I’ll post my NFL predictions for this season now and talk about a couple of things I think will crucial this upcoming season. A couple of things to look out for will be the age of the New England Patriots’ defense. No one expects them to run the table again in the regular season but people might be in for a surprise if their age finally catches up to them and they end up losing 4 or 5 games. Also, who knows how injured Tom Brady really is and how effective he’ll be in the early parts of the season?

In the NFC, Aaron Rodgers has been handed a wonderful team but a great receiving group and all he has to do is not try to be Brett Favre. If he can stick to the short passes and allow the receivers to do their work with YAC as they did last year along with the new found running game in Ryan Grant – the Packers could really repeat as one of the top two seeds in the conference. New York Giants on the other hand have lost two considerablely talented players on defense and will that blow be big enough to keep them out of the playoffs? I doubt it because their offense has matured well enough and Eli should be able to carry a team to a couple of wins just by himself this year.

In the playoffs, you can never count out Brett Favre and certainly he’s not done with the way he played last year. Cold weather will be not be an issue and just might be something to provide Jets’ fans with something to hope for. However, let’s all be realistic. The Jets went 4-12 last year and just making the playoffs this year will be a dramatic improvement so I doubt they advance much further even though I do have them winning a game in the post-season.

Is this the year that Tony Romo finally breaks through and stops choking in the clutch? I think so. Packers losing Favre drops their main threat to be #1 once again in the conference and they had all the opportunities in the world to beat the Giants last year in the Divisional Round and if Romo can control the ball, they would have at least been a game away from going to the Super Bowl. No reason to expect the same progress this year, if not a little bit more poise and potentially a couple more wins in the post-season.

Does a Manning win a Super Bowl this year as well? Well that would make it three years in a row with Peyton and his Colts beating the Bears in 2007 although the loss of Jeff Saturday in the early parts of the season can slow down their progress but probably not enough to keep them from winning the division yet again en route to the Super Bowl XLIII victory on February 1, 2009.

Predictions are after the break.

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So as you could have probably deciphered from the previous post that the Packers put a beat down on the Seahawks. Certainly, I failed to account for the weather that certainly affected both teams. The slick ball early on caused two fumbles for the Packers even though the second one was a solid tackle from the defense. On the flip side, Seahawks were never able to get going offensively where balls they should have caught slipped out of their hands and the running game was seemingly stuck in the snow. I was afraid the youth of the Packers would finally catch up with them and it showed a little bit early when Grant fumbled on the first two drives but boy did he make up for it with franchise record for rushing yards in a post season game. Another well played game by Brett Favre and his wide receivers who continue to get a majority of their yardage after catching the ball (YAC!). Now they go on to face the winner of the Giants/Cowboys game (vs. Giants at home, on the road if against Cowboys). Oh by the way, Brett Favre is 0-9 in his career at Texas Stadium.

Well here we go, NFL Divisional Playoff Weekend is just about here.

Seahawks at Packers (Saturday @ 4:30 on FOX)
I really want to see how Brett Favre decides to play this football game. He has lost 6 of his last 8 playoff games and could be his last game in Green Bay. Hopefully he does not play like he did in the Dallas game, going back and just slinging every pass 50 yards down the field. The Packers need to continue doing what got them to the playoffs this season – spread out the wide receivers and allow them to gain yards after the catch as well as using Ryan Grant to keep defenses honest. I think if the Packers still to that game plan, Seattle just cannot score enough points to beat them this year, maybe if they had Shaun Alexander of a couple of years ago where they would run over everyone but this year they ranked 20th in the league on the ground and with passing game that is only decent, I think Green Bay squeaks out a win in Lambeau Field. Green Bay 27-24.

That’s why you play the entire 60 minutes. Jaguars give up a 18 point lead in the 4th quarter but come back for a 31-29 victory. They are the only visiting team to win in Pittsburgh this year and they did it twice, hats off to the Jags. I apologize to any Steelers fan that I might have teased during the game, they did play one heck of a game.

In the earlier game, Seattle seemingly dominated that game early on with tons of pressure on Collins and the Redskins never really got into the groove of things. You have to admire what they did, winning four straight but you can only run so high on emotion and the Seahawks were just the more talented team Saturday.

I went 1/2 with my picks today… can use a little boost from the Giants tomorrow if they decide to show up to play. The Chargers game seems like a blow out but I guess that is why you play the game.

In other news, ABC in conjunction with Facebook held back to back debates which was entertaining. In the Republican corner, I think John McCain and Fred Thompson did real well, keeping their collective cool and Romney took quite a beating from all corners. Iowa winner Mike Huckabee did pretty well to avoid any major arguments that usually the front runner from Iowa might face. I think he is going to have a strong showing in New Hampshire even though I still think McCain and Romney finish 1-2. Does two second place finishes for Romney where he has heavily spent time and money mark the end of his campaign? I doubt it but I am not sure how many more hits they can take.

Before I call it a night, I wanted to get my playoff predictions in for the first round at least. Feel free to post your predictions in comments section.

The four games this weekend are Washington at Seattle and Jacksonville at Pittsburgh on Saturday while New York Football Giants at Tampa Bay and Tennessee at San Diego are on Sunday.

I think the Redskins are a great feel good story after the death of Sean Taylor. They won their last 4 games to get into the playoffs and look for them to ride that at pull off an upset at Seattle. The Seahawks to me never really got things going on the ground with Shaun Alexander who only got 700 yards on the season while the Redskins have really come together. Look for Clinton Portis to get a pair of rushing touchdowns and I will take Washington in this one, 24-14.

Jaguars at Steelers is probably the marquee match up this weekend. The Jaguars pulled out a gutsy 7 point win in Pittsburgh about 3 weeks ago in the snowy and awful conditions. I think the Steelers will be better prepared for the Jaguars this time but the loss of Willie Parker has to hurt their chances. Big Ben has been a total monster this season with 30+ TD passes but I do not think that will be enough as the balanced Jaguars attack will once again tame the Steelers. Jaguars by 3, 27-24.