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The late playoffs break my mind. There is no worse week than the conference championships unless your team is playing in it. Two games remain and we have to wait two weeks from here for the Super Bowl. You’re about to lose football in a bad way; drawn out, brains frothing as the sports media pisses on itself one final time to get every last take out of the way. All the while, less and less football and more time spent wondering what’s going on in the NBA these days.
No matter. These final games are going to be great, even if they’re full of teams that have sucked all fun out of the proceedings. Picks are in.
Green Bay +4 at Atlanta
I’ve come to the terrible realization there may be no stopping this Green Bay team until it reaches Houston. Even when it reaches there, I don’t know what halts them. It is a cloud of oppression, one that gets worse as I watch my friends and Twitter timeline embrace the Packers and Aaron Rodgers through their excellence and destruction of the Cowboys. You can’t rain on such things but goddamn if one could explain how the Packers have ruled like a tyrant over this division.
Anyway, maybe Atlanta doesn’t lose, but north of a field goal is probably the best value you’ll get on this game. But there’s not much to give me confidence in the Falcons defense at any point in this game. It wasn’t good in the regular season and while it may have stopped bleeding later on, last week’s performance against Seattle didn’t give me any reason to stop worrying. I’ll still root for the Dirty Birds to close out the Georgia Dome in style.
New England -6 vs. Pittsburgh
Like the Packers, it’s growing dark on any matter to deal with the Patriots. The Steelers are an excellent offensive team, but they’ll be on the road and struggled to do much last game. I’m down on Pittsburgh, and while questions remain as to how good the Patriots truly are, I don’t see them struggling to get rolling like they did against Houston’s defense.
The spread is, if nothing else, oppressive in this game. Fading New England is certainly an option if this spread reaches seven points. At six it might still be worth taking the other side. This is just a game I’m counting on New England pulling away from late. I like the under (50 1/2) for this game more than the spread itself.