Okay... I'll do it...

In games after playing Baltimore:

Week 2 (0-1)
Pittsburgh lost to KC 41-20
Week 3 (1-1)
Cleveland Beat SF 13-12
Week 4 (1-2)
San Diego lost to Oakland 34-31 in OT
Week 5 (2-2)
Kansas City beat Denver 24-23
Week 6 (No game, Baltimore had a bye week 5)
Week 7 (No game, Arizona was on a bye after game vs. Baltimore)
Week 8 (3-2)
Cincy beat Seattle 27-24
Week 9 (3-3)
Denver lost to New England 30-26
Week 10 (4-3)
Jacksonville beat Indy 28-23
Week 11 (5-3)
St. Louis beat Chicago 23-21
Week 12 (6-3)
Miami beat Washington 24-23
Week 13 (7-3)
Seattle beat Cleveland 34-7
Week 14 (8-3)
San Fran beat Arizona 50-14
Week 15 (9-3)
Cincy beat San Fran 41-38
Week 16 (9-4)
Oakland lost to GB 41-7
Week 17 (10-4)
Cleveland beat Cincy 22-14

There it is, teams are 10-4 in weeks following their games with Baltimore. However, only 3 of those 10 wins were by more than a TD. Don't know what that means...

Pretty damning words from Mr. Gammons, though it makes me wonder who the post-1970 baseball scumbag runner-up is.

As for the Ravens question, I thought I heard that there was some after-Lewis effect, but a quick check shows that teams were 10-4 with a bye the week following a Ravens game (including 7 out of the last 8, when a more tired. Now, granted, one or two of those wins might still be said to indicate an effect (I'd have to really break down things like total yardage vs season average), but that sure doesn't seem like any kind of one.

And while we're here:

New England 31, Titans 13
Indianapolis 27, Chiefs 20
St. Louis 20, Carolina 10
Philadelphia 34, Green Bay 16

Dang, my fellow Up for Poker poster beat me to it, and with actual scores, too...

That's okay Ken... I figured you'd be there if I wasn't :-)

And while we're here:
New England 24, Tennessee 22
Indianapolis 37, Kansas City 31
Carolina 20, St. Louis 13
Philadelphia 27, Green Bay 14

Have to disagree with y'all...Panthers, Titans, Colts, Packers.

I'll admit the Titans pick is a sentimental one. As Paul noted- it starts getting tough to pick 'em at this point. They're all good teams. Okay, maybe I'll go with the Eagles instead of the Packers.

It's all pretty much 50-50. ;-)

Glad you finally got around to mentioning wrestling, the world's oldest and greatest sport.

Kurt Angle, of course, is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for winning a 1996 Olympic gold medal and two NCAA national championships at Clarion. It is not for his antics in what Rod Serling once called that "cheap vaudeville." Angle cried his eyes out after winning a razor-thin and controversial decision in the 1996 finals. He later bounced around trying to get TV broadcast work for a few years before ending up with WWE.

Billy Baldwin has also done a lot to help wrestling, including organizing against the closing of the program at his alma mater, SUNY Binghamton, where he wrestled. He can sometimes be seen at wrestling events here in NYC, as he was at the World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling at MSG in Sept.

The top college program in NYC is Columbia, a Div. I team with some All-American candidates. If you can get out yonder to Hempstead, Hofstra is a top ten DI team.

As for the NFL playoffs, too bad my Bengals didn't make it this year. BTW, Stephen Neal, a former NCAA and World Champion wrestler, was a lineman on the Patriots, but has been on injured reserve forever. I asked him when I saw him at the World Championships in Sept. if or when he was coming back, and he was not sure, and I haven't followed up since then.

Wrestling is cool.

"Wrastling" sucks.
---------------------------

You heard it here first (well, maybe not but who cares):

Tennesee

Indianapolis

St. Louis

Green Bay

Lay your $$ down, those are the picks.

Thanks for the link, PK. Can't argue with your picks, here are mine:

These playoffs may be the toughest in a long time to find a justifiable bet against the favorite - spread or none.

I usually turn to 'comfort level' when I'm stuck on my picks. I can't see Tennessee, with all their injuries, going into freakin' freezing weather and coming out with a win. And Carolina has some speedsters, but I don't think turf is their game. No one could possibly feel comfortable in Arrowhead (no crazy, irrelevent sponsor yet?), no matter how many points they won by the week before. So I guess my upset pick has to be Green Bay over Philly, seeing as how Eagle fans have been known to boo their own team during playoff games when things aren't going right. That's gotta be comforting for the Pack.

