Predictions
NFL International Series 2011: 2 Games To Go!
Oct 5th
With just two games to go before this year’s NFL International Series, let’s take a purely statistical look at the two teams who’ll be playing at Wembley Stadium later this month.
Chicago Bears
Record: 2-2, 3rd NFC North
Scored: 94
Allowed: 98
Previous Games
Won v Atlanta Falcons 30-12
Lost @ New Orleans Saints 13-30
Lost v Green Bay Packers 17-27
Won v Carolina Panthers 34-29
Upcoming Games
@ Detroit Lions
v Minnesota Vikings
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Record: 3-1, 1st NFC South
Scored: 84
Allowed: 77
Previous Games
Lost v Detroit Lions 20-27
Won @ Minnesota Vikings 24-20
Won v Atlanta Falcons 16-13
Won v Indianapolis Colts 24-17
Upcoming Games
@ San Francisco 49ers
v New Orleans Saints
The Bears have both scored and allowed more, but have had a tougher schedule so far. The Bucs have been in closer, lower-scoring games: All 4 games being decided by 7 points or less.
Record v common opponents
At the moment, there is just 1 common opponent (the Atlanta Falcons) who both teams beat.
(Team, Record, PF, PA)
Bears 1-0-0, 30, 12
Bucs 1-0-0, 16, 13
After week 5 there will be 2 games as the Bears take on the Lions in what should be a tough divisional matchup. After week 6, as the teams are preparing to travel to the UK, there will be 4 games (Vikings and Saints) giving us by far the clearest indicator of all the NFL IS games so far or what to expect.
But with a quarter of the season gone, one thing that we can say for sure is that neither team has recorded a win against a team with a winning record. In fact, all three losses are against winning teams which isn’t a great sign for the quality of these teams but the season is still young.
Prediction
As I mentioned above, the picture will get clearer as we get closer to the big kick off in West London. So far this season I’ve given the edge to the Bears but we cannot ignore the Buccaneers who have been competetive against all their opposition so far.
But right now, I’m still favouring the Bears by a narrow (3-7 point) margin.
NFL 2011 Week 4 Predictions
Sep 29th
Week 3 was tough, since we haven’t sold our souls (like Yahoo!’s Mike Silver seems to have: 41-7!). This week sees very little disagreement between us, though Andrew fancies Oakland to bully another AFC East opponent and Graham likes Houston to be too strong for the Steelers.
All matches Sunday 2nd October unless specified.
| Andrew | Graham | Craig | Offical MAC Prediction |
||
| Week 3 | 9-7 | 10-6 | 9-7 | 10-6 | |
| Season To Date | 32-16 | 36-12 | 33-15 | 35-13 | |
| Washington Redskins @ St. Louis Rams | WAS | WAS | WAS | WAS | |
| Detroit Lions @ Dallas Cowboys | DET | DET | DET | DET | |
| Pittsburgh Steelers @ Houston Texans | PIT | HOU | PIT | PIT | |
| Carolina Panthers @ Chicago Bears | CHI | CHI | CHI | CHI | |
| Minnesota Vikings @ Kansas City Chiefs | MIN | MIN | MIN | MIN | |
| Buffalo Bills @ Cincinnati Bengals | BUF | BUF | BUF | BUF | |
| Tennessee Titans @ Cleveland Browns | TEN | TEN | TEN | TEN | |
| San Francisco 49ers @ Philadelphia Eagles | PHI | PHI | PHI | PHI | |
| New Orleans Saints @ Jacksonville Jaguars | NO | NO | NO | NO | |
| Atlanta Falcons @ Seattle Seahawks | ATL | ATL | ATL | ATL | |
| New York Giants @ Arizona Cardinals | NYG | NYG | NYG | NYG | |
| New England Patriots @ Oakland Raiders | OAK | NE | NE | NE | |
| Denver Broncos @ Green Bay Packers | GB | GB | GB | GB | |
| Miami Dolphins @ San Diego Chargers | SD | SD | SD | SD | |
| New York Jets @ Baltimore Ravens | BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL | |
| Indianapolis Colts @ Tampa Bay Bucanneers
Monday 3rd October |
TB | TB | TB | TB |
NFL 2011 Week 3 Predictions
Sep 22nd
All matches Sunday 25th September unless specified.
