Craig
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Posts by Craig
NFL 2011 Predictions: The AFC
Sep 2nd
Before the start of the season I thought I’d do a quick overview of how the teams are looking and put a few of my thoughts and predictions into words. I’ll start with the AFC.
AFC East:
(1) New England Patriots – The Patriots, once again, drafted solidly. They’ve picked up some great talent (as you would expect with the amount of picks they had in the first 3 rounds!) and have also made some noise in free agency picking up the ever controversial number 85. With Brady coming off a great year and with more weapons at his disposal you can’t look past them for the AFC East crown. Stevan Ridley (3rd round pick) has looked sharp and quite a good talent so keep an eye out for him, although with Danny Woodhead and BenJarvus Green-Ellis in front of him he’ll have quite a bit of work to do.
(2) New York Jets – The Jets have also been making some noise in free agency / trades. Letting Jericho Cotchery go, signing Derrick Mason, letting Braylon Edwards go, signing Plaxico Burress to name the more high profile cases, but they’ve also tied up some current talent with Eric Smith and Antonio Cromatie signing new deals. They haven’t weakened as such, but they don’t seem to have improved much either. I’d expect more of the same from the Jets, hard hitting football and a few bumps on the way. More >
Let the season commence!
Aug 19th
That’s right NFL lovers, Mac is back! We’ve all had a busy off-season and whilst the lockout was on we figured we’d take advantage of the quiet time and take some time off ourselves. That time is now at an end, and with the season only a few weeks away we’ll be back to our usually blogging selves bringing you predictions, fantasy tips, general articles on anything NFL related and of course, the Madden 12 review.
I know you’re as excited as we are 
MacTalksNFL 2011 Mock Draft – 1st Round, picks 21-32
Apr 21st
The home stretch. In this article we finish our first round draft. It was certainly fun, now we play the waiting game to see if we got anywhere near who we think the teams should go for!
21 – Kansas City Chiefs: Gabe Carimi, OT, Wisconsin
Easiest pick so far – the Chiefs need to address right tackle. They should really have addressed this last year, but with a selection of good tackles available they’ll take Carimi as the best of the lot and probably with the biggest upside too.
22 – Indianapolis Colts: Nate Solder, OT, Colorado
Solder is a former tight end, so has good atheleticism for the tackle position. A bit raw, however he has the natural skills to succeed as a left tackle in the NFL. The Colts’ current LT, Charlie Johnson, is set to be a free agent, so they need to upgrade the OT position. DT was a possibility here, but the Colts franchise revolves around Peyton Manning, so protecting him is a must. More >
MacTalksNFL 2011 Mock Draft – 1st Round, picks 11-20
Apr 20th
Carrying on from the first article, we’ll now take a look at the 1st round draft with picks 11 through 20.
11 – Houston Texans: Prince Amukamara, CB, Nebraska
The Texans need secondary help, and if Prince is available come their pick I don’t doubt that they would take him. He seems to be the complete package. His size of strength, speed and size make him the perfect press-cover corner, he has a great read of the game and excellent closing speed. He would definitely help the Texans, who last year finished last in the pass defence rankings. More >
MacTalksNFL 2011 Mock Draft – 1st Round, picks 1-10
Apr 19th
With the NFL draft just around the corner, here at Mac we decided we would take it into our own hands and take a look at how WE think things will pan out over the first round. Andrew, Tom and myself arranged an order and took it in turns drafting and made a brief comment about why we thought our team would go in that direction. Tom got the first pick, I got the second and Andrew got the third. It then went in the same sequence until all our picks had been made. Without further ado, this is how things panned out…
1 – Carolina Panthers: Marcel Dareus, DT, Alabama
While the Panthers don’t have a great QB, I just have too many questions about the top QBs in the draft for them to warrant the No.1 overall pick. Newton is the consensus choice here, but Newton isn’t like Sam Bradford or Matt Ryan, he was never as good as a passer as them in college. Dareus will be a force inside from the get go, and while he won’t be as dominant as Suh, he is a quality player.
The Panthers used to have a dominant D Line, with Kris Jenkins, Mike Rucker and of course Julius Peppers, but these have now all left or retired. The current DT depth chart is headed by Nick Hayden and Derek Landri, and I believe Landri is a free agent. DT is position of big need for the Panthers, and Dareus can be a player to build around for the future.
