Waiting on the Super and Pro Bowl

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

OK, all the speculation and wishful thinking is put aside and we get down to the actual games.

Saturday:
Chiefs at Colts, 2:35 p.m. CST
Saints at Eagles, 6:10 p.m. CST

Sunday:
Chargers at Bengals, 11:05 a.m. CST
49ers at Packers, 2:40 p.m. CST

Who wins, who loses? Why? Go for it.

I've got Chiefs over Colts. The KC starters are rested, the cold isn't a factor, and the defense dominates like they haven't since week 10.

Saints over Eagles. Philly has no answer for Brees, Graham and the wide-outs.

Chargers over Bengals. The way Rivers is playing, that vaunted Cincy D gets burned over and over and over ...

Packers over 49ers. Not since John Brodie walked out a frozen Lambeau Field in a short sleeve shirt in -6 degree weather have the 'Niners beaten the Pack at home in a playoff game. Won't happen this time, either.

 

[SaggyWoman]

Go fight win Carolina Panthers.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Go fight win Carolina Panthers.

Funny. Didn't see anything about the Panthers in my post. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[ccrobinson]

OK, all the speculation and wishful thinking is put aside and we get down to the actual games.

Saturday:
Chiefs at Colts, 2:35 p.m. CST

Kansas City is 11-0 against every team not named the Broncos, Colts or Chargers. KC has the edge at RB, but Indy has a better QB, which makes their offense a little better. Indy beat KC handily 2 weeks ago.

Indy's my pick to move on.

Saints at Eagles, 6:10 p.m. CST

New Orleans has Brees, but don't be selling Foles short. He's been sensational. Philly has Shady McCoy and New Orleans has Jimmy Graham. Most importantly, New Orleans isn't the same team on the road as they are at home.

Philly wins.

Sunday:
Chargers at Bengals, 11:05 a.m. CST

The line for this game is higher than any of the others, and that makes no sense to me. I know Cincy's better at home than on the road, but they're not unbeatable. Cincy did beat San Diego in San Diego, but it was close, not like Indy over KC. Both offenses are very diversified and I like Cincy's defense slightly better, but the Chargers shut down the Broncos in Denver a few weeks ago, so they're certainly capable. I think the difference will be one of the most electric RB's in the game, Giovani Bernard.

Cincinnati is my pick.

49ers at Packers, 2:40 p.m. CST

Both offenses are diversified with terrific skill players, but the Packers get the slight nod because of Aaron Rodgers. The Bears get blame for failing on that last play, but the Packers won the game mostly because of Rodgers. With that said, the 49ers defense is not the Bears defense. In a battle of Packers O vs. 49ers D and 49ers O vs. Packers D, the 49ers offense has a big advantage.

San Francisco wins this one.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Indy's my pick to move on ... Philly wins ... Cincinnati is my pick ... San Francisco wins this one.

Could've just said "I pick everything opposite of you." :laugh: :thumbsup:

 

[ccrobinson]

Could have done, but that's not why I picked who I did.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

So we're both 2-for-2.

Probably because I'm a fan, but I've got to say, the Chiefs lost five players, including four starters and both their key running backs, by the middle of the third quarter. They lost Jamaal Charles six plays into the game. Still, when they had that 28-point lead, it seemed Andy Reid and Doug Pederson went conservative, and with Brandon Flowers down with a concussion, they should have known they were going to have to keep scoring. Then Houston gets hurt again, and the defense was only about 70% effective without he and Flowers. All Reid and Pederson had to do was engineer one more drive, but they didn't get daring again until the last possession, and that meant just one good defensive play would end the game. It did.

Cincy just never was in that game. No way were they going to win with three turnovers by QB Andy Dalton. But then, he has a bad habit of blowing playoff games. He's had two other playoff starts in Cincinnati, both ugly losses to the Texans. He only complete 47% percent of his passes last year against Houston, and until Sunday, he hadn't thrown a post-season touchdown pass. I didn't think this game would be any better than his other two. I think he's pretty maxed out his talent level, and it isn't good enough to get to a Super Bowl.

