Gary “The Gut” Goombah – Week 21, 2025/’26

Gary “The Gut” Goombah – Week 21, 2025/’26

We had a solid outing with the NFL Playoffs Wild Card Round last week. Gary did well! Out of six selections, how many do you think Gary won? Go ahead and guess, and then read on.

Week 20 Recap

NFL Playoffs Selections 

Chicago Bears (+1.5) over Green Bay Packers – In one of the most fantastic Bears games ever, HC Ben Johnson led his team to an incredible comeback from an 18 point halftime deficit. Final Score: Chicago 31-27. Result: WON!

Los Angeles Rams (-10.5) over Carolina Panthers – The Rams won, but did not cover the large spread. Final Score: L.A.Rams 34-31. Result: Lost

Buffalo Bills (-1) over Jacksonville Jaguars – Buffalo won a tremendous game. Final Score: Buffalo 27-24. Result: WON!

San Francisco 49ers (+5.5) over Philadelphia Eagles – As predicted, the defending Super Bowl champions’ reign ended at home to the 49ers. Final Score: San Francisco 23-19. Result: WON!

New England Patriots (-3.5) over Los Angeles Chargers – Gary was right again, noting that New England just would not lose on their home field, unlike most teams last weekend. Final Score: New England 16-3. Result: WON!

Houston Texans (-3) over Pittsburgh Steelers – The “Gut” correctly called this outcome, as Houston won on the road. Final Score: Houston 30-6. Result: WON!

---

Week 20 Results: 5-1 (83.3%) Overall; (5-1 NFL)
Season Results: 130-145-3 (47.3%) Overall; (67-79-2 NCAA, 63-66-1 NFL, with 2-0-1 on “Lock of the Week”)

---

Gary “The Gut” Goombah’s Week 21 Selections

One of our favorite go-to websites in making predictions is www.teamrankings.com. Both Gary and I have been using this site for years. They have a ranking for each league that is a “predictive ranking”, which means they are not judging teams based on what they have accomplished, as much as they are using all of the information and statistics to formulate how impressive teams will be “moving forward“. This is simply a predictive ranking. Thus, it works perfect to predict who will win these games.

NFL Playoffs Selections 

Buffalo Bills (+1.5) over Denver Broncos (Team Rankings #4 over #10) – Earlier this week, Buffalo was favored by 1.5 points. Now, the line has flipped to Denver by 1.5 points. Denver is the #1 seed. They’re at home in “Mile High Stadium” (I think it’s called Invesco Field at Mile High now, whatever). People are scared of Buffalo. I would be too. The Bills are experienced. QB Josh Allen is virtually unstoppable. Have you noticed when they run the QB sneak/tush push that Allen always, I mean ALWAYS goes left over the left guard and sometimes left tackle? He NEVER goes right. They might want to switch it up one of these times. Anyway, Gary is taking the Bills straight up. PICK: Buffalo

Seattle Seahawks (-7) over San Francisco 49ers (#1 over #8) – Seattle seems to be the closest thing to the best team in these NFL Playoffs. They have an excellent offense (28.4 ppg, 2nd in the NFL), an excellent defense (17.2 ppg, 2nd), and they have home field advantage. San Francisco is really good too, although their injured defense isn’t the same defense that started the season. Without superstars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, they are a shadow of their former self. QB Brock Purdy won’t be able to keep up on the scoreboard. PICK: Seattle

Houston Texans (+3) over New England Patriots (#3 over #6) – This is the best matchup of the Divisional Round, as far as these rankings are concerned. We have a close game between two defensive teams, outside in the elements of Boston, Massachusetts (Foxboro, MA) in mid-January. The Texans are probably the best defensive team in the league (16.7 ppg allowed, 1st). Can QB Drake Maye and his ‘mates outscore QB C.J. Stroud and Houston? This game might come down to a field goal, or a defensive score. PICK: Houston

Los Angeles Rams (-3.5) over Chicago Bears (#2 over #16) – If it were up to me, the “Dutch Lion”, I would pick the Bears. Why?…. because I’m a huge, lifelong Bears fan. However, Gary is not a Bears fan. He could care less what I think. Therefore, the “Gut” thinks the Rams are WAY better than the Bears. Despite the magical season by rookie head coach Ben Johnson, Chicago simply isn’t as good as Coach McVay’s seasoned Rams squad. Look at those predictive ranks: The Rams are second in the NFL. The Bears are a pedestrian 16th. The only things going for the Bears are the cold weather predicted for Sunday evening in Chicago (High of 16 degrees, Low of 1 degree) AND the fact that QB Matthew Stafford and the Rams are notoriously poor in the sub-freezing temperatures. Nonetheless, Chicago’s defense is mediocre, actually below average. Unless QB Caleb Williams has more incredible magic up his sleeve, the Bears run ends here. Besides, Caleb doesn’t play defense. He could put up 38 points and Chicago will still lose something like 42-38. PICK: L.A. Rams

---

CFP National Championship

LOCK OF THE WEEK: Indiana Hoosiers (-8.5) over Miami Hurricanes – Nothing is going to stop Indiana Hoosiers football right now. Even the fact that Miami gets to play the National Championship in their home stadium will not deter the Hoosiers. By the way, why does Miami get to play at home? Don’t get me started! Remember all those years that Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame played in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s evening for a national championship against either Miami or Florida St. or some other southern team? Yeah, that wasn’t fair then and it isn’t fair now. How do you guard against that in the modern era? Well, you can’t, at least not exactly. For years I’ve been advocating for a neutral site for the CFP Playoffs. They should build a massive dome in Orlando, FL. It would be the new Citrus Bowl. They could host NFL Super Bowls, host NCAA Final Fours, CFP bowl games, and other “Disney” events. In actuality, I’m surprised they haven’t done this yet. They might even be able to attract Disney travelers to all of these special events. Regarding this year’s CFP, they could have had the Championship game there in Orlando which would be a more “neutral” site.

Ok, let’s get back to this matchup. The Miami Hurricanes have an excellent team this year, at least an excellent defense. Their defensive line is phenomenal. Their offensive line is solid too, molded in HC Mario Cristobal’s image. They’re a physical team, taking down Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Ole Miss to get to this final game. However, Indiana is the team of the year. They have gone out and won every single game. They are 15-0! They beat Oregon twice. They beat Iowa, Ohio State, and Alabama. Look at their last three games! They beat the defending National Champion Buckeyes in the B1G Championship. Then they handled Alabama 38-3 and Oregon 56-22. Over the last two seasons, they have only lost two games out of 28 games! And those two losses were at Ohio State last year 38-15, and at Notre Dame in the CFP 1st round last year 27-17. Both of those teams went on to the National Championship game. Think about that. It’s super impressive. Coach Curt Cignetti has done the impossible. It’s so impressive that 60 Minutes did a feature story on them.

Now, as for the point spread, I was surprised it was only 8.5 points. Gary agreed. He thinks this pick is a no-brainer. In fact, it’s a LOCK OF THE WEEK! PICK: Indiana

---

That’s it for now. Only a couple weeks left, including the #1 gambling holiday of the year, the Super Bowl.

“Whether rich or poor, thou shalt gamble more” – Gary “The Gut” Goombah’s mantra