NFL Wild Card Weekend...

Who Rocked?

In a weekend that saw the vibrant Chiefs, the playoff-tested Colts and the much-fancied Eagles fall to travelling teams, the major plaudits have to go to the one home team to prevail: the previously 7-9 Seattle Seahawks, who defeated the 11-5 world champions, the New Orleans Saints.

An historic division championship saw the sub .500 Seahawks stagger into the playoffs in 4th seed. Their vastly inferior record raised questions over whether the seeding process should be redesigned and removed an automatic top-4 berth for besting a bad division.

But it just wouldn’t work. Not unless the scheduling system was also updated to exclude double-headers between divisional rivals and if you took that step, there’d be no point in having divisions at all. Scheduling as it is – pitting good teams against tough opponents as a supplementary boon to high-drafting teams looking to go from worst to first in a year – places emphasis on winning your division.

Anyway, the Seahawks won and silenced their critics and the travelling Who Dat nation. Thanks in large part to holding that 4th seed. As the home team in the wild card round, the Seahawks were playing at Qwest Field – the NFL’s loudest stadium and the biggest advantage a soft secondary can ask for against the NFL’s most vaunted passing attack.

Here’s some interesting personal trivia for you: I placed a 4-part multiple on this weekend’s games. I went for the Ravens over the Chiefs (won), the Packers over the Eagles (won), the SEAHAWKS over the Saints (won!), and the Colts over the Jets (lost).

So I lost the bet thanks to Rex Ryan out-coaching Manning (yeah Manning), but for a while I was on cloud nine thanks to the Seahawks doing what I thought they might.

The Saints were without their running backs; they were travelling to the other side of the country; everyone knew they would have to lean on Drew Brees arm and Qwest Field is a nightmare for QBs who pass often and run complex schemes.

Sean Peyton is an awesome coach and, were it not for Marshawn Lynch breaking 8 tackles (wasting Tracy Porter in the process) en route to a 67 yard TD run in the fourth quarter, Drew probably would have kept the champs on the road to repetition.

But the Saints needn’t feel too bad: only New England has managed to win a playoff game the year after winning the big one, since Tampa Bay hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in 2002.

Can the Seahawks beat the Bears? Yeah, you know what? They can. But will they beat them at Soldier field? No. Soldier Field will see two more games this year as the Packer will upset the Falcons on their way to the Superbowl.

Prediction. Made.


Whose year is in the books?

The Indianapolis Colts are no more. Jim Caldwell’s playoff perennials fell at the first hurdle (and cost me a 78-1 multiple I was riding on). Goodbye boys, time to elt someone else have a go.


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