[Hats off to Lazarus A.D.'s Jeff Paulick for stepping in when we needed him this year to take over the Unnecessary Roughness column and doing a fantastic job with it. Thanks for playing, dude! -Ed.]

Well, the Super Bowl ended pretty much how I anticipated it would. It was a great game, and congrats to New York. I was a naysayer when they entered the playoffs, but when you beat Green Bay, San Francisco and New England, that’s beating the best teams in the league this year. I wish I could argue against that, but I can’t!

I’m sure everybody watched the game so I’m not gonna recap it. There were a couple key mistakes that the Patriots made, otherwise they surely would have won. I thought they outplayed the Giants, and their defense surprised me. But in the end, the Giants took care of the ball better and they made plays when they needed to; that’s been their MO all year.

First I want to get to the debate of Eli being an elite quarterback. Nobody really wants to throw him in that discussion because he doesn’t play with the same passion as his brother or as Tom Brady, but he does win — twice now. That’s very impressive. I don’t like the guy, I think hes a dork on and off the field. He’s just awkward, and football isn’t an awkward sport. It’s a fucking brutal high tempo gauntlet where steroid filled behemoths try to all but kill each other. And Eli looks like he should be hosting Blues Clues, not commanding Big Blue. He has something that you can’t teach, something special about him, though. Something I can’t explain, something nobody else can explain. There’s just something else there that his brother doesn’t have, call it magic if you will. When he hucked that ball to Mario Manningham, immediately I said to myself, if this guy catches that ball this is fucking magic, and he caught it. You can’t script shit like that, you can’t count on having a play like that to keep you alive and win the game, but he always does it. And he did the same shit last time in 2008 with David Tryee. Luck is thrown out when you do this more than once. Little Eli is clutch, and he’s just one bowl behind Brady and already one ahead of his brother. Hats off.

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Both Jim and John Harbaugh’s teams botched opportunities to face each other in Superbowl XLVI. I give all the respect to the Patriots and the Giants for winning, but it’s not always the better team that moves on, and I feel that’s the case once again this week. Both games were fought very well, and it really came down to a couple key mistakes and missed opportunities for the Ravens and 49ers.

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I’m not gonna dedicate this blog to how or why the Packers totally fucking blew it. I’m gonna tell it how it is. And by the way, I could give less of a shit who wins this week or who wins the Superbowl as I’m super bitter right now and I will be until training camp next year.

The first game this weekend was by far the best game of the bunch, and probably the best game all year. The Saints turned it over like five times in the first half and STILL were not only in the game but were only one score away from winning. It just shows how fucking good the Saints offense really was this year. Five turnovers, and they still just kept on rifling the ball down the field; they weren’t gonna change their style of play just because San Francisco was having success stopping them. And that is something that is rare in the NFL. Teams get scared and start to try to overcompensate for mistakes and start doing things out of character. The Saints didn’t, they played their ass off and made a game out of what shouldn’t have been a game at all. But all respect goes to San Francisco; they played the best offensive team that I’ve seen since the undefeated regular season Patriots, and they made them look silly. Everyone knew their defense was good, but they played exceptionally well, and when it’s crunch time, that’s when you need to play your best. The final couple of drives where Alex Smith ran the QB draw and then followed up with an amazing TD pass to Vernon Davis, that is winning at its finest. Great play calling, perfect execution, and basically defying all the odds to win the game. It was so great to see Vernon Davis crying after he caught the catch to win the game, because that is a real player playing for the right reasons. There are so many NFL players who do not deserve the size paycheck they get — that goes for all sports really — and you can’t do anything but love Vernon Davis for showing that emotion. Money didn’t matter, that was a team effort on the field, and I hope they win it all.

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And so much for my predictions! I went 1 for 4, pretty terrible, but I was hoping for a few upsets and only ended up getting the one nobody saw coming! This weekend held classic NFL Playoff action, but ultimately ended with every home team being the victor. Let’s take a look.

The Bengals traveled to Houston and got just plain outplayed in every aspect. Cincinnati made way too many mistakes on offense and defense for Cincinnati, and they gift-wrapped a victory for Houston. Not to say the Texans didn’t play impressive football, because they surely did; their first ever playoff appearance and win is huge for that franchise. They will now travel to Baltimore to play the Ravens, who will undoubtedly fight a lot harder than Cincinnati did. I like Baltimore at home, they play with a different energy, and should lock down a win against Houston this weekend.

