SAN DIEGO CHARGERS AT INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
CHARGERS O V. COLTS D
If the Chargers are going to have any success today, it's going to have to come from LaDanian Tomlinson. Philip Rivers is not going to have a good day. He's missing Antonio Gates, and the Colts have the second ranked pass defense in the league. That means the Chargers are going to have to attack the Colts run defense. Problem is, that run defense is no longer the soft underbelly it was last year. It does rank 18th in the league, but a lot of that is due to the number of times opponents run it against them. Per attempt, that defense ranks sixth. When these teams met earlier this season, LT ran for only 76 yards. As a team, the Chargers had only 11 first downs (compared to 25 for the Colts). That won't be enough today.
ADVANTAGE- COLTS
COLTS O V. CHARGERS D
We all know that Peyton Manning was picked off six times in the first Indy/SD meeting. Forget about that. Everyone was hurt. While the Chargers defense is good at forcing turnovers, they are bad at keeping the opposition from moving the ball up and down the field. They rank 16th against the run and 14th against the pass. This despite facing some awful offenses down the stretch this year (Oakland, Denver, Detroit, Tennessee, KC, Baltimore). The Colts have Marvin Harrison back today, which is nice, but with or without him they should have no problem with the Chargers defense today.
ADVANTAGE- COLTS
VARIOUS AND SUNDRY
Let's see. Peyton Manning or red faced Screamin' Phillip Rivers? Tony Dungy or Norv Turner?
ADVANTAGE- COLTS
MY PICK
The Chargers closed the season on a 2 month run of blowing out bad teams. Then they came out last week and looked for a long while like they once again were going to shit the bed in their first playoff game. They pulled it together and won only because the Titans have absolutely no offense. The Colts? They have an offense. This game is not going to be close.
COLTS 30, CHARGERS 13
NY GIANTS AT DALLAS COWBOYS
GIANTS O V. COWBOYS D
Last time these two teams met, Jeremy Shockey was the primary weapon for the Giants. He had 12 catches for 129 yards and a TD in that game. Today, he will have 0 catches for 0 yards, because he's on IR. If the Giants hope to make up for his loss, they're going to have to run the ball. The Cowboys have the 6th ranked run defense in the league, so that's not a great position to be in.
ADVANTAGE- COWBOYS
COWBOYS O V. GIANTS D
There's a lot of hooh hah swirling around Dallas' offense right now. TO's gimpy. Tony Romo's not focused. Jason Garrett may be leaving to take a head coaching job. None of those are good things. However, in the two meetings this year, Dallas averaged 38 points against the Giants. So, unless the Giants have figured something out, you have to figure the Cowboys are going to be able to put up some points today.
ADVANTAGE- COWBOYS
VARIOUS AND SUNDRY
As mentioned above, the Cowboys are in a little bit of turmoil right now. That, and they're nowhere near being the team that beat the Giants twice in pretty easy fashion in the first half of the season. Since clinching home field by beating the Packers, they've looked bored, distracted, and just not very good. The Giants had to scrap their way into the playoffs, and have been playing as well as they have all year lately.
ADVANTAGE- GIANTS
MY PICK
The Giants have been a hot upset pick. Sterling Sharpe and Brian Baldinger luv luv luvvvvvved them on the NFL Network pregame show. I'm not on board. Last week they beat a Bucs team who had nothing going for it on offense. They've showed this year that they've got no answer for the Cowboys' offense, and I doubt they've come up with one.
COWBOYS 34, GIANTS 23
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