Today on Monday Musings, we examine our prior projections for the NFL playoffs, posted a few weeks ago. Well, very little went according to the math, but our prediction for Super Bowl LX is still intact: New England versus Seattle on February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA (where we received our original Covid-19 vaccination shots in March 2021, in fact—that was almost five years ago). We will take that sitch.

And thank goodness the luckier-than-thou Chicago Bears are out of it. They were underdogs at home against both the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round and the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round, but only the latter came through in the end, by the skin of their teeth, no less. The Rams also beat the Carolina Panthers on the road by a minimal margin in the opening round, so we know they play down.

That won’t work against the Seahawks at Lumen Field. Seattle torched the San Francisco 49ers by a 41-6 score in the divisional round, and while L.A. played two close games against the Seahawks this year, the Rams look tired and uninspired right now. Seattle is a decent mathematical favorite, currently, to reach its first Super Bowl since choking away that one after the 2014 season to the cheating New England Patriots.

As for the AFC, the Denver Broncos survived in overtime themselves, dodging the “upset” against the visiting Buffalo Bills, who imploded and got f**ked by the officials, it seems, as it is probable for the N0. 54 television market. Thus, the Broncos will now host the New England Patriots, who took care of business against the Houston Texans in the divisional round, intercepting four passes in the first half on Sunday.

We didn’t expect Denver to make it here, and all things being equal, the Patriots would be a two-point favorite on a neutral field in this matchup. Yet the Broncos will be at home, albeit without their starting quarterback. Throwing a little-used backup out there in the AFC Championship Game cannot bode well for Denver, which has been the AFC equivalent of the Chicago Bears this season, escaping time and time again.

Alas, luck evens out in the end, sometimes even in the same season, and that seems to be ready for the Broncos to learn against New England this coming weekend. The Pats have the math on their side, so it seems as if our Super Bowl prediction might come true, with the sabermetrics backing the teams we picked from the start. However, they still need to play the games, of course. That’s always the hard part in this, eh?