JIM RUBERA
(Rubera writes for The Spop)

Playoffs:  3-5  AFC: 0-4 NFC:  3-1

4- Teams left

3- Great defenses

2- Great offenses

1 – Blogger with no clue how either game will turn out.

But I’ll give it a shot.  Here we go.

Baltimore (+7) @ New England

So many reasons to pick each team.  Let’s go through them.

Reasons to pick Baltimore:

• Ray Rice is an animal, both rushing and receiving, and has had success against New England.
• In the Joe Flacco era these games have been incredibly close.  The only one that wasn’t close was when Baltimore blew out the Patriots in the playoffs on the same field.
• Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata.
• Emotions.  Baltimore has confidence; they’ve won here in the playoffs before.  They also have desperation; this defensive group may not be here again together.
• The Patriots played two winning teams all year (NY Giants & Pittsburgh) and lost to both.  The rest of their schedule was filled to the brim with cupcakes and they lost to one of them too (Buffalo).
• New England’s most effective rusher in the playoffs is a tight end.

Reasons to pick the Patriots:

• Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are leaps and bounds ahead of Flacco and Harbaugh.
• Welker, Gronkowski, and Hernandez did not play in the playoff game that Baltimore won.
• Welker, Gronkowski, and Hernandez are ridiculous.
• The game is in Foxboro where they have only lost three times in the last 41 home games.
• The Patriots are averaging 32 points per game at home this season.  The Ravens can’t score that many points.
• The Ravens have only faced one offensive minded quarterback (Rivers) since November 6th (Roethlisberger, if you count him) and they got lit up by him.

I don’t think the Ravens can match touchdowns with the Patriots, obviously.  But I do think that they will hit hard, whether it be Brady, Welker, or one of the tight ends.  They’ll do their thing and try to rough people up and intimidate, but the Patriots will pull out a close one.  Take Baltimore and the 7 points, but expect New England to head to Indy.

NY Giants (+2.5) @ San Francisco

Alex Smith out dueled the best statistical quarterback in the history of the NFL last week and Vernon Davis lived up to his expectations for one game.  Nobody saw that coming.  But the Giants will.  Up above I mentioned the number of great offenses and great defenses left in the playoffs.  Well the Giants are the only team with both.  The pass rush is outstanding and the corners can cover.  Eli Manning can move the ball effortlessly and has big play receivers to go to.  Let there be no mistake, San Francisco’s defense is nasty and there will be some jarring hits on those receivers, but it won’t be enough to completely derail the train.  Take the 2.5 points and buckle up for a Giants/Patriots Super Bowl rematch.

Photo: AP

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