I've made a (relatively) successful effort not to blog about NFL football much this year, but now that the playoffs are on, I guess I should at least offer some predictions. Of course I'm writing this late Saturday night, with two games already played, but it's not like anyone's coming here for betting advice or anything. I don't even know what the spreads were/are.
As for Saturday's games, Malaya and me were out running errands all day. Literally; we slept late, ate breakfast around lunch time, and then took off to Ross, BBB, Target, Tuesday Morning (closed for post-xmas break), Fry's, and a few other places. Got back from that in the early evening, unloaded the car, patted the cat, and took off again, this time to Ikea. We stayed near there for dinner at Rubio's and then made a couple of more stops on the way home, and by the time we got back it was nearly 9pm and the playoff games were long over. Which was exactly my plan, since I just can not sit through the endless delays and commercials of live sports anymore. Watching a game on tape is a vastly-superior viewing experience, so long as I can keep from seeing or hearing the score, thus preserving some measure of suspense.
As it turned out, I was damn glad I hadn't watched the games live, since both of Saturday's contests were pretty lame. The Chiefs @ Colts was especially bad; Payton did his usual playoff choke job with 3 interceptions, but for a change he threw a lot of good passes too. The big surprise was that his team won easily since the KC offense simply did not show up. Horrible play calling, as though they'd read all the articles about how the Colts couldn't stop the run, and thought they could just hand off up the middle and waltz to victory. They tried, and after gaining about 15 yards in the entire first half they mixed it up a bit more in the second half, but still only managed a measily 8 points. A truly pathetic effort. And a boring one, too. I can't imagine how painful this game would have been for a Chiefs' fan, with the defense doing miraculously well stopping Payton, and the offense laying repeated "3 and out" eggs.
The late game wasn't a great deal more entertaining, at least not until the 4th quarter and the crazy, overturned first down pass, fumbled snap, missed field goal ending. I won't recap the events; anyone who cares has seen/read about them already, but my thought after Romo was tackled inches short of the first down/end zone was the old, "so that's why teams kick on 3rd down at the end of the game." You always see teams take a knee to kill the clock and then call a time out with like 8 seconds left just in case, as the announcers always say, "there's a bad snap." And finally there was one, and the team kicking would have been fine since they recovered the fumble... except that the review had taken away their first down pass on 3rd down, and they were kicking on 4th down, rather than killing time on 1st and 2nd and then going for the win on 3rd. "It's like raaaaa-ain... on your wedding day..."
Anyway, my picks, made around 10pm but before I watched the games, were unwittingly accurate. I said Indy over KC 28-17, and Dallas over Seattle 31-20. Indy actually won 23-8 and Dallas lost 20-21, but Indy was a 7 point favorite and Seattle was a 2.5 point favorite, so I actually got the spread on both, though I was 1-1 on winners, and nowhere near accurate on either score. As for tomorrow's action, I might as well make a prediction
before the games begin this time. The Eagles host the Giants and the Eagles are 7 point favorites. The Patriots host the Jets and the Pats are 8.5 point favorites. It's a boring pick, and one that's usually wrong, but I dislike both NY teams and don't think either belong in the playoffs (not that KC, Sea, or Dallas appeared to belong either), so I'm going with the home favorites. That's how I'll be rooting anyway, after not really having a favorite in either of Saturday's games.
Philly over NYG 27-15, NE over NYJ 30-17.
I don't have a strong feeling about either game. I also can't believe I'm picking the Eagles to beat a team with a strong running game, since the last Eagles game I saw was their week 12 "effort" against Indy where
they lost 45-21 and showed absolutely no inclination to tackle anyone in a Colts' uniform. The Eagles obviously improved after that; they
won their last five games to win the NFC East, but I fully expect them to revert to form. It's hard to say though; the NYG seemed like they were trying really hard to quit on their coach and miss the playoffs, but everyone else in the crappy NFC kept losing and the last week of the season they finally ran into a team (Washington) that had even less desire to win than they did, and won to make the wild card spot. So do they now figure what the hell, we're here and our division sucks; we might as well try hard and maybe make the Superbowl? Or do they continue their tank job and make Hawaiian vacation plans for next weekend?
Update: Eagles won 23-20. Patriots won 37-16. I was right on both winners, but missed the spread since Philly failed to cover. For the weekend I was 2-2 on winners and 3-1 and the spread... or almost exactly what you'd expect if you made your picks throwing darts at the sports section. Which is why bookies live comfortably and sports books/casinos are constantly building more luxurious expansions.
Labels: football
