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Well, there will be two games played later today. The Bills and Broncos tangle in the afternoon, and the Panthers and Packers go at it later in the afternoon. Buffalo and Green Bay both lead their respective divisions, but the other two teams have been eliminated now, realistically if not quite officially, for some time.
Nevertheless, the games will be played, and they will be relevant. For the Bills, a win today, coupled with a Dolphins loss later this weekend (they will be hosting the Patriots on Sunday) would give this team their first division title since the 1995 season. How long ago was that? Well, Bill Clinton was still in his first term as president, we only knew one President Bush, and nobody had really heard of Barack Obama. The Kardashians were not especially well known yet, and nobody knew what "reality television" was, either. Grunge was still running solid and still more or less dominating the airwaves, although there were other rising stars who were beginning to take away the spotlight, such as the Dave Matthews Band. Most people were not too familiar with the internet, and I personally did not have an email account yet. So yeah, it's been a while.
As for the Packers, they have won plenty of division titles since they began to be truly relevant again, right around that same mid-nineties era. Back then, it was gun-slinging quarterback Brett Favre who was the face of the franchise. Now, it is his replacement, Aaron Rodgers, who is the face for this proud team, but the results have not changed. This team keeps on winning, keeps enjoying success and winning division titles. They have already clinched their division title, but are looking to lock up the number one seed, which they can do by winning out.
Here are a look at these two games:
Buffalo at Denver - The Bills have felt like the team of destiny for the AFC East since before this season even began. I remember reading somewhere that Jim Kelly suggested that this had to be the year that the Bills finally emerged as AFC East champions. Indeed, with the decline of the Patriots, no other team seemed so obvious a choice as Buffalo. Sure, the Dolphins surprised a lot of people with their success, but they did not feel like a team quite ready to start dominating a division. The Bills, meanwhile, made the playoffs in two of the prior three seasons, and were very talented. So that mixture of decent experience and talent made them the favorites, and they have made it happen as a team. Whether or not they make it official this weekend remains to be seen. But the Bills have been getting better with each week, it seems. The win over Pittsburgh last weekend was huge, and they have shown that they can win by either scoring a lot of points, or holding opponents to modest point totals. The normally explosive Steelers offense was relegated to just 15 points total by this Bills team last weekend, so you know that they can do well. They were the number two ranked defense last year, and while they slipped a bit in that category, they still are talented. Also, the offense has been responding in a big way, averaging nearly 28 points per game. All of that strongly hints that the Bills should inch closer to that elusive division title with another win against Denver in the Mile High City. My pick: Buffalo
Carolina at Green Bay - This is one of those nationally televised games that almost make you grimace. The Panthers are a mostly warm weather team, and they are not that good. They head up to frigid Green Bay, to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to take on the team that is currently the number one seed in the NFC. The Packers have the number one rated offense, and they have every incentive to win this game, as they clearly would love to gain home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and avoid that extra game on wildcard weekend. The Panthers, meanwhile, are largely playing for pride, and have lost six of their last seven games. That's right, one win for Carolina in the last two months. Hard to see how they managed to change that and win this game, frankly. Of course, we know that anything could happen on any given Sunday, but a Panthers victory here truly feels like a stretch. They have been playing a bit better as of late, but that still is not enough for me to predict some kind of major upset, or even a particularly close game. The Packers should win, and win big. My pick: Green Bay
Grreat post
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