I can't believe I am saying this, but I pray that the Eagles beat the Saints.

All right, let's try going over this one more time, very slowly.

I never said the NFC North was weak, and that I'm 100% confident on. I never compared the NFC North to the NFC East. I brought up two independent examples of division winners who did well against their division and did not play as well outside of their division, demonstrating that, no, division winners do not perform worse against their division than they do outside of it. I never once said the two divisions were equivalent, or that they were weak divisions, or that any team outside of the Giants and Dolphins were bad teams

I picked the Bears and Cowboys because they were easy examples, but I can point to others as well. My own Patriots went 5-1 in their division and 6-4 outside of it. The Rams went 6-0 in their division and 6-4 outside of it. None of this says anything about them as a team, or either the Cowboys or Bears. It merely shows that teams do not perform better against their division than teams outside of it.

Once again: I have never said anything negative about the NFC East, North, or any other division, or about any team besides saying the Giants and Dolphins are awful teams. If you somehow think after reading this that I'm still insulting the Cowboys or the NFC East, please find your local English teacher and ask for a refund.

You did say the NFC North was a weak division.

"And it's not as if this is just a case of the NFC North being weak and the Bears having a better record only because everyone in their division sucks; "

Also, you said the Cowboys win wasn't impressive because they barely won against the "weak giants".

"a playoff team should probably be more than one point better than the Giants."

Quoting the first few words of that first sentence:

"And it's not as if"

...in other words, I'm saying that this is not the case. My argument there is deflecting the potential counterargument that the Bears just play in a weak division. Someone might try to counter the point I had made previously by saying that the reason the Bears had a better in division record than out of division record was because they played in a weak division. I'm directly arguing against that point of view by saying that, no, this isn't the case, it's a phenomenon spread league wide.

Also, you said the Cowboys win wasn't impressive because they barely won against the "weak giants".

And I stand by that. There is no scenario where beating the fourth worst team in the league by one point is going to be impressive. That doesn't mean I think the Cowboys are a bad team; there are several wins from the Patriots' season that I also think were thoroughly underwhelming (both games against the Bills, first game against the Jets), and I don't believe New England is a bad team. Same goes for the Chiefs, Saints, Rams, and every other team still alive in the Super Bowl race. Every team has at least one game where they played a bad team and should have won by a lot more than they did given the quality of their opponent. 

None of that means I think those teams are bad. It's just that I wouldn't go bragging about barely beating a bad team, regardless of the circumstances.

Looks like we're on to the Rams. The good thing is, the Rams will basically have no home-field advantage over Dallas, in fact, I suspect there will be more Dallas fans in attendance at the game than Rams.

You only said "And it's not as if" to point the fact that the Bears wins and loss record is better in their division than outside their division has nothing to do with the NFC North being weak. In the next sentence, you even said this scenario is found throughout the NFL indicating this isn't just occurring in a weak division. 

Saying Cowboys win against "Weak Giants" without Zeke and three pro bowl lineman isn't impressive is an insult on their hard work and never giving up. 

Cowboys can win this easily if they let Dak run the ball. I don't think the Rams have the defense to stop the Dak/Zeke runs.

...are Cowboys fans usually this sensitive, to the point where they get upset if someone doesn't acknowledge the "hard work" of the players?

This is the NFL, dude. You don't get any props for hard work. Everyone in the league works incredibly hard to get to where they are. You get props if you play well enough to make yourself seem head and shoulders above most of the other teams in the league. Dallas had several impressive games this season. Beating the fourth worst team in the NFL by one point is not one of them.

Not to mention that this is the NFL thread. Every team in the league gets mocked or insulted here, including my own Patriots, often by myself. If you don't want to hear negative things said about Dallas, go back to watching Skip Bayless or something.

Anyway, Wild Card Weekend results. Winners are bolded

The fickleness of the bracket strikes again, as BlowoverKing and Chris Hu's absences allow both me and Carl to (probably undeservedly) move on. NobleTeam360 was unfortunately brought down by not making the first pick (or perhaps more accurately the VGC messenger not sending things through properly for whatever reason). Farsala in particular got hosed after posting the second best performance of the week and not making it through due to PDT differential. Help me I'm bad at reading

This brings us to the quarterfinals.

As with last week, you are invited to either PM or email me your picks (ogvernment@gmail.com). Rol will be taking cycycychris and my picks. Note that if you PM me, I will always PM you back to confirm I got your picks, so if you don't hear back...chances are it didn't go through. You can also check the "sent" folder to ensure that the website processed your message.

And with that out of the way...here's the schedule for this week:

Colts @ Chiefs

Cowboys @ Rams

Chargers @ Patriots

Eagles @ Saints

Imagine going 0-4 and still making it through.

Dang, what were XD84's predictions? I wonder if he had similar predictions to me.

Mine:

Ind by 3, DAL by 7, LA by 10, CHI by 7