The 'Niners surprised me, but Kaepernick pulled that old John Brodie trick out of the book that I mentioned in my OP. He wore a short-sleeved jersey with no Under Armor or anything else on underneath. He still had to pull a rabbit out of the hat on that last possession, or it would be Green Bay traveling to Seattle next week.

New Orleans struggled, to be sure, but I never doubted the Saints. Even when Brees plays subpar to expectations, he smells playoffs and turns in a heck of a performance, just like Sunday. Gotta give Foles his props, too. He played well, and seemed to get inside the heads of NO's defensive players. That safety was the difference. You don't often see a game won that way.

 

[ccrobinson]

Still, when they had that 28-point lead, it seemed Andy Reid and Doug Pederson went conservative..

but they didn't get daring again until the last possession

Not really. In the 3rd quarter, the Chiefs passed the ball 10 times and ran it 5. Those were not all short passes either, as A. Smith completed passes of 15 and 21 yards. Luck was brilliant and injury after injury caught up to KC. I feel for you. That was a brutal loss.

Cincy just never was in that game.

Huh? It was 10-7 at the half and 17-10 after the 3rd quarter. What part of that is never in the game? It wasn't until the Chargers got the 10 point lead that I thought Dalton wasn't going to come through.

I think he's pretty maxed out his talent level, and it isn't good enough to get to a Super Bowl.

Yep, I agree. I really thought Dalton would get it together like Flacco did last year and it just didn't happen. It's a shame, because they have all the pieces in place to win the Super Bowl except for the most important position.

The 'Niners surprised me...

Obviously, they did not surprise me since I picked the Niners to win. The Niners were the better team and Rodgers was sensational (along with some help from a blatant hold for the 2nd week in a row) in keeping the Packers in the game. That said, awful sorry about your season ending there, Green Bay. Breaks my heart. *snicker snicker

Even when Brees plays subpar to expectations, he smells playoffs and turns in a heck of a performance, just like Sunday.

Brees was 20/30 for 250 yards, 1 TD and 2 picks. That's a fine game, I guess, but Brees wasn't the reason the Saints won.

That safety was the difference.

What safety are you alluding to?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

What safety are you alluding to?

Ever have a brain fart? That was one. I have no idea why I typed "safety." It was supposed to be a remark about winning a game with four field goals. D'oh!

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

OK, so it's Divisional Playoff weekend.

New Orleans v. Seattle, 3.35 p.m. CST Saturday ...
There won't be any three-back running committee meeting in the Saints backfield like there was last week when N'awlins traveled to Philly. The Saints have to be the Saints to beat Seattle -- run, screen, go deep, toss a run in every now and then to keep 'em honest. Will that work against the Seahawks? Russell Wilson is going to have his say, but I say ...

Saints win.

Indianapolis v. New England, 7:15 p.m. CST Saturday ...
Turnovers shouldn't be a factor in this game, but I think they will be. Both teams were better than the league average protecting the football while taking it away from opponents. So were the Chiefs. The Colts put a dent in that reputation. They'll ball-hawk against Brady and the Pats, too, and that will be New England's demise. If there is a weak spot with Indy, it is the run game. Even against a hurting Chiefs' defense -- three injuries by the middle of the third quarter -- Indy still had to throw the ball 45 times. If they have to do that against the Patriots, it could be a long night. But it won't be ...

Patriots win.

San Francisco v. Carolina, 12.05 p.m. CST Sunday ...
Carolina looked impressive all season long. That came to an end in the season finale against the Saints. The Panthers turned to their defense to overcome a 9-point deficit back in November and squeak out a one-point win in the Bay. Nonetheless, the 'Niners are a three-point favorite in Carolina. Why? Simple. Cam Newton's first playoff. In pressure situations he tends to panic and overplay. Does that mean he will this time? Not necessarily. He has, after all, matured. But so has Kaepernick, and he's got better experience at this playoff thing. Both quarterbacks run will. Kap will run better Sunday and ...

