Daily Norseman NFL Staff Picks: Conference Championships

There are just three games left this season for your favorite Minnesota Vikings bloggers to pick this season, and two of them will be happening today as it’s Conference Championship weekend in the National Football League.

Let’s take a look at how everything went as far as our picks go last week.

• Eric Thompson: 9-3 (4-0 straight up, 3-1 against the spread, 2-2 over/under)
• Ed Brodmarkle: 8-4 (3-1 straight up, 3-1 against the spread, 2-2 over/under)
• Warren Ludford: 7-5 (2-2 straight up, 2-2 against the spread, 3-1 over/under)
• Christopher Gates: 5-7 (2-2 straight up, 2-2 against the spread, 1-3 over/under)

Not a great week for yours truly. But, since I’ve learned nothing, I’ll be picking with my heart rather than my head this week, too.

Those numbers mean that, for the post-season, our records look like this:

• Warren: 20-10 (7-3 straight up, 6-4 against the spread, 7-3 over/under)
• Ed: 18-12 (7-3 straight up, 7-3 against the spread, 4-6 over/under)
• Eric: 18-12 (9-1 straight up, 6-4 against the spread, 3-7 over/under)
• Chris: 14-16 (6-4 straight up, 5-5 against the spread, 3-7 over/under)

Those damn over/unders, man. . .they’re a monster. Well, for me they are, anyway.

So, after all that, here are the picks for this week.

Both of the games only have one dissenter.

On the NFC side, Eric is going with Green Bay while everyone else is picking the road team because. . .well, duh. Eric also has the Packers covering the -3.5 and the rest of us have Tompa Bay at either +3 or +3.5, depending on when picks were put into the Tallysight system. Chris and Ed have the game going “over” the number (52 for Chris, 51.5 for Ed), while Warren has this one at under 51 and Eric has it at under 53.

On the AFC side, Chris is siding with the defending champs, while everyone else is picking Buffalo. Chris also has Kansas City covering the -3. Eric is the lone person this week taking the “under,” which for him is 54.5. The rest of us have this one hitting the “over,” which is anywhere from 53.5 to 54.5. . .again, those numbers fluctuate based on when we put our picks in.

We’re about three and a half hours away from the start of Championship Sunday, folks. Here’s hoping your picks all do well. . .unless you’re picking Green Bay, of course.