Playoff Predictions, Take Three

Let's try this again, shall we?

This weekend is, by far, the best weekend of the NFL's season. The conference championships and Super Bowl are, historically speaking, pretty anti-climactic. It's all down hill after Sunday night, unless, of course, the Jets upset the Chargers. In that case, I'm going all in, stupid with excitement.

With that said, here's my take on the NFL's round of eight.

(Per our house style, home teams are in CAPS.)

SAINTS over Cardinals.

If last week's Cardinals game taught us anything, it's that Arizona's defense is strictly voluntary. I expect Drew Brees and Co. to absolutely light up the scoreboard, while the Saints' defense will get more than enough stops to make this one non-competitive pretty early.

Saints 45 Cards 27

COLTS over Ravens.

A lot of people are all about the Ravens, based on their overwhelming performance last week against the Pats. Me thinks that's a bit of fool's gold. The Ravens took it to an uncharacteristically unprepared and woefully disinterested Patriots team. I don't see the admittedly charged-up Ravens manhandling a rested, ready and healthy Manning-helmed Colts team, like they did the Pats. Nor do I see Ray Rice breaking one for 80+ yards. Add to that the fact that Joe Flacco doesn't look like he can move, let alone scramble, and I really like the Colts to win this one.

Colts 24 Ravens 13

Cowboys over VIKINGS

Would you fault me if I said I do not care who wins this game? What about if I copped to an unreasonable hatred for both teams? I'm loathe to do this two weeks in a row, but I think the Cowboys' D, which, according to SI's Peter King, has yielded only two touchdowns in the past 12 quarters, will stave off Brett Favre and limit Adrian Peterson's effectiveness just enough to give Tony Romo and Wade Phillips the second playoff victories of their careers.

Cowboys 21 Vikings 17

Jets over CHARGERS

Yeah, I'm going there. I recognize about half-a-dozen things need to break right for the Jets to pull off a pretty big upset. Not the least of which is limiting the truly dynamic San Diego offense. Limit; not stop. That's not going to happen. What is going to happen, though, is this: like last week, the Jets will run until they run out of ground, and the Jets' defense, behind the collective efforts of Darrelle Revis (against Vincent Jackson) and Kerry Rhodes (over the top against Antonio Gates), will do just enough for the Jets to steal one late.

Jets 23 Chargers 20.

BEN:

Not a bad weekend for you, prognostication-wise. I missed my chance, but would've said you were right on all these, except I think the Jets pick, which I still maintain (even after the fact) that it's motivated not by analysis but homerism. It's more like...hey, maybe this could happen?

I think the Chargers pretty well pissed this one away. When you said things had to "break right," any chance you were referring to Nate Kaeding's kicks?

There were also some dubious coaching decisions (I didn't like Turner's decision to onsides kick), a bad interception by Rivers, too many penalties, and an offensive scheme that I thought underutilized Gates and Sproles. This was their game to lose, and they lost it.

As for the Cowboys, well, they finally got one of Romo's infamous chokes. This will go down as Favre's game, and that's not wrong, but I also think Romo has an amazing ability to inspire confidence and then crumble. And this year, it took not one but three clutch wins before anyone believed in him. And then...well, you saw the score.

If this was the best weekend of the NFL playoffs, color me disappointed. The Jets have their cinderella story going, but other than that, these playoffs have been one blowout after another. Now we've whittled down the league's competition to the three teams, and three quarterbacks, who have been all but untouchable this year. It's been a post-season of no-shows: New England, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia in round 1; Baltimore, Arizona, Dallas, to go with San Diego's sloppy performance in round 2; and now we're left with the best. I'll be sorely disappointed if we don't finally see some high-level football this week. Time to leave it all on the field.