This feature is the sole opinion of Chris Smith and it may not correspond to the rankings / projections of the Footballguys.com website.

Well, that was a terrific first weekend of playoff football.� Hands up those of you who believed the Falcons would travel into the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field and lay a beating on the heavily favored Packers.� Anyone?� Anybody?� I didn�t think so.� Brett Favre has owned cold-weather games and the Packers simply do not lose at home in the playoffs.� I was stunned to see the Falcons pull off one of the greatest upsets in league history.� The Jets absolutely destroying the Colts also has to rank up there with one of the biggest surprises of all time.� For the Colts to lose 41 to 0 just creates more doubt about the ability of Peyton Manning to get the job done in big football games.� He was awful as was the entire Colts team.� Kudos go out to the Steelers and the 49ers in their terrific fourth quarter comebacks on Sunday.� Those two games together probably equate to the best day of playoff football we have had the privilege to watch.� Watching the �ME SHOW� between Terrell Owens and Jeremy Shockey will be remembered for a long time to come.

Since 1990, the No. 1 and 2 seeds are 39-9 in the divisional playoffs.� Many folks look too often at what occurs in the wildcard round and forget why the teams that didn�t play in the first weekend of the playoffs were able to sit out and rest during the first round.� The reason is that these teams were better during the regular season and they prevail 81.3 % of the time in this round.� Now with the parity between teams this season, it may be more likely the underdogs can pull out victories but history tells us that the favored team should come out on top most of the time.

Divisional Playoffs

Pittsburgh Steelers at Tennessee Titans

Game Forecast�

Whenever these two football teams collide, expect a lot of hard hits, a lot of passion and some old fashioned hatred of one another.� Five of the last seven meetings have been decided by eight points or less with the Titans winning five of those games.� The most interesting thing to look at in this game is how Tommy Maddox performs in his first outing against the Titans since the hit by linebacker Keith Bulluck knocked him out of the lineup with a severe concussion and temporary paralysis.� This will be a tough game for him to go out and sling the ball around the field without fear.� I will be watching him closely early on to see if he is stepping up into his throws or letting the ball go while falling back.� I like Maddox and he appears to be a gamer so I think he will put that nasty injury well behind him and perform well.� More of a worry for the Steelers is how effective the Titans were back on November 17^th in shutting down the Steelers passing attack.� Maddox had his worst game of the year before the injury and the Titans have looked like a completely different team since that game.� It is imperative for the Steelers to pass the ball well in order to knock off the Titans.� It is almost impossible to run on Tennessee at the best of times and with the defense fired up and coming off of a bye week, I expect there will be little room to pound the ball with Jerome Bettis or Amos Zereoue.� Hines Ward absolutely owned the Titans in the first meeting between the two teams.� He caught 10 passes for 168 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns on that day and will obviously be a huge part of the game plan this week as well.

The Titans offense is led by Steve McNair who has battled injuries all season long, couldn�t practice for much of the season and yet found a way to play tremendous football on a week-to-week basis.� There was much talk of naming McNair MVP and while his numbers were not typical of an MVP caliber season, I certainly agree that he was as valuable to his team as anyone else in the NFL.� The Steelers have the best run-stopping defense in the NFL and will likely have no problem shutting down Eddie George who only averaged 3.4 yards per carry on the season.� He did score two touchdowns against the Steelers back in November although he was only able to put up 79 rushing yards on 28 carries.� McNair in that football game was superb, throwing for 257 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns.� The Titans know the best way to attack the Steelers is down the field and McNair should have a super game.

Must Starts: Hines Ward, Plaxico Burress, Steve McNair, Tommy Maddox, Derrick Mason

Possible Starts: Eddie George, Frank Wycheck

Only in a Pinch: Jerome Bettis, Amos Zereoue, Antwaan Randle El, Robert Holcombe, Drew Bennett, Justin McCareins

Fantasy related Injuries � none

Final Thoughts:� This game is going to be fun to watch.� Both teams will be airing the ball out and both teams� feature defenses that attack with passion and aggressiveness.� The Titans should prevail at home but I am playing a strong hunch that the Steelers will pull off the upset in this game.� These two teams match up extremely well and no matter what; the game will be decided in the fourth quarter.

Predicted Score: Steelers 20 at Titans 17

Atlanta Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles

Game Forecast�

The Eagles caught a big break with the Falcons upset of the Packers.� Donovan McNabb is a tremendous talent at quarterback but you have to believe he is going to be rusty in his first game back in two months.� If the Eagles had to go up against a 49ers team this week it could have been disaster for the franchise but the Eagles shouldn�t have much difficulty shutting down the Falcons.� The Eagles defense appears to match up nicely against the Falcons offensive unit and it will allow the Eagles to play conservatively on offense, allowing McNabb to rediscover his game legs.� Expect the Eagles to run the ball a lot featuring a heavy dose of Duce Staley.� I wouldn�t be surprised to see him with 25 carries on the day.� McNabb will have a decent game and should get stronger as the game goes on.

Congratulations to the Falcons on their huge surprise victory in Green Bay last week.� Nobody saw that coming and they can certainly build on that for their future, which appears very rosy with so much young talent.� Michael Vick showed the poise of a veteran slinger against the Packers and the scary thing is he will only get better as the years go on.� However going into Philadelphia and trying to pass on the vaunted Eagles secondary is never easy and I expect it will be next to impossible in a huge playoff game against a franchise focused on one thing only, getting to the Super Bowl.� The Eagles defense has the right personnel to contain Michael Vick this weekend.� The defense will attack him with a relentless pass rush and both cornerbacks are shutdown caliber players who will be at their best this weekend.� The defense likely knows they will need to be at their best this week in case McNabb has difficulties finding his rhythm at first.� I expect the defensive unit to play one of their strongest games of the season.