49ers win.

San Diego v. Denver, 3.40 p.m. CST Sunday ...
This one is simple. The Chargers took the Broncos by surprise last month at beat Denver at Mile High. That said, I remind you the Broncos have the top-rated offense in the league in terms of yards per game (465.6), yards per play (6.31), passing yards per game (341.23), sacks per attempt (2.8 percent), first downs per game (27.9), third-down conversion rate (48.2 percent), red-zone efficiency (78.9 percent), points scored per game (39.6), point margin per game (plus 13.1) and yardage margin per game (plus 91). Too much Peyton for too long a day ...

Broncos win.

 

[ccrobinson]

Let's move on to this weekend. I'll make my picks first.

New Orleans at Seattle

I love DangeRuss Wilson and wish he played for my favorite team, but I've become nervous about him the last few weeks. He did not play that well the last 3 weeks of the regular season and it makes me wonder if defenses have figured something out about him. Despite what Arizona did on defense, Wilson should have been good enough to overcome it, but he wasn't.

The Seattle defense is fantastic, especially their pass defense. For example, QB rating against them was so bad that they essentially made every QB look worse than Brandon Weeden. I don't have a concern about Seattle's defense, but I am concerned about Wilson, plus Seattle does not have a single WR that you're scared of (minus Percy Harvin, but he's been hurt all year).

Seattle is favored by 8, but I think it's a very close game that the Hawks win by 3.


Indianapolis at New England

New England is a disaster on defense. Andrew Luck has TY Hilton and... umm.. hmmm... that's about it. Hilton had 18 targets last week. 18! When the Patriots double Hilton on every snap, that will leave the other Colts receivers to do what they always do. Drop the ball. I got fooled during the season thinking that Andrew Luck had regressed, especially after Reggie Wayne went down, but the real problem is that his receivers kept dropping the ball.

Speaking of disasters, the Colts just gave up 44 points to Alex Smith and the Chiefs. You might think Tom Brady is going to go off, but Tom Brady hasn't really been Tom Brady this year without Gronk. Against a more balanced and explosive team, this would be a problem. Since the Colts are made up of Luck and Hilton and everybody else wiltin', Patriots win.


San Francisco at Carolina

Somehow, Kaepernick managed to be both good and shaky in the same game. He made some great runs, but some very iffy passes. When he makes those kinds of passes against this Panthers D, the Niners will come to regret them. The Panthers D isn't quite at the level of the Seahawks, but they're very, very good in their own right.

On offense, the Panthers have Cam and the Newtonaires, but that was enough to win the NFC South and it was enough to beat the Niners in San Francisco. The big unknown here is Crabtree, because he wasn't back yet when Carolina beat them 10-9 this season.

I look for this one to be a 1 point game again, but Crabtree gives the Niners just enough to sneak by. Niners move on.


San Diego at Denver

Did you know that the Broncos have gained over 400 yards in 14 games this season? Did you know that they gained under 300 yards in 2 games? Guess which games.

There's something about this Chargers team that matches up really well against the Broncos and yet somehow let them lose to teams like the Raiders. The Chargers are very balanced and explosive on offense; the Broncos are worse on defense than you might think; and the Chargers have already shown they can seriously disrupt the Broncos offense. In short, I think this is a really bad matchup for Denver.

History tells us that one of the #1 seeds is losing this week. The #1 seed that's going down is the Broncos. Chargers for the win.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Let's move on to this weekend. I'll make my picks first.

Didn't read the post before yours, huh?

S'all right. :thumbsup:

And from the rest of your post, the best agreement we can come to is gonna be another 2-for-2 week.

 

[ccrobinson]

Doh!

I clicked on the thread and it put me on a new page, so I assumed that I was making the first pick. Oh well.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Doh!

