Seventeen weeks of non-stop, action packed football, over. Sunday football-game-filled fundays, done. NFL RedZone gone. The 2011 lockout, looming ominously.

The 2010 NFL Regular Season is over leaving me with a very, very, very important question: How do I watch football with commercials….and long no-action-filled-pauses now that NFLRedZone is over?

“Quick” Recap of the Regular Season Pick ‘Ems

The only good thing about the playoffs (besides all the drama, excitement, awesomeness and the culmination of the biggest party day of the year, aka, the Super Bowl) is that I will no longer have my ass beaten by Erik Sweetland (@esweets234) in our Pick ‘Em League every week. There were 4 weeks that I actually did better than him. Going into the last week of the season I was only down 10. And going into the matchups, we had drastically different picks. I stood a chance to actually catch up. But last week…… oy.

Let’s just say it was not one of my better showings in the Pick ‘Em League. I pretended it was Fantasy Week and designed my picks on who I wanted in the playoffs and what would have to happen for them to get there (i.e. I wanted the Bucs to get in. That meant both the Packers and the Giants had to lose. And the Bucs had to win. Yeah, that didn’t happen. And I wanted the Jags to get in for Blythe from GuysGirl.com, which meant the Jags had to win and the Colts had to lose…. Again, didn’t happen…. And of course, the St Louis Rams. Let’s not even go there).

So for me to beat Erik on the season, he would have to just not do any picks throughout the postseason or the SuperBowl. I ended the pick ‘em regular season at: 132-108 (not including Week 1) so I ended at over 55%, which according to Erik, is pretty dang good. Go me. My best week: Week 14 where I managed to get 12 picks!

Moving on….

Welcome to the 2010 (11) NFL Post-Season Week 1 Picks! It’s WildCard Weekend meaning that there are only four picks to do this weekend (and yet somehow I’m still racing to finish the article before kickoff….And yes that means that there is NFL Football on Saturday).

There are only 2 matchups for the AFC:

• New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: 8:00 p.m. Saturday
• Baltimore Ravens at Kansas City Chiefs: 1:00 Sunday

And 2 matchups for the NFC:

• New Orleans Saints at Seattle Seahawks: 4:30 p.m. Saturday
• Green Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles: 4:30 p.m. Sunday

The rest of the teams are on the bye (the fancy football way of saying, they have the week off).

My Picks:

• New York Jets (11-5) at Indianapolis Colts (10-6): After 17 weeks, do you really have to even ask me? Jets. Do I think they can do it? Um. Sure.
  • Key to Success: Mark needs to get his shit together. He completely fell apart when he played against the great Tom Brady and the elite Patriots. He’s coming against the great Peyton Manning and the Colts. And it’s an even bigger spotlight than the lights of Monday Night Football. He needs to have his head on straight and be in the game. And the rest of the team needs to come out to play too. Because what the Colts lack on defense, the Jets have….when they want to.
  • But, it is Peyton Manning. He is known to just take over and play every position on the field when needed to ensure that his team is going to win. And after the loss in Super Bowl XLIV and just a so-so-season riddled by injury, Manning is going to be fighting hard to make it back for Super Bowl V.
• Baltimore Ravens (12-4) at Kansas City Chiefs (10-6): Ravens.  I’ll be sad to see the Chiefs season come to an end because they pleasantly surprised me this year. Even though they faltered a little in the middle and struggled to regain their awesomeness (anyone happen to catch their game last week… HORRIBLE!)
  • Key to Success: Flacco needs to really step up and be play like an NFL QB. The Ravens tend to win on defense, not on offense. He has moments of brilliance but I dunno, he doesn’t stand out to me as a leading man. And not just because he’s not as hot as say, Sanchez…..
  • Also, the Chiefs want this bad. Probably more than the Ravens. The Ravens have become regulars in the playoffs. The Chiefs have had 10 wins in the last 3 seasons combined….Hmm…. on second thought, maybe I want the Chiefs too….

• New Orleans Saints 911-5) at Seattle Seahawks (7-9) : Saints. Because I’m royally ticked off at Seattle for beating Sam and the Rams last week and for getting to the playoffs with a losing record AND having home field advantage for the Wild Card Weekend against a team that went 11-5
  • Key to Success: The Saints can’t let the Seahawks’ outrageously loud stadium hinder their play. They have to fight as hard as they did in the Super Bowl if they want to make it back this year. And they need to beat the crap out of Seattle for me.
  • Seattle is going to be like the Chiefs: desperate and fighting hard. Can you imagine a team carrying on into the playoffs with a losing record??!!?
  • Honestly, the Saints just need to show up and play. As long as they have the game time memorized and show up ready at 4:30, they will win.
• Green Bay Packers (10-6) at Philadelphia Eagles (10-6): Eagles. Because somehow, someway, the Eagles managed to get my nod of approval this season, soemthing I didn’t think was possible when the season opened. Plus, I’m returning to my old job this week and it will be nice to tell my Eagles lovin’ clients that I picked their beloved team. HOWEVER….. if the Jets lose tonight then I switch my pick to Green Bay because those same clients will be seriously obnoxious to me about their team being better than mine, even if I do pick the Eagles.
  • Key to Success: Michael Vick. He keeps doing what he’s doing and the Packers are going to have their hands full.
  • Unfortunately, the Packers will be expecting Vick to be doing it all and will work to shut him down so the rest of the offense needs to step up too.

Have a Wild weekend everyone! Enjoy! And don’t forget to get on Twitter this weekend to chat it up with me! Follow me (@stilettosportsJ) and you can interact live all weekend and throw in your insights too!

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!

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