11 AFC Teams Having Winning Records but Only 6 Playoff Spots are Available

It’s going to be a soul-crushing experience in January for much of the AFC.  At the current moment 11 of the conference’s 16 NFL teams have winning records, but just 6 of them will reach the playoffs.  That means that nearly half of the teams that are currently feeling quite good about their season won’t even get to watch their teams compete in a playoff game!  Let’s take a look at who will be figuring to come out of this mess with a postseason berth and who will be looking back at the month of December and wondering what happened.

First, let’s take a look at how this strange scenario has come to be.  One thing odd about the AFC (and the entire NFL) this year is that no team has dominated up until this point.  The best teams stand at 9-3, which is only a 75% winning record.  While good, when we realize that these are the league’s current strongest teams we have great parity.  But at the other end of the standings lies the dark truth.  4 AFC teams have become the dreaded whipping boys of the conference.  The New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Oakland Raiders all sit poorly placed at 2-10 or worse.  Their overall atrociousness has been gifting all the other teams easy victories, which is in large part responsible for the current situation.  However, while some of these AFC teams’ wins may be unjustified, the fact that so many are winning will set up for an enthralling December!

What’s truly astounding about these records is that typically strong teams like the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos have very little wiggle room in the upcoming weeks.  Tom Brady and the Patriots are just 2 games ahead of both the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins (both at 7-5).  With games against both teams, New England could possibly lose their division lead and perhaps even a playoff spot!  While I certainly doubt that will happen, the very possibility of it this late in the season speaks to the conference’s strength and equality.

It’s also worth noting that many of these 7-5 teams are going to be playing one another and their records will balance out.  An intriguing situation has developed in the AFC North, where the Cincinnati Bengals hold a 1.5 game lead over the 7-5 Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers.  Each team could conceivably win the division or finish in 4^th!  While a Browns surprise would be delightful, I suspect the Bengals should hold onto the lead.

Elsewhere, I expect the Broncos, Patriots, and Indianapolis Colts to hold onto their division leads while the San Diego Chargers and the Baltimore Ravens should claim the wildcard sports.

However, with these wildcard opportunities still hotly contested, the final weeks of the year will be extremely entertaining as the stakes continue to grow.  For all the contending teams of the AFC, the playoffs are basically starting right now.  No one can afford to slip up and it’s all up to play for.  While the current mass of 11 winning teams lopped in the conference will certainly change in the next month, those who do reach the NFL playoffs will have earned their tickets!

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Which Surprising NFL Leaders Could Actually Contend for the Super Bowl?

With the 2014 NFL season reaching its halfway point this week, we’ve got a good sense of which teams are contending vs. which teams are already eyeing top draft picks next spring.  However, as is usually the case in these parity-driven league, several teams have come out and surprised us with brilliant starts to the year.  Sure, we expected the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots to be pretty good (as they are nearly every year), but who would have predicted hot starts for the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys, and Buffalo Bills?  With solid winning records and with fans’ hopes building, can one of these teams continue their hot streak on to wining the Super Bowl?

The short answer is no, and there’s countless reasons why.  Each of these teams have marginal quarterbacks at the helm.  One could try and argue that Tony Romo and Carson Palmer are elite given their statistics or that Matthew Stafford remains one of the game’s best young quarterback prospects, but none of these guys have had any real success in the playoffs.  And while Kyle Orton has played exceptional in several games for the Bills, we should know by now that he is little more than a serviceable backup.  Let’s see how his numbers last over the course of the year.

The one player truly capable of becoming elite is Stafford with the Lions.  Featuring Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush on offense, you’d think he’d be able to do it and at age 26 he still has room to grow and develop, but the Lions unfortunately have a knack for losing that is seemingly running rampant throughout the entire city of Detroit.  While they managed a playoff appearance in 2010 (which ended in the first round), they have become perennial late-season swooners.  Last season the Lions were 6-3 before stuttering to a 7-9 record.  In 2012 they were a respectable 4-4 before losing 8 straight and finishing 4-12.  This is a team that tends to run out of steam when the games begin to matter most! 

