NFL Playoff Picks: End-of-Season Update (Plus Totally Random Super Bowl Picks)

The holidays have come and gone, and so has 2009. That means your friends here at There’s No “I” in Blog are back from vacation and ready commence a new year of sports coverage. The NFL regular season is also over, which means it’s once again time to check up on our preseason picks and see just how wrong we were. (Here’s a link to our mid-season update.)

Patrick: In my opinion, the NFC East is the most entertaining division in the NFL, with the AFC East a close second, because the other divisions were wrapped up a long while ago. Sure, Denver made the AFC West interesting for a while, but then they remembered they’re the Broncos. Even though they finally got rid of him, I still say the Broncos are suffering the karmic consequences of replacing Jake “the Snake” Plummer with Jay Cutler. The East divisions were interesting though, with the Eagles and Cowboys going at each other in the final week. The Dolphins and Jets, as well as what Patriots fans might consider a down year, gave the AFC East a little intrigue as well. Also, I picked the Steelers to win the South, but I am more than happy to see the Bengals in the playoffs instead. As I said before, Ochocinco is always entertaining. I’m sure he’s looking forward to his rematch with Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis as much as I am. He told Bob Costas he’d change his name back to Johnson if Revis shut him down, which Revis did.

I haven’t yet mentioned that I picked the Giants to win the East. Ouch. Talk about a pitiful a team. I’ll go with older brother Manning to make the Super Bowl this year. That leads me to my…

Totally random Super Bowl pick: Indianapolis Colts vs. Philadelphia Eagles. The Saints lost to Tampa Bay. That’s a problem. I also refuse to pick Brett Favruh and the Vikings, so that leaves me with the Iggles. The Colts pull this out behind Manning, who throws for a billion yards and a hundred touchdowns in the Super Bowl.

Alex: As far as the AFC goes, hey, if you don’t go out on a limb, you never get the apple. Oakland was mostly terrible, but they probably ruined more survivor pools than any other team with victories over Philly and Pittsburgh. Houston was in it until the end of the last day, so I can’t be faulted for missing there. In the NFC, Atlanta looked frisky often, but just not quite often enough to make the playoffs. I have no regrets in backing my boy Matty Ice, who I think will become a top five QB next season. Arizona got past the Super Bowl loser hangover (better than the no-longer-defending champ Steelers at least) and kept out the most feared QB-TE combination since Bledsoe-Coates in the 49ers Alex Smith and Vernon Davis (well, maybe not.)

Super Bowl Pick: San Diego finally gets there, only to be taken apart by my original preseason pick of the Packers of Green Bay. In the end, they will defeat the Chargers by kicking an oblong ball made of pigskin through a giant H. It will be a most ripping victory. (Anyone who got that reference can grill at my BBQ any time.)

Ian: I did alright for an off-the-cuff prediction. In both leagues I correctly guessed four of the six playoff teams, and could have been better than that with a bit of luck. In the AFC, Pittsburgh just missed the playoffs, and could have made it if the Jets weren’t given two free victories at the end of the year. Tennessee started out awful, but were playing pretty well after putting Vince Young in as starting QB—maybe if they had done that sooner they could have fulfilled my prediction.

As for the AFC playoff teams I didn’t get right, I basically only switched Baltimore and Indianapolis, but I think those two teams’ real quality was much closer than their records show. Of Baltimore’s seven losses, five were by six points or fewer, while Indianapolis had seven of their 14 wins come by six points or fewer. Of course, the record is what counts, but I think Baltimore is probably a game or two better than their record, while Indy is a game or two worse.

Did anyone see the Saints coming? I’d like to see someone who predicted their defense would be that solid. Besides that, I’ll admit that I picked against Brett Farve and the Vikings even though if I had been objective, I probably would have given them a playoff spot. And, if you can tell me where the Giants defense went, you get a cookie.

For the Super Bowl, I have to go with San Diego and Dallas. The Dallas D looks great and I don’t see Farve playing mistake-free for a whole playoff. New Orleans…has no defense. Green Bay looks strong, but without the home games I don’t think they can go too far. San Diego wins a great game.

NFL Playoff Picks: Mid-Season Update

The NFL season has reached its halfway point, which means No “I” in Blog is digging up our preseason playoff picks (that scribbly thing to the left there) to see how we’re doing.


