NFL Preview 9

Atlanta to beat Washington
No way this poor Redskins team manages to beat the Falcons especially after such a good performance from Atlanta on Monday night.

Arizona to beat Chicago
For some reason the Cardinals are a better away team than home team this season and so I am going to take them to pull off an upset over Chicago this weekend.

 Indianapolis to beat Houston
If the Texans want to be taken seriously this season then they must beat the Colts on Sunday. This will put them to wthin touching distance of Indianapolis and give them a great chance to at least get a wild card spot.

Cincinnati to beat Baltimore
Probably the toughest game to call this weekend and I fancy the Bengals for some reason. Baltimore will be looking for revenge after getting beaten in week 5 by the Bengals, so look for the defence to play hard especially Ray Lewis since it was his head hit that cost them the game the last time.

Jacksonville to beat Kansas City
There is always one game on that noone cares about and this is it. Jaguars to win if they give the ball to MJD more than 8 times in a game.

Green Bay to beat Tampa Bay
The Packers need a win here to keep on the heels of the Vikings and should manage it against one of the worst teams in the NFL.

New England to beat Miami
I’m guessing we will get a lot of Wildcat in this game but look for Tom Brady to do his usual thing which is simply winning games.

New Orleans to beat Carolina
Yes the Panthers beat Arizona last week but this week they come up against a team that is managing to win in lots of different ways. The New Orleans defence will be looking to pick off Delhomme since he has had trouble looking after the ball this season.

Seattle to beat Detroit
This is probably another game that not many people are that bothered about. Seattle to win because they have a better QB.

Tennessee to beat San Francisco
They looked more like the Titans of last year on offence now all they need to do is sort out the defence. I still fancy the Titans to pull off another win and put the 49ers  season to bed. The 49ers have looked a lot worse since Crabtree got into the line up.

San Diego to beat New York
Rivers will be over the moon to be facing this Giants secondary. Vincent Jackson and Malcolm Floyd should both have big games.

Dallas to beat Philadelphia
This game last year nearly cost Wade Phillips his job but things should go better this year. I actually hope the Eagles win this so going on my logic that means the Cowboys will win. Look for lots of points in this game.

Denver to beat Pittsburgh
Just for the record Clark should not play in this game for the Steelers, no way any game is more important than your health. A few soccer players over here in Britain have found this out the hard way. Onto the game I fancy the Broncos to get back to winning ways with a victory over a decent Steelers team.

NFL Power Rankings Week 7

1. Colts – Yes it was only the Rams but they are still winning easily and Peyton Manning is still MVP favourite.
2. Saints – A good win versus the Dolphins and even more impressive since Drew Brees had a bad game.
3. Broncos – In the top three even though they had a bye week, helped that other teams round them lost.  Big game versus the Ravens this weekend.
4. Vikings – This team should not be throwing the ball 51 times when they have the running game they do.  AP must be annoyed with the play calling.
5. Bengals – Great performance from Carson Palmer and I bet Cedric Benson has a smile on his face this week.
6. Patriots – Blow away the Bucs in London but no real surprise there.  Have a bye week to get players healthy.  Secondary looked better this week.
7. Steelers – Getting back to the form they showed last year.  Big Ben and Troy are showing they are the real leaders on this team.
8. Giants – Eli Manning and the offence looked ordinary versus the Cardinals and the secondary looked almost as bad as it did the week before versus the Saints.  Look for Philly to throw the ball lots this weekend.
9. Cowboys – Have they finally found a replacement for TO in Austin?  No matter if they have or haven’t the production from Williams is disappointing.
10. Cardinals – Warner and the offence are moving the ball well and having a running game, which is improving, will help.
11. Falcons – Bad lose to the Cowboys but what must be more worrying is the performance of Michael Turner.
12. Packers – Finally the offence line is getting better and this can only be good news for Aaron Rodgers.  Massive game for Green Bay this weekend versus the Vikings.  A must win if they want to win the division.
13. Eagles – Winning against the Redskins isn’t that good but at least they won and stay close to the Cowboys and the Giants.
14. Texans – Finally the team managed to decent performances in a row.  Although they nearly blow a 21 point lead to Alex Smith and Vernon Davies.
15. Jets – Great performance from the running game meant Sanchez could have a hot dog on the sideline.
16. Ravens – This team needs a win this weekend versus the unbeaten Broncos.
17. Bears – 3 loses away from Solider Field shows that this team is far from the finished article.  Jay Cutler needs to start performing better.
18. Chargers – Rivers is playing far better than anyone else on this team (Jackson is nearly there too) and he needs help fast if this team is to make the play offs.
19. 49ers – Switching back to Alex Smith is properly a good thing in the long run for Alex Smith since it will either get him a new deal or a move to another team.  Not sure what it does for the 49ers since they have already given up on him many times before.
20. Bills – Must wish they could play teams like the Panthers and the Browns every week.
21. Dolphins – Yet another game they managed to lose even though they dominated stats.  Just shows what an elite QB does for your team.
22. Jaguars – Surely they will beat the helpless Titans this week.
23. Seahawks – They need to become more consistent and also need to keep the QB on his feet.
24. Panthers – This team might finally be giving up Jake Delhomme.
25. Raiders – How can you beat the Eagles one week and then get hammered by the Jets the following week.
26. Redskins – This team just doesn’t look like winning a game again.
27. Lions – Good chance for win number 2 versus the Rams.
28. Chiefs – Larry Johnson is obliviously trying to get himself out of Kansas after his Twitter moment.
29. Browns – It is always good when you don’t play a QB because he will cost you too much money.  Looks like teams were right to pass on Quinn on the draft after all.
30. Titans – Are meant to be making personnel chances, now everyone is just waiting to see how is playing QB.
31. Buccaneers – Look like they are going to give Josh Freeman his chance at QB during the second half of the season.  Never going to be a good season when you have 3 starting QBs.
32. Rams – What can you say about this team anymore?  One thing for sure Steven Jackson is a quality player on a rubbish team.

