The opening weekend of the NFL playoffs brought only one surprise! The Denver Broncos upset the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers! The other 3 games on wildcard weekend came as no surprise as the Giants manhandled the Falcons, the Saints kept their offensive train rolling, and the Houston Texans won their first playoff game in franchise history!
The first weekend, while only one of the games was competitive, it still was a fun weekend and a great warmup for divisional weekend! In the next several paragraphs, I will forecast the rest of the NFL playoffs through the Super Bowl.
Nfl 2012
In the AFC, the #1 seed, New England Patriots, will face the upstart and surprising Denver Broncos. The Broncos have been a great story and Tim Tebow is exciting to watch and incredibly popular. He deserves all the attention as he took his Broncos from the dull environment created by his predecessor and has inspired his team to play at a higher level and pull out wins when all seems lost. He has improved as the season has progressed. He now scrambles and keeps his eyes down-field, and is slowly becoming more accurate. His confidence will continue to grow as he firmly takes control of the starting job for the future. He will have a full off-season to prepare and will surely improve as he moves into next season! Now for the reality check! The Broncos are facing the suspect defense of the Patriots, but they are also facing one of the best offenses in the game, and Tom Brady will torch the Broncos secondary and the Patriots will put an end to Tebow roll to the Super Bowl! I do not expect this to be close. The Broncos have to put pressure on Brady, and the two Tight Ends will have big days. The New England Patriots will advance to the AFC Championship game!
In the other AFC divisional game, the Baltimore Ravens will host the Houston Texans. The Texans have grown up this year. They won the division for the first time. They made the playoffs for the first time. They won a playoff game for the first time, and now they will bow out of the race against the Ravens. The Ravens are a bit of a mystery themselves! They play great at home, and have lost to some mediocre opponents on the road. Joe Flacco is a good QB and despite all the unwarranted bashing he has taken, he will play well in this game. The running back match-up is outstanding. Arian Foster and Ray Rice will both have good games, but the difference in this one will be Joe Flacco versus Taylor Yates, and although Yates has been impressive for a young rookie, Flacco prevails and the Ravens advance to the AFC Championship.
In the NFC, we have two good match-ups on Divisional weekend. Green Bay Packers hosting the NY Giants, and San Francisco 49ers hosting the Saints.
The Packers are obviously on a roll and Aaron Rodgers is playing as well as anybody in the history of his position. He is an incredible athlete with a quick release, great scrambling ability, a strong arm, and accurate. What more do you need? Maybe just receivers, blocking, running game, game plan and special teams. The good news for all of the die-hard Packer fans out there is, the Pack has all of that. The only suspect part of this team is the defense. The defense has struggled at times this season and will have their hands full with Peyton's little brother. The Giants have found themselves over the past several weeks, and will play hard and likely keep this game close. Eli has been phenomenal in the 4th quarter this year, and if his defense can pressure Rodgers enough, or get some hits, they may have a chance to pull it out at the end. That being said, it will not be enough and the Packers will advance to the NFC Championship. A very nice run by the Giants and Tom Coughlin comes to an end. This Giants team is not on par with the 2007 team. It is nice to draw some parallels, but that is all, just nice.
Out west, the Niners will host the Saints. Are you kidding? The Niners are in the playoffs! The Niners are the #2 seed and although they played in a suspect division, they are for real. Alex Smith has played well this season and has improved as the season has progressed. Drew Brees is incredible! How can the Niners compete? How can the Niners slow down the Who Da Saints? The Niners do have a great defense! They do have possibly the best middle linebacker in the game, and possibly the defensive rookie of the year. Is this the defense that can slow down the machine that is the Saints? It is possible. The problem for the Saints is they are not playing indoors. They are playing outside on grass, and if it were me, I would induce rain and slow down the track, and slow down the Saints. The Niners have a great defense and a solid offense. The only worry for me is the red zone offense. They kick far too many field goals, and that will not cut it against the Saints. If the Niners can be efficient in the Red Zone, they may take out the Saints. If they are kicking field goals, the Saints advance, and that is what I am predicting to be the outcome. Saints win a good game and advance to face the Packers in the NFC Championship.
On Championship weekend, we will have two great rematches. The Saints and Packers opened the season on Thursday Night, and the Ravens beat the Patriots in New England two years ago in the playoffs.
We will begin with the AFC. Ray Rice is outstanding! Joe Flacco can definitely play! The Ravens defense is always good and can pressure any QB. The Patriots have no defense. They can't stop the pass and can't pressure the QB. They allow opposing teams to go up and down the field with big plays. How can they beat any good teams! Everything looks like it is stacking up to be a Ravens victory and the Ravens go to the Super Bowl! However, come closer my friend. Look, over here, at the Ravens on the road! They were an impeccable 8-0 at home this season, but a mediocre 4-4 on the road. Yeah, but they play in a tough division, and they play a tough schedule. Yeah, but they lost to some powerhouse teams on the road, right? Let's have a look. they lost to Tennessee on their first road trip, but that's okay. They hammered the Rams which looked really good at the time, but the Rams were terrible this year, so that doesn't matter. They lost to Jacksonville, then beat Pittsburgh. How do you lose to the Jags and then beat the Steelers? They then lost to the Seahawks, from the weak NFC West. They did beat Cleveland, but who doesn't? They lost again, to the Chargers by 20 points! They then rolled to the playoffs by beating the Bengals, but I am not putting much stock in that win. The Bengals couldn't stay within 3 touchdowns of the Texans! The Bengals are a nice story, but not really that good, and with a rookie QB. Tom Brady is not a rookie and the Ravens are not very good on the road. The Patriots defense will have it's hands full with Rice and Flacco, but they will exact revenge for their embarrassing loss two years ago and will advance to the Super Bowl!
In the NFC, the Saints and Packers will square off. Two incredible offenses in what should be a fantastic shootout! The Saints are another team that sometimes is not as good on the road, and if the Packers get to this game, what will the temperature be? 15 - 25 degrees? This should be a cold game and that will not make the Saints happy. The Saints are a fun team and they are definitely a great team, but if the weather is cold, they will struggle. They struggle on grass anyway. They will definitely struggle on Tundra! I do love Darren Sproles, and the Saints will be looking to exact their own revenge, but the weather and the Packers will be too much. Aaron Rodgers doesn't care if it is cold, and the Packers love it! The Saints will say they love it, but let's face it. They are an indoor team that struggles on natural grass and if they are lucky enough to get by the Niners on natural grass, they will not do it two weeks in a row. The Packers will prevail and advance to the Super Bowl!
So, the Super Bowl is now set! The New England Patriots will face the Green Bay Packers in what should be an incredibly exciting game with two of the best offenses in the league and two of the worst defenses in the league. Who said defense wins championships? Not this year. I will not venture to truly believe that I will be right, so I will not bother to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl. I will wait until after the Championship games have been played. I will remind everyone if I am right, but will be back in late January to give a full write-up of the Super Bowl match-up!
Enjoy the playoffs everyone!
NFL Playoff Winners 2012
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