Lions will be thrown to Saints in wild-card

IT’S time to start paying full attention to the National Football League again.

After a season where recordbreaking offences and unprecedented pivot play were the themes of the year, expect a mixed bag of results in the wild-card games this Saturday and Sunday.

Let’s start off with an NFC matchup a very long time in coming. The last time the Detroit Lions made the playoffs and were involved in wild-card weekend, yours truly was playing against them in Washington, D.C. They were not successful in that venture some 13 seasons ago, and they have even less of a shot facing off with the 93-octane New Orleans Saints in New Orleans, who beat the Lions by 14 in week 13.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Drew Brees broke Dan Marino’s record for single-season passing yards this season, and the Saints have not lost a game at home. Neither defence is very good, but the Saints’ offence has no equal right now. While it’s cute that the Lions are relevant again and we get to watch Ndamukong Suh try to mortally injure someone, there is no way I see the Lions coming out on top.

The other NFC wild-card weekend entries are the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants. If this game were played in a dome, I would anoint the Falcons victorious without pause. But it’s not. Atlanta has to travel to New Jersey to play the Giants in conditions not favourable to their style of play.

Matt Ryan was brilliant in their regular-season finale, breaking team records by putting up 42 points in the first half, but it’s hard to pick him over the Superbowl MVP experience of Eli Manning. Besides, as mentioned by Chris Collingsworth and Al Michaels on Sunday Night Football, the Giants have been abusing everybody named Ryan of late.

They beat up Rex Ryan and his Jets to force a one-game showdown to win the NFC East, then they took apart coordinator Rob Ryan’s Dallas Cowboys defensive 11 two days ago. Matt Ryan (no relation) is on deck. If the conditions are miserable and the Giants can get their running game on track, they should be tough to beat at home.

And next to the San Francisco 49ers, the Giants have my highest-rated pass rush in the playoffs with Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, and Jason Pierre-Paul, and we all know that more often than not, defensive line play controls the outcome of football games.

Looking at the AFC, there is only one game here I will actually watch.

The Tim Tebows... I mean the Denver Broncos... versus the Pittsburgh Steelers in Denver.

Think of this game as Tim Tebow’s final audition to prove he is, and can be, a bona fide NFL quarterback and not just a polarizing figure and lightning rod for debate. The Broncos are backing into the playoffs with a 7-3 loss to Kansas City in which Tebow was 6 of 22 for 60 yards in the air. At least that last result tells us how good the Broncos’ defence can be.

The Broncos have an unorthodox — some say gimmicky — attack in which Tebow’s athleticism and running skills are featured. Problem is, the Steelers are the overall top defence in the NFL and eighth against the run. Tebow better keep his head on a swivel rushing the ball, as James Harrison of the Steelers likes to take heads off. This game should be a tight contest, as the Steelers lost their starting running back, Rashard Mendenhall, on Sunday, and Big Ben is a mess injury-wise.

Even though I still can’t get the images of their beatdown against the 49ers out of my head from two weeks ago, I still like Pittsburgh to get past Denver.

Lastly, the Cincinnati Bengals travel to Houston to play the Texans Saturday afternoon. I cannot recall an NFL playoff matchup in recent memory that is so uninspiring as this game.

These two teams have as much star power and are about as sexy as breakfast sausage on New Year’s Day. The Bengals backed into the playoffs with a loss and the Texans have lost their last three in a row. No one expects either team to survive the next round against Baltimore or New England, so on an indifferent premonition, simply based on a healthy Andre Johnson for the Texans, take Houston to win at home.

Doug Brown, a hard-hitting defensive tackle with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and even harder-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 3, 2012 B8