All 4 NFL playoff underdogs win this week.
I like the Jets to win easily over the Bengals. In a neutral situation, the Jets match up well against the Bengals, with their ability to stop explosive wide receivers. Neither QB has playoff experience, and the Bengals always play down to their competition. Add to it that the Jets are fired up, talking trash, and have to prove that their wins over Cincinnati and Indy in the regular season are legitimate, and the Jets have the emotional advantage. The Bengals may have lost hope when they dedicated their game in San Diego to Chris Henry and still lost.
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I like the Ravens over the Patriots. The Ravens took care of business beating Oakland in week 17--an underrated accomplishment considering that Oakland, who beat Baltimore’s two division rivals CIN and PIT, loves to play the role of spoiler (they eliminated the Bucs last year in week 17). The Ravens’ veteran defense will be more fired up than the Patriots’ young squad, because the Ravens tend to be under the radar and the Patriots are the team-of-the-decade. Tom Brady will have a bad day, because he will be thrown off guard when the referees are fairer towards Baltimore than in their previous matchup. Tom Brady will cry and throw 2 interceptions and have 1 or 2 costly intentional grounding calls. The Patriots, by winning earlier this season, have a false idea that they are better than the Ravens. The Ravens, by losing, probably have a false idea that the Patriots are better than they actually are.
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Since the media easily manipulates my brain, I will take Green Bay to win in Arizona this week. Matt Ryan couldn’t win in Arizona last year, but he was a rookie! Aaron Rogers has been in this league since 2005. So what if this is only his second year as a starter? He got to watch the legendary Brett Favre throw interceptions for 3 seasons in Green Bay.
Most QBs in their 2nd year have sub .500 records when they are required to bring their team back from a deficit, but Rogers has a solid 0-0 record in games where his team has the ball, down by one score late in the game. Obviously he can handle the pressure of the playoffs. Sure, he has never won an important game per se…although he only lost by 2 touchdowns in the ’04 Holiday Bowl to Mike Leech’s Red Radiers (who may or may not have been sunlight deprived).
Who cares if the Cardinals were able to beat the Vikings easily and who cares that the Packers were 0-2 against them even though the Packers incentive to win was a billion times greater than the Cards’? The only reason the Cardinals could even beat the Vikings is because they were able to get past both of the Vikings’ pro-bowl offensive linemen to put pressure on Favre. Why on earth would pressure on the QB be an issue for Green Bay? They only got sacked 6 times in their loss to Tampa!
I know the Cardinals have the best receiver in the NFL, and a Super-Bowl-Winning and 3 time NFC champion QB…and they are at home…and they have nothing to lose…and they are in the exact same situation as last year except they aren’t coming off a blowout loss to New England…and their entire season has led up to this moment since they have no rivals and are too humble to make up rivals (like the Saints pretending they had a Rivalry with the mediocre Pats). But c’mon! The Packers will definitely win because Brett Favre was such a jerk to Aaron Rogers so now the media loves him! Seriously though, put all of your money on the Cardinals. They are underdogs. This is incredible. ESPN expert picks for this game: GB,GB,GB,GB,GB,GB,GB,GB. Are they serious??
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Lastly, I think I like the Eagles to upset the Cowboys. I picked Dallas to win in Week 17, but I don’t think the Cowboys disciplined enough to beat them in consecutive weeks. The Eagles are preparing hard right now while the Cowboys are partying in Vegas. Since I believed all season that the Eagles were overrated and the Cowboys were very talented, this is the one pick I am unsure about (but I’d definitely take the Eagles at +4).
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- In case I am right about everything, I then like the Vikings to beat the Colts in the super bowl, but this would definitely change if any of my predictions are wrong.
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....agreed!!! GL!!
Originally Posted by Hilljacademics
