IT'S THE 2012-13 NFL DIVISIONAL ROUND THREAD

Ravens vs. Broncos
Seahawks vs. Falcons
Packers vs. 49ers
Texans vs. Patriots

I'm picking the home team in all four, but the NFC games really could go either way.

Ya this NFC field is really strong. I feel like Atlanta/Seattle will be very competitive. I'm picking GB because I'm a homer. Also if you subscribe to the theory that how you end the regular season generally dictates how you do in the playoffs, GB had a better second half than San Fran.

As for the AFC both could be blowouts. Don't think the Ravens have a chance in hell. But I do think that the Texans could legitimately frustrate the Pats defense and I'm taking Texans +10 all day. Yes they got destroyed in the regular season, but didn't the Jets have an awful, awful game in Foxboro and then pull it out in the rematch?

Saturday (January 12, 2013):
4:30pm ET - (4) Baltimore Ravens at (1) Denver Broncos - AFC Divisional Playoffs (CBS)

8:00pm ET - (3) Green Bay Packers at (2) San Francisco 49ers - NFC Divisional Playoffs (Fox)

Sunday (January 13, 2012):
1:00pm ET - (5) Seattle Seahawks at (1) Atlanta Falcons - NFC Divisional Playoffs (Fox)

4:30pm ET - (3) Houston Texans at (2) New England Patriots - AFC Divisional Playoffs (CBS)

i think NE can make schaub throw the ball more than is good for him and that is the only reason i see them winning that game. the regular season meeting was an extreme example of that. i think this one will be close into the 4th.

i can see baltimore struggling to score points; i can't see that happening for denver

every offensive snap green bay takes they the niners linemen will start a yard into the backfield. i'm not sold on kaepernick at all but they have something working right now and if that continues and SF can score some they will win the game

seattle is the away team imo who is a. most likely to win while also b. most likely to get pounded. just a feeling i have but i think atlanta are going to beat them up.

As good as this Denver team has been, I still secretly wish Peyton had gone to San Francisco so I could watch Manning vs. Brady Super Bowls until they both die on the field.

I give the Ravens a good chance in this game. However, if Denver turns up the pass rush, it could be curtains. Rice has to have a big game.

Pats should obliterate the Texans.

Niners over Packers. This is a battle for the ages, but i think the week off helps the Niners. The are a more physical team than the Packers and should be able to wear them down.

Everybody knows where i stand on the Sea/Atl game.

For me the 49ers game boils down to whether Justin Smith can play or not. If he plays half the snaps I think they win the game.

after 4 projected days of highs at 55+ degrees in denver, saturday's projected high is...19 deg. brrrrr, peyty.

there are still ppl here who seriously wanna bring the superbowl to denver. lol and ngh.

broncos
seahawks
niners
pats

“I’m just gonna say it, I think Mike Shanahan — the coach of the Washington Redskins — could be compared to the character that DiCaprio plays in Django,” Joyner said.

“You’re absolutely right,” comedian J.A. Brown said. “Keep fighting, Negros.”

“Keep fighting,” Joyner echoed. “Keep fighting. RGIII had no business playing.”

“At all,” Brown agreed.

“The team’s doctor says that he was not cleared to play,” Joyner continued, slightly confusing the story. (According to USA Today, Dr. James Andrews had not examined RGIII before he re-entered last month’s game against the Ravens. There have been no indications that doctors wanted RGIII out against the Seahawks.)

“Mike Shanahan put him in there anyway,” Joyner went on. “If you saw the movie, just like DiCaprio had the Mandingos fighting in the room. That’s what he did. That’s what he did to RGIII.”

“He’s as bad as the white man in Django?” asked Brown, still sounding uncertain.

“He’s as bad as the mean white man in Django,” Joyner said.

I have listened to Joyner maybe five times in my life and this doesn't surprise me...?

Seems just like your usual radio brickbat kind of stuff, just a different audience.

Ravens vs. Broncos- Is it just me or the whole sermon dance farewell routine pretty cheezy? It's probably somewhat me as I have hated that bragadocio b.s. B-more has done for years. I hope the Broncos f-in roll 'em just physically running the ball over them, Manning doing his thing (i.e. beating B-more again) and Joe Flacco coming up flacid in a playoff game.

Seahawks vs. Falcons- This Falcon team is in a similar place the Colts with Manning quite a few years back, until they prove they can win a couple playoff games, they are not going to be favorites. Seattle is looking pretty damn good right now, that defense is crazy fast. I think the game is a pick em' and I can't decide quite yet on the winner. I'm curious on this one, as it is a huge game for Atlanta. They don't win, it really is going to put a pallor on really a nice 5 year run during the regular season. Seattle is on the upswing and on the road with a rookie QB, they are playing with house money at this point.

Packers vs. 49ers- I think this game could go either way, but all those points SF gave up to NE and the Seattle blowout kinda have me leaning GB, as if SF gets up 2 scores the Packers are not out of it at all, but vice versa the Niners are kinda toast. I figure this could be the game of the week.

Texans vs. Patriots- It's NE and I and the world will be shocked if Houston wins. On paper it's probably closer than that, but no one's going to buy it until it happens. But hey, sometimes those kinda upsets happen just usually to the Steelers and not the Pats.

http://twitpic.com/bte88d

:o(

broncos, falcons, niners, texans

broncos hawks niners pats

jets press conference is painful

"I inherited a team that was 31st in the league in defense and made them better," Ryan told ESPNDallas.com's Tim MacMahon. "I (expletive) made them a hell of a lot better. I'll be out of work for like five minutes."

