I went 1-3 in the Wild Card round, 3-1 in the Divisional round, so I am batting .500 going in to Championship weekend. Â At this point in the season with the Giants long gone, all I really want is two good football games, there is too little football left this year to waste it on a blowout (this rule does not apply when the Giants make the playoffs, they are always welcome to be on the winning side of a blowout).
Packers (10-6) @ Bears (11-5)
The only thing more I could ask for would be the Giants, this has all the makings of a great football game to decide the NFC Championship. Â Long time division rivals, they have already faced each other twice this season:
Week 3 in Chicago the Bears won 20-17
Week 17 in Green Bay the Packers won 10-3, in a game that was meaningless to the Bears who had already wrapped up the NFC North
Green Bay has to go back to Chicago for this one, winning 3 playoff games on the road is not easy, but the way the Packers have been playing lately I am not sure they can be stopped. Â Even if the weather is cold, or it snows neither will be a factor for the Packers, so I am going to stick with them for a 3rd straight week.
Pick
Jets (11-5) @ Steelers (12-4)
This is a tough one, the Steelers came out slow against the Ravens, but finished off strong. Â The Jets, I have picked against them (and been wrong) two weeks in a row now. Â It is hard to overlook the fact that the Jets beat the Colts, and Patriots back to back, on the road in the playoffs, this is the same team that didn’t look good the last few weeks of the regular season, except of course for their week 15 win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
I guess what it really comes down to is which Jets team is going to show up on Sunday, the 10-6 regular season team that looked very beatable, even in some of their wins, or the team that showed up the last two weeks, and completely dominated the Patriots last Sunday? Â I don’t think I am ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet, so for the 3rd week in a row I am picking against the Jets. Â I will say now if I am wrong, I will probably have to pick the Jets in the Superbowl, but lets not get ahead of ourselves here.
Pick
Enjoy the games! After this it is a long two weeks without football until the Superbowl (don’t even talk to me about the Pro Bowl), and after that who knows how long it will be until another NFL game is played.