I clicked on the thread and it put me on a new page, so I assumed that I was making the first pick. Oh well.

No biggie, Bro. We'll see how we did. God bless.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Why to go CCR (not be confused with the band)!! Three out of four. So, here we go, last week of playoffs before the Super Bowel.

Patriots at Broncs, 3:05 p.m. CST Sunday
Don't count on a 24-point comeback from New England this week. No Gronkowski, Brady's 10-4 against Manning in the playoffs but only 6-4 on the road, and the last time they went on the road for an AFC championship game, they lost to Manning's Colts 38-34.

Broncos win

49ers at Seahawks, 6:40 p.m (?) CST Sunday
Forget the crowd, the noise, the 'Hawk defense. This game is Kaepernick's to win or lose, and he'll win it with his feet, with a few passes thrown in for good measure. If Seattle stays within ten points, I'll be surprised.

49ers win

 

[ccrobinson]

On August 25th, 2013, I recorded my picks for the season.

AFC
Denver
Houston
Cincinnati
New England
Kansas City
Indianapolis

NFC
Seattle
Atlanta
Green Bay
New York
San Francisco
New Orleans

My conference championships were Denver over Cincinnati and Seattle over Atlanta and I had picked Seattle to beat Denver in the Super Bowl. So, not too shabby, which is quite a bit different than what I usually do.


What can an idiot like me say about Brady v. Manning that somebody a lot smarter hasn't said already? Nothing. I do like Denver's skill positions more than I do the Patriots, making them more explosive and dangerous. This game has the feeling of a game where whoever has the ball last wins, but I don't think it's going to end that way. Oddly, I think Peyton and the Broncos were more nervous about the Chargers than they are the Patriots and it will show.

Denver wins and it's going to be big for this kind of game. It's not going to be a blowout, but something in the neighborhood of 35-21.


Seattle has a problem. It's not their sensational defense or their terrific run game, but they can't pass the ball anymore. Or can they? DangeRuss hasn't passed for more than 206 yards in any game since week 14, leading many to believe that something's wrong. Did anything look wrong with Wilson in the Saints game, other than it was terrible weather for throwing? Not to me. That 3rd down pass to Baldwin late was a terrific throw. There's nothing wrong with DangeRuss. Did his WR's suddenly get worse? No, I think they're as average as they've been all season.

I think it's a conscious decision to dial it back ever since they clinched home field advantage by shellacking the Saints in week 13. They haven't needed a big day passing, so they haven't showcased an amazing passing offense. I think they would have opened things up more against the Saints, but the weather wasn't conducive to that, plus they lost the electric Percy Harvin.

I think San Francisco is a terrific, well balanced team and there is no question they can go to Seattle and win. But, my pick at the beginning of the season was Seattle to make the Super Bowl and I'm sticking with it.

Seattle wins 24-14.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

As a Kansas City Chiefs fan, I thought "There's no way I can root for Denver, so whoever wins the NFC championship will be 'my team' in the Super Bowl." Then along came the Seahawks' Richard Sherman. Not only did he go on that post-game rant to Fox's Erin Andrews -- viewable by clicking on the link -- he also came out of the end zone giving the "choke" sign to Kaepernick, Crabtree and the rest of the 49ers, and when he got flagged for taunting, the classless Seattle fans booed the referees. Keep in mind, there were 22 seconds left, it was Seattle's ball, all they had to do was take a knee and the game was over. San Francisco was out of time-outs. What's there to boo? Maybe they were booing Sherman? Naw.

I've had a problem with Pete Carroll escaping USC unscathed after he and his coaching staff crippled the football program there with NCAA sanctions for two years. Not that I'm an 'SC fan, but no coach should be able to escape to the pro league and not have to pay the price for his illegal activities. Sure, if Carroll ever wants to coach at the college level again, he'll have to pay the price, so he'll get a two year vacation before he can take a job. Big deal. Most NFL coaches who leave a team to go back to the college ranks might enjoy a two-year hiatus like that.

