A crazy wild-card weekend is in the books and eight teams now remain in the quest for the Lombardi trophy. This weekend features some matchups that, mostly, appear to be skewed heavily in favor of one team, but may be closer than expected.
Game 4:
Sunday, January 15, 2012
4:30pm – FOX
New York Giants @ Green Bay Packers
It would be way too easy to just go and say the Packers will win this game. But I go back to 2007 and I’m sensing some Déjà vu, and I’m not talking about the Giants knocking off the Packers in the NFC Championship.
Let’s go back to the final game of the regular season in 2007. In this game, Tom Brady set the all-time record for touchdown passes in a season at 50, and on the same play Randy Moss broke Jerry Rice’s touchdown receptions record with his 23rd of the year.
Both teams played everyone. The Patriots were looking for perfection, as well as those records. The Giants were 10-5 and already in the playoffs, but were trying to knock off the Patriots. The final score was 38-35 and, though I didn’t predict right then and there that New York would win the Super Bowl, I did predict that the only team that could possibly beat the Patriots in the super Bowl would be those Giants.
A few weeks later and sure enough, Super Bowl XLII pitted those two teams against each other. Those of you who read my posts last year know that since 2000 I have played a matchup of the super bowl teams on Madden every year and have only had the wrong outcome twice. My game lead to my prediction of the Giants over the Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV, and to the Patriots defeated New York by 3-points in 2007. Had I stuck to my guns, I could still only have one smudge on my predictions record.
And now here we are, January 2012, the Packers and Giants in a rematch of one of the most exciting games of the regular season, one that gave me a similar feeling in my gut about the Giants. Will it take a little luck on the side of Eli Manning like with “The Helmet Catch?” Quite likely the answer is yes. But remember that it took a long drive with under a minute to play for the Packers to win that game and remain undefeated. And though that game certainly left an aura of invincibility around the Packers, just two weeks later Green Bay fell to the Chiefs. They are beatable.
My pick:
New York beats Green Bay, 37-31
Other Predictions:
Saints @ 49ers
Broncos @ Patriots
Texans @ Ravens
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