{"id":1280,"date":"2007-01-06T18:40:05","date_gmt":"2007-01-06T23:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-1\/"},"modified":"2007-01-06T18:40:05","modified_gmt":"2007-01-06T23:40:05","slug":"2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-1","title":{"rendered":"2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

As longtime VM readers know, I’m more of a pro basketball guy than an NFL guy. That said, I spend more money on my NFL package (including HD) on my satellite account than I do on hoops.<\/p>\n

For a couple of seasons now, I’ve been making Super Bowl bets with Ron Rosenbaum, one of the best writers of our time. This year, Ron has his own blog<\/a>, so he’s taking up the official VM challenge and posting NFL playoff picks for each week. You can find Ron’s picks for this week over here<\/a>. As we get to the big game, we’ll start going head to head.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, here are my picks for the first weekend of the NFL playoffs:<\/p>\n

COLTS by 7 points over Chiefs.<\/strong> This is the worst Colts team in the last bunch of years. While Payton’s capable of putting a team on his shoulders, his counterpart (Trent Green) is capable of modeling for Prada. The Colts can’t stop the run, which means Larry Johnson is going to be the first NFL player ever to crack the 1 mile mark in rushing for a game. That said, I have a hard time picking against Indy until they face the Patriots, most years. So I’m taking Colts minus the touchdown<\/em>. (Update: WordPress ate this post for a while, so it’s actually going live when the Colts are up 9-0. I suck)<\/em><\/p>\n

SEAHAWKS by 3 points over Dallas<\/strong>. Dallas overachieved this season, and the Hawks are going to pants them on national TV. I don’t like Seattle particularly, but I think Dallas is utterly outclassed. ‘Hawks -3. Don’t be surprised if this one’s a 3-touchdown blowout for Seattle.<\/em><\/p>\n

PATRIOTS by 8.5 points over Jets.<\/strong> My pick for the upset (or at least the coverage-of-spread). I think Mangini knows enough of the Pats tricks to confound Bill “Fred Norris” Belichick on Sunday. My brother thinks I’m smoking crack for making this pick, but I have a feeling this’ll be a 17-13 finish, and the Jets will be on top. Jets +8.5, baby.<\/em><\/p>\n

EAGLES by 7 points over Giants.<\/strong> Everything I said about the Cowboys being outclassed? That holds up for my favorite team, the Giants, too. The NJ Giants are going to be too busy pointing fingers all night to actually play football. Tiki’s final season will flame out in Philly, which sucks, because it means we’ll have to get ready to see him about 10 million times a week. Eagles minus 7.<\/em><\/p>\n

So go on over to Ron’s site and see how his picks jibe against mine<\/a>. In a couple of weeks, we’ll start betting head-to-head, so come up with some good suggestions of what we should bet, exactly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As longtime VM readers know, I’m more of a pro basketball guy than an NFL guy. That said, I spend more money on my NFL package (including HD) on my satellite account than I do on hoops. For a couple of seasons now, I’ve been making Super Bowl bets with Ron Rosenbaum, one of the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-kE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1289,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-2","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":0},"title":"2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 2","author":"Gil","date":"January 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's do-or-die time, dear readers! I went 1-3 vs. the spread last week, while rival Ron Rosenbaum went 2-2. There's no denying it: Ron reached mediocrity before I did! I need to catch up in a hurry, since there are only 3 more games after this weekend, so this week's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Football"","block_context":{"text":"Football","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/football"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1573225142","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1308,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-3-the-post-mortem","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":1},"title":"2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 3: the post-mortem","author":"Gil","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Funnily enough, when I was posting that Montaigne quote earlier, I didn't even think about how it relates to my near-complete inability to get anything right with football picks. But 0-for-2 I went, dear readers! And now I've dragged Thane Rosenbaum into my web of crappy picks! It's tough when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Football"","block_context":{"text":"Football","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/football"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-1-the-post-mortem","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":2},"title":"2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 1: the post-mortem","author":"Gil","date":"January 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's never a good feeling to get up in the morning and find that one of your favorite writers just called you out like a bitch. But I deserve it, not having gone online yesterday to explain my horrific weekend of NFL picks. On Saturday night, my brother said, \"A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Football"","block_context":{"text":"Football","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/football"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375503390","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1332,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/blame-it-on-the-rain","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":3},"title":"Blame it on the rain","author":"Gil","date":"February 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Colts win left me at 2-9 for this year's Playoff \"Challenge\", while Ron Rosenbaum went 6-5. More importantly, I'm out $50 after the Bears failed to cover. Of course, devoted readers of this site -- seek help! -- may recall such remarks as Rex Grossman looks like the most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Football"","block_context":{"text":"Football","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/football"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375503390","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1302,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-3","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":4},"title":"2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 3","author":"Gil","date":"January 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had bigger balls in the first half of this decade. Back then, I found it easy to call literary people with no entree beyond, \"I'm a small press publisher and I'd like to talk to you about a project I'm working on.\" That opening got me into phone conversations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Football"","block_context":{"text":"Football","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/football"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0674535812","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1291,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-2-the-post-mortem","url_meta":{"origin":1280,"position":5},"title":"2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 2: the post-mortem","author":"Gil","date":"January 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Several years ago, I attended a wedding in Las Vegas. It was my first trip visit longer than 24 hours, and I thought it would be fun to gamble on sports. See, I've never been a cards or dice guy, but I do allege to know something about pro sports.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}