Who you got? I'm 3-1 on my picks. I got Texans (Always, no matter what), 49ers, Seahawks, and Broncos winning their games.
I've got Green Bay (upset), Atlanta, Denver, New England (hope the Texans can come to play, but the 2nd Indy game told me all I need to know)
Texans ALWAYS!!! Ravens in the upset special. To me the bye week hurts Peyton more than helps. Also the Broncos run D is not all that, Rice and Pierce gonna eat 'em up. Seahawks, D wins championships and they got a great D. 49ers, Again picking great defense over great offense.
I like San Francisco, Seattle, and Baltimore for the big upset. Texans win and host Ravens at Reliant for the AFC Championship.
Not to nitpick, not my thing, but if someone is going to create threads like this, at least post the game time and network. Hell, you can even post the spread and who is calling the game. I'll go ahead and do it Saturday Baltimore at Denver 3:30 CBS. Green Bay at San Francisco 7:00 FOX Sunday Seattle at Atlanta 12:00 FOX Houston at New England 3:30 CBS
I'm a Broncos fan and I'm not concerned with the Ravens, but I certainly preferred the Colts over them. I made a long post on the Broncos site as to why I am not concerned. I thought the Colts were by far the worst playoff team and I thought the Ravens would be very focused and energized with the news of Ray Lewis' retirement. The only thing I was correct about was the Colts being the worst playoff team, although I do think the Vikings were worse, at least with Webb. The Ravens defense did not look good at all today on defense against the Colts. Luck has no supporting cast at all. He has a weak offensive line, average WRs, and below average defense, and despite of all of that the Colts still managed to get over 400 yards against them and keep up with the Ravens all game. Luck and the Colts made plenty of mistakes today and Luck made plenty of throws that should have been INTs but were dropped by the Ravens defenders such as the Ray Lewis drop and others. Lets look at this when previewing the Broncos-Ravens game. -Ravens defense is aging -Ravens are on a short week because the game is on Saturday -The game is in Denver where the altitude is higher, hence why Denver is one of the biggest, if not the biggest homefield advantage in the NFL. -Broncos had a 1 week bye, so they are well rested and healed up. -Peyton Manning has won 9 straight against the Ravens. There isn't much the Broncos should worry about. The Ravens were not the team that the Broncos destroyed a few weeks ago because of those injuries, sure, but it doesn't mean the Broncos don't have a massive matchup against them anyways. The only thing I am concerned about is Knowshon Moreno. This will be his first playoff game in his career. I feel like he could very well choke away this game with lack of ball security. Ball security has not been a problem since he has been called up from the scout team, but it has been a problem with him for most of his career. Ray Lewis is 5-0 against the Broncos for his career. It's time to end his career with his first loss against us. Broncos: 38 Ravens: 14 There is a much greater chance the Texans upset the Patriots than the Ravens upsetting the Broncos.
Texans have zero chance. They'll get blown out like a bunch of JV HS team. Not in the same class. Broncos will also easily take care of the Ravens. The best games are in the NFC, and harder to pick. GB v. 49ers is a toss-up. Rodgers at the top of his game can beat any team, and he has all of his WRs. But the 49ers defense is championship caliber and they are playing at home. I'll give the edge for the 49ers b/c of home field. Seattle v. Falcons is another good game. Seattle's top-ranked D along with beast-mode being on his game will be too much for the Falcons. Falcon's lack of a runing game will hurt them, b/c you can't simply just pass v. this Seahawks D. So I have Manning v. Brady part 1000, and 49ers v. Seahaws in the conference championships.
My prediction for each game is.. Broncos over Ravens Patriots over Texans Packers over 49ers Seahawks over Falcons I don't know why people fear the 49ers and I laugh even more when people say Peyton should have went there. They aren't that good. They have great Defense, sure, too bad you win with offense in this league.
They fear the 49ers b/c they do have an offense (#11), and the 4th best rushing attack in the league.
SF's QB is Colin Kapernick. GB's QB is Aaron Rodgers. There is no competition. Packers defense is pretty good themselves. It comes down to the battle of offenses and GB's offense takes a giant steaming crap on theirs.
New England and Denver are easy picks. Texans and Ravens are clearly outclassed. I'll take SF over GB because the Packers didn't impress me at all against the Vikings. If the 49ers show up and play well, they are too much for the Packers. If Seattle brings their "A" game, they will beat the Falcons. But after today, I'm not sure that will happen. It's also hard to predict the Falcons. I have a feeling they will step up and cast aside their recent playoff demons this year.
If it's that simple, then the Patriots would have beaten the 49ers too no? The 49ers have a pretty balanced offense + a dominating defense, which is a recipe to win in this league. You don't win with offense, you win with defense. You may not respect the 49ers, but most people do. And there's a reason why.
I'm sure Rob Gronkowski not playing that game had nothing to do with the 49ers win over the Patriots. It's not like he's their best receiving option or their best player not named Tom Brady. Yeah, good luck with that, too bad this is a passing league now and you can't win with game managers anymore like Trent Dilfer or whoever. You actually need a legitimate QB to win now, like a top 10 QB (at the worst), and no Kap is not legit nor is he a top 10 QB or even close to the top 10.
You don't get it. The Pats didn't lose that game with offense, they lost with defense. They gave up like 41 points (they scored 34). And they have the best offense in the league. And did you just compare Colin to a game manager like Dilfer? Just stop. He may not be a top 10 QB, but he's more than a game manager. The 49ers actually want to score points, not just simply rely on their D.
No, offense was a large part of it. They were constantly getting 3 and outs in the first half, hence why the lead balloned all the way up to 31-3 for the 49ers. Since the 49ers have no killer instinct, they started playing soft, which led to the Patriots roaring back and tying up the game in like 10 minutes and this was without Gronk. The 49ers did work on offense against the Patriots, sure, too bad the Packers defense and Patriots defense is not comparable, Packers D is way better. Every team wants to score points, doesn't mean they can. Kap is worse than Dilfer, so I suppose you're right, I shouldn't compare the two.
