well, the cowboys took a big dump on professional sports, the detroit lions will forever be linked with ultimate futility, and not a single one of us a-holes could crack .500 on our picks.  thank god the season is over.  on the plus side, we all did relatively well in the picks last week in a week that is usually pretty difficult to predict.  erik and i got 10 games, and fredo got 11.  but that means fredo hangs on by a thread to his crappy lead to win the picks division.  everyone got their big bet this week and i’m happy to say that we at least all finished above .500 in this category.  of course, i had this category locked up weeks ago, so yea for me.  in the most interesting battle, erik managed to double his money and get rid of that annoying 50 cents in the bob bucks round….but fredo game through big with the pats and managed to win this category easily.  but since playing with bob bucks is nothing like playing with real money, it is the category that is least like real gambling so it doesn’t even matter that i pissed away all of my own bob bucks with three weeks left in the season.  erik and fredo, feel free to cash in your bob bucks whenever you want.  so here are the final standings.

what a load of crap.  in any case, it’s wildcard time, or as i like to call it wildcrap time.  this is always the worst week of playoff football as mediocre teams battle it out.  the action is interesting as the spreads are relatively close and there the road teams are almost all favored.  as per custom, no keeping records with this thing, we only pick the playoffs for the love of the game.  numbers from caesars and home team in caps.

atl (pk) over ARI, o/u – 50.5
this one seems a little strange to me. the falcons started as the favorite, so that means everyone is going with the cards. let’s see, the cards have a worse, record, play in a weaker division, and well, they’re the cards. the main thing going against the falcons is that they start a rookie qb and history tells us that rookie qbs just can’t get it done in the playoffs. me, i’m gonna go against the crowd and go with the falcons who just seem to be a better team in nearly every category except wide receiver. far be it from me to thumb my nose at history, but matt ryan will be just fine against a team that doesn’t play the pass especially well. and i like the under in this one as well.

ind (-1) over SD, o/u – 50
fredo seems to think that this one is tough to call since san diego and philip rivers in particular are playing so well. i don’t disagree, but i think indy is going to win it all this year. it is strange how peyton put together such a quiet mvp season together this year, and in a lot of ways, i think he actually earned it. addai played like crap all year and the defense was extremely shaky at times. i said this last year, and i’ll say it again: i think history will bear out that peyton is a better qb than tom brady. penis nose is still number one on the ragin’ asian’s depth chart. under here as well.

MIA (+3.5) over bal, o/u – 37.5
fredo says to expect a real shitfest for this game and i can’t say i disagree. while both of these teams are solid, neither of them really played what you would call exciting football this year. the ravens also face the rookie qb factor, and since i don’t think joe flacco is nearly as good as matt ryan, i guess it makes sense to take the home dog here. on another note, what does it mean that chad pennington has twice won the comeback player of the year award? doesn’t this only mean that he’s wildly inconsistent? that’s he had two really shitty season? if i’m chad pennington, i send the award back to the AP and tell them to kiss my black ass. under.

phi (-3) over MIN, o/u – 41
again, i’ll refer to fredo’s football wisdom here. the vikings do one thing well and that’s about it. and that one thing is extremely reliant on the fact that they have who will probably be the best running back of his generation on their team. the eagles on the other hand seem to be playing well ever since the mcnabb benching. a lot of people thought it was a bad decision at the time, but it seems to have proven a good coaching decision that motivated the eagles. something that the cowboys coaches and players know absolutely nothing about. that and jinx the effing eagles in their goddammed nostrils. gimme the over here. and someone needs to check on andy reid’s kids, i think they might be selling crack again.