating around the bush.
Titans over Ravens.
This is the game that I had in mind when I wrote that opening paragraph. The core of the Titans have not played significant time since week 16, and if my math is right, that is a three week gap between games. How many times have we seen college teams come out rusty in the national championship game after a long layoff? Well, the past two years I guess. Aside from Ted Ginn's kickoff return. Anyway, aside from all that, and going against everything I have said, there is no way that Joe Flacco will go into Titan-land and win another road playoff game. The Titans are very well coached, so I don't think the layoff will matter too much, Especially since the Titans are a predominantly run team with a great defense. And, let's go back to last week, even with five turnovers from the Dolphins, the Ravens only won 27-9, and for some reason I think that game was closer than what the score suggests. The Ravens won't have the benefit of having Chad Pennington loft balls down field for Ed Reed to pick off because Kerry Collins has a strong, strong arm and can fire that ball to vunerable parts of the Ravens defense, which, as all the experts are saying, deep downfield. Besides Ed Reed, who do the Ravens have in their DB corps? Plus, even though Chris Johnson is a rookie and (take it from me I had him on my fantasy team) he can run against good defenses. Not like, breakout, 120+ yards, but somewhere between 65-75 yards with some catches while Lendale pounds the rock inside.
So, with all that being said, the Titans will be able to control the ball and will hassle Flacco all day long. The Ravens won't have the benefit of having great field position and won't be able to force the turnovers that they did. Remember, they fumbled the ball in the red zone last week as well. The Ravens have seemed to be a big sleeper pick, but I don't think the layoff matters, and the Titans will win this game. Something like... 17-9.
Panthers over Cardinals
The Cardinals last six games of the regular season: 29-37 loss to the Giants, 20-48 loss to the Eagles, 34-10 win over the Rams, 14-35 loss to the Vikings, 7-47 loss to the Pats, and then a 34-21 win over Seattle. The two wins? At home. Plus, a not so good looking win over the Falcons in the first round. Plus, who knows the status of Boldin for the game. Plus, the Panthers will be coming out firing to prove that they are Super Bowl contenders. Plus, the emergence of DeAngelo Williams. Plus, I'm going to stop saying plus at the start of everything. Oh, and plus the weather forecast looks like it's going to be about 40 degrees and raining. That doesn't bode well for the Cardinals. They have already won their Super Bowl with winning a playoff game for the first time in years. I'll take the Panthers and their ground game to make short work of the Cards in not-so-favorable conditions. I'll say like 34-17
Giants over Eagles
I just don't see how the Giants let the Eagles come into town and win two games over the span of the season. That's basically my only reasoning. The last time these teams met, the Giants were dealing with the Plaxico/Harris Smith 'incident'. Hopefully the Giants have been able to figure out how to play without him, because now they don't have a big threat getting double teamed every play to open things up so of course they will have to switch up some things. The Eagles didn't look that good last week either. Minny gave that game away with terrible QB play, but that's another issue. Giants over Eagles along the tunes of 27-20.
Steelers over Chargers.
Do I hate taking every home team? Yeah. I don't want to do it, but I have to. I don't see how the Chargers are going to go into Pittsburgh and win. I do not see how they can do it. Plain and simple. But hey, all four number 1 seeds made the Final Four last year, why can't every home team win in the second round of the playoffs? I'll say 21-17. Also, I'm riding high right now on my score projections, just because I predicted the Ravens/Dolphins score correctly last week, a correct prediction for the first time in my life. Oh, and hey, I correctly predicted that Oklahoma would be going to the championship game. That's gotta count for something.
I have a feeling that the layoff will hurt one of the four bye teams, just like how it hurt my JV team my sophomore year. I just don't know how I can pick against any of them though. Just looking at it on a game-to-game basis, I can't pick against any home team.
