Well, now... this is aggravating! Haloti Ngata was stupid enough to take Addarall, a so called Performance Enhancing Drug, and is now out for 4 games, i.e., the rest of the regular season! 

If the Ravens are to make the playoffs, they have got to step it up, and now with Ngata out, it's going to be just that much harder. 

Well. Here's how my teams are.

Falcons suck.

Chiefs suck.

Titans suck.

Well, this is a pretty disappointing year, at least packers are good.

Even though the Falcons aren't that good this year, and even though they still are in first place at 5 - 8, Julio Jones was an absolute beast Monday Night against the Packers! He had 11 catches for 259 yards and a TD, and he was held out of the Falcons last drive at the end of the game because of a hip injury. But I'm optimistic he will be ready to go next week against the Steelers. They will need him, no doubt about that.

Was gonna make a playoff thread, but this should cover it. 

Well, a lot of teams have clinched, but the only one I really care about right now is the Baltimore Ravens. In order for them to make it since they lost to the Texans in an embarrassing fashion, is for the Ravens to beat the Browns ( seems easy enough, but in light of recent outings and performances, you never know ) , AND the Chargers have to fall the to Chiefs, which is a 50 - 50 % of happening, and believe me, I am not religious, but I am praying for the Chargers to get demolished by the Chargers some kind of way. 

Also, for the Falcons... they win, they in. 
MattyIce :  

Shame how much injuries has cost the Cardinals in getting a chance to play in their own stadium at the Super Bowl. If all goes well, they can avoid the Seahawks if they win against the Panthers which I believe they will and the Lions beat the Cowboys and Cards will take on the Packers and stand a chance since Aaron Rogers is banged up a little further thanks to Suh. So in other words, I see them making it as far as the Conference Finals if all goes how I predict it to go. If the Lions knock off the Seahawks then Cards in the SB for shizzle.

Alright, with it being playoff time, and the predictions being inevitable, I am going to go ahead and make my predictions here. 

AFC 
( 6 ) Ravens over Steelers  ( 3 ) 
( 4 ) Colts over  Bengals ( 5 ) 

( 6 ) Ravens over Patriots ( 1 ) 
( 2 ) Broncos over Colts ( 4 ) 

( 6 ) Ravens over Broncos ( 2 ) 

NFC 
( 3 ) Cowboys over Lions ( 6 )
( 5 ) Cardinals over Panthers ( 4 ) 

( 1 ) Seahawks over Cardinals ( 5 ) 
( 2 ) Packers over Cowboys ( 3 ) 

( 1 ) Seahawks over Packers ( 2 ) 

Super Bowl 
( 1 ) Seahawks over Ravens ( 6 ) 

Let me give you some reasons as too my picks: 
~ Joe Flacco and the Ravens are inconsistent. But, with Bell out, and Polamalu more than like not going to play, and Joe Flacco getting hot every year in January, I expect the Ravens to make a run at it with the teams they will have to play according to my predictions. The only I am not confident about is the match-up against the Broncos. The Ravens got lucky in that game more than once when they went to the Super Bowl. As for the predicted match - up against the Patriots, well... besides for the kick now known as " The Cundiff " a few years ago, the Ravens tend to get the best of the Patriots when it matters most, so I think the Ravens can pull that one off. 
~ The Steelers aren't going to go very far this year. They are a good team, but with Bell probably being out on Offense, there goes a huge chunk of the yardage the Steelers get on Offense. And with Polamalu probably being out, even with the defensive unit the Steelers have, I think it will impact the Steelers just enough for the Ravens to finally beat the Steelers in the playoffs for the first time. 
~ The Colts have Andrew Luck. They may not have much of a running game, or a big name defense, but they pass the ball more than well enough to get the job done against the Bengals. However, that means that they will have to play the Broncos in the divisional round; sorry, Colts fans, but that will not turn out well. 
~ The Bengals have been getting better the past few years, I will give them that. And they are slowly coming up in the AFC as a powerhouse, and making the AFC North even more interesting, but against the Colts and their passing game? Yeah... not happening. Sorry tornadocam, but one of your teams is gonna get crushed by at least 10 points before they can even start seeing " nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye! " 
~ The Patriots are a decent team. But, I think if it wasn't for Tom Brady and Gronk, there would be no powerhouse known as the Patriots. The Ravens are pretty good against the Pats in the playoffs, and Tom has never gotten over Spygate... I think it will come into affect once again, and the Ravens win a doozy of a game against the Patriots, once more. Tom Brady will then become known as the man that can't beat the Ravens in the playoffs. 
~ The Broncos are Payton Manning. Payton Manning is the Broncos. No Manning, no Broncos. They'll handle the Colts in a decent game that I think will go down to the 4th quarter before Manning does his thing. That being said, I think somehow they blow the game again against the Ravens, and Manning will get stuck with the same curse as the Broncos and Manning:  The guy that can not beat the Ravens in the playoffs. 


