Week 17 Picks (Sort of)....

So we're going into the final regular season weekend of the season. And there's a few exciting sub-plots! (And a ton of totally meaningless games...) So considering that I had a relatively non-existent work week in which to write picks, we'll just touch on a few of the more interesting aspects...

Like several teams that have their playoff seeds locked in, you can say we here at SBS are also going to play the first quarter and making sure we're healthy for the playoffs. So I'll keep this short and to the point...

The Patriots have a chance to go 16-0 at the Meadowlands this Saturday night. The Pats are locked in as the #1 AFC seed. But that hasn't stopped Belichick from playing his starters in the past. The Giants are locked into the #5 seed in the NFC and will go to Tampa Bay for the first round. The Giants are talking some smack, particularly about Brady. And for all of Coughlin's talk that he'll play his starters and try to win, I'm not sure I buy it. Hell, even if the Giants WERE trying to win, they probably couldn't. I think the Pats put up a big lead, Brady breaks Manning's single-season TD record, and we see no major injuries. For all the hype that the "Do we rest our starters?" storyline gets during the final weeks every single year, when was the last time a key player actually DID get hurt in a meaningless game that cost his team a deep run into the playoffs? I sure as hell cannot think of an example. (Which means I probably just jinxed it and it will happen this weekend.)

Speaking of resting players, we have two interesting situations for the final playoff spots in both the AFC and NFC...

In the AFC, if the Titans win on Sunday night, they're in. They play a Colts team that figures to be resting most of their starters. So it SHOULD be a gimme, right?

If the Titans somehow lose to the backup Colts, then the Browns can sneak in with a win over the Niners in Cleveland. The Browns really blew it last week by not knocking off the woeful Bengals. If they beat San Fran (and they should), they'll have to sit around and watch the Sunday Night game on NBC to see their fate. I wonder if NBC will figure out a way to get a live feed of Browns players watching the game to see their reaction?

The NFC is a very similar situation. The Redskins need to win to get in. They play the Cowboys in DC, and Dallas will likely be playing mostly backups as well, since they've locked up the #1 NFC seed. Again, the Redskins SHOULD win. But this is the NFL, so who knows.

Waiting in the wings are the Vikings. Who could have wrapped up a playoff spot by beating the Skins in Minny last weekend. They couldn't get it done. (Which I predicted correctly, by the way.) The Vikes have to win in Denver this week to stay alive. Which is a pretty tall order.

The longshot in the NFC are the Saints, who are still mathematically alive. If both the Skins and Vikings lose, and the Saints win in Chicago, they can snatch away that #6 spot. Not imposible, but improbable.

My best guess is the Skins win and are in, and somehow the Titans manage to choke it away, giving the Browns the final AFC spot.

And then next week we can talk playoffs, woohoo! One little sneak peek tidbit for Samichlaus regarding the playoffs: with the Seahawks locked in at #3 and the Packers locked in at #2, that means Seattle will visit Green Bay in round two if Seattle doesn't choke at home in the first round. (A distinct possibility of course.) Last time we saw Seattle in Green Bay for a playoff game, it was 4 years ago, and Matt Hasselbeck was bravely declaring "We'll take the ball and we're going to score!" after winning the OT coin toss. And them promptly throwing a pick six to Al Harris to lose the game. That was Hasselbeck's first ever playoff start. Seattle hasn't missed the playoffs since, and are 3-3. I can't look past the first round opponent, but I think that'd be a great game.