The season of silliness begins

On Saturday, the NFL's silly season gets underway with the first round of playoffs. For the first time, ESPN, which has a schedule loaded with college bowls this week, will have one of the four games, instead of NBC carrying a doubleheader. ESPN gets the Arizona-Carolina game, leading off.

Anyway, let's look at the field:

AFC:

Wild Cards:

Baltimore at Pittsburgh (NBC, Saturday): With three North division teams in the field, ya had to figure two of them would play each other, and you can figure on this being a low-scoring affair. Like, with 8 Super Bowl titles between them, there's a strong pedigree on the field. We like Pittsburgh, which signed Ben Tate as a sub for LeVeon Bell, who doesn't figure to play because of an injury suffered vs. Cincinnati on Sunday. Tate, formerly with Houston, started the season in Cleveland, then went to Minnesota, only for the Vikings to cut him two weeks ago. As noted, we'll go with the Steelers here.

Cincinnati at Indianapolis (CBS, Sunday): The Bengals may have wasted most of their offense in upsetting West champ Denver on Monday Night Football 9 days ago, but a win over the South champion Colts won't send Cincinnati to Denver for a rematch. No, instead they go back to Foxborough and play the hated Patriots again. New England bullied the Bengals earlier this year, so at least it's a revenge game. However, revenge will have to wait for the Bengals. We like to see round 2 between the Broncos & the Colts, because this will not be the year Cincinnati ends their playoff losing streak.

Divisional round:

Pittsburgh @ New England: These two will meet in Foxborough next season, but in this writer's opinion, because New England has manipulated the system so much, mostly to protect & pacify Crybaby Tom Brady, they should switch and make the Pats go to Pittsburgh, playing only 4 home games a year until they admit they've broken rules all along. Enough ranting. The Evil Empire of the NFL must fall and fail to win another Super Bowl. Period.

Indianapolis @ Denver: Andrew Luck will be seeking to avenge an early season loss to his predecessor with the Colts, insurance & pizza salesman Peyton Manning. Not going to happen.

Yeah, Pittsburgh @ Denver in the title game appeals more than anything involving the Patriots.

NFC:

Wild Cards:

Arizona at Carolina (NBC, Saturday): For the 2nd time in 5 seasons, a division winner enters with a losing record. Arizona is down to its 3rd & 4th string QB's due to injury, and can only go so far. We'll go with the home team here, and we figure Cam Newton and the Panthers can exploit any weaknesses the Cardinals have.

Detroit @ Dallas (Fox, Sunday): You know how this goes. Tony Romo supposedly can't win a playoff game. The Lions are quickly developing a rep on defense of employing thugs, including Ndamakong Suh, until recently one of the Subway NFL pitchmen. Dallas has more weapons and will be motivated to close the home season on a winning note.

Divisional round:

Carolina @ Seattle: Cinderella's slippers get ground into dust by the Seahawks' Legion of Boom defense. Oh, what a rush!

Dallas @ Green Bay: Maybe Aaron Rodgers can sell Romo some State Farm insurance and give Jerry Jones the number of the ad agency.........! Packers over Cowboys.

So, our final four would be Pittsburgh, Denver, Green Bay, & Seattle. Perfect.

We're off until Friday. Happy New Year.