NFL 2010 Divisional Weekend: Baltimore Ravens @ Pittsburgh Steelers
Jan 14th
So the wildcard weekend has been and gone and we’re now left with 8 teams who are looking to make it all the way to the Superbowl. We’ve got some tasty matches to look forward to this weekend, and today I’ll be looking at one of them. It’s one of the most physical rivalries in the NFL and a contest which more often than not is pretty close in all aspects. On Saturday 15th January the Baltimore Ravens travel to Heinz Field to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Looking into this game there are literally hundreds of stats I could reel off. These 2 teams are well accustomed with each other and, playing in the same division, face off at least twice a season and have done since 1996 when the Ravens were established as a franchise. So there is a long history there, many games and many scores, many records and many talking points. So instead of waffling on I’ll just note some of the stats that I’ve seen about this lately. More >
NFL 2010 Wildcard Weekend: Baltimore Ravens @ Kansas City Chiefs
Jan 9th
Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens
All 5 Meetings:
2009 – Chiefs 24-38 Ravens
2006 – Ravens 20-10 Chiefs
2004 – Chiefs 27-24 Ravens
2003 – Chiefs 17-10 Ravens
1999 – Chiefs 35-8 Ravens
The Ravens and Chiefs have only met 5 times, Kansas leads the series 3-2. They have never met in the post-season.
With the regular season finished and the play-offs on the horizon we now know the teams who will be battling it out to reach the Holy Grail of American Football, the Super Bowl. There are two matches from the AFC this Sunday, and I’ll be taking a look at the Baltimore Ravens who travel to the Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
Week 12, 2010: Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Baltimore Ravens
Nov 26th
Week 12 has rolled around and a new set of fixtures are there to be predicted! So let’s do what we do best, well… what we do kind of well, and that’s take a look at a game a piece in slightly more detail that just saying ‘Detroit win’. This week I’ve landed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who are playing at the M & T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens.
M & T Bank Stadium, Baltimore
Week 10, 2010: Detroit Lions @ Buffalo Bills
Nov 13th
This week I’ll be taking a look at two teams who have impressed me so far this season, but might not have the records to show it. Yes, I’m talking about the 2-6 Detroit Lions who are taking on the 0-8 Buffalo Bills.
Ralph Wilson Stadium
The Detroit Lions were abysmal 2 years ago. Let’s not sugar coat it, they played some bad football. They went 0-16 because of it. It was at this point that the powers that be hired Jim Schwartz to take the reigns and lead the club out of this embarrassing slump. 2 years on and the record doesn’t look much better, but they are playing some excellent football. You can see the turn around in the team since Schwartz came in and he’s making all the right moves. His first pick as the Lions Head Coach in the 2009 draft was Matthew Stafford, and he is looking every bit as good as he was touted to be. Injuries have hampered him this season (and the end of last season), but when he is healthy he is a game changer. Unfortunately we won’t see him again this season so the QB job goes to Shaun Hill once more – and he’s non too shabby himself. When he has played he has played well. The Lions are very unlucky to not have a winning record this year. At the very least they should be on 3-5 if not for a dubious decision that disallowed a touchdown late in the game against the Chicago Bears. That would have improved their record, and also added another touchdown to Calvin Johnson’s tally (currently 8 for the season). He really is the shining light in this offence at the moment. More >
Week 8, 2010: Green Bay Packers @ New York Jets
Oct 29th
This week sees me heading to Wembley along with Andrew and Graham for what should be a great game of football between the Denver Broncos and the San Francisco 49ers. That won’t stop me from taking a look at other games however, and this week I’ll be focusing on the Green Bay Packers at the New York Jets.
Mark Sanchez
Brandon Jackson has now had time to settle into the Packers offence and show us what he is made of. I do commend him and he has done a decent enough job. Sure he’s not the feature back that Ryan Grant is, but considering his lack of playing time previously he can be proud. I do think that the Packers are desperately missing the presence of Jermichael Finley, Aaron Rodgers more than anyone else. He was a focal point in their passing game and to be honest that has looked a little stale since he has been out. They really need to try and utilise Greg Jennings more than they have done, because when he has had the ball thrown at him he has made some good plays and showed everyone why he can be the number 1 receiver at Green Bay. He has already beaten his touchdown total from last year in half the time, but his yardage is suffering and at the moment he isn’t even close to breaking 100 yards. More >