Football Diversions

Just for fun, a post about this weekend's NFL playoff games.

This is the weekend that pretty much anything can happen. Past history indicates that seedings are unreliable predictors of the outcome, as each division's final four teams square off.

The NFC has two interesting matchups -

Arizona will try to steal the chance to play for the Super Bowl at New Orleans, where the Saints have had perhaps their best season ever. But the Saints stumled late in the regular season, looking very average against some average opponents. Meanwhile, the Cardinals won an overtime shootout last week against Green Bay, where until the Cardinal defense sacked and forced a Rogers fumble for the winning touchdown, it seemed that neither team could stop the other.

Did New Orleans use their bye week to rejuvenate their lagging team? Or will their dream season come to an anticlimactic end against Kurt Warner's passing game?

The Cowboys go to Minnesota to try to keep their late-season surge alive. This is an interesting game, with both teams looking strong late in the year. The Vikings' running game with Ardrian Peterson seemed to tail off a bit late, but it doesn't seem to translate into predictions of doom against the hot Cowboy defense.

This game is a tough one to pick. Of the four weekend games, this seems the most likely to stay even to the end. I think the winner will be decided by a late official's call or non-call, a dropped pass, or a lucky (or unlucky) bounce of the ball.

The AFC would seem to be more predictable in theory, but I'm not ready to predict either game as a sure thing.

It would seem that the underdog Jets have no shot against the talented Chargers, playing on the opposite coast. The Jets needed the gift they received from the Colts in the second-to-last game just to qualify for the playoffs.

But the Jets also beat Cincinnati convincingly, have a very good defense, and are one of the best rushing teams in the league.

I think the Chargers will likely win, but only if they play their best and don't take the underdog Jets for granted.

Finally, in the game that has my biggest interest, the Colts host the Ravens.

Ravens fans, and apparently the entire city of Baltimore, hate Indianapolis with every fiber of their being. They feel the Colts were stolen from them, when Bob Irsay packed up the team in the middle of the night and sneaked out of the city to relocate to the Hoosier state.

So more than anything, Ravens fans want the sweet revenge of taking down the Colts in one of their finest regular-season years in history.

In theory, the Ravens team shouldn't have a prayer. They don't have much of a passing game, and must win behind a strong running game and outstanding defense.

But that approach worked amazingly well last week against the Patriots on a cold day in Massachusetts. That Ravens defense rattled Tom Brady so badly that he almost looked like some rookie quarterback, rather than one of the best at this position (outside of Peyton Manning, of course).

The Colts will try to stuff the Ravens run and ask Peyton and the gang to put up a 2 or 3 touchdown lead as early in the game as possible. Then the Ravens will have to change their game plan and start passing to get back into the game. That's when the Colts will turn loose their all-pro defensive ends, Freeney and Mathis, to terrorize Joe Flacco.

I think the Colts should win this one, but they're not likely to put up a lot of points against that Ravens defense. The game will be close because the Raven's won't allow Peyton too much room, but the Ravens offense still won't be able to keep up.

My predictions for the divisional championship games?

Chargers - Colts
Cowboys - Cardinals

I'm picking the favorites to win in the AFC, and the underdogs to win in the NFC.

Than again, my track record for picking winners isn't great.

But it will be fun to see how things actually play out.