Chiefs prove how overrated they really are, and that a 8-0 record at home means little, after the best quarterback this year blows them out of the water. This will set up the best game of the year -- Indy vs. New England next week. This, I think, will come down to coaching, leaving Indy watching the SuperBowl from home.

Favre already blew his load on Monday Night Football. So, Eagles romp, if only to prove once again what a big, fat, drug-addled, criminal idiot Rush Limbaugh really is. As for the Titans game, the record after the Ravens? Who gives a fig? The winner of this game will be just another speedbump on the Eagles road to the Superbowl.

So you have it here first, kids. New England vs. Philly in Big Game. Haven't decided yet who wins.

You're on your own for the spreads.

Okay, I'm an idiot. I didn't mean the Titans, I meant the Caroline/Rams winner will be irrelevant as a speedbump to Philly.

I'm still waiting to hear the Cass picks...

If your picks are as deadly accurate as they were last week, I need to go to the bank...

You must know that I don't typically bet. I used to predict final scores of all college football games on AOL, back around 1998. Some dude IMed me and said I lost him $1,000. I went back and saw that I was even for the week, which has been my career pattern. And thus I don't typically bet.

I'm going to revise my New England/Tennessee pick to 20-10; apparently the gametime temperature is going to be something like -5, with wind chill at -20. Sounds like fun.

I read an article in the local paper this morning about how the NFL in the past 3 years has scheduled a PrimetimeNightime Playoff game in this round of the playoffs and every time it has been in the Northernmost city with the most chance of inclement weather (this year New England where the previous post said it will be -5). The jist of the article was that the NFL doesn't care about the fans, only the ratings and $$ (duh.) and that by scheduling a possible snow game they would have a chance to attract the more casual/curious viewer as well.

Just thought it was interesting, don't put much stock in it though... it's kind of funny how no matter what the topic or situation someone somewhere has a theory about how someone else is up to some kind of sinister plan wherein they're fucking everyone else.

Bill Simmons, who went 4-0 last week (my picks were posted first, so I didn't copy), has made his selections for the divisional round. He likes:

Carolina +7; Panthers 28, Rams 27

New England -6; Patriots 26, Titans 3

Indianapolis +3; Colts 34, Chiefs 17

Philadelphia -5.5; Eagles 24, Packers 17

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/simmons/040108.html

SI's Dr. Z, who kept picking the Giants to win this year till it was clear they couldn't beat Florida A&M, chimes in with:

Carolina +7; Rams 20, Panthers 17

Tennessee +6; Patriots 13, Titans 10

Indianapolis +3; Colts 38, Chiefs 31

Green Bay +5.5; Eagles 24, Packers 20

http://premium.si.cnn.com/pr/subs/siexclusive/2004/01/06/drz0112/index.html

After both my Saturday picks came through, I was envisioning a perfect 11-0 postseason. Alas, I picked both favorites Sunday, and the weekend finished with the underdogs covering each game.

How 'bout these games, though? After perhaps the most exciting MLB playoffs ever (1986 being the only competition), this NFL postseason has already produced some amazing games. And who knows when, or if, Peyton Manning will come back down to earth. I have never seen an offense run so flawlessly in back-to-back games. Has he even come close to making a mistake?

No one had a better week than Dr. Z. He went 4-0, picking all the underdogs, nailed the Colts-Chiefs final score, nailed the margin of victory in the Pats-Titans game, had the Panthers winning outright and picked the Eagles to win but not cover. Amazing.

Dr. Z's picks were amazing, especially considering he picked all four underdogs and teams which played last week which don't typically fare well after the wild-card round.

Lines are out for this week's games. I'll tentatively take Carolina +4.5 and New England -3.

I was originally going to comment about the insanity of Z picking all four underdogs, but damn, does that guy look good right about now. Much better than me.

I'm no Dr. Z, but I did pick the winners straight up.

I think I was pretty close. Picked all winners outright, and only lost the Philly-GB game because I picked the score with my heart instead of my head :-) I was only off on the Indy-KC score by one point.

Oh... and never take my picks to Vegas. I suck at betting sports.