Wild Card Round Review

Now that the wild Wild Card Round has ended, let's look at my picks (made on my other blog: click here)

Final score: Colts 25 - Chargers 20

Well...I missed the boat on this one. I even picked 25 points for the Colts which my friend Ari pointed out was damn near impossible. Well, at least I was close with my some of my prediction on this one. "The biggest concern for the Colts is that their run defense looked weak early in the season and now the Chargers running game with LDT is starting to gain a little bit of momentum." If I had just replace LDT with Darren Sproles, I would have been the big winner. Sproles had 328 total yards and the Colts were unable to establish any type of run game (another one of my keys to winning). Also Mike Scifres, the Chargers punter, kept his team in the game. The Chargers move on to see another game while Peyton Manning will go home in the first round of the playoffs for the 6th time in 9 chances...not good...

Final Score: Ravens 20 - Dolphins 16

There we go. Much better. Although I didn't get the extent of the victory, the Ravens clearly had the better team in this game. The key for the success of both Quarterbacks all season long was limiting mistakes and the four interceptions for Chad Pennington certainly hurt the Dolphins. I feel like Miami got away from their gameplan when they fell a little behind in this game while the Ravens continued to pound the Dolphins and the pressure created turnovers. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Baltimore was very close to having a first round bye and I think they're as good as any team in the AFC. This definitive win was definitely proof of that.

Final Score: Falcons 31 - Cardinals 21

I still don't know how Atlanta lost this game. Many people will blame a rookie QB or the fact that Michael Turner had problems running the ball. But the truth is that Atlanta scored a touchdown to make this a 6 point game and the defense couldn't get the ball back to them. Actually, the defense was the reason that the Falcons didn't take home this win. The Cardinals inexplicably went away from the run for part of the game and it almost cost them. But their ability to pick apart the Falcons defense with their passing game was something to see. Kurt Warner was given a lot of time and showed that MVP-caliber QB that played for the Cardinals earlier in the season. If it wasn't for a tipped INT that just fell into the hands of an Atlanta DB, this one may have been even further apart. Don't put this loss on Matty Ice's shoudlers. I have a feeling the Falcons will be back.

Final Score: Eagles 20 - Vikings 19

Well the Eagles won, but the game was a little closer than the final score showed. I went back and forth a million times on this game all week, but I felt like the Eagles had it. Forget about the improvement on offense, this Eagles team was built on defense and they showed it with their abuse of Tavaris Jackson. Brad Childress makes one headscratching decision after another, but maybe that's what happens when you come from the coaching school of Andy Reid. The Eagles outplayed the Vikings on almost every aspect of this game (besides one large run, they limited Adrian Peterson, they were great on both sides of special teams, they played great defense, harassed Jackson all game long) but almost found a way to make it close. In the end, the Eagles won and joined the Ravens in the "team that wins in the wild card weekend that no one wants to play" status.

Tomorrow comes NFL picks for the divisional round. 2-2 record so far...let's see if I can improve.