Baltimore at Denver (-9)

It doesn’t get much better than Divisional Round Playoff Football!  This weekend features the eight best teams vying for a chance to play in their conference championship game.  Again we’re treated with a two-pack of games on Saturday AND Sunday.  God bless!

Other than The Silverbacks face palming of Richard Sherman, the Wild Card Round was a snoozefest…..(that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy every minute of it and slam beers until the clock read 00:00).  This weekend features a promising platter of tasty matchups that will surely excite the senses.  However, the guys in Vegas are none to impressed with the AFC matchups this weekend as both visiting teams are 9 point dogs (both NFC visiting teams are 2.5 point dogs).

The Ravens were able to parlay home field advantage and the emotional return of Ray Lewis into a 24-9 win over the Colts…..who were starting a rookie QB….and who went 2-14 the previous year with almost the same roster.  But hey, we’ll give credit to the Ravens because they took care of business, but it was ugly.  Ray Rice put the ball on the ground, twice.  Flacco only played good ball for 2 quarters.  The Colts offensive line was overmatched and they failed to capitalize in the redzone (0 TDs in three chances).  So again, the Ravens did what they had to do, but they won’t get away with that kind of sloppy football against Sheriff Manning.

The Broncos have the longest current streak in the NFL at 11. Further, they won 7 of those games by a double-digit margin.  Sure, Manning is going to garner all the discussion and praise, but the defense has been nasty too!  They are allowing an AFC low 17 points-per-game-against.  Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil are bringing the heat from the edges (29.5 combined sacks), forcing quick (and often poor) decisions by the opposing quarterback.  The rest of the defense is flying to the ball and capitalizing on those mistakes.

Much has been made this week that Peyton Manning is 0-3 in playoff games under 40-degrees (weather outlook at kickoff: 19 degrees, snow).  It sounds like an odd stat that is gaining way too much traction this week; in other words, something here stinks.  The Machine did a little internet research of our own and found that two of those games where against Brady-Belichick (in New England) and the other was a beat down at the hands of the Jets, 11 years ago!  Nothing to see here folks!

The Machine doesn’t trust Joe Flacco, or the Ravens receivers (Anquan meet Champ, Champ meet Anquan), or whomever is calling the plays, or the ageless defense, or these bogus weather stats……and neither does Vegas!  Make it 12 in a row.

Denver 27, Baltimore 16