Are you ready for some post-season hype?: Last Friday I had gotten through about 2/3 of a post on my weekend picks when everything went kablooey...so I gave up the ghost and went home. My picks, for the record, were Carolina over the Rams in double overtime with an exchange of missed fieldgoals, plus I had the Eagles coming from behind on a 4th and 27 play. Well, no one is perfect.

Now that the whole "destiny" thing is out of the way, we can focus on some good solid x's and o's without all the sensationalism....right. I simply cannot see New England losing at home. Indy has no defense to speak of, which is good I supose given that New England's offense is suspect, but still take a bad defensive team versus a mediocre offensive team (Brady is quite talented but their running game sucks), and the the bad defense loses almost every time. Still Indy is playing like a team of...oh, no you don't...considerable resolve and clearly Manning is in the zone with those freaking freak-of-nature receivers he has to choose from (god, just give the Birds one of those guys). My pick is New England in a low-scoring, turnover prone game. I can't see the Colts not using their punter in this one. Somewhere around 17-13.

The Eagles don't do anything particularly well this year. They used to have the great defense that shut everyone down to 10 or fewer points while allowing the offense to scrape by on getting 13. Now, every opposing running back is racking up 150 yards a game, and the Boids give up now closer to 20. Fortunately, McNabb (with the help of a biased media) is able to take over the games just enough, and at the right times, to help score 20+. Yes, he still throws the sinker on about 6 passes a game; yes he gets sacked 3-5-8 times a game; yes the clock management is iffy; yes we lost Brian Westbrook. But for all the issues in the negative, the Win column keeps inching upward. It's inexplicable and definitely takes a few mistakes from the opposing team. My hope is that since we're playing essentially a rookie QB (even though he's 29) and that Stephen Davis will be less than 100% (if he plays at all) we can really get the pressure on Delhomme and make him throw a few Brett Favre Specials at inopportune times. I like the Iggles (surprise, surprise) for around 27-17.