THE GREEK VS. THE GREEK
Every week, the Province’s football experts J.J. ‘The Geek’ Adams and Mike ‘The Greek’ Raptis go head-to-head with their NFL picks
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
J.J. ‘The Geek’ Adams may be your regular-season champion, but he keeps slip, slipping away in these playoffs, now 3-5 after a 1-3 divisional round weekend.
Meanwhile, Mike ‘The Greek’ Raptis has kept the phalanx tight, going 2-2 last week to up his playoff record to 5-3.
Yet, as we saw in Minnesota on Sunday, miracles do happen. This thing isn’t over.
On with the Conference Championship picks.
Jacksonville at New England
(Sunday, 12:05 p.m.)
The Geek says: The only joke bigger than my playoff record in recent years has been the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the punchline has been — cue the laugh track — Blake Bortles.
The Jags came into the season on the worst five-year stretch in team history, going 17-63, with the scattershot Bortles starting for three of those. If his predecessor, Blaine Gabbert, was “the worst quarterback in the NFL,” Bortles easily usurped that title with his penchant for overthrowing everyone except the oppostition.
Put it this way: Cam Newton has 50 more 2017 post-season passing yards than Bortles, twice the touchdowns, and he didn’t even play last week.
There are weeks he looks like an Uncle Rico the Jags dragged off some work site and slapped a uniform on — heck, Bortles himself said if he wasn’t playing football, he’d be “working construction and rippin’ cigs” — but here he is, one game away from the Super Bowl.
He’s always the reason cited when picking against the Jaguars. His performances have been underwhelming, he’s derided as “trash,” sub-par and a “choker,” and his best year — this season — is, at best an average quarterback performance.
But the Jaguars are undaunted by the task at hand. In fact, they’re already looking past Sunday’s game with the New England Patriots.
“We’re going to the Super Bowl and we’re going to win that bitch. We’re going to win that bitch,” said Jacksonville quarterback Jalen Ramsey.
He’s confident because he knows the Pats are scared of one man — and it’s most definitely not Bortles.
Jacksonville vice-president Tom Coughlin is 2-0 against the Patriots in the playoffs, on the biggest stage. In 2007, he ended their quest to be the first perfect team in NFL history, beating them in the Super Bowl. He beat them again in the 2011 championship game.
He was 3-2 against them as a head coach with the Jaguars and the Giants, and those losses were by a combined four points.
Simply put, he’s inside Bill Belichick’s head.
He knows how the New England coach works, seeing him craft a Hall of Fame defensive game plan when beat the Buffalo Bills as members of the New York Giants in 1991.
You don’t have to look far to see how Belichick gets teams to beat themselves by trying to be too clever.
The Seahawks should have run the ball. The Falcons should have, too.
But Coughlin’s success has been by keeping things simple.
He doesn’t try to hide his defensive schemes; in fact, he doesn’t care if Tom Brady knows what they’re running when they line up at the line of scrimmage. He simply prepares his team to execute.
And defensively, the Jags are perfectly suited to beat the Pats. The key to beating them is to get pressure on Brady up the middle, and have lockdown corners — both part of Jacksonville’s strengths.
On offence, run the ball, don’t turn it over and don’t get behind. Again, Leonard Fournette and Bortles, who hasn’t been thrown a pick and has only been sacked twice, can deliver that.
The key will be to get in front and stay there, because if they’re behind and forced to put the pressure on Bortles to make up lost ground, it’s over.
Some will point to Brady’s 3-1 record against No. 1 defences, but he lost the last meeting — vs. Denver in 2015 — and should have lost to Seattle in 2014.
The Jags are one of four teams never to make a Super Bowl. That changes this year.
Pick: Jaguars
The Greek says: He’s killing them with kindness, like a stable hooded genius would.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick — typically the town grump — has been glowing in his review of all things Jaguars.
Belichick, who recommended the Jags take a look at head coach Doug Marrone almost exactly one year ago, only has nice things to say about the man. On the muchmaligned Blake Bortles, Belichick has coined him the team’s “trigger man.”
“He makes it all go,” Belichick told a news conference on Wednesday, setting the example for his team of professionals.
