NFL Wildcard Weekend Predictions

This weekend marks the beginning of the playoffs. As I suspected, my Redskins won because Tony Romo brain farted the game away. I was a little nervous but it's true when they say you can always count on Tony to drop the ball... Or throw the INT... or fumble the hold on the kick. Pick one, he'll taker care of it for you.

This weekend you've got one game that I think will be close and three that I think will be relatively easy wins. Let's start with the easy wins:

Texans vs Bengals: I think the Bengals are a solid team. I LOVE how AJ Green plays and their defensive line is pretty daggon good. But, I believe that their youth will hurt them in this game, especially at the QB position. I know what you're thinking, Matt Schaub is not much better or more reliable which is true but, Matt also has Arian Foster, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels, and Ben Tate to mask his ineptitude. That is unless, the Bengals somehow jump out to a huge lead and Schaub has to throw to win the game. If that's the case, all the mask is off and Schaub will have to step up. In the end, I think the Texans win this game by a couple TDs.

Packers vs Vikings: Plain and simply, I expect Aaron Rodgers to rip the Vikings defense a new one. Rodgers seemed pretty unhappy last week and they almost won that game. It was in the cards for the Vikings to win because of the drive to get AP to break the record and the euphoria surrounding that effort at the end of the game. But this week the game will be at Lambeau and I doubt the Vikings can put "Giants D-Line last year" type pressure on Rodgers throughout the game. Which means the soon-to-be-named MVP will be heading home after this weekend. What an epic year for Peterson though, like ridiculously epic!

Colts vs Ravens: The Colts defense is pretty much a sieve but a few days ago (read: pre-Ray Lewis announcement), I thought the Colts would come in and play tough and maybe fluster Joe "not too far removed from Romo status" Flacco and be able to throw the ball to Hilton and Wayne effectively enough to squeak out a tough win. And, they've got karma on their side with their coach beating cancer and coming back and ... you know the rest. But once Ray Ray made his announcement the chances of the Colts winning pretty much went to zero in my mind. Read the following closely:

THERE IS NO WAY THAT THE RAVENS PLAYERS WILL ALLOW RAY LEWIS'S LAST HOME GAME TO BE A LOSS!

It's not going to happen. It can't happen. The Ravens won't make it to the Superbowl but maybe they'll get to the NFC Championship riding a Ray Lewis high, maybe. Regardless of where the "ride" ends, Ray Lewis's last home game will likely be a rout led by Ray Rice TDs and Flacco not Flacking up the game. I'd be willing to bet that it's going to be at least one score by the Ravens defense where Ed Reed intercepts a pass, runs to the one yard line, waits on Ray Lewis, pitches it to him, and Ray Lewis rumbles past 5 offensive lineman for the score. Watch, that shyt is gonna happen.

Now for the tough game, one that unfortunately involves my favorite team.

Seahawks vs Redskins: I think most people would say that this game is a pretty even match on paper with both teams being able to put up points but the Seahawks having a better defense. I think this game is going to come down to coaching, offensive execution, and the Redskins defense. If the Skins defense can hold the Seahawks to less than 20 points, I think we win! If not, it's a toss-up. It'll be interesting to see how both teams defend the other side's QB since they have similar styles. If the Redskins can have success running, I think they'll have a good chance to put up 30 points again. The Seahawks interior run defense is all that great though their defense is ranked pretty high this year. The Redskins have the hurculean task of stopping Marshawn Lynch which if I were a Redskins coach, I'd put my eggs in the basket of "let's make the rookie QB that doesn't throw it more than beat us" rather than letting Lynch destroy us like he did the Saints last year. But that's just me and I don't get paid to coach or blog about sports. Anyway, I think this will be an epic game to end the playoff weekend and I can't wait to watch! I've got the Redskins winning 27-24.