By Russ Bliss

 

The wildcard weekend has passed and the Lineup Analyzer went 2-2 in its predictions. The two games it missed on were the New York Jets over the Indianapolis Colts and the Seattle Seahawks over the New Orleans Saints. And while that means it won't be perfect thru the NFL playoffs, the four teams it predicted to play in the Championship round for each conference all are still alive as it had both the Colts and Saints losing this week in the Divisional playoff round in its original NFL Playoffs predictions.


So with the change, how does it see things going now? Now that the Seahawks will now travel and take on the Chicago Bears, the Jets travel to face the New England Patriots, while the Baltimore Ravens (whom it originally predicted to go to New England) instead face off in Pittsburgh against the Steelers? Here are the predictions without a lot of actual statistical predictions as I already posted the Lineup Analyzer's Divisional Round Fantasy Projections in my blog:


Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers


Always a good game when these two physical teams get together with it rarely ever being a blow out. In week 4 the Ravens beat the Steelers (who were without Ben Roethlisberger at that time) 17-14. In week 13 Pittsburgh returned the favor of winning by a FG 13-10. The Lineup Analyzer sees this game being decided by a FG as well and thinks it will be a lot like the second game where points will be at a premium and scoring hard to come by. Actually, it's predicting a duplicate score of the last meeting between the two and has Pittsburgh beating Baltimore by a score again of 13-10.


Green Bay Packers at Atlanta Falcons


This is the exact game the Lineup Analyzer forecasted in its original game predictions and nothing has changed its opinion of who will win, or what the score will be. It still predicts a 1 point victory by its eventual projected NFC Champion, the Packers and the predicted final score remains Green Bay 17, Atlanta 16.


Seattle Seahawks at Chicago Bears


Originally, the PLA had the Saints travelling to Chicago and had predicted a Bears victory by a score of 24-21. The opponent has changed and so has the final score prediction, but the winner remains the same. The Lineup Analyzer has the Bears over the visiting Seahawks by a score of 29-19.


New York Jets at New England Patriots


When the matchup was supposed to be the Ravens and Patriots, the PLA had the Patriots winning 30-10. It likes the Jets chances even less than it did the Ravens. The last time these two teams played it was a debacle for the Jets on a Monday night game for the AFC East division supremacy as the Patriots beat down the Jets 45-3. The PLA sees this game being very similar to that one predicting a Patriots blowout win by a score of 40-6.


If these all come true, it sets up a Conference Championship round with:


AFC: Pittsburgh at New England

NFC: Green Bay at Chicago


Which is what it predicted before the playoffs even began.