Predicting the 1st Round

The 2008 Regular Season of the National Football League came to a close this past weekend. Even though a couple of the games, especially the Cowboys-Eagles and the Chargers-Broncos games, had a playoff type feel the actual playoffs don’t begin until this weekend.

And as will many other people I will give my opinions on who will win.

The first game begins at 4:30 on Saturday between the Atlanta Falcons and the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals won their division, but that really was only because they were playing in a division where the rest of the teams either had bad years or are rebuilding. The Falcons had a big turn around from last year, but it with all that happened with the team in 2007, it wasn’t that surprising. They were a good team that had been in turmoil and when things settled down in 2008 they won. And they will continue to win this weekend moving to the next round.

The evening game is between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers backed into the playoffs since Denver could not win one of their last three games. The Colts have quietly had a very good season. The Colts are a team that no one will want to play this year and they will move on.

The 1st game on Sunday will be between two teams that between them in 2007 won 6 games and this year were both 11-5. The Miami Dolphins had a big turnaround from being the worse team in 2007 with a 1-15 record to winning their Division. The Ravens were 5-11 in 2007 with a lost to the Dolphins. They played early this season with the Ravens winning in Miami. And they will win once more.

The Minnesota Vikings kicked a late game winning field goal against the New York Giants to win their division, although with other teams losing they would have won anyway. The Philadelphia Eagles, who won their final game of the year against the Dallas Cowboys to finish as the number 6 seed in the NFC. The Eagles will travel to Minnesota and win.

All four traveling teams will win the first round of the playoffs.