The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

AS MOSES descended from Mount Sinai with the stone tablets dictating the rules of NFL Playoff football, his followers took note of the inscribed: If you are taking a young quarterback (rookie/sophomore) on the road...you’d better trust that quarterback more than you trust your barber the day before your wedding. This Wild Card weekend has a total of five quarterbacks that fit this category, four of whom will be on the road. So this round boils down to two things...who do you trust and how many commitments do you have to lie your way out of to catch all four games.

Colts at Baltimore Ravens

Chuckstrong. The unstoppable force that paired with Andrew Luck to take the Colts from 2-14 to 11-5. There’s a chance this team may actually just be good...offensively, but defensively I don’t trust this team at all. Your brain says Baltimore at home, when you realise this team was one strip/deflection away from going to the Super Bowl last year, but you sort of feel like a jerk going against Chuckstrong.

This, my friends, is why Ray Lewis retired. The only possible thing that could overshadow Chuckstrong is the retirement of the greatest player at his position, a player that embodied an entire franchise and to this day still the only player to beat a murder rap and the Madden curse. The most strange point of this game is that we went from the preseason notion of this being the year for Joe Flacco, where he makes the jump into the elite group of quarterbacks - to questioning whether he’s the best quarterback in this game matched up against a rookie.

RAVENS over Colts

Cincinnati Bengals at

Houston Texans

Backpedalling into the playoffs is never a good sign. This is what you’re going to hear ad nauseam for the next few days Texans to make you think the Texans shouldn’t be favoured by four on the road. While the Bengals are this year’s good-bad team, consider this: Faced with this exact same matchup last year in the playoffs, the Texans won this exact game 31-10...with TJ Yates at quarterback.

TEXANS over Bengals

Seattle Seahawks at

Washington Redskins

The playoffs...rookie signal callers living the dream. The Seahawks may be the most compelling season long story of our generation. From week one they began with the “us against the world” mentality and it stuck. What started with the decision to start Russell Wilson at quarterback, turned to Russell Wilson’s inexplicable efficiency, turned to the redemption of Marshawn Lynch, turned to Golden Tate and the Immaculate Interception, turned to Richard Sherman bearing everybody’s favourite villain Roger Goodell on the drug suspension ban. Then there’s Bruce Irvin’s whole life.

SEAHAWKS over Redskins

Minnesota Vikings at

Green Bay Packers

After AP rushed for 400 yards in two games, if the Packers don’t stack 10 in the box to start this game, I question everything about Mike McCarthy’s life thus far. I’m not concerned about the Packers having to cover by 7.5, I’m not concerned about Packers receivers being hurt, there’s only one thing we need to know...Ponder on the road, Rodgers at home.

PACKERS over Vikings

SANNIE’S PICKS

TEXANS over Bengals

“I stuck with them during the regular season, so I won’t desert them now.”

COLTS over Ravens

“This was really hard for me because I chose both teams all season. But I’m going to have to go with the Colts, their coach has cancer and a win will be good for him.”

REDSKINS over Seahawks

“Okay, so I have been fighting with this one all season, trying not to pick the Redskins because RG3 is just so unattractive, but I must admit he is pretty good. He gets my vote this time.”

PACKERS over Vikings

“The Packers were the only football team I could name before I started doing picks, so I’ll stick it out with them. The combination of sexy between Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews also swayed my vote.