NFL Picks, Wild Card Round

I was hoping to put together a nice post for the first round of playoff picks, but I was foiled by a couple of things. One is that Friday was my birthday, and my 30th birthday, so I was busy enjoying that day with my wife and almost one year-old son. The second is that I was called for jury duty on Tuesday. Normally jury duty is two days or 1 trial. Well, on Wednesday I was put on a trial, and that trial is still going on. That means there's not much I can say, but I will say this, nothing in our court system moves at anything resembling a quick pace. I'm not saying it could be much different, I'm just saying it's easily the first thing you notice as a part of it.

Onto the picks:

Cincinnati (+4) over HOUSTON
The Bengals were 0-4 against the Steelers and Ravens, so while their run to the playoffs is a good story, the Bengals are not a true contender, not yet. And if this were the Houston team from the first half of the season, they would wipe the floor with these Bengals. But this isn't that Houston team. That Houston team was not quarterbacked by TJ Yates. Given the Texans' strong running game, I could overlook the TJ Yates issue, but Cincinnati made the playoffs on the backs of their top-10 defense. I say the Bengals take away Houston's running game, and Yates doesn't have enough heroics in him to recreate their week 14 thriller win.

NEW ORLEANS (-10.5) over Detroit
Detroit can put up points with the Saints, but in that dome, the pressure to be perfect offensively (meaning, get points out of every drive) is simply too much. Yes Detroit played them closer in week 13 than the score would indicate, but add in the sour taste in the Saints' mouths from last year's playoff loss in Seattle and I think the Saints make no doubt about this game.

Atlanta (+3) over NEW YORK GIANTS
Eli Manning's dirty little (not so) secret is that he performs better on the road than at home in December/January. Now, Dallas was too beat up and mentally weak to take advantage of that in week 17's play-in game. Atlanta is neither of those things. This game will come down to Atlanta's ability to neutralize the Giants' pass rush and Victor Cruz. It says here they do enough to hold each at bay to walk out of New Jersey with the win.

Pittsburgh (-8.5) over DENVER
Tebow against that defense, given what we've seen from him these last few weeks is simply not fair, and Roethlisberger's playing, so the Steeler offense will put up enough points to cover.