The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

My picks:
Texans
Patriots
Saints
Seahawks

No. 4 Houston over No. 5 Buffalo
No. 6 Tannehill .... I mean Tennessee over  No. 3 New England

No. 3 New Orleans over No. 6 Minnesota
No. 5 Seattle over No. 4 Philadelphia

Seattle has the easiest game this weekend. I think all the others will be pretty competitive and could go either way.

Tennessee over New England
Buffalo over Houston
New Orleans over Minnesota
Seattle over Philadelphia

Texans, Titans, Saints, Seahawks...Greatest QB of all time moves on while the imposter/cheater goes home...hopefully for good

I only care about one game this weekend. My beloved Oilers/Titans. Go team go!

Nope

The AFC is tough as both games could go either way.  With Houston/Buffalo it all depends on how healthy Watson is.  The Texans made the smart move sitting him last week as they were pretty much locked in to the #4 seed.   I'm going with Houston simply because the home crowd can tip the scales here.   Same for the Patriots/Titans.  The game is in New England, so they get the slight edge.  However, the team is clearly declining and if they manage to survive Tennessee at home, I don't see them going much further

NFC is easy.  Philly really has no business being in the playoffs (none of the teams in the NFC East do).  Seattle has done much better on the road this season than at home (which is a shocker).  New Orleans/Minnesota is a much more competitive game, but with Dalvin Cook banged up, and the game being in The Big Easy, it makes my call much easier.  

I'll take chalk.

Buffalo @ Houston

Nothing but respect for how Buffalo has built this team, but I see Houston as having more talent at some very key positions. Add in the emotional lift from JJ Watt's return, and Houston takes it at home, 27-23

Tennessee @ New England

I'll be cheering hard for "Tannessee", but these are the playoffs, and until I see New England actually fail in the playoffs, I can't pick against them. Patriots win, 34-33

Minnesota @ New Orleans

I loves me some Drew Brees, and the way he's playing right now...at the ripe old age of 40, is nothing short of amazing. The dream continues... Saints win, 37- 26

Seattle @ Philadelphia

Everybody is ready to write off the Eagles because of their weak showing this year, and how they don't deserve to be in the playoffs. This is the playoffs though, and to quote Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven... "Deserves got nothing to do with it." Philly pulls the upset, 24-21.

You know what's funny?   The last time I saw New England fall in the playoffs was the AFC title game against the Broncos.

After the Falcons game I decided I would not watch the Super Bowl.  I would not put myself through that again.  I was on youtube after the game.  I noticed a video on the right.  "Brady says they came up one play short"  I clicked on the link.  Sure enough, the Patriots had lost.  Therefore, I did not see them lose that game.

I pick Houston because I want them to win.  That gives me a chance to say Mia helped bump NE from the playoffs if Stills catches a game winning TD against them in the AFC title game.

I pick NE because they always win and if they don't their opponent refuses to take the victory and gives it back to them.

The Saints, obviously because of their record.

Seattle because they are a smaller version of NE in the NFC

Bills are looking good.

They are but the Texans really are just a 7-9 team that got lucky on a lot of games. Same with the Steelers, which sucks for Miami because it cost us draft position. They won EIGHT games by one score or less, that's ridiculous. Even worse than Pittsburgh. I wouldn't be surprised if this team went 6-10 next year.

Bill O'Brien should be fired tomorrow if they lose this game. Horrific coaching on the Texans and Buffalo's last drive. Imagine trading away two 1st rounders and a 2nd rounder for just a LT and still lose in the wild card round?

That DeShaun Watson play won them the game and was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen in football. All the praise in the world to that kid for that play.

Titans and Texans move on.

Great job Tennessee

It almost happened.

Why didn't the Tennessee player just go down with the ball instead of scoring?

Bill Belichick's quote in the locker room to his players,

"We haven't been unemployed at this point in the season for a long time"

THE DYNASTY OF CHEATERS IS OVER!

Now imagine if BUF had drafted Lamar Jackson instead of Josh Allen, and what that would mean for the future of the AFC East.

I'm just going to leave this here:

The short answer: lack of situational awareness.

The longer answer: 99.9% of the time the preferred thing to do on a turnover is score a TD not go down.  At that juncture in the game the titans focus was on preventing the patriots from getting into FG range, they were coaching the players on preventing long yardage plays and/or letting players getting our of bounds.  They weren’t coaching the player to take a knee on a turnover.

It has been a decade.

I also thought some of the decision making was funny on both sides.

