National Event Rental Blog

Four teams are left. A five time Superbowl Champion. A team led by a rookie quarterback that played 1-AA college. Two teams led by resurgent verteran quarterbacks. Lets get right to the rankings.

Rankings:

1. Pittsburgh Steelers - Its hard to bet against them with the dominating performance last week against the Chargers

2. Philadelphia Eagles - Donavan McNabb will have another shot in an NFC championship game. Wonder who he was calling on the phone in the Giants game?

3. Arizona Cardinals - Biggest upset of the week against Carolina, and in the eastern time zone

4. Baltimore Ravens - Why are they last? Simple, they were the recipient of red zone turnovers by the Titans and are lucky to be playing this weekend.

Predictions:

NFC Championship

Arizona over Philadelphia: 27-24 Close game, but the Cardinals offense shows why its better and moves on to Tampa.

AFC Championship

Pittsburgh over Baltimore: 17-6 I just can’t see Flacco making the big plays AND error free again. Steelers D steps up and Pittsburgh plays for its 6th Superbowl title.

Wild card weekend is over, and if your not still in the playoffs, you can’t be considered one of the top 8 teams in the league. Sorry Patriots, but you know the rules for getting into the playoffs. Will the hot wild card teams be able to keep it up against the well rested home teams? As a special bonus, we will share our predictions for this weekend’s games, and which teams will be playing for a Superbowl berth next week.

1. Tennessee Titans - Stepped it up in their win over the Steelers before their meaningless game with the Colts. Can they score on the Ravens this week?

2. Pittsburgh Steelers - Big Ben should be healthy for the rematch against his draft class counterpart, and the result should be the same as earlier this year.

3. Baltimore Ravens - Going to be tough for any team to score on this defense… teams might have to score on their offense.

4. NY Giants - Superbowl repeat starts with a team they have already seen twice this year.

5. Carolina Panthers - Hoping to get to next week and a rematch of their OT thriller against the Giants

6. Philadelphia Eagles - The ‘05 Steelers and ‘07 Giants? Getting hot at the right time.

7. San Diego Chargers - Lucky to get to the playoffs, but proved they could beat another team that started slow.

8. Arizona Cardinals - Not saying they can’t win, just that there are 7 remaining teams better than them.

Predictions:

Baltimore over Tennessee: 20-6  Ravens defense will outscore the Titans

Carolina over Arizona: 35-32  Cardinals keeps it close in this shootout, but the Panthers move on

Philadelphia over New York: 24-20  Upset of the week, Eagles take out the defending champs

Pittsburgh over San Diego: 27-10  Charger magic runs out decisively against the Steelers top defense

To show our appreciation for our local Austin community, we have dropped the price of our SXSW listing for 2009 to only $49. Let’s continue to show the world what a great place Austin is to live and play!

Like most people in American, we at National Event Rental prefer to see a playoff in NCAA college football, instead of the Bowl Championship Series. Our idea is simple, take the 11 conference winners (yes, even the Sun Belt) and 3 wild card teams. Top 2 have a bye, the other 12 play to get to the quarter finals. 

Q: Doesn’t a playoff diminish the regular season?

A: Not if you just take the conference winner. Non-conference games might actually be decent again, knowing that you just have to win your conference to get a shot at the title.

Q: But my team should be in even though they didn’t win their conference…

A: If they didn’t win their conference, they have nothing to complain about. Consider the 3 wild card teams lucky to be there, not that it’s their right to be there.

Q: My team is in the Big 12…

A: Enough said. Conferences should re-evaluate their tiebreakers and not base it on the rankings. They could go to an NFL style tiebreaker and use net points or touchdowns.

Q: What about Notre Dame and the Independents? Notre Dame will get to the playoffs every year, right?

A: Not unless they join a conference. The beauty of this system is that it will force Notre Dame to join a conference for football, kind of like they already have for basketball, soccer, baseball…

Q: What are your thoughts on the Hiesman Trophy?

A: Its the most boring hour of TV. If they plan to keep televising it in primetime for an hour, they need to select the top 3-5 vote getters and put them in a skills competition. Show the competition live, putting pressure on the athletes to perform directly against each other for the trophy.

Seems like everyone has their own NFL rankings out, so we at National Event Rental decided to post our own. Which two teams will be in Tampa for the Superbowl? We don’t know, but here are the 12 we believe are headed to the post-season:

1. Pittsburgh Steelers - defense will get this team far

2. Carolina Panthers - only team hotter is Indy

3. NY Giants - can’t count them out until they’ve lost in January

4. Tennessee Titans - great season might be slipping away

5. Baltimore Ravens - should rebound and make the playoffs

6. Indianapolis Colts - hottest team in the NFL

7. Dallas Cowboys - bounced back for a big win against the Giants

8. Atlanta Falcons - worst to first? at least worst to wildcard

9. Miami Dolphins - doesn’t January football in Miami sound great?

10. Arizona Cardinals - could be the sleeper team in the playoffs

11. Minnesota Vikings - tough games to end the season, will show if they belong or not

12. Denver Broncos - just need one more win for the AFC West… or a tie… or a Charger loss

Remember, check out our rentals available for the Superbowl, and book your place early!

http://nationaleventrental.com/Sporting-Event-Superbowl-XLIII–40-3-d-p.php