Chief Delphi - NFL Pick 'em: Wild Card

Saturday:
Kansas City (6) at Indiannapolis (3)
Let's put it this way. Trent Green sucks. Indy's running defense sucks (last in the league) and so does their passing defense (21st in the league). Luckily KC only has a 16th rated pass defense and an 18th rated rush defense. Neither team sacks a lot (which will not help either one whoever they play when they win, as both the Chargers and Ravens are the top 2 teams in the league in sacks). Kansas City, to win, must be able to keep Peyton Manning from moving the football as well as run. If Ron Dayne can light the colts up, LJ can do the same. But unfortunately for the Chiefs, the Colts are going to step it up as they are yet to be defeated at home. And that 12th man will help the Colts prevail in what should be a shootout between both teams passing and rushing attacks.

Dallas (5) at Seattle (4)
This is going to be a high scoring shooting match. The Romo Empire must resurrect if Big D's going to be successful on the road. He should be and that will be a big help.

Sunday:
NY Jets (5) at New England (4)
How the hell have these two gotten here?? Tom Brady doesn't have his core (even though they have Lawrence Maroney and Corey Dillon who have both been pretty strung here) and Rodney Harrison is hurt. He'll be a game-time decision. The Pats need him. Pennington is too accurate. If Coach of the Year were divided into two leagues, Eric Mangini would be AFC Coach of the Year. Wow! But King Tom [Brady] and the Patriot Empire are too good and peaking too well here. They will prevail.

NY Giants (6) at Philadelphia (3)

Now this is interesting! They played head to head TWICE this year and split the season series, each winning on the other's home turf. So, the 12th man may or may not be a factor. Jeff Garcia is almost unstoppable and that Philly D will create problems for the Giants D. Tiki Barber will light up as usual, and the pressure turns to Eli. If he falters, the G-Men will fail. The Giants need to do 2 things: (1) Use Tiki! He's fast, he's strong, and he'll bust through that Philly rush D. Plus, he'll eat up the clock so Jeff Garcia really has to get fast. (2) Stop Garcia and company, which is really hard to do. I think Eli will falter under the pressure here and the Eagles will take this one. There's really too much they can do and they've been playing well at the right time.

So the matchups for next week will look like this:

AFC

New England (4) at San Diego (1)
Indiannapolis (3) at Baltimore (2) (Baltimore Past vs. Baltimore Present)

NFC:

Dallas (5) at Chicago (1)
Philadelphia (3) at New Orleans (2)