How it will all play out

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful New Years this year, and all the coaches and players enjoyed time with their families over the holidays, because from here on out, it's all business (although for most it still was all about business).

Tomorrow marks end of the 2010 regular season, meaning the playoffs are just around the corner. Of the 12 available playoff seeds, nine have been clinched and only three are left up for grabs. But, only one of the four first round byes have been clinched (Patriots).

Since commissioner Roger Goodell introduced his new plan (last season) of only division matchups during the final weekend of play, we will get to witness 16 games between rivals tomorrow, making for exciting January football.

Here are the scenarios for teams looking for playoff berths tomorrow:

In the AFC...

*Clinched

--Patriots 13-2, AFCE division, first round bye

--Jets 10-5, playoff spot

--Steelers 11-4, playoff spot

--Ravens 11-4, playoff spot

--Chiefs 10-5, AFCW division

*Can Clinch

--Colts (9-6) can clinch the AFC South with a win over Tennessee OR a Jacksonville loss.

--Jaguars (8-7) can clinch the AFC South with a win over Houston AND an Indianapolis loss.

*Seeding Scenarios

--Pittsburgh will win AFC North with a win over Cleveland OR a Baltimore loss. If they win they will also be awarded the second seed in the playoffs.

--Baltimore can win the AFC North with a win over Cincinnati AND a Pittsburgh loss. If they do not win the division but win tomorrow they will be the fifth seed in the playoffs (hold head-to-head tiebreaker over New York Jets).

(Note: You heard it here first! This year the Kansas City Chiefs will be the '08 Cardinals. A.K.A. the sleepers of the 2010-2011 playoffs. Especially since they'll play at least one game at home in Arrowhead Stadium. Don't underestimate K.C.)

*Prediction: Without David Garrard under center for the Jags, the Texans will shock Jacksonville and ruin their playoff hopes, giving Peyton Manning's Colts the AFC South title. Steelers beat the Browns (and Ravens beat Bengals), to give them both an 12-4 record, but the Steelers' hold the tiebreaker and will take the North title and first round bye. Projected seedings: 1. Patriots, 2. Steelers, 3. Chiefs, 4. Colts, 5. Ravens, 6. Jets.

In the NFC...

*Clinched

--Eagles 10-5, NFCE division

--Bears 11-4, NFCN division

--Falcons 12-3, playoff spot

--Saints 11-4, playoff spot

*Can Clinch

--Packers can clinch Wild Card spot with a win over Chicago OR a New York Loss.

--Giants can clinch Wild Card spot with a win over Washington AND losses by Green Bay and Tampa Bay.

--Tampa Bay can clinch Wild Card spot with a win over New Orleans AND losses by Green Bay and New York.

--Winner of St. Louis/Seattle game wins the NFC West division.

*Seeding scenarios

--Atlanta can clinch the division with a win over Carolina.

--New Orleans can clinch the division with a win over Tampa Bay AND an Atlanta loss.

--If Atlanta wins they will be awarded the top seed in the NFC and a first round bye.

Prediction: Atlanta clinches the South, and top spot in the NFC, as they easily handle the Panthers, meaning despite the victory over Tampa Bay, the Saints can only finish the season with a Wild Card spot. The Bears defeat the Packers, giving them the second seed in the NFC (Eagles clinch second seed with victory over Cowboys). With losses from Green Bay and Tampa Bay, the Giants clinch a spot with their victory over the Skins, despite Eli's horrendous four interception game against the Packers one week ago. The Rams, led by rookie quarterback Sam Bradford, defeat the Seahawks in primetime to clinch the West, despite an unimpressive 8-8 record. Projected seedings: 1. Falcons, 2. Bears, 3. Eagles, 4. Rams, 5. Saints, 6. Giants.

One more interesting piece of information to keep in mind while tuning in tomorrow:

New England and Kansas City are trying to become the only two teams this season to finish with a perfect record at home. They will most definitely be two of the toughest places to play in the postseason as well, so beware.

With three playoff spots still to be clinched, it looks like we're in for one crazy slate of Sunday games. Lucky us, huh?

Oh, I almost forgot! Here are my game picks as well. Might as well include them with this article...

Falcons over Panthers
Ravens over Bengals
Steelers over Browns
Vikings over Lions
Chiefs over Raiders
Patriots over Dolphins
Saints over Buccaneers
Jets over Bills
Broncos over Chargers
Bears over Packers
Texans over Jaguars
Colts over Titans
Eagles over Cowboys
Cardinals over Niners
Giants over Skins
Rams over Seahawks (Primetime!)

