Okay, so that was just a wee bit of a low blow for the Mora clan since the Son of Moron... I mean Mora, was given his Pink Slip for New Year's. Hey Jim, here's a hint. Next time your daddy calls the face of the franchise a "Coach Killer", learn how to agree to disagree. Your job might depend on it.

Fact of the matter is, that aside, the Falcons weren't really THAT bad this season. Talentwise, they've got the pieces in place but that little 'something' just didn't click for them. Of course, with the coach agreeing with his unemployed dad about the QB being a Coach Obliterator [yeah, I went Skip Bayless there for a minute] didn't help matters much with team morale. Especially Vick's. Now what folks fail to realize about Michael Vick is this.

- He's the FIRST [as in the ONLY GUY IN NFL HISTORY] to win a playoff game in Lambeau in the modern era.
- A few years earlier, he took the Falcons to within a game of the Super Bowl.

So between then and now, when did he all of a sudden become "incapable of winning on the big stage"? Oh and Moron Sr., when he was doing all of this for your son in his rookie year at the helm, was he a "Coach Killer" then?

Do us all a favor and take your under...no, let me restate that, NONACHEIVING ASS and shut the hell up. When you do something of relevance within the NFL, then you can talk about QBs being a "Coach Killer". I mean, this man had a vastly talented Saints team in the late 80s/early 90s and did diddly poo with them. Franchise didn't win a single playoff game and let's not go into his reign with the Colts when they really were the Dolts as I so aptly call them. But aside from that before I get into the meat of this, I've got two other things I wanna touch on and hell, I'll just tie them together since they're kinda one in the same.

First off, there's Denny Green. Guess ole Denny's kinda useless without three extremely good to great receivers and an offense that can basically blow up the scoreboard and a so so defense. Thanks for coming, try not to hit anything on your way out of 'Zona.

As for Nick Saban, let me try to put this as bluntly as I can. S-T-A-Y P-U-T. I disagree with people who say that his NFL run has been an abject failure, because that's bull. Abject failure would be what Spurrier did in Washington or what Holtz did with the Jets before he returned to college in the late 70s. There is NOTHING about Saban's stay in Miami which would indicate he's failed. Were the hopes a little TOO lofty coming into the year? Yeah. They're not THAT good people. So now that everyone's got egg on their faces for making a prediction that was a bit off to begin with, now they're calling Saban a failure. Saban waited too long to make the QB change that ended up turning the year around and even after that, this team has shown it's not too far away from making a return to the playoffs. But the question becomes, can Saban avoid the temptation of returning to what figures to be a lose-lose really hard and fast situation in Tuscaloosa and stick around to prove people wrong in Miami? Anyway, onto the picks...

Kansas City at Indianapolis--The last time Herman Edwards met up with Tony Dungy in the playoffs, Herm's Jets blanked Tony's Colts and handed Peyton the single worst ass kicking of his entire career [high school, college or pro]. This year, when the Colts bolted out to their usual 'we're kicking everyone's ass because we're outscoring everyone and nobody's figured out how to stop us' spiel, everyone swooned as usual, and I didn't waver. I stuck to my guns and figured that once it ended, it'd meet its usual end in the playoffs. But even I couldn't have forseen them losing to the likes of Tennessee, a 44-17 "Behind The Woodshed with no KY" in sight special courtesy of the Jags, losing to Dallas and here's the one which I'm basing my pick off of at least the reason for it...

Ron Dayne's career day against Indy just a week ago. This is Ron Dayne we're talking about here ladies and gents. First round bust of the Giants, who was supposed to have still been with the G-Men as Tiki's eventual successor. Yet, for one game, he showed exactly why he was NY's first pick so many years ago and well, let me spell this out for all of y'all just in case nobody's getting it: KC's got Larry Johnson.

Herman Edwards knows how to beat his former coaching colleague on the big stage and did it with a vastly inferior [albeit not by much] cast of characters about four seasons ago. Homefield here is a moot point, as the Steelers have already taken that from them last January. We all know that if you get in Peyton's face, he doesn't look the same as he does when he's dropping off those sweet looking passes to everybody, their mama, and the water boy. So yeah, in my Upset Special, I'm taking the Chiefs over the Colts Saturday afternoon.


New England vs 'Gini & The Jets--So alright, here's me saying for all of the things I called last year, the Jets playing on the first weekend of January wasn't one of them. What's even more discomforting about this for me is the fact that my dad did and he's looking like Lenstradamus Sr. for it. But that aside, here's a few reasons why I should be picking the Jets to win this weekend.

1) They've gone up to Foxboro and beaten the Pats earlier this year.

2) Mangini knows Belichick better than any playoff adversary Bill's faced in his coaching career. This is something you more than likely won't hear much of on any network, NFL Network included for the fingerful of you that actually have it on your televisions.

3) The Jets have absolutely nothing to lose here, we'll call this the Rocky II theorem and when you're facing a team with the Rocky II theorem in effect, the results can be tragic.

So all of this said, you'd figure that I'd go with the Jets right? Wrong. I'm taking the Pats for these reasons...

1) Belichick flat out hates Mangini. I'm going to call this the Chaney/Calipari Theorem and I think moreso than any other point, Bill's going to bring his A triple plus game to ensure that Eric's first playoff game is the longest of his life.

2) The Pats still have Tom Brady as their QB. Brady the last time I checked had three more rings than anyone else on the Jets roster other than their head coach.

3) Belichick's proven time and time again that when he sees a team that has beaten him in the regular season again in the postseason, he's more prepared for what's coming and more often than not, wins. Ask Big Ben and the Steelers what happened two years ago in Pittsburgh if you think I'm lying.

The defense rests. I'll cover the NFC later, I've got something else I wanna harp on before I do it. On top of that, I need to stew over a few things. Holla.