A Preview of the NFL Playoffs

RUSH: All right, folks, National Football League divisional playoffs are this weekend. On Saturday we have the Baltimore Ravens at the Tennessee Titans, who used to be the Houston Oilers, my second favorite football team, coached by Bum Phillips. That’s at 4:15. At eight o’clock on Saturday night we have the Arizona Cardinals in the Eastern time zone where they’ve not done well against the Carolina Panthers. On Sunday at one o’clock we have the Philadelphia McNabbs at the New York Giants. By the way, Hondo, one of my favorite sports columnists of all time, Hondo in the New York Post who does the picks, had to fill up 750 words today with some stuff other than football, ’cause there’s only four games to pick, so he talked to some bio-rhythmic expert. The bio-rhythmic expert said that Sunday is the worst day of the year for Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. Twenty-five times more prone to accidents on Sunday than any day this year.

Now, stick with me on this. Hondo then quoted this expert as saying that McNabb will have the worst game of his career, and Hondo thus predicts the Giants winning 34-9 Sunday afternoon over the Philadelphia Eagles. The Pittsburgh Steelers will host the San Diego Chargers at 4:45 Sunday afternoon. I am going to Pittsburgh for the Steelers, and this is just straight up — this is not points, straight up — the divisional round is an entirely different betting proposition for picking winners than the wild card round. The wild card round, I mean that’s up for grabs and a lot of time the road team favored does win, but in the divisional round, this round, this Sunday, the home team winning statistic since this current playoff formula was devised is something like 71%. So if you are in a straight-up office pool, pick the home team on every one of these games this weekend. If you want to get smart and start trying to figure out, okay, there’s four games, 71% of the home teams, which road team will win, what’s the best bet do you think, Snerdley, of these four games? Here are the road teams: Arizona, Baltimore, San Diego, and Philadelphia. What road team do you think has the best chance of victory this weekend in the divisional round?

Wrong. Snerdley said Philadelphia. It’s the team that has the best defense, and in this case that’s the Baltimore Ravens. You can look at records, and that would argue to the Titans, that would argue for the Panthers, that would argue for the Giants, it would argue for the Steelers, it would argue for the home teams. Now you start putting points, the Chargers are getting six points against the Steelers, six. Now, Hondo today referred to Roethlisberger, the quarterback of the Steelers, as a human statue, because he’s getting sacked, he just stands back there. Six points, the Steelers offense has not been that explosive. The defense is. So it’s going to be fascinating. (interruption) Who’s peaking right now? Who’s peaking right now? Snerdley wants to know who has the mo, who is peaking. Well, it’s tough to say because four of these teams haven’t played in two weeks. See, this momentum business is a tough thing to say. Of the teams that played last weekend, the momentum, you’d have to say Baltimore. Yeah, the Chargers. The Chargers have won five in a row, coming in. But they’re beat up, you know. It’s an interesting slate, it is a fascinating slate.