Columnist Dean Juipe: Familiarity greets NFL wild cards

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002 | 11:26 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

"Say, this looks familiar," the fans in the stands and those watching on TV are apt to say.

"Hey, it's a little too familiar," the players on the field might respond, as not one but two of the wild-card games that open the National Football League playoffs this weekend are repeats of games held this past Sunday.

Didn't we just see Philadelphia at Tampa Bay and the New York Jets at Oakland?

Well, yes, but we're going to see them again.

In a quirk of the schedule brought on by happenstance as well as the fact last week's games were actually the ones postponed from Sept. 16, the playoffs open to an overwhelming sense of deja vu. For bettors or those inclined to analyze such things, the best recommendation is to forget the Eagles' and Jets' earlier victories and focus on the games at hand.

As is customary this time of the year, all four games this weekend -- Tampa Bay at Philadelphia and New York at Oakland on Saturday, followed by San Francisco at Green Bay and Baltimore at Miami on Sunday -- have home-field favorites. The spreads are flimsy in that they range from only 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 points, but the premise is concrete: It's worth at least a field goal to be playing at home when your season's on the line.

I say take the favorites.

The Bucs and Eagles are in the most curious position, as each team knew in advance of last week's game that it was meaningless and that they would be playing each other again this week. The result was a 17-13 victory for the Eagles in which the players displayed an almost humorous indifference to the outcome.

As was evident from watching the game, neither team wanted to run a dress rehearsal for this week's playoff game. The result was a mixture of trickery and playful deception, with both sides not so much trying to outguess the other as they were trying to scramble the other's upcoming game plan.

Now they play again under entirely different circumstances, including weather that figures to be ice cold and detrimental to Tampa Bay. Given that the Eagles also beat the Bucs in last year's playoffs and that Tampa coach Tony Dungy is on the hot seat, the Eagles are holding the more attractive cards.

New York at Oakland is less clear, considering the Jets needed last week's 24-22 victory to reach the playoffs and that the Raiders have lost three straight and four of their last six. But even with nothing at stake in the regular-season finale, the Raiders would have won it had they not missed a short field goal or had a blocked punt returned for a touchdown.

If they're capable of regrouping, it's now or never.

Any preview of San Francisco's game at Green Bay can be reduced to this simple item: The Packers have never lost a playoff game at Lambeau Field, and this wouldn't seem like the right time to buck a decades-old trend.

Baltimore at Miami is inherently dangerous to predict, as the Ravens were a wild card last season yet did the improbable and bucked the odds all the way to the Super Bowl championship. But they're looking immobile and far less resilient now, and the Dolphins have a history of first-round playoff success that has to be taken into account if you're considering a wager.

And who among us isn't?