Sporting Madness

Just a note that Mark Milner and I have our conference championship picks up over at The Good Point . There should be a couple of great games today; I'm looking forward to seeing how the condition of Soldier Field affects the Bears - Packers matchup, and the Jets and Steelers should be a perfect clash for those of us who like hard-hitting defence. The above link has my full breakdown of each game, so rather than write the same stuff over again, here's a song for each team to get you ready for the games: Pittsburgh : Judas Priest - Metal Gods This classic track from the British Steel album seems thoroughly appropriate for a team from the Steel City. Also, it isn't tough to imagine James Harrison and the rest of the Pittsburgh defence ripping men apart. New York : Iron Maiden - Aces High The best non-crappy aerial song I could think of (and yes, there was no way in hell we were going with Benny and the Jets or Jet Airliner here). Besides, Rex Ryan 's blit...

The NFL playoffs are always one of my favourite times of year, and if last week's games are any indication, we're in for a good playoff season. My picks for this round are up over at The Good Point , so go check those out ! The game I'm most interested in is the Steelers-Ravens clash, which gets under way shortly. From an impartial perspective, it's one of the NFL's most interesting divisional rivalries, featuring two teams that have been quite good for the last decade and more. They play similar styles, and for those like me who enjoy great defence, they're some of the best franchises to watch. Of course, I'm not entirely impartial, as I've been a Steelers' fan for most of my life, so I'm definitely decked out in my black and gold today as you can see below. Feel free to hurl insults, but the B.C. chapter of Steeler Nation is reporting for duty.

It should be an interesting Super Bowl today; a clash between two high-powered offences, as well as two very different game philosophies. The Saints have a balanced attack and an incredibly aggressive defence, while the Colts' defence excels at limiting big plays and their offence is dominant in the passing game, but struggles to run the ball. You can find my full preview piece below , as well as other ones I wrote for Rob Carnell at Salt Water Music and Ryan Gallivan at The Gally Blog . Now, it's time for the prediction. Everyone has the Colts as big favourites, but I think this is overlooking a few things. For one, as Neil Paine points out, SRS (simple rating system, explained here ), which looks at teams' average margins of victory and their opponents' average ratings, is overwhelmingly in favour of the Saints. Yes, the Saints struggled against the Vikings in the NFC Championship game, but the Colts had issues with the New York Jets, a much less well-rounded t...

I'll be live-blogging today's games shortly, but first I thought I'd put up some predictions. Both these games could go either way, like anything in the playoffs, so these are just idle thoughts, not guarantees. If you want something with a better chance of success, check out Peter Pattakos ' picks over at Cleveland Frowns ; he's 8-0 so far these playoffs! With that out the way, let's get to the games. AFC: New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: The Colts were a dominant team during the regular season. They went 14-2, and weren't particularly trying in the games they lost (one against the Jets). Meanwhile, Jets' head coach Rex Ryan thought they were eliminated at one point, and they only snuck into the playoffs on the last day. The Colts also beat their curse of resting starters with last weekend's win over the Ravens, so there's lots of logical reasons to pick them. However, I'm not going to. For one thing, small athletic teams like the ...

So, I went 1-3 last weekend , which certainly isn't promising. However, it was a rather bizarre weekend of games, and I did beat ESPN's Bill Simmons , who makes about a kajillion dollars more for his writing than I do, so I'm okay with that. The thing is, the NFL is a league of parity; as we often recite, anything can happen on any given Sunday. This becomes even more evident in the playoffs because only decent teams make it this far; the gap between a 14-2 team like the Colts and a 9-7 team like the Ravens is far closer than the gap between the Ravens and the 1-15 St. Louis Rams, so it's much harder to figure out who's going to win.With that in mind, I do have a few thoughts about this weekend's slate of games. As always, these predictions are nowhere near guaranteed and are intended for recreational purposes only. Cardinals at Saints: (4:30 p.m. Eastern Saturday, FOX) This should be one of the most entertaining games of the weekend, featuring two high-po...

The NFL playoffs are underway, so it's time for some picks! My pick for the Super Bowl this year is the Chargers over the Saints; this weekend's games aren't terribly relevant to that prediction, as both teams have a first-round bye, but they should still be entertaining. Let's get to the breakdowns. Jets at Bengals: (today, 4:30 p.m. ET) The Jets thumped Cincinnati last week, but I don't think they'll do it again. For one thing, they're too one-dimensional on offence; they have a great running attack, but they're in the playoffs despite Mark Sanchez , not because of him. I like their defence, especially Darrelle Revis , but I'm not sure they'll be able to stop the Bengals' ground game with Cedric Benson (who didn't play last week). Keep in mind that the Jets backed into the playoffs after the Colts and Bengals laid down for them in the past two weeks. I'm also taking Carson Palmer over Sanchez any day. Pick: Bengals Eagl...

I'm going to try and run my NFL predictions here every week, along with one-line reasons for each pick. We'll see how it turns out! Thursday: Tennessee at Pittsburgh: Steelers Rationale: This will be close, but Pittsburgh's defence is just too good for the Titans. Sunday: Miami at Atlanta: Falcons Rationale: Both of these teams will be good this year, but home-field advantage gives the Falcons the edge in this one. Denver at Cincinnati: Bengals Rationale: The Broncos have been a gong show so far under Josh McDaniels . Cincinnati isn't the league's best team or the most stable, but they look positively competent by comparison. Minnesota at Cleveland: Vikings Rationale: I think the Brett Favre experiment will implode at some point, but the Vikings are still a much better team than the Browns. Jacksonville at Indianapolis: Colts Rationale: The Colts may take a step back this year, but they still have Peyton Manning and a great passing offence. Detroit at New Orl...