Wednesday, January 20, 2016

NFL playoffs. Perfect balance

If one harkens back to the first (wild card) round of the NFL playoffs, they would remember something very unusual transpired.

Kansas City won @ Houston.
Seattle won @ Minnesota.
Green Bay won @ Washington.
Pittsburgh won @ Cincinnati.

In other words, four games and all four "road" teams came out of top. Bet you could have got long odds on that happening.

Fast forward a week.

New England won at home against KC.
Denver won at home against Pittsburgh.
Carolina won at home against Seattle.
Arizona won at home against Green Bay.

All the "home" teams" came out on top. The polar opposite of the week before.

Look at what's about to happen.

New England, a "road" team, goes to Denver and are 3 point favorites.
Arizona, another "road" team, goes to Carolina and are 3 point underdogs.

Add it all up and things have perfectly balanced out in the playoffs so far.

Who will win these conference championship games is anybody's guess. Good arguments for, and against, could be made regarding all of them. Many potential strengths, but a few possible weaknesses across the board as well.

But one thing is fairly certain. After 19 weeks of NFL action, the cream rose to the top in the end.

Denver and New England were the #1 and 2 seeds in the AFC. They earned a "bye" in the opening round which gave the players an extra week to recover from various "dings" that happen over the course of a grueling season.
Same with Carolina and Arizona in the NFC.

Four REALLY good teams getting after it for a trip to the Super Bowl.

Peyton vs Tom again. Both trying to win another Super Bowl.
Young Cam taking on old pro Carson. Both trying to win their first Super Bowl.

Perhaps that's the way it should be.

Nevertheless, once again, it all seems to balance out.





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