Eric Meyer
New Orleans Saints at
Seattle Seahawks
This is the first of three regular season rematches that
will be featured in this year’s divisional weekend. The Saints ventured up to
Seattle in Week 13 only to be drubbed 34-7 by Seattle on Monday Night Football.
At the time, the game pretty much closed the debate on who the NFC’s supreme
power was, but that won’t matter now.
New Orleans is coming off their first road playoff victory
in franchise history. That will provide them with some confidence coming into
this scrap with Seattle, which they’ll certainly need if they want a different
outcome this time around. If they want to pull the upset, they’ll need better
showings from their defense and they have to get a running game going. Drew
Brees is an excellent quarterback, but he won’t stand a chance against
Seattle’s pass defense without a balanced attack to take the pressure off.
Meanwhile, Seattle needs to get back on track offensively.
They had a couple of poor showings against divisional opponents, including a
shocking loss at home to Arizona in which they could only muster 10 points.
Seattle torched the Saints’ defense last time, but Rob Ryan is a top-notch
coordinator and there’s a reason why the Saints had a top-five defense this
year.
I don’t expect another blowout in this game. We’ve seen many
rematches turn out closer than their regular season predecessors, and often
times the team that got blown out has the last laugh come postseason time. That
being said, the Saints still aren’t a very good road team. They beat the Eagles
because they were superior in most facets of the game, and they surprisingly
dominated in their one deficiency. Seattle plays good defense. They run the
ball well. Russell Wilson is a fine young quarterback. It’ll be tough to keep
up with the Seahawks and their 12th man, and I think that will
ultimately win out for the Legion of Boom.
Eric’s Pick: Seahawks
beat Saints, 31-24.
Indianapolis Colts at
New England Patriots
A little bit of Luck goes a long way. Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll
cool it with the lame puns. But I doubt Andrew Luck and the Colts plan to do
any cooling off anytime soon, coming off an insane 45-44 win over the Chiefs
after being down by 28 points in the 3rd quarter. Now they’ll head
to Foxboro to face another stiff test against Tom Brady and the New England
Patriots.
The Patriots are riddled with injuries. Mayo, Wilfork and
Gronkowski are all on IR. This defense has miraculously held up pretty well,
and the offense has found a bit of a rhythm by going for a more balanced attack
due to the injury problems along the offensive line and the lack of depth at
receiver. Despite all of these problems, the Patriots are a legit contender
once again due to some great coaching by Bill Belichick and solid play from Tom
Brady down the stretch of the season.
I think New England takes care of business at home. The
Colts are a good team with a lot of upside, and I’ll expect Andrew Luck to get
his share of playoff wins in the near future. But right now, the Colts are a
bit too one-dimensional and Belichick is the best at taking away a team’s most
dangerous option. I don’t think the Colts have enough to get it done if T.Y.
Hilton is taken away, and I think there’s a good chance that New England will
contain him. If they do so, I think it will be curtains for Indianapolis.
Eric’s Pick: Patriots
beat Colts, 31-21.
San Francisco 49ers at
Carolina Panthers
Another rematch from the regular season, the 49ers will
travel to Charlotte to scrap with the NFC South Champion Carolina Panthers in
Cam Newton’s first playoff game. The Panthers already got the better of San
Francisco in their house, so they’ll be brimming with confidence playing them
again in front of their home crowd.
Everyone has beaten this dead horse, but it’s worth
mentioning again that these teams are quite similar. Both teams play
outstanding defense and rely heavily on the run, most specifically from the
quarterback position. The difference in this game to me is who can play better from
the pocket.
The last time these teams met, neither could generate any
offense. The Panthers forced enough turnovers and got enough pressure to eek
out a 10-9 victory, but there’s a key difference in this matchup, and his name
is Michael Crabtree.
Colin Kaepernick is a much better passer from the pocket
when he has #15 to look for, and the two have developed quite a rapport
together. Having Crabtree available will open up the passing game a bit more
for the 49ers, so we’ll see how Carolina adjusts to that.
This is easily the weekend’s tightest game according to the
spread, with San Francisco being a one-point road favorite. That said, I’m not
hesitant to take the 49ers in this game. I haven’t seen a consistently good
offense from Carolina, and I believe they caught San Francisco at a low point
in their season when they beat them last time. While San Francisco didn’t light
the world on fire in Green Bay, I think they’ll have enough juice to put up
twenty points, and their defense will do the rest to take them back to the NFC
Championship game.
Eric’s Pick: 49ers
beat Panthers, 20-10.
San Diego Chargers at
Denver Broncos
The last game of this weekend features the most lopsided
point spread, but it was easily the toughest pick for me. Peyton Manning’s Denver
Broncos will host the San Diego Chargers in a rubber match for all the marbles
(well, sort of).
The weather will be relatively tame, with highs expected in
the upper 40s, but I’m really not sure whom that favors at this point. On one
hand, the Chargers are a warm weather team, so one would figure that they’d
benefit from a nicer forecast. On the other hand, the Broncos are a pass-heavy
team, which is typically not an ideal strategy when the weather turns nasty.
Either way, it appears neither team will have to worry too much about the
weather, so onto the matchup.
San Diego has been Peyton Manning’s nemesis since his days
in Indianapolis. The Chargers have won two games against Manning in the
postseason, in each of which they were major underdogs. The Chargers also
helped the Broncos to their two lowest point totals of the season, winning one
of those two contests.
San Diego’s defense has come on strong to end the season,
and their running game has picked up to make them a matchup nightmare for Denver
due to their ability to get stops and control the clock with the running game.
While there are plenty of positives from the Chargers that
give them a chance to win this game, there are also some negatives for Denver
that can be exploited. Peyton Manning has struggled in the postseason in part
because his teams often rely on him to burn everybody through the air.
Manning is one of the greatest ever, but history has shown
that good defenses can rattle him and significantly diminish his effectiveness
if they are allowed to key in on him and the passing game without recourse. The
Broncos will need their running backs to step up, which they are capable of
doing. More importantly, they’ll need their defense to play well, which I doubt
will happen this postseason.
Okay, enough with the Bronco bashing. This game is
practically a toss-up. Every part of the analyst in me is saying, “Pick the
Chargers.” They have the run game, the defense is playing well, and Rivers is
capable of making clutch plays. They have what it takes to contain Manning and
the Broncos. I also don’t like the fact that I haven’t picked any upsets this
weekend, so that’s making me want to go with the Bolts as well.
That said, I’m taking Denver. It’s purely a gut feeling.
Maybe it’s the daunting task of picking against a 10-point favorite. Maybe it’s
the difference in records. Or, maybe it’s the fact that Denver is at home. But
for some reason, I don’t think Denver will lose this game.
Eric’s Pick: Broncos
beat Chargers, 35-28.
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