What a crazy week!  Three road teams won and I went 2-2.  This prognostication stuff is just so dangerous.  No matter what you say, it gets crystallized in black and white and it cannot be taken away.  So when I stated that it would be St. Louis and touchdown city for Indianapolis it could not hide the losses by San Diego and Green Bay.  Four Interceptions!  Arrghhhh!  That stuff is so hard to predict.  Well, now we are in the real playoffs.  The way it was before Wild Card Expansionism.  So then there were 8.

The Final Eight

All year it has been four teams.  The Philadelphia Eagles.  The Pittsburgh Steelers.  The New England Patriots. The Indianapolis Colts.  This week starts with the NY Jets at Pittsburgh.  The second Game is St. Louis at Atlanta.  Then on Sunday we have Minnesota at Philadelphia and the weekend closes with Indianapolis at soggy New England.  So, based upon year long stats, it looks like a Philadelphia and Pittsburgh final.  An all Philadelphia affair.  Messr. Balboa would be proud.  But that is just so easy to state.  Its like stating the obvious.  Eventually, it is either right or wrong.  So what can we expect this week?  Home Sweet Home ... part deux.

Look For Home Cooking

Now it is all about home field advantage.  The competition is real because we are down to the final eight.  The final eight used to be the first week of the playoffs until the playoffs were expanded for wild card weekend.  Who can blame the league with Football popularity booming?  The more the merrier.  As usual, we are looking at a 3-1 record for the weekend.  What is that one upset?  We shall see. Let’s start off with NY Jets at Pittsburgh.  Look for the old steel curtain and a uneventful victory by the men in black and yellow 31 – 13.  Then next comes the St. Louis at Atlanta game.  Look for Vick to run around and around and turn St. Louis upside down.  Atlanta 24 and St. Louis 21.  When Minnesota goes to Philadelphia, a Philly team down and out will find a way to win 21-10.  But as much as I love New England, this may be the year we are talking about Manning.  Look for big scoring for Indianapolis resulting in a 42-27 victory.  Watch out for the weather in any and all of these games.  Weather could tip the scales. That is why they play the games.

Master D.