As we head into the last NFL football game we are guaranteed to see for the foreseeable future, at least we have a strong prospect of watching a very good game. Not that I really want one per se, I'd really prefer to see the Packers absolutely annihilate the Steelers. But odds aren't really very good on either team blowing the other out.
Last weekend, I hemmed and hawed and finally picked the Jets in the hopes that they could end the pretensions of the Steelers before they sniffed a shot at a seventh (gah!) Lombardi. No dice. Two weeks in a row a Steeler opponent played only half of a game, and it wasn't remotely enough. That first half was a joke, the Jets aren't that great but they aren't nearly as pathetic as they looked either. It was not fun to watch at all. Of course I'm sure the Steeler fans enjoyed it, but their opinion doesn't count outside of the asylum where they all belong.
So that bad pick dropped me to 2-1 for the postseason.
AFC North Game of the Week
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Green Bay Packers
Technically the Packers are the home team this weekend. Of course, the game is played in unexpectedly frigid environs of Dallas this year, so it's not like they will have a significant home-field advantage.
This game really seems to pit two mirror images against each other. They both have great defenses based around the 3-4 with good ability to get after the QB. Green Bay is better at getting turnovers, Pittsburgh is better at stopping the run, but both are still quite good in pretty much every area on defense. On offense, again there are some differences, but both teams have very good QBs who are excellent at escaping pressure and turning it into something positive (though they usually do it in different ways), who can throw pretty well and have a good number of fast WRs and at least decent RBs. And neither have very good OLs either, though the Steeler OL is putrid and the Packer one is merely rather poor.
In this sort of a situation, the smart play is to pick the team that has more experience in the big game. So I guess I don't have any choice. I managed to successfully pick against the Steelers only ONCE all year long, and that was against the Patriots. I also managed to successfully jinx them three times by picking them when their opponent was pretty decent. Yeah, OK, I know picking for them didn't cause them to lose the game. I wish it did, I'd pick them every time. :) But still, two of the times I picked the Steelers and they lost I picked them to win in a blowout. So hey, let's try it again and see if I get lucky. Either way I win, either I bump my postseason pick record up to 75% or I get to REALLY enjoy watching the Steelers lose. Steelers 38, Packers 24.