Well, well, I was one blown ACL on Carson Palmer away from being 4 and 0 in my first round picks. But instead, thanks to those dirty bastard Steelers, I was 3-1 instead (that was for you, Jonathan). Actually, I don’t really mind the Steelers, and I do have to admit that watching Bettis rumble all over the field is rather heart warming. Reminds me so much of Ironhead Heyward, only Bettis is really good. Everytime he rumbles around the outside for 15 yards you think to yourself “He’s a lot faster than I thought he was.” And then everytime he gets hit 2 yards in the backfield, then drags the entire defense 8 yards into the end zone you think “Sheesh, he’s still pretty strong.” This could be the year that we lose two of the more respected players I know off of two of my least favorite teams, Favre and Bettis. I don’t know whether to feel that’s a shame or not.

Random Thought – Someone shoot Theismann (even though I would have done the same thing, wasn’t it so funny to hear him going “That is so ridiculous to see the flag thrown on Taylor. Absolutely ridiculous!!! GRR!!!” and then when they got word from downstairs that Taylor spit in Pittman’s face he says “Oh, well that makes sense. GRRR!!!!” I laughed).

Okay, I guess I’ll just move onto the picks for Round 2.

NFC:

Washington
Seattle

Winner: Seattle

So Washington set a record for least number of offensive yards by a winning team in the postseason. Ummm, yeah. That winning streak ends here. Though I hope it doesn’t because I’d love to play them in Chicago instead of Seattle (in Seattle), but let’s be realistic.

Carolina
Chicago

Winner: Chicago

It still feels kind of weird that I’m not only revving up for a Chicago Bears playoff game, but that I’m actually picking them to win. However, with the weather the way it is, the defense rested and fired up, and a quarterback that could give our offense just enough spark, I like our chances. I would much, much, much rather have played Tampa or NY right now, but oh well. Hopefully sitting Grossman for the entire last game hasn’t hurt the offense’s rhythm (if we even had any), which was the only thing I was worried about with letting the entire offense rest. However, I think our defense coming out with plenty of rest and a lot of energy and pride will be nearly impossible to beat, even if you are Steve Smith.

AFC:

New England
Denver

Winner: New England

I predict that partially because I want there to be a Bears Pats rematch, but also because I think that New England has just completely come alive at the exact right time. It’s like the Lakers when they had Kobe and Shaq, and Shaq would play like he was in between scenes for Kazaam 2, then suddenly he would average 32 and 13 for the last month of the season, leading them into the playoffs. Okay maybe that’s not a good comparison, since half of the Pats have been injured, and their main superstar has been playing lights out all season, but Brady has been in the most irritatingly overused commercial of the season with the stupid “5 layers of protection” visa commercial. If they get knocked out of the playoffs, do you think they’ll stop playing that ad?

Oh and Denver is good, but since I picked them to absolutely suck this year, and they’ve done the exact opposite, them choking now would at least make that pick not quite so foolish. Okay that’s really bad for me to root for a team to lose just so my preseason pick doesn’t look (as) dumb. That’s like a fantasy fan. I apologize. Truth be told I don’t really mind Denver either, but I like the Patriots more.

Pittsburgh
Indianapolis

Winner: Indianapolis

The only real hope that Pittsburgh has in this game is that it’s been a while since Indy has been winning, and maybe they’ve forgotten how. If it takes them until the 4th quarter to remember, Pittsburgh might have a chance. But if they re-awaken on the second drive, Pittsburgh is done.

And now Indy has the pity vote too because of Dungy’s son. Now don’t get me wrong, I feel really bad for Dungy and that’s an awful thing to have to go through, but now if Pittsburgh were to kick Indy’s ass this weekend, everyone would HATE Pittsburgh for it. So unfortunately I think it’s written in the stars for Pittsburgh to lose this week.

The only way to make Indy losing bearable for the pity vote is if the Bears beat them in the Super Bowl, because how can you not like the Bears? Come on!

This might be the last week that I write this with the Bears still in it (don’t be like 01, don’t be like 01), but for now I’m going to assume that it’s not. So go TJ (congrats on the 1300 yards), go Rex (please let his playoff debut be better than everyone else’s. PLEASE!), go Brian, go defense, go BEARS!!!