Mike Vrabel tried Belichick's clock ploy, but it was clearly not the situation to do it.  Time wasn't a factor at that point.

The Patriots tried the Miami Miracle play, instead of having Brady throw it deep down the sidelines.

The Patriots tried to execute a kickoff play, instead of having Edelman fall down, and then attempt a Hail Mary.

Some records had to have fallen

Is Mike Vrabel the first head coach in the NFL to beat a quarterback in the playoffs from whom he caught a touchdown pass?

Don’t know.  Almost certainly the first linebacker turned coach to do so.  But it s possible that a wide receiver turned coach has done so as well.

Would need two things for this to be accomplished.  QB with a decent length career and a someone who quickly went to head coach after ending his playing career.   

Looks like the Saints offense, which had been AWOL the entire game suddenly came back in the 4th quarter.   Saints just kicked the tying FG and the game is headed to OT.   What a wild wildcard weekend thus far.

Vikings win

The Superdome went from loud to a morgue in a matter of seconds

Wild Card Weekend certainly lived up to its name.

One thing I didn't understand was the Eagles' clock management.

Why didn't they run the play on fourth down BEFORE the two minute warning?  That way you effectively get an extra timeout if it does not work out.

I heard that the first time in 2011. Truth is, their defense is elite and now they have to fix their offensive side to get Brady back. They gave him nothing to work with this season and he is using his free agency as leverage to get them to give him weapons. He will sign for pennies, he is super rich, he just wants to go out a winner. He clearly doesn't want to retire or leave New England but he will go elsewhere if the Pats make him.

I recall a Steelers fan emailing me a joke in Feb 2002 about a blizzard in hell.    They insisted that the AFCCG was pure luck and that was Brady’s first and last trip to the SB.  The teams mediocre performance in 2002 affirmed that view until it didn’t in 03 & 04.  Of course many were also certain Pollard ended the era. 

Brady may or may not return, the driving factor won’t be money but if NE offers him a long enough contract and signs a few WR in FA first.  However #1 defense in the league will along with the all time greatest coach will be returning.

I am not saying the 2020s is going to yield 3 SB wins like the prior decades, but NE is more than capable of adding to its consecutive division winning record again next year even without Brady. 

Heard them talking on the radio this morning saying that if Brady returns to New England it might be Belichick moving on. Not sure where that came from. What's your take on that? It's probably just talk in Dallas because they hadn't yet hired McCarthy and there was speculation they could be waiting to talk to Belichick for the Dallas job. I thought that was laughable so maybe the whole Belichick not coming back to New England is also laugable, but what do I know.

Fans of 31 teams would love to have BB as their head coach and plenty of fans would love to get Brady so some of that could be wishful thinking. 

Belichick last extended his contract in 2017 but it was never disclosed for how long.  I doubt it was a three year “prove it” deal, so odds are he is still under contract.

I can’t imagine Kraft firing BB.  And why would BB prefer to work for a medaling owner like JJ over Kraft who gives him complete control? If BB goes elsewhere it will be a team without dysfunctional ownership.   So Giants (a team he is nostalgic for) would be more likely than Cowboys or Redskins. 

Apparently Bill Belichick talked with Jerry after he was fired from Cleveland and told Jerry that he would be willing to work for him then (although the Cowboys were not looking for a head coach at the time). Course that was a long time ago and things have changed, but it was only speculation anyway. For the record I agree it was wishful thinking but just the fact they were talking about it was surprise to me. Didn't think Belichick leaving New England was even being considered by anyone.

Belichick was a bit more desperate for a job a the time than he is now.  Belichick could literally have any job in the NFL.  Hypothetically if Kraft was to release BB this afternoon, I bet BB could call up Steve Bisciotti and say, "I know you like John and all but ever since I was a kid growing up in Annapolis I have always wanted to coach in Baltimore" and be coaching this weekend.   Okay maybe not this weekend.  But plenty of owners would fire there head coach to give BB an opening, he doesn't have to work for a meddling owner. 

You've gone too far over the top, Hoodie.  BAL is probably the single team least likely to fire their coach for BB (given JH's age).

Baltimore is probably one of a handful he couldn't get.  But he would not have trouble picking a team, even one with a "safe" coach.

Nobody had Vikings.

Surprised the heck out of me.

Surprised the heck out of a lot of people.   That defense stymied Drew Brees and Co for three quarters.   If they can do that against San Francisco, they have a shot of playing for the NFC Title.  And Jimmy G isn't yet close to Drew Brees