nfl-general
Now that we got the regular season out of the way, let’s go on to our Round 1 playoff picks. During the regular season, we got about 63% of the picks correct. If you read Tokar’s column on “expert” picks, you’ll know that’s pretty decent. But, like most teams, we expect to pick it up during the Super Bowl run. Problem is that we can’t agree on anything.
Old dogs might not be able to learn new tricks, but there’s nothing old about the four rookie sensations who have earned the right to a large ego, and the right to boast their ridiculously large contracts. These young rookies know all the tricks in the book, and they’re not afraid to use them.
This is the tale of two rookie quarterbacks in the National Football League, a tale of triumph and defeat and a tale of greed and irony. It is the tale of Pittsburgh Steelers rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and New York Giants rookie quarterback Eli Manning.
For the past seventeen weeks of this NFL season I have been following the picks of 54 different people and two computer games (see my zipped excel file), though I’d like to note that the two computer games apparently didn’t pick for three of the seventeen weeks unfortunately. Picks were made by celebrities, ranging from celebrities from the stage to the mother of a sports celebrity. I think that only the people living in Philadelphia consider Wilma McNabb a celebrity. After seventeen weeks I have learned the following things:
Call me Ernie Banks. Call me the 1918-2003 Red Sox. Call me the pre-2004 Phil Mickelson, for I am cursed.
Well folks, after a long season, it all comes down to week 17. Milehigh and I are battling it out for the top picks champion. A late season surge by Milehigh (and collapse by yours truly) has Milehigh in the lead by 4 games. But there are plenty of games in contention this week. On the flip side, Guru Ganu and Mr. X (retiring after this season) are battling to get out of the cellar. We’ll be picking the playoffs as well but for now, let’s get the regular season sorted out.
Here we go with the Week 17 Picks. If you want to see how well the experts here at SC stack up against the competition, check out this excel file.
The theme this week (and I suspect next) are losses by teams that don’t mean anything. Eagles lose to the Rams and Falcons lose to the Saints but maintain their positions because they had nothing to play for. Meanwhile, teams that had golden opportunities to help themselves reach the playoffs laid eggs. Not much change at the top and bottom of the rankings but just like the playoff race, the middle is packed with teams jockeying for position.
I go on vacation and my picks go to hell. How am I supposed to know that the Cards would beat the Rams and that the Dolphins could beat the Patriots? This week is even tougher to pick as there are some races already sewn up and the head coaches might or might not rest their starters. There’s a reason why some of these games aren’t even on the board in Vegas.
Here we go with the Week 16 Picks. If you want to see how well the experts here at SC stack up against the competition, check out this excel file.
What the hell is going on in the NFC West? I was tempted to put that entire division in the cellar. It’s not who plays the best down the stretch, it’s who doesn’t completely stink up the joint that will win that division. At least the NFC Central and the Wild Card races are intriguing. I tried to put everyone based on where they’d end up in their respective conferences. The only exception is Buffalo who I think is a better team than Jax and Baltimore but trail (and will trail) them in the conference.
Well, here we go with the Week 15 Rankings.
By Alex Fitzsimmons
A quarterback left for dead, a coach ridiculed and scrutinized, and a team with no sense of certainty. That was the state of the San Diego Chargers in the 2003 season. But now, under the commanding helm of breakthrough quarterback Drew Brees, breakout tight end Antonio Gates, and the ever explosive LaDainian Tomlinson, the 2004 Chargers are looking more daunting than ever, and have left young rookie Philip Rivers to swim upstream.