f13.net

Ok, so I'm late. I've been suffering with strep all damn week, so I haven't posted much. But here we go.

Pick the winner of the games this weekend, and we'll add that to the score of last week's picks. I sucked, but luckily I wasn't the only one. Fucking Rams.  

AFC
NY Jets at Pittsburgh
Indianapolis at New England

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia
St. Louis at Atlanta

Current Records
Paelos - 3-1
Shockeye - 3-1
Rasix - 2-2
Dark Vengeance - 2-2
Jamiko - 2-2
sidereal - 2-2
Shannow - 2-2
Murgos - 2-2
Trippy - 2-2
Kenrick - 1-3
Wayabvpar - 1-3
HaemishM - 1-3
Zetleft - 1-3
shiznitz - 1-3
murdoc - 1-3
Mr. Hat - 0-4

Steelers
Colts
Vikings
Falcons

AFC
NY Jets at Pittsburgh:  Pitt
Indianapolis at New England: Indy

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia: Minn
St. Louis at Atlanta: Atl

MN vs Phi - MN
STL vs ATL - STL

NYJ vs PIT - PIT
IND vs NE - NE

Pittsburgh
Indy
Philly
St Louis

Bring the noise.
Cheers............

Manning   in trouble v Patriots? (http://www.sportspickle.com/features/volume4/2005-0112-manning.html)

The whole page is worth a read...great stuff. Thebrushback.com is good too.

AFC
NY Jets at Pittsburgh   ---   PITTSBURGH
Indianapolis at New England   ---   INDIANAPOLIS

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia   ---   PHILADELPHIA
St. Louis at Atlanta   ---   ATLANTA

Rams
Steelers
Eagles
Patriots

Drunken analysis here

I'll take Steelers, Pats, Eagles, Falcons.  I did get a first-round bye, no?

AFC
NY Jets at Pittsburgh - I don't see the Jets doing it. With Burress back and everybody else rested, Rothlieberger has his deep threat, which will open up the running game. It will be a low-scoring bloodbath.
Indianapolis at New England - When New England beat the Colts early this year, they had defense backs. Now they have Troy Brown as a nickel back. Bellicheck is a genius, but I don't think he's got the bodies to cover all the Colts' receivers. It'll be close, I'll give you that, and the game to watch. But I think only Pitt has a chance of beating the Colts and I'm not sure about that one.

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia - After last week, I officially hate the Vikings. Moss... cut your hair, shut your damn mouth and win a championship before you start talking shit. Fucker. I really have no confidence in the Eagles, but I hate the Vikes.
St. Louis at Atlanta - Bulger will be on his ass. A lot. If the Falcons stick to the running game, it's over. Control the clock, keep  the ball out of the Rams' hands, it's over.

The picks seem too easy this week, thus I will probably get them all wrong.

AFC
NY Jets at Pittsburgh: STEELERS. Santana Moss pissed me off during the reg season.
Indianapolis at New England: COLTS. It's the year of the Manning. 'Nuf said.

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia: EAGLES. Minnesota rarely fails to disappoint.
St. Louis at Atlanta: FALCONS. I like birds.

AFC
NY Jets at Pittsburgh --- PITTSBURGH --- Defense Defense Defense, any game where your quarter back throws 8 times and you still win says something about your ball control and defense.
Indianapolis at New England --- NEW ENGLAND --- Eventhough Manning can score on a whim and NE has shit for corners, I still think they will win.

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia --- PHILADELPHIA --- McNabb to Westbrook.  Worked for fantasy football, will work for playoffs.
St. Louis at Atlanta --- ATLANTA --- Just because I want to see a Vick - Philly game.

I am the biggest loser.

Steelers, Patroits, Eagles, Falcons. It seems likely even to a Brit neophyte. So you're probably fucked if you picked the same.

AFC
Pittsburgh
Indianapolis

NFC
Minnesota
St. Louis

Always picking the home team is akin to always picking the better seed during March Madness. One upset can rock your entire bracket.

Bring the noise.
Cheers.............

AFC
NY Jets at Pittsburgh - Pitts got 14 in a row and unless that week off really hurt their momentum they win easily.  
Indianapolis at New England - Colts have the better QB by far.  

