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The NJLMFL has taken a short break from the field to do some painting,decaling and working on a website but its back to the field soon.

The Super Bowl 51 Tournament has reached the Divisional Round. Down to the Final 8 teams. Here are the matchups.

Who do you guys pick?

AFC

#6 Pittsburgh Steelers at #1 Omaha Wranglers
#4 Hartford Renegades at #2 Oklahoma Longhorns

NFC

#6 Orlando Thunder at #1 Richmond Rebels
#5 Arizona Cardinals at #2 El Paso Warriors

Steelers and Renegades are both strong and both have a great chance to win on the road. Omaha can score points but their defense is suspect. The Longhorns coached by Barry Switzer are untested and in uncharted waters for them. Renegades have both Roethliesberger and Hines Ward on their team so a matchup with the Steelers in the Championship would be great. Omaha is led by QB Colt McCoy and have a good running game with Matt Forte and Lendale White. As for Oklahoma they are led by veteran QB Bert Jones who has Roddy White and Dewayne Bowe to throw to.

In the NFC the Cardinals are on a roll behind Kurt Warner. El Paso is led by QB Sam Bradford RB- Jamaal Charles and WR veteran Harlod Jackson. Good battle in the desert. Jimmy Johnson's Orlando Thunder is also on a roll scoring 38 and 42 points in their last 2 games. The Thunder is led by Rickey Williams, Michael Vick and Braylon Edwards. The #1 seeded Richmond Rebels is a spinoff teram of NY Giants led by Eli Manning, Ahmad Bradshaw, Steve Smith and Santana Moss. This shapes up to be a real good game. Could this be the first Super Bowl won by one of the new expansion teams? San Jose came close last tourney and 6 of the final 8 teams are expansion teams so the odds are good but watch out for Pittsburgh and Arizona. So here it isin a nushell. The beat reporters for the NJLMFL see it this way

AFC
Pittsburgh- Bradshaw has been hot and they are playing well so far
Omaha- Steelers are a tough opponent. Home field may be their only advantage. Pittsburgh 28 Omaha 17

Hartford- This is a solid team and are playing well. Veterans experience and one post season defeat that they learned from could help them prevail.
Oklahoma- Untested. We will see what they have. They must be pretty good and play very well to beat Renegades.
Hartford 24 Oklahoma 14.

NFC
Orlando is explosive and has it all together so far. Great running attack but they do give up points on defense. Richmond has great talent and do play that smashmouth NFC East brand of football. They must stop the Orlando running game to have a chance. If Manning has a good game and Richmond can win the turnover battle we may hear the Rebel yell. High scoring game.
Orlando 31 Richmond 24.

Arizona is on a magical run. Kurt Warner has played MVP quality QB in first 2 playoff games and this team may be destined. They have gotten all the breaks so far. El Paso has had some playoff experience so they won't be strangers. Arizona's defense has played better than expected but Sam Bradford should be able to make some plays for the Warriors. This one should be close. It just seems that perhaps by devine intervention that the Cardinals are destiny's child this tournament and will pull it out in the end. Maybe even overtime.
Arizona 24 El Paso 21.