Filed under: American Football | Tags: NFL, NFL Playoffs, Playoff Predictions
Here are my NFL Play-off predictions. In light of how bad my predictions were for the season, maybe these will redeem myself.
Wild-Card Weekend:
NFC:
Dallas Cowboys over Philadelphia Eagles
Green Bay Packers over Arizona Cardinals
AFC:
NY Jets over Cincinnati Bengals
New England Patriots over Baltimore Ravens
Divisional Round
NFC:
Dallas Cowboys over Minnesota Vikings
New Orleans Saints over Green Bay Packers
AFC:
San Diego Chargers over New England Patriots
Indianapolis Colts over NY Jets
Conference Championship
NFC:
New Orleans Saints over Dallas Cowboys
AFC:
San Diego Chargers over Indianapolis Colts
Super Bowl
San Diego Chargers over New Orleans Saints
Filed under: Baseball | Tags: Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies, LA Angels, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, MLB, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals
ALDS
New York Yankees Over Minnesota Twins in 3
Boston Red Sox over LA Angels in 4
NLDS
St. Louis Cardinals over LA Dodgers in 4
Philadelphia Phillies over Colorado Rockies in 5
ALCS
NY Yankees over Boston Red Sox in 6
NLCS
St. Louis Cardinals over Philadelphia Phillies in 7
World Series
NY Yankees over St. Louis Cardinals in 5
Filed under: American Football | Tags: American Football, NFL, NFL Season Preview, Pittsburgh Steelers
To my avid readers, I apologize for not posting at all lately. My three week hiatus is now over and at least a weekly article will be posted from here on out.
Here are my NFL predictions:
*Denotes Wild-Card team
NFC
NFC East
1. New York Giants
*2. Philadelphia Eagles
3. Dallas Cowboys
4. Washington Deadskins
NFC North
1. Chicago Bears
*2. Minnesota Vikings
3. Green Bay Packers
4. Detroit Lions
NFC South
1. Atlanta Falcons
2. Carolina Panthers
3. New Orleans Saints
4. Tampa Bay Bucs
Filed under: American Football | Tags: American Football, Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, NFL, Sage Rosenfels, Tarvaris Jackson
Brett Favre has had a hall of fame career. He has a Super Bowl Ring (1996-7), three MVP trophies (1995-7), the most career passing yards, touchdown passes, pass completions, consecutive starts among quarterbacks and career victories as a starting quarterback. What more could this man want? Many football players suffer from all types of different body pains and it only gets worse after the NFL training room’s never ending supply of morphine and other pain killers gets cut off with retirement. The longer he delays that retirement, the worse it will be. Favre has been sacked 469 times in 273 career regular season games, he turns forty in October, and after his breakdown at the end of last year, there is no way he is worth a contract between $10 and $12 million. What are the Minnesota Vikings thinking? It is one thing to have the skill and desire to keep on playing, but no one with a straight face can tell me that only winning once in the last five games of a season when facing only one opponent that finished with a winning record shows that Favre still has what it takes to bring the Vikings to the play-offs, let alone the Super Bowl.
I have nothing against Favre; he just needs to learn when to hang up his cleats. Continue reading
Filed under: Football(Soccer) | Tags: Arsenal, Chelsea, Football(Soccer), Liverpool, Manchester United, Premiership
Finally there is actually something more concrete to right about; the start of the season. After months of transfer speculation that never materialized and counting down the days until the season starts, alas it is here. This is an exciting year for the premiership at both the top and bottom of the league. With arguably nine candidates for relegation (though in my opinion more like six) and according to some a fifth challenger for the title in Manchester City (though if you’ve read my ten reasons why Arsenal will not be knocked out the top 4 you know I don’t see them as challenging the top 4) looking into the old crystal ball is quite hard. I released my predictions a few days ago and now have set about justifying them, while also breaking down offseason moves and season outlooks. I have broken the league into four categories; Relegation Battle Candidates, Mid-tablers, Europa League, and The Top 4.