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia - I've been praying nightly that a meteor hits and destroys just this stadium during gametime... I hope TO is still traveling with the team.
St. Louis at Atlanta - Just run the ball, I know Vick is a huge xfactor and do alot but he can just as easily lose the game throwing as win.  Just let Dunn/Vick run wild.

Wasn't quite that simple. Patriots are the only team that can close down the best offense in the game, and although their defense isn't at its best, they're still going to hurt the Colts' game. We'll see if they can do enough in return, but Brady is smart, and doesn't make too many mistakes. As for the Eagles, it isn't their time to choke...  yet. Fankly, it would be a repreive for them if they fucked up this early. Steelers is a whim, because I think the Jets suck, and I really haven't a clue about the Rams and Falcons. If what I've read about the Rams is right, it seems more likely that a home win there would be an upset.

But like I said, I know nothing about this game really.

Pats.

Screw the rest.

If the Pats win I will enjoy immensely all the Colts fellaters eating pie.

Come talk when hes won a ring.

A superbowl ring does not make one a better quarterback.... for fucks sake Trent Dilfer has a superbowl ring at least come up with a better arguement then that.

Just to clarify I don't think Indi will even make it to the superbowl, sticking to my guns about Pittsburgh.

AFC
COLTS at PATRIOTS - I Believe (as in an act of faith) that this is the year of Manning.
JETS at STEELERS The Jets will hoping to grind out a low scoring win, unfortunately for them the Steelers have no such desire.  I expect this one to be decided early.

NFC
VIKINGS at EAGLES I pick the Viks, the eagles are seriously one dimensional, and a far crappier team without TO
RAMS at FALCONS - I have no real reason for picking the Rams but I'm going to anyway.  The real championship game this year is going to be the AFC championships (Indy at Pitt or NE at Pitt, win/win for fans) so the NFC is kind of a moot point really.

edit: board software doesn't like css - and  interestingly I've picked three away teams again, will history repeat itself?

AFC

NY Jets at Pittsburgh
Indianapolis at New England

NFC
Minnesota at Philadelphia
St. Louis at Atlanta

Manning has only lost every single time he's faced the Patriots, I'm sure he'll manage to pull it off this time.

Right?

OMG... how about that near heart attack of a Steelers game? Damn. I don't think I can handle watching them in the playoffs any longer.

He's actually 2-7 lifetime against the Pats.  

Anywho, I think not having Ty Law will big a big issue and Manning will score a lot of points, but Indy's defense is so bad that the Pats will outscore them at home.  If the D can get 2 TO and perhaps a score, Indy will take it though.

Hell ya, that was awesome.  I nearly wet myself when the ball hit the post on that field goal.



That is how they destroyed the Broncos -- Wayne dismantled the newbie corner for 3 TD's and a bunch of yards.

2 for 2, can anyone catch me? Consider it a challenge!

I didn't realize the Pats' front 7 were that good. Wow.

The Colts are over. Abandon all hope ye who enter the AFC championship.

You all dare to challenge my oracular powers?! I spake this once and shall do so again: Steelers vs. Eagles Super Bowl - Pittsburgh wins by ten.

I don't remember you being involved, perhaps I missed something.

Picked all four on my first attempt at this. Phear my ignorant punditry.

I'm not involved in picking for each round. Just reminding what I predicted before because none of the lead up matters when the end result is so clear.

Or I was just being snarky with a little poetic flare. ;)

Well...NE rolled over Indy AGAIN. Geez people. The Colts have to prove they can beat the Pats, not the other way around. The Colts looks absolutely terrible. WTF were they doing on that last drive? Throwing 3 yarders to the middle of the field, running 5 yard outs that didn't make it to the sidelines? I mean, if you are going to give up, just take a knee. When you need 17 points in 3 minutes throwing a bunch of psuedo-screens wouldn't be my first choice.

I thought the Vikings/Eagles game would be closer, but all the breaks seemed to go to the Eagles. That fumble for the TD was crazy. Of course Philly did play the better game.

20-3.

There's my better arguement.
Brady has two superbowl rings, and two superbowl MVPs. He also led two game winning drives with under 2 minutes to go in those Superbowls?
But at the end of the day you forgot that it doesnt matter how much better one player is because the Patriots are the better TEAM by far.

/gloat

I'd like to direct all of you who thought Payton Manning was more than a choke artist to the score of that game again. How many wins do the Pats need to be a dynasty again?

