It’s 2006 again. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning appear to be on a crash course. Both quarterbacked arguably the best teams in the league (the Broncos and Patriots ranked 2nd and 3rd in the NFL in DVOA, but I don’t trust #1 Seattle on the road). Both are MVP candidates. Peyton Manning is currently viewed [...]
It’s 2006 again. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning appear to be on a crash course. Both quarterbacked arguably the best teams in the league (the Broncos and Patriots ranked 2nd and 3rd in the NFL in DVOA, but I don’t trust #1 Seattle on the road). Both are MVP candidates. Peyton Manning is currently viewed [...]
It’s tough to know what to make of the Packers. On one hand, they were the preseason favorites and they went 11-5 in spite of a bogus loss in Seattle. They haven’t really been significantly worse than their expectations and I feel like no one is talking about them enough and this might give them [...]
It’s a shame Justin Smith had to get hurt. I was really interested to see just how much of a quarterback league this really is. We know it’s a quarterback league. Of the last 21 Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, 20 made a Pro-Bowl first. As meaningless as the Pro-Bowl is and as bad a job [...]
I’d like to start this off by saying the argument that Matt Ryan can’t go deep into the playoffs because he’s never won a playoff game is ridiculous. Peyton Manning was once 0-3 in the playoffs and he went on to win a Super Bowl. Plus, two of Ryan’s playoff losses came against eventual Super [...]
If the Seahawks had home field advantage throughout the playoffs, they’d be the Super Bowl favorites by far. They went 8-0 at home this season, beating three highly seeded playoff teams, the 49ers, Packers, and the Patriots. Those 8 wins came by an average of 18.5 points per game. And unlike past seasons, they aren’t [...]
The Texans’ recent 1-3 stretch has a lot of people questioning them, but their struggles aren’t limited to that 4 games stretch. There were signs before, including near overtime losses to Detroit and Jacksonville. Since losing Brian Cushing against the Jets way back in week 5, they have been less than spectacular. They barely beat [...]
I have the Redskins ranked higher than the Ravens because they beat them head-to-head and because the NFC is by far the better conference this year overall (AFC divisional winners are 0-6 against NFC playoff teams). However, I like the Ravens to advance further than the Redskins because of their competition. The Redskins have a [...]
The Ravens defense was destroyed by injuries this year and as a result more has fallen on the offense than ever before. They’ve responded well. Joe Flacco statistically doesn’t seem to be having a year any different than any of his other seasons, but he’s led the Ravens to a career high 24.8 points per [...]
The Bengals have made the playoffs for the 2nd straight year, but like last year, they did it by winning the games they were supposed to and nothing else (well not technically nothing else this year, but close to it). The Bengals went 9-0 against non-playoff teams last season, but 0-7 against playoff teams, a [...]
I’m going to do an awards article in a few days, but I’ll give a sneak pick. I think that Adrian Peterson should be MVP for taking the Vikings to the playoffs, despite their horrific pass offense. The Vikings averaged just 6.1 YPA this season, good for 31st in the NFL. In fact, it took [...]
The Colts shocked the world this year, going from 2 wins to 11 wins and the 5 seed in the AFC. However, they haven’t been as good as their record. They enter the postseason at -30 in points differential (the worst ever by an 11+ win team). This because they have just 2 wins by [...]