The Top 4
(1) Manchester United
After three straight Premiership titles, this season Manchester United looks more vulnerable. With the departures of workhorse forward Carlos Tevez and arguably the best player in the world Cristiano Ronaldo, the biggest question is who will make up for their 23 league goals? The answer of course will not be shock signing Michael Owen or Antonio Valencia. Owen, a worthwhile risk as he is only 29 and clearly still has it (if he makes it from his bed to the pitch without getting injured), cannot and will not be relied upon as a starter. With the personnel currently at United, it will not be too long until they revert back to a 4-4-2 and Owen will be brought on as a 75th minute sparkplug substitute. Valencia on the other hand, is just not a scoring midfielder; he is, however, a great set up midfielder who’s likely to set up a fair amount of opportunities for forwards Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney. With more freedom, I expect Rooney to walk away with the Premiership’s golden boot. I am aware I have posted my predictions after Steve Fales from downswinging.com but I can assure you I told him the day before we watched Fulham pound FK Vetra at the Cottage’s first taste of European football eleven days ago that Rooney would be the golden boot winner. It will be interesting to see if Federico Macheda impresses enough to keep United formation the same as last year, though I see this as a year where he gets more opportunities and next year will be his breakout year. Gabriel Obertan is a buy for the future, whether he, like the Da Silva twins and other recent youngsters snapped up by United pan out remains to be seen. The team is deeper and younger than Chelsea’s and unless Berbatov fails to show up, Rooney or Vidic and Ferdinand gets injured, I can’t imagine Sir Alex’s men finishing lower than second at worst.
(2) Chelsea
For the third season in a row, it is the start and yet another manager will be walking the sidelines for Chelsea. Carlo Ancelotti is the fifth manager in two calendar years as Roman Abramovich continues to tinker with every manager he over pays. Continue reading
Filed under: Football(Soccer) | Tags: Aston Villa, Everton, Football(Soccer), Manchester City, Premiership, Spurs, Tottenham, Tottenham Hotspur
(5) Everton
The “other” team from Liverpool was the last to break into the top 4 in 2005; knocking Liverpool out and bringing much joy to Toffee fans. Unfortunately, the following season UEFA let the Champions League winning Liverpool side into the tournament even without having held onto their domestic place (but that is neither here nor there). After two years of finishing fifth, I see no reason for them not to keep finishing there. Though they are not flooded with transfer funds, David Moyes is a very solid manager whose savvy transfer market dealings have continued to strengthen the team. Up front they have secured Jo on another loan spell after he impressed the second half of last season. His partnership with either Yakubu (who is back after a year-long injury) or the injury prone spark plug Louis Saha is very solid. In the midfield, the return of Mikel Arteta along with the strong seasons of Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini and the always dangerous Steven Pienaar make them a quite formidable side. In defense they will need to keep Joleon Lescott both because of his importance to the team and should he be bought by Manchester City it would be that much easier for them to overtake Everton. Everton doesn’t have a strong Right Back and are a little light on depth at the back but the team chemistry is there and the re-addition of Yakubu and Arteta to a fifth place squad sees Moyes’ men stay in fifth.
(6) Manchester City
A couple weeks ago I broke down why Arsenal would not be knocked off the top 4. It was half aimed at why Manchester City will not knock them off and partially why Arsenal will hold off the challengers to their top 4 spot. I would suggest reading it for a more in depth look, here’s a shorter, more concise season preview for City.
