Well, the divisional round of playoffs wasn’t quite as spectacular in its drama and excitement as wild card weekend was, but there were still some quality football games. And the results set up two fantastic match-ups in the Championship games.
As far as last week’s hypothetical wagers go, San Diego’s late rally wasn’t enough to upset the Broncos, but it did give the Chargers a cover, which dropped me from 3-1 to 2-2 against the spread. I did go 3-1 in over/under bets, so not all was lost.
So, for the playoffs, I’m 3-5 against the spread and 4-4 in over/unders. Not going to hit early retirement that way: Still plenty of room for improvement. And it doesn’t bode well. I feel like I know who is going to win this weekend’s games, but I think the spreads are right on the nose and I expect two close, tough games (Odds current as of 3:45 p.m. Wednesday per VegasInsider.com).
I fully recognize there might be those out there who don’t want Peyton Manning to win another ring or who aren’t crazy about Pete Carroll or Jim Harbaugh or Bill Belichick.
I’m curious about what story lines you’re looking at or what reasons you have for picking the match-up you’d like to see?
Tell us below – who would you like to see in the Super Bowl and why?
There were a lot of interesting match-ups in the conference semifinals this past weekend and many different results would have created compelling conference championship games this weekend.
But at the end of the day, isn’t the final four probably the most interesting pair of games you could have hoped to watch?
Some may be tiring of the Peyton Manning/Tom Brady rivalry, I suppose. But not me. And this year’s is made more compelling by how many times New England has had to evolve throughout the season in dealing with the losses over time of Aaron Hernandez, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski and, for a chunk of the season, Danny Amendola — and that’s just on offense.
And in the NFC, this is the game I’ve wanted to see all along. I pegged San Francisco and Seattle as the top two teams in the conference heading into the season and, though it didn’t play out exactly how I expected it would, in the end that was the result.
Derrick Brooks, Walter Jones and Marvin Harrison are first-time eligible finalists for induction into the Pro Football
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame. Their candidacies and those of 12 other modern-era candidates unveiled this evening will be debated and voted on until the group is narrowed down to five finalists who, along with two senior candidates, will receive up or down votes on whether they will be enshrined in 2014.
The announcement was made Thursday night on NFL Network. The final voting takes place during Super Bowl week and the final class will be unveiled in the days leading up to the big game.
Joining Brooks, Jones and Harrison as finalists are Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Andre Reed, Will Shields, Michael Strahan, Kevin Greene, Charles Haley, John Lynch, Aeneas Williams, Morten Andersen, Edward DeBartolo Jr. and Tony Dungy.
The group will be voted down to 10 and then to five. The final five and two senior candidates will be given yes or no votes. Up to five modern-era and two senior candidates can be inducted in any given year. This year’s senior candidates are Ray Guy and Claude Humphrey, who were selected by the Hall of Fame’s senior committee. They advance directly to the final vote. (more…)
As I mentioned in our picks segment, the divisional playoff round might be my favorite week of football all season. This week we get four games, all of which feature great teams, rivalries or some other reason why it could be compelling football.
Now, based on last week’s results, I’d suggest betting against anything I think is going to happen. I missed three point spread picks (two by two points or less, but still) and three over/under guesses – in keeping with a miserable betting performance during the season.
But the way I see it, that just means there is plenty of room for improvement.
but there were still some quality football games. And the results set up two fantastic match-ups in the Championship games.
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