NFL Wildcard Saturday

Wild Card Weekend Saturday

Who you got??  Are you ready for some football!
Both should be my favorite type of game, low scoring and defensive battles.
In the NFC the early game, Arizona goes to Carolina to Bank of America Field.
While the evening is a big rivalry division game, a repeat for the third time this season vs. the two, Baltimore flies into Pittsburgs' Heinz Field.


In the NFC, kick off at 1:20 PST #AZvsCAR
The below 500 NFC South winner (7-8-1) Carolina Panthers host
the (11-5) Arizona Cardinals, the line -6 CAR
Head to head Carolina edges over Arizona at 8-5-0
but in the post only one meeting January 10, 2009 where the
Cardinals won in NC 33-13 .

AFC North showdown for Game two, kick off at 5:15 PST #BALvsPIT
More smash mouth football and the two teams who are depict this description
more than any other in this way.
Historically Pittsburg leads head to head over Baltimore 24-17-0, the
line -3 PIT.  41 meetings between the two, 1st meeting September 8th, 1996 Steelers took it 31-17
along with also winning the 3 post meetings in January (2002, 2009 & 2011)

The last meeting Nov 2, 2014 where Steelers annihilated the Ravens
43 -23.  When I think of this match up I always remember words from A player referencing the rivalry so strong that if a car broke down by the other team, and they saw on side of road they would leave them. AFC North comes in big this year with 3 of the 4 teams going to the post. Number 3 seed Steelers hosting the 6th seed Ravens.   Cinncinati goes into Indy to
tomorrow.

Enjoy, as I will as well as there's only so much football left and the best part starts now!

Championship Sunday, Who really are the underdogs?

Always an upset but who really are the underdog teams?
Is that truly the away teams (lower seeds) or are we looking at the line? 
Does Vegas really count?

So there is ALWAYS always a weekly upset for these playoff games.  

There are many variables normally home team is favorite, but not the case for Falcons (13-3) nor did any ESPN crews go down to cover this week in Atalanta, which deams to the possibility of ATL to surprise everyone and beat SF (11-4-1).  Did Seattle show them the keys?? or did Green Bay?  Everyone has been Kaepernick crazed this week, but can someone do that 2 weeks in a row?

With that said, is that really the upset?

Or does that make room for Baltimore to play upset kings in Foxborough?

Or if you consider highest seeds then you could place host teams as favored.  
Which does open a door for Ravens (10-6) to beat Pats (12-4).  Been a crazy week of preps and analysis. So I think highly unlikely that the media would have a Harbaugh SuperBowl - not to say I wouldn't like to see it.

Again, I can't seem to pin point the upset, but I think I may go outside the lines and say
Falcons and Ravens come out as winners today.  By the way, this has no bearing on my heart wishes which would be a Brothers 47th SuperBowl meeting.

THE ROAD TO NEW ORLEANS GETS SMALLER

DIVISION PLAYOFFS  

SATURDAY 1/12 & SUNDAY 1/13/2013

AFC 

BAL @ DEN  SAT 4:30 PM ET 

                  DEN     BAL

TOTAL OFF 4TH 16TH

PASS 5TH 15TH

RUSH 16TH 11TH

TOTAL D 2ND 17TH

VS PASS 3RD 17TH

VS RUSH 3RD 20TH

HOU @ NE   SUN  4:30 PM ET

                   HOU    NE

TOTAL OFF 7TH 1ST

PASS 11TH 4TH

RUSH 8TH 7TH

TOTAL D 7TH 25TH

VS PASS 16TH 29TH

VS RUSH 7TH 9TH

NFC

SEA @ ATL  SUN 1:00 PM  ET

                   SEA ATL

TOTAL OFF 4TH 8TH

PASS 6TH 6TH

RUSH 3RD 29TH

TOTAL D 4TH 24TH

VS PASS 6TH 23RD

VS RUSH 10TH 21ST

GB @ SF   SAT 8:00 PM ET

                    GB SF

TOTAL OFF 13TH 11TH

PASS 9TH    23RD

RUSH 20TH 4TH

TOTAL D 11TH 3RD

VS PASS 11TH 4TH

VS RUSH 17TH 4TH

BEST GAME OF THE WEEKEND??

