GarageGabs

If you read my Week 17 picks and predictions you know that I pretty much bombed on this weekends predictions. Hey, at least I picked Green Bay! Anyway, this was a pretty wild weekend in the NFL, lets check out the run down and take a look at next weekends Wildcard Playoff Round.

The weekend started with a HUGE bang Saturday night when the Giants handed the Redskins a 34-28 loss. The Giants winning pretty much made all the other NFC games on Sunday meaningless unless some wild and crazy scenario happened (which didn’t) that would have gotten the Packers in. Dallas and Philadelphia still had seeing to play for.

Dallas backed up and took a dump into the playoffs by losing to the lowly Lions 39-31. The Cowboys enter the playoffs riding a 2 game losing streak and their pass defense looks like chopped steak. If they don’t get something together quickly they’ll obviously be one and done.

Philly played after Dallas so they were able to rest their starters after seeing Dallas lost. Guess what, the Eagles still won, beating Atlanta 24-17.

The Eagles enter the playoffs as the hottest team in the NFC.

The Bears/Packers game had no meaning at all, but it was significant in that the Packers won and we got to see Brett Favre cry. Good lord, retire man! For those thinking his teary speech means he will retire just remember he did something similar last year and then came back. Also significant was Rex Grossman 2 for 12, 3 Interception, 1 fumble performance….Oh boy.

The AFC was a little more dramatic. The Jets took care of business early, clinching a playoff spot by beating the Raiders, 23-3. There was still a scramble going on for one final spot, but everyone figured Denver would lock it up by beating San Francisco in the late game. Cincinnati fell to Pittsburgh in OT. The Titans lost to New England. Then the Chiefs and Jaguars played a fantastic game with the Chiefs finally winning 35-30. It seemed at first that this game didn’t matter too much….all the Broncos had to do was finish off the 49ers. Next thing I knew, I looked up and the Niners and Broncos were in OT. San Francisco ended up winning 26-23, eliminating the Broncos and putting the Chiefs into the playoffs. Never saw that one coming.

Here is the FULL NFL Rundown

Now the playoff picture:

AFC:

1. San Diego (bye)
2. Baltimore (bye)
Wildcard Round:

(6) Kansas City @ (3) Indianapolis

(5) New York Jets @ (4) New England

NFC:

1. Chicago (bye)

2. New Orleans (bye)

Wildcard Round:

(6) New York Giants @ (3) Philadelphia

(5) Dallas @ (4) Seattle

I’ll have a more complete analysis of these matchups later this week.