As Gordon Bombay once said in a scene of The Mighty Ducks that nobody probably remembers – “We’re in the playoffs!” For Bombay and his plucky Ducks the playoffs culminated in a date with the hated Hawks, the bully of the Minnesota Junior Pee Wee Hockey league, for SoD the playoffs will hopefully end with someone other than Dr. Greenbaumberg winning the football portion of the SoD Cup. Why am I rooting so hard against Dr. G? Well frankly I’d just like to see the Cup change hands at some point during the year and in that vein I’ve decided that the playoff picks count for 2 points each. Welcome to the playoffs.
Dr. Greenbaumberg Picks: (4-7 last week, 52-49-1 overall)
Jets @ Bengals (Bengals -3) : BENGALS – Nice bluster from Coach Giant Gut, but I hesitate to take the Steamy One on the road. I figure SLL makes enough mistakes to doom his team. Plus, you can’t go against the good karma of a team that picks up Classy Larry Johnson ™. Yeah, yeah, I know they had some “bad” stuff happen, too.
Eagles @ Cowboys (Cowboys -4) : EAGLES – Call me “Nuts” (wait, don’t to that) but I still don’t trust Romo and the Cowboys. The Eagles should dial back up the aggressive blitz packages they left out last week. Meaning, if the Eagles can get a lead, Romo will start gunslingin like his hero and “game over, man, GAME OVER.” Also, it’s been a bad week for Texas teams so I’ll ride that train.
Ravens @ Patriots (Patriots -3.5) : PATRIOTS- Despite the loss of Welker, the Pats have given off an air of sandbagging all year. And the Ravens are not the Ravens of old. I’ll put my money on Belichick doing enough on D to throw off young Flacco on the road.
Packers @ Cardinals (Cardinals -1.5) : PACKERS – The Cheeseheads have been maybe the best, and more importantly for me, the most consistent team in football over the past nine weeks or so. OTOH, you have the Cards a team that has played well and also had the MNF debacle. There’s too much luck involved in most games to be so widely variable in your performance and win consistently.
Career Sgt. Zim Picks : (5-6 last week, 48-52-2 overall)
Jets @ Bengals (Bengals -3) : BENGALS – Only Zim knew they would get here. So back to the well one more time, don’t let the old Zimmer down boys.
Eagles @ Cowboys (Cowboys -4) : COWBOYS – I hate both of these teams both have the ability to self destruct at anytime. Therefore, I’ll take the safety of the home favorite.
Ravens @ Patriots (Patriots -3.5) : PATRIOTS- No Wes Welker? No problem, this week at least. I have not had any faith in the Ravens so far why change now?
Packers @ Cardinals (Cardinals -1.5) : CARDINALS – Look who is at the bottom of the standings. Who did he pick? Exactly, the SoD Pick ‘em strategy here is that Howard is almost always wrong – so do the opposite.
E. Honda Picks: (7-4 last week, 48-53-2 overall)
Jets @ Bengals (Bengals -3) : JETS – 3 weeks ago Buddy Ryan’s son thought his team was done. Now he’s headed to Sand Yego (will anyone get this reference without my pointing it out?) or the Circle City via Cincy.
Eagles @ Cowboys (Cowboys -4) : COWBOYS – Dally gon’ ro ’til dey can’t ro no mo. (P.S. – like all Cowboys haters, this Sumo remains confident that a meltdown is imminent, but the December success has thrown everything off and now we can’t be sure said meltdown will come at home against an opponent the bastards just trounced. Feh.)
Ravens @ Patriots (Patriots -3.5) : PATRIOTS- I would really love to pick the Ravens here but NE is not beatable at home. End-of-game heroics result in a 4-point Pats win.
Packers @ Cardinals (Cardinals -1.5) : PACKERS – Two things SoD didn’t get for Christmas: writing ability and confidence. Despite Warner’s gaudy playoff stats, it has been a few weeks since Evil Kurt reared his ugly head and we fear he will pop out Kuato-style at the most inopportune time. And like every week, I’d rather punch myself in the junk for doubting the Cards than for trusting them.
Louie Renown Picks: (5-6 last week, 45-55-2 overall)
Jets @ Bengals (Bengals -3) : BENGALS – Look, I love SLL as much as the next heterosexual (as far as you know) man but it just isn’t his time yet. That is, unless, the Bengals play their second string again — then he may be the next Joe Namath.
Eagles @ Cowboys (Cowboys -4) : EAGLES – Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid don’t lose first round playoff games. They lose NFC title games. Big difference. Also, one punt will his the scoreboard tonight — bank on it.
Ravens @ Patriots (Patriots -3.5) : RAVENS- If this line was less than 3, I would probably take the Pats but it feels like a game-winning field goal type game. If Joe Flacco takes care of the ball though, the Ravens could win this outright.
Packers @ Cardinals (Cardinals -1.5) : CARDINALS – Green Bay is getting WAAAAY too much love right now. And, its from a bunch of guys who didn’t even pick them at the beginning of the year. I picked them to go to the Super Bowl and even I don’t love them that much. When opinion is so one-sided like this against the Cards, they almost always smoke the opposite team by multiple TDs. I predict the same here.
Scott Howard Picks: (5-6 last week, 41-58-3 overall)
Jets @ Bengals (Bengals -3) : BENGALS – Week 17 was fun and all but I think the real Bengals will show up today. Also Steams hasn’t thrown as many picks as he did during the regular season by accident.
Eagles @ Cowboys (Cowboys -4) : EAGLES – Pretty much the same thing as above. Although the Eagles apparently did try last week I just can’t see how they’ll manage to lose 2 weeks in a row to the same team.
Ravens @ Patriots (Patriots -3.5) : PATRIOTS- If it wasn’t for the Jets I’d say that the Ravens were the worst playoff team out there. Anyone that claims they are some sort of super sleeper has quite a surprise in store for them. They lucked out by being part of a weak AFC.
Packers @ Cardinals (Cardinals -1.5) : PACKERS – I really don’t know what to expect. I’ll probably throw a post up about this later tonight or tomorrow.