You do a disservice to the Pats' D, sir.



2

It will be interesting to see how many points NE can score on the Pitt D which is 3000x better than Indy's, particularly against the run which is where NE killed Indy today.  If Ben can get his act together and not throw INTs Pitt should be able to take it, although NE's LBs will be causing him havoc all day. If he throws 2 ints the game will be a rout.

One more. Next week. They'll get it if the steelers O plays the same as they did this week.  However if the steelers keep the turnovers to 0 or 1 they have a good shot at pounding the Pats into the ground. It's really up to Rothlisberger, he was awful this week but that was against a Jets team that had fucked him up before. He just needs to hand the ball off and not throw any more passes to the other teams secondary (those 2 picks this week were unforgivable in a playoff game).

Is that rookie I smell?  Dinner's on!

Yes. If the Steelers stick to the running game, they'll certainly grill the Pats.

If we learned anything it's that certain parties involved in the playoffs don't belong in the playoffs if they decide to not SHOW UP. Thus, everyone will fall to the Falcons in the NFC because it is part of the cruel humor of football. In the meantime, the playoffs are where moments are made. At least that's what the celebs keep telling me in the commercials.

When it came down to it, they Colts didn't do anything on offense OR defense. It was just a poor showing from start to finish.

I don't think they had a good gameplan. IMO, in the regular season coaching is really about running practices and motivating players. It's in the playoffs where game strategy really starts making a difference. The Colts seemed to have a very poor strategy overall. It seemed like the Pats were able to load up the line of scrimmage and the Colts couldn't or wouldn't throw anything over the top. I don't know if the weather had them psyched out or what. Normally they average 10 yard a pass, today it was only 5. Their short passing game just wasn't accomplishing anything but they kept going to it.

I went 2-2 again, because there were no upsets this week. The home team won every fucking game.

I like Philly over Atlanta, because there needs to be a rule....you aren't allowed into the Super Bowl if you lose to Detroit.

And I can't help but take the Pats over Pittsburgh now. Both have stingy defenses, both have strong running games, both have a trio of talented WRs. They both play in cold weather, so home field comes down to the crowd....and the NYJ game proves that Heinz Field can be deathly quiet if the Steelers are hurting. At that point, I have to side with the QB with 2 rings over the rookie.

And I'll take the AFC Champ to win it all in Jacksonville. Quite a shocker, I realize.

Bring the noise.
Cheers............

Wow, did the Colts just blow it, or what? And I don't think you can blame that one on Manning. He threw no INT's. When he looked downfield, NO ONE WAS OPEN. The NE corners surprised the shit out of me. Hell, Troy Brown surprised me. But it all came back to coaching. Crenell and Belichek just game planned the fuck out of the Colts. It'll be interesting to see how the Pats do next year after both Crenell and Weis move on to other jobs. Crenell should have been a head coach years ago.

Pittsburgh has very little chance, I think. Had Indy actually established a successful running game, they might have been able to win. The Pats just flat out wore down that defense. You cannot allow a team a 16, 15 and 14 play drive in the second half when you are down. All the teams that won this week did so with a strong run game and defense, neither of which the Colts had. The Pats beat the Colts by keeping the ball out of Manning's hands. Had the Colts done that to the Pats, we'd be talking about Manning.

He threw 1 INT, but actually had a pretty good game (27/42 for 249) but he didn't have the ball all that much to do anything and the front 7 shut down the run so well that they could just play cover 2 all day and make it hard to get anything deep.

The Earth (last three months): Peyton Manning! OMGWTF! Peyton Manning!

Tom Brady (last Sunday): No, I don't think so.

The Earth: Oh, yeah. Forgot about that other guy. The one that actually wins. Sorry about that. (sulks away, embarassed)

The Pats-Steelers game promises to be an epic matchup of two football teams who play the way God intended.  Offenses that revolve around the offensive lines and defenses featuring bone-jarring hitters at almost every position.  They should outlaw the forward pass and bring back the wedge formation for this one.

Or Roflsberger and the Steelers punt coverage team could choke like dogs, just like every other Cowher #1 seed.

IMO, strategy mistake the Colts made was spending 70% or so of their cap money on offense.  That way you get a team built to run up 55 points on the Lions and built to fizzle in the playoffs.  Payton is the Andre Ware of the pro game.

In any event GO STILLERS!!!!