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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 >
Super Bowl XLV – It’s Prediction Time!
Feb 3rd
It’s a long time since training camps last year, when many (but by no means all!) of the teams though they could go all the way.
Back in August, we took a look at how we thought the divisions might play out. And… well, we were pretty much wrong across the board. In fact in some divisions we got the predictions exactly the opposite way to how it turned out. What can we say? It’s been that sort of season.
Super Bowl Rings
We’ve had some good turnaround stories this season, like the Rams and the Bucs who were both pushing for post-season places going into the final weeks. We’ve had the pre-season optimism of teams like the Redskins and Cowboys be beaten away by the realities of the season. We’ve had coaches fired, replaced, out of contract and just not as good as they should have been. We’ve had players go through bitterly disappointing seasons or moments and we’ve had the same number of triumphs. We had a good game between two not-so-good teams at Wembley.
All teams have overcome adversity and injuries during the long and gruelling season but two teams are left. The Green Bay Packers from the NFC and the Pittsburgh Steelers from the AFC.
The Packers are one of those teams who looked like they were struggling, but have hung in there throughout the season and with a great win in week 16 (against the rival Bears!) booked themselves into the play-offs at the last possible moment.
Rodgers Scrambles
They had big injuries, like losing Ryan Grant for the season in week 1, successive losses in overtime to the lightweight Redskins and Dolphins. Rodgers was concussed and at times they didn’t like championship worthy. But they’ve be playing great football for a while now and their last few games have certainly been championship ball.
The Steelers, as we all know, started the season without their starting quarterback. They traded away a Super Bowl MVP and it looked like the defence was losing a step. For most of the season they were neck and neck with the Ravens but were able to book a first-round bye with their strong showing as the season drew to an end.
Both coaches, Mike McCarthy and Mike Tomlin have both done incredibly jobs this year.
In the past few weeks we’ve looked at both teams in some depth, so we’re not going to do that again. Instead, let’s take a look at each element of the game and see how has the edge. No, it’s not a novel approach. But it works. More >
Super Bowl XLV: Madden 2011 Recreation
Jan 27th
Super Bowl XLV: The Last Time These Teams Met…
Jan 26th
These are two teams that have not played each other much over the years. Even if we go back two games, we’re looking at Brett Favre and Charlie Batch as the starting QBs and to get 5 previous games we have to go back nearly 20 years. That includes a 7 year gap between 1998 and 2005 where these teams did not play each other. With the current scheduling all teams play at least once every four years and apart from this Super Bowl, the next scheduled match between them won’t be until the 2013 season.
Dallas Stadium, site of Super Bowl 45
So there is probably not much we can read into previous matchups, as 4 years is an eternity for an NFL team. But let’s take a look at the last time these two teams met, just over a year ago as the 2009 season was drawing to a close.
Week 15, 2009: Green Bay 36 – 37 Pittsburgh
This was a fantastic game and there will be no complaints from any quarter if Super Bowl 45 plays out as this game did. More >
NFL 2010 AFC Championship
Jan 19th
New York Jets @ Pittsburgh Steelers
Sunday 23rd January, 11:30pm UK Time
It seems like a long time ago that Rex Ryan announced shortly into the first episode of Hard Knocks that the Jets were going to win the Super Bowl; that they were the best and this was the year. Now, going into the conference championship for the second consecutive season they’ll be hoping to get past the hurdle they fell at last year.
The Steelers started this season under a cloud of controversy and talk of their starting QB being traded. Coach Mike Tomlin kept the ship steady and really it’s no surprise to see the Steelers competing – again – in the Championship game.
Heinz Field
Apart from the game this season, these teams hadn’t met since 2007. A lot has happened since then, like the Steelers winning the Super Bowl in 2008 and the resurgence of the Jets under Rex Ryan. Let’s take a look at the last few meetings
NFL 2010 NFC Championship
Jan 18th
Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears
Sunday 23rd, 8:00pm UK Time
When these teams both from the same division there is a lot of history and many stories to draw on. It also means that they know each other very well and this one will mean even more than you’d imagine a Conference Championship will.
These two teams have only met once before in the post-season and that was back in December 1941 (7 days after the attack on Pearl Harbour). But with 182 previous meetings between these teams, this is the NFL’s longest rivalry. Chicago currently leads the series 92–83–6, but Green Bay have had the edge in recent meetings.
Soldier Field
Let’s take a quick look at the last two years: More >
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 Divisional Round Predictions
Jan 12th
The Jets @ Colts was always going to be close but who thought that the Seahawks would get the win over the Saints? The run by Marshawn Lynch for the go-ahead score was amazing to watch both for the commitment from the ‘Hawks and the shambles that was the Saint’s defense.
This week sees the number 1 and 2 seeds get involved and in every case we have rematches of games that happened earlier in the season. In three cases, the games were decided by 3 points: In Week 6 the Seahawks got a win at Soldier field; week 12 saw the Packers lose in the Georgia Dome; In week 13 the Ravens lost to the Steelers (but beat them in Pittsburgh in week 4 – again by 3 points). The Jets got creamed by the Pats when they were last at Foxboro (week 13, 45-3) but beat them 28-14 back in week 2 at the New Meadowlands.
These are intriguing matchups.
For a list of the games, visit http://www.nfl.com/schedules.
NFL 2010 Divisional Weekend: Green Bay Packers @ Atlanta Falcons
Jan 11th
When Tramon Williams jogged casually out of the end zone, looking for someone to celebrate his game winning interception last week against the Eagles, he didn’t know the play was still going. When he finally went to the ground (and was covered immediately by team-mates) to end the play he’d put Michael Vick and the Eagles out of the play-offs. The Pack’s reward is another rematch, in the shape of a trip to take on the Atlanta Falcons for a place in the Conference Championship.
Matt Ryan Drops Back
Ranked #1 and having looked good right across the season, the Falcons were the class of the NFC. Going 7-1 at home and 6-2 on the road, they set the bar high for everyone else to follow. And yet when you look purely at the stat tables, you wonder how they did it. They rank 16th in both offence and defence. When you look at the wins, you see that at home they were in close games but away they frequently blew out their opponents. They did have a favourable schedule, but they made the most of these games.
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.