Meanwhile the Bills have also grown notorious for poor play, having not reached the NFL playoffs since 1999 (due in large part to the Patriots’ success).  They last teased their fans in 2011 by starting off 5-2 before succumbing to a 6-10 finish.  And then there’s the Cowboys, whose 8-8 record for 3 years running has been maddening to fans.  They seem to live for getting hopes up only to crush them with a late-season falter.  Romo seems to have all the skills but he folds under pressure.  At 34, the chance of him finally getting it right is fleeting at best.

Similarly, the Cardinals’ 34 year-old Carson Palmer has also been just a better-than average QB during his career, putting up solid numbers for the Cincinnati Bengals but never quite achieving greatness.  However, this is the team I see most likely to actually contend for the Super Bowl should the stars align.  The Cardinals got the short end of the stick last season and missed out on the playoffs despite a 10-6 record.  They are hungry and have proven that in the young season, claiming victories against the San Diego Chargers, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Philadelphia Eagles.  They will have a tough end to the year facing the 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks in successive weeks, though if they come through that test, look out!

For me, the challenge about a surprise team winning the Super Bowl is that they lack playoff experience.  Recent Super Bowl champs have all had unsuccessful playoff runs in previous years, but that experience helped them later on.  For example, the Seahawks won a wildcard game in 2012 before losing in the divisional round.  The next season they built off of that success and won the Super Bowl.  For teams like the Lions, Bills, Cardinals, and Cowboys, their last trips to the playoffs were so long ago that many of the core players really can’t understand the magnitude of such games.  As a result, should any of these teams reach the postseason, they’ll probably fall short and lose.  The best bet would be a solid, winning year to build up for a serious run at the Super Bowl in 2015.

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NFL Season Picks Up Right Where it Left Off Last Season

The wonderful thing about the NFL is that with the worst teams getting the top draft picks, and with the inclusion of the salary cap, predicting who will remain dominant from one year to the next is a very inexact science.  Once great teams can implode very quickly while a “worst to first” occurrence in one of the NFL divisions seems to happen annually.  However, after watching week 1 of the 2014 NFL season, it seems like this year has picked up right where we left off from a year ago, with little substantial change.

In short, both Super Bowl participants of last year won big.  The Seattle Seahawks’ tough defense beat up on the Green Bay Packers (whose weak defense continues to look shaky).  Meanwhile, Peyton Manning and his high-octane Denver Broncos offense looked tremendous (even without the suspended Wes Welker) once again in their victory over his former team, the Indianapolis Colts.  However, the Colts still looked competitive, as Andrew Luck nearly pulled off a comeback reminiscent of his heroics last season in the NFL playoffs against the Kansas City Chiefs.  However, against a top-level team like the Broncos, his efforts weren’t enough.

Elsewhere, most of last season’s playoff teams won last week, including the Carolina Panthers, the Cincinnati Bengals, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Philadelphia Eagles.  A few surprises did rattle our predicting senses, like the Miami Dolphins tremendous comeback victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, and the Tennessee Titans dominating the Chiefs, who’s poor form late last season seems to have continued.

Largely though, it was the same players kicking off the year in the fashion we’ve grown used to.  The Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo continued to throw the ball (and the game) away to the defense with 3 interceptions, the San Diego Chargers found a way to ruin a strong lead over the Arizona Cardinals, and the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints battled to an exciting, close game which Matt Ryan and the Falcons won.

And unfortunately, the typical lowest of the low NFL teams continued their atrocious form, reminding fans that they are still paltry teams that shouldn’t even dream of glory; see the Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, St. Louis Rams, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But what does warmly breathe new life for football fans is that the sport has officially returned.  Yes, your specific team may still be dealing with the frustrations of the past and a rather bleak outlook, but at least your Sunday afternoons have returned to normal with all the games on display!

And who knows, there are still 15 games for each team to decide their fate.  The great thing about the NFL season is that teams can easily overcome a loss by proving the doubters wrong the next week by winning and changing their fortunes.  The real drama of the season will arrive come December, when the playoff contending teams must get their acts together and earn vital wins.  But those days are still a long ways away.  For now, it’s time to simply enjoy the action because while half the teams lost their openers, the season still beckons brightly for everyone….Except the Rams…losing Sam Bradford to an ACL again is just tragic!

