NFL Playoff Predictions Part 3 - Pittsburgh-Jacksonville

This is set up to be a bruising affair to say the least. These teams practically mirror one another in style and look. Rush the ball down your throat, beat you up physically. These two met in the regular season with Jacksonville getting the better of things. Still, thanks to that wacky NFL system, the Jacksonville Jaguars, although they posted the better regular season record, need to fly up to Pittsburgh for the affair.

Just because a team plays in a much weaker division and wins it is no reason to give them home-field advantage in their biggest game of the year. However, those are the rules, and Jacksonville must break through against a big-name opponent. It is something that they as a franchise have struggled with for years, and there is no time like right now to shed the whammy.

Jags' Head Coach Jack Del Rio looks the part of an NFL Coach. He himself a former NFL player, he has the kind of gaze that look right through you. The question of this game to me is which Coach will out coach the other. The teams are essentially even. I would have given the edge to the Steelers had Willie Parker not gotten hurt. Steelers' Coach Mike Tomlin is in his first year at the reigns in Pittsburgh, and although his team started out on fire, it did not finish with a flourish.

Tomlin also has to take the heat for allowing his team to fall flat several times this year against inferior opposition, especially against the woeful New York Jets. In addition, they laid a big, fat egg at the doorstep of Tom Brady and company when the world was watching and they could have made their statement. Statement in check, they are here on wildcard weekend defending their home turf.

This should be a very close affair and it may even take overtime to decide things. Considering the way Jacksonville has smoked the last several weeks, and the way the Steelers have been flat, I need to go with the Jags, by the narrowest of 20-17 margins. Ah, what the heck-in OT.