Divisional Weekend, Part II

NY Giants @ Dallas Cowboys (-7)

The big news stories on this game so far have been:

1) Eli Manning played very well against New England and Tampa
2) Tony Romo went to Cabo for a weekend
3) The Giants have won 8 straight on the road

My response to all of those headlines is "So what?" Playing well against New England is fine. So did Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Indy. That's where the whole "any given Sunday" thing comes in.

Romo spent his weekend off in Cabo. So? He had the weekend OFF. Just because you or I can't go to Cabo for 2 days doesn't mean he can't. Would Peyton Manning have gone to Cabo? No. He would have watched games and studied film, I'm sure. Romo isn't Peyton though, and since everyone likes to compare him to Brett Favre, why don't they take a look at what he did early in his career? He used to party hard after every game, go out to bars, etc. If Romo would have spent his weekend at home sleeping, no one would care. It's just the media fishing for headlines.

And about those Giants on the road... the best two teams they beat were Washington (week 3, 9-7 reg season) and Philly (week 14, 8-8 reg season). Yawn.

This game is a perfect example of the "What have you done for me lately" mindset that the media has. Having virtually nothing to play for, Dallas has been sleep-walking the past few weeks. NY played two good games in week 17 and the Wildcard round. Dallas will wake up this week, with a healthy TO and rested team. They've already beat NYG twice this year, both times by 10+ points. NY plays this game with out Shockey, and Plax is far into a season that he's been playing with a torn ankle ligament. This should probably be another high scoring meeting, just like the first two, with Dallas coming on top by a 10-14 point margin.


The pick: Dallas -7


Jaguars @ Patriots (-13)


This is the toughest game of the week to predict, in my opinion. Part of me wonders if New England will be even better for the playoffs, that maybe they have another level they can take it to. The second half collapse of Jacksonville's defense last week doesn't arouse a lot of confidence in them either. However, their passing defense is ranked 15th, ahead of both the Eagles and the Ravens, who managed to hang tough against the Patriots. In all of the close New England games, we've seen physical teams running a very conservative, mistake-limiting offense. All of these teams have had a dynamic running back (Addai, Westbrook, McGahee, Jacobs). Jacksonville has a great game-managing QB and a pair of dynamic RBs. The game is really up to the Jaguar's defense. If they can keep the Pats from opening up a 14+ point lead early, they'll be able to run the ball for most of the game, which will be critical to them having any shot in this one. The Pats will almost certainly win, but I don't think they'll cover. I don't really have much analysis to fall back on this one... more of a hunch.


The Pick: Jags +13