NFL playoffs running thread (with poll)

Who ya got?

I say ...

AFC: Patriots. They have an uncanny ability to be three points better than anyone, whether it's the Broncos or the Texans. At the very least, whatever their last game is, they're going to be within a score and have the ball at the end.

NFC: 49ers. Going against the grain here and it's probably something of a homer pick, but they are on a six-game winning streak -- the only active streak longer than three games -- and they look a lot like the last two seasons when they rotated running backs late in the season and had them fresh for the postseason run.

49ers to win, completing the one-round-further pattern of the Harbaugh era.

--Maybe I'm making too much of the regular-season Denver-New England meeting, but after the Patriots stopped spilling the ball all over the field, that wasn't even a contest. Don't think the Broncos have enough to get to the finish line.

--If the Bengals don't finally win a playoff game this week, they never will.

--Don't have a great feeling on Colts-Chiefs other than it will be a lot closer than the regular-season meeting.

--Seahawks are the chalk, better than even money to at least make the Super Bowl, but I wonder if that loss to the Cardinals rattled the home invincibility. In any event, I do believe the 49ers will play entirely differently than they have the last two trips to Seattle, when they didn't even try to run the ball and got weirded out from the first snap.

--Panthers can play with anyone, but do they have enough at the skill positions?

--Packers had a nice moment for the Rodgers legend, but I can't see them staying with the 49ers' physical attack. I also can't help but notice that the two best games of Colin Kaepernick's life have been against the Packers.

--Eagles are the big question. On the one hand, they are probably more like a 12-4 team if Foles starts all season. On the other hand, their only win of note was at home against Arizona. (They did beat the mighty Scott Tolzien too.)

--Saints. Road. Ha.

But before we begin, let's all take a moment to appreciate that there will be no Steelers talk.

 

You are deluding yourself on that last point.

The Bengals just got a tremendous gift from the Chiefs and the officials in the KC-San Diego game today. The Steelers beat them two weeks ago and I think it would have happened again in the first. The Chargers? They needed Succop to miss a field goal any pro kicker should make and a horrible call on the fake punt in overtime to beat the faltering Chiefs' junior varsity team Sunday. The Bengals have some defensive issues and Dalton needs to not shit himself like he did today, but they should be able to beat the Chargers.

Regarding Chiefs-Colts, it has come back to bite Reid's big ass before when he sat starters the final week of the regular season. Did he learn anything from that? Apparently, he just thought sitting even more starters would make things better.

Oh, and LTL, thank you so much for the invitation. Here I was just a little too annoyed to get into the discussion of the postseason, but you found a way to get me past that.

 

Also, regarding Broncos vs. Patriots, it's not so much that you are making too much of the regular-season meeting. You are simply forgetting that was the Patriots with Gronkowski. They haven't been quite the same offense without him.

 

Says the guy who did nothing but take a dig at another poster. Yes, I'm having a little fun at LTL's expense, but my post also addressed the playoffs. Yours? Not so much.

 

Broncs vs. Chiefs in AFC title game

Saints vs. Panthers in NFC

Broncs win the overall league title

 

Rooting for the Eagles. But if I had money, I would put it on the Broncos. I voted in this poll for the Eagles. But Peyton will pull out a SB win for the Broncos.

 

I think an NFC team playing next week has a 50-50 shot of making the Super Bowl. AFC team maybe 20 percent.

 

They really need to stop giving home-field advantage to winners of four-team divisions and go to a straight 1-thru-6 playoff seeding.

Just to cite one example, there's no reason the 49ers — who went 12-4, including 5-1 in a loaded division — should be traveling to Green Bay — who went 8-7-1, including 3-2-1 in a shitty division. (Same goes for Saints and Eagles, to a slightly lesser degree).

I know everybody likes to trash the NBA playoffs, but seeding based on record is one thing they get right.

 

Seahawks

I don't think anyone goes up there and wins a game, and I think they have a good of chance to beat anyone the AFC throws at them.

Denver versus Seattle would be a hell of a Super Bowl.

 

If the Niners don't get there, I kind of hope it's Broncos-Seahawks because I think those are the two best teams.

 

Predictions:

Niners over Packers
Eagles over Saints

Seahawks over Niners
Eagles over Panthers

Seahawks over Eagles

Colts over Chiefs
Bengals over Chargers

Broncos over Colts
Pats over Bengals

Broncos over Pats

Broncos over Seahawks in Super Bowl