A weekend of surprises

[Joe Hittle]

The Wild Card round sent me scrambling.

I had Green Bay and Indianapolis in the Super Bowl. Obviously that can't happen now that the Colts fell to the Jets Saturday.

Also very much unexpected was New Orleans falling to Seattle. This is definitely the first time in history that the defending Super Bowl champ fell to a team with a losing regular season record.

And, while it definitely turned out to be wrong, I had KC beating Baltimore. This was the one upset I had predicted for the weekend. On a weekend of upset, I got the one I allowed for completely wrong.

Green Bay's victory over Philadelphia actually was what I was both expecting and hoping for. While some might consider this to be an upset, Green Bay is a better team than their regular season record indicated.

So, this leaves the matchups next weekend being:

Atlanta v. Green Bay (in Atlanta)
Chicago v. Seattle (in Soldier Field)

Pittsburgh v. Jets (in Pittsburg)
New England v. Baltimore (in Foxborough)

Which should leave

Chicago v. Green Bay
New England v. Pittsburg

in the Conference Championships

Of course, since I only got one of 4 this weekend, why would you listen to me anyway :-?

[Rich Schmidt]

Which should leave

Chicago v. Green Bay
New England v. Pittsburg

in the Conference Championships

Of course, since I only got one of 4 this weekend, why would you listen to me anyway :-?

My wife and I hope you're right about Chicago v. Green Bay. We live about an hour from Chicago, and my wife is from Wisconsin. She has lots of fun talking trash with coworkers and people at church about football. We have quite a few folks who wear their jerseys to church on game days. :)

Today's game was fun to watch. :)

[Joe Hittle]

I originally had the Bears one-and-done, but they won't take Seattle laying down (New Orleans simply looked like they were only playing yesterday because they had to be there).

BTW, I grew up in DeMotte, and graduated from KVHS "back in the day." So, I pretty well know the Valpo area and my Dad worked in Valpo during that time. A Green Bay jersey would definitely receive some conversation there :-)

Where in Wisconsin? I've spent more than a few days there, as well.

Joe

[Rich Schmidt]

I originally had the Bears one-and-done, but they won't take Seattle laying down (New Orleans simply looked like they were only playing yesterday because they had to be there).

BTW, I grew up in DeMotte, and graduated from KVHS "back in the day." So, I pretty well know the Valpo area and my Dad worked in Valpo during that time. A Green Bay jersey would definitely receive some conversation there :-)

Where in Wisconsin? I've spent more than a few days there, as well.

Joe

She grew up in Milwaukee and Waukesha. Her brother still lives in that area, and her parents have retired to the Dells.

There are a surprising number of Green Bay fans in Valparaiso, as well as Minnesota Vikings fans and others. Sometimes you can find them gathered at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch a game that isn't being televised locally. Still... they are greatly outnumbered, first by Chicago fans and then by Indianapolis fans.

[Joe Hittle]

Yeah, but they're not natives :-)

I pastored for a short while in South Milwaukee, following Houston Thompson there back in the late 1980's. From there we went to Spooner, where Jen Blackburn (her name wasn't Blackburn at that point, yet) grew up, and was a very good friend to my oldest daughter, Angie. We left Wisconsin for Iowa in '94.

So, I've met a few Packers fans along the way, and had more than a few conversations like the ones you mentioned earlier ;-)

I'm not a Colts fan at all, mostly because of the way the team adopted the area back in the '80's. I do like Manning, and am hoping that Dallas Clark and Bob Sanders can return to productivity in the coming season. Not quite the same team without them.

As for the Bears this year? The defense is more porous than it really should be, the offensive line is woefully ineffective, and Cutler remains incredibly over-hyped. Outside of that, they're not a bad 6-10 team :-)

(BTW, the guys on 670 AM didn't even have them at that, in pre-season predictions, so I'm not the only one that has been surprised with their 2010 records).

If I am right about the conference championship, it'll be a well talked about topic at Buffalo Wild Wings!!

[Joe Hittle]

Okay,

I'm obviously not "getting" something here:

In the NFC, the Bears have the #2 seed overall, the Falcons have the #1.

Yet, in the Divisional playoffs coming up, the Bears get #4 Seattle, while the Falcons get #5 Green Bay

One the AFC side,

the # 1 Patriots get #6 Jets

While the #2 Steelers get #5 Ravens.

What happened to the "you don't play a team from your own division until the conference championship" standard for playoff competition?

[Jeremy D. Scott]

Of course, since I only got one of 4 this weekend, why would you listen to me anyway :-?

I only got one correct as well (Packers). And I lost my NFC SB team (Saints).

Solidarity, my friend.

[Ryan Scott]

Oddly enough I got only one game correct as well. However, my pre-season Superbowl pick (of Green Bay vs the Jets), which I had all but given up on, remains intact.