You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the postseason wind blows.
“That’s the problem with picking upsets in the postseason,” said Mike Phillips, our regular-season Gridiron Green champion. “Carolina just couldn’t quite get it done.”
Phillips and the Gridiron Guru shared a matching 3-for-4 in Week 2 of the NFL playoffs, but the Guru saddled his 3-for-4 in Week 1 for a 6-for-8 total so far this postseason.
Phillips, aka “commute29,” improved to 4-for-8 but is “tumbling down the leaderboard,” as he said in an email to the Gridiron Guru. “Congrats to ‘baylsc,’ who is been at or near the top all year and is now pulling away.”
After winning the regular-season title, Phillips has slipped into a tie for sixth place at 181, seven behind the leader.
The current runner-up, with just three games left to pick, is three back of “baylsc.”
“This week is going to be tough, and I feel like I’m going out on a limb with my picks, more emotion than raw number crunching,” said Phillips, who picked Cam Newton and “my Panthers” to upset the San Francisco 49ers last week.
Nonetheless, we’re sticking with our Mountain Bike Specialists commuter.
We’ll pick ’em, and the commuter will follow.
AFC Championship
New England at Denver (KCNC, KREZ), 1 p.m. Sunday – Tom Brady must hate storybooks. The Guru picked Indianapolis to face Denver in this game with Hollywood in mind. The Broncos would avenge one of their only losses in the regular season, and Peyton Manning would go to the Super Bowl after defeating his old team. What we have here isn’t quite there, but it’s still a juicy match.
LeGarrette Blount carried Tom Terrific into this round with four touchdowns against Indianapolis. The Broncos have the seventh best rush defense in the league.
Really, though, this game comes down to Brady vs. Manning. Brady’s bailed out New England too much this year. There won’t be enough left in the tank to keep up with Denver’s supercharged offense.
Enjoy another victory Bud Light, Peyton. You’ll deserve it after this one.
Pick: Broncos, 31-28.
Line: Broncos by 6½.
MP: “The online picks are running way up for Denver, but after watching Brady run all over Indy and seeing Denver almost let San Diego back in that game, it feels a lot closer than 72 percent to 28 percent. That being said ... Let’s Go Broncos!”
NFC Championship
San Francisco at Seattle (KASA), 4:30 p.m. Sunday – Making this pick required deep meditation. Here we have, far and away, the two best teams in the NFC. They split their regular-season meetings with both teams claiming a home win and appeared destined for a collision. Seattle rarely loses at home. The 49ers are on an eight-game winning streak. Irresistible force, meet immovable object. These two teams hate each other, and we love watching it.
Alas, though, it took a gigantic mistake by Marques Colston to clinch a win for Seattle last week, while the 49ers rolled. Kaepernick and San Francisco make a return trip to the Super Bowl.
Pick: 49ers, 20-17.
Line: Seahawks by 3.
MP: “With the way the Niners knocked out my Panthers last weekend, they looked like the team that could go into Seattle and steal the big upset. I’m looking for (Colin) Kaepernick to go in and shut the crowd down.”
