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Jets at Steelers: You can’t pick against either team with any confidence. The J E T S, Jets, Jets, Jets, are on one of those historic runs. They’ve beaten Peyton Manning and Tom Brady is successive weeks. Their defense has played brilliantly in both contests. They’ve overshadowed Pittsburgh’s own amazing divisional battle with the Baltimore Ravens. Down 21 to 7 the Men of Steel lived up to their names and came storming back to win. Both defenses are having tremendous years. Both are coming off amazing performances.

Both have severe problems on the offensive line. Pittsburgh was down to its last healthy linemen against Baltimore. The Jets will be without right tackle Damien Woody for the rest of the way.

Things are so close Rex Ryan has backed off from his weekly “It’s personal” line. And that might be the difference. The Jets just aren’t the Jets if they aren’t talking a big game which they then have to go and back up. I don’t doubt that the Jets are one hundred percent confident coming into this game. But Rex Ryan NOT talking may be giving an inadvertent boost to the Steelers. And football players can be very superstitious. Ryan’s breaking an established routine.

It’s a really slim line of reasoning and I’ll talk myself out of it if I think about it too much. So I’d better just close my eyes and make a pick. STEELERS BY 1.

Packers at Bears: The football purist in me is saying “Finally!” At long last the Pack and the Monsters of the Midway are meeting to decide the NFC Championship. It seems crazy that after all this time, after Lombardi, Starr, Halas, Ditka, and Brett Favre that this game is finally going to happen. And it’s going to be between Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler. The Pack was supposed to be here. There were some concerns about their offensive line and their running game but they answered those. Chicago had legions of doubters every step of the way. All they did was win the division and earn a first round bye which has turned into home tundra advantage this coming weekend.

There are still some questions. Will the line which was an absolute disaster at the midpoint of the season hold up to Clay Matthews? Will Jay Cutler play up to his ability? Like the AFC game it is hard to pick against either team at this point. Both teams have been clutch this season. I really love the Bears defense with Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher. Both these men have been to the Super Bowl before. I like what Mike Martz has done with Cutler and the Bears offense. But Aaron Rodgers last week in Atlanta was on another level. That’s the difference and it’s only going to be a small one. Rodgers had one of those video game days against the Falcons. He won’t be nearly that good against Chicago but he’ll be good enough. PACKERS BY 7.