I feel great shame for the epic fail of last week’s predictions.
Still, I thoroughly reject the axiom that “if you never take a position, you can never be wrong.” I could sit around and say “anything can happen” or “It could go either way” but then I’d be a sissy.
My first act in what I hope is my very short quest toward regaining my mojo is to survey the landscape, find some solid ground, and plant my foot firmly upon it!
No hedging and equivocation here my friends! It’s time for some Holmes, but whether it be Sherlock or the lizard from that Cheech and Chong movie will not be known until after Sunday.
San Francisco at Atlanta (+4)
On paper, taking a road team that is traveling all the way across the country to play the #1 seed in a hostile dome environment looks foolish. Still, that is exactly what I am going to. San Fran has a series of advantages going into this game:
1) Atlanta’s fans are really shitty. I’m not even sure if they sold the game out yet. Worse yet, unlike most southerners, Atlanta locals aren’t generally belligerent and drunk on Sunday mornings/early afternoons. This will mitigate crowd noise.
2) Unlike Seattle, who had to play their game last week at what would have been 8:00 AM Pacific and were understandably sluggish in the first half, the Niners game starts at noon Pacific, eliminating the time factor.
3) The Falcons are overrated and have a history of choking. Moreover, Manti Te’o has picked against the Falcons and since he is a gentleman that knows a fraud when he sees one, I’m jumping in on the ground floor.
4) The 49ers are better.
I think San Francisco win by 6-10 here. Take the Niners and give the 4.
Baltimore at New England (-8.5)
Baltimore better find an emotional edge in this game because they will not find any other advantages.
Their chief offensive weapon involves tossing pop flies downfield hoping for miracles.
Their defense gave up 30 first downs to a Denver team whose game plan must have made Dan Reeves and Sammy Winder wax nostalgic.
The only thing their special teams did right was to have their return specialist run a decoy fly pattern at the end of the 4th quarter only to catch Rahim Moore staring serenely into the great unknown dreaming of electric blankets and space heaters.
The Pats (robbed of a win against Baltimore earlier this year by replacement refs) will come out aggressively, reminding the Ravens that they shouldn’t be there to begin with.
I expect The Hoodie to send a message to Baltimore, to whomever they play for the Super Bowl, and (hopefully) to the timid Broncos, that crappy teams should not expect anything but a good old fashioned ass kicking when running into a team of quality.
The Patriots win this one going away.
Last week 0-3-1
Playoff record 2-5-1
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