~ The Cowboys are the Cowboys. I think they will take care of the Lions, even if that is the only game I have just enough confidence to call that way, but 1 is enough. It's Romo. He may be hot right now, but he's Romo. The Cowboys will lose to the Packers, and I can go back to talking trash about Romo once again. It's a win - win for me. 
~ The Lions are a good enough team. They did get Suh back just in time. But, the Cowboys are hot right now, and I don't expect the Cowboys to drop out right away. So, I am gonna have to say the Lions blow it, and they make a small run next year. 
~ The Cardinals have the Panthers. They Panthers may have finished out the season 4 - 0, but they are still a 7 - 8 - 1 team. The Cardinals won't make much of a run because of their situation at quarterback, but I think they make enough noise to get past the 7 win Panthers. 
~ The Panthers are a good team right now, and they are hot. They finished out the season 4 - 0, but, they are a 7 - 8 -1 team. They have a good unit, but I don't see them going anywhere. The Panthers have done good enough to make it to the playoffs, but it won't be good enough to even make a squeal of a mouse. Sorry SuperCam fans, but it's not going to happen. 
~ The Seahawks have Home Field advantage! That is huge. And Seattle is one of the hardest places to play. If my predictions are correct, that means that they will defeat Cardinals ( easy enough with the QB situation ) and the Packers ( easier said than done ) at home. The Seahawks are going to try to repeat. 
~ The Packers are a heck of a team. And Aaron Rodgers has certainly done well when he stepped into Brett Favre's shoes. I think The Packers make quite a good run, but they are going to fall to the Seahawks after giving up a BEAST game to Marshawn Lynch. 


The Super Bowl will be a match-up that should have happened years ago! I think that both games were called wrong when the Steelers beat the Cardinals. But, it is what it is, and it is in the past. 
It will be the Ravens and the Seahawks. Had this game happened back then, the Ravens would have won with the defensive unit they had. But now? I'm not no sure. The Seahawks have a more balanced group. They have a well rounded defensive unit. They have a heck of a run game. The Ravens have a good defensive unit, but it hasn't performed up to par. 
I think the Seahawks win this one after a huge showing by Lynch AND Forsett. I think this game will be all the run game. 
Seahawks win it all, 32 - 21. 

Well, it kinda sucks that both teams I had planned to win the Super Bowl both lost yesterday (Arizona and Pittsburgh), so that got me thinking. Meh, I won't really care about this year's playoffs.

IgorBird122 : Oh, boo hoo. It happens every year. Somebody is always going to fail to make it. 

I am just happy that Flacco is in Playoff mode. We finally beat Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh in the playoffs. Now, we have to go to Foxboro to play the New England Patriots, who we have beaten the 2 previous times we have met them in the playoffs, so I am confident in that game. If we have to face the Broncos, I am going to laugh. Last time we were in the playoffs, we beat the Broncos and the Patriots to go to the Super Bowl, and we won it all. I think it is going to happen again. 

The Patriots and Ravens game was the best game in the playoffs so far. I'm just glad the Pats ended up with the win at the end. It definitely could've gone the other way, especially if they hadn't been as lucky with the bounces on their early fumbles or their secondary hadn't improved after the Ravens' first two drives.

But that really was a fantastic game and it had everything... trick plays, comebacks, huge throws, costly turnovers. I loved it.

soxfan849 : Look who showed up out of the blue! Welcome back! 

Yeah, I was not happy with that game. The Ravens' Secondary played a piss poor game, and that's what cost us. The refs were very unbiased, and both teams played great. Flacco did his job, but the defense didn't do their end of the deal. Also, Flacco threw 2 picks. The 2nd one, I can see why he threw it, but still. 

The Ravens can't blame anybody but themselves for this lost. 

   Well, that Green Bay game and Dallas game ended in the sweetest of ways. For the game to end on a questionable "Calvin Johnson" rule call was just the perfect way for Dallas to be eliminated. And it's made even better when it was Dez Bryant that it was against. Personally, with the entire "completing the process" action, I thought it was the right call. But either way, I enjoyed every second of that.
   In offseason news, the Bills are hiring Rex Ryan to be their head coach for the next 5 years. It seems odd that he would be going back to a team that has quarterback problems. Kyle Orton is retiring, so they will be counting on EJ Manuel it seems. If they were to want to sign a free agent quarterback, the funny thing is that Mark Sanchez is one of the top available free agent quarterbacks. I have no idea if they are looking for one, but I don't think EJ Manuel is the answer.

