Dre Jay
| Season | 112-134-10 | 125-121-10 | |
| 0.455 | 0.508 | ||
| x200 | x200 | ||
| Playoff Points | =91.1 | =101.6 | |
| Scoring System | |||
| Wild Card | 2 pts. each | ||
| Conf. Semis | 3 pts. each | ||
| Conf. Finals | 4 pts. each | ||
| Super Bowl | 5 pts. | ||
With that, I, the man who lost Week 17 to a coin, carry my sorry ass into Wild Card Weekend differing with Jason on three games right off the bat, which could wrap up the season title for Jay really quickly if things break bad for me.
| Fav | Spread | Dog | Dre | Jay |
| Saturday | ||||||
| HOU (10-6) | 4 | Cin (9-7) | Hou | Cin | ||
| Sat. Nite | ||||||
| NO (13-3) | 10½ | Det (10-6) | Det | NO | ||
| Sunday | ||||||
| NYG (9-7) | 3 | Atl (10-6) | Atl | NY | ||
| Pit (12-4) | 9 | DEN (8-8) | Den | Den |
Cincinnati @ Houston
The NFL always makes sure to put its least compelling/ugliest game on first, because they know that fans will be glad just to have any playoff game on their TVs. The main event Sunday afternoon features Jesus Christ, the noon game has the New York market, and the Saturday night affair has the all-time passer for a single season, Drew Brees. What's this game have? Two rookie quarterbacks? Zzzzzz. But Jason and I will be interested because we have skin in this game, as he goes with the Bengals and I pick the Texans. Picking T.J. Yates and giving four points is daunting, but hey, that's why my record sucks this year. But I'll try to justify it anyway: The passing games should be a wash because both pass defenses can stifle the opposing air attack, leaving the running games to do battle, and I trust Arian Foster and Ben Tate for Houston to rush the ball better than Cedric Benson and Cincinnati. I don't like the reports of Cincy QB Andy Dalton being very sick all week, but more than that, I don't like how he hasn't thrown for over 200 yards in his last 5 games except once. I don't like Jonathan Joseph, the Texans' top cornerback, shadowing A.J. Green, the Bengals' best WR; Joseph held Green to 59 yards in Houston's Week 14 victory at Cincinnati. And I don't want to rely on the road rookie QB to outperform the home rookie QB. Jason will take the Bengals because it will allow Houston, despite breaking through and winning the AFC South for the first time, to once again be selected as preseason media darlings next year. "Yes, the Texans made the playoffs finally, but how much better could they have done with their star QB Matt Schaub or a fully healthy Andre Johnson? We must fall in love with them and overhype them yet again!" Our X-factors: Mine is Texans LB Connor Barwin. A quick lead for Houston allows the Texans to play the pass and rush the QB, and Barwin has been a terror in the 2nd half of the season. Jason's are both starting tight ends. Houston's Owen Daniels and Cincinnati's Jermaine Gresham can really help keep the chains moving.
My Pick: Houston 27-12
Detroit @ New Orleans
I love the over. Can I get that out of the way? I LOVE the over! This one has all the makings of a wild back-and-forth scorefest. More scoring than at a Miley Cyrus house party. I thought I would take the obvious pick all week and stick with the Saints to dominate at home, especially considering how much I dislike the Lions. But despite Detroit having the ability to melt under the pressure and lose all their poise, I'm taking them to cover the number because that's a big-ass number, and because all Detroit did all year was make crazy comebacks from big deficits. It's how they made the damn playoffs. I have to point out that in comparing stats for the game, I've never seen a matchup where both teams have run defenses giving up five yards per carry. That's crazy bad. So it's not all about the throws when I say that I love the over. These teams can score and gain yardage in a number of different manners. I must say that it's a bad sign when your RB and TE are colliding in practice, as Kevin Smith and Tony Scheffler did, but I'm picking Detroit to cover anyway. The thinking seems to be, the Lions should get ripped by the Saints because if they gave up 45 to a backup QB last week in Green Bay, then what's Brees gonna do to them? Fair point, but every game's different. Brees already had Detroit on a prime-time platter in Week 13, and New Orleans put up a mere 31. Of course, Detroit only managed 17, but I'm going to bet on China Doll and Megatron figuring out a way to score more than 17 points this time around. Our X-factors: Mine is Lions free safety Louis Delmas. Back form injury, he stands as the last line of defense on many of those Brees deep passes. That Detroit secondary stinks like Limburger cheese even with Delmas, but without him, they've been completely toasted save for Week 16 versus the Chargers. Jason's is Lions KR Stefan Logan. Every time the Saints score, they have to kick the ball back to the Lions, and Logan on a fast track can hurt NO bad. Jay referred to what Randall Cobb did in special teams to the Saints on Opening Night, and that wasn't indoors on a fast turf.
