AFL Playoffs: Round 2

Looks like I was 3-1 with my predictions. My Preds did exactly as I thought they would. Not a close game but not a blowout either. Not as many penalties as I though they would commit, still a lot by any normal teams standards, but not bad for them. I blame coach Pat O’Hara...speaking of which......

Penalties and fumbles are usually the sign of bad coaching and I was never really high on Preds Coach Pat O’Hara, I was hoping he would get let go. Low and behold I just visited the AFL site to double check the brackets while writing this and apparently he’s been fired, dismissed, @#$^ canned outta there. I am somewhat pleasantly surprised as they made the playoffs both years he was head coach but the Preds always seem to be winning in spite of him instead of because of him. Hopefully they don’t hire some total gomer and can keep things going next year for hopefully their 20th straight visit to the AFL playoffs in their 21 years of existence.

Sorry,...got a little sidetracked there...back to the prediction recap

My only miss was the Georgia/Cleveland game as I said in my blog predictions thingy, “I could see this one going either way”. So good for Georgia for picking up a win on the road, tough to do anytime, but especially in the playoffs.

Thankfully Chicago knocked Dallas out of the playoffs, they earned the right to be rooted for by me for the rest of the playoffs and for the foreseeable future, although I can’t see myself being too disappointed if #1 seeded Arizona knocks them out in the Conference Championship round.

Arizona did beat the defending champ Spokane Shock in the first round but it was a close one. I would have liked to have been able to see that game, certainly less painful than watching my Preds lose. Before I go around gloating at my prediction skills I believe I said something like “I’ll flip a coin and go with Arizona as they are the home team” so just got lucky on that one.

Now to conference championship predictions, I’ll take Arizona over Chicago, although a Chicago upset wouldn’t surprise me. I haven’t seen that much of Chicago this year, but what I’ve seen of Arizona I’ve really liked. But this is arena football, anything can happen.

On the other side I see Jacksonville keep on trucking past Georgia. This one would surprise me a bit as I’ve never really been big on Georgia all year, but they just keep hanging around, I see that ending for them this weekend though.

So there you have it, I’m looking in the magic Smitty Crystal Ball (tm) and seeing a Jacksonville/Arizona Arena Bowl this year.

I promise I am working on a non-sports related blog,...thanks to everyone who suffered through another sports blog.