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2013 NFL Wildcard Playoff Games Preview

The 2013 NFL Playoffs have finally arrived, and they are all set to begin with the wildcard matchups this weekend. While the league’s top 4 teams earned bye weeks and get to rest their weary legs, these underdog football teams will be put to the test right away, with their entire seasons hanging in the balance.  While these supposed “lesser” NFL squads have a long and hard road to the Super Bowl, such teams often do win the big dance, so none of them should be counted out.  But who will get past that initial first hump and into the divisional round?  Here is a preview for the NFL wildcard games this weekend:

Kansas City Chiefs at Indianapolis Colts – The Chiefs will probably lose this game.  Not only did they lose to the Colts 23-7 just two weeks ago, but they have now lost 5 of their last 7 games, a rather grounding experience following their 9-0 start to the season.  The only playoff team that the Chiefs have beaten is the Philadelphia Eagles.  Meanwhile, the Colts have topped the 49ers, Seahawks, and Broncos, making them one of the most dangerous teams around.  Is Andrew Luck ready to lead a playoff run?  I think so:  Colts win 23-7.

New Orleans Saints at Philadelphia Eagles – The Eagles rebounded from a bad start and now feature one of the NFL’s most dynamic offenses.  With the emergence of quarterback Nick Foles, the team thrives around the explosiveness of DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy.  However, the Saints also feature a high-scoring offense led by Drew Brees.  They have quite a strong defense and could have potentially earned a bye if not for the surprising year by the Carolina Panthers.  Although the weather will be cold, I foresee a shootout with the Saints winning through a defensive stand late in the game:  Saints win 41-35.

San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals – This is a total offense vs. defense matchup.  Philip Rivers leads a delightful passing attack by the Chargers, while the Bengals defense is amongst the best in the league.  These are two solid teams that could both do well in the playoffs, but I think the miraculous Chargers dream ends this week, as Andy Dalton and AJ Green should be able to muster enough points while the Chargers get slowed down by that defense.  Nevertheless, the game should be close, possibly featuring a poetically just missed field goal by the Chargers at the end of regulation:  Bengals win 20-17.

San Francisco 49ers at Green Bay Packers – The 49ers have the key ingredients for success in the playoffs: a strong defense and a powerful rushing attack spearheaded by Frank Gore.  They amassed a 12-4 record but are forced to go on the road as a wildcard team due to the great year by the Seattle Seahawks.  The Packers suffered to an 8-7-1 record with quarterback Aaron Rodgers missing nearly half the year.  However, he returned last week and won in miraculous fashion over the Chicago Bears, converting a dramatic last-minute 4^th and 8 for a touchdown.  They also have a strong running game led by rookie Eddie Lacy.  However, their defense is very questionable.  But with temperatures set to be in the single digits at Lambeau Field, this game will be a major test for both sets of players.  While Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers have dominated the Packers in recent games, Green Bay looks invigorated with Rodgers back at the helm, and I see them as a team of destiny: Packers win 28-24.

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Five Crucial Games in Week 2 of the NFL

Manning vs Manning

The NFL season is hitting full swing once again, and with it comes another exciting batch of football games in the week ahead.  Of course this early in the season, every team still has hope and optimism for what lies ahead, meaning that fans of all the teams can enjoy the sport once again before the crushing realities of the season sink in.  However, most of the contending teams are already known and their games will be a bit more exciting than the games between those desperately hopeful and woeful teams.  Here are 5 must-see matchups in the week ahead:

 

1.  Washington Redskins vs. Green Bay Packers – Both teams were in the playoffs last year, but both teams also lost in their first game of the season.  The 49ers beat the Packers again, while the intense new offence of the Eagles proved too quick for the Redskins defense.  Will Robert Griffin III be ready this week?  He sure looked rusty against the Eagles.  Whichever team loses this game is going to be in full panic mode after an 0-2 start to the new year.  I feel that Packers, led by the maturity and skill of Aaron Rodgers, will win this one.

