The Brain is a Funny Thing
While watching the Superbowl yesterday I was very excited and I assumed that it was because other recent Superbowls have been blowouts, or at least (I told myself) because the winner was never really in doubt.
But then I got to thinking about last years game between the Giants and the Patriots and I remembered that it was actually pretty close and it really could have gone either way. So I did a little digging to see what the scores from recent years have actually been:
2009: Pittsburgh Steelers 27–23 Arizona Cardinals
2008: New York Giants 17–14 New England Patriots
2007: Indianapolis Colts 29–17 Chicago Bears
2006: Pittsburgh Steelers 21–10 Seattle Seahawks
2005: New England Patriots 24–21 Philadelphia Eagles
2004: New England Patriots 32–29 Carolina Panthers
2003: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48–21 Oakland Raiders
So the games between the Colts and the Bears in 2007 and the Steelers and the Seahawks in 2006 were never really in doubt, but you have to go all the way back to the Bucs vs. Raiders game in 2003 to find a true blowout. The rest of these games were within 4 points!
I’m sure that all of these games were exciting in their own way, but it seems pretty typical that the brain tells you that the thing you remember the best (ie. the most recent game) must have been the most interesting or exciting thing to happen in a long time.
The brain is a pretty funny thing!
Divisional Champions
Probably the biggest surprise in a weekend of upsets is that the only favorite to hold up was Pittsburgh. Although the Steelers had the highest ranked defence in the league this year, they seemed very beatable most of the season. Even still they managed to make the Chargers look like a college team, and they look very good going into the AFC Championship next weekend.
The other upsets were all reasonably predictable, especially Baltimore holding off the Titans (who never really seemed to deserve their amazing record), and in particular I don’t think anyone was surprised that the Giants lost to the Eagles (who beat them in Philly in week 14) as their season ending skid (they lost 3 of their last 4) was particularly ugly (can anyone say Plaxico?).
Jake Delhomme personally managed to ensure that the Panthers would not be able to stand up to the streaking Cardinals by allowing 6 (yes, six) turnovers (5 INT, 1 FUM). On the other hand Kurt Warner looked solid and made some very nice touch passes to lead Arizona to an easy win. Who could ever have imagined that Arizona would be hosting the NFC Championship game?? I wonder what the Vegas odds were on that back in September??
So the lineup for the Conference Championship round will be:
NFC
(Jan 18 @ 3:00 ET)
Philadelphia vs Arizona
AFC
(Jan 18 @ 6:30 ET)
Baltimore vs Pittsburgh
Birds In, Fins/Vikes Out
Well it was a day for the lower seeds as the Ravens and the Eagles preyed on the favorites in the second day of Wild card games. With the way these two teams have been playing lately, this is really no surprise…
So the lineup for the Divisional round will be:
SATURDAY
Baltimore at Tennessee
Arizona at Carolina
SUNDAY
Philadelphia at New York Giants
San Diego at Pittsburgh
Good luck next week!
Indy / Atlanta Out, SD / Arizona In
So the higher seeds held up today (going counter to the Vegas odds AND the majority of players in our pool) and will advance to the Divisional round next week. But the real story is that those of us that took Indy to win the Superbowl are pretty much eliminated from contention in this pool. I haven’t checked to see if we are mathematically out, but I’m pretty sure…
UPDATE: Well, I did a bit of playing and it seems that since nobody took Arizona or San Diego to advance very far, it is still possible for those of us that took Indy to go all the way to win the pool. It’s not very likely, but possible!
NFL Playoffs 2009 Pick Summary
A summary of everyone’s picks is now available:
http://www.poolaholic.com/nfl-playoffs-2009/pick-summary/
We have 13 entries this year and so the prize breakdown is as follows:
| Prizes | Total | $ 260 |
| 1st | 60% | $ 155 |
| 2nd | 25% | $ 65 |
| 3rd | 10% | $ 25 |
Good luck to everyone!
NFL Playoffs 2009
The playoff pool details are up… Check it out:
