Trash Talk – Saturday Wildcard Weekend Fighting Edition

It is Wildcard Saturday in the NFL! First up are today’s games; i will update later today with Sunday’s games. Oh, and due to dismal performance by my boy, it is no longer the "National Favre League", but is just back to NFL. Sadness.

Dirty Birds at Red Birds: First thing, are we a bunch of fucking pathetic mopes here in Phoenix or what? The NFL had to extend time for ticket sales to insure there was a sellout so that they could even put the freaking game on TeeVee here. Yes, the Cardinals are losers, and us natives know it.

This is the first home playoff game for the Cardinals since 1947. Sixty one years. The Cards do not have a wealth of experience with this stuff except for Kurt Warner. Of course, the Falcons ain’t got a lot either. Line is three points with the dogs being the homeboys.

I am a homeboy, and the Cards may be dogs, but they play well at home. They win their first home playoff game in 61 years.

Colts at Bolts: well, this ought to be quite a game what with the MVP philip Rivers playing in it and all; he really deserved it since he carried the team with LT having an off year.

Oh, wait, randiego got it wrong. The MVP is Marcy’s favorite quarterback in the world, PEYTON MANNING! This game is a pick em, but I am picking the Colts.

UPDATE:
Other Dirty Birds at Fish: Going into the weekend, all four road teams were favored over the homeboys. So far, that theory has been completely blown up. Quite frankly, I had a good inkling that the Cards would win, they are very good at home and the crowd noise gets going pretty good in the Big Toaster.

But here is another factor: No rookie quarterback has ever won a road playoff game. Pertinence to the current tilt: Baltimore has a rookie signal caller, Joe Flacco. Now, to be fair Flacco, unlike Matt Ryan who came out of the gate hot, has progressed slowly and steadily. And he is very bright. The odds say to go with Pennington and the hometown Fins if you ask me. If that were the only consideration; but it is not. There is also Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and the Ravens defense. And some guy named Parcells is lurking around too.

So, here is what I think it boils down to – the running game and short play action passing. In fairness, earlier this year the Ravens, led by Ray Ray and Bart Scott, totally shut down the much discussed Miami "wildcat" offense. Ravens factor back willis MacGahee had an up and down second half. Ronnie Brown has really come on. And don’t forget Ricky williams, the guy can still ball.

Bottom line: Chad Pennington’s short passing game carries the day and the Fish make it three out of four for home teams.

UPDATE TWO

Iggles at Vikings: Where are Purple People Eaters MadDog and MinnesotaChuck when you need them? I tell ya, nowhere to be found, that’s where. Shrinking violets, and that does not bode well for the Norske when their two most identifiable fans here at the blog are already hiding. But LabDancer is here representing. Somebody needs to, because half of the Vike’s season ticket holders refused to buy tickets to the game. They had to extend the NFL deadline twice, all the way to yesterday, in order to get the sales necessary to even broadcast the game on local TeeVee. That is worse than the Cardinals, which is a tough bar to clear. Crikey.

Both teams have pretty sound defenses, but the Iggles’ Dee, under Jim Johnson, is a lot more creative with their motion and blitz packages, which is a real bad thing for an untested effective rookie like Tavaris Jackson, who is not known for his defense reading capabilities in the first place. Donovan McNabb, however, has been on a roll since his "benching", and he has a fully capable Brian Westbrook today. Westbrook makes Philly tick; he is that dynamic.

Adrain Peterson is a stud running back, and he is going to get his yards today. But Bernard Berrian is the only receiving threat the Vikes have, and Asante Samuel should shut him down. I just don’t see Tavaris Jackson getting enough off versus Johnson’s blitzing for Peterson alone to carry the day. Eagles win one for the Gooper (Yep, I snuck a Spectre/Haggis joke in there).