It has come to the end of the Citizen's Beat the Pros season and unless there is a complete meltdown by Bob Timmerman, who is currently well ahead of the competition, the circulation manager will be taking the title away from Ralph Morrow.

I for one am happy to see our sports editor dethroned, because like in any sport, only fans of a winning program want to continue the streak. With my own horse in the race it is certainly tough to cheer for any other success, but once again my reign at the top of the standings was short-lived and I will finish middle of the pack.

Oh well, but congrats to every winner this season and to those that sent in weekly picks and were able to outdo even our best "professional" guesses -- which in the end is all they are. However, now it is time to move into the postseason, and what an exciting set of games are lined up.

On the NFC side of things, every matchup should be interesting as all six teams were separated by only three games during the regular season: The 4th seeded Arizona Cardinals at 10-6 and the top seeded New Orleans Saints at 13-3. With both games during the Wild Card weekend a rematch of previous week's games -- the Cardinals playing host to the 6th seeded Green Bay Packers (11-5), who they beat 33-7 last Sunday, and the 11-5 Philadelphia Eagles head back to Dallas, where the 11-5 Cowboys won 27-0 last week -- the NFC will be off to a great start. As much as it would pain me to see a pair of NFC North teams in the NFC Championship, I will say that a Vikings-Packers matchup with Brett Favre taking on his old team for a trip to the Super Bowl would be great to see.

On the AFC side of things, there is question to the validity of teams that made the playoffs. Sure the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers could have just won one more game and not depended on the New York Jets faltering as they cruised past the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals, which were both sitting key players in the final weeks after clinching postseason berths. Nevertheless, the Jets at 9-7 did what was needed and will also take on last week's foe the Cincinnati Bengals, who at 10-6 won the AFC North. The only non-rematch of last week's game during this first week is the Baltimore Ravens (9-7) versus the New England Patriots (10-6).

In the end -- not that my predictions mean more than an average answer as Beat the Pros once again showed -- I believe that it will be the Vikings-Eagles and Colts-Chargers in the Conference Championship games, with either the Chargers or Vikings winning a first Super Bowl title.

But hey, what do I know?

Staff Writer J.W. Cooke's Home Field Advantage column appears exclusively each Wednesday in The Citizen. He can be reached at 305-292-7777, Ext. 261, or at jwcooke@keysnews.com.