As it turns out, I got to watch both NFL playoff games yesterday after all. I threw out my back on Friday, so we canceled most of our schedule and I stayed at home and rested the back. The Ravens-Titans game didn’t disappoint, and I actually called the score exactly correct, 13-10 … but for the wrong team. It looked like the two offenses might dominate after the first quarter, but instead the Titans squandered several scoring opportunities with turnovers, allowing Baltimore to beat them and hit the road one more week.
I watched the second game mostly on tape, so that the First Mate and I could watch the first two episodes of The Tudors from DirecTV’s On Demand service. Needless to say, my prediction yesterday was far off of what actually happened, which was that Jake Delhomme started giving footballs away to charity early and often. I stuck out the game all the way to the end, mostly to see how fast I can move through a recorded game that lasted over three and a half hours in normal time. Answer: about 45 minutes. I got to halftime in twenty or so, and the FM couldn’t believe all the “gabbing” that I avoided.
“Why do you watch four hours of football for a half hour of action?” Man, if you have to ask …
Anyway, today better be the day that home-field advantage starts to count for something. The Chargers visit the Steelers after beating the Colts and Peyton Manning last week at home. The Chargers finished the season strong, but then again, so did the Steelers, dropping only the road game to the Titans before clobbering the Browns in a meaningless finale. I’ll have to catch this game on the DVR too, as we’ll be doing all of the things we didn’t do yesterday as well as going to the Vatican Splendors exhibit. I’m picking the Steelers in a relatively easy victory, 31-14.
Philadelphia travels to the Meadowlands in the early game to take on the previous Super Bowl champs, the Giants. In keeping with my previous agreement with Jazz Shaw, I’ll pick against the Giants and give the Eagles the nod in an upset, 24-20. Home field is 2-4 so far in this playoffs, and it should be an even split today.
If I’m right — and I rarely am in these predictions — we’ll see Baltimore at Pittsburgh and the Eagles at the Cardinals next week for the conference championships.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member