NFL17 Wild Cherry Picks: 8 Teams, 4 Games and One Tough Call (NY@GB)
Saving the best for last? Maybe so, when schedulers slated the Green Bay Packers to host, once again, the New York Giants Sunday afternoon in the last of four NFL wild-card contests (4:40 EST), a cavalcade of contenders that kicks-off Saturday.
All the action marks the first leg in a 3-week playoff race whose finish-line is NRG Stadium in Houston come February 5th for Super Bowl 51.
The Lambeau clash figures the keenest with the Carr-less Raiders visiting that same NRG field to face the Texans (1.7), the 0-3 closing Lions traveling to Seattle to take on the Seahawks (1.7) and another clipboard-QB led team in Miami must fly north to battle the Lombardi-laden, Big Ben-led Steelers (1.8).
Pressing the point on the closer (NY-GB), Pack’s one of the hottest teams in the NFL (NE #1), appearing to’ve figured a way out of the funk that stunk up their 1st-half of 2016. For their part, the Giants, with two wins vs. Dallas, have gotten quite cozy playing in Green Bay in the most intense of circumstance, knocking Packers from the playoffs twice in recency, first, a Conference contest in 2008 (Favre / Eli), then again in a 2012 Divisional (Rodgers / Eli). Pick‘em.
Playoffs mark a new start in the championship campaign of conquest. It’s when the crème de la crème get mettle tested by the fiercest foes and not infrequently the worst weather mother nature can dole out.
For the professional player, his body’s telling him it’s time to pack-it-in (no pun) for winter, catch up on sleep, reacquaint with friends & family, read the mail, walk the dog, anything but more football. Then the contract say otherwise, bills to pay and the desire to be the best, all driving him onward in hopes of greater glory.
Which team can prove Julius Caesar and cross the Rubicon in conqueroring the vast playoff landscape and its combatants? Some teams clearly have a leg up on the competition in weaponry, positioning and the art of field tactics & technique.
Home-field and 1st-Rd byes, deserved as it they are, give a decided advantage. And while all 12 invitees are endowed with the spirit and physical skills to take the VLT (Vince Lombardi trophy), only a handful are cloaked in that garb of destiny.
Wild Cherry Picks: Veni Vidi Vici
Oakland (12-4) @ Houston (9-7): 1.7 Disney 4:35: Texans win
Detroit Lions (9-7) @ Seattle (10-5-1): NBC 8:15: Seahawks win
Dolphins (10-6) @ Pittsburgh (11-5): 1.8 CBS 1:05: Steelers win
New York Giants (11-5) @ Green Bay (10-6): Fox 4:40: NY wins
Record: 80 - 90 - 3
Steven Keys
NFL HunchLine
Photo credit: NYG-GB, wc.cca, M.Morbeck, 1.1.5.12; A.Rodgers, wc, 1.10.16, DC, K.Allison; E.Manning, GB, wc, 1.15.12, M.Morbeck; NYG-GB, wc, Morbeck, 1.15.12; cherries, wc, B.Kua, 6.1.8; NFL-symbol, wikiproject
Posted: 1.6..17 @ 11:28am EST; Copyright © 2017
