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Wild Card Weekend Phazerline |
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The Playoffs are upon us. It doesn't get much better than the NFL Playoffs, does it? Phazerline finished another successful season against Vegas at 130-99-9. 31 games above .500 gets you into the playoffs in my book. You all know the story lines, so let’s jump into the games.
Bengals (+3) @ Texans: A couple things scare me about the Texans. The first is obviously their injured 3rd string quarterback. The second is their play down the stretch of the regular season. The one thing Houston has going for them is they are at home. The Texans running game has not been what it should be and they'll need it to win this game. The Bengals are a pretty good team and these two teams played a very close game a few weeks ago. I expect the same thing this week. With both teams relying on the run to take pressure of their rookie quarterbacks, I think this is a close one, so I want the points.
Lions @ Saints (-10½): The Lions secondary gave up a million yards last week to Matt Flynn. Sure, maybe it was some kind of ploy by the Lions to make the Packers spend a ton of money to secure Flynn as their back-up after this season, but probably not. The Lions playoff seed was on the line last week after all. Now, they go to N'awlins to face Drew Brees and the Saints who are really hot right now. I think the Saints will carve up the Lions secondary and will play enough defense to cover this spread. Sorry Detroit, its not your year yet.
Steelers (-8½) @ Broncos: A lot of points for a road playoff team here, don't ya think? There's a reason for that. The Broncos offense looked absolutely putrid last week against the Chiefs and have been shut down the past few weeks. Uhm, what do you think the Steelers defense is going to do to them? I think 10 points for the Broncos would be a major accomplishment. The Steelers on the other hand have some serious injury issues. Mendenhall being out hurts them, but, not as bad as you might think. They have decent back-ups and let’s face it, how often do the Steelers run the ball anyways? Big Ben's ankle is still gimpy, but, isn't it just like Ben to pull off a great game while limping his way down the field? Yeah, it is. I'll give the points here.
Falcons (+3) @ Giants: This should be a great game. The Falcons have played a lot more consistently than the Giants, but, I think the Giants have actually played better most of the year. The Giants have got a lot of attention lately as one of those hot teams that could run the table in the playoffs. I'm not so sure. The best thing the Giants have going for them is their ability to pressure the opposing quarterback. However, that didn't save them against the Packers and there may not be a better 1-2 WR combo in the league than Roddy White and Julio Jones. I see this as another close game and I want the points.
Enjoy the games!
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