I think the packers take the 49ers out easily. I know San Fran had the week off but Green Bay have form and have most offensive weapons fit and firing. 49ers are allowing a lot of points lately and I don't have to explain how good Rodgers is. The only thing standing in Green bay's way is kaepernick can throw the deep pass really well and the packers will have to defend that all day.

CFH, the interesting bit is how will all the injuries to GB affect them?

  On 10/01/2013 at 21:16, condemned 84 said:

CFH, the interesting bit is how will all the injuries to GB affect them?

Cobb and Nelson will both play. I don't know what other injuries they have but with a full receiving unit and a very solid running game they can score with anyone.

Here is Bill Simmons weekly column from Grantland ... The Always Reliable Mailbag ... this week's column focuses on the history of Bill answering readers e-mail's (dating back to the not so sophisticated internet days of 1997)

  Quote

" But in 1997 the Internet was a bizarre cross between the Wild Wild West and a maximum-security prison. There were no rules, no accountability, and more incoherent, typo-infested, all-caps e-mails than you can possibly imagine. I remember being shocked by how vicious people were. One time, I called Karl Malone "The Mail Fraud" in a column and someone from Utah (who somehow found the piece) sent me a legitimate death threat while also describing various ways I could have coitus with myself. Knives and axes were included. Not just knives — knives AND axes. So that was interesting.

Divisional round playoffs starts tomorrow . ESPN & OneHD are showing all this weeks games 'live'.

Reckon Denver and New England should both win and I'm hoping for a Green Bay victory. The Seattle/Atlanta game is really hard to pick . What's happens to the Falcons if they lose ? Early in the week I thought the Seahawks, but who knows? Looking forward to all 4 games. See y'all tomorrow morning ...

All times AEDT ...you can click on any team for that teams ESPN page (stats and news etc)

Sunday, Jan. 13 (divisional round)

8:30am — Baltimore at Denver

12:00pm — Green Bay at San Francisco

Monday, Jan. 14 (divisional round)

5:00am — Seattle at Atlanta
8:30am — Houston at New England

Monday, Jan. 21 (championship games)

7:00am — NFC title game
10:30am — AFC title game

Monday, Feb. 4

10:30am — Super Bowl

Edited January 12, 201312 yr by Macca

Broncos and Patriots should win comfortably, highlighting the overall weak standard of the AFC.

As for the NFC, being a 49ers fan I sincerely hope the home field advantage will be enough to overcome Aaron Rodgers and that bevy of receivers, but I worry about our defence. Justin Smith is key, but even if he's back to 100%, we've had a bad few weeks, Aldon Smith is out of form, and we're just conceding too many big plays. Russell Wilson and Tom Brady tore our secondary apart, and Aaron Rodgers is better than both (with better receivers). Meanwhile, Kaepernick is all over the place. If he gets it together like he did in Foxborough, then maybe we can match the Packers on offence. It's going to be close.

Seattle-Atlanta should also be close. All week I've been leaning towards the Seahawks, but having watched their game against Washington, they were flat and started terribly. At Atlanta, maybe they Falcons can put up some early points and put some pressure on. They will certainly be more effective on offence than Washington with RG3 on one leg was. I'd love an Atlanta win; for one, they deserve it, but more importantly, I think SF can beat them in the Championship game, whereas I fear that, even at home, we'll lose to Seattle.

I'm tipping Patriots to beat Denver in the AFC Championship, making it a NE v SF (hopefully) Superbowl.

I meet a stupid patriots fan tonight at crown towers. I was wearing my Vikings jeresey and he came out of nowhere with his 19-0 patriots t-shirt on to tell me the Vikings suck. I politely told him the broncos with tebow could take out new England. I don't really believe that but go broncos. What a [censored].

  On 12/01/2013 at 12:32, cowboy_from_hell said:

I meet a stupid patriots fan tonight at crown towers. I was wearing my Vikings jeresey and he came out of nowhere with his 19-0 patriots t-shirt on to tell me the Vikings suck. I politely told him the broncos with tebow could take out new England. I don't really believe that but go broncos. What a [censored].

Ha ha ha ! You've gotta wonder about some people . I've got a mate who is a Pats fan and he's pretty good about things (he's a staunch Demon as well and I must get him on to 'land at some stage) Different conference helps doesn't it - they're not really a rival in most respects. Same goes with a mate who's a Steelers fan.

Hard not to talk about Tebow or even use him as a reference. He's famous for um ........being Tim Tebow . Go figure ! I see the Jags have ruled a line through him . Hope he gets a gig somewhere.

In breaking news - 'old dee' has promised me he's coming over to this thread . A Bears fan for us, 'cfh' . And if 'dc' becomes a contributor here it could liven the thread up a bit !

  On 12/01/2013 at 06:04, titan_uranus said:

Broncos and Patriots should win comfortably, highlighting the overall weak standard of the AFC.

