Wild Card Round Day 1

17 weeks have come and gone and now only 12 teams remain, thankfully one of them is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Before the season my Super Bowl prediction, albeit an obvious choice, was the Patriots losing to the Seahawks. I don't see any reason to change that pick right now considering both teams have home field advantage in the playoffs. At least this year both of my Super Bowl teams made the playoffs, don't think I forgot about you 2013 Atlanta Falcons. Anyways onto the picks for Saturday's games...

Overall: 147-95   Spread: 40-35-1

Cardinals 17, Panthers 16 --- ARZ +6.5 Last week I said that I was picking the winner of the Falcons/Panthers game to win their first playoff game no matter what. Well, my opinion changed once I found out that the Panthers were nearly a touchdown favorite against an 11-win team. The Panthers, despite being under .500, earned the NFC South title by winning four games in a row. That four game winning streak can be a bit deceiving considering those wins are over Tampa Bay, Cleveland, New Orleans, and Atlanta.
The Cardinals stumbled in the stretch losing four of six with Drew Stanton, Ryan Lindley, and even Logan Thomas at quarterback. However, two of those losses came to the Seahawks and they did beat the Rams and the Chiefs in weeks 14 and 15. I think the Cardinals will cover the spread and possibly win if their defense can keep the Panthers under 20 points.

Steelers 24, Ravens 20 --- PIT -3 Let's just get the most obvious statement out of the way, as a Steelers fan I cannot in good conscience pick the Ratbirds to come into Pittsburgh and win a playoff game. Can't do it. Am I nervous that the Steelers will lose without Le'Veon Bell playing? Yes, but the Steelers are 3-0 against the Ravens in the playoffs (2-0 vs FLACCCCOOOO) and the Steelers also have an impressive 9-0 record when playing a team for the third time in the same season. 

The weather forecast is calling for rain with temperatures in the low 40's, which could favor the Ravens considering the Steelers will likely need to win the game through the air.

The two keys for the Steelers are the need for them to get something going on the ground with Ben Tate, Josh Harris, or Dri Archer. It doesn't need to be a 100+ yard game on the ground but they need to prove to the Ravens that they can at least run it a little. 

Secondly, they can't get beat by Joe FLACCCOOOOO's deep ball. The Steelers secondary has been playing pretty well ever since A.J. Green torched them in week 14 but if Torrey Smith catches a few long balls to either score or even just to flip field position the Ravens will have a big advantage. Also don't let Jacoby Jones return a kick for a touchdown. 

I'm really not expecting the Steelers to win or make it to the Super Bowl but a playoff win over the Ravens would certainly make me think this year has been somewhat successful. 

PLAYOFFS?!?!? Enjoy the games people.