First off, hope everybody had a great holiday and here's wishing everybody has a great, but most importantly, a safe New Year's eve. Lot of crazies out that night so drink and be merry, but do so responsibly.

After watching more football than is legally allowed in the last two weeks, I came away with blurred vision and a few thoughts. For starters, how is it possible that the Cowboys and Patriots didn't make the playoffs and the Dolphins did? I've never once seen a team loaded with so many superstars seem so disinterested as the Cowboys looked Sunday in Philly. It seems as though players were waiting for bad things to happen just so they could point the finger and blame somebody else for their shortcomings. Even the woeful Lions looked more competitive than the boys from Big D and as any of the three remaining Detroit fans can attest to, that's saying something.

As for Miami, I've never been a big fan of Bill Parcells but you have to give the Big Tuna credit for helping turn around the 1-15 Dolphins in just one year. Miami will likely be one and done in the playoffs but Parcells continues to do what Al Davis hasn't done since the 80s and that's just win baby.

Has anybody informed the Jags, Bucs or Browns that the NFL schedule was expanded from 14 games to 16 more than 20 years ago? Because it seems none of the three teams ever got the memo. The Bucs were outscored 85-58 in the last thee weeks and went from playoff lock to just plain locked out, while the Browns were outscored 75-10 over that span and have been phoning it in for weeks.

While my playoff predictions from three weeks ago were as off as a Brett Favre screen pass with Dallas missing out and San Diego sneaking in the back door, that won't stop me from giving it another shot.

Atlanta 37, Arizona 31
Indianapolis 34, San Diego 30
Baltimore 27, Miami 10
Philadelphia 23, Minnesota 14