This is a guest post on Round One of the NFL Playoffs by Chase, our 12 year old football statistician and two-time Fantasy Football Champion.
Super Bowl Bound – Round One
Indianapolis Colts at San Diego Chargers – If the Chargers want to win, L.T. and Philip Rivers will have to have a perfect game. The Colts have been known to put up a lot of points up on the scoreboard, so either the defense will have to shut down Peyton Manning or the Chargers are going to have put up as many points as they did against the Broncos in Week 17. This will be a well fought out game, so I recommend watching this game over all the other first round games. My prediction: IND 31 SD 27.
Baltimore Ravens at Miami Dolphins – The Dolphins will have to give it their all if they want to win. They’re going to rely heavily on the passing gain because of the Raven’s ability to stop the run, but they’ll still have to watch out for the veteran, Ed Reed’ and the Secondary. The Ravens can stop any team from scoring very well, but the offense can’t score much against teams that have a good shot at winning the Super Bowl, so they better get a rhythm going and put more pressure on the Dolphin’s offense. I really don’t think there’s much to be seen in this game, so skip it if you have better things to do. My prediction: BAL 27 MIA 13.
Atlanta Falcons at Arizona Cardinals – This game will depend mostly on which offense plays better. Both Matt Ryan and Michael Turner will need to gain tons of yards and score multiple times. Kurt Warner will have to give 110% so he can lead his team to victory. Both teams weren’t expected to do much at the beginning of the season, but they’ve proved experts wrong and now they get a chance to win it all. This will be an interesting game with a quarterback that has a great career ahead and a quarterback that’s had a great career. My prediction: ATL 45 ARI 37.
Philadelphia Eagles at Minnesota Vikings – The Eagles have had a wacky ride to where they are right now and even though they’re #6 I believe they have a pretty good chance of accomplishing what the Giants did last year. I still don’t see the Vikings as a team to go all the way mainly because they still have many weak positions in the team. Their D-line is good and Adrian Peterson who has a good future in hand is great, but unless the lineman can sack the quarterback ten times and Peterson can have at least one hundred yards and three touchdowns(which we’ve seen he can do) they’ll be going home early. I don’t think the Eagles will have much of a problem moving on to face the New York Giants. My prediction: PHI 31 MIN 26.
