NFL Playoff Preview: Falcons/Packers

Later tonight, the Atlanta Falcons and the Green Bay Packers will rumble down in the Georgia Dome in a highly anticipated matchup. Many people in America are picking the Green Bay Packers to win because of Aaron Rogers and his QB play. Everybody is "gay" for him for utterly no good reason. He's only won one playoff game, he got beat by the Cardinals last year in the post-season, and there is no reason to suggest that the Packers will be able to beat the Falcons on the road this year in the playoffs. The Falcons are 13-3 this year, and Matt Ryan the QB of the Falcons never loses in A-Town (the Falcons are 7-1 @ home this season). The Packers are banged up this year and are facing a healthy and excited Atlanta Falcon team on the road. Falcons got all the mojo going into this game and have every reason to believe that they will beat the Packers at home. We saw how much teams struggled in the Superdome last year in New Orleans, and I expect a similar deal here. It's a tough place to play in Atlanta with those fans going nuts. Matt Ryan of the Falcons is having just as good of a year as Aaron Rogers of the Packers, only he's at home, with a week's rest and preparation to face the Packers. Look for the Falcons to win this game.

2011 NFL Playoff Preview: Steelers/Ravens

Greetings NFL fans, and sports fans alike. Sorry for not doing a cover of what was truly a Wild Card weekend. The Seahawks beat the Saints as I predicted :), the Jets beat the Colts (which I didn't have), the Ravens mauled the Chiefs (I thought Baltimore would win, but not by so many points), and last but not least, the Packers beat the Eagles (which I didn't think would happen. So let me break down for you this weekends playoff matchups and my predictions for the games. Let's start with the AFC, the vastly superior conference in the NFL. From the years 1985-1997, the NFC won every Super Bowl. It started with Joe Montana and the 49ers whopping Dan Marino and the Dolphins; continued on with the Green Bay Packers slaying the New England Patriots in '97. Not until the following year in 1998 did the AFC win its first Super Bowl in 14 years. After John Elway and the Broncos broke through for the AFC in '98, the AFC has since been the dominate conference winning 9 of the last 13 Super Bowls. It is expected to become 10 of the last 14 as the AFC is stated to have the best teams in the NFL. So what are the AFC Divisional round games this weekend? They are the Baltimore Ravens @ the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday and the New York Jets @ the New England Patriots on Sunday. I will start off with the Saturday game of Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
Of all the games this weekend, the Baltimore/Pittsburgh game is supposed to be the most violent of them all. No two teams hate each other more in the NFL than these two teams do, and no two teams pride themselves on physicality and hard-nosed football more than these two teams. I look for this game to be a very close low scoring game. The Steelers have on their side Ben Rothelisberger at QB, Hines Ward at WR, Rashard Mendenhall at RB, and Heath Miller at TE. The Ravens have Joe Flacco at QB, Ray Rice at RB, Todd Heap at TE, and Anquan Boldin at WR. On the Defensive side of the Ball the Steelers have James Harrison at Linebacker, Troy Polamalu at Safety, and James Farrior at Linebacker. The Ravens have Ed Reed at Safety, Terrell Suggs at Linebacker and also Ray Lewis at Linebacker. The defenses are both evenly matched, and both know how to bring the pain. Nobody hits harder then those 6 guys I just mentioned. I expect both defenses to have good games.
As much as people say that defense will win this game, it will really be the offense. Which ever offensive unit steps up more will win this game, because both defenses will be so good that they will probably cancel each other out. Which offense does better will win. That seems obvious because the team with more points wins the game and the offense is supposed to score points, but it really is true in this case, which ever offense handles the defense better will have the victory.
The Steelers have a better QB in Ben Rothelisberger, since he's won 2 Superbowls and played well in the playoffs. Not only that, but Big Ben has a higher passer rating of 97.0 to Flacco's 93.6. Flacco is really good, but whether he has the stuff to win a playoff game in Pittsburgh and get to the Super Bowl is a whole different story. I think he does, but it may not be his time tomorrow. The Steelers beat the Ravens in the running game. Rashard Mendenhall has rushed for more yards and has had more TD's than Ray Rice has. Mendenhall had 13 TD's this year and Ray Rice had 5 TD's rushing. The WR in my view is a tossup. I think Boldin is the best WR out there, but Hines Ward and and Antwaan Randel El are very dangerous players as well. The Tight Ends for both teams are dangerous. Todd Heap and Heath Miller are both dangerous Tight Ends. I think that these two teams are net pretty evenly matched, but I expect the Steelers to win in a close game 17-13, pretty low scoring, but being at home and with the weapons and running attack they got, they'll put up some points. The Ravens are a good team, but I don't seem them getting it done. Flacco isn't as good as Big Ben and Ray Rice isn't as good as Rashard Mendenhall. In short I'm picking the Steelers to win because they have a better QB, and a better running game.