Photo Credit

Robert Mathis: AP Photo/Jose Sanchez

Matt Forte: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Chiefs Clinch First AFC West Title Since 2003

With a convincing 34-14 victory over the struggling Tennessee Titans earlier today, the Kansas City Chiefs  (10-5) capture the franchise's first division title since 2003, back when Trent Green, Priest Holmes and Dante Hall were household names for Kansas City's then-head coach Dick Vermeil.

The Chiefs' division rival San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders both suffered defeats to top off a near-perfect day for Kansas City.

Kansas City's run game, tops in the league, has been the key factor in most of their games this season, but not this week against Tennessee. Quarterback Matt Cassel led KC's offense with a 300 yards passing performance, including a 75-yard TD pass to Pro Bowl-bound receiver Dwayne Bowe, and two more TD tosses to running back Jamaal Charles.

In his sixth professional season, Cassel has set career highs in passing touchdowns (27) and QB rating (98.8) with just five interceptions. Cassel's top target, receiver Dwayne Bowe, has set several career highs this season as well, including yards (1,094) and TD catches (15). In fact, his 15 touchdown receptions leads the league, three above top-tier receivers Greg Jennings and Calvin Johnson.

Now, as for Kansas City's running game, the duo of the young speedster Jamaal Charles and veteran Thomas Jones has led the league's top running game to 2,360 rushing yards, nearly 100 more than KC's division rival Oakland. It's expected that they are the No. 1 running team in terms of yards, because they are also the leader in rushing attempts with 487, and are last in pass attempts with only 403.

The fact that Cassel is tied for sixth in the league with 27 touchdown tosses is really say something when you realize that he has attempted 417 passes compared to Peyton Manning's 638 and Drew Brees' 571.

Coach Haley sure has the correct ingredient to win in the playoffs once you add on a top 10 defense in terms of both yardage and scoring. Cassel leads a very efficient offensive attack through the air and has two dependable backs who can run out the clock in the second half, if they hold a comfortable lead. If Kansas City can capture the third seed in the AFC playoffs this coming weekend (by beating Oakland at home), I expect Kansas City to make a solid run in the playoffs. They are surely capable of doing so, especially if they get a matchup with New York, because I think they have the ability to put up decent numbers against Rex Ryan's run defense.

Don't overlook the Chiefs in the playoffs just because they are coming out of the West. That's the biggest mistake a team could make.

Photo Credit
Eric Berry: AP Photo/Ed Zurga
Dwayne Bowe: AP Photo/Ed Zurga

Who's the Favorite?: AFC and NFC Playoff Pictures

Each week of play has told us something different. Last week I got the idea that maybe, just maybe, this Minnesota Vikings team has a chance to excel without Brett Favre in the lineup.

Right away I have discovered that that's not necessarily true, as the Giants man-handled Tarvaris Jackson and the Vikings' offense on Monday night.

This week, the clear-cut favorites have been discovered. New England's offense racked up 36 points on Chicago's stellar defense, clinching the league's first playoff berth with the victory (11-2). Atlanta extended its win streak to seven games with a 31-10 victory over Carolina. Both teams are Super Bowl favorites coming out of their respected conferences, but Atlanta has a little more competition than New England.

With Seattle, New Orleans and Carolina still left on their plate this season, Atlanta has the potential to snag the NFC South title. New Orleans (10-3) and Tampa Bay (8-5) are both battling for Wild Card spots, but next week's New Orleans/Atlanta showdown on Monday Night Football may end up being the game of the year, and will without a doubt be pivotal in the race for the division title.
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The NFC West continues to be the laughing stock of the National Football League, with both St. Louis and Seattle at a deadlock for the division lead, both at 6-7. As insane as this sounds, San Francisco is still very much alive in the chase, just one game behind at 5-8. Arizona isn't statistically eliminated, either, with a record of 4-9.

The battle for the Wild Card will be a wild one for sure, with New Orleans (10-3) Philadelphia/New York (both 9-4), Green Bay (8-5) and Tampa Bay (8-5) all jockeying for two spots.
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The AFC playoff picture isn't much clearer than the NFC's, as the second-place teams in all four divisions are just a game behind the leader as we hit the final three weeks of the regular season.

The Colts and Jets continue to crumble: Indy is 2-3 in their last five games, New York is on a two-game losing streak. New York, 9-4, is still very much in the Wild Card hunt as long as they win two of their final three games, but Indy will be battling for their playoff hopes against Jacksonville this Sunday. If the Jags--current AFC South leader with 8-5 record--defeat Peyton and Co., they will likely end the season with their first division title since 1999.

