NFC Championship Game – Vikings vs. Saints
All right, it’s time to pick some nits and make the case against the Minnesota Vikings going to the Super Bowl in a few weeks. And it’s has nothing to do with any deal with the devil that the old-man quarterback might have made. It goes like this:
The Colts are the teacher who in the first few months of school lets the students do whatever they want. The kids then take complete control of the class, and in November when the teacher realizes (s)he needs to put the hammer down, it’s damn near impossible.
DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF – Cardinals vs. Saints
The freeze that enveloped the country this winter has made a stop in Louisiana, where the fandom has had a few weeks to come to grips with the fact that while the Saints aren’t certainly as bad as the outfit that limped home with three straight losses, they might not be the machine that nailed 13 in a row to start the season, either.
DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF – Cowboys vs. Vikings
You have questions? The Cowboys have the answers. Momentum? Dallas has four straight wins coming into Sunday’s playoff game against the Vikings.
Stopping Adrian Peterson? Dallas is the No. 4-ranked team against the rush this season.
To paraphrase George W. Bush, have we been misunderestimating the Jets?
We all looked at New York’s won-loss record in games in which the opponent was actually trying and saw a ho-hum 7-7 team with a blowhard coach and a rookie quarterback, a team that would certainly get its comeuppance once live ammo was in the guns and bullets started flying for real.
The big concern in Indianapolis all week – for the last three weeks, really – is how the Colts will perform after basically treating the final two games of the season as pre-season scrimmages. Is the momentum gone for good, or will the rest that Peyton Manning & Co. received in the final two games of the regular season be the key ingredient Saturday night?
