Saturday, January 9, 2010

2010 NFL Wild Card Predictions and Trivia Answers

Seems most had a splendid time last night and there quite a few comments which is really great. Not many guesses on the pictures though!

Trivia Answers
Regular readers know I am a distant world picture junkie so I thew in some of my favorites.

1.)
Pictures are from the Soviet Venera landers which were able to land on the surface of the planet Venus and transmit data back for about an hour under the enormous atmospheric pressures of that world. Amazing really.

2.)
Picture is of a Mars sunset taken by the rover Spirit near Gusev Crater. Looks almost like a sunset here!

3.)
Picture is of the Saturn moon Enceladus, thought to have liquid water beneath the ice surface.

4.)
Still at Saturn, this picture shows the moon Titan (large yellow globe) and the small moon Epimetheus. Titan has it's own atmosphere and seems to have large lakes of pure hydrocarbons on the surface (The end of peak oil! How do we get it back here....)

5.)
Picture is of the Jupiter moon Io. The immense gravity of Jupiter stresses the moon and thus the moon has an active geology as the whole thing flexes. Volcanoes and geysers that spurt sulphur are found here. Very strange little satellite.

Wild Card Predictions
I think I picked just about every game of last years playoffs wrong so please don't rush to Vegas and bet any of these calls!

New York Jets at Cincinnati Bengals
If I have to hear about Darrelle Revis any more I am going to throw up. Ok the guy is good, but he does get help plenty of times so stop with the whole "he always shuts down the best receivers" stuff. If I had to pick a CB I would take San Diego's Antonio Cromartie over Revis because he is much bigger and covers just as well.

Anyways, last Sunday's game between these two could not have gone worse for the Bengals. If Jets QB Sanchez throws the ball 10 times or less the Jets will win. I think the Bengals can run today with Cedric Benson in the game, but I just do not see how they are going to rebound after last week.
Pick: Jets 24, Bengals 17

Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys
Another rematch from last week. I expect this game to get wild at times and it should be high scoring. I think the Dallas pass rush will be the difference and the Cowboys have a confidence right now that is very high. The Eagles are a veteran playoff team and thus should not be taken lightly.
Pick: Cowboys 34, Eagles 27

Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots
Both teams come into the playoffs a little weak. The loss of Wes Welker will cost the Patriots on third down. The Ravens have killed themselves all year with penalties. This game could go many ways but the key is the Patriots poor secondary; if Flacco goes deep often and gets that to work the Patriots will be in trouble.
Pick: Patriots 23, Ravens 20

Green Bay Packers at Arizona Cardinals
Another rematch from last week! Green Bay has been red hot for about 4 weeks now an they beat the Cardinals last week. The Cards got hot last year right at this time and it should be very loud in Arizona for this game. I think the Green Bay defense makes the difference.
Pick: Packers 27, Cardinals 24

Enjoy the games.

Have a good night.

9 comments:

Rob Dawg said...

Pats 30-20 but it will be within one score for most of the game. They just don't know how to lose in Foxboro. That's good for an extra score in an otherwise even match.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Jets/Bengals game is pretty even. Revis has a pick in the 1st half. Tough game so far.

Rob,
I hope the Pats can pull that one out tomorrow to salvage a pretty ugly season.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Holy Crap!

I said Jets 24, Bengals 17 and if the Bengals kicker had not missed the chip shot field goal a minute ago I would have nailed it!

Jets look very good and are the best playoff combination: Run the football/Lockdown defense.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Well I hope Gawains feels good, the Cowboys are throttling the birds.

And many wondered why New England let Assante Samuels go, well he has only been burned about 5 times tonight. Great pro bowl pick there! The Patriots CB's are worse, but at least we are not paying 7 million a season! HA

EconomicDisconnect said...

Cowboys vs Jets Superbowl???
Could happen.

sedentary state said...

Wow, I never even heard about the Soviet Venera landers, all tucked in the my msm cocoon.

If it's not done by America it's not important right?

EconomicDisconnect said...

If the Patriots-Ravens game were a boxing match they would have stopped the fight! Unreal how undone the Pats came in the 1st quarter. There is always next year, right?

Sedentary,
yeah the Soviets are the only ones to have landed a probe on Venus. Those pictures are amazing.

Jim R said...

Oh crud, I missed #3. I posted answers without looking (browsing from the bottom up). Wikipedia has exactly that ring picture with Titan and the minor moon.

This week boingboing posted some amazing Martian dune pics...

Anonymous said...

Hi! Nice topic, but will this really work?