Have your say on the upcoming games and post your predictions for who will make it to the Super Bowl
Welcome to this week's NFL talkboard. For those of you who have stumbled upon it for the first time, this is the dedicated place on the sportblog where people can talk about American football. As in the regular season, we have a predictions competition for the play-offs, the only difference being that now you have to make a selection for every game.
First off, do take a pause to bow down before Besselheim, bonds, FatSpanner, js29, peteym, richardw and shatner85 ? all of whom picked all four games correctly last weekend. As ever I shall post full Pick the Play-offs standings below the line, but first here are my picks for the Conference Championships.
Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears
How could you not be excited about this game? The NFL's oldest rivalry, played out on a rare stage: as Steve Busfield pointed out on Monday, this is the first time these two teams have met in a play-off game since 14 December 1941, a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor. And to top it all off, both teams are playing pretty flipping well.
Yup, Put aside the presidential verdicts, arguments about which city produces better snacks and stories about restaurants ratcheting up their prices for Packer fans and what you are left with is a game between two teams who split their regular season series, with each game settled by a single score.
On the one side, the hottest quarterback in the league. On the other, one of the best defences. Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers has a preposterous passer rating of 134.5 after two games so far this postseason, yet in the two regular season meetings he could only get his team into the endzone three times. Opposing quarterbacks have had an average passer rating of just 77.4 against the Bears over the course of the year.
Green Bay can play pretty decent defence too, though, and with the Bears' quarterback Jay Cutler remaining inconsistent they appear on paper to be the more complete team. But when the margins are as fine as this it only takes one big play to turn everything on its head. Where Green Bay look to Rodgers, Chicago have Devin Hester, one of the most explosive kick returners in the league. Something tells me this is going to come down to one special teams play.
Bears to win
New York Jets @ Pittsburgh Steelers
The Jets talked the talk, and then they walked the walk. Sports Illustrated found just the right picture to sum up New York's brutal subduing of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots last week and now Ben Roethlisberger must be fearing a similar fate. Big Ben may be a big boy who can roll with the punches but another pounding would not be welcome after he was sacked six times by the Ravens last week.
There has been almost no trash-talking from the Jets' players this week, a stark contrast with their approach to the Patriots game, but don't expect this game to be any less brutal. The Steelers' cornerback Ike Taylor broke ranks yesterday by warning that he planned to "lay out" his former team-mate Santonio Holmes. The Jets' defence may have been ranked third in the league during the regular season, but the Steelers were second.
They terrorised Baltimore's Joe Flacco last week and will come after Mark Sanchez. An NFL record-equalling four road play-off wins in two seasons show that he can handle pressure better than many give him credit for, but the Jets will need to run the ball to succeed. They did that better than any other team in the league has this season when they beat Pittsburgh 22-17 in December, amassing 106 yards on 27 carries, but the Steelers were without Troy Polamalu at the time. Polamalu is back, though it must be noted that he looked short of his best against the Ravens.
Ultimately, the Steelers have the better quarterback, the better defence and a running game that - while worse than that of the Jets - is hardly shabby. Being at home on top of all of that, they really should win. But once again this week, my instinct is leading me against my logic. After all Jets can't go through Indianapolis and New England and still not make it to the big dance ? can they?
Jets to win
Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré Leelee Sobieski Teri Hatcher
No comments:
Post a Comment