A Weekend for Championships

The two best players of a generation on respective
sides of the ball will meet for one last time on Sunday.

Austen's Twelve-Point Pick - @New England over Baltimore

Austen: I really, really hope I am wrong. Having to watch the Pats go to yet another Super Bowl might be too much for me, unless they blow it for a third straight time in the big game. I do hate John Harbaugh, so this game is pretty lose-lose for me.

That being said, I still do not trust Joe Flacco. That long touchdown to send the game into overtime was a fluke. Ninety-nine percent of the time, that ball is being picked off and the Ravens' season ends. Rahim Moore made one of the worst defensive plays I have ever seen in the NFL, showing off all that he learned playing football at UCLA.

Tom Brady on the other hand, always takes care of business. He will be great. How his teammates play will be the factor in this game. Stevan Ridley could end up being the biggest factor in this game because the Ravens' run D is porous and there will be holes for the young running back. It should be a great game, but I cannot imagine a world in which Flacco out performs Brady on a big stage.

Score Prediction: New England 41, Baltimore 27

The Battle for Divisional Pride

Aaron Rodgers will need to shake off a 49ers team
that beat his Packers in Week 1. (Getty)

Stally: Ciao, NFC East.  I said all year your division was weak, despite Austen's clamoring that the Giants played in one of the toughest divisions in football.  Well, we have seven of the eight divisions still represented as we look at the NFL's Divisional Playoff round, and the NFC East isn't among them.

Point: me.

The NFC West is the lone division with two teams remaining, which should make me feel a little better as a Patriots fan that New England went just 1-3 against it.  However, nothing is going to excuse the Week 2 loss to the hapless Cardinals, and if/when New England is stuck going to Denver next weekend, they have only themselves to blame, as that loss was the difference.

Speaking of New England, let's get to the picks:

Stally's Eight-Point Pick - @New England over Houston

Stally: New England rocked the Texans 42-14 at home on Dec. 10 during Monday Night Football.  However, I'm sure Bill Belichick won't let them forget an eerily similar situation from two years ago.  On MNF, Dec. 6, 2010, the Pats dismantled the Jets 45-3, but lost at home in the divisional round 28-21 a month later.  I don't see that happening again.  The Texans are better than that Jets team, to be honest.  However, they have not been clicking lately and have managed just two touchdowns in three games.  I still think the Texans peaked early and that New England generally comes around later in the season.

Wild Card Weekend

This is the most excited I have been in a long time over Wild Card Weekend. All of these teams are evenly matched. We have a divisional game, a game between a franchise and their old city (the Colts used to play in Baltimore), and a game featuring the two best rookie quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. 

All of these games should be nail biters until the end, and we have a chance at a whole bunch of upsets. Let's take a look at each of these games.

While Adrian Peterson deserves all the recognition he
receives, it might be the Packers' receiver Randall Cobb
who makes the difference in this rematch of last week's game.

Austen's Eight-Point Pick - @Green Bay over Minnesota

Austen: The Vikings are a great story. Adrian Peterson is, in my mind, the unquestioned MVP of the league. However, this team does not have much outside of him and Jared Allen. This pass defense is still questionable to me because of the lack of playmakers on the back end. Injuries to Antoine Winfield and Christian Ponder could completely cripple this team. Adrian Peterson might need to run for 300 yards to match what Aaron Rodgers can do with all his receivers, who are all healthy for the first time since Week 4.

Score Prediction: Green Bay 31, Minnesota 20

ACE's Regular Season Awards

The regular season is over. The playoffs are on the horizon. It is a great time of year for football fans, even if your team is out of it already (trust me, I should know as a Jets fan).

We had yet another spectacular season in which there were a lot of surprise teams making the playoffs. A lot of players out performed expectations, while even more were awful in spectacular fashion.

Here are my awards for the season:

It's official: No one can tackle Adrian Peterson. 

MVP/Offensive Player of the Year/Comeback Player of the Year: Vikings RB Adrian Peterson

Peterson deserves every award that he is eligible to win this season.

Raise your hand if you assumed the Vikings had no shot at making the playoffs after the injury to Percy Harvin. If I was in a room full of people instead of sitting on my couch alone, everyone around me would have their hands high up in the air.

Since Harvin's injury in Week 9, Peterson has rushed for an astonishing 1,322 yards for an average of over 165 yards per game to go along with eight touchdowns. To put that in context, only five running backs have more rushing yards than that all season. Frank Gore and Ray Rice have less yards than that all season and still made the Pro Bowl, with 1,214 and 1,143 respectively. This is by no means a normal year for Peterson.