Friday, January 21, 2011

Pierce's Picks - Conference Championship Weekend

Last week saw me go 2-2 again, putting me at an even 4-4 for the playoffs thusfar.

As for this weekend's games...

Sunday at 3:00pm ET -
Green Bay (6-seed) @ Chicago (2-seed)
A cold-weather divisional game in Chicago for two outdoor teams. This is what January football is all about right here. Chicago will have home-field advantage, but Green Bay is comfortable out in the cold, so I question just how advantageous that will be, especially with the two cities close enough that the crowd could very well be split. Both teams have solid defenses - Chicago's might be slightly better due to experience, but Green Bay's might be slightly hungrier being the younger of the two. Chicago has the better run game as well, giving them an advantage if the weather gets really bad and in the clock management department, too. However, I like Aaron Rodgers over Jay Cutler if the game is close and calls for some heroics. I think up to now, Chicago has been the luckiest team in the league, ever since that TD-not-a-TD catch by Calvin Johnson in the first game of the season. I like Aaron Rodgers and a better overall Packers team to give them a dose of reality. I think it'll be close and I take Rodgers in a clutch, cold-weather situation over Cutler any day of the week. Green Bay to the Super Bowl.

Sunday at 6:30pm ET -
NY Jets (6-seed) @ Pittsburgh (2-seed)
Much like the earlier game, this is going to be a cold-weather outdoor game between two outdoor, cold-weather teams. Much like the other game, both teams have solid defenses - in fact, these two teams have two of the best defenses in the league. So the question becomes, which offense can overcome? I believe have won their big game already - they beat the Patriots and the Colts. But I have to feel like they're out of gas. They've slain their dragons and the Steelers are a new beast entirely. Without the ability to run the ball on the Steeler defense, I don't trust Mark Sanchez to be the game-changing quarterback the Jets might need. He can manage a game just fine, but win it... well, we'll see. Ben Roethlisberger, meanwhile, has two Super Bowl rings and plenty of big-game playoff experience. He's a gamer, a winner and I believe that this game will come down to which QB can make the big play at clutch time - and in that case, it's no question to me, it's Big Ben. Pittsburgh to face Green Bay in the Super Bowl.

No comments:

Post a Comment