Weekend Prophecies

Lots more excitement in the sports world these days. The line of the week comes from the comment section of the 10 Spot Blog yesterday where someone (I apologize for not having the exact reference here) spoke of the Tuna being unfriendly to the Dolphins. That's right, the big Tuna, Bill Parcells, is cleaning house as the new VP of the Dolphins, firing the coaching staff and starting from scratch in Miami. In more important news (because it involves hockey), Team Canada knocked of the USA this afternoon in the World Junior semifinal to advance and play Sweden for gold tomorrow. Finally, since I've faced a few questions recently about how the whole BCS and college bowl system works, I'd like to direct anyone interested to a very good article posted today by Stewart Mandel on SI. It discusses the (slim) possibility of us seeing a plus-one game or a playoff anytime soon.

What's that Pants? None of this sounds like prophecies? Okay ... Canada's going to kick some Scandinavian butt in the rematch tomorrow ... how's that? Oh, the football picks? Sure. Here we go ...

Redskins at Seahawks
In the beautiful northwest, the 12th man comes out strong and makes lots of noise. Finally people realize that it really doesn't make that much difference to a half-way competent QB to have to use a silent snap count. Unfortunately for Washington, the go to guy this weekend is going to be Todd Collins who has thrown about 4 passes since 1995. Seattle 31 - Washington 24.

Jaguars at Steelers
This is the game of the weekend. It sounds like the weather is going to hold up, if not the field at the Big Ketchup Bottle, so it shouldn't be another 3-0 slogfest like the Monday nighter there a few weeks ago. The Jags ruined Pittsburgh's perfect home season in December and the Steelers are going to sorely miss Willie Parker, but I think that Big Ben is going to step up and be a leader again. This one's going to be close though. Pittsburgh 14 - Jacksonville 13.

Giants at Buccaneers
The Bucs weakness has been their offensive line, which does not bode well for them against the Giants strength, their D-line. I foresee a lot of scrambling around to avoid the rush by Garcia and I'm going to go way out on a limb and call for a good performance from Eli away from the pressure of Giants Stadium. It's always tough to win on the road, especially in the playoffs, but this Giants team has the right stuff to knock of the Bucs. New York 28 - Tampa Bay 17.

Titans at Chargers
In the one oddity of the weekend, the forecast is decent in Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Tampa, but "Dreary" in San Diego. Look for Ladanian Tomlinson to run all over a Tennessee defense that is struggling without being able to rely on the health of Albert Haynesworth. San Diego's ground game will get big clock time and be able to put points up at will. The Titans will play hard as they always do, but injury questions about Vince Young's leg are going to be tough to overcome and they're going to fall to the better team. San Diego 33 - Tennessee 21.