Saturday, January 10, 2009

Rugby for fairies, Divisional Playoff, Saturday Game 1

I'm waiting on the weather for the night game.

I dug through the playoff results since 1978. I didn't get the spreads for these games, so I'm working off straight up results. I've determined that the only results that really apply are those from 2002 onward.

There is a marked contrast, for both conferences, in the results pre- and post-2002, when the NFL added a division to each conference. The results were more extreme in the NFC. In the 3-wildcard era (1990-2001), the home team was 22 - 2 in the divisional round, with the vast majority being drubbings.

Since 2002, the balance has swung back toward the road teams. In the AFC, the home team is 7 - 5, but only four wins were by more than 3 points...

Hold on! The NFL Today is interviewing "Pacman" Jones. Who cares WTF he said. CBS dropped the teaser lead-in, like this was going to be some 60 Minutes-type shit. He starts babbling, like the ignorant muthafucka that he is, when some other voice is heard, after which the camera expertly zooms out so that his lawyer is seen talking. As soon as I saw the lawyer, I'm thinking "Kleinfeld is my brother!"

As I was saying, the scales have tipped toward the road teams. So...

Ravens (+3) over TITANS - The Ravens have a stellar road playoff record. I tried to convince myself that I was selling the Titans short. I don't see this as a favorable matchup for Kerry Collins. RayRay gon' give him flashbacks of XXXV and the fans flashbacks of mugging Eddie George.

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