How about Grey Cup predictions?

As for me, well - since Gobo once again won our annual friendly wager in the East Final, I'll be pulling for Montreal, but honestly I don't know who to predict to win the game. B.C. is a very strong team, but honestly, this matchup to me is alot tougher to call than most "experts" would probably have us believe, imho.

Prediction: Montreal 34 B.C. 32 (gotta keep it close!)

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~ ...and all the demons are saints, and the saints I'll never trust...~ Blue Rodeo - "Graveyard"

~...Had a dream where everybody looked like someone else, and the farthest I could get from was the closest to myself...~ Men Without Hats - "Sideways"

I think there are two key factors that will likely decide the outcome on Sunday.

One is Brady vs. the Packer secondary.  The Packers have the talent back there with Al Harris and Charles Woodson at CB and decent safeties, but communication problems and blown assignments have resulted in lots of big plays.  Basically they'll go drive after drive playing well, and then suddenly give up a big play, like a 60 yard TD pass or something, where they completely blow the coverage and leave a guy wide open.  I've been calling for secondary coach Kurt Schottenheimer to be fired for several weeks now, and until he does or something huge changes in the Packer secondary, they're open for exploitation, especially by a master strategist like Belichick.  I'd expect the Patriots to throw a lot of different formations and motion at them to try to create communication problems, and I expect New England to get at least one big play out of it.  It's just a matter of, can the Packers hold them to just that, or will they get more?

Two is the Packers' red zone offense.  Green Bay has been able to outgain their opponents pretty handily the last few weeks but against Buffalo and Minnesota they had a lot of trouble punching it in for six when they got to the red zone, both due to turnovers and just lack of execution.  Part of that is due to the line - with Tauscher (by far their best lineman) out, they'll be starting three rookies and a fourth who's in his first full season as a starter - and part of it is due to some questionable strategic decisions.  But against the Patriots the Packers aren't likely to be able to afford settling for 3 instead of 6 like they did against Minnesota last week.  As always they're going to need Favre and Driver at the top of their games.  The Packers offense isn't much without those two, but they're especially going to need the passing game given the fact that with Morency and Miree out they still have a thin backfield running behind a thin line.  If they can throw the ball effectively as I think they can with Favre to Driver and Jennings and avoid the big turnovers, they've got a good chance.

I wouldn't be surprised to see either team win, but if I was going to put money on the game I'd put it on New England, 31-24.  Hopefully I'm wrong.

Even Flanders picked the Patriots! http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6184974

As far as the Grey Cup, as long as Montreal wins by more than 4 points, I'll be happy (good odds on them for Pro-Line) 

Well, I was half right.  The Packer secondary did completely blow coverage and give up a long TD pass, and overall the Green Bay defense was decent if unspectacular.  I was also about right on the Patriot half of the score.  But Favre really struggled - he had WRs open and just couldn't connect - and with the running game as bad as I feared that was their only hope.  Then when Favre got hurt, the game was over. Rodgers was passable but nobody was expecting a big come-from-behind win like what Favre started his career with.  In all the Packers just couldn't keep their offense on the field long enough to do anything, or rest their defense.  Credit the Patriots for shutting down the ground game and winning the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.  But I can't help but think given the open receivers he had, that if Favre had been hitting his throws and played the full game, it might have been at least a lot closer than it was.

The Patriots seem to bounce back pretty good after I see them lose live. They lost to Miami on New Years Day, then come back and beat Jacksonville 28-3 in the first round of the playoffs. Lose to the Jets last week, and come back with a 35-0 win over Green Bay. I'm looking forward to next week against the Bears...

And what was up the guy driving the cart when Favre left at halftime??? He almost hit Ellis Hobbs on his way out! 

Probably was the Titans' mascot out of costume.

Good one Derek! I completely forgot about that incident! The Pats secondary is in bad enough shape as it is, I don't think losing a player to a golf cart injury would of been good!

