Championship Predictions

Onto Sunday's games:

NFC Championship: New Orleans @ Chicago: The Saints have been a terrific story all season long, and it is hard to imagine their fairy tale season ending on Sunday. Their offense is explosive, and Duce McAllister can tote the rock if the weather is a factor tomorrow. The Bears' D has been suspect of late. Injuries to Mike Brown and Tommie Harris have depleted the middle of their defensive attack, and the Saints have the weapons necessary to exploit it.
Grossman's game face while at the University of Florida.

To me, this game will come down to the play of Rex Grossman. Grossman loves the deep ball (among many other things), and the Saints play a man-to-man defense which has been vulnerable to the big play all season long. Bernard Berrian has the speed to get behind defenders, and it could only take one or two big plays to put the Bears on top. I think that the Bears defense will come to play, and they will make enough plays to keep New Orleans in check. This combined with a few big plays from the offense should be enough to have the Bears doing the Super Bowl Shuffle again. BEARS 24-20.

Grossman's game face while with Chicago.

AFC Championship: New England @ Indianapolis: Here we go again. Every year these two teams seem to find each other, and the Patriots always seem to find a way to send Indy home crying. The Colts have won the previous two meetings (both regular season) in pretty convincing fashion, and it is hard to see New England going into the RCA dome and beating a better Indianapolis team. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have seen this all before as recently as last week. Few people expected the Pats' to go into San Diego and knock off the favorites in the AFC, but they did it. Somehow, someway they did it. It wasn't pretty, but Tom Brady made the plays he needed to down the stretch, and New England moved on like always.

This weekend the Colts are favored, and nearly every expert is saying that it is Peyton's time. Ultimately, Manning has never had a better chance than the one he has right now. The Pats' secondary has Artrell Hawkins starting at safety, and the Colts' D has shown up in its two playoff games. Brady and the Pats will be nothing like the inept playcalling of Kansas City and San Diego. They will know where to exploit the Colts' cover 2, and Lawrence Maroney should find some cut-back lanes in the Indy line. That means it will come down to Manning vs. Belichick. Belichick has had Manning's number when it matters most, and I would not be shocked to see it play out this way on Sunday. Manning should have an edge, however, because he has seen everything Belichick has thrown at him, and there should be no surprises on gameday. Wayne and Harrison should torch the New England secondary, and the Colts should prevail. I find it very difficult to pick Dungy and Manning over Brady and Belichick, but on this day, I'm doing it. Colts 34-21.

Colts fans do not want to see this Manning face on Sunday.