Coachie Ballgames has done it again. This portrait, stunning in its realism, is called “Eagle Parm.” And it’s not just that we’re in such a hurry to post it that we’re giving you all four of the weekends’ divisional playoff picks today, it’s also so that you can make more parlays today.
Sat. 4:30 PM EST — Ravens +3 over Titans (30X): One might look at the Divisional Playoff results in recent years and conclude that in these days of relative roster parity, the Wild Card weekend bye might hurt some teams more than help them; giving their opponents one more week in the groove, blocking, tackling, strengthening that muscle memory. Maybe this is the Ravens’ reward for playing a substantially tougher schedule than Tennessee. We, and many others, have been slow to buy in on these Ravens, but what more do they have to do to prove themselves to us this season? We like them better than Tennessee on both sides of the ball in this game. Nearly every game the Ravens played this season was a playoff game, so we don’t buy the line that rookie QB Joe Flacco will be especially rattled on the road in Nashville today, where he’s already played once this season. Finally, Ravens backers ought to be encouraged by what John Clayton has to say about the return of Titans Dynamic Duo of defensive lineman, Albert Haynseworth and Kyle Vanden Bosch, from injury today:
“Remember during last season’s playoffs, when Haynesworth came back quickly from his leg injury for the playoff game against the Chargers? He got tired, and by the second half, he didn’t have much power. Haynesworth is coming off a medial collateral injury to his left knee. Though he’s right on schedule with his recovery, he might not have the stamina to play an entire game. Coach Jeff Fisher will monitor him to make sure he can make a strong finish. Vanden Bosch plays with incredible intensity, but a groin injury has nagged him for months. Just when it appears that he has recovered from it, he reinjures it.”
Sat. 8:15 PM EST — Cardinals +9.5 over Panthers (30X): The Panthers closed the year on a tear, and are the current sexy pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. But we think the Cardinals can keep it close here, as they did when they lost to this same Panthers team in Carolina earlier this season by only 4 points. The Cardinals running game showed some life last week against the Falcons, and should do the same tonight against a Panthers defense that’s vulnerable on the ground. This ought to keep the Panthers D honest, and allow the Cardinals to break a big play or two via the air so as to keep this game close. We’re not discouraged by the loss of Anquan Boldin. Steve Breaston is a capable backup. Finally, Bill Simmons offers a nice retrospective of Saturday night NFL Playoff Football over recent years that shows us that all kinds of funny things tend to happen in these games. We’re sure that this has something to do with the Bad Action Brothers, and are inclined to back the underdog under such circumstances. Finally, finally, it’s hard for us to trust a team quarterbacked by Jake Delhomme to cover such a big spread.
Sunday 1:00 PM EST — Eagles -4 over the Giants (30X): Many agree with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio who believes that “the last thing the Giants want to see in the postseason is an NFC East team rolling into the Meadowlands. Because a division rival isn’t intimidated by that No. 1 seed, by that Super Bowl trophy, or by that 12-4 record.” It seems unfair that the No. 1 seed is made to play the Eagles this week, even though they’d surely prefer to play the Cardinals. But it’s a cold fact of life that bad rules f*ck people. Tough break for the Giants here. These teams both play great defense, but we think that special teams, and the big play ability of Brian Westbrook and Desean Jackson will give the Eagles the edge in what should be a great one.
Sunday 4:45 PM EST — Steelers -6 over the Chargers (30X): We don’t think that the blizzard-like conditions at Heinz field necessarily favor the Steelers over the Chargers here, but the San Diego bandwagon is getting too heavy this week. The Steelers lost some of their swag in losing to the Titans in the season’s penultimate week, but they were due for a letdown at that point. Folks are rightly concerned about the concussion suffered by Roethlisberger in Week 17, but the Steelers have who we think is the best backup QB in the playoffs in Byron Leftwich. Anyway, we can’t overlook the excellence and inconsistency that we saw all season from the Steelers and Chargers, respectively, to bring ourselves to support San Diego here.
Hey, enjoy! We’ll be back before tomorrow’s games if anything especially relevant comes up between now and then.
