NFL Conference Championship Previews

NFL Conference Championship Weekend Preview   We’re down to the Final Four.  Ironically, the theme for this weekend’s Championship Games is “The Revenge of the Week 2 Match-ups”.  All four of these teams met back in Week 2 of this season, and the teams who were the favorites to win in the match-ups won.  Will […]

NFL Conference

Championship Weekend Preview

 

We’re down to the Final Four.  Ironically, the theme for this weekend’s Championship Games is “The

Revenge of the Week 2 Match-ups

”. 

All four of these teams met back in Week 2 of this season, and the

teams who were the favorites to win in the match-ups won.  Will the same happen this weekend?  Ask yourself this:

 

Are

the Chargers focused in this game? 

Or will their “mouths” be the death of their season?Can

the Pats continue to run the table with two more games left in the post

season in their quest for immortality? 

Or has the clock struck twelve for Cinderella as an old foe comes

into town?With a

record nine straight road wins, can the Geeeeeee-Meeeeeeen come

into the confines of Lambeau Field

and put an end to the magical season of the Ole Mississippi

Gun Slinger?Can

the Mississippi Gun

Slinger make it to the promised

land one more time with his young posse and capture one more title before

he “possibly” rides off into the sunset?

 

There’s no need to really get down with the thick and thin

of these games.  This is it, the final

road to Arizona.  They know what they

have to do.  The past 2 weeks have been

their “prep courses”.  This weekend is

their “practice test”, and in two weeks, it will be the “finals” for whichever

team survives this weekend.  Who’s going

to be those two teams?

 

With all that said, let’s pick’em.

 

 

AFC CONFERENCE

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

3pm, CBS

 

Game of the Week, Pt. 1

San Diego Chargers (11-5) vs. New England

Patriots (16-0)

Location: Gillette Stadium,

Foxboro, MA

 

The Chargers will lose.  I don’t usually start off like this, but

they will lose.  Why, because they have

too much mouth, and with too much mouth comes a team that is not focused.  Teddy Roosevelt once quoted the West African

proverb,”Speak softly and carry

a big stick.”  Apparently, the Chargers didn’t get that

memo.  Dating back to last year’s loss

to the Pats in the AFC Divisional

Playoffs, the Chargers have been one of many teams who have a dislike

for the Pats. 

 

With LaDainian Tomlinson’s defense for his teammate Shawne Merriman

after the Patriots’ players were doing Merriman’s “Light’s

Out Dance”

following their victory in last year’s playoff game, to

Tomlinson’s “If You’re Not Cheatin, You’re Not

Tryin” press conference during the spygate scandal, to the

Chargers’ newest member of the “Loud Mouth” club, Igor Olshansky’s latest comments about the Pats; the Chargers

seem to think that their “mouths” will alert the Pats for this weekend’s

game.  Are you kidding me?  Like seriously, give it up. 

 

You’re a team with three key players (Tomlinson, QB Philip Rivers, and

TE Antonio Gates) hurt at the moment and you got into the playoffs because

you’re in weak division (AFC West) that allowed your team to win that division’s

title.  And you can make the argument

that the Pats’ division (AFC East) is just as weak, but look at the

non-divisional teams they beat.  Oh, by

the way, they’re undefeated.

 

The Chargers real claim to fame this year is that they beat

the Colts twice: once in the regular season and once in the post season.   That’s it. 

In terms of their turn around from how they started the season to how

they ended the season, not impressed. 

If the Chargers were that good, they would have been knocking kats out

of the box from the start of the season. 

 

They got their butts handed to them against the

Pats in Week 2 and the same will happen this Sunday as well.  It doesn’t matter who’s on the field for the

Chargers, they are not focused and that will be the downfall of their

season.  If the Chargers think they’re

going to beat the Pats this Sunday, they’re living a lie.  And as Eric Hoffer once wrote,

We

lie loudest when we lie to ourselves”.

 

Oh yeah, and for the Patriots, well what can I say.  They’re undefeated.  We move on.

 

My Pick: Patriots

 

 

NFC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

6:30 pm, FOX

 

Game of the Week, Pt. 2

NY

Giants (10-6) vs. Green Bay Packers (13-3)

Location: Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI

 

2°F.  That’s the game time temperature for

tomorrow’s game.  WHAT?  That’s insane.  But that’s why these men are known as the “Warriors of the

Gridiron

”. Real men play these games and tomorrow may be a game for the

ages.   The Packers will throw

everything they have at the Giants and vice-versa.  Once again, focus is the key to this match-up. This game will be

totally different from their Week 2 match-up.

 

There’s

no need to go into what Eli Manning has to do in this game to win,

because he’s been doing it.  He’s played

the best football he’s ever played as a pro and will continue to do so this

weekend.  The play calling for both

teams have been smart and precise and the players for both teams have rallied

around one another for the goal at hand, a trip to Arizona.  I believe this will be the best game of the

day.

 

Both of

these teams have a solid offense.  They

can run and throw the ball well.  It

comes down to which team’s defense is the strongest.  If the Packer’s defense gets in Eli’s head, then they have the

upper hand.  If the Giants’ defense

knocks Brett Farve on his butt all day, then they have the upper

hand.  This match-up is a lot more

evenly matched than what people think. 

 

Honestly,

between you and me, I want the Giants to win. 

After the playoff caliber performance of the Giants/Pats game and with

the Pats being the favorite for the Super Bowl and the Championship, I would

love to see the Giants faceoff against the Pats for the title in a rematch of

Week 17 in Arizona.  But I have to think

with my head, not my heart.  And my head

says, Packers.

 

The

Packers have the better numbers, and the Giants are just too banged up for this

weekend’s game.  I will say this, if the

Giants do win, I will commend them for it. 

They have played some of the best football in the last 3 weeks more than

any other team in the league, except the Pats. 

So right now I’m calling it, Green Bay Packers vs. New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII; a

rematch of Super Bowl XXXI.

 

My Pick: Packers

 

You can always check

out new posts and past write ups on my blog at:

 

http://outofbounds-therowdyone.blogspot.com/

 

Or email me with at:

 

therowdyone.outofbounds@gmail.com