Wild card weekend picks
Hey kids, I’m at the lovely Leavy Center covering Santa Clara-San Diego hoops for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Yeah, me too. So instead of paying attention to the game, I’m going to post my NFL picks for the weekend.
Cincinnati is a 2 1/2-point favorite over the New York Jets. I’m trying not to overthink this one. Rookie quarterback on the road. Bengals played pretty good most of the year, although they were a little soft at the end. The Jets pounded the first string last week, but that was a must-win game for them and I assume Cincinnati held some stuff back.
I think Cincinnati is capable of more big plays so I’m giving the points.
Dallas is 3 1/2 over Philadelphia. I thought Philadelphia was set up to win the NFC before last weekend. Now, I’m not so sure. The Eagles will obviously blitz a lot more on defense this week, but the blitz only works if either the offensive line on the other side sucks or if you can mix it up and catch teams off guard. I have the feeling Dallas will handle the blitz, and if the Cowboys do, the Eagles are in a lot of trouble. I’m going with the home team again - Cowboys win handily, if not by as much as last week.
New England is 3 1/2 over Baltimore, a curious line given Wes Welker’s season-ending injury. It’s not that I can’t see the Patriots winning - they have a lot of weapons and their defense is playing better. But Baltimore was the AFC runner-up a year ago, won two playoff games on the road a year ago, looked good early in the season before hitting a rut (a common occurance for good teams). Meantime, New England will be replacing Welker with Julian Edelman. He’s local, folks, a quarterback in high school and junior college. I just don’t see it. Baltimore with the outright win.
Arizona-Green Bay is a pickem. Presumably because the Packers have been playing well, hopefully not because anybody was dumb enough to take anything from last week’s game. The Cardinals pulled Warner early and didn’t play to win while the Packers, even though they didn’t need to, played as if their playoff lives depended on it. Look, I’d love to see NFL teams required to play their starters throughout these games as much as anyone - mainly, because I think it’s unfair to fans to charge full price and then play backups. I’m sorry, but if I paid $100 a ticket, I better see your starters. But there was nothing gained by Green Bay’s actions. The Anquan Boldin injury is troublesome, but the combination of me not trusting Green Bay, the game being at Arizona, the Cardinals keeping the mileage down on God’s Quarterback … it all adds up to an Arizona win.
OK, 3:33 to go in the first half here. Time to start paying attention.