The 2011 NFL Wild Card Round: Predictions and Thoughts

It has been 8 months since I last littered this space with my thoughts and opinions about the wonderful worlds of sports and pop culture and so I felt like the 2011 NFL Wild Card Round would be a fantastic place to start the year and get back on the horse, of sorts. What follows are my predictions for the winners of the game, and not who I think will win involving the spread. If the spread was involved, these picks would be different. By the way, I love gambling.

NFC Wild Card #1, Saturday, January 8, 4:30 P.M. ET - #4 Seattle Seahawks (7-9) vs. #5 New Orleans Saints (11-5), Seattle, WA

By all means, this should be a blowout. The Seahawks should not even be in the playoffs. The Saints are the defending World Champions of American Football and they still have Drew Brees under center. There are a multitude of reasons why this game is going to go the Saints way and I am going to ignore them all. Granted, I am a lifelong Seahawks fan and I am bias when it comes to Seattle's Professional Football Team, but I can offer some plausible reasons for why the Seahawks can pull this off.
1) The game is being played in Seattle at the loudest stadium in the NFL, Qwest Field (Random tangent, how horrible is it that one of the most intimidating stadiums in the NFL is called Qwest Field? I wish it was named in someone's honor, or that there was a cool nickname for it). According to Aaron Schatz of Footballoutsider.com (via The B.S. Report podcast on ESPN.com), there was an actual study done that stated that the only stadium in the NFL where the noise can actually cause false starts is Qwest Field. Take into account that a banged up Saints team will be travelling to the opposite side of the country on a short week, and that stadium becomes much more prevelent.
2) Drew Brees is quietly having a slightly less than stellar year. His yards, TD's, and completion percentage are basically on par with his previous totals, but have you seen his INT total? 22!! YEAH, 22 INT's!!! You can't tell me that the Madden Curse doesn't have anything to do with that, and I think Brees plays horribly in Seattle due to the Madden Curse and the fact that with Reggie Bush and Julius Jones carrying the ball, the passing lanes are that much smaller. Brees will throw at least 2 INT's in this game. With these two main reasons and the fact that the Saints and everybody else believes they should walkover the Seahawks, I think New Orleans gets caught sleeping and can't come back.

Final Score: Seattle 22 - New Orleans 17

AFC Wild Card #1, Saturday, January 8, 8:00 P.M. ET - #3 Indianapolis Colts (10-6) vs. #6 New York Jets (10-6), Indianapolis, IN

Rex Ryan has gone from entertaining to a blowhard. The Jets are the biggest bullies in the NFL (they won that title when they beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago) but bullies never prosper in the long run. Indianapolis is a cerebral team with the one of the most prepared QB's in the league in Peyton Manning, and Manning is not scared of the Jets. The way you stop a bully is exactly how the New England Patriots beat them in Foxboro on a Monday Night, you stare at them straight in the eye, prove you're not scared, then outsmart them and exploit their strength as a weakness. In this case, the Pats used short passes behind the blitzes of the Jets to exploit the lack of quality safeties in the Jets secondary. The Jets can't tackle, so they try to force the offense into bad plays quickly, because if you extend a play, then the Jets lack of technique in all facets rears its ugly head. That all comes back to the coach, Ryan, who believes that if you talk a big game, then you start believing you're that good. What Ryan does not realize is that no one is scared of him or his team. Ryan could be beaten in a foot race or a fight and so could the Jets.

Final Score: Colts 31 - Jets 9

AFC Wild Card #2, Sunday, January 9, 1:00 P.M. ET - #4 Kansas City Chiefs (10-6) vs. #5 Baltimore Ravens (11-5), Kansas City, MO

At the beginning of the year I chose the Ravens to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. I actually thought about choosing them to win the Lombardi Trophy, but I thought that Flacco is not a good enough QB to win a Lombardi Trophy... yet. The Ravens are a team that still does not have an identity on either side of the ball and that scares me. But you could have said that about either Steelers team that won the Super Bowl in the 2000's, or even the 2006 Colts. Sometimes it comes down to talent getting hot at the right time and I feel like the Ravens could make a run to the Super Bowl and be the surprise AFC participant in the Super Bowl and it all starts with this game. Can the Chiefs exploit the Ravens' weakness in the secondary? I don't think so because wherever Dwayne Bowe is, Ed Reed will be on that side of the field. With Haloti Ngata up front and Ray Lewis in the middle, the defense still has some ability to shut a team down and this Chiefs team is eerily similar to last year's Bengals team that got shut down in the 4-5 matchup by the Jets. The Ravens are the monkey wrench in the AFC playoffs and they are going to shock some people by going far into the playoffs.

Final Score: Ravens 27 - Chiefs 7

NFC Wild Card #2, Sunday, January 9, 4:30 P.M. ET - #3 Philadelphia Eagles (11-5) vs. #6 Green Bay Packers (10-6), Philadelphia, PA

This is the matchup that will present the most entertaining game of the Wild Card Round. Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews vs. Michael Vick and... wait a second, who plays defense for the Eagles? Isn't that a huge issue that no one can think of a single difference maker on the Eagles defense? You might be able to present Asante Samuel, but his health is iffy and he can't cover every receiver on every play or rush the QB every down. The Packer defense has been hot ever since their bye week and they have only gotten healthier as the season has progressed. Meanwhile, Vick has only gotten worse as the season has gone along and he may have hit his peak in the Monday Night Redskins game and the fourth quarter of the Giants game at the Meadowlands. Don't get me wrong, I think the Eagles can score on the Packers Defense early, but that second half will be the half of reckoning for the Eagles and the Packers will pull away. I picked the Packers to win the Super Bowl in the Pre-Season and I am not relenting on that pick. I'm picking Rodgers, Matthews, and the Packers as long as they are playing.

Final Score: Packers 35 - Eagles 23

So they are my Wild Card Picks, I'll be back to write down my Divisional Picks next week for sure. Hopefully I'll keep writing in a much more timely and often manner. Until then, bitches and hoes.