A New Year: 2011-12 NFL Playoff First Round Thoughts and Other Notes

January 2, 2012 4:35
Where do we...begin?...
Last year, I created this blog as a way to put my thoughts in a place where people would actually read them if they cared enough; as a way to not clutter up people's Facebook news feeds with my annoying blurbs.  I fell a little bit short on my plan and ended up not making a post after the first week of January.  Well it's a new year so I'll give it another shot.  A few random thoughts before my NFL Playoffs Round 1 Predictions:
- Alright, so I was a little overconfident with my Patriots Super Bowl Champs prediction last year.  I'm going to try to be less of a homer going forward, but it's going to be tough considering that 4 of my 5 favorite sports teams are all serious contenders for their championships this year.
- My landlord just stopped by to let me know that he's going to fix the 4 dead lights in our living room.  If this gets done tomorrow, it will only have taken him 5 months!
- I'm probably not going to stop posting excessively on Facebook.  Sometimes I literally only have 80 characters worth of thoughts and I'm not too fond of the Twitter.

NFL PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS (1 weekend at a time this year)
SATURDAY JAN 7 (aka THE DAY I WILL MISS DUE TO JIM'S WEDDING)
- Bengals @ Texans - It's probably a good thing that I'm going to be away from the TV during this game, because I'd probably be asleep by the end of the 1st quarter.  While the Texans may be down to their 3rd string QB, I don't really see them having any problem putting up enough points to win this game.  Andre Johnson and their 2 tight ends, as well as the double-headed running attack of Foster and Tate will be able to put up enough points to cover the Bengals.  What a shame for Houston; they have 1 year where the division is up for grabs due to Manning's injury and their Pro Bowl-worthy QB Matt Schaub goes down for the season.  I think this team could have made a deep run with their key players being healthy.  The Bengals really don't show me anything that leads me to believe to that they're a playoff threat.  Rookie surprises Andy Dalton and A.J. Green are the only real big play threats and I can't see this team winning if they find themselves down early in the game.  Cedric Benson blows.  I'm taking Houston in a snorefest.

- Lions @ Saints - Goddammit Jim.  Couldn't have gotten married on Friday?  I am PISSED that I'm missing this one.  This is going to be such a high scoring game with strong play on both sides of the ball.  Brees has so many threats and tight end Jimmy Graham might be the best in the league (you could argue for him or Gronk).  Also, the screen passes to Darren Sproles are going to be a huge problem for Detroit.  On the other side, you have a super aggressive Detroit line that will put pressure on Brees for the entire game and force him into making mistakes.  Detroit's passing game should continue to turn heads with QB Stafford (putting up over 5k passing yards in his first full season) throwing to deep threat and best WR in the league Calvin Johnson.  The problem here is that Detroit does not have much of a run game.  Expect New Orleans to blitz early and often.  I really like both of these teams, and this matchup makes me realize that the NFC is officially the power conference.  Detroit is a great team, but I just think the Saints balanced team (offense, strong takeaway defense, and special teams), combined with the deafening crowd of the MERCEDES BENZ SUPERDOME will give the Saints this game.

NOTES REGARDING NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS or Some things I'd like to do this year:
- Save money (no more driving to work, spending less money at 7-11 on bottled water and gum, 200 dollar  (or more) hands of blackjack, less fast food/delivery)
- Lose some LBS (I'm pretty sure I'll lose a shit ton of weight just by doing the above things and drinking a bunch of water; hit the gym)
- Start reading more; beat the new Zelda game

Alright, I'm out of shit to write about for today.  Gonna watch the rest of the Rose Bowl (Go Badgers!) and the Fiesta Bowl/Blackhawks games.

Dave signing out.
5:11 PM