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The regular season has sadly come to an end, and I emphasize SADLY, because I have no idea what the hell I’m gonna do every Sunday for the next four months when its fuckin -6 degrees, ugh. The final day didn’t really post any surprises for me, as all of the teams I picked to make it did so; with only two seeds being incorrect (pats self on shoulder, slams a shot of whiskey). So lets take a look at the matchups coming up this weekend.

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Sorry for the delay everyone! I had to awaken from my food coma over this past week. I really enjoy how America has turned every holiday into an excuse to overeat and drink. But who the hell am I to say that’s wrong? I indulged. I indulged in watching football as well. This week wasn’t as much as a shocker as last, but the AFC race is fuckin’ jacked right now to say the least. Tennessee is still in the hunt somehow, crazy.

I like the Patriots to win the No. 1 seed. Buffalo dismantled Tebow this week, but they won’t have that luck on Brady. But I still don’t see them making the Superbowl, their defense gives up way too much, just like the Packers. Here we have a case where both the would be No. 1 seeds are probably going to be knocked out. Both offenses are lethal, but if either have an off day, neither can rely on their defense to win. (However, the Pack do lead the league in interceptions, which helps their case.)

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You hear that whistle in the intro? Yeah, that means business. And business was not as usual this week in the NFL. I predicted a few weeks back that if the Pack was gonna lose, the Colts were gonna win the same day, otherwise there is no balance, dammit! But seriously, NOBODY saw the Pack’s loss directly to the Colts coming. There are only two weeks left, and we are starting to see the identity, or lack thereof, of our playoff teams.

Lets start with the Packers. The Chiefs outplayed them, no question. But there were two key things that usually occur in our wins this season that didn’t this week. First, the defense didn’t cause a single turnover, and we thrive on that momentum shift as we usually turn them into points. And second, we dropped as many balls yesterday as all season. Rodgers was off target, the receivers dropped a lot of easy catches, and the focus just wasn’t there. And this just proves how much of the game is mental. Let’s take a team that has nothing to lose, who just fired their head coach because they can’t win, bring in the best team in the league, and let’s make a statement. And they did. I’m not fretting, and nobody else should either. The last two games may be rocky for the Pack, but once they lock up home field advantage its going to be hella tough to win in Green Bay, especially as some key players come back from injury.

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Another week of football, another week of amazing finishes and blowouts. Indy lost, the Packers won, and that seems to be the only constant this year. After starting the season strong, the Chiefs, Bills, and Bucs can’t seem to win anymore, all getting blown out on Sunday. But these are relatively young teams, and it takes getting through years like this one to gel. Pretty much every other game was a nail biter at the end, so let’s dissect.

The Vikings looked straight terrible against the Lions on Sunday. Rookie QB Christian Ponder threw three INT’s and lost a fumble, and he was ultimately pulled in the 3rd quarter for second year man Joe Webb. He led the Vikings back into the game by throwing two touchdowns, and almost won it on the final drive of the game. On the last play of the game, Webb was flushed out of the pocket and fumbled; the Lions scooped it up and the game was over. However, there was a blatant no-call — a facemask –which would have given the Vikes 1st and goal with no time left, but a game can’t end on a penalty. I would have loved to see them try one more play; the refs screwed them out of a win — more importantly a Lions loss — that shouldn’t have been missed.

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What’s up, everybody! First and foremost I wanna say thanks to the MS staff for giving me this opportunity. I know a decent amount about football and my TV rarely sees any show other than SportsCenter, so this is gonna be really fun every week. A little sports background information on me: I grew up a Packers fan my whole life (and Wisconsin sports in general), so the past couple years have been really fuckin awesome for us. I never played football, but I played basketball and have been super competitive throughout my life. I love a good rivalry and a good shit-talking session, as long as you’ve got the facts to back it up. So here we go!

TGIT (“Thank God It’s Thursday”) just started, and if you’re fortunate enough to have the NFL Network you can watch one extra-shitty game every week. Marshawn Lynch ran well for the Seahawks, busting tackles left and right, but Vince Young played even better. The Eagles are a sorry squad this year; I’m so happy they didn’t pan out. “Let’s spend all the money we can on free agency and say we’re the Dream Team with our talent level.” The only dream they’ve got now is breaking .500. See ya later Andy Reid, leave now and go to a city who won’t boo you every time you play at home.

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