NFL Wild Card Picks

Some picks for this weekend's Wild Card matchups:

Arizona Cardinals/Carolina Panthers: These teams seem headed in opposite directions. Carolina's won 4 in a row and with the playoffs on the line convincingly crushed the Falcons last weekend. True, they enter the postseason having only won 7 games, but they're streaking right now and play the Cardinals at home which gives them a significant advantage. Arizona lost 4 of its last 6, blowing their chances at receiving a bye, stalling when they should have been surging, falling behind with the NFC's no. 1 seed on the line. They did lose two of those games to Seattle (they weren't even close) and also fell to Atlanta and San Francisco. But prior to this stretch they defeated San Diego, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Detroit, not to mention two wins versus St. Louis, who played well when faced with strong opposition this season. In 2008 they defeated the Panthers 33-13 in the playoffs on the road and their defence was much stronger than Carolina's this season. But backup quarterback Ryan Lindley's numbers aren't inspiring, and even if Arizona's defence plays well, I doubt they'll be able to put up enough points to stop the Panthers. Picking Carolina.

Baltimore Ravens/Pittsburgh Steelers: again with the Ravens and the Steelers. How do you pick between these two teams, they play each other twice during the regular season and often meet in the playoffs, they've both won the Super Bowl in recent memory and know what it's like to play in big games? Who knows who'll win? Flacco's never lost a Wild Card game and Roethlisberger's made the Super Bowl three times since 2005. They split their two meetings during the regular season. Baltimore had the better defence while the Steelers scored more points. Pittsburgh looked awful at the beginning of the year but tenaciously turned things around to finish with 4 straight wins over Atlanta, Kansas City, and Cincinnati, twice. But they still didn't play well versus Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, the New York Jets, Tennessee, and New Orleans, which is odd to say the least. Nevertheless, it means they only show up for big games, and this is a big one. Baltimore's won 5 of their last 7 but they've never defeated the Steelers in the playoffs. Flippin' a coin here. Picking Pittsburgh.

Cincinnati Bengals/Indianapolis Colts: the Bengals recent playoff woes come to mind when thinking about the outcome of this game. They play well enough to consistently make the playoffs but can't seem to put together a strong performance in the postseason. They are good though. So is Indianapolis. The Colts beat them 27-0 in October and won 5 of their last 6. Nevertheless, apart from their destruction of the Bengals, they did lose to Denver, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New England, and Dallas, falling in the later 3 games by large margins. The Bengals didn't do much better. Cincinnati had the better defence but Indianapolis's offence put up 93 more points. The pressure's off Andrew Luck since he won a Wild Card game last year and the commentators have been coming down hard on Andy Dalton in recent weeks, who generally seems to have trouble playing in prime time. This could work to Dalton's advantage. Evenly matched teams, one of them must win. Marvin Lewis is an excellent regular season coach who has lost 5 Wild Card games to date. He knows this. He must be doing something differently. Cincinnati lost to the Colts in the playoffs in 1970. They're turning it around in 2014. Once again, I'm picking the Bengals. Bengals by 1.

Detroit Lions/Dallas Cowboys: Detroit's been coming back to win games all season and play their best football when trailing in the fourth. Only Seattle and Kansas City gave up less points, and they beat Green Bay earlier on in the year. The Cowboys are back in the playoffs for the first time in five years and methinks Tony Romo's hungry for his second postseason victory. Dallas scored 146 more points than the Lions this season so if Detroit is going to win, their defence must be unforgiving. But Romo is thriving. He hasn't played in the playoffs for 5 years. Sitting on the sidelines for the past 4 years must have been infuriating, this game's being played in Dallas, and for the first time since the 90s, the Cowboys look good. If the Lions's defence can generate turnovers, while Stafford plays exceptionally well, Detroit can win. I think Dallas is going to dig them too big of a hole this time round though. Picking the Cowboys.