THERE IS ALWAYS AN UPSET, AND UPSET IN THE HOME TEAM ( HIGHER SEEDED TEAM LOSES, JUST ONE, LAST WEEK IT WAS THE SKINS) 

TOSS UP F0R ME

OBVIOUSLY THE REMATCHES ARE ALLURING

PATS 42-14 WIN OVER THE TEXANS 12/10 (WK14)

or

DENVER AT BALTIMORE 34-17 WIN 12/16 (WK 15)

or

WEEK ONE;  PACKERS LOSS TO NINERS AT HOME   9/9/12 

TWO GAMES ARE FLIPPED, 

BRONCOS HOST RAVENS AT MILE HIGH

GREEN BAY GOES INTO SAN FRAN

AND THE SAME REMATCH JUST LITTLE OVER A MONTH AGO

NEW ENGLAND HOSTING HOUSTON.

WEATHER DEF WILL BE A FACTOR, I HEARD A CRAZY STAT THAT PEYTON IS 0-3  IN PLAYOFF GAMES WHEN THE WEATHER IS 40 OR BELOW, FORECAST AT MILE HIGH 19-8 DEGREES.

MY PICKS:

AGAIN, ALWAYS SEEMS TO BE ONE UPSET AND WITH THAT NOTE HERE I GO. 

I'M STICKING WITH SEATTLE, PICKED EM LAST WEEK AND I LOVE WHAT PETE HAS DONE 

SO SEAHAWKS AT FALCONS, I THINK THAT DEFENSE CAN DO IT, ITS A FAR TREK AND LOTS OF MILES LAST FEW WEEKS FOR THIS TEAM, BUT THEY HAVE SOMETHING SPECIAL AND THEY ARE YOUNG.

GOING WITH DENVER, AND THAT DEFENSE WINS THE GAME, THAT AND PEYTON

ILL TAKE NEW ENGLAND AS WELL, ALTHOUGH THEIR DEFENSE IS RANKED IN THE BOTTOM TIER, ON THE OTHER HAND WADE PHILLIPS DEFENSE IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH ITS A MUST WIN FOR THE TEXANS DEFENSE. THEY WILL KEEP BRADY OFF & ON THE GROUND, BUT PATS SOMEHOW  FIND AWAY TO STOP ARIAN FOSTER, I THINK THIS GAME GOES TO THE LAST FEW MOMENTS, BUT BRADY AND GRON, OR WELKER  SOMEHOW MOVE THEM DOWN FOR GAME WINNING SCORE.  BELICHICK IS A BRILLIANT WIZARD.

ANOTHER TOUGH ONE, GB AT SF

ROOKIE QB, WAS TAKEN APART, DEFENSE IS A LIL BANGED UP, SMITH OUT ON THE OTHER SIDE.

SEATTLE OPENED UP THE KEYS TO BRING THEM DOWN, ALTHOUGH HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE I THINK THAT GB FINDS AWAY  TO WIN.

SO I GUESS IVE GOT 2 UPSETS,  MAY NEED TO RETHINK THIS...........

I STILL THINK SEATTLE MOVES ON, SO I MAY NEED TO STICK WITH NINERS ON THIS PICK, AS TO BE CONSISTENT WITH MY ANALOGY OF ONLY ONE TEAM UPSETS, OR COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE????
HMMMMMM...............
ALTHOUGH AGAINST MY GRAIN OR PHILOSOPHY, I JUST THINK THAT GREEN BAY DOES FIND A WAY TO WIN..DAMN IM ON THE FENCE, NEED TO GIVE IT ANOTHER 1/2 HOUR.........CANT THROW OUT KAEPERNICK AND WHAT THIS KID CAN DO, YOUNG TEAM, HARBAUGH......I THINK I GOTTA GO WITH SF, BUT I THINK IT WILL BE CLOSE AND THEY WILL WIN IF THE ROOKIE CAN RISE TO THE PLAYOFFS AS HE IS BELIEVED TO

I GUESS I'LL FIND OUT.

Here's your injury report, too
http://www.nfl.com/injuries

HUBBY'S PICKS :

RAVENS AT BRONCOS

FALCONS OVER SEAHAWKS

PATS OVER TEXANS

AND

NINERS OVER PACK