In one of my first posts on this blog, I made the pre-season projection for the Seattle Seahawks to win the SuperBowl again. Living with that prediction through the season has been difficult as the week-to-week knee-jerk reactions during the season obscure one’s logical process. The sky was falling in Seattle by about week 6, and yet they still ended up with the number 1 seed in the NFC. After 17 weeks of the regular season, I’m glad that I didn’t write a weekly column and therefore have the opportunity to go back on my prediction multiple times.

Wild Card Round

AFC

(6) Baltimore Ravens @ (3) Pittsburgh Steelers – Steelers to beat the Ravens. Losing Le’Veon Bell (the best RB in football right now) is big, but the Steelers receiving corps is good enough to take advantage of the Ravens lack of Defensive Backs. Also, I’m going to go on record and say that Joe Flacco never wins another Superbowl.

(5) Cincinnati Bengals @ (4) Indianapolis Colts – Colts please. Dalton on the road, big game, without AJ Green, no thanks. Saying that, I can see the Bengals just running the ball 90% of the time against a weak Colts run D. Still I’m sure Dalton will find a way to lose it.

NFC

(6) Detroit Lions @ (3) Dallas Cowboys – Lions upset Cowboys on the road. Its easy to pick against a team I hate, but feel the Lions could do a job here. Their D-Line is a match for the O-Line and I’m expecting Murray has already been run into the ground this year, making it more difficult for the Offence to get going. Then it comes down to Megatron over Dez.

(5) Arizona Cardinals @ (4) Carolina Panthers – Hard to pick a completely rubbish QB in a road playoff game but I trust the Arizona coaching staff to find a way to win this one. Carolina has shown little to impress over the course of the season. Bowles and Arians are 50 times the coaching staff that Ron Rivera is.

Divisional Round

AFC

(3) Pittsburgh Steelers @ (2) Denver Broncos – Think Manning might be done. At least this year. In his last 5 games he’s thrown 5 TDs against 6 INTs. Averaging 1 TD per game is just not something Manning does. Roethlisberger and the Steelers won’t be intimidated coming into Denver, nor playing in the cold. Steelers take this one.

(4) Indianapolis Colts @ (1) New England Patriots – Patriots know the formula for beating the Colts, they’ve thrashed them 85-42 over the last two meetings. No chance of an upset here.

NFC

(5) Arizona Cardinals @ (2) Green Bay Packers – Aaron Rodgers at home:

	Pct	Yds	Avg	TD	Int	Rating
Record: 8-0	68.9	291.8	9.9	25	0	130.6

Versus Aaron Rodgers on the road:

	Pct	Yds	Avg	TD	Int	Rating
Record: 4-4	65.0	255.9	7.4	13	5	95.9

Essentially he’s lights out at home and pretty good on the road. If they had the #1 seed, I’d back them all the way to SuperBowl. He’ll beat the Cardinals but fall to the Seahawks. Getting ahead of myself though.

(6) Detroit Lions @ (1) Seattle Seahawks – Should be a good defensive matchup, and you could argue that Detroit have a slight advantage in both Offence and Defence. Can’t go against Seattle at home though with all their guys healthy.

AFC Championship

(3) Pittsburgh Steelers @ (1) New England Patriots – Patriots Defence show their mettle, Revis on Brown, Wilfork beasting on Bell. Brady can take advantage of a fairly old and depleted LB-core and secondary. Otherwise known as, throw it to Gronkowski over and over again.

NFC Championship

(2) Green Bay Packers @ (1) Seattle Seahawks – See earlier Aaron Rodgers Home vs Away stats. Seattle dominated GB in the Week 1 opener and I don’t see much having changed since then.

SUPERBOWL

(1) New England Patriots @ (1) Seattle Seahawks –  I don’t really much like picking two #1 seeds to make it to the Superbowl but I think the two teams have been a cut above the rest this year. NE and Seattle have very few weaknesses and are basically strong across the board. Seattle have proved in the past they can handle NE and I actually think their greater challenges will come from Detroit and Green Bay. There’s a good chance that Gronk gets his knee blown up in the 1st quarter by Kam Chancellor, which will pretty much destroy the NE Offence. Brady won’t be able to move the ball with Edelman, Amendola and Lafell against Sherman and Maxwell and therefore, Brady falls to 3-3 in Superbowl appearances. U mad bro?

And now for a long-held tradition (at least for the last year since before this blog existed), my girlfriend will make her picks for the playoffs. She is American so in theory is imbued with greater knowledge than me although she doesn’t watch any NFL and pretty much hates it. Now watch her pick the aforementioned perfect playoff bracket.

Round 1: Ravens over Steelers. Indy over Cincy. Detroit over Dallas (this pick was made entirely on the basis of not making me angry). Cards over Panthers.

Round 2: Patriots over Ravens. Broncos over Indy. Detroit over Seattle. GB over Cards.

Round 3: Patriots over Broncos. GB over Detriot.

Superbowl: Patriots over the Packers.

A fairly feasible scenario all in all considering it took her less than 1 minute. Brady winning it all…clearly she has a thing for handsome men.