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.
Okay, most of the pretenders are now done for the season. It’s time for my favorite football weekend of the year.
Actually, Wild Card weekend was really, really good this year. There were some epic games, with three of the four being decided in the final minutes.
But normally it’s the divisional round during which I am most excited and interested. By the this weekend comes along you’ve usually narrowed down the contenders to eight top notch teams. That would seem to be the case this week. There are some great games on the slate.
Before we get to our picks, let’s do a quick review of last week’s.Tony had the best week, getting two of the four games correct. Anthony and I both got San Francisco’s win over Green Bay correct, but missed on the other three — though it’s hard to feel too bad. Both Saturday games could have gone either way.
Wild Card Weekend this season illustrates one of the flaws in the NFL’s playoff system.
You’ve got arguably the second or third best team in the NFC in San Francisco facing off with Green Bay. But the 12-4 team has to go to Lambeau Field as a visitor to the 8-7-1 Packers.
None of the Zoneblitz pickers, however, think it’s going to make much difference. The 49ers have beaten Green Bay soundly three consecutive times. Despite the return of Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb, it seems Tony, Anthony and I all think the wild card team in this case has a pretty good shot to win.
San Francisco isn’t the only road team seen as a favorite by our pickers. Kansas City is given the nod by two of the three. What road team do you think has the best shot to win this weekend? Check out our picks and then vote on the poll below.
Andy
Tony
Maggio
Saturday, January 4
Kansas City at Indianapolis
Kansas City
Indianapolis
Kansas City
New Orleans at Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Sunday, January 5
San Diego at Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
San Francisco at Green Bay
San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco
Which road team has the best chance to win on Wild Card Weekend?
As we ring in the new year and celebrate 2013, it seems like a fitting time to wrap up the standings for our regular season bets and picks.
We had a couple rough weeks toward the end of the season picking games, but week 17 was a solid effort all around. Tony, Anthony Maggio and I wrapped up with 13-3 weeks while Rich nailed 12 of 16. Our season totals ranged from 154 correct to 166. For what it’s worth, that would rank us toward the middle to top end of the ESPN experts, save for Ron Jaworksi, who hit 174.
It also puts us in the upper 20th percentile or so at NFLPickwatch.com, which ranks experts from a number of sites.
Several more upsets dropped three of us to 9-7 and one to 8-8 heading into the regular season’s final weekend. So, like most NFL teams, we hope to be hitting our stride as the playoffs hit, but like many, we are sort of limping to the finish line.
Regardless, it’s overall been a solid season for our straight-up picks. Here are the standings heading into week 17.
Week 16
Season
Andy
9-7
153-86-1
Tony
9-7
153-86-1
Maggio
8-8
144-95-1
Rich
9-7
142-97-1
There are still playoff positions up for grabs and several head-to-head games with win-or-go-home ramifications. Some, such as the Packers/Bears and Eagles/Cowboys tilts, feel as though they’re mostly determining who gets to lose to the wild card participants in the first round of the playoffs, but others will determine division champions and bye weeks.
Minnesota dominating against Philadelphia? Dallas blowing a 147 point halftime lead against Green Bay? Cincinnati laying an egg in its opportunity to claim the AFC’s second seed after New England laid an egg in its opportunity to claim the number one seed from Denver after the Broncos laid an egg against San Diego?
A lot of teams had chances to provide some clarity to the playoff situation in week 15 and a lot of teams dropped the ball. And it showed in our picks for the week. Rich capitalized. The rest of us put up pretty bad weeks.
Here are the standings heading into week 16:
Week15
Season
Andy
7-9
144-79-1
Tony
8-8
144-79-1
Maggio
7-9
136-87-1
Rich
10-6
133-90-1
Well, there aren’t a ton of great games on the schedule for the second to last week of the season, but there are a couple solid tilts. And there are a lot of match-ups that, once again, could shed some light on who we will be watching as the calendar turns.
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Where you at, Robert The Greatest?
Paul: thank you for mentioning Mike Tanier. Didn’t know about his work previously. Good access and insight.
thanks
Sharpe, Holmgren, Holt, D.Woodson, Jared Allen and Antonio Gates for me.
Thanks Bill - added you to our competition (along with entries from me,Brian,Marie,Jeff Justin,AndyP, Brad), for any others interesting in…