NFL Playoff Preview with Eric Mangini Bringing the Coffee

Last weekend's road team success didn't quite turn out the way I had envisioned, with Arizona advancing over Atlanta and San Diego advancing over the Colts. For some reason, I thought that the Colts were over their fear of advancing in the playoffs but it turns out that they've now lost in the first round of the playoffs in three of the last four years. Yeah, that's one great (regular season) team.

Anyway, here are my predictions for this weekend's game, which match up some of the best defenses in the league against each other. Winning team is in CAPS.

Saturday, January 10
BALTIMORE at Tennessee
I feel like Tennessee has been a fluky team all year long and has really struggled down the stretch. I know that they have the best record in the NFL this year and I know that they have home field advantage. I also know that their quarterback is still Kerry Collins.

Arizona at CAROLINA
I was shocked to see Arizona win last weekend. I'll be even more shocked if Arizona is even in this game at halftime this week.

Sunday, January 11
PHILADELPHIA at NY Giants
I'm going to keep sticking with my philosphy of picking against the Giants for the entire season and take Philadelphia in this game. And I actually like this pick. The Giants have also struggled down the stretch, have some key injuries and still have no answer for a healthy Brian Westbrook.

San Diego at PITTSBURGH
I hate Pittsburgh as much as the next person but I just don't see a banged up San Diego team waltzing into the Ketchup Bottle and knocking off the Steelers, with or without a healthy Ben Roethlesberger. The one thing I would like to see is LaDainian Tomlinson sitting on the sidelie for the entire game in street clothes and not necessarily because he's hurt. I just don't think he's very good in big games.

As a follow up to my article yesterday about Eric Mangini being hired as the next Cleveland Browns head coach, here's some video of the news conference. I'm even more confused now. Is Mangini going to be the head coach or is he going to be getting coffee? I predict the Browns will be 3-13 next year.