Wild Card Weekend this season illustrates one of the flaws in the NFL’s playoff system.
You’ve got arguably the second or third best team in the NFC in San Francisco facing off with Green Bay. But the 12-4 team has to go to Lambeau Field as a visitor to the 8-7-1 Packers.
None of the Zoneblitz pickers, however, think it’s going to make much difference. The 49ers have beaten Green Bay soundly three consecutive times. Despite the return of Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb, it seems Tony, Anthony and I all think the wild card team in this case has a pretty good shot to win.
San Francisco isn’t the only road team seen as a favorite by our pickers. Kansas City is given the nod by two of the three. What road team do you think has the best shot to win this weekend? Check out our picks and then vote on the poll below.
Andy
Tony
Maggio
Saturday, January 4
Kansas City at Indianapolis
Kansas City
Indianapolis
Kansas City
New Orleans at Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Sunday, January 5
San Diego at Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
San Francisco at Green Bay
San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco
Which road team has the best chance to win on Wild Card Weekend?
As we ring in the new year and celebrate 2013, it seems like a fitting time to wrap up the standings for our regular season bets and picks.
We had a couple rough weeks toward the end of the season picking games, but week 17 was a solid effort all around. Tony, Anthony Maggio and I wrapped up with 13-3 weeks while Rich nailed 12 of 16. Our season totals ranged from 154 correct to 166. For what it’s worth, that would rank us toward the middle to top end of the ESPN experts, save for Ron Jaworksi, who hit 174.
It also puts us in the upper 20th percentile or so at NFLPickwatch.com, which ranks experts from a number of sites.
Several more upsets dropped three of us to 9-7 and one to 8-8 heading into the regular season’s final weekend. So, like most NFL teams, we hope to be hitting our stride as the playoffs hit, but like many, we are sort of limping to the finish line.
Regardless, it’s overall been a solid season for our straight-up picks. Here are the standings heading into week 17.
Week 16
Season
Andy
9-7
153-86-1
Tony
9-7
153-86-1
Maggio
8-8
144-95-1
Rich
9-7
142-97-1
There are still playoff positions up for grabs and several head-to-head games with win-or-go-home ramifications. Some, such as the Packers/Bears and Eagles/Cowboys tilts, feel as though they’re mostly determining who gets to lose to the wild card participants in the first round of the playoffs, but others will determine division champions and bye weeks.
Minnesota dominating against Philadelphia? Dallas blowing a 147 point halftime lead against Green Bay? Cincinnati laying an egg in its opportunity to claim the AFC’s second seed after New England laid an egg in its opportunity to claim the number one seed from Denver after the Broncos laid an egg against San Diego?
A lot of teams had chances to provide some clarity to the playoff situation in week 15 and a lot of teams dropped the ball. And it showed in our picks for the week. Rich capitalized. The rest of us put up pretty bad weeks.
Here are the standings heading into week 16:
Week15
Season
Andy
7-9
144-79-1
Tony
8-8
144-79-1
Maggio
7-9
136-87-1
Rich
10-6
133-90-1
Well, there aren’t a ton of great games on the schedule for the second to last week of the season, but there are a couple solid tilts. And there are a lot of match-ups that, once again, could shed some light on who we will be watching as the calendar turns.
He and Maggio tied at 13-3 in week 14, giving my brother a 25-7 mark the last 32 games – and pulling him within a single game of my season-long lead.
Rich has matched Tony’s 25-7 for the last two weeks, but slid to 11-5 in week 14. Overall, I’d say, we suck at betting but when the picks are straight up, we’re holding our own fairly well.
Here are the standings after week 14:
Week 14
Season
Andy
11-5
137-70-1
Tony
13-3
136-71-1
Maggio
13-3
129-78-1
Rich
11-5
123-84-1
The season is winding down and while there are few great match-ups this week, very little is wrapped up and there are a number of teams that must win to improve their playoff chances.
Well, the end of week 13 put us three-quarters of the way through the season. As we head toward the home stretch, we all seem to be at least semi-catching on to what the NFL looks like in 2013.
Two of us hit 12 and the other two of us got 10 of 16 games correct. While there is some separation between the top and bottom of our standings, each of us is holding our own throughout the long, strange trip the NFL season typically becomes.
Here are the standings after week 13:
Week 13
Season
Andy
10-6
126-65-1
Tony
12-4
123-68-1
Maggio
10-6
116-75-1
Rich
12-4
112-79-1
Now that I’ve bragged up our proficiency, we’ll undoubtedly run into a weekend in which three quarters of the game end up in upsets. It happens all the time. Just when you start to think you’ve got things figured out …
So, here’s who we think will win in week 14: (more…)
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Paul I hope so and that depends if the process changes again
if Hall stays with one coach and one contributor finalists-you can be certain Bill and Kraft will again be those…
I’m also on PFRA under the name PFHOFlover
Robert I think they try Kraft again because he’s the most popular contributor finalist
Paul I hope so