Must Starts: Donovan McNabb, Duce Staley, Todd Pinkston, Chad Lewis

Possible Starts: Michael Vick, Warrick Dunn, James Thrash, Alge Crumpler

Only in a Pinch: T.J. Duckett, Dorsey Levens, Antonio Freeman, Brian Finneran, Trevor Gaylor, Quentin McCord

Fantasy related Injuries � none

Final Thoughts:� The Eagles are too strong on defense for the upstart Falcons to compete with on the road.� The Eagles will clip the Falcons wings and a surprise season full of promise for the future will be over.� Look for Duce Staley to flirt with 100 yards rushing and for Donovan McNabb to have a very nice first game back with the team.

Predicted Score: Falcons 14 at Eagles 27

San Francisco 49ers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Game Forecast�

I believe this is a very interesting game that will take place in Tampa Bay this week.� The Buccaneers feature the best defense in the entire NFL and they will be out to completely shut down Terrell Owens, Jeff Garcia and the 49ers passing game.� The # 1 pass defense knows how to get the job done and they will be fired up to win a huge game in front of the home crowd.� However the 49ers have something that the Buccaneers do not and that is a strong running attack that is capable of taking over a game in a big way.� I expect the key to this game is the Buccaneers ability to slow down the rushing of both Garrison Hearst and Kevan Barlow.�

Another key to the game will be the 49ers ability to slow down what has been a very nice passing attack in Tampa Bay this season.� With the Buccaneers having little success on the ground all season long, Brad Johnson has become the most important piece to the Buccaneers offensive success.� The 49ers were terrible in defending the pass last week against the Giants and the Buccaneers will be looking to exploit a suspect secondary this weekend as well.� Brad Johnson appears to be healthy once again after giving his back a couple of weeks to heal and it is very crucial to the teams success that he is indeed back 100 % healthy and ready to go.

Must Starts: �Brad Johnson, Keyshawn Johnson, Terrell Owens

Possible Starts: Jeff Garcia, Garrison Hearst, Michael Pittman, Mike Alstott, Kevan Barlow, Keenan McCardell

Only in a Pinch: Tai Streets, Joe Jurevicius, Ken Dilger, Eric Johnson

Fantasy related Injuries � none

Final Thoughts:� This game should be a close one and could go right down to the finish.� The Buccaneers defense is incredible but the 49ers offensive attack is diverse and can run the ball and pass the ball with great success.� The difference in this game will be Brad Johnson finding lots of success against the questionable pass defense of the 49ers.� Look for 300 yards passing from him and a huge victory for the Buccaneers as they try to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.� Win this game and they�ll only have to win one more game to get the monkey off of their back.

Predicted Score: 49ers 17 at Buccaneers 23

�

New York Jets at Oakland Raiders

Game Forecast�

This will be the game of the week!� A rematch from the 2002 playoffs, the Jets are firing on all cylinders and the Raiders have to be scared to death of this squad.� Chad Pennington looks like the second coming of Joe Montana, while the rushing attack featuring Curtis Martin and Lamont Jordan is doing as well as it has all season.� The Jets proved last week that they not only deserve to be in the playoffs, but deserve to be considered Super Bowl contenders and I believe that the winner of this game will ultimately go on to represent the AFC in this years Super Bowl. The Jets are going to come out and attack the Raiders down the field with Laveranues Coles and Santana Moss.� The Raiders defense is not an elite unit and the Jets know they will have to pile on points to pull out a win in Oakland amongst the rowdies that reside in the stands and make life miserable for opposing teams.� If the Raiders want to slow down this offense that is firing on all cylinders right now, they will have to find a way to get into the face of Chad Pennington and make it difficult for him to complete passes down the field.� His 70 % completion percentage is unbelievable in a player with so little experience.� Put some serious pressure on him by rushing at least five players all the time and force him to make poor reads.� If the Raiders sit back and let this kid throw, it will be a long day for the Raiders and their fans.

The Raiders are a veteran bunch that believes they should have won the Super Bowl last year.� No more excuses for them.� They are going up against the hottest team in the NFL this week and will have to play a tremendous game to knock them off.� For Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice and the rest of the geriatric crew, there time is now and I expect them to come out and play their best football of the season.� Gannon was quiet over the last couple of regular season games but I expect him to come out firing on all cylinders in this one.� Don�t be surprised to see him end up with over 400 yards passing and at least 3 touchdowns.�

Must Starts: Chad Pennington, Laveranues Coles, Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice, Jerry Porter, Charlie Garner, Doug Jolley

Possible Starts: Curtis Martin, Wayne Chrebet, Santana Moss, Tim Brown, Anthony Becht

Only in a Pinch: Zack Crockett, Lamont Jordan

Fantasy related Injuries � Tyrone Wheatley - questionable

Final Thoughts:� This game should go down as a classic by the time the final whistle blows.� Both teams are talented, both teams are hungry and both teams dislike one another.� Look for lots of passing, lots of scoring and a win by the Raiders who continue their trek towards a Super Bowl.

Predicted Score: Jets 21 at Raiders 24