Damar Hamlin #3 Safety for the Buffalo Bills. I am sure that we are all saddened by the news of Damar Hamlin. Let me preface by saying that all of us should keep him in our minds during this time of need. The whole football community truly rallied behind Mr. Hamlin, and we are all pulling for a full recovery. Also let us all not give Tee Higgins any blame for this freak accident. It was a legal hit, and what happened was unprecedented.
I am constantly amazed by the lack of empathy and consideration shown by the trillion dollar sports industry on players' safety and fans' experience. I will cover this topic, and more about players' health and safety, as well as fans' experience in detail in my next blog post, but for today. I am going to talk about the NFC playoff picture and how one can use statistics to help predict the outcomes.
First off let's take a look at the picture. Currently the #1 seed is up for grabs with the 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys, and the Vikings. The 49ers Cowboys and Vikings are 12 - 4 and the eagles are 13 - 3. The Eagles play against the Giants in week 18. The 49ers play against the Cardinals. The vikings play against the Bears, and the Cowboys play against the Commanders.
Eagles Vs Giants: The Giants are in the playoffs currently at the 6th position, but they have no possibility to move up or down the list of playoff standings. Thus it would make sense for them to rest their starters; however, their coach, Brain Daboll, said in a press conference that the starters would play on sunday. This makes me believe that this game will be an exciting one to watch. Reports say that Jalen Hurts will be back for the Eagles this week, but who knows if he will be able to produce the same caliber of play that he was playing at earlier in the season. Injuries take a toll on people not only physically, but mentally as well. Although statistics are really important you can never truly measure a person's mental performance during the game. I believe that if the Giants start their starters, the score will end with an eagles win 31 - 17.
49ers vs Cardinals: The 49ers played pretty bad against the raiders. Although they squeaked by for a win pushing the game into overtime(after a missed kick from Robbie Gould), they eventually won after Nick Bosa forced a bad throw from Stidham into an interception and return by Tashuan Gibson. Which ultimately led to Robbie Gould making up for his miss and nailing a chip shot. I think the 49ers will be in a revenge game to assert themselves as the strongest team in the NFC. We also now learned that Brock Purdy is a solid starting Quarterback and can lead the Niners very deep into the playoffs, based on his composure and leadership qualities at the helm. The Cardinals have not been playing too great this past season, so I expect for the 49ers to come out swinging and take this game with a whopping 37 - 10.
Vikings vs Bears: This game will be a blowout going in the Vikings favor. The bears are not starting Justin Fields, which will make it much more difficult for them to win. I know that the vikings will be gunning for the top spot in the league for the home field advantage and the bye week, hence they will put their all into that game. It will be an interesting matchup, because of how unpredictable the vikings have been playing, but I think the loss to the packers will put them into shape, and make them win the game fashionably 42 - 24.
Cowboys vs Commanders: I think that this game will be a slugfest between the defenses. This game will have really great defensive stops and a good amount of 3 and outs. At halftime the score will be 10 - 7 for the Commanders. But after a riveting speech the Cowboys will score on the opening drive after half and take that momentum all the way to the fourth quarter. Winning the game by a score of 28 - 15.
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