An Amazing Wild Card Weekend

Hey guys, the Autistic Sports Nerd here. The NFL Wild Card Weekend is over and it was chaotic.

NFL

The Texans blew out the Bengals. I thought Cincinnati was going to win because of their stability at the Quarterback position but the Texans proved me wrong. The Texans win their first playoff game in the history of their franchise.

They move on to face Baltimore in the Divisional Round on Sunday. I think the Ravens defense will prove too much for the Texans and Baltimore will score just enough points. I'll pick the Ravens to beat the Texans.

The Saints got off to a slow start but turned it on in the second half to beat the Detroit Lions 45-28. The game was not as much of a blowout as the final score indicated but the Lions collapsed towards the end. The Saints are unstoppable at the Superdome.

They travel to San Fransisco to battle it out with the 49ers on Saturday. The Saints have not faced a defense quite like San Fransisco's in a while plus the Saints have been known to struggle away from home. Take a look at last year's playoff game at Seattle and this year in the regular season at St. Louis. I'll pick the 49ers to win a close one against the Saints.

The Giants win their first home playoff game since they routed the Minnesota Vikings 41-0 in the 2000 NFC Championship game. The Giants beat the Falcons by an unusual score of 24-2. Despite the slow start, everything was clicking for the Giants. Their defense was dominating, their running game came through for the first time in a while, and they made the occasional big passing play. Those factors are vintage for the New York Giants.

They have momentum as they travel to Green Bay to take on the defending Super Bowl Champion Packers who beat the Giants in an old-fashioned shootout, 38-35 in Week 13. I think this game will be a little bit more of a low scoring contest, a 24-20 type of game. Green Bay's offensive line is banged up while the Giants defensive front has been peeking at the right time. The Packers have one of the worst-ranked defenses in the NFL and the Giants are having a breakout year offensively. I pick the Giants to upset the Packers.

For those fans who are tired of hearing about Tim Tebow, I have bad news. Tebow played great against the best defense in the NFL and he didn't even wait until the fourth quarter to do it. The game was tied at 23 going into overtime. This was the first ever overtime with the new playoff rules. I was at the edge of my seat as the official explained the overtime rules. Touchdown, game is over either way. If the team that gets the ball first has a field goal that is successful, the other team gets a possession. I had a feeling that this overtime could take longer than usual but it would be exciting.

First play of overtime, Tebow throws it to Demaryius Thomas and he runs all the way for a touchdown, game over. Wow, I couldn't believe it. An 80 yard touchdown play, what were the odds? The explanation for the overtime rules took longer than the overtime itself. Tebow is the real deal folks. The Broncos allowed Tebow to be more aggressive in this game unlike his last few games and it paid off.

The Broncos travel and take on the patriots who have one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Denver's defense could contain Tom Brady and the Patriots. If Tebow played like he did against the Steelers, the Broncos will pull off a huge upset. In fact, that is what I am predicting. I predict the Broncos will upset the Patriots. I am going on record by saying the Broncos will upset the Patriots.

College and High School Hockey

I have a new suit courtesy of the Manhattanville Men's Hockey team. Thank you so much guys. While wearing the new suit for the first time, I carried the video equipment to our filming spot which was occupied by some intense hockey fans.

Iona took on Fordham in a hockey game right before Manhattanville's game against Cortland. There was a huge quantity of Fordham and Iona fans. At first, i thought it was a battle of Division I club teams but Scott Wentworth told me they looked like high school kids and that Iona and Fordham may have high schools too. I did some research and he was right, they were high schools.

The fans were yelling, screaming, and cussing. They were taking this way too seriously. I was concerned that they would take their frustrations out on the video equipment so i stood guard in front of it while watching the game. When the referee blew the whistle, the clock kept going and the fans pointed that out in a very angry way. There had to have been a thousand fans packed around the rink.

"That's Horrendous!" the lady next to me was screaming in response to the clock not stopping. Again, a whistle blew and the clock kept going. During play, the fans were very vocal as the action was intense. Very physical but the final horn blew and the game ended in a 5-5 tie. The clock never stopped and the lady kept saying "that's horrendous" over and over again.

I have a theory why the clock never stopped. All Division III College Hockey games (the Manhattanville-Cortland game)have a strict protocol. They didn't want the Manhattanville game to start late so they wound the high school game down. That's just a theory. I didn't want to explain that to the fans because I care about my health. Another theory I have is that if someone would have won the game in overtime, there would have been a brawl between fans of both teams as each team had a high number of vocal fans.

In all seriousness, fans need to calm down and try not to live through the success of their children. I have a copy and pasted story I wrote in this blog a couple of years ago about a similar situation involving a kids' hockey game before the Utica Pioneers played at the AUD. Here it is.

"February 7th, 2010

Chaos at a kids' Hockey Game

It was a couple hours before UC Hockey had its Senior Night. I was setting up the video equipment up at the Press-box as the Mohawk Valley Pioneers (kids around the ten year old range) were playing another team. A player from the other team smashed into a Mohawk player to the boards causing him to fall on the ice. A mother in the stands was screaming and got very angry. When the kid who caused the hit went into the penalty box, a man working in the penalty box grabbed the kid and started screaming at him. The referees forced him out of the box and was ejected. The parents/fans were cursing at him and the man was cursing back.

The same mother who screamed earlier went to the fans of the opposing team and started arguing with them and had to be dragged back by her friend as they both left the rink. The kid who got hit ended up being alright. The game ended in a one to one tie.

Wow...I mean, it's a little kids' game. You never see this at a College or professional game. I challenge that man to grab a full sized college or professional player. The kid didn't mean to hurt him. It was an accident. People need to calm down. It's crazy!!"

The Manhattanville Valiants played against the Cortland Red Dragons and won by a convincing score of 8-0. The Valiants clicked on all cylinders.

David Simon

Utica College, the city of Utica, and many more people lost a great man on Sunday morning. David Simon passed away a couple of days ago. I'm really going to miss him. When I first started doing my blog a few years ago and tagged people on Facebook, he always commented on my blog. In fact, that's what motivated me to keep writing my blog because he kept giving me feedback on my blog which meant a lot to me because that's how I knew people were reading my blog. This blog being active for so long probably doesn't happen if it wasn't for him.

He was the husband of my Journalism Professor at Utica College. I always saw him at the Utica hockey games. He always had a Utica Hockey Jersey on while watching the game and he would frequently post on the Pioneer Posse fan forum. He was at my College Graduation and I saw him cheer me on as I passed by at the Boilermaker Road Race in Utica.

David was Utica College's number one fan, without a doubt. He overcame so much adversity and we are all going to miss him. Utica College Athletics will not be the same without him. This blog is dedicated in memory to David Simon. Thank you so much David, we are all going to miss you.