Kurt Warner was an early MVP favorite {and I appreciate him helping my fantasy football team} but his team decided to stop playing competitively after they clinched the NFC West division. They went 2-3 in their last 5 games and were defeated by an average of 30 points in those losses. Their two wins came at home against the struggling Rams and Seahawks. While they are 6-2 at home their two losses came against NFC playoff opponents. Michael the Burner Turner should be able to run all day against a porous Arizona defense. Rookie of the Year Matt Ryan as well as rookie head coach Mike Smith will not be fazed by the national exposure of playoff football. In the battle of the birds, the falcons will come away victorious.
In the most compelling of the wild card weekend games, the hottest two teams in the league will collide where somebody has to lose. The Chargers at 8-8 have won their last 4 games to overtake the Broncos in the AFC West while the Colts have won their last 9 games to get the number 5 seed. They come into the playoffs as an extremely dangerous team as they continue to get healthy with Joseph Addai and Bob Sanders returning to the lineup. They have the post season experience necessary, after winning a super bowl only two seasons ago, and have a chance to do some real damage after seeing the Giants win the Super bowl last year from the same # 5 seed. With the consistency of Peyton Manning, who should win MVP, the Colts will continue their successful season by defeating the Bolts in a close but exciting high scoring game.
Sunday has two great games as well. The first features two teams that last season had a total of 26 losses. Now with both teams finishing at 11-5, the Ravens and Dolphins make for the most unlikely of matchups heading into the year. New coaches and new quarterbacks have allowed both of these teams to improve drastically. Joe Flacco won the job by default and has exceeded expectations as a rookie by playing excellent football. Chad Pennington was gift rapped to the Dolphins after the Jets let him walk. He won his second comeback player of the year award and has helped to ignite the wild cat offense which was unseen in the NFL before. In another close game the key question will remain can the Ravens force enough turnovers to win the game? My answer is yes. While the Dolphins actually lead the league in fewest amounts of turnovers, this is the number 2 ranked defense in all of football. With Ray Lewis 117 total tackles and Ed Reed’s league leading 9 interceptions, the defense will be the great equalizer and give the edge to the Ravens.
Alright Scott Silverman I am finally going to give one of your Philadelphia teams some respect. After getting some much needed luck {Oakland yes Oakland beat the Buccaneers and Chicago lost on the road} they humiliated the Cowboys to earn the last playoff spot. After tying the Bengals earlier in the year, the season seemed all but over. Andy Reid made a gutsy decision to bench Donovan McNabb in Baltimore and now looks pretty smart for doing so. Since then, the club has gone 4-1 and McNabb has only thrown one pick after previously throwing 10 interceptions in 11 games. Having a healthy dose of Brian Westbrook and an effective Jim Johnson schemed defense of heavy blitzing have also helped in this late season turnaround. Minnesota’s head coach Brad Childress plays his former employee in what should be a defensive contest with few points to show. As good as Adrian Peterson is, he cannot do everything for his team. A young Tarvaris Jackson will look his age against this Eagles defense that strives on playing inexperienced quarterbacks. As they play a tough Minnesota opponent, the Eagles in the end will prove to be too much for the Vikings to handle.
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