Alex: Okay, I know what you’re thinking: How in the name of David Bowie did you think the Oakland Raiders were going to make the playoffs this year? Basically, my reasoning was this: 1) there always seems to be that one team that not even their own fans believe in that catches fire and makes the playoffs. Last year it was Miami. I saw potential in JaMarcus Russell and had invested a fourth round fantasy pick (like many others) in Darren McFadden. Like George Dubya said after 9/11 — Nev-uh Ah-gan. Besides, it’s partially not my fault. I only thought Tom Cable had punched one of his assistants, but it turns out he may have hit a number of former girlfriends/wives as well. If only he could channel that aggressiveness to his defense, instead of, you know, women.

Beyond that, I feel all right. Denver is gonna take out San Diego, but none of us saw that coming. I still believe in the Texans, especially since we KNOW Tennessee and Jacksonville aren’t going anywhere in that division, and I still think San Francisco isn’t out of it because if the rest of the NFL is the Big Ten, then the NFC West is the Sun Belt conference. Anything could happen. Beyond that, it would appear that instead of betting on the Vikings to go 8-8, I get the joy of betting against Brett Favre in the playoffs. Fine by me, even if he’s just a gunslinger that’s having fun out there like a kid in the yard blah blah blah. Hang me by my Wranglers (sounds like a country song).

Patrick: How did I pick Jacksonville to make the playoffs, even as a wildcard? Maybe I saw Maurice Jones-Drew and thought their offense would be awesome, but I forgot their QB is David Garrard and their receivers are a bunch of scrubs and the aging Torry Holt. Oh, and they don’t know how to play defense. I didn’t see Cincinnati becoming as good as they are, but no one did. If they win their next two games against division rivals Baltimore and Pittsburgh, they’ll essentially wrap up their division. I’m all for it, even if it means my picks were wrong, because that will mean a few more Ocho Cinco TD celebrations and maybe even an opportunity for Dhani Jones to tackle the globe in a bow-tie.

I’m pretty sure my Indy and New Orleans picks are pretty safe, but really, I would never have guessed the Saints would be this good. When a team is so deep at WR and RB that Reggie Bush is basically a wasted roster spot, you know they’re going to be pretty hard to stop. Even though the Vikings are going to win the NFC North (because Old Man Favre has Adrian Peterson and a fantastic offensive line to keep him from throwing stupid interceptions), I’ll say this: Aaron Rodgers looked like the better QB in both Vikings/Packers matchups, and that’s not just because Rodgers didn’t cry.

Ian: I’m still going to be 100% accurate in my predictions.

Tennessee is going to run the table and finish 10-6 — this team’s performance last year wasn’t an illusion. Denver is a piece of shit team masquerading as a 6-1 team, and Josh McDaniels’s mad fist-pumping after the New England win jinxed his team like Joba’s fist pump after striking out Kenji Johjima in the third inning on August 16 did. In the most surprising development, the mobsters holding Jake Delhomme’s wife hostage are going to be taken out by Brett Favre in an FBI operation (yeah, Favre does that on days off. Oh, you didn’t know?), and Jake will play lights-out for the rest of the season and lead Carolina to the division title. During this raid, Favre will break his hand, and Brad Childress will refuse to sit him down, which wouldn’t torpedo the Vikings’ season except for causing him to fumble on every other handoff to Adrian Peterson.

Oh, and Ocho Cinco will get suspended by Roger Goodell for Tweeting in the end zone after scoring a touchdown, and the Bengals will falter.

I should have bet money on my predictions!

Sports Books!

This week is big for sports books. First, Chad Ocho Cinco’s book, Ocho Cinco: What Football and Life Have Thrown My Way came out on Tuesday and proceeded to fly off the shelves as fast as the receiver flies by cornerbacks. While I’ll write a more complete review of the book once I’m finished reading it, I’ll say right now that it’s a very good read. I expected to enjoy it, but I didn’t expect to want to be reading it all the time. (Unfortunately, I have to keep up with school and that job thing also.) Like the title says, he talks about off-field aspects of his life as much on-field. He even gets other players and coaches from around the NFL to tell you how awesome he is. My favorite part, so far, is Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha saying he felt left out because Ocho Cinco didn’t talk trash to him.

Bill Simmons’s ridiculously huge The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy comes out this week as well. Simmons will be in Boston tomorrow for his book signing tour, and Alex will be covering it.

Next on the list is Open: An Autobiography, by Andre Agassi. This book is already getting a lot of attention and causing controversies because of his admission of using crystal meth, failing a tournament drug test, and hating tennis and his father. Most sports talking heads have asked, “Why now? Who benefits from this?” Most of them haven’t considered that maybe, in some weird way, Agassi does. Like Agassi says in this AP article, ”I think I had to learn a lot about myself through the process.”

And finally, Michael Oriard, who we interviewed in September, has a new book, Bowled Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties to the BCS Era. He discusses some aspects of the book and college football in this interview with Inside Higher Ed.