NFL Week 7 Predictions

Green Bay to beat Cleveland

The Packers have no offensive line but the Browns are just rubbish.  Rodgers to have a big game and the Packers to win easily.

Houston to beat San Francisco

The Texans normally have one good week followed by one bad week.  Surely they can manage two decent weeks in a row.

San Diego to beat Kansas Chief

Two bad teams and two teams I couldn’t care less about.  Chargers to win since they have slightly more talent but would prefer the Chiefs to win.

Indianapolis to beat St Louis

The Colts and Manning will be healthy after a bye week and will be looking forward to playing this Rams team.  Look for the Colts to get ahead early and let the defence attack Bulger.

New England to beat Tampa Bay

The London game and I fancy the Patriots to win by a mile.  Not sure this game will do much to increase the popularity of the NFL in Europe.

Pittsburgh to beat Minnesota

This could be the game of the week with two good teams who both need to win.  The Steelers need it slightly more than the Vikings so I’ll pick them.

Carolina to beat Buffalo

These are two bad teams so I’ll pick the home team.

Oakland to beat New York Jets

I have no idea why I am picking Oakland here but something tells me they will win again this week.

Cincinnati to beat Chicago

The Bengals had a poor game last week so look for them to bounce back this week.  The Bears are a strange team but this will be a tough road trip for them.

Atlanta to beat Dallas

This Dallas team simply isn’t that good and only a fairly easy schedule has made them look good.  Atlanta will look to score quickly and then let Abraham attack Romo.

New Orleans to beat Miami

Drew Brees and co had a great game last week and I can’t see Miami stopping them this week.  If nothing else the Dolphins will run lots of wildcat this week.  Look out for Sharper to be ball hawking the young QB.

New York Giants to beat Arizona

This could be a high scoring game since both teams have great offences.  The Giants in particular have a suspect secondary and so look for Warner to throw lots.

Philadelphia to beat Washington

If the Eagles can’t beat this Washington team then you can officially end any chance they have of getting into the play-offs let alone getting to the Super Bowl.  They also need a big comeback after last weeks shocking lose.

My thoughts about Week 5 in the NFL

Week 5 showed some interesting things in the NFL starting with the Bengals proving they are for real after beating the much fancied Ravens in Baltimore.  Yes they needed help from Ray Lewis but yet again Carson Palmer showed he is still a quality QB.  Cincinnati are one miracle play away from being perfect.

Though speaking of the week 1 loss to the Broncos brings us nicely onto Denver.  This team was written off at the start of the season but McDaniels, Orton and a quality defence has shown that this team has a good chance of making the playoffs.  Orton hasn’t done anything pretty but he hasn’t done anything wrong either.

Week 5 also showed that the NFC East is between 2 teams Philly and NY since both the Redskins and the Cowboys really are just not that good.  Although the