Going for Two: Divisional Round Review

With my first two picks being accurate this weekend, I was going to hold off on blogging lest it jinx me, but with Seattle down 31 to nothing at the half, I've got nothing to lose. Saturday was very bittersweet, since I predicted New England and Arizona, and they both won, but I would have been perfectly happy with them losing. With the AFC game, it was more about New England losing and a partial desire to see my boyfriend succeed. As for the other game, a Packer win would have wreaked havoc with my predictions, but it would have had me jumping for joy. As it was, I'm happy for the Cardinals, cuz it's their year.

The best part of last night's game had to be trash talking in the comments section of my favorite blogger's Facebook threads. Before the Week 16 game, he had asked if the Packers and their fans had "ever considered sucking it", though it appears that he has removed that post. Regardless, when he warned readers that he was about to go all football for a few hours, I opted to respond in kind.

Miracles can only win games so often.

Ed confessed his fear of A-A-Ron, expressed surprise at all the 3rd down conversions from the Packers, whined about missed calls, whined about his team,  gave up, bitched about Cris Collinsworth, but mostly about missed calls, dropped a few posts that have since been removed, and finally, expressed his appreciation for Wisconsin. He lost a few dozen followers with that night, but what a night it was. In the end, the better team won. I kind of wished that Larry Fitzgerald had finished his spectacular run in the end zone, but at least he got the TD in the end.

When Ed gave up, I saw a comment further down-thread that made an egregious false comparison. I made a short reply last night, then followed up this morning. This comment was researched and took about an hour to construct. The response I got was, simply, Touché, which not enough people use. Below is the comment, in its entirety, with sources linked.

In terms of their respective rank in their conferences, yes. KC and GB had impressive victories over the champions of the two garbage divisions. They both went to the home stadium of the number 2 seed and were projected to lose. They both scored 20 points, nearly came back to win, and lost by a touchdown. They both have very attractive quarterbacks (though while I <3 Alex Smith, in terms of skill, he is no A-A-Ron), but that is where the similarities, for the most part, end. There might be similarities between the Patriots and the Cardinals, but they're not important. The Patriots won their 4th Super Bowl last year (Super Bowl XLIX, or ex-lix, as I like to call it) and have been to 4 others. In the last 14 Super Bowls, half of them have included the New England Patriots, and they're probably going to Super Bowl 50. In that same time, the Cardinals have made the playoffs four times, including their only Super Bowl appearance, which they lost in 2008. They have not won an NFL Championship since they were the Chicago Cardinals in 1947. The other difference is that New England is getting a little stale this year, while Arizona is on fire. I'm predicting that they will get the Lombardi trophy in Super Bowl 50, and while this is my first year doing serious NFL predictions, I'm 6 for 6 in the playoffs and 68% on the regular season (which I'm told is good).

For the record, Ed was not actually done.

Kansas City started the season in a massive hole, while Green Bay was playing like a championship team. The former team went on to win 11 straight games, while the Packers lost to the Lions, Bears, and Vikings *at home.* Kansas City won one Super Bowl, in 1969, which was the last of the two that they have been to. In the last 15 years (14 Super Bowls), they have been to the playoffs 5 times, and have only gotten to the Divisional Round twice. The Packers, on the other hand, have 4 Super Bowl wins in 5 appearances, have made the postseason 12 times since the 2001 season, have been in 8 Divisional Round games, and three Conference Championship games. It is much more like KC=ARI and NE=GB. I could write you at least one more paragraph about how that last comparison doesn't hold up, but I've had my fun this morning for this thread.

And in the time it took me to write this post (and exercise, shower, and make plans with friends), Seattle came back to lose, like the other two losers this week, by a single touchdown. My record for the playoffs is now 6 & 1, and with only 4 more games left to go, I'm guaranteed to be over 500.