Random Drivel

I’m sleeping on the couch this week while my parents are visiting California. Thus, in keeping with a tradition that is now 15 years running, I did not wake up on the morning of my birthday in my own bed!

Semifinals of the NFL Playoffs, and we’re up to the Confrence Championships. Two underdogs won this week, and they happened to be Indy and New England, the two teams that I wanted to see play in the Confrence Championships. This is Indianapolis’ chance to exact revenge on the Pats for ruining their season more than once on New England’s way to the Super Bowl. Here are my predictions:

Round 1
KC @ IND - Indy
NYJ @ NE - New England
DAL @ SEA - Dallas
NYG @ PHI - Philadelphia

Round 2
IND @ BAL - Balitmore
NE @ SD - San Diego
PHI @ NO - Philadelphia
SEA @ CHI - Chicago

Confrence Championships
NE @ IND - Indy
NO @ CHI - Chicago

Super Bowl
CHI vs. IND - Indianapolis

The New England/San Diego game was indeed close, as I’d hoped, and it turned out to be in favor of the Pats. Is it just me, or have the Pats won a lot of games in recent history by freak accidents? The play today where Brady throws an interception, San Diego then fumbles and New England recovers for a first down? That sets up the touchdown and eventual 2-pt conversion.

So, I went 1 for 4 this weekend. I’m changing my Super Bowl pick to Indianapolis. Next weekend, I have doubts about Chicago’s ability to beat New Orleans. Also, as the old saying goes, “Hell will freeze over if the Saints win the Super Bowl.” But I think that they have a fair shot of beating Chicago, depending on Rex Grossman’s play. But my pre-season Super Bowl pick was Indianapolis and Chicago (albeit, the prediction was that they would be undefeated and meet with 18-0 records). So I’ll be sticking with that.

Week 2 of the NFL Playoffs, and we’re up to division action. The only team I picked to win that didn’t is Dallas, and they lost because Tony Romo can’t hold the ball on a FG attempt. They were closer than you get on an extra point, and couldn’t even make the kick. No one saw that coming. So anyway, here are my predictions:

Round 1
KC @ IND - Indy
NYJ @ NE - New England
DAL @ SEA - Dallas
NYG @ PHI - Philadelphia

Round 2
IND @ BAL - Balitmore
NE @ SD - San Diego
PHI @ NO - Philadelphia
SEA @ CHI - Chicago

Confrence Championships
BAL @ SD - Baltimore
PHI @ CHI - Chicago

Super Bowl
CHI vs. BAL - Baltimore

Even though these are my official picks, what I would have liked to have seen was the Giants and the Colts in the Super Bowl. I would still like to see the Colts beating Balitmore next week, but I don’t see it happening. I’ll root for the Colts despite my pick. Also, New England at San Diego will be a good game, hopefully close, but I will be cheering for San Diego. I like Philadelphia at New Orleans, and I like Chicago.

I was joking around with a coworker the other day, and said the funniest thing would be if the Colts and the Patriots made it to the AFC Championship game, and the Patriots beat the Colts. I would probably cry for the Colts, but damn that would be funny.

As of today, here are my predictions. These may change throughout the week up to Saturday, but this is what I’ve got right now:

Round 1
KC @ IND - Indy
NYJ @ NE - New England
DAL @ SEA - Dallas
NYG @ PHI - Philadelphia

Round 2
IND @ BAL - Balitmore
NE @ SD - San Diego
PHI @ NO - Philadelphia
DAL @ CHI - Chicago

Confrence Championships
BAL @ SD - Baltimore
PHI @ CHI - Chicago

Super Bowl
CHI vs. BAL - Baltimore

Rather lofty goal, I think. Can Balitmore do it? Will Ray Lewis walk off the field with the Lombardi trophy? We shall see.

Finally, the new NFL season is here, complete with new commercials. Love the commercials.

These are my favorite Super Bowl Commercials from this year, in no particular order.

The Leonard Nemoy commercial, while not intended to be funny (and mostly aimed at old people) struck me as an insightful commercial, and therefore is deserving of a spot on my list.

This is the one that nearly everyone (or at least college students) were talking about the next day. The mere thought of a magic beer-giving refrigerator is funny enough, but Bud Light brought it to life.

Bending the rules to the extreme, Budweiser brings a twist to the wardrobe malfunction of two years ago. Watch as clydesdales play a game of football before getting interrupted by an uninvited guest.

This commercial was not funny for the first 40 seconds. The final 5 seconds made up for it, launching it to a winner in my book.

I don’t advocate hitting women. But this was hysterical.

My vote for the funniest and best commercial of the entire Super Bowl. I don’t have a Sprint phone, but I sure as hell wish my phone had crime deterrent.

I recorded the Super Bowl, so if you had a favorite commercial, let me know and I’ll cut and host it for you. I didn’t really see that many funny ones, though the ones I saw were mostly in the first quarter.

I’ll most likely be posting the FedEx one, and a few of the Bud Light ones.

Why does Kobe Bryant even have teammates? He obviously never watched those after-school specials about sharing and cooperation.

My Super Bowl Prediction is the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Seattle Seahawks, 1,396 to negative Pi (199 Touchdowns, every extra point, and one field goal. I don’t know how the Seahawks will score negative Pi, but they will find a way.) Every point will be scored on a turnover.

In an apology to Rory, I will say that this game will be the greatest football game ever played, because I really really really really want to see how the Seahawks are going to manage to lose. It will be mind-boggling.

Now that Chicago, Indianapolis, and (yes, even) New England are out of the playoff hunt, we are left with a roster of 4 teams. Pittsburgh at Denver, and Carolina at Seattle. Should the unthinkable happen (and at least one sports columnist I’ve read seems to think it may), We have an all-wild-card Super Bowl in Detroit with Carolina and Pittsburgh.

Since Sunday dashed the hopes of a Chicago-Indianapolis game, which would have likely delighted many a Rose-Hulman student, we’re left with two teams who struggled to even get into the playoffs.

For the sake of the game, I hope that we see Seattle and Denver, two powerhouse teams that lived their seasons in the shadow of Indianapolis, a team that can’t win the big game. Not only has Shaun Alexander earned the MVP this year for the Seahawks, but Jake Plummer has quietly thrown the ball and lead the Broncos to a successful season, the likes of which they haven’t seen since Elway. The Broncos took away the sleeping giant that plauged the Colts (New England), while almost ironically the Steelers took away the Broncos nemesis (the Colts) in the same weekend.

So if these two teams, the 1 and 2 ranked teams in the NFC and AFC, respectively, are the underdogs for their confrence championships, we’re going to have another boring Super Bowl that no one wants to see.

Oh, and as a Bucs fan, I really hate the Panthers.

There are only a few more weeks left of football this season, both NFL and college. Can they please not suck this badly? 42-0 on a Monday night? How pathetic can you be.