Conference Championships: THE (?) media picks thread

Kurt Warner finally admitted he cheers against the Pats in the playoffs...not because he doesn't like them, but because he wants to see "another team have a chance." Sure Kurt....that's the reason.

Mosi Moose said:

Kurt Warner finally admitted he cheers against the Pats in the playoffs...not because he doesn't like them, but because he wants to see "another team have a chance." Sure Kurt....that's the reason.

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Ha--well, bit hard to believe from KW but I'm sure a lot fans feel that way. Been a long time. I certainly remember getting sick of the Cowboys-Niners-Steelers back in the day (though I'm still sick of the Steelers!)

John Madden, on Sirius this morning, stopped short of picking a team but said that he thinks the Ravens are a "team of destiny." Of course he precluded this by saying, "Last week I said the Seahawks were a team of destiny and so much went right for them..."

So, maybe he picked the Patriots?


(Oh, he also put this little nugget in there, "When Gronkowski plays, Brady will throw to him. When he doesn't, Brady throws to other guys.")

BradfordPatsFan said:

John Madden, on Sirius this morning, stopped short of picking a team but said that he thinks the Ravens are a "team of destiny." Of course he precluded this by saying, "Last week I said the Seahawks were a team of destiny and so much went right for them..."

So, maybe he picked the Patriots?


(Oh, he also put this little nugget in there, "When Gronkowski plays, Brady will throw to him. When he doesn't, Brady throws to other guys.")

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"I think the patriots ought to play for OT..."

Lmao, all 4 of the former players on NFLN picked baltimore. there is some serious hate for the Patriots on that network, even with McGinest on it. Faulk, Sapp, Warner and irvin all took the Ravens. Irvin has always been fair to NE but the other 3 flat out hate them. Not surprising as that really kind of reflects the nation as a whole, people are really sick of the Patriots winning as much as they do and if they win this week then the only people who will be rooting for them in new orleans are going to be Patriot fans.

Ivan said:

Lmao, all 4 of the former players on NFLN picked baltimore. there is some serious hate for the Patriots on that network, even with McGinest on it. Faulk, Sapp, Warner and irvin all took the Ravens. Irvin has always been fair to NE but the other 3 flat out hate them. Not surprising as that really kind of reflects the nation as a whole, people are really sick of the Patriots winning as much as they do and if they win this week then the only people who will be rooting for them in new orleans are going to be Patriot fans.

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That and Saints fans if Atlanta wins.

But, as for the other stuff...haters gonna hate...

Lmao, this is unbelievable. Rich Eisen just showed the head to head stats for Brady/Flacco and used Flacco's 2 wins as evidence he outplays him, ignoring the fact that Brady has 3 against him. This is like a headline in Pravda where a russian race car faces an america race car and the headline reads that the Russian car came in 2nd and the american car came in next to last.


The Patriots are 7-2 against the Ravens and NE has never lost a Championship game in NE and that somehow adds up to "advantage Ravens."

Here's my prediction, Flacco throws 3 interceptions today and the Patriots leave absolutely no doubt at all as to who the better team is.

Nikolai said:

That and Saints fans if Atlanta wins.

But, as for the other stuff...haters gonna hate...

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There may be a few falcons fans rooting for NE if they are angry at losing to SF, but i don't think saints fans have any love for the patriots. that aside I really have no problem with the hate and expect it, I just think it is laughable when they pay people to analyze games and their personal biases are so overwhelming that they ignore all the imperative evidence in favor of their hate. I have never watched NFLN gameday before because I have no interest in the opinions of people like Sapp, Warner, and Faulk, and watching this morning has just reinforced what a waste of time it is. For them to go on and on about how great the Ravens defense is when it is clearly a shell of what it used to be, and far worse than NE statistically is really ridiculous. i really think they are spending too much time getting manicures and too little actually looking at the facts.

Ivan said:

Lmao, this is unbelievable. Rich Eisen just showed the head to head stats for Brady/Flacco and used Flacco's 2 wins as evidence he outplays him, ignoring the fact that Brady has 3 against him. This is like a headline in Pravda where a russian race car faces an america race car and the headline reads that the Russian car came in 2nd and the american car came in next to last.


The Patriots are 7-2 against the Ravens and NE has never lost a Championship game in NE and that somehow adds up to "advantage Ravens."

Here's my prediction, Flacco throws 3 interceptions today and the Patriots leave absolutely no doubt at all as to who the better team is.

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Agreed. Also, I'm tired of guys like Faulk using the "Pats are 29th in the league vs the pass, so Flacco will throw all over them" argument. Just simply using the yards statistic again without any concept of when those teams racked up all of those passing yards vs the Pats (ie when they Pats had blown the score of that particular game open which left the other team with no other option than to throw and the Pats dropped into a "keep everything in front of you" defense.) I felt like all week I just wanted a win......now, I want a blowout.

Mosi Moose said:

Agreed. Also, I'm tired of guys like Faulk using the "Pats are 29th in the league vs the pass, so Flacco will throw all over them" argument. Just simply using the yards statistic again without any concept of when those teams racked up all of those passing yards vs the Pats (ie when they Pats had blown the score of that particular game open which left the other team with no other option than to throw and the Pats dropped into a "keep everything in front of you" defense.) I felt like all week I just wanted a win......now, I want a blowout.

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Yep, anyone who uses yards over points as their basis for evaluating any defense is a moron, and that goes for the idiots on the NFLN as a whole.

Why is it that after a game is over fans and mediots point to turnovers as being the key stat, but before the game in their predictions they ignore turnovers and base opinions almost solely on yardage?

Patriots: 41 takeaways (2nd)
Ravens: 25 takeaways (T-15th)

Patriots: +25 turnover differential (1st)
Ravens: +9 turnover differential (T-9th)

You know, I'm starting to figure out how the Steeler and Cowboy fan bases got to be so douchey. After years of success, the hate level just shot through the roof and once isolated, it's just kind of like, well "**** those guys" in reference to everyone else. I can see that happening with our fanbase, and it all started in 2007 with WitchHuntGate.

Nikolai said:

You know, I'm starting to figure out how the Steeler and Cowboy fan bases got to be so douchey. After years of success, the hate level just shot through the roof and once isolated, it's just kind of like, well "**** those guys" in reference to everyone else. I can see that happening with our fanbase, and it all started in 2007 with WitchHuntGate.

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Yup, the patriots were loved by everyone before 2006 and then it just flipped.

coolguy said:

Yup, the patriots were loved by everyone before 2006 and then it just flipped.

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I can recall people saying in 2003-04 - before the Pats had even won their second Super Bowl - that 'they were tired of the Patriots winning all the time'.

jmt57 said:

I can recall people saying in 2003-04 - before the Pats had even won their second Super Bowl - that 'they were tired of the Patriots winning all the time'.

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That's how I remember it as well. I don't blame fans for rooting against the patriots, if i were a fan of another team i would probably be rooting against them as well.

All I have heard this week and today on NFLN is how pats are going to be upset while detailing all the things ravens do . How is it an upset ? Hearing these shows looks like we have no chance.

I'm starting to think its all a combination of hatred/boredom with the Patriots and they want to be able to write the easy Ray Lewis stories for the next 2 weeks.

OK, NFLN:

Faulk: Ravens ("crab cake")
Warner: Head says Brady, heart Baltimore, picks Ravens
Sapp (nice purple accessories Warren): Ravens
Irving: Ravens are hot, Ray, picking Ravens
Deion: Patriots
Russell Wilson: Ravens "and the deep ball"
Champ Bailey: Patriots
McGinest: Pats


That Ray Lewis, he's so lovable.