Since this format went into place home teams are 49-11 in this round of the playoffs. So anybody picking more than 1 road team to win is really bucking the odds. So I'll do my picks according to the trend:
I see the Pats as the most likely team to beat the odds, the version of the Pats that lost in Denver in the regular season really wasn't the Pats, no Bruschi, no Seymour, no Dillon, no a couple of other important players whose names I've forgotten.
next most likely team to beat the odds is Carolina, after shutting down the fairly high powered Giants offense I just don't see Rex Grossman and friends causing them much fear, if they stick ot the run (which is working very well lately) they don't have to worry about the sacks.
Next most likely, and now we're getting into the serious "stretch" department, is Washington. After that pathetic offensive performance they're coming into this game with a lot of questions and Seattle is probably going to answer them with "go play golf".
And least likely is my beloved Steelers. The good news for the Steelers is Dungy has a long history of underplanning for the playoffs, the bad news is Cowher has a longer history of the same, and I just don't trust Cowher to not go to Indy with the same failed game plan he used there in November. And let's face it the Steelers were just never designed to play in a dome.
I agree, but the reason that I went against New England is because Denver at home is like New England at home, they rarely lose.