2011 NFL Playoff Prediction Battle AFC NFC Championship

Welcome to the 2011 NFL Playoff Prediction Battle, the AFC and NFC Championship version, the prognosticator's version of winning the NFC West.

Myself and Unfinished Rambler are 4-4 and Renal Failure is 2-6. That's a combined 10-14. But we are not trying to motivate teams to win like famed and professional ESPN pundit Tom Jackson. And we didn't have $1,000 riding on the Jets like he did.

NFC Championship Green Bay vs. Chicago



RF- Everyone's dick-riding the Pack, and for good reason. They've got a better QB and better receivers, but what they don't have is Devin Hester running back kickoffs and punts, and that's what the Bears will be riding to victory on Sunday. Plus, we're pretty sure Chris and Rambler will be voting for the Pack and we need some wins to chip away at being two games down to both of them.

Bears 20, Packers 17.

UR- Here, I'm going with the team whose QB was my QB in two leagues, and that's Aaron Rodgers. Plain and simple. Yes, the D's will come up big too, but in the end, A-Rod will lead the Pack to the Super Bowl.

Packers 37, Bears 34.

Chris- Brett Favre rescinds the filing of his retirement papers, spikes Aaron Rodgers' breakfast with 2 packages of Ex-Lax, dons a mask in his likeness and starts for the Packers but still manages to throw a late interception costing them a trip to the Super Bowl and completing perhaps the longest sentence in this blog's history.

Packers 34 Bears 31.

AFC Championship Pittsburgh vs. New York Jets

RF- Rex Ryan has smote us for not believing in him the last two weeks, and thus to show our penance to that maniacal madman we will cast our contrarian vote for his team to pull off the upset. And because if Ben Roethlisberger gets a third Super Bowl ring he might legally be allowed to drag non-consenting women into nightclub bathrooms to be his personal "center" for the evening, and that's just wrong.

Jets 17, Steelers 10

UR-I can't go against my state here or what's been my favorite team since the days of Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann and Franco Harris. But the real reason I'm going with the Steelers is Steel Curtain, starting with Troy Polamalu. On offense, Hines Ward is on fire right now and I can't go against him either.

Steelers 27, Jets 21.

Chris- Believing they won the Super Bowl last week, the Jets don't travel to Pittsburgh and become the first team in NFL history to skip a playoff game.

Steelers 0 (W by forfeit) Jets 0

(The Playoff Prediction Battle resumes Saturday, February 5th with the Super Bowl finale post.)