NFL Divisional Round Picks

Some picks for this weekend's Divisional Round games:

Baltimore Ravens/Denver Broncos: pickin' the Broncos. Broncos by 17.

Green Bay Packers/San Francisco 49ers: the Pack played San Francisco during the first week of the regular season, losing by 8. Throughout the year, Green Bay had a stronger offense while the 49ers's defence was more formidable. Last year San Francisco's defence stifled Drew Brees and the Saints and came up with a huge win at home. The 49ers looked like a Super Bowl contender when they beat New England at Gillette Stadium 41 to 34, and they also defeated Seattle, Chicago and New Orleans this year. Still, these teams have met 4 times in the playoffs and Green Bay's won every game, including two in the Divisional Round. And Green Bay had wins over Chicago(2), New Orleans, Houston, and Minnesota during the season. Taking the Pack.

Seattle Seahawks/Atlanta Falcons: nice to see that one of these teams will make it through to the Conference Finals, sad one of them has to lose. The Falcons look like they have the right stuff to make it back to the Super Bowl, with regular season wins over Washington, Dallas, New Orleans and the New York Giants, along with solid stats on both offense and defence. The win over the Giants is of note. The Giants finished the season with a 9 and 7 record, but when it came to playing big non-divisional NFC games, they were generally a potent juggernaut, beating San Francisco 26 to 3, Green Bay 38 to 10, and New Orleans 52 to 27. But they stalled in Atlanta who somehow beat them 34 to 0. In my opinion, that's a clear sign that the Falcons are ready for the post-season. Nevertheless, even though my heart is saying Atlanta will win in the game's dying moments, my gut keeps generating a resounding Seattle. I'll differentiate between heart and gut picks at some other point. Picking the Seahawks.

Houston Texans/New England Patriots: whose to say. Houston played well throughout most of the year, but when it came to their Thursday and Monday night games, they struggled, almost losing to Detroit (they should have lost, the Lions missed a game winning field goal in overtime), and getting blown away by the Patriots 42 to 14 respectively. I missed their Wild Card matchup with Cincinnati last weekend, but from the way the analysts described it during the highlights I watched at nfl.com afterwards, the Bengals offence was predominantly stifled. That was the first game being played last weekend, this is the final Divisional Round game, meaning the pressure's similar to that the Texans faced during primetime against Detroit and New England (every Thanksgiving Thursday game is a primetime game).  And I think the Patriots won't buckle and will pull off the win. Taking New England.