| Andrew | Graham | Craig | Offical MAC Prediction |
||
| Last Week | 12-4 | 14-2 | 12-4 | 12-4 | |
| Season To Date | 23-9 | 26-6 | 24-8 | 25-7 | |
| Pittsburgh Steelers @ Indianapolis Colts |
PIT | PIT | PIT | PIT | |
| Baltimore Ravens @ St. Louis Rams |
BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL | |
| Arizona Cardinals @ Seattle Seahawks |
ARI | SEA | ARI | ARI | |
| Kansas City Chiefs @ San Diego Chargers |
SD | SD | SD | SD | |
| New York Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles |
NYG | PHI | NYG | NYG | |
| New York Jets @ Oakland Raiders |
NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | |
| Houston Texans @ New Orleans Saints |
HOU | NO | NO | NO | |
| Detroit Lions @ Minnesota Vikings |
DET | DET | DET | DET | |
| Miami Dolphins @ Cleveland Browns |
CLE | MIA | MIA | MIA | |
| San Francisco 49ers @ Cincinnati Bengals |
SF | SF | CIN | SF | |
| Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears |
CHI | GB | GB | GB | |
| Jacksonville Jaguars @ Carolina Panthers |
CAR | JAX | CAR | CAR | |
| New England Patriots @ Buffalo Bills |
NE | NE | NE | NE | |
| Atlanta Falcons @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
ATL | TB | ATL | ATL | |
| Denver Broncos @ Tennessee Titans |
TEN | TEN | TEN | TEN | |
| Washington Redskins @ Dallas CowboysMonday 26th September |
WAS | WAS | WAS | WAS |
NFL 2011 Week 2 Predictions
Sep 15th
All matches Sunday 18th September unless specified.
| Andrew | Graham | Craig | Offical MAC Prediction |
||
| Last Week | 11-5 | 12-4 | 12-4 | 13-3 | |
| Season To Date | 11-5 | 12-4 | 12-4 | 13-3 | |
| Seattle Seahawks @ Pittsburgh Steelers | PIT | PIT | PIT | PIT | |
| Jacksonville @ New York Jets | NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | |
| Baltimore Ravens @ Tennessee Titans | BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL | |
| Kansas City @ Detroit Lions | DET | DET | DET | DET | |
| Arizona Cardinals @ Washington Redskins | WAS | WAS | WAS | WAS | |
| Chicago Bears @ New Orleans Saints | NO | NO | NO | NO | |
| Oakland Raiders @ Buffalo Bills | OAK | BUF | BUF | BUF | |
| Cleveland Browns @ Indianapolis Colts | IND | CLE | IND | IND | |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Minnesota Vikings | TB | TB | TB | TB | |
| Green Bay Packers @ Carolina Panthers | GB | GB | GB | GB | |
| Dallas Cowboys @ San Francisco 49ers | DAL | DAL | DAL | DAL | |
| Cincinnati Bengals @ Denver Broncos | DEN | DEN | DEN | DEN | |
| San Diego Chargers @ New England Patriots | NE | NE | NE | NE | |
| Houston Texans @ Miami Dolphins | HOU | HOU | HOU | HOU | |
| Philadelphia Eagles @ Atlanta Falcons | ATL | PHI | PHI | PHI | |
| St. Louis Rams @ New York Giants Monday 19th September |
STL | NYG | STL | STL |
NFL 2011 Week 1 Predictions
Sep 8th
And we’re off! On the day that the NFL UK International Series tickets went on pre-sale, the NFL kicks of its 2011 season and we’re ready for it, and very excited. All of us are looking to improve our numbers from last year in the always tricky week 1.
All matches Sunday 11th September unless specified.
| Andrew | Graham | Craig | Offical MAC Prediction |
||
| New Orleans @ Green Bay Thursday 8th September |
GB | GB | GB | GB | |
| Cincinnati @ Cleveland | CLE | CLE | CLE | CLE | |
| Tennessee @ Jacksonville | TEN | TEN | TEN | TEN | |
| Indianapolis @ Houston | HOU | HOU | HOU | HOU | |
| Pittsburgh @ Baltimore | PIT | BAL | BAL | BAL | |
| Philadelphia @ St. Louis | STL | PHI | PHI | PHI | |
| Buffalo @ Kansas City | BUF | BUF | KC | BUF | |
| Detroit @ Tampa Bay | DET | TB | DET | DET | |
| Atlanta @ Chicago | ATL | CHI | CHI | CHI | |
| Minnesota @ San Diego | SD | SD | SD | SD | |
| NY Giants @ Washington | WAS | WAS | WAS | WAS | |
| Seattle @ San Francisco | SF | SF | SF | SF | |
| Carolina @ Arizona | ARI | ARI | ARI | ARI | |
| Dallas @ NY Jets | NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | NYJ | |
| New England @ Miami Monday 12th September |
NE | NE | NE | NE | |
| Oakland @ Denver Monday 12th September |
OAK | OAK | DEN | OAK |
NFL 2011 Predictions: The NFC
Sep 6th
NFC East
(1) Philadelphia Eagles - The Eagles are the supposed “dream team”, and have weapons on offense such as Vick, McCoy and Jackson. However Vick has already shown his inconsistency during preseason, and is vulnerable to injury. The defense is looking strong due to the upgrades, but i think they are weak at linebacker. Paper champions, but i suspect they get usurped when the real games start.
(2) Washington Redskins - I have the Redskins second based on the run game and the defense, although a good team will take the run game away and force Grossman to beat them, which won’t happen.
(3) Dallas Cowboys - The Cowboys will be better than last year with Romo back, but the run game looks iffy to me. The defense looks to have a few weak areas too, especially in the secondary.
(4) New York Giants – A tough year for the Giants.
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 >