After a quick start to the season, Kansas City has hit a few bumps in the road. At 8-5, they are still the West's leader, but San Diego (4-1 in last five games) is breathing down their necks, just one game behind Kansas City. Matt Cassel's appendectomy, which caused him to miss last week's game against San Diego, was a huge setback, but if he's back in the lineup this week expect the Chiefs to recover.

Miami (7-6), Oakland (6-7) and Houston/Tennessee (5-8) shouldn't be ruled out of the playoff hunt, either.
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Lucky for us, all four of the AFC's divisions will likely be decided in the final week. If we're lucky, maybe the NFC will turn out that way as well.

Photo Credit
Brian Urlacher and Tom Brady: AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
Maurice Jones-Drew: AP Photo/Stephen Morton

What Week 13 has Taught us...

When it's crunch time, the great teams always find a way to get it done. That's why when the month of December rolls around, the boys are separated from the men.

Now, some say it's too early to look at the playoff picture, and I say that's bull. The biggest games of the regular season are played around this time and last night the New York Jets showed me that they are not Super Bowl contenders this season.

They have always been able to talk the talk (dates all the way back to Joe Namath's famous guarantee, and yes he even managed to back that talk up). But were not able to walk the walk last night as Rex Ryan's top-tier defense was scorched for 45 points against the now-AFC East leading New England Patriots.

To make matters worse, New York managed just three points against New England's 31st-ranked total defense. The supposedly matured second year quarterback Mark Sanchez managed just 164 yards and three interceptions against New England 31st-ranked pass defense, as well.

He made rookie mistakes, and he's got an entire year on this year's rookie quarterbacks.

Teams are only as good as their leader, and Sanchez didn't do much to help his team out. Embarrassing.

Obviously with a 9-3 record they are almost certain to get a playoff seed as long as they win about half of their remaining four games, but they haven't been able to handle themselves against the better teams (Baltimore, Green Bay, New England). So how do they expect to make a run to the Super Bowl, especially when competing with teams such as Pittsburgh, New England, Baltimore and even the struggling 6-6 Colts?

More things I learned this past weekend:

*Atlanta is the best team in the NFC, if not the entire NFL. They became the first team to 10 wins (New England was the second after the beating they put on New York last night) with a victory over NFC South rival Tampa Bay.

*If the playoffs were to begin this week, like most fantasy leagues, then Atlanta and New England would most definitely be the favorites to be in the Super Bowl.

*New Orleans has made a quiet return to the elite this season after Drew Brees led a fourth quarter come-from-behind victory over the Bengals.

*Chicago and Green Bay may be the division race to watch, with the regular season finale coming in Lambeau between these two teams.

*Michael Vick and Phillip Rivers continue to head the MVP candidate list, with Vick possibly edging Rivers at this point considering San Diego's win streak, and December win streak, abruptly ending against the Raiders on Sunday.

*Minnesota may be better off with Tarvaris Jackson in the lineup at this point, rather than have Brett Favre's gunslinging style making numerous mistakes a game. With Jackson in the lineup, the Vikings can control how many times they throw the ball a game a little bit easier than they would if Favre was under center. That way, they can get back to letting Adrian Peterson run freely like they did in the pre-Favre era. Go home, Brett.

*Jason Garrett has turned the Cowboys around. Perhaps they should have fired Wade Phillips sooner. Under Garrett the 'Boys are 3-1 and just recently upset Peyton Manning and the Colts in overtime. The firing allowed for a more player-friendly head coach to step up and let players do what they do best.

*Jacksonville has a good chance at beating out the Colts for the South division title. With a two-game lead on the struggling Texans and Titans, it looks like Indy is the only threat to the Jags (Jags 7-5, Colts 6-6). If Peyton continues to throw as many interceptions as he has been this season (15 in twelve games; had 16 all last season), then Jacksonville have a good shot at defeating Indy in their week 15 matchup as long as they go run-heavy with Maurice Jones-Drew against Indy's 29th-best run defense. The winner of that game will likely be the division winner by season's end, in my opinion.

*One more thing I learned? Pittsburgh has a great shot at taking the AFC North crown after Troy Polamalu stripped Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco of the ball late in the game, allowing the battered (broken nose, foot and all) Ben Roethlisberger and short-distance back Isaac Redman to put the Steelers ahead. The final was 13-10 as Tomlin's crew took sole possession of the division.

What's on our plate for tomorrow: hopefully a much-needed great matchup between two rivals--Indy and Tennessee--whom are both battling for their playoff hopes.

Photo Credit
Deion Branch: AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Eric Weems: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
Tarvaris Jackson: AP Photo/Hannah Foslien
Emmanuel Sanders: AP Photo/Nick Wass