In recent years, billionaires have become all the rage in English football and Manchester City are no exception. Continue reading
Filed under: Football(Soccer) | Tags: Blackburn, Bolton, Football(Soccer), Fulham, Mid-table, Premiership, Sam Allardyce, Sunderland, West Ham, Wigan
(9) Fulham
After shocking everyone and finishing in 7th, qualifying Fulham for the Europa League, Roy Hodgson’s men find themselves fighting an uphill battle. With the added games and travel that comes with European football, Fulham and their thin squad will face fatigue, possible injuries, and weaker domestic form. Though the starting XI is strong enough to compete for a Europa League spot, I think their lack of depth will be a problem and last season’s luck of no major injuries will not continue this season. Recent transfer rumblings though, if true would be a major boost and could see Fulham continue to challenge domestically while also maintaining a European campaign. Damien Duff and Mark Viduka, both (formerly) of Newcastle would add some much needed depth. Without any new additions this team will struggle in Europe for sure and possibly domestically as well. After spending a year together, Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson will need to utilize their knowledge of each other to score more. The Cottagers also need to hold on to Brede Hangeland as he is the rock of their team and the main reason, along with Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer that Fulham let in the least amount of goals last season outside the top 4. Hodgson is a very good manager who gets the best out of his players and as long as he is there, Fulham is not to be ruled out for European football.
(10) Sunderland
If the transfers pan out, this could be the first time in three years they aren’t barely staving off relegation. With the additions of Fraizier Campbell and Darren Bent to an attack that already had Kenwyne Jones gives Steve Bruce the quality and depth many teams lack in the Premiership. Continue reading
Filed under: Football(Soccer) | Tags: Birmingham, Burnley, Football(Soccer), Hull City, Joe Hart, Portsmouth, Premiership, Premiership Predictions, Stoke City, Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wolves
(15) Wolves
Wolves scored a lot last season as they took the Championship crown and will probably continue to score a lot with the addition of Kevin Doyle from Reading. The Ireland international scored 18 goals in the championship last year and scored 19 in his two seasons in the premiership. The addition of another Reading man, Goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann will bring premiership experience (he was in net for Reading’s 8th place season in the premiership in 2006/7) and a mentor to their young Goalkeepers. The only major problem is that the Wanderers will also allow a lot of goals with a back line that is not exactly top-notch. Much like Stoke City though, I see Wolves as playing a different kind of football than usually seen from scrappy fighting relegation teams allowing them to stay up this season, their first in the premiership since 2003/2004.
(16) Stoke City
Stoke City reminds me a lot of Reading two seasons ago; they were lucky to have finished so high and are still in the relegation discussion a season later. Continue reading
Filed under: American Football | Tags: American Football, Andy Reid, Michael Vick, NFL, Philadelphia Eagles
The tough city of Philadelphia may just have gotten what could be seen as the winning lottery ticket to the Powerball mega millions jackpot or they could have invested it all with Bernie Madoff. While the pre-season games have just gotten underway for the National Football League and the pressure and expectations of the season have not quite set in, Andy Reid has done what many thought no organization would dare do; sign Michael Vick. Now, with the partial re-instatement by Commissioner Roger Goodell, Tony Dungy as an advisor, and an apologetic and reflective 60-minutes interview set for Sunday, the stage has been set for Vick to be either a huge hit or a public relations nightmare for both the Philadelphia Eagles as well as continuing to be for the NFL.
Worth the risk?
The upside is clear; Vick has only recently turned 29. The former number one draft pick out of Virginia Tech is a mobile Quarterback who plays very similarly to Eagles starting Quarterback Donovan McNabb but faster, younger and with a less strong arm. Continue reading
Given that the season starts Saturday, the prediction had to be made this week. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the transfer window does not close until September, leaving the possibility open that a high profile (or not so high profile) signee will make all the difference. If on the seemingly off-chance a Defensive Midfielder and Brede Hangeland join Arsenal, they will win the premiership. A team by team breakdown will soon follow to justify my picks.
- Manchester United
- Chelsea
- Arsenal
- Liverpool
- Everton
- Manchester City
- Aston Villa
- Spurs
- Fulham
- Sunderland
- West Ham
- Bolton
- Blackburn
- Wigan
- Wolves
- Stoke City
- Birmingham City
- Portsmouth
- Hull City
- Burnley
The 30-second timeout 