I hope to get a birthday week.
And your lead / theme? Is from my 22nd Birthday -- January 3, 1999 ... the greatest NFL game I never attended, but watched every second of:
Twenty one years later? The finale never gets old * .
(*: eight years old, the other lead / theme below? Still never gets old either. #justbeyou)
Here's to hoping, wishing, and praying, we get a game like this, uuh, this week, between these two teams, on the other side of the NFL Postseason bracket ... to say nothing of the one, on the Chiefs side of the NFL Postseason bracket ...
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The Statisticals.
Last Week SU: 2-2-0.
Last Week ATS: 2-1-0.
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The Non-Chiefs Picks.
Last week gave us four epic games.
This week? I believe will give us two.
One not involving the Chiefs and/or Texans.
Anyways, here we go:
* Vikings (+7) 27, at 49ers 13. Gun to my head, the bomb to Adam Thielen in the opening minutes of overtime, is arguably the gutsiest call of the entire 2019 NFL season. You're entrusting a quarterback whose entire reputation is based on choking when it counts, to complete a forty something yard bomb in the insane asylum known as the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, with the game on the line.
And Kirk Cousins completes it, with relative ease.
Folks? If the Saints can't slow down the Vikings at home? Do you really think the ultimate "wine and cheese crowd" in Santa Clara can manage to make enough noise to distract and discombobulate, the Vikings?
They won't. Vikings advance with relative ease.
(Also -- this isn't a prime time game. Something Kirk Cousins can't avoid next week ... but he can again this week.)
* at Ravens (-10) 45, Titans 3. For two weeks, the best regular season team has had to listen to various (alleged) credible pundits declare that they're not the best regular season team this season. They've had to listen to (alleged) credible pundits declare that the Titans are vastly underrated, that the Ravens are insanely overrated, and that one man (Derrick Henry) is so unstoppable, the Ravens might as well not even show up, in their own stadium, with the season on the line.
In the words of Chad Ochocinco: "Child? Please!"
This is going to be an ass kicking of Biblical proportions, as my dad would say. This is going to be an utter and total destruction from the moment "go". The Ravens are not losing this game. This game will be over with so early, I might get ten hours of sleep Saturday night, and I am fully aware The Bus is leaving for Arrowhead no later than 6:15am Sunday morning * .
I have argued all week the Chiefs / Texans line is at least five points too high. (I stand behind that statement -- the Chiefs should not be four point favorites at NRG Reliant (which being favored by ten suggests they would be), and anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that.)
This line? Is at least five points too low. This is going to be an absolute destruction -- to the utter dismay of us Chiefs fans. Baltimore in an epic route on the Saturday Divisional Round prime timer, the likes of which we haven't seen, since Tim Tebow was losing 45-10 in New England, nine years ago.
(*: full details coming in the Chiefs / Texans pick manana.)
* at Packers 24, Seahawks (+4) 21 (OT).
This ... is going to be one epic battle.
Sadly, Matt Hasselbeck won't be on the field to open overtime to declare "we want the ball, and we're going to score!" Because that worked out so well last time.
But -- but! -- the intrigue of this game is so effing awesome.
Russell Wilson back in Wisconsin (albeit a few hours northeast of Madison).
Aaron Rodgers with his best shot at a second Super Bowl since ... losing in overtime in Seattle in the 2014 postseason.
And no matter what the other game's outcome is? It's one of (mike gundy voice) four! (chanel west coast voice) ridiculousness(ly)! sick matchups next week.
It's either Vikings at Packers (a really solid rivalry), Seahawks at 49ers (a properly rated rivalry), or Vikings at Seahawks (two great MNF games the last two years) or Packers at 49ers (a return to the late 1990s / early 2000s glory years of that rivalry).
We are all winners, no matter who wins these three games -- especially the two NFC ones.
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So here we go, people. Four games, four conference championship spots up for grabs. Somehow, three of the four home teams are favored by at least a touchdown. This is going to be real, and it is going to be spectacular.
Just like twenty one years ago, by the Bay.
(Good God. That game is old enough to drink!)
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Be safe out there tonight, KC. Brush Creek has already overflowed onto South Ward Parkway, and it's a watery mess outside the Intercontinental. (I spend my happy hour there tonight, with "Uncle" Bob, and wherever the hell Pat fits in, to the family configuration.)
And until tomorrow?
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