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2013-14 NFL Playoff Predictions thread....


paul carruthers

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Peyton throws 2-3 TD's.

Either Peyton or Wes Welker are the MVP.

potted's boyfriend plays a significant roll as well.

Jabe, I usually see eye to eye with you. Not here. Seattle's D will pose big problems for Manning. And Lynch is going to carry two or three of those chumps on his back to get yardage. The secondary will get lit up like a Xmas tree. You think their D is in the same class as SF? Hell no

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Jabe, I usually see eye to eye with you. Not here. Seattle's D will pose big problems for Manning. And Lynch is going to carry two or three of those chumps on his back to get yardage. The secondary will get lit up like a Xmas tree. You think their D is in the same class as SF? Hell no

And I generally agree with you.

I'm including the Elway factor in my decision.

edited to add little Peyton (Eli) and any particular nuances he tells big bro about the field.

Also, gotta agree with potted on the "intellect" part.

Going with qb "smarts", I'm taking Peyton.

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And I generally agree with you.

I'm including the Elway factor in my decision.

Must be honest here. I hate Elway. Always have. Arrogant prick is what he is. Cannot stand him. No better than Kelly or Marino, just got lucky to have everything fall into place for him at the right time. Title game in Buffalo, Bills won

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Must be honest here. I hate Elway. Always have. Arrogant prick is what he is. Cannot stand him. No better than Kelly or Marino, just got lucky to have everything fall into place for him at the right time. Title game in Buffalo, Bills won

Pretty much agree.

"But this is business, it's not personal".

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Pretty much agree.

"But this is business, it's not personal".

Yep. I'm cold blooded as hell when I pick,

Unless it's the Dats. If I thought Seattle

could/would beat Denver, I would pick them

no matter how much I respect and admire

Manning. It's just business anyway.

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Both qb's played at Giants Stadium this year. What will Eil tell him that he doesn't already know? It's not like the Giants have played in that stadium in Jan/Feb. As far as the intellect part, not trying to read too much into that but Manning's playoff record is 11-11 and not all 11 losses were to Tom Brady.

I'm starting to get really pumped up about this game!

Edit: to correct his playoff record.

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Both qb's played at Giants Stadium this year. What will Eil tell him that he doesn't already know? It's not like the Giants have played in that stadium in Jan/Feb. As far as the intellect part, not trying to read too much into that but Manning's playoff record is 11-11 and not all 11 losses were to Tom Brady.

I'm starting to get really pumped up about this game!

Edit: to correct his playoff record.

I know Seattle beat the Giants up there. I did not realize Denver played their? I assume vs Giants? Or was it Jets? I will have to look it up. But we know Peyton has played in that stadium more than Wilson. It matters not. The defense of Seattle is far better than Denver's.

OK. I looked it up. Week two at Giants Denver killed them just like Seattle did later on.

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So four of us are tied at 8-2...Bong-Man, jb126, pottedplant, and yours truly. Everyone else is two or more games behind, so it is only us four, and chances are it'll end up a tie, unless only one of us chooses either Seattle or Denver. I'll make my pick later.

But I have to laugh at all the hullaballoo over the weather and other silliness that people stir up during the interminable two-week wait for the Super Bowl. That's why I was away from this thread for so long...not just because my friend was in town, but because I purposely ignore the talking heads if I can for that first week or so of what many people call "the silly season".

The first casualty of the silly season was Richard Sherman. You know, football is played at a highly charged and emotional level...especially a championship playoff game. If you stick a microphone in a player's face mere seconds after an emotional finish to a tightly-contested battle, don't be surprised and shocked...shocked!...if the player doesn't exactly comport himself like Mr. Rogers. It's a whole different neighborhood, children.

How typical, also, that after many talking heads took it upon themselves to put words into Richard Sherman's mouth as to what he said to Michael Crabtree after the game, the NFL's own tapes revealed he was merely saying "good game, good game". Move along people...nothing to see here. Both players were talking trash to each other throughout the game, as many receivers and cornerbacks do throughout the league. On this particular day, Sherman had the last word.

Richard Sherman graduated from Stanford with a 3.8 GPA, which is probably a bigger accomplishment than any of the tv talking heads and bloviating blogosphere bigots calling him "thug" have achieved in their sorry lives.

Seriously though, the NFL might want to consider abolishing the inane farce of Erin Andrews or Michelle Tafoya sticking a mic to a player seconds after a game and asking "What was he thinking when he made a particular play?" "Ummm, Erin, I was thinking I better remember to pick up milk and diapers on the way home or my wife will kill me."

The other subject that has everyone in a tizzy is the apparently disastrous chance that the Super Bowl will be played outdoors...in the COLD! :o Heavens to Betsy! Oh my!

Has everyone forgotten that NFL Championship games used to be played in the cold outdoors all the time? Some of the great iconic games of NFL history...the Ice Bowl, the 1958 Colts-Giants title game at Yankee Stadium that put the NFL on the sporting map for good...were played outdoors in tough conditions. Football belongs on grass in the outdoors, whatever the elements.

