Picks for Championship games

Greetings chums, long time no typing, been a little slow to get back to hitting keys as evidenced by missing the last 2 weeks.

Quite a bit's happened, in the DFW area and nationally. Coaching vacancies are being filled while some are losing their job (like defensive coordinator Brian Stewart for the Cowboys, hooray!) But since it's 6:15 in the morning, I'm just going to get to the picks for who will represent the respective conferences in the NFL.

Philadelphia Eagles (-3.5) @ Arizona Cardinals
The Eagles are fantastic both against the run and pass and I expect d-coordinator Jim Johnson to blitz the hell out of Cardinals QB Kurt Warner and force him to get rid of the ball quick and not allow Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin to run downfield. The Eagles secondary matches up against the Cardinals receiving core as well as any team in the league and that will help Philadelphia succeed in winning this game on the road. And if Brian Westbrook is a factor in the ground game against a Cardinals defense that's been fantastic against the run then this game could get out of hand allowing the Eagles to be more balanced rather then Donovan McNabb being forced to make plays the entire game. I don't expect this game to be as lopsided as there 1st meeting but expect it to just start gradually start slipping away from the Cardinals, much like last week in the Giants game.

The Over/under is 47, I can see this going either way, which probably means you should take the under. If the Cardinals are to win this game I'd expect it to be over, if Philly wins which I presume they will I'm going to guess the under.


Baltimore Ravens @ Shittsburgh Steelers (-6) you see what I did there?
I probably hate the Eagles more then the Steelers but this team just bugs the hell out of me and seeing them hoist there would be NFL record 6th Superbowl trophy makes me sick to my stomach. I'm tired of this stupid mentality there fans have and those stupid towels (aren't they just so innovative!) I hate that there's a bias to get Steelers in the Hall of Fame while there's a bias to keep some Cowboys players out of them. I hated seeing James Harrison win Defensive player of the year over DeMarcus Ware (not saying he didn't deserve it, the homer in me felt Ware was the more qualified candidate) and I hate watching Polamalu and his hair flop around week after week. And we aren't even getting to Big Ben and that fat head of his, I often wonder how there is a helmet big enough for Chase Daniel's older brother.

Oh in case you were able to get through all that rambling there is a game to be talked about. I've told this to about everyone I know, the Ravens outplayed the Steelers both times they played each other only to lose it at the end. One of those games being where the refs came to the conclusion of overturning a call despite there not being sufficient evidence in the waning seconds of the game (though Ben probably sneaks it in the very next play)But I'll still never understand how the refs make that call. If Terrell Suggs plays, which I think he will and is as effective as he's been throughout this entire season, I think the Ravens can win, or at least cover the spread, which is what this is supposed to be about anyways. Rookie QB Joe Flacco has to be more composed (that and his receivers need to get opened) I realize he's gone against some top notch defenses the past couple weeks but he needs to be completing more then 50% of his passes to give the Ravens a chance. So it sounds like a lot has to happen for the Ravens to win and while that may be so they've lost there 1st 2 games vs. the Steelers by a combined 7 points so don't just automatically count them out, especially a defense led by the mammoth up front Haloti Ngata future HoF'er Ray Lewis and the best safety this decade in Ed Reed.

Ravens, and the over/under is 34, you'd expect temperature to be a little bit of a factor, which leads me to taking the under.

until next time...