{"id":670,"date":"2019-01-04T10:12:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T14:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/?p=670"},"modified":"2019-01-04T10:12:34","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T14:12:34","slug":"wild-card-picks-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/?p=670","title":{"rendered":"Wild Card Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Well, I ended the regular season on a shockingly high note. And that&#8217;s got to point to a rough go of it with my wild card picks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I somehow managed to get out of a typically odd week 17 with records of 12-4 picking straight up, and 10-6 against the spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That means I finish the regular season at 163-91-2 (.641) straight up, 124-122-10 (.504) with the points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So bad comes next. Here&#8217;s what not to expect as the playoffs get underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colts.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Indianapolis<\/a> (+1.5) at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.houstontexans.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Houston<\/a><\/strong><br>Each of the regular season matches between these division rivals this year went to the visitors. And while I think the Texans should be able to reverse that trend, I don&#8217;t think they&#8217;ll pull it off. Houston succeeds by stopping the run and rendering opposing offenses one dimensional. That puts the Colts at a rather odd sort of advantage here as Indy comes in with an offense that&#8217;s one dimensional to begin with. I expect an exciting game that goes down to the wire. And I expect to see <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Adam Vinatieri (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/player\/adamvinatieri\/2503471\/profile\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Vinatieri<\/a> yet again put the winning points on the board in the closing seconds of a big game. Colts by two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.seahawks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle<\/a> (+2) at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dallascowboys.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas<\/a> <\/strong><br>I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;d have much trouble picking this game if it were being played in Seattle. And not because the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Seahawks beat the Cowboys (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/gamecenter\/2018092312\/2018\/REG3\/cowboys@seahawks\" target=\"_blank\">Seahawks beat the Cowboys<\/a> handily there back in week three. That&#8217;s way too long ago to actually matter. It&#8217;s because the Seahawks are still the better team, with a balanced offense that should be able to adjust to the Cowboys D as the game wears on. Thing is, I&#8217;m not sure that&#8217;s going to be enough to carry the Seahawks in Dallas. I&#8217;m still taking Seattle, mainly because I just don&#8217;t see anything that would let me feel great about picking Dallas. But I&#8217;m expecting a nail-biter (or I would be if I actually cared about which team wins; I guess I&#8217;m really just expecting a close game). Seahawks by a field goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chargers.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">LA Chargers<\/a> (+2.5) at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoreravens.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Baltimore<\/a><\/strong><br>Things didn&#8217;t go well for the Chargers when <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"these teams met in Los Angeles (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/gamecenter\/2018122201\/2018\/REG16\/ravens@chargers\" target=\"_blank\">these teams met in Los Angeles<\/a> just two weeks ago. I&#8217;m not sure a whole lot has changed since then. Baltimore by seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.philadelphiaeagles.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia<\/a> (+6) at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagobears.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago<\/a><\/strong><br>The Bears in this postseason are going only as far as the NFL&#8217;s best defense will carry them. Chicago has a quarterback who wilts when he faces tough competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"648\" height=\"446\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2018PostseasonQBsvplayoffteams.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-671\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2018PostseasonQBsvplayoffteams.jpg 648w, http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2018PostseasonQBsvplayoffteams-300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s guaranteed to catch up with the team sooner or later, whether it&#8217;s here, next week in Los Angeles or two weeks from now in New Orleans. It won&#8217;t be in the Super Bowl, because the Bears aren&#8217;t getting past the Saints. I won&#8217;t be at all surprised if the Eagles pull off an upset here. But in the end, I think the Chicago D will be just a bit more than Philadelphia can handle. Bears win a low-scoring game by a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.seahawks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;;width: 55px;\" name=\"fb_share\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#appId=125029517579627&amp;xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/?p=670\" send=\"false\" layout=\"button_count\" width=\"55\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"tweetthis\" style=\"text-align:left;\"><p> <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"tt\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Wild+Card+Picks+http%3A%2F%2Fthisfootballblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D670\" title=\"Post to Twitter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"nothumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/tweet-this\/icons\/en\/twitter\/tt-twitter.png\" alt=\"Post to Twitter\" \/><\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"tt\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Wild+Card+Picks+http%3A%2F%2Fthisfootballblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D670\" title=\"Post to Twitter\">Tweet This Post<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, I ended the regular season on a shockingly high note. And that&#8217;s got to point to a rough go of it with my wild card picks. I somehow managed to get out of a typically odd week 17 with records of 12-4 picking straight up, and 10-6 against the spread. That means I finish [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisfootballblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}