The NFL Playoffs start tomorrow, so it's time once again to look at the playoff picture and predict who's going to win this week. The first game of Saturday is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Philadelphia Eagles. Tampa Bay is the wildcard team in the NFC, so at first glance they might seem to be the decided underdogs. But, after starting out badly, the Buccaneers won their last few games to make it to the playoffs. The Bucs are a good defensive team and with Brad Johnson they have an ok passing game. Still, the Eagles are playing at home and have a good offense lead by Donovan McNabb. Also, there's the oft-trotted out statistic that the Bucs have never won a fame when the temperature is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. But I still think the Bucs will win in a close game.

The second game pits the New York Jets at the Oakland Raiders. The thing I remember about the Jets is in 1986, the first year I starting watching football games, the Jets were 10-1 with the best record in the league. And then one of the analysts (I know who it is but I don't remember his name), said that the Jets were a soft team which could easily lose the rest of their games. Sure enough, the Jets lost their last five games, still made it into the playoffs, and promptly lost their playoff game.

Since then the Jets are a historically bad December team. And this year is no exception. They started out well and faded at the end. Still, they didn't fade as bad as the Oakland Raiders, who have lost their last three games. It's a good thing Oakland was in a bad division, otherwise they could have been a wild-card team. And the thing is, the Raiders didn't lose dramatically or play poorly. In those three loses the Raiders just didn't play like they wanted to win. Very lackadaisical and they lost to teams they shouldn't have, like the Jets last week. I have to believe that the Raiders are due to break out of their doldrums and demolish the Jets.

Sunday's games begin with the San Francisco 49'ers at the Green Bay Packers. San Francisco is one of the surprise teams, finishing 12-4 when last year they were well under 0.500. So we shouldn't be disappointed that the Niners lost the game against Dallas and therefore lost home field advantage in this matchup. They have an excellent passing and running game and about an average defense that will only get better next year.

Green Bay though is going to be a tough opponent. Not only are they playing at home in the cold, where the Packers are great and at least they're used to the weather, but they're going in confident. Bret Favre is a great quarterback. Ahman Green is an excellent running back. The Packer is also good though not great. Really, Green Bay and San Francisco have similar teams in many respects, and it's probably going to come down to Green Bay's home field advantage. So unfortunately I think that the Packers will win.

The last game of the weekend matches up the hated Baltimore Ravens at the Miami Dolphins. I still don't like the Ravens because at the end of last year and during the playoffs, their defense got off several cheap shots at opposing quarterbacks, knocking a couple of them out of the game. This year they acquired Elvis Grbac, late of the 49'ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Now, Grbac is a good quarterback and definitely an upgrade from Trent Dilfer, and yet he's had a bad year. And I guess that was one of the problems with Grbac. Good on paper but you could pressure him into making bad decisions. The Ravens still have an excellent defense that will keep them in the game.

Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins faded a bit and missed being the divisional champions. I like Dave Wannstedt, late of the Chicago Bears. A defensive coach who has turned the Dolphins into a defensive team. A good running game behind Lamar Smith. Jay Fiedler is an average quarterback but at least he doesn't get rattled as easily as Grbac. This game will be a defensive battle that will come down to who makes less mistakes. Who makes less turnovers, penalties, special teams miscues. I do hope Miami wins.