The playoff hunt is starting to heat up. In the AFC, five of the six spots have all but been chosen. Denver and New England locked up postseason births and pretty much their divisions, and Cincinnati and Jacksonville are set to do the same. That leaves a three-way race for the last wild card spot, with Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Kansas City vying for it.
The NFC is a bonafide mess, with Seattle and the Giants at the top of the conference. Chicago, Carolina are next with four losses, and Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and Minnesota are right behind them.
With Tampa Bay getting blown out of the water Saturday by a resurgent Patriots team, a Carolina victory over New Orleans and an Falcons loss to the Bears should give Carolina a playoff berth. Carolina has everything going in their favor, playing a weak New Orleans team that has all but given up the season.
Indy faces San Diego, and everyone has the Chargers picked to go down in flames. Lucky for them, the Chiefs got trounced by the Giants Sat night, thus they still have a decent chance to finish second in the West. However, all of that is moot if there is only one team out of the West getting a wild card birth.
Everyone's calling the Colts/Chargers as the game of the week, but it isn't. If either lose, nothing will really change. The TRUE GOTW is Steelers/Vikings. This is where we see whether the Vikings are man or mouse. Both teams have shown signs of toughness, as the Vikes are running a six game win streak, going undefeated since Culpepper went down and Brad Johnson took the helm, and the Steelers got back into winning form by whupping the Bears, ending a three game losing streak. A loss by either team, and their playoff chances could go down the drain with it.
The Bears/Falcons game should be very interesting as well. The Bears' vaunted defense allowed the Bus to run over them last week, something that definitely surprised me. If they come in the game with that same attitude this week, it'll be a track meet.
The picks:
- Arizona over Houston
- Pittsburgh over Minnesota (although I kinda hope I'm wrong)
- Seattle over Tennessee
- Carolina over the Saints
- Miami over the Jets
- Indy over San Diego
- Jacksonville over San Francisco
- Philly over St. Louis
- Cincinnati over Detroit
- Oakland over Cleveland
- Washington over Dallas
- Chicago over Atlanta
And Monday Night:
- Green Bay over Baltimore
A lot of key games this week: Indy/San Diego, Pittsburgh/Minnesota, Washington/Dallas, Chicago/Atlanta. Add the Giants/Kansas City and New/England/Tampa Bay games from Saturday night. Cincinnati/Detroit and Carolina/N.O. are crucial now as well considering they may lock up the divisions with a win. Minus that terrible Monday Night game, the NFL is doing a fairly decent job of booking this year.
