I don’t root for any team but I do root against two. The Pats and the Cowboys. The chance that they end up in the Super Bowl is not small. That said. I think the Chiefs and the Steelers have a chance to come out of the AFC. In the NFC I think its a little more open. Green Bay, Seattle, and maybe even Atlanta have a chance. And the Giants as a wildcard are sort of a thing based on the last 10 years.
Next week I like the Texans in a close one over the Raiders. Seattle easily over Detroit. Steelers easily over the Dolphins. Giants-Packers…I like the Packers.
I’m calling Pats/Cowboys, which is the biggest “who gives a shit” Super Bowl I can imagine. Well, for me. I imagine the rest of the country would find that just peachy.
These would be my picks as well, although I’d be happier to see my Lions win. It will take one hell of a miracle for that to happen in Seattle, though.
I actually agree with both of you - Seattle has been wildly inconsistent this year and has a good chance to self-destruct. I fully expect them to do it in the next round. But for this week…their opponents are the Lions, who can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in any situation. By rights the Lions shouldn’t be here at all, with all those last-minute wins early in the season, and a terrible finish. Will I still be pulling for them? Sure. But the only way to avoid disappointment is to keep expectations as low as possible, and when you’ve been a Lions fan for any period of time, “low” are the only kind of expectations you have.
Honestly I felt that Seattle was probably the best possible matchup for Detroit. Not to dis Seattle but they are not a strong offensive team. They tend to win games with a steady offense and very active defense. That has been a style that has served them well but their games tend to be lower scoring and IMO that’s the best scenario for Detroit. If your team puts up points in bunches, I don’t have enough faith in the Lions offense to expect them to hang in a game like that. But put them in a low scoring game and they just need a few breaks to pull out a win.
All that being said, its a playoff game and Detroit seems to fall apart, usually in spectacular fashion, in those games.
Actually, when Seattle’s offense is working (which hasn’t been often this year) it’s rather explosive. But I don’t expect a lot of that unless they get the run game working better.
At any rate, I’m hoping to have Green Bay win in Dallas, setting up Packers at Seattle in the NFC championship.
In related news, Chris Berman will step down from the NFL post at ESPN after the season. He will remain with the network, but he won’t be doing the Draft or other NFL shows.
A lot will say it’s about time, but it’ll still be weird. He had that position for 31 years. He helped define the NFL for generations.
As a poor teenager in NZ in the early 90s with no subscription TV, getting a friend to record that week’s episode of NFL Primetime was my only access to a sport with no following in my country.
Heck, my friend would only remember to record it about a quarter of the time as it would screen delayed in the early hours of the morning…and that required some god-like ability to set up a VHS player to record at a scheduled time.
As a result, Chris Berman and TJ were the only football voices I heard for many years (other than the Superbowl, which was played on a public holiday here so I could occasionally invite myself to the friend’s house to watch it live).
