One more till 40 !

My postings have been rather limited over the past few weeks. The buzz and activity of the holiday season has left me a bit sidetracked. I meant to post on my experience of attending my first Army/Navy football game last week, but the family cat got sick and "life happened." We dished out nearly $2700 to get our feline friend back to health. He isn't out of the woods yet, but is making steady progress after last weeks surgery. The other big event of the week was the big storm to hit the east coast. Our location put us in the eye of the storm, so we received about 20 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. That was child's play in our former home of North Dakota. Storms of this magnitude were just a normal part of life in the plains, but they tend to shut things down here. To put things in perspective, in North Dakota our kids had to stay outside for school recess unless the temps. hit somewhere around 20 below zero. There were probably more than 40 days per winter in ND with temps. falling between 0 and -40. Here in Maryland, they have been off school for the last two days because of some snow on Saturday. Either way, I am happy to see the white stuff and look forward to the real possibility of a white Christmas.

The other big event for me was celebrating my 39th birthday yesterday. I am closing in on the big 40! I'm not sure where the time has gone since I graduated from high school back in 1989. The last ten years have really flown by. In fact, I feel like the last decade has been a blur for me. I have been a parent for ten years as well now, so I am convinced some sort of correlation is going on here.

I will close out today with a few comments/predictions about the college bowl season and NFL playoff picture.

First of all, let me say that I am still in favor of some type of college football playoff to determine a true champion. There is too much controversy and ambiguity with the current BCS system and too many teams are left out in the cold after playing perfect football during the regular season. I would be in favor of shortening the college schedule by a few games and then letting the top 12 teams settle all the arguments with a playoff. In my playoff, the top four teams would get a first round bye and teams ranked 5-12 would all play in the first round.

The NFL playoff picture is still very muddled, especially in the AFC. This should set the stage for some high drama in the final two weeks as a plethora of 7-7 teams in the AFC are still alive in the playoff hunt. That is in stark contrast to last season when the 11-5 New England Patriots failed to win enough games to make the playoffs. Either way, it looks to be a fantastic finish. Here is my prediction on the final two wild card spots in each conference. I believe the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers will snag the two wild card spots in the NFC and the New York Giants will miss out on the postseason. In the AFC, I believe the Denver Broncos will choke. In an earlier post way back in October, I said the Broncos were the most over hyped of the undefeated teams at that time. I also predicted they would falter and not make the playoffs. I am sticking to my guns on this one. I believe the two wild cards in the AFC will be the Baltimore Ravens and the Miami Dolphins. It would be too easy and probably too logical to assume the two best teams from the regular season will reach the big game. However, I posted early on this season that the Colts were my pick to win it all. I will stick with that prediction as well. Here is where I will deviate a bit. I'm predicting the Saints will stumble, probably in the NFC championship game, to a more experienced team. I think that team will be the Philadelphia Eagles. Anybody who follows this blog knows I am a lifelong Steelers fan, but that other team in Pennsylvania is quietly playing some great football and gaining momentum at the right time. So there it is. My Super Bowl prediction is now official. The Indianapolis Colts will defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 34-26 in the Super Bowl as Peyton Manning caps off another record setting year. The only thing I see changing this outcome is the creativity and brilliance of Bill Belichick. He may still have some time to implement his well documented "video strategies" and gain an upper hand on his competition.

Lights out.