Wild Card Thoughts

General
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Here are a few idle thoughts on the games this past weekend:

Bengals over Raiders: The Raiders played like crap. When you get in the red zone 5 times and only score one td, what do you call it? A recipe for blowing up the team in the offseason. Mike Mayock has already been jettisoned, and hopefully Bissacia is soon to follow. And NO PLAYER on the Raiders has a right to complain, because THEY are ALL responsible for the offseason results. As a Raider fan, I am happy to see Mark Davis taking this seriously.

As for the Bengals, Burrow and Chase both get a bump in my rankings after their performance.

Bills over Pats: I can’t recall ever seeing a Belichick Pats team get dismantled like this. Mac Jones was the ONLY bright spot on a dismal day for them. Although Rhamondre Stevenson wasn’t bad.

As for the Bills, I look at what they did and want to see how they do against the Chiefs. If the Bills play the Chiefs like they did against the Pats, KC might be going home. Go Bills!

Bucs over Eagles: I don’t think the Eagles got off the plane. If they did, they went straight to the beach and skipped the game, cause that looked like a bunch of scrubs on the field.

As for the Bucs…another Brady win. Yawn…

Chiefs over Steelers: Goodbye Ben. You’re a year late retiring. What a retched performance!

When the Chiefs get a 2 score lead on you in the 2nd quarter, you’re done. It never gets any prettier in the second half.

49ers over Cowboys: That ending should mark the end for McCarthy as HC. He actually EXPECTED the refs to put more time on the clock? That is too stupid to coach. Even after Shanahan did everything he could to try and give the game to the Boys. Worst coaching performance by both coaches of the weekend.

Rams over Cards: Were the Cards even playing? This is the Rams team everyone was expecting all year.

At this point, my Super Bowl prediction has to be the Bills against the Rams. That would be the best game of all. Two offensive juggernauts going at it.

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Strong showing by the Bengals. Hard to stop that offense atm. But if there is one team that will figure out how, it’s the Titans under Mike Vrabel.

Bills looked brutally strong. The Pats didn’t look all terrible, but the Bills just steamrolled them left, right and center in the Buffalo freezer. They are on a roll, but the game against the Chiefs will look entirely different. My money is still on the Bills, but not by a wide margin.

Eagles were terrible. Jalen Hurts played through a foot injury and showed us what to expect from him if you take the rushing ability away: very, very little. Bucs didn’t have to do much to dominate the game. They won’t be able to do that against the Rams. That will be a 50-50 match for me.

Steelers were bad, but that was to be expected.

49ers and Cowboys - I agree, that 4th quarter was pure slapstick. I lost count how often I called out “what are they doing??”. None of both teams deserved to advance to the next round. The 49ers did, but will struggle mightily against the Packers, unless they come up with a much better plan. My money is on Green Bay. But so it was in 2019…

Cardinals… jeez. Kyler looked like a rookie. A bad rookie. Overwhelmed by the situation, unable to lead his team, and don’t get me started on the pick 6. Kingsbury will have a few questions to answer as well. That was an embarrassing showing.

Super Bowl predictions - if you pick the offensive juggernauts, then I’ll pick the defensive side. Packers vs Titans.

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The only objection I’ll make to what you said: You’ll take the Packers over the Rams for defense? Sorry, gotta disagree there.

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Points allowed (regular season):

AFC:
Bills - 289 (17.0 / game) - #1 NFL regular season rank
Titans - 354 (20.8) - #6
Chiefs - 364 (21.4) - #8
Bengals - 376 (22.1) - #17

NFC:
Bucs - 353 (20.8) - #5
49ers - 365 (21.5) - #10
Packers - 371 (21.8) - #14
Rams - 372 (21.9) -#15

In terms of total yards allowed, the Packers are indeed quite a bit better than the Rams (328.2 vs. 344.9).

Still, going strictly by the stats, a Super Bowl with the 2 dominating defences would probably have to be Bills - Bucs.

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Keep in mind, the Rams didn’t have Von Miller for half the season, and they have been playing better lately. I think they are peaking at the right time, as evidenced by how they shut down the Cardinals offense.