As for the NFC, being a 49ers fan I sincerely hope the home field advantage will be enough to overcome Aaron Rodgers and that bevy of receivers, but I worry about our defence. Justin Smith is key, but even if he's back to 100%, we've had a bad few weeks, Aldon Smith is out of form, and we're just conceding too many big plays. Russell Wilson and Tom Brady tore our secondary apart, and Aaron Rodgers is better than both (with better receivers). Meanwhile, Kaepernick is all over the place. If he gets it together like he did in Foxborough, then maybe we can match the Packers on offence. It's going to be close.

Seattle-Atlanta should also be close. All week I've been leaning towards the Seahawks, but having watched their game against Washington, they were flat and started terribly. At Atlanta, maybe they Falcons can put up some early points and put some pressure on. They will certainly be more effective on offence than Washington with RG3 on one leg was. I'd love an Atlanta win; for one, they deserve it, but more importantly, I think SF can beat them in the Championship game, whereas I fear that, even at home, we'll lose to Seattle.

I'm tipping Patriots to beat Denver in the AFC Championship, making it a NE v SF GB (hopefully) Superbowl.

Good post, apart from one slight correction I've made TU

Being a staunch Aussie, my heart is with the Packers at lunchtime today. Those green and gold colours are just irresistible !

Good luck, and may the better team win .

Edited January 12, 201312 yr by Macca

I think this mornings game between the ravens and broncos is going to be the best of the bunch!

Bring on kick off!

  condemned 84 said:

I think this mornings game between the ravens and broncos is going to be the best of the bunch! Bring on kick off!

So far it has been great to watch! Geebus the Broncs need to sort out the deep coverage, Champ Bailey is getting burnt big time. If only Flacco could hit an open man Ravens woyuld be up. Go Broncs! Can Pey-pey keep throwing in the cold? I saw a stat yesterday that showed because of his neck issues he has troulbe throwing to the right and especially right deep. Most of his picks have come from throwing right this season. If the Rav's can push him that way they could bring this home.

Then he throws 2 perfect balls to his right for a touchdown to Moreno! Haha got to love stats and sports!

Edited January 12, 201312 yr by Cards13

Wow, bailey got that one well wrong.

What a half.

Really good game so far . 21 - 21 . Flacco is having a reasonably good game.

Denver have come home well all year though (even in their losses) . 1st touchdown scored in the 2nd half could be the key here.

Holiday again!!!!!

F ME!!! Denver penalties killing us!!!

  On 12/01/2013 at 23:33, Cards13 said:

F ME!!! Denver penalties killing us!!!

Now Flacco fumbles - that could be costly for the Ravens .

  Macca said:

Really good game so far . 21 - 21 . Flacco is having a reasonably good game.

Denver have come home well all year though (even in their losses) . 1st touchdown scored in the 2nd half could be the key here.

Denver has a huge positive differential in 2nd half compared to 1st half over the season. Pey-pey just seems to reboot the computer (Macbook apparently http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2013/01/peyton-manning-is-a-macbook-according-to-bernard-pollard.html)and goes again.

  On 12/01/2013 at 23:39, Cards13 said:

Denver has a huge positive differential in 2nd half compared to 1st half over the season. Pey-pey just seems to reboot the computer (Macbook apparently http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2013/01/peyton-manning-is-a-macbook-according-to-bernard-pollard.html)and goes again.

Ha ! I like the website name of that link .

Ravens force a punt - great punt by the Broncos . Baltimore need to be the next team to score if they're gonna be a show .

Denver often score TD's down the stretch

Edited January 12, 201312 yr by Macca

  Macca said:

Ha ! I like the website name of that link .

Ravens force a punt - great punt by the Broncos . Baltimore need to be the next team to score if they're a show .

Denver often score TD's down the stretch

KSK is awesome! Sexy Friday, Thus mailbag and of course the Monday Peter King take downs are brilliant!

You would be spweing if a Ravens fan! They have not had the rub of the green today.

On another note so many rules and time outs and challenges really give me the irrates. The game is so skewed towards the O it is not funny. That should be a fumble of Peyton no if's but's or maybe's, no Tuck rule.

Knee was down before ball came loose.

Not kicking to Holliday any more...smart.

How the F can that have just happened. Denver secondary has given up some rubbish this year!

  On 13/01/2013 at 01:02, Cards13 said:

How the F can that have just happened. Denver secondary has given up some rubbish this year!

Did the ball hit the ground then bobble? The ground can't aid the catch . Could be overturned

What an amazing game in Denver that was! Full credit to the Ravens, I didnt expect that win today, especially travelling to Mile High.

That bomb by Flacco in the last quarter was a gem! The only thing I didnt like about the finish was that I was forced to jump onto ESPN

to watch a play by play tracker of the first 6 or so minutes of the Niners-Packers game while OT played out...

  On 13/01/2013 at 02:06, DemonDave said:

What an amazing game in Denver that was! Full credit to the Ravens, I didnt expect that win today, especially travelling to Mile High.

That bomb by Flacco in the last quarter was a gem! The only thing I didnt like about the finish was that I was forced to jump onto ESPN

to watch a play by play tracker of the first 6 or so minutes of the Niners-Packers game while OT played out...

Yep, the Ravens came to play. Thought Denver were going to pull away from them but not to be. I had the Broncos fairly strong favourites so just goes to show hey?

Our game is another high scoring one. Will the shoot-out continue?