Vegas has already determined that no matter what NFC and AFC teams meet up in the Super Bowl, the NFC is a five-point favorite. After examining the quarterbacks, it's no wonder why the odds makers have determined the AFC Champ to be such a prohibitive dog. Stewart, Brady, Gannon, Fiedler, Grbac, and Testaverde vs. Warner, Miller, McNabb, Favre, Garcia, and Johnson.

With the exception of Miller, I'll take every NFC quarterback over any of the AFC's. But as the Ravens proved last year, if you have a dynamic enough defense, Trent Dilfer could be playing QB and you could still win a Super Bowl, provided you're playing a weak enough team from the NFC, which was provided in the form of the Giants last year.

Tampa Bay at Philadelphia (-3.5)

Parcells is rumored to be on his way to Tampa if Dungy loses. So that will give the players more incentive to play for their beloved coach. The only thing is, you would have figured they would have played harder for their coach the last two seasons if they really wanted to save his job. I'm sure the players like him and all, but he always seems to be on the hot seat and the Bucs always seem to come up short.

It'll be over 40 at game time, which is the Bucs' magic number, as everybody knows.

Philly has the better D, and they have the better weapon in McNabb. So everything would point to Philly - which is exactly when Tampa always sneaks a victory in. Every year, when they have their backs to the wall, they seem to pull out something special. For example, this year, Monday night, they walk into St. Louis and beat the Rams. Of course, last year, they were supposed to walk into Philly and take care of the Eagles. Which is specifically when they falter! So now everybody, including Vegas, predicts them to lose.

So I like the Bucs to beat the Eagles in Veteran's Stadium, regardless of where the mercury is at the start of the game.

N.Y. Jets at Oakland (-4.5)

Another rematch of a game last week. The N.Y. press would like you to believe that the Jet curse is over - except that the beauty of all Jet curses is that as soon as one is lifted, another begins. So they went into a hostile place where they hadn't won since the rise of Levittown, and all the Raiders are either bickering or old or their coach wants to go to Florida and wishes he had taken the Notre Dame job.

Well, 26 years of being a Jet fan tells me the Jets will blow another fourth quarter lead in the playoffs and start a new curse as abruptly as the last one ended. The only reason to be optimistic from a Jet standpoint is that in spite of Curtis Martin only rushing for 50 yards and turning the ball over three times, they still managed to eek out a win on the leg of John Hall and with the hands of the much-maligned Tom Tupa. Of course, Janikowski is back this week. That means a little more consistency from the kicking game, and I wouldn't expect Gannon to miss any more wide-open receivers in the fourth quarter.

I like Oakland to win, but take the Jets and the points.

San Francisco at Green Bay (-3.5)

What a first round game this should be. Favre and Garcia at the Frozen Tundra. The cold weather doesn't bother me too much if I'm a 49er fan, because Garcia played for Calgary, and I hear it gets cold up there. It seems every coach in the past ten years for both these clubs have been groomed from the same tree. Garrison Hearst is playing great, their defense has improved every week of the season (save the Dallas debacle) and Terrell Owens is the best receiver in the playoffs.

And in spite of all that, I like Green Bay to walk in this one. Favre is still Favre, and he's got Green, Freeman, Franks, Schroeder, etc. as weapons. They're supposed to get back Gilbert Brown to help clog the middle, and that little known fact about having never lost a playoff game in their home cathedral makes this an easy choice. Take the Pack and the points.

Baltimore at Miami (-2.5)

Well, if you hadn't had enough football, this will make you want to turn the TV off. This ought to be a real snoozer. Two teams that play a whole lot of defense and not much else. Miami has the better offense, while Baltimore has the stronger defense. Although, Baltimore's defense is not as strong as it was last year.

Last year, I was afraid to watch another team play them because Baltimore went after people with such an abandon that I was afraid for the other team's players. They would hit so hard, and just be everywhere. Now, a lot of defenses would have quit on their offense if the quarterback was Elvis Grbac, but Marvin Lewis has to be given credit for keeping the D together. Billick gets no credit, continuing to perpetrate a fraud on Raven fans with the most overpaid player in the history of the league.

Grbac can't even lead his team into the end zone with 12 tries from inside the five, and it seems only days ago that Billick was acting omnipotent, bragging about Grbac's performance in his come from behind victory against the Jaguars.

Despite Grbac's best efforts to lose this game, ultimately it will be decide by a special teams play. Baltimore is usually the recipient of such good fortune (think back to last year's Titans game), but I believe Kyle Richardson's woes will continue and Miami will block a punt for a TD and as Herman Edwards says "95% of the time, if block a punt and score a TD, you win the game." Lay the points and take the Fish.

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