After Baltimore put out a shocking win against the New England Patriots in first round action, they will have to take on another of the toughest teams in the league, the Indianapolis Colts. This is the year of the Colts. Or it certainly looked like it was going to be until they decided to fold in the towel (as someone once told me) during one of the last games of the year. It turns out that they didn’t even want to go for the undefeated season and let the opponents win. Baltimore, however, is doing what they usually do by making a very late season run and throwing off everyone else’s game plan. This could be the perfect storm for the Colts. The football fan base seems to be divided about whether they want to see the Colts win or lose. Some people still admire Peyton Manning’s playing abilities. Others are tired of seeing Indy win so much all the time. On Sunday, we will get to find out and it’s going to be very exciting indeed!

The New York Jets were able to beat all odds by winning against the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend. The difference maker was the play of Mark Sanchez, who has finally come to the realization that he doesn’t have to win the game on a single play most of the time. He was able to put together a good solid offensive game and then his win was amazing. The Jets weren’t supposed to come this far. They played great guns at the beginning of the year, but then slackened off. Now Sanchez & Co have jumped back into their original ability. They are maturing and might be a real force in the AFC next season. It’s not clear that they will survive their next game, but they will have learned a lot either way. If they make it, so much the better. Nicely done!

For certain sections of the NFL, the biggest game this weekend will be the Philadelphia Eagles vs Dallas Cowboys. Since they are division rivals and playing in Dallas, the whole thing is going to be rocking. One or another of these teams is going to be one-and-done and no one is going to be happy about that. In Philly, there has been a lack of playoff success for a long time. People are considering making big changes if they don’t get anything close to playoff success. The Cowboys were able to avoid the much-touted December meltdown that people were talking about. But since they have had so many troubles in getting deeper into the playoffs, the consequences for failure might be very high. Let’s get ready for a great game this weekend!

The NFL playoffs are about to begin. For most of the fans, it would appear that the top two teams are going to be hard to beat. In the AFC, the Colts and Chargers are going to be very difficult to show up on the field. The Chargers are an amazing team that has gone on a huge run here at the end of the season, which is what they’ve been doing for years. But no one has seen a San Diego team like this for a long time. Meanwhile, the Colts almost went undefeated. On the NFC side, the top two are the Saints and Vikings. These two are a little bit softer, because we’ve seen them fold a little more easily at the end of the season. Maybe that’s just because they didn’t have as much to prove, but we’ll have to keep an eye out for any weakness in them. Otherwise, it would appear that the Cowboys and Eagles are looking like strong potential teams to arrive in the second round of the playoffs now. It’s coming up soon so make sure that your show is ready to go.

There’s just one more week of regular season NFL action, so we know quite a bit about the list of teams that will be playing in January’s football playoffs. The AFC has the Colts, Chargers, Patriots and Bengals. For the last two slots there are a bunch of teams that are in contention. At the moment, the Jets and Broncos have the advantage, but the Steelers, Texans and Ravens are among the other possibilities. In the NFC, the Saints, Eagles, Vikings, Cardinals, Cowboys and Packers are in the playoffs. It’s not clear which rankings they will have, however. This week, on Monday night, the Vikings let their chance at a high seed slide away when they lost in overtime to the Chicago Bears. They might have even lost their 2nd place ranking too and would then have to play on Wild Card weekend. This could be a bad thing, because Favre is a little older and because their team seems to be struggling. We’ll know more next week, but Happy New Year!

You couldn’t expect that Brett Favre would have a permanently easy time in Minnesota. The team seemed to be shockingly well organized and getting along a bit too easily. At the same time, there isn’t any big intrigue in Indianapolis or New Orleans; but these are places where the quarterback isn’t new or anything. But Favre tends to bring his drama with him to his places. This week there was a big discussion about whether the coach had tried to take his QB out during the third quarter of a close game, to avoid getting him hurt. This erupted into the media. Apparently part of the problem is that Favre isn’t allowed such free reign over the offense as he might like. With his experience this is understandable, but the coach is the guy who makes those decisions too. It’s a tough political choice for them, but that’s the way that is.

The Broncos were on a long winning streak at the beginning of the season. But that’s all changed when on Sunday they lost another game, this time to the Oakland Raiders. That’s 6 of the last 8 games that they have lost now. They are really only in the hunt for the playoffs because they had so many wins at the beginning. There is a whole row of teams that are sitting at 7-7, hoping to sneak into the playoffs at the expense of the fading Broncos. They are no longer holding onto the AFC West, because the Chargers have jumped up into it the way that they do almost every year. The Broncos seem to have a bright future, but they have a bit of development to do. Keep an eye on Denver because they are mainly in charge of their own destiny in the next few weeks.

The buildup to the NFL Playoffs this year is intense. We have been watching the games go by and it leads us to a surprising conclusion that we might see the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl this year. You’ll want to get cheap NFL playoff tickets to be there in case this happens. As of this moment, both teams are undefeated, with Indy sitting at 14-0 and the Saints at 13-0. Last night, Indianapolis looked like they might be on the way to their first loss of the season, but Peyton Manning came in and gave them a boost to get their win done. The Saints have had their close calls too, but it hasn’t happened yet for them. Other amazing teams like Minnesota, San Diego, Philadelphia and Cincinnati are right on their heels and hope to upset these two dominant teams. Don’t miss the culmination of a great season!

Last night, we saw a big battle in the NFC East. We can frequently expect that games between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants are going to be hotly contested and sometimes a little bit angry. As a friend of mine said, “it’s because they’re east coast teams that they get into fights more easily than Bears vs Packers, for example.” That would appear to be true. It was an exciting game anyhow since there were over 80 points scored in this 45-38 game. The Eagles were able to take advantage of the mistakes that New York made, including lots of botched coverage in the secondary, a couple of strange fumbles, and letting them return a punt more than half the field for a touchdown. About 10 yards of that, the guy was walking backwards. At the end of the game, Philly was in sole control of the division, because the Cowboys lost to San Diego as well. It’s still a close division, so hopefully it will remain interesting for a little while.

Tom Brady and the Patriots have a chance to get back into the playoffs this year. But in the AFC East, it’s not taking all that much of a record to get to the playoffs. The Miami Dolphins appear that they might be in the drivers’ seat for this postseason, but on the other hand, the Patriots are close to it too. The biggest problem is that the Patriots haven’t been able to finish off the close games this season at all. They keep dropping easy games and playing only partial games. The coach is trying to get the team to focus finally, sending guys home if they don’t show up for meetings on time and such. If he is successful, we can expect a big comeback. If not, then the Patriots might miss the playoffs again for the 2nd year in a row. Luckily for them, Brady is back on the field after missing most of the week with a small injury.