This is pretty funny, I got to say.

he's right

this is pretty good:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8828013/how-return-simplicity-peyton-manning-indy-offense-ignited-denver-broncos

this is incredible

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/21533403/watch-michael-robinson-documents-shoddy-fedex-field

Yikes, that looks pretty bad.

The Titans field looked like that for a really long time in the early 00s (and still may, but I don't live in the Titans market anymore and see so few of their games). I'm surprised more players didn't get severely injured there.

lol they weren't even playing on grass last weekend

Green dirt.

i had read something about how they had declined to re-turf late in the season. personally i would've thought - and i may just be pulling this out of my ass - if the best thing about your team is you lead the nfl in total rushing, you probably would benefit from a decent surface.

It's embarrassing. then again, it's dan snyder.

http://profootballmock.com/nfl-qbs-on-facebook-wild-card-bitches/

That was incredibly bad.

Eh. I enjoyed it.

cut that meat

yeah you prob don't want to let that happen bmore

well this is more entertaining at least

not your average joe

uh oh peyton

tripping, no interference

ageless

this fun

God I hate Peyton manninig. Go ravens!

so torrey smith is the raven's game plan

I would say that's a pretty good move. Also, ravens o line keeping flacco upright.

well at least flacco made one good throw

shits poppin now

baltimore are not good enough to win this game

wow

"there's no foul for excess celebration"

basically this game = flacco missing two passes that could've been touchdowns and peyton being laser-perfect

looks like we're back to manning as usual

dont stop til you get enuf

"lets see how resilient the ravens can be"
*joe flacco soft tosses the ball to no one"

Frustrating

amazing - vereen has not had a lot of playing time this season compared to ridley, I think

thank you reiss @ espn:

Shane Vereen has played a career-high 31 snaps in today's game. His previous high was 24, versus the Texans on Dec. 10, 2012.

is the texans returner particularly good, or are pats special teams garbage today except for the kicker/punter

hes a manning so excels vs the pats

Then he's closer to Eli, cuz Peyton always has shat himself against the pats

do texans have a hurry-up offense???

oh no the gronk might be out for the rest of the playoffs!

ninkovich can prob fill in 4 gronk too

they seem to be playing OK without him

Phil Simms is a terrible announcer

that's why I'm watching Sherlock Holmes rn

wow pats take a knee

i don't think these announcers have told me anything useful about this game

wait, now texans run a no huddle offense with one minute and no time outs and throw it down the middle of the field??

haha phil advocating the fg

simms with the out of the box thinking

nance would have none of it

"won't do them much good"

i always wonder how much time it takes brady to choose his outfit for these postgame press conferences

lotta points in these games, dag

omg spikes

http://gif.mocksession.com/2013/01/brandon-spikes-dance/

― seriously, THIS GUY (daria-g), Sunday, January 13, 2013 6:56 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

by rule if you do this dance the refs are required to award yr team the ball

can we talk about how stupid the decision to run on 3rd and 5 was for the Broncos when a first down literally wins the game. a run's going to get stuffed nearly always since Baltimore has to sell out on it. and who better to direct and throw a simple 5-yard route? Manning should have advanced!

it's almost as if john fox is a terrible coach

since mike mccoy is interviewing for every available head coaching job anyway they might as well just ax fox and promote him

broncos made a lot of really dumb play calls, they should find a new coach, tho i dont think anyones going to be able to coach peyton into being able to throw further than ten yards

PUZZLE TIME!
complete the following sentence:

Mike McCoy is a head coaching candidate in the NFL because...

broncos made a lot of really dumb play calls, they should find a new coach, tho i dont think anyones going to be able to coach peyton into being able to throw further than ten yards

― lag∞n, Monday, January 14, 2013 9:34 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

or suddenly be possessed by the spirit of brett favre

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18bbm90kx7errgif/original.gif

peyton manning, jazz man

Peyton gave away that game as though it were 2 million free Papa John's pizzas

he played well enough until the crazy ot pick, but does peyty have the means to build a dome for denver by next season? i guess that still doesnt remedy his noodle arm

that gif is hypnotic

if the broncos ever had to throw a hail mary to win a game, they would pull peyton right? no way he can throw the ball 50+ yards

he is basically chad pennington

i wonder how many yards his furthest ball traveled in that game

a friend of mine has an elaborate home theater in which every football sunday he hosts a gathering of xtreme broncos fans, all them sitting stunned in their captains chairs, beautiful

that is a treat

heard that Fox made the call to pass on that 3rd down play. Peyton changed it at the line of scrimmage to a run.

O RLY

seemed like peyton audibled to runs on third down a weird amount of the time on sunday

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18bbm94j872cogif/original.gif

the one thing that has stopped peyton becoming an elite qb is his lack of confidence in himself to make plays

peyton looks so terrible wearing a football uniform, it's rather absurd

O RLY

source: Mike and Mike, this morning on the drive into work

interesting

source: @johnfox

people were killing fox for kneeling at the end of regulation too but i wonder if they didn't think they could move the ball in that period of time because of peyton's arm

The Broncos called runs for rookie Ronnie Hillman on the next five plays. Denver picked up one first down, and, after a Hillman carry for no yards on a third-and-seven, the Broncos punted with 1:15 remaining.

"That was an audible," Manning said. "Actually, I called that play, so don't put that on (offensive coordinator) Mike (McCoy). We just didn't do much with it."

Peyton should probably stick to his Buick when calling audibles

old qb audibles at cloud

i haven't read easterbrook in years, but i may this week just to see if he defends the alleged audible under his theory of running out the clock

to be fair, taking that extra 40 seconds off the clock seems pretty defensible unless your dime+ package gets burned deep by joe the flacco

I was really struck by how weird it is to watch a John Fox Broncos team...even though it's been years I still think of them as a Shannahan team and in games like that you really see the difference.