Divisional Round ATS Recap: Endgame

Here we are, three games left to go and a winning pick by me seals the season. After sweating through the Saturday games and two ATS losses to Dre, I needed to be saved by the Giants and the "Discount Double Choke" Packers. The Giant cover made Dre's strategic Mitt Romney-esque flip flop on the Saints/Niners completely meaningless.

• Niners (+3½) 36, Saints 32 - Dre winner, Jason loser - So I'm watching the game with my wife, spelling out all the ways that the Saints could send the game to overtime and still win this pick for me. Lost in that was one hell of a ballgame. The Saints were turning the ball over at an alarming rate, but still managed to take a late lead. It looked like the Niners were moving down for the tying field goal, but Alex Smith roped a pass into TE Vernon Davis, who hung on to the ball with a defender all over him to give San Fran the "upset." Looking back, the Niners seem to score more freely on their home turf, and drawing the weak New Orleans defense was certainly a good matchup for them.
• Patriots (-13½) 45, Broncos 10 - Dre winner, Jason loser - My Divsion Round Saturday ended with a thud, as Tom Brady lit up the Broncos and the Pats defense had all the answers for Tim Tebow that the Steelers didn't. We figured that the Pats would be a little bit smarter about their approach to the Broncos offense, but I didn't see it coming to the degree that Tebow was made a complete non-factor. This is what Bronco fans will get as long as 15 is under center: maddeningly inconsistent play. The Bronco offense looks like a juggernaut on the ground at times, and can hit deep throws when teams sell out against the run, but base defenses give Tebow trouble. Let's see what he can accomplish with a normal offseason of work versus the uncertainty of a lockout. As for the Patriots, that looked like business as usual.
• Ravens 20, Texans (+9) 13 - Both winners - Joe Flacco is starting to feel like Mark Sanchez to me. Flacco has the bonus of being able to make all the throws, but he looks totally lost out there at times. His teammates see as much, bringing Ed Reed to say what we all basically think: that the Ravens need Flacco to step up this week if they have a chance to beat the high powered Pats. The Texans run with a third string QB was bound to end sometime, and they went out with such a whimper here that I predict the Texans will be their own Memorial Preseason Chic Media Darling team going into next season. How could they not be? They're getting all those weapons back....... I can hear it now.
• Giants (+8) 37, Packers 20 - Jason winner, Dre loser - The Packers season ended about as well as a Mediterranean luxury cruise. Too soon? Expecting the Packer defense to step up after being one of the worst of all time was too tall a task, and without generating turnovers the outcame became inevitable. This game was even worse than the score indicated. BOTH Packer touchdown drives were assisted by horrific calls: a botched fumble call that was obvious on replay and not called, and later a blow to the head call on a hit of Aaron Rodgers where the hit was neither late nor near Rodgers head. Without that assistance, we might have been looking at a complete blowout. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman annoy me to no end, but they were dead on in their analysis of the drive leading up to the Hail Mary play that ended the first half. The Giants looked content to run out the clock and go in to halftime up three, but the Packers let Ahmad Bradshaw rip off a 20+ yard run, cross the entire field, AND get out of bounds to stop the clock. This was critical because the Giants had no timeouts. On the next play, Eli Manning threw up a prayer that I could see was going to be caught long before it was. Hakeem Nicks got great position in the end zone and outjumped the Packer defenders. Buck and Aikman belabored the point of how awful the Packer D was in letting Bradshaw run free in their secondary and get out of bounds, but they were right. That hurt to say.

So I need to pick one winner the rest of the way to seal up back-to-back season wins over Dre here at the IMLD blog. I just hope that one win doesn't wait to come til the Super Bowl. Dre is basically relegated to the role of contrarian the rest of the way, needing me to majorly screw up to win this thing. I've done it to him many times over the years, so I'm hoping this isn't karma getting me back for the "Garbage Time Touchdown" call in the Eagles/Pats Super Bowl that got me a season win. It was cheap, but I took it, just as I'm sure Dre would take me going 0-3 the rest of the way. A win's a win.