My Pick: New Orleans 41-35
Atlanta @ New York Giants
Look, I'm going to go against the Giants at home again, and I don't wanna hear any shit about it. The numbers bear out that they don't perform well normally as home favorites, so I'm actually playing the percentages, and that's that. I wonder if Atlanta is ready to take a next step in their development as a title contender, and I'll pick them to make that step in a very close, tense battle. They have to stay committed to the run with Michael Turner and not be discouraged by any resistance by the talented New York defensive front. The Giants can be run on, as they got gashed for 4.5 yards per rush this season. And once those Giants pass rushers have to respect the run, QB Matt Ryan can be set up for the bombs to WRs Roddy White and Julio Jones and TE Tony Gonzalez. Ryan may even be able to keep up with the bombs Eli Manning will fire to Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. Jason isn't impressed with the competition that Atlanta faced at the end of the season and thinks they built false confidence based on slaying a bunch of bums. Hard to argue with that. The Falcons' last six wins were over Indy, Tennessee, Minnesota, Carolina, Jacksonville, and Tampa. Shit. Yet I'll still stick with them at the Meadowlands over coach Tom Coughlin and Eli, who are due for an old-fashioned gag job. Our X-factors: Mine is the entire Atlanta offensive line. It's all on them. If they can keep Ryan clean, he can beat the Giants deep early and often. If not, they're screwed, blued and tattooed. Jason's is Falcons RB Jacquizz Rodgers. He thinks there's room for the 3rd-string speed RB to make an impact with his change-of-pace, and if Rodgers scores a TD, even if it helps me win the pick, Jay will never let me hear the end of it.
My Pick: Atlanta 26-24
Pittsburgh @ Denver
I'm not letting Jason strike out and snatch the large home underdog points by himself like I did last year when he inexplicably had Seattle +10 against New Orleans. And we both have an actual reason to go with Denver, and it's because the star QB for Pittsburgh looks awful. He's Ben Roethlisberger, and he hasn't played a good game since Week 13. It's not prudent to pick the Steelers giving heavy points in a hostile environment when the linchpin of the offense hasn't played well in a month. Despite that, I struggled with this pick all week because the Steelers D should smother Tim Tebow until he can't breathe. (I want the devilish LB James Harrison to knock Tebow out of the game so bad that I can't stand it.) Then I saw the news stories that anyone can find with some research that say Tebow didn't take all of the 1st-team reps at QB in practice this week. The Denver backup QB took some 1st-team reps, and that man would be...Brady Quinn?!? But hey, when you think about it, no matter how big a fan you may be of Tebow, no matter how much you may hate Quinn, Quinn is an actual QB. Quinn can actually make some NFL throws. Tebow cannot. I believe that Tebow will have a very short leash, and if he continues to play shitty, look for Broncos coach John Fox to put a real quarterback in the game and give Denver an actual chance to compete. Our X-factors: Mine is, of course, Quinn. If he plays, Denver can move the football and stick around, and if Big Ben is motionless enough to let the Denver pass rushers tee off on him, Quinn may even be able to pull out an upset victory. But if Fox sticks with Tebow all the way, Denver will get a bunch of hard rushing yards, about 60 passing yards, and about six points. Jason's is Broncos CB Andre Goodman. With Champ Bailey trying to tie up All-Pro WR Mike Wallace, Goodman will have to curtail the production of Pittsburgh's latest deep threat WR Antonio Brown. If both wideouts get off and produce, Denver's in a world of trouble, and no amount of prayer can help that.
My Pick: Pittsburgh 17-13
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