Unless the Saints are playing, most games in domes are antiseptic bores...there's no passion in the crowd, no atmosphere. Just a big ugly dome. Contrast that with the great blimp shots you get at outdoor stadiums of the crowd and the colours of the field and the surrounding city and countryside. Hold every Super Bowl at the Superdome? No thanks.

We have had Super Bowls played in perfect weather and conditions for some time now. It'll be refreshing to have a little weather challenge thrown into the mix for once. Fans and players endured it before. They can do so again. Especially those corporate pricks that get most of the seats anyway. Let 'em freeze.

For those too young to remember, here's a little history lesson on the lineage of cold-weather NFL games and when and why the NFL decided to move the Super Bowl to warm weather neutral-sites...and the change of attitude that has allowed cold-weather sites to come into play again for the Super Bowl.

Cold-weather game has come full circle for the NFL

Richard Rothschild SI.com January 30, 2014

As the National Football League prepares for its first cold-weather Super Bowl, keep this in mind as Sunday's kickoff approaches. Between 1933 and 1965, when the league's title matchup was known simply as the NFL Championship Game and a majority of teams were based in the Northeast and Midwest, nearly all the contests were played in cold and sometimes brutal weather.

The 1945 game in Cleveland took place in the aftermath of a snowstorm, with the temperature below zero. The 1948 game in Philadelphia was played in a snowstorm. Even Los Angeles wasn't immune from the elements. The '49 title game was played during a driving rain that turned the L.A. Coliseum floor to a muddy mess.

But it wasn't until a pair of frosty championship games in the early 1960s that NFL officials started to ask if perhaps it wouldn't be wise to hold the league's showcase game at a neutral, warm-weather site, a place where the condition and skill of the players, and not the condition and chill of the field, would determine the best team.

The irony is that those two games involved the New York Giants, whose MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., serves as the venue for Sunday's Super Bowl XLVIII.

Professional football in the early 1960s is best remembered for the rise of the Green Bay Packers, the Vince Lombardi-led powerhouse that won five world championships in seven years, culminating with victories in the first two Super Bowls. But the most imaginative NFL offense of that time was piling up yards and points along the East River in Yankee Stadium. The New York Giants, led by Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle, were one of the first NFL teams that threw the ball nearly as often as it ran it.

The '62 title game at Yankee Stadium took place in conditions that one local broadcaster called "barbaric." Temperatures barely made it out of the teens and the winds gusted to nearly 40 mph. TV crews built fires in the dugouts to thaw out their cameras. Team benches were blown over. It was not a day for throwing the football.

"The ball was like a diving duck," said Tittle, who completed 18 of 41 passes for 197 yards. "I threw one pass and it almost came back to me."

The run-oriented Packers proved superior as Hall of Famer Jim Taylor rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown and Jerry Kramer kicked three field goals. The Giants' lone score came on a blocked punt as Green Bay won its second straight championship, 16-7.

Surely 1963 would be different for the Giants though. New York had defeated the Bears 26-24 at Wrigley Field during the '62 regular season and both lineups were basically the same. But the '62 game was played with temperatures in the 40s. The '63 title game temperature at kickoff was in single digits with an 11 mph wind blowing off Lake Michigan.

The Giants seemed up to the task, taking a 7-0 lead on a Tittle to Frank Gifford TD pass. The margin nearly grew to 14-0 when Tittle threw to a wide-open Del Shofner at the Chicago goal line, but the ball bounced off the wide receiver's frozen fingers. One play later Bears linebacker Larry Morris intercepted a Tittle screen pass, returning the ball to the Giants 5-yard line. The Bears scored and what could have been a 14-0 Giants lead had turned into a 7-7 game.

Even worse, on the TD pass to Gifford, Morris had rolled into Tittle's legs, injuring the quarterback's left knee. The combination of the cold and pain limited Tittle's effectiveness the rest of the game. The Giants managed to take a 10-7 halftime lead but another Tittle interception (he threw five in the game) set up Chicago's go-ahead score and the Bears defense did the rest for a 14-10 victory.

Would the Giants have prevailed in milder conditions? Considering the quality of a Bears defense that had limited the Packers to a combined 10 points during two regular-season games and created nearly 60 turnovers that is not a given.

But the Giants and their fans could only look longingly at a game that was played one week later in the warmth of southern California. Guided by coach Sid Gillman, the pass-oriented San Diego Chargers threw for more than 300 yards and routed the Boston Patriots 51-10 for the 1963 American Football League championship.

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, a native Californian, certainly took notice. Once the NFL-AFL merger of 1966 created the championship game that would become the Super Bowl, Rozelle and the owners from both leagues agreed that the sport's showcase attraction should be played in the best environment possible.