I'm glad to see my 2 Super Bowl picks are still in the running after the Divisional Round of the playoffs. I don't think the Patriots should have too much of a problem with the Colts, as long as they don't make any bonehead mistakes. They got away with a couple against the Ravens, but it might cost them this time around. The Packers, however, are obviously going to have their hands full playing in Seattle. Their offense will have to play near perfect against one of the best defenses in the NFL if they even want a chance at winning.

And as for that Dez Bryant "non-catch" I think the refs made the correct call in the end. Yeah you can say the ground can't cause a fumble, but the ground can cause an incomplete pass. The rule is you have to control the ball all the way through the catch. You can obviously see the ball start to move when Dez hits the ground. Even though I had the Packers winning this game, I would've liked to see the Cowboys come away with it but again, the right call in my opinion.

MattyIce :

I'm a Cowboys fan, and even I agree with that.

I knew we weren't winning the game (It's the Cowboys way) but I had hope once that play happened.

At best, it's ambiguous, but that's at best, if you squint really hard, and try to convince yourself of it.

The refs made the right call, they called the game right down the middle, and they were mostly excellent. No one in Dallas has any right to complain. We were projected to win all of four games, but almost got to the NFC Championship game, despite playing like total crap against the Packers. (Anyone who has watched the Cowboys this year knows that last night was the worst showing they've had on the road all season, and not just because they lost).

We had a ridiculous amount of chances and didn't convert.

We went for a pass instead of a rush on 3rd and 1 at the end of the 1st half (which is baffling, because Murray totally could have pushed the ball one yard), which ended up giving the Packers a chance to score to end the first. Instead of possibly going into the half up 21-7 (I fully believe at worst, had we gone for it on 3rd and 1, we would have gotten a field goal, and with momentum how it was, a TD felt likely), we had to settle for being up 14-10, which is a 10 point swing by itself, over something so small.

Then there was the baffling Murray fumble in the 2nd half that led to more missed opportunities.

It was a winable game, and I have no gripe over Dez Bryant's catch/non-catch. It doesn't matter if he caught it or not. At the end of the day, we didn't execute early in the game, and forced Romo, yet again, to win the game (which you can't keep doing. He's one of the best, believe it or not, in game winning drives, but he can't do it every week).

I just hope this playoff showing has shaken the "choker" stigma off Romo. He was key in our win against the Lions, and he was almost the reason we won a tough game on the road in Green Bay. Great season, great team. Fun to watch.

Well, that was one of the best Playoff comebacks I have ever seen. The Seahawks did their business, and got the job done. 
I was expecting a good game out of the Seahawks and the Packers, but I wasn't expecting that. 

I was also expecting a Patriots win over the Colts, probably by 20 like normal, but not a bloody blowout of 45 - 7. I stopped watching the game after first quarter. 

So it's the Seahawks and Patriots. My hometown team ( who is not my favorite team, but who I do root for if the Ravens are not affected at all ) versus one of the teams I despise the most. 

BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF PATRIOTS FOR ME SEAHAWKS!!! 

PATRIOTS GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!

Yes, patriot fan for 10 years!!!!!! So glad, ah, its going to be a great game this year.

thing1 : Hopefully this is the right thread I'm posting in unlike last time, if not, I'll edit this again.

Anyways, I also hope that the Seahawks wins the Super Bowl, because the reason why is that I just flat out hate the Patriots, the reason why, they can't even play football, all they mostly do is cheat, cheat, and cheat. And I'm not much of a Seahawks fan, but hey, I much rather see the Seattle take home the Vince Lombardi trophy than New England.

IgorBird122 : You got it right this time. XD 

And yeah, I completely agree with you. I found an article discussing whether or not the Patriots should be disqualified from the Super Bowl or not. Said article. 

thing1 : Yeah, I heard about the deflating controversy, and I do have to agree, have a disqualification in the championship and give it to the real winners which was the Colts because to my point of view. Colts vs. Seahawks sounds a whole lot better for the Super Bowl rather than the Patriots vs Seahawks.

IgorBird122 :
thing1 :  

If there is no evidence of tampering, they shouldn't be disqualified. Having 11 out of 12 footballs deflated is actually explainable through what you all must have learned in high school Chemistry: The Ideal Gas Law. When the temperature of the air becomes very low, the pressure of the air inside the ball will also be lowered. When you have these footballs pumped from the inside of the building, and then leave the balls on the outside throughout the game, they are going to deflate. It would make sense why no one really said anything until halftime, because by that time, the balls are outside for a long time.

play4fun : I do have to agree with that, if they ain't 100% of evidence that New England has deflated the footballs between now and the Super Bowl, they can't really disqualify New England from the Super Bowl and New England is a Northern team and you know winter, it does get cold up there and air does make balls deflate, so that could be a factor as well.

I think yeah, they need to look in deeper with this investigation regarding if they did or not. I hope they did because I don't really like New England as all.