Championship Sunday

Charlie Klein

I cannot remember being more excited for championship Sunday in the NFL since my own Seattle Seahawks were involved in 2005. Both of the match-ups tomorrow both figure to be at the very least entertaining games. I have a 7-1 record at predicting the games this postseason, and without further ado, I give you more wisdom from Klein-strodamus.

New York Jets (9-7) @ Indianapolis Colts (14-2) 3:00 PM EST on CBS

I have been riding that Jets bandwagon each of the past two weeks and have been rewarded for it with two gutsy hard-nosed wins from Rex Ryan's boys. While I have grown extremely tired of hearing Rex go off on a daily basis about how great his team is, I still have to go with the J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS this week. They demonstrated last week that their defense and run game were strong enough to beat the team everyone considered the class of the AFC. While the Colts defense is fast, it lacks the physicality necessary to stop the three man bulldozer of D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Alan Faneca, and Nick Mangold.

My favourite quarterback to watch in the NFL, Peyton Manning, will be facing tougher opponents this week than team Donald Trump. While Manning likes to spread the ball around, let's not kid ourselves into thinking that the Colts would have been 14-2 in the regular season without Reggie Wayne. And yet that's the prospect Peyton will be facing tomorrow when Wayne will be defended by Darrelle Revis, who ought to have won NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Here's a bit of evidence to prove it:

I think Rex will be willing to take his chances with Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon. And Lito Sheppard is no slouch either. I could be way off here but I am going with the Jets. Welcome to Revis Island, Reggie Wayne.

Winner: New York Jets, 21-17

Minnesota Vikings (12-4) @ New Orleans Saints (13-3)

I made the mistake of picking against Drew Brees and the Saints last weekend and I will not make that same mistake again. Going into the playoffs I remained unconvinced by the way the Saints ended the season without any balance on offense and a swiss cheese defense. Drew Brees was able to prove me wrong last weekend leading the Saints to an emphatic 45-14 romp over the Cardinals. I was particularly impressed with Reggie Bush, who I called out before the season started giving him a 50/50 shot to prove he could be the guy in NOLA when it counted. Between his 46-yard touchdown run and 83-yard punt return for a touchdown, Reggie made me a believer.

Minnesota played a great game last weekend proving what I'd been saying for the past month; the Dallas Cowboys are not a great football team. Aside from that, I did not see that much that made me believe that they could topple the Saints in the Superdome. Percy Harvin is questionable with recurring migraine headaches. Harvin did make the trip to New Orleans but I personally do not expect him to play a major role in the game. Brett Favre, coming off of his career best in TDs to INTs (37:7) will still have Sidney Rice, with whom he combined for three touchdowns on the day. And then there's always Adrian Peterson. My ex-factor in this game is the Saints defense's ability to create turnovers. Favre, historically, has been one of the most interception prone quarterbacks in the NFL and Peterson has a well-documented difficulty with hanging onto the football. Look for Darren Sharper & Co. to capitalize on this and the unbelievable atmosphere inside the dome to tilt this game in their favor.

Winner: New Orleans Saints, 31-17.