Sure it’s past Labor Day, but for most of the country the weather here in the US still feels a lot like summer. Folks are still going to the beach, putting up that fence in the back yard, fighting unbearable heat, playing those late evening pick-up basketball games at the local court or simply enjoying the still relatively long days. But all of that extracurricular activity, for football fans at least, is about to come to an abrupt end, as the National Football League kicks off its 2007-2008 season with tonight’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints.
To commemorate the start of the NFL season, we thought we’d slip on our prognostic’s hat and go through our picks for the upcoming season – from each of the individual division winners and wild card teams in the AFC and NFC, to the eventual champion of Super Bowl XLII.
AFC East Winner: New England Patriots – Brady finally has some WR targets to throw at, and given the talent infusion we wouldn’t bet against a Belichick coached team.
AFC North Winner: Cincinnati Bengals – A rookie coach in Pittsburgh, a rookie QB who will probably start by mid-season in Cleveland and little offense to speak of in Baltimore means that the Bengals will sort of win this division by default.
AFC South Winner: Indianapolis Colts – The Colts are one of the top 3 teams in the league and they play in one of the worst divisions. Even our poor math skills can calculate the winner of the South division.
AFC West Winner: San Diego Chargers – The Chargers are probably the most talented team in the AFC, perhaps the NFL, with studs on both sides of the ball. Despite Norv Turner at head coach, they take the division with ease.
AFC Wild Card Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens.
Now for the less powerful, not-too-competitive National Football Conference:
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NFC East Winner: Philadelphia Eagles – If McNabb stays healthy, and it is definitely a big “if”, we’re taking the Eagles by a slim margin. Jerry Jones’ Cowboys are very good, but their secondary and QB Tony Romo are somewhat suspect. The Redskins and Giants are in for a sub-500 campaign.
NFC North Winner: Chicago Bears – The Bears defense won’t be as good as the past two seasons and their QB Rex Grossman may very well be benched by mid-season, but the monsters of the midway will easily handle Green Bay, Minnesota and Detroit to win this division.
NFC South Winner: New Orleans Saints – We really believe that the Carolina Panthers will have a huge bounce-back year, but we also think that Reggie Bush can become the LT of the NFC – besides, the no-longer ‘Aints are such a feel good story.
NFC West Winner: St. Louis Rams – Every team in this division has serious flaws, but if the Rams can play some semblance of defense, their offense will overpower the rest of the teams in the weak NFC West.
NFC Wild Card Teams: Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys
So now, the Super Bowl picks.
If the New England Patriots are able to get home field advantage, they will roll over San Diego and/or Indianapolis in Foxboro to go to yet another Super Bowl. But, if San Diego is at home in the AFC Championship game, we may find ourselves talking about Philip Rivers and Tomlinson as the co-Super Bowl MVPs. We, however, tend to think that the Patriots will somehow end up with the best record in the AFC.
On the NFC side, if McNabb can stay healthy all season, especially going into the playoffs, we’d take the Eagles, but we don’t think he can or will. So, we’ll pick the New Orleans Saints, and red-hot quarterback Drew Brees, to join the party in Arizona.
Super Bowl Matchup: New England Patriots vs. New Orleans Saints
Super Bowl Winner: As much as we hate to say it, New England Patriots
1 comment:
Are you sure about the Saints getting to the super bowl? I see a big letdown coming this year.
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