Seahawks 30 - Cowboys 27: The Seahawks get their business together in time to take care of Dallas.  I think Seattle could make a nice little playoff run as they're finally getting things together.

Patriots 34 - Jets 13: I think New England is just too good for Mangini and his Jets come playoff team.  Brady dusts off the playoff magic.

Eagles 24 - Giants 20: Jeff Garcia continues the magically run as the Giants simply run out of gas after their late season collapse.

Cowboys 24 - Seahawks 13: There is nothing more painful to me than calling a Cowboy win, but the 'hawks are weakass this year, won't get any better in the playoffs, and the boys'll lose big in the second round anyway.

Jets 16 - Patriots 14: I am excited about this game. It's my upset pick of the week (I don't make this kind of pick every week, but I got a feeling about the Jets here). This is going to be a great game, and I think it fuels the undermanned (a relative term) Pats to retool for a serious title run next year - even though I hope Brady never wins as many as Montana, for purely selfish reasons. The Jets aren't really in the Pats league, but I think they win this in a low scoring game. If the scored go any higher, though, the Jets just won't be able to score enough touchdowns to keep up.

Eagles 28 - Giants 10: I like Eli, I really do, and I can't stand Garcia, I really can't, but this game is going to be nothing more than a matter of experience and grit. The Giants have shown little of either this year, and even without McNabb the Eagles have shown both. It's not really close in my mind.

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Note: before the season I predicted an Eagles/Colts Super Bowl with the Colts winning out. Now, I think we're going to see a Colts/Saints Super Bowl with an NFC win (my Manning Bias is killing my reason here a little, but I still couldn't pick him to win it all with that defense). But really, the game I'm hoping for, what I think would be the best possible game would be Saints/Chargers, and as great as it would be to see Marty win one I have to pull for the Saints in that scenario.

Before the season, I predicted an all-Manning Super Bowl -- Colts/Giants. But although both teams are in, I can't see either making it now. Eli just isn't developing as I thought he would (too many bad habits), and I think this Colts team is the worst they've had since 2002. My revised Super Bowl pick is Chargers/Saints.

NE - I don't know how the Jets are doing it but they won't get it done against NE.

Seattle - The play calling in Dallas has been horrible the last couple games but they again Seattle hasn't looked very good.

Eagles - I like to Eagles just for the fact that I think the success Jeff Garcia is having is a little humorous.

- Dallas Cowboys @ Seattle Seahawks - Seattle's defense just isn't that good, but the 'Boys have been struggling on offense. Parcells will motivate the team and get them on track. Also, Seattle can't do much offensively right now. Alexander will get shut down by a stingy Cowboys defense.
Cowboys 21, Seattle 9.

- New York Jets @ New England Patriots - Patriots at home in the playoffs? Easy call. The Jets don't stand a chance, but will make it close.
NE 23, NYJ 17.

- New York Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles - The G-men can't close games out and the Eagles are hot. Look for the Giants to jump out to a decent lead, but Garcia will lead an amazing comeback and the Eagles will win it in OT.
Phi 30 NYG 27. (OT)

I think Fooch gets the award for closest guess, mostly because he picked the winner and had lower scores for both than most everybody else.

Any objections?

So who will win the Seattle/Dallas game? I hope it's not me, because I picked Dallas to win.

gatling got closer to the actual scores, by going lower, but I'm giving it to Fooch because he picked it to come down to a field goal and it very literally did in the last two minutes.

So, unless there are any objections, after one day of playoffs that makes the score such:

Fooch - 2
Me - 0
You Guys - 0

We've got some catching up to do.

Even though Fooch technically wins this one by the thinnest of margins, I'll call that margin thin enough to award the tie because, damn, he's running away with this weekend.

Fooch - 2.5
Sprint Right Option - 0.5
Me - 0
Everybody Else - 0

One game to go this week, and unless there are any objections that's where we stand.

He's a hustler, baby

Fooch is running away with it. If it wasn't for Sprint Right Option tying him on both of today's games and saving face for the little man (identical predictions in this last game, even, both within one point of the final score), it would have been a clean sweep for the man at the top.

So the scores at the end of wild card play stand as such:

Fooch - 3
Spring Right Option - 1
Me - 0
Everybody Else - 0

Sorry to those who didn't get points because they didn't give scores. I only thought of this yesterday, and wish I could have given you a chance this weekend.

Anyway, with a full 7 games left on the playoff schedule, Fooch could clinch the postseason prediction tie as early as next Saturday and the win as early as Sunday. It's looking like SRO is making the best push for a comeback, but it's still anybody's game!

Here's to next week. For that, this open competition will be continued in a new Diary not long from now.

In fact what do you guys think of this: Set it up as a contest and whomever has the best record over a set of time gets to do a post to the main page on a topic of their choice (obviously nothing obscene or anything like that)?  By next fall I hope we have a nice little community developed making something like this all the more competitive.