The first Super Bowl culminated the '66 season in the sun and warmth of the L.A. Coliseum, where the Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. Not only was the weather superior but football looked better. The '65 NFL Championship Game at Green Bay's Lambeau Field had been played on a sub-freezing day that featured intermittent snow and a ghastly muddy field. A TV audience could barely make out the numbers on the white jerseys of the visiting Cleveland Browns.

Super Bowl I was played on an immaculate grass field in the sunshine with temperatures in the 50s. The game eventually would rotate among warm-weather sites and domed stadiums.

When the Giants finally registered their first NFL championship in 30 years at the end of the 1986 season, quarterback Phil Simms completed 22 of 25 passes in the Super Bowl XXI victory over the Denver Broncos. The game was played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. It's difficult to imagine Simms completing 88 percent of his passes in the wind at Yankee Stadium in December 1962 or in the cold of Wrigley Field in December '63.

And it's equally hard imagining Giants wide receiver David Tyree making a one-handed catch of an Eli Manning pass in wintry weather as he did in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., to set up the winning TD against the Patriots at the end of the 2007 season. He might have suffered the same fate as Shofner.

Rozelle, who stepped down as commissioner in 1989, always favored the best possible conditions for players and fans, but his successors took a different view. Paul Tagliabue and Roger Goodell believed good television ratings trumped good weather. Where December and January night games in outdoor Northern stadiums were off-limits for Rozelle, Tagliabue and Goodell endorsed putting the best matchups before a prime-time audience, regardless of location.

Yes, frigid conditions have severely tested players and fans on winter nights in Green Bay, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Foxboro, Mass. But these games are terrific theater for TV audiences watching from the warmth of their living rooms or sports bars. The lower the thermometer drops, the more ratings seem to climb.

Professional football had gone back into the cold.

If the Seattle Seahawks are to play the role of the '63 Bears in defensing the record-setting passing attack of the Denver Broncos, with Peyton Manning playing the part of Y.A. Tittle, it will be interesting to see whether weather returns to a supporting role in the NFL's premier game.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-nfl-super-bowl/news/20140130/cold-weather-super-bowl-nfl-championship-games/#ixzz2rutYWBNk

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Strider-man!!! Now I know all about "cold weather Super Bowls".

What I really want to know is this: your pick.

What is your menu going to be?

In good time, my dear...in good time. Still going over a few details, statistically-speaking. Leaning Seattle's way...but my pick isn't set in stone yet. I'll probably post my official pick tonight or in the morning.

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In good time, my dear...in good time. Still going over a few details, statistically-speaking. Leaning Seattle's way...but my pick isn't set in stone yet. I'll probably post my official pick tonight or in the morning.

Menu, menu. I need some ideas!!'

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Barbeque ribs and chicken. Chili. Burgers. Hot Dogs. Enchiladas. Guacamole and chips. Nachos. Vegetable crudites and dip. Beer. Wine.

Can you provide me a good and easy guacamole recipe? I've got a couple of avacados that will be prime on Sunday. Too many recipes on the web for me to decide...

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And, given your location, maybe add some jambalaya, catfish and beignets?

LOL - you're so cute. I am making a big pan of shrimp jambalaya- but no catfish this time

of year- beignets are way to much trouble to make. We will

have a couple of giant muffalettas and a giant King cake to

kick off the Carnival season and the Super Bowl.

Lots of Abita Springs beer and Black Jack. And chili.

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Can you provide me a good and easy guacamole recipe? I've got a couple of avacados that will be prime on Sunday. Too many recipes on the web for me to decide...

INGREDIENTS
  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 1/2 red onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
  • 1-2 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro (leaves and tender stems), finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
  • A dash of freshly grated black pepper
  • 1/2 ripe tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped

METHOD

1 Cut avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avocado from the peel, put in a stone mortar.

2 Mash the avocados using the pestle. If you don't have a stone mortar and pestle, using a fork, roughly mash the avocado in a mixing bowl. (Don't overdo it! The guacamole should be a little chunky.) Add the chopped onion, cilantro, lime or lemon, salt and pepper and mash some more. Chili peppers vary individually in their hotness. So, start with a half of one chili pepper and add to the guacamole to your desired degree of hotness. Be careful handling the peppers; wash your hands thoroughly after handling and do not touch your eyes or the area near your eyes with your hands for several hours.

Chilling tomatoes hurts their flavor, so don't chop the tomatoes or add to the guacamole until ready to serve.

Remember that much of this is done to taste because of the variability in the fresh ingredients. Start with this recipe and adjust to your taste.

3 Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent oxidation from the air reaching it. Refrigerate until ready.

4 Just before serving, chop the tomato, add to the guacamole and mix.

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Remember when they used to complain how the Super Bowl was always a blow out? Until 1990 and we missed that field goal and after wide right I never heard any more complaining. This year is no different. Certainly you can make a strong argument for both teams. But to me the only real strong argument for Denver is the Manning factor. Peyton no doubt wants to set in stone that he was better than Eli. But should he lose this game, and I think he will, he is still better than Eli all day long.

Could someone please translate those Roman numerals and tell me the number of this Super Bowl?

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