By now, I'm going to assume most of you (those of you still reading) have forgotten who I picked in the respective championship games. I'll remind you. I picked the losers. Both losers. Yes, again.

It's of little solace to me that I went with public sentiment for the most part on the Saints, and gave The greatest coach and greatest clutch quarterback of all-time™ one too many benefits of the doubt. I told the Bears to make some big plays, and they did. I told Peyton Manning and the Colts to prove to me that they could win a playoff game against the Patriots, and they did. But there's no escaping my horrid playoff record for the second year in a row. But hey, here's how I'll look at it. I'm like an NBA team. You don't want your favorite NBA team to be the Knicks or the Kings. You either want the Spurs and Suns or you want the Grizzlies and Bobcats. There's only one dangerous place, and that's the middle ground. You want to either win outright, or know there's eventually a way TO win.

That's where I come in.

If I'm picking regular season games using the best bets and pick of the week, there's an opportunity for some (almost none) moneymaking. But the playoffs are really where you take my advice to the bank. By this point, it's been very well established that even though I've turned a very minimal profit during the regular season, I clearly have no idea how to bet on the playoffs. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I don't do it. Perhaps it's due to the fact that when great teams square off against each other, it's a crapshoot more often than not. Perhaps it's because I outthink myself in terms of each team's relative strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps, above all else, I'm not all that smart. Whatever the case may be, I'm disgusting. I'm horrible. And everyone should have figured this out by now. I'm right now the Bobcats. While I won't win anything and you won't win anything by following me, I'm almost as good a bet as the teams at the top. What's a safer bet, that the Suns win the NBA title or that the Bobcats fail to make the playoffs? Same here. What's a better wager, that you can use your own knowledge and information to make an educated bet, or that you can look at who I pick and just go with the opposite.

I'm telling you, people are making millions off of me. Get on board now!!!

Let's get to the pick!

Source: Yahoo.com Pro Football Pick'em

INDIANAPOLIS (-7) vs. CHICAGO
I'm not going to beat around the bush here. I can't find a reason, aside from three Devin Hester return touchdowns, why the Bears should win this game.

I can throw out all sorts of numbers, such as how the Colts offense is far superior and their defense isn't terribly far behind at this point. I can point to the return of Bob Sanders as perhaps the single most important storyline of the entire postseason (and anyone telling you it's not a big deal has a brain made out of magic marker felt). I can point to the fact that the Colts already beat the two best teams they'll face all postseason. You might come back by telling me that the Bears haven't played their best game yet. You might say that the Colts gave so much in beating the Pats that they won't have much left. You might try and convince me that Brian Urlacher is half the player Dick Butkus ever was and that this version of the Bears compares favorably to the 1985 bunch. But I'll just look at you, point at you and laugh, and encourage others to do the same.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say the Bears aren't a very good team. But is this a Super Bowl winning team? A team without a great offense or a great defense? Really? What exactly have they done to warrant only being a seven point dog against Indy? It was clear all throughout the regular season (and last few regular seasons for that matter) that the AFC was the superior conference. So it would make sense that the Colts would have a tougher time in their playoff run. And I'll be the first to admit that I had this Colts team pegged as "just another Colts team" all during the year. But things have changed - drastically. The Colts are winning multiple ways, not just on the arm of Peyton Manning. And they have a Super Bowl look to them. I know that doesn't count for a damn thing, nor should it, but then again why base this article in sound logic and reasoning when that kind of thing hasn't worked for crap to this point?

Look for Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison to exploit the deep coverage downfield. There's no reason not to take big-time shots all day long until the Bears either show A) They can get to Peyton Manning, and B) They can cover the wideouts without help from the safeties…those safeties who will be needed to provide run help all game long because the Bears can't stop people up the middle suddenly…and the linebackers are going to be tied up with the RBs out in the flat and TE Dallas Clark running wild. We're starting to visualize a picture, and that picture shows Wayne and Harrison catching 40 yard bombs at will all game long. Yes I know that offense doesn't win championships, but they aren't exactly going up against a legendary unit here. It's still a very good one, but it's a very good beaten-up one that hasn't been playing all that well over the past month and a half.

The strength of the Bears at this point might actually be - gasp - the offense! This team has quietly put up some very nice point totals recently, which may be partly due to a rapidly improving offense or just as much due to the fact that the defense is giving up such chunks of yardage and points that the offense is simply on the field longer. In any event, it's something to notice but I would hope for the NFL's sake that the Super Bowl champion isn't determined by the fantastic play of one Rex Grossman. Yikes. The Face of the NFL ™ losing to a Florida QB? Perish the thought.

Am I willing to admit I might be wrong about my assessment of each team? Sure! I had the Chargers pegged as a team that could do no wrong. I had the Patriots as a team that still owned the Colts as recently as two weeks ago, despite losing the last two regular season meetings. And I had the Saints as some sort of unstoppable force despite the fact that maybe the worst starting player in the NFL plays for them (unsubtle hint: his name is Fred Thomas).

So when it comes time to making your pick this week, do what you always do. Make your charts and graphs and go to the videotape and study the trends and crunch the numbers. And then, just before you click submit, make sure the team you're picking is the opposite of the one I've listed below. I really do think the Colts will win by a good amount, let's say 27-14. So it's pretty well written in stone that this will be a 20-17 win by the bears.

Gold, I tell ya!

LOCK OF THE WEEK: Indianapolis Colts

• LAST WEEK
  OVERALL: 0-2 (0%)
  LOCK OF WEEK: 0-1
  
• PLAYOFF TOTALS
  OVERALL: 3-7 (30%)
  LOCK OF WEEK: 0-3