My Triumphant Return

Do to Yahoo keeping track for me, I retired from my typical witty commentary, and went the Bill Simmons route of doing as little as reasonably possible. But all that ends this week, when I return with sports post that would make any sane person's head spin. And yes, like always I will destroy my potential lead over Theill, with completely unrealistic picks. But before I go forward with my picks, I had an interesting discussion with one of my HP friends. He believes that the only team in the entire NFL that can beat the Patriots is Jacksonville. To begin with, I am hugely behind this idea because I have been calling it all along. However, to narrow it down to just one team I believe is unrealistic. The Pats went all out against the Giants and barely won. Now, I am not insulting the Giants, but the Chargers and the Colts at least are much better than the Giants, and if they travel into New England who says either of those teams couldn't finish the bid. I mean, you no longer can say Manning can choke the big game away, seeing only one season ago it was Brady who choked up an 18 point lead, and threw the final mistake to a waiting Marlin Jackson. Also, if you get a nice brisk snow in Foxboro, LT would have a field day, while Maroney would realize, that running in only two weeks of the season doesn't matter. But my point is that if the AFC first round goes as planned, could there even be anything close to the amazing-ness of the final four teams in the Conference... I mean you get Jax-NE and SD-Colts, and an AFC championship that is guarenteed to be amazing (besides maybe Jax-SD, but that won't happen). You could have potentially have the greatest three final games in conference history. However, the greatness that could be the AFC next weekend, is non-existant this weekend. Besides the potential of the Pittsburgh field making a great game, its going to be two domination games with little to watch. For this weekend at least all interest lies in the NFC teams, and mainly whether or not the two NFC East teams can keep up. There is alot to see in those games at least, so as a sports fan I would reccomend making time for the emotional Redskins and the enigmatic Giants. Now on to the picks

Washington at Seattle: I might be leading with my 152 wins, but that won't last after this week. I am known to highly support a team all season, and make statements like "they are Superbowl material" and that at the last minute change to some team I don't believe in (ALA Saints Bears last year, where for no real reason I changed to Bears). Seemingly, I have supported the Seahawks for awhile, as the sleeper NFC team. Then everyone started picking Seattle, and I discovered Collins was 10 years older than I previously thought. An old QB coming in for an injured future superstar, you have no choice but to go with that (ok, Campbell probably isn't a future superstar, but let me dream). But the real reason to go against Seattle, is Sean Taylor. I don't care if it costs me a game, but what happened was a tragedy, and for this Washington team any distraction is good, and each win is impressive. So in the end, I have no choice.
Winner: Washington Redskins (24-20)

Jacksonville at Pittsburgh: The AFC South was a monster. Heck, the worst team was an 8-8 Texans team. Now, the AFC North wasn't easy (with Cleveland only missing out because of tiebreakers) but Pitt for awhile looked like an even bigger force. Then injuries came to play, and Jax beat them once on their own field, and by the way, some people even had Cleveland over them in their Power Rankings (one of those people being me). The field could make this game interesting, but in the end, Jacksonville is a great team, and Pitt is well... not.
Winner: Jacksonville Jaguars (33-17)

New York Giants at Tampa Bay: This is a very difficult game to get a feel for. Its hard to tell how good these Giants are, because they play each game extremely different then the next. Everyone knows what Tampa is, they play each game the same and consistantly. The winner of this game will depend on what Eli shows up. If its the Eli who challenged Dallas and New England til the end, the Giants look like a winner. If it's the Eli who got demolished by Minnsota, well, this won't even be a game. But that is the thing of the Giants, they will live and die from their expensive first overall draft pick, and I (the eternal optimist) will always think that this is the game that will show the world.. hey, Eli is actually a good QB.
Winner: New York Giants (21-20)

Tennessee at San Diego: Kerry Collins is the x-factor. I mean, Young is a gametime decision, but Collins gives this team a much better chance to win. Despite that, if Young can play, you have to play him for the postseason experience, because this is not a year they can win the title no matter who is at the helm. The Chargers have been completely under the radar this year. After starting out embarrisingly bad, they have slowly gotten up to speed while the rest of the league is looking at the Colts and Pats. One of only two teams to beat Indy this year, you got to look at this team as a threat. But the real reason to pick San Diego... They have Tomlinson... And he alone is better than the entire Titans team.
Winner: San Diego Chargers (34-14)