At Least the Ravens and Seahawks Made the NFL Playoffs This Year

After the failure of the teams I usually root for in the National Football League (Miami, New York Giants, Tampa Bay, and Jacksonville) to make the playoffs this year, I was left with Seattle and Baltimore to cheer on.  Since the Seahawks had already made the playoffs and are playing for a good playoff position this weekend, this left the Ravens as the uncertain playoff possibility.  They had to beat Cleveland today, which they finally managed to do, coming from behind to win 20-10.  But the Ravens still depended on Kansas City beating San Diego, a game I watched this afternoon and which the Chiefs won 19-7.  So Baltimore is in as a wild-card team and Seattle, depending on how they do in their final regular season game, can run the range from home field throughout the playoffs to a wild card team playing an extra game, with all of them on the road.

As for the pitiful Dolphins, I predicted they would blow one of their last two games and finish another non-winning season at 8-8.  Sure enough, even playing at home against the cellar-dwelling Jets, Miami just couldn't hold on to a 24-14 lead and folded up (or choked, depending on what vocabulary you want to use), giving New York the last 23 points en route to a 37-24 drubbing.  Makes it awfully hard to want to follow a team lacking spirit like this year after year...