 Here's a link to a photo of the golf cart driver: http://www.patriots.com/mediacenter/index.cfm?ac=GalleryDetail&f=16633
 

 

Here's a crazy coincidence: this was only the sixth time in Favre's 251 starts that he hasn't been able to finish a game due to injury.  Of those 6 games, this was the third! time that the backup who replaced him suffered a season-ending injury in the same game.  In Minnesota in 1995, Ty Detmer replaced him, broke his thumb or something, and T.J. Rubley infamously came in and threw the game away.  Detmer was done for the year, Rubley was cut the next day and replaced on the roster by Doug Pederson.  In 2004 against the Giants, the last time Favre came out due to injury, Pederson came in and took a shot to the ribs late in the game, and Craig Nall played the last minute or so.  The injury turned out to be both season- and career-ending as Pederson retired after the season.  Now Favre goes out vs. New England, Aaron Rodgers comes in and breaks his foot in the third quarter, somehow finishes the game but will need season-ending surgery.  No coincidence, the Packers lost all three games (though it's safe to say Sunday was lost long before the injuries).  I know that, of the other 3 times Favre was knocked out with an injury, Pederson came in early vs. the Redskins in 2002 and won easily, but I can't remember the other two off the top of my head.  I want to say Mark Brunell came in for him during a loss to the Vikings in 1994 and it seems to me Matt Hasselbeck replaced him against Tampa Bay in a loss in 1999 or 2000.

I've been meaning to post this for a week now, but I finally won on Pro-Line last weekend!!! By taking the Giants over Carolina, Bills over Jets and Saints over Dallas, a little $5 wager earned me $240!!! It felt pretty damn good!!!

Wow, lady luck is on my side. A 2nd straight Pro-Line winning ticket today!!! Jets over Vikings, Titans over Jaguars and Eagles over Giants, a $5 wager won me $209!!! Simply amazing....

I was at the Bills-Dolphins game yesterday.  Went with my three brothers.  We tailgated for about 3 hours, then sat in the rain for the game, then tailgated some more.  As a window to a bit of "Americana", it was a real eye-opener.  Not sure if I want to do it again anytime soon.  Maybe when the weather's better.

Just curious what you mean by it being an "eye-opener" as far as Americana is concerned?

I've decided that the fact the Packers still have a playoff chance with two games remaining is a testament to how watered down the NFL has become with their precious "parity".  Does anybody else miss the days where you had truly great teams where almost every position was filled with a top-notch player?  I don't think we've seen that since the mid-1990s, with the 1997 and 1998 Broncos, possibly the 1999 Rams but they were a pretty unorthodox team.  Prior to that you had the Packers, the Cowboys, the 49ers, the Bills, all these teams that were just full of great players.  Granted, you had to deal with some truly bad teams at the same time in order to have that, but it seems like now even the best teams aren't as good, and there are more ho-hum middle of the pack teams out there.  The 03-04 Patriots were probably the closest thing we've seen since, but they're about it for the last decade.

I'm as much a Packer fan as any but frankly they don't deserve to even be thinking about the playoffs right now, they just happen to be less undeserving than several other teams.

Personally, I think the Packers still having a "chance" for the playoffs shows how weak the NFC is. Remember when the 8-8 Rams got a wildcard spot 2 seasons ago?

Frankly, the AFC isn't all that much better off.  I'd say the division leaders tend to be better in the AFC, yes, but the wild card leaders in both conferences are 8-6 right now, and I don't see the 8-6 teams in the AFC (Jets, Bengals, Jaguars, Broncos) as being all that much better than the mediocre teams in the NFC.  The only real difference between the conferences is the AFC has more sort of good mediocre teams and the NFC has more sort of bad mediocre teams.  I don't see a great team in the league, just a few fairly good ones, about 20 mediocre ones, and a few really bad ones.  Currently there are 18 teams that are either 8-6, 7-7, or 6-8.  I would say there are about 6 teams in the NFL this year that are playing like they deserve to be in the playoffs (Chargers, Bears, Colts, Patriots, Ravens, Saints), and the other 6 spots will be filled by teams backing in.

We do know for a fact the Jets are a better level of mediocre than the Packers, as evidenced by that embarrassment at Lambeau a couple weeks ago that I had the misfortune of attending.  The jambalaya from Brett Favre's Two Minute Grill was excellent at halftime as always, which was about the only thing that kept the trip from being a total loss.  That and - here's what the Packers are counting on - no matter how badly they play, it's always still fun to watch the Packers and Brett Favre at Lambeau Field. 

As far as I know, in Ontario at least, there isn't a lot of tailgating before or after a football game;  something about consuming alcohol "off premises" and all.  I always thought that tailgating was a traditional American passtime.  Am I right?  The eye-opener was the rampant drunkenness and littering going on at 9 am in a parking lot.