No shots sent out on Twitter a la the vanquished Steelers’ Le’Veon Bell. No poster board material to leave the underdogs frothing at the mouth.
Just compliments, leaving the Jaguars to try to manufacture their furor like a bunch of Democrats raging against the machine.
Much has been made about the Jags’ offensive outburst against the Steelers, but that Pittsburgh defence was gutted the second Ryan Shazier was carted off the field. Two weeks ago, Bortles and Co. could barely beat the Bills.
Now they’re up against a New England unit that may give up yardage, but will limit you to field goals when the going gets tough.
Then there’s the sexier match-up: the cleft-chinned Tom Brady against a Jaguars defence that was supposed to be invincible. Newsflash: Giving up 42 points — even in a win — shows this defence can be beat.
Brady has almost all of his weapons going at the right time. If you’re not getting Gronked, then Chris ‘Hulk’ Hogan is running wild on you, brother!
This is uncharted territory for the young Jags, while the battle-hardened Patriots have a legacy to keep building upon.
Emotions and nerves won’t get the best of the Pats come Sunday. Can you say the same about Bortles and the Jags, who are already fooling themselves by saying they’re looking forward to the Super Bowl?
I think not. Pick: Patriots
Minnesota at Philadelphia (Sunday, 3:40 p.m.)
The Geek says: Nick Foles knows better than anyone it’s a dog eat dog world.
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback as chewed up by the NFL media and a disillusioned fan base for his performances since taking over for the injured Carson Wentz. It was why they were underdogs last week to the Falcons, and it’s why they’re underdogs again to the Minnesota Miracles.
People forget he was a Pro Bowl starter for the Eagles between 201315, going 14-4 over a two-season span. It was why he was comfortable enough to lead scoring drives of 86, 74 and 80 yards in last week’s win over the Falcons.
But they’re underdogs, still, but it’s a label they’ve embraced.
Linemen Chris Long and Lane Johnson pulled on the best post-game attire in NFL history, wearing rubber German Shepherd masks after beating Atlanta.
It didn’t take long for fans to catch on. Amazon’s surge pricing has kicked in after one online store sold out of the masks. Others have doubled their price. And the Eagles organization has opened the door for an pack of dogs to storm the stadium this week, allowing fans to wear them to the game.
The odds are with the current darlings of the NFL right now, but here are some facts you need to know.
In the past eight conference championship games the top seed has played in, in both the NFC and AFC, the home team has won.
Minnesota’s road record is 3-13 in road playoff games in the past 25 years, and Vikings QB Case Keenum is only 1-4 on the road against teams with a .666 or better winning percentage.
And one last slippery fact: Two of Minnesota’s three losses came on the road on outdoor, natural turf fields, and you just had to watch the players sliding everywhere at Lincoln Financial Field to know that the conditions weren’t exactly conducive to quick cuts.
The Eagles are a perfect 4-0 when they’re home underdogs in the playoffs. Expect to hear some woofing from Philly fans after this weekend.
Pick: Eagles The Greek says: The Eagles were so fortunate.
Had Keanu Neal of the Falcons not kneed a foolproof interception into their hands to give this flatlining team some life, the story from Saturday would’ve been much different.
Nick Foles was putrid in that first half. He missed his targets. He looked shellshocked. But he averted disaster long enough for his coach to slap some sense into him at halftime and keep his throws short and sweet.
And it worked. For that game, at least.
The Eagles’ strong running game and defensive pressure were enough to topple that Falcons team. But the Vikings bring a lot more to the table — including breaking a playoff curse with a miracle for the ages.
Who’d bet against this team right now? These guys are riding a high the Norse Gods are envious of.
The Vikings defence is something fierce. Foles hasn’t faced a unit this punishing in his unspectacular return from football irrelevancy. And while Case Keenum wasn’t a household name, he sure is now.
The Eagles have had trouble against the pass all season. The Vikings have been methodical since the start of the season spreading the ball into the hands of their talented receivers and running backs.
There’s been no prolonged offensive droughts and no bouts of defensive ineptitude. This team is rock solid. The Eagles can’t fly with these guys.
Pick: Vikings