Now it is obvious Carroll has no more control over his coaches and players than he did at USC. He's like the second coming of Barry Switzer, only without the criminal activity -- so far. Sherman acted a fool, and from what I can tell, Carroll did nothing to correct that behavior. The linked article here ends up defending Sherman, saying, "Well, he didn't cuss in front of a bunch of kids or anything." Sherman's classless, just like the rest of the Seahawks, thanks to Carroll's rah-rah, buddy-buddy act, instead of acting the like the coach he's supposed to be. It's spilling over into the fans in Seattle as well, and that's unfortunate. They have become unsophisticated buffoons much like Sherman. Carroll's genius is in who he hires to his staff, not his own coaching capability, which he obviously doesn't have, at least not in keeping players under control emotionally.

If nothing else, such nonsense from a player eventually comes back to haunt him. It might take years, but he'll pay for his bone-head routine. Then again, they play the 49ers twice each season, so it won't be long before he regrets his clown act.

Bottom line, I don't care that I don't like the Broncos. Manning's my man February 2.

 

[ccrobinson]

The other side of the story is always nice to have. Here it is.

Now it is obvious Carroll has no more control over his coaches and players than he did at USC...

Please read this piece.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

The other side of the story is always nice to have. Here it is.




Please read this piece.

I saw this before I posted. First, Carroll says,

"You're talking about a guy in a warrior's mentality in the middle of everything," Carroll said. "He's a fiery guy. That was Richard being Richard in a moment where you would like to pull him to the side and take a knee for a while, then we'll talk to you."

Did he "pull him aside and take a knee"? He never says he did, he simple made an excuse for him, then went on to say:

"It's unfortunate that it was so crazed, but that's who he is. His mental make-up to get ready for that matchup was expressed right there so he could play the way he can play. Unfortunately, sharing with the world, it didn't come across so well."

"That's who he is." Doesn't seem to me Carroll said anything that would have convinced Sherman he was off the mark. Interestingly, the coach goes on:

"We try to stick to Rule No. 1, which is always protect the team," Carroll said. "It's the rule we live by. You always represent us. In a time like that one, it was a little bit representing yourself.

"How we handle it is we try to grow and learn and work our way through who we are and figure out who we want to be. This was an extraordinary learning opportunity. You'll see some benefit from it."

Really? How? Carroll speaks two paragraphs of defense of Sherman as "That's who he is," and gives a lot of platitudes about the team, and growth, and benefit, but there's nothing in that drivel that says, "We told him not to do it again." And of course, Carroll claims he did the same thing he does whenever any player is out of bounds:

"When you really love somebody and care for them, you do everything you can help them be everything they can be," Carroll said. "At times they are going to make mistakes and break your heart, but if you love them you stay with them. You give [them] the best chance to be all they can be.

"Richard is a wonderful spirit. He's got an amazing heart and he has great sensitivity. He goes all the way to the end of the spectrum when it comes to expressing himself."

Again, really, Coach? What exactly did you do along the lines of loving Sherman, caring for Sherman, making him understand that was classless, clueless and cloddish, uncouth and uncultivated? My take is, nothing, given that last paragraph returns to defense and not chastisement.

When athletes go on national TV, they aren't going just as them, they're going as a member of their team. Whether Seattle truly deserves a rep as classless, clueless and cloddish, uncouth and uncultivated -- my opinion is, they richly deserve such a rep -- they've got on now, thanks to Sherman.

He's a Stanford graduate (communications) and was his high school's salutatorian. After yesterday, no one will ever believe that.

 

[ccrobinson]

He's a Stanford graduate (communications) and was his high school's salutatorian. After yesterday, no one will ever believe that.

Actually, everybody will believe that he went to Stanford since it's a fact.

I don't really understand why this rather minor thing has upset you so much. After this one rather small incident, you've concluded that Richard Sherman, Pete Carroll and the entire Seattle fanbase are horrible human beings. Seems rather harsh given what actually happened.