It's almost that time of year—the most exciting part of the NFL season. The NFL regular season is almost three-quarters complete, the season running at full tilt, with the playoffs just around the corner.
Around this time of year, a few teams really begin to stand out, leaving a few teams with close records as question marks, or "in the hunt." Sometimes it gets to a point where myself, as a fan, am left scratching my head when the teams with identical records are in consideration.
It gets nerve wracking when your team has semi-control over its destiny, by having to win against certain teams, but then their fate lies in the incapable hands of a less than .500 team, who just so happens to be playing against a four loss or better team.
On the NFC side, it is a very tight race. There are a lot of teams at or over .500—four are at .500, with Philadelphia being at .550 after an overtime tie with the Bengals on Sunday. And out of 12 teams in the NFC, only four are below .500 with no chance at the playoffs this year.
So three-quarters of the NFC are potential playoff contenders, whereas more than half of the AFC is ineligible as of right now; making my case that the NFC is a stronger conference this year than in years of recent past.
So this week I will try my hand at how this year's playoffs lineup could pan out.
In the NFC, I predict the New York Giants will have a first-round bye with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Many argue about their strength of schedule. I feel it has been more to the Giants' advantage. However, if not for the injury-plagued teams they have played against until recently, their record could look a little less exemplary.
The Giants defense is playing four solid quarters of football every game, they have been very dominant at slowing or stopping their opponents running game, and they play the pass defense very aggressively.
The offense is slamming the football down their opponents throats with their aggressive running attack—Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward, Ahmad Bradshaw, and occasionally utilizing the services of Reuben Droughns.
Then if the Giants running game is not enough to worry about, anyone opposing the Giants has to worry about Eli Manning throwing the ball to Plaxico Burress, Steve Smith, or tight end Kevin Boss.
The next team with the first-round bye and their first-round game on their own field will be the Arizona Cardinals.
I can see Arizona winning four of their last six games—at Philadelphia, against St. Louis, against Seattle, and since the Vikings are the team visiting the Cardinals, I'll give Arizona the edge in that game also.
Since the Cardinals don't seem to be able to win games over all when traveling to the East Coast, I give New England the edge in that matchup, and I feel the Giants can, and probably will take down the Cards this Sunday.
The Panthers and Packers are seemingly the stronger candidates in their respective divisions to finish out stronger, however Carolina is amongst stiff competition with Atlanta and Tampa Bay hot on their heels.
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