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In last week’s NFL Wild Card playoff games, I managed to pick 3 winners out of 4, missing only on Seattle’s improbable upset over New Orleans, which practically nobody saw coming. Here are the picks for this week’s divisional round games:

Baltimore at Pittsburgh – if past history between these two divsion rivals is any indication, this should be a brutally physical game with plenty of hard hits, and also a close game. I’ll take the Steelers to win at home.

Green Bay at Atlanta – the Falcons were terrific at home this season and beat Green Bay by a field goal in the regular season, but I feel the Packers are peaking at the right time and will pull off an upset in this game, with Aaron Rodgers outplaying Matt Ryan and the Pack getting another critical ground game contribution from rookie James Starks.

Seattle at Chicago – the first losing playoff team in NFL history pulled off one of the biggest playoff upsets in NFL history last week, and now finds itself playing a team it defeated during the regular season, a strange turn of events considering they won only 7 games. The Bears will not let that happen again, however, and will protect their Soldier Field home turf with a big win, keyed by their defense behind an inspired performance from Julius Peppers. 

New York Jets at New England – the Patriots have the best record in the entire league and home field throughout the playoffs, but face the one team dangerous enough to beat them in this divisional round. Tom Brady will outplay Mark Sanchez and lead the Pats to a victory, but it will be much closer than the 45-3 blowout win they accomplished over the Jets earlier in the year.