At the end of Week 17, when the playoff teams were all settled, I offered a written ranking of those 12 franchises. As I mentioned at the time, the rankings were not my predictions, just my preferences.
Well, the field of 12 is now down to 8. I have reproduced my original list below, with the losing teams appropriately dimmed to gray.
- Green Bay Packers. Going into the late game on Sunday afternoon, not a single other game of the Wild Card weekend had gone the way I wanted. I was pulling for the Saints, for the Colts, and for the Chiefs. But none of that really mattered to me if only the Packers would win… and they did!
- New England Patriots. Regular readers of this blog are familiar with my dislike for Randy Moss. While I naturally want the Packers to win it all this year, the Patriots are my second choice for a number of reasons, including this: for New England to win Super Bowls before Moss and after Moss but not with Moss would be a certain kind of sweet.
- Indianapolis Colts. Tough loss. Peyton Manning’s reputation and legacy will be unfairly damaged by it. Meanwhile, will Coach Caldwell take the appropriate amount of heat for his ineffective coaching? What’s up with that timeout at the end while New York had the ball?
- Atlanta Falcons. For the next few days, of course, they are my least favorite team in the NFL. If we lose to them on Saturday, I don’t know how I will feel about them. From a dispassionate distance, though, I would still say that I’d prefer to see the Falcons hoist the Lombardi Trophy than anyone lower on this list.
- New Orleans Saints. Boy, that was ugly! All the magic fairy dust of last season was rudely swept away by one of the most disappointing performances by a highly favored team and defending champ. That is going to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of Saints players and fans for a long time.
- Kansas City Chiefs. It was more my dislike for the Ravens than my affection for the Chiefs that had me rooting red on Sunday. Oh, well. They were probably overachievers this season, anyway. But I expect Chief fans have a lot to be excited and hopeful about going into the 2011 season (assuming there is a 2011 season!).
- Seattle Seahawks. Well, that was remarkable. What a game. And what a run by Marshawn Lynch! I found the upset intriguing enough that I didn’t grieve too much over the Saints’ loss. And the Seahawks’ return to Chicago, where they managed to win earlier this season, is a fascinating prospect next Sunday.
- New York Jets. Again, this is the spot in the list where we shift from the teams I rather like to the ones I dislike. I was sorry to see the Jets pull off that last-second victory in Indy. It doesn’t matter too much to me, though, for I don’t really expect that either team was going to go into New England this coming weekend and win. And in the case of the Jets, I will be particularly pleased to watch them lose.
- Baltimore Ravens. I like their coach and I’m okay with their quarterback. But I still resent their franchise, and I deeply dislike Ray Lewis. I will find any Baltimore win more tolerable once he retires, gets traded, gets injured, or dies. Still, for all of that, I dislike the Steelers even more, and so I will be -- gulp -- a Ravens’ fan this weekend!
- Philadelphia Eagles. I said I was tired of all the Vick hype, and so I’m glad that we put an end to it. Now, it seems, the Michael Vick conversation has turned into a consideration of his uncertain future as a free agent. Interesting.
- Chicago Bears. So who do you think they were rooting for this weekend? Because of seedings, they couldn’t get the Packers in the Divisional Round. Did they want the defending champion Saints? I doubt it. Did they want the Eagles? They had already beaten them in the regular season, but still Philly is a frightening team. Or did they even in their dreams think that they could get the 7-9 Seahawks? And yet, Seattle did win in Chicago earlier this year… A fluke? We shall see.
- Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, they have the advantage of a week off and a home game. Plus, they know the Ravens SO well, there isn’t much film study or game-planning to do. These two teams split their regular season meetings, each one winning by 3 on the other team’s turf. I’d be glad if they followed that same pattern in the postseason!
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