NFL Playoff Predictions and Week 1 NFL Picks

Here are my final predictions for the 2004 NFL season:

NFC East W L Philadelphia Eagles 10 - 6 Washington Redskins * 10 - 6 Dallas Cowboys 8 - 8 New York Giants 4 - 12 North W L Green Bay Packers 11 - 5 Minnesota Vikings * 11 - 5 Chicago Bears 7 - 9 Detroit Lions 6 - 10 South W L Tampa Bay Bucs 10 - 6 Atlanta Falcons 9 - 7 Carolina Panthers 7 - 9 New Orleans Saints 7 - 9 West W L St. Louis Rams 12 - 4 Seattle Seahawks 9 - 7 San Francisco 49ers 3 - 13 Arizona Cardinals 3 - 13

AFC East W L New England Patriots 11 - 5 New York Jets 9 - 7 Buffalo Bills 7 - 9 Miami Dolphins 4 - 12 North W L Baltimore Ravens 10 - 6 Cincinnati Bengals 9 - 7 Pittsburgh Steelers 8 - 8 Cleveland Browns 3 - 13 South W L Indianapolis Colts 11 - 5 Jacksonville Jaguars * 10 - 6 Tennessee Titans 9 - 7 Houston Texans 7 - 9 West W L Kansas City Chiefs 13 - 3 Denver Broncos * 10 - 6 Oakland Raiders 4 - 12 San Diego Chargers 3 - 13

NFC Wild Card                      AFC Wild Card

Washington over Tampa Bay          Indianapolis over Denver

Minnesota over Philadelphia        Jacksonville over Baltimore

NFC Divisional Playoff             AFC Divisional Playoff

Washington over St. Louis          Kansas City over Jacksonville

Green Bay over Minnesota           Indianapolis over New England

NFC Championship                   AFC Championship

Green Bay over Washington          Indianapolis over Kansas City

                      Super Bowl XXXIX

            Indianapolis Colts over Green Bay Packers

I picked Indianapolis to win the Super Bowl before the game last night and after watching them play, I'm still comfortable with the pick.
The Colts abused New England's supposably impenetrable front line, with Edgerrin James and Dominic Rhodes combining for 184 yards on 40 carries.
James looked like he has fully recovered from his ACL injury as he was making cuts that he wouldn't have even tried last season. He now looks like the Edge of old, thus proving that it takes two full seasons after an ACL tear to get back to 100%.
Peyton Manning was sharp as usual, except for his late-game audible that pushed Mike Vanderjagt's kick back 15-yards.
Don't read too much into Tom Brady shredding the Colts secondary. Indy wasn't able to get a pass rush on the Pats QB all night because the Patriots O-line holds every single play. Seriously, next time you see a New England game watch the right side of the line and you'll see Tom Ashworth and Joe Andruzzi tugging jerseys, pushing up into defenders facemasks and chop-blocking like they're playing on dirt fields in the '50s.
If the Raiders played like the Patriots do, all anybody would talk about is how dirty they are. But because New England doesn't have the Raiders historic bad rep, what they do is considered "aggressive".
I'm hoping that the next time Russ Hochstein clips an opponent below the knees it causes a serious injury. That's probably the only way that the media will begin focusing on the Pats illegal blocks.

Week 1 Picks

Every Friday on Chris's Sports Blog, I'll be predicting the results of each upcoming NFL game. Throughout the season I’ll keep a tally of my record and then compare it to the “experts” on ESPN.com. I figure I’ll fall somewhere below Ron Jaworski and ahead of Sean Salisbury.
I won’t be picking against the spread for two reasons: 1) Covering doesn’t show up in the standings and 2) Gambling is illegal people. I can’t stress this enough.
Onto the picks:

Tennessee at Miami (Saturday)
With Hurricane Ivan on a destructive path to Florida, Dave Wannstedt is probably thankful that his Dolphins team won’t be the only thing that blows in Miami this weekend.
Pick: Tennessee

Arizona at St. Louis
Fearless prediction of the week: The Rams point total will outnumber Emmitt Smith’s rushing yardage.
Pick: St. Louis

Cincinnati at New York Jets
The Jets play to win the game. The Bengals play because it gets them out of Cincinnati for eight weekends a year.
Pick: New York Jets

Jacksonville at Buffalo
With Willis McGahee continuing to complain that he’s not the starter in Buffalo, I’m kind of hoping that every time Travis Henry scores a touchdown he runs over to McGahee on the sidelines and pulls off his jersey to reveal a t-shirt that has Gary Coleman’s face and “Whatchu’ talkin’ bout Willis?” in big block letters.
Pick: Buffalo

San Diego at Houston
Too bad Curt Menefee doesn’t work for CBS. He would be a perfect announcer for this game. As it is, I’m getting the feeling that Chargers and Texans fans will hear a lot of yelling by Gus Johnson on Sunday afternoon.
Pick: Houston

Tampa Bay at Washington
Joe Gibbs returns to the sidelines and 2pac and Elvis will sing the National Anthem.
Pick: Washington

Baltimore at Cleveland
Are people in Cleveland still mad at Art Modell for moving the Browns to Baltimore? If they are, they really need to get over it. That was, like, 10 years ago. Focus your enmity on somebody who’s made your city look bad recently… like Drew Carey.
Pick: Baltimore

Detroit at Chicago
This game will probably be decided by a battle of the Jones, Thomas for Chicago and Kevin for Detroit. But with the way both teams offensive lines look, they’d probably be better off signing Star.
Pick: Chicago

Oakland at Pittsburgh
30 years ago this would have been the game of the week. Today, it will be shown in 4% of the country.
Pick: Pittsburgh

Seattle at New Orleans
A first week match-up between the two trendiest Super Bowl picks in the NFC. This will kind of be like watching a Cosmopolitan and capri pants duking it out in some sort of bizarre trend-off.
Pick: New Orleans

Dallas at Minnesota
500 Japanese-Americans will picket outside the Metrodome to protest Bill Parcells use of a derogatory term towards their people.
14 guys named Eddie will also be there protesting the crappiness of Eddie George.
Pick: Minnesota

New York Giants at Philadelphia
Casinos should be taking bets on which happy marriage hits the skids first: Britney and Kevin’s or Donovan and T.O.’s.
Pick: Philadelphia

Atlanta at San Francisco
Michael Vick playing in the west coast offense makes as much sense as Meryl Streep starring in Catwoman 2.
Pick: Atlanta

Kansas City at Denver
Peter King of Sports Illustrated has once again picked Jake Plummer as his choice for NFL MVP. In other news, Peter King of Sports Illustrated is backing the presidential campaign of Lyndon LaRouche.
Pick: Kansas City

Year to date: 0-1 (Would have been 1-0 if Edgerrin James could hold onto the ball like he holds onto a joint.)