Really? No one opened a playoff thread after the regular season thread was closed? That surprises me...

Anyway, I haven't been able to contribute much to the regular season thread in a while so I guess I'm glad I could at least start the playoff thread as something. I haven't seen the guy who did the Madden sims in a while, so I couldn't even get those to post and the only NFL 'knowledge' I have comes from the NFL network being constantly on the TVs at work... so that's why I say I dunno squat about football.

Still, it amused me when I heard the so-called "experts" picking Green Bay over Minnesota in the final week and I thought the Vikings were the better overall team and disagreed. Looks like I was right (barely) and they were wrong there.

Despite that, I think Green Bay will win the rematch that comes in the first round of the post-season. They have Minnesota right where they want them. The Vikings only BARELY beat them in Minnesota and now they play in Green Bay. You gotta think the Packers are confident they can handle this Viking team. Peterson is of course a threat... so GB will have to work on taking more time off the clock in their possessions to limit his yardage. We sure know their defense can't do anything to stop him.

The other first round matchup in the NFC is Seahawks at Redskins. Now if this game were in Seattle, I'd give it to the Seahawks hands-down... but they're only 3-5 on the road and I feel like these two teams are very close in talent. The home field advantage may be the only thing that tips the scales. Also let's not forget how amazing RGIII has been as a rookie.

Over in the AFC, everyone is saying the Bengals will upset the Texans... and why not? Cincy is hot right now and Houston is anything but. I don't think this game will be quite as clear-cut as most make it out to be, but I agree that the Bengals have the best chance of a 1st round upset of all the teams playing.

Last, we have Colts at Baltimore. The head coach of Indianapolis used to coach the Ravens which could be a double-edged sword. On one hand, he knows some of the players and what they're capable of. He understands the foundation of their play schemes (though I'm sure their new coach has changed stuff since). At the same time, the players know how this guy coaches and if he's doing the same stuff in Indy as he did in Baltimore, it might make him predictable. Andrew Luck has done a good job transforming this team from one who couldn't buy a win last season to a playoff team... but I don't think they have enough steam to get past the Raven's stellar defense. Let's not forget that Ray Lewis's retirement may be a motivator to the team to help him go out on top.

So as a recap...

Packers over Vikings
Redskins over Seahawks
Bengals over Texans
Ravens over Colts

I do expect the NFC games to be closer than the AFC ones.

Crazy Li : I agree with most of what you said, but I think that the Colts will beat the Ravens and the Vikings over the Packers. I was surprised by how bad of a last month the texans had. Anyway, the packers are one of my favorite teams, but I don't think they'll win...

Local Mods : this shouldn't have been posted in (or even made). Could someone close it and sub-categorize the real Postseason Thread under Football?

I'll close it up for sure. But the postseason thread is already in the football subforum, so no need for moving.

*Closed*