 

2.  New York Jets vs. New England Patriots – Although the Patriots won against the Buffalo Bills led by rookie E.J. Manuel, it was a much tighter game than any Patriots fan would have liked.  Meanwhile, Geno Smith was a hero for the Jets and led a late game-winning drive.  With the Patriots defense not looking that good, could the Jets spring a surprise?  I highly doubt it, and I’m sure Tom Brady and his team will look better at home, but with new receiver Danny Amendola expected to miss this game, Brady is simply running out of offensive weapons.  This game could be quite close, but in the end you would have to be a bit crazy to pick against the Patriots against another rookie in their home opener.

 

3.  San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks – This is said to be the monumental struggle in the NFC West, with both teams winning in week 1 after having productive 2012 seasons.  With mighty defenses and exciting quarterbacks, this matchup should be a feast for the eyes and is surely the game of the week.  I still think the 49ers have the edge and that Colin Kaepernick is a better quarterback than Russell Wilson, but the Seahawks at home are a monstrous force, having won all their home games last season.  Hopefully a close game that comes down to the wire, I’m picking the 49ers here.

 

4.  Denver Broncos vs. New York Giants – Peyton Manning against Eli Manning is always going to be a treat, but while big brother Manning and the Broncos looks to have the best team in the league, the Giants had a pathetic showing in Dallas, stumbling out of the blocks.  Now they’re looking for help from 31-year-old Brandon Jacobs, who hasn’t rushed for 1,000 yards in a season since 2008.  Although the Broncos are the clear favorites and I’m picking them to win, don’t count out the Giants.  They are routinely the team that overcomes the odds and beats the best teams.  However, that usually happens late-season in the playoffs.  The Broncos will win this game.

 

5.  Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cincinnati Bengals – While Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers look like a team in decline, the Bengals are on the ups with A.J. Green and Andy Dalton.  However, let’s not get carried away.  The AFC North is as competitive as any division, and both teams came out losers last week.  The Bengals are expecting a big year this season and the pressure is on, while the Steelers are flying real low under the radar.  While neither team looks like real contenders, this game should still be a major battle between heated rivals, and should be quite entertaining.  I’m picking the Bengals because I like cats…

 

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Where is Chad Johnson?

Cincinnati Bengals Chad Johnson is no longer Chad Johnson.  What?

That's right!  Chad Johnson has officially changed his name of Chad Ocho Cinco.  As we all know, Chad has wanted to change his name to Ocho Cinco and has gone by this name in the past.  He has officially changed his name which means 85.

Chad Johnson tried to wear his uniform for the first game of the season but was forced to return to his Johnson uniform.

What harm would it be for Johnson to wear this uniform anyway.  It's just a name - let the poor guy wear it  - it is his official name now.

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Pacman Jones Gets the Hammer!

The hammer is thrown down on the Pacman by the new Sheriff in town.

Because of all the trouble Pacman Jones has been in, the NFL Commissioner has suspended Jones for the entire 2007 season without pay.

The Tennessee Titans cornerback is still facing criminal charges.

It is nice to see someone finally taking a stand at the NFL and punishing their players accordingly. These players are in the spotlight and a lot of kids look up to them. There is no room for players like Pacman who think they can do whatever they want in society and still get to make millions and be kid's heroes. We don't want our kids to grow up thinking there are no repurcions for actions.

The Cincinnati Bengals Chris Henry was also suspended for the first eight games of the 2007 season.

The new Sheriff in town rocks!

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Linebacker VS Offensive Lineman

It looks like some of the bad boys of the NFL are at it again. It's not a surprise to me and at times it does get to be funny that these young men can't behave like adults.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler, now Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter could not keep the trash talking on the football field where he works. He extended his extra curricular activities to a Las Vegas casino blackjack table where he trashed talked another NFL player, Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones. Wait a minute, did we just mention it was with a Bengal? Wow, what a shock that is. It seems like the whole team in Cincinnati has been getting into trouble this last year.

Base on the stories that I have seen, Porter had the upper hand, even though he is only 6'3" and 250 pounds. I say only, because Jones is 6'5" and 307 pounds. Porter had punched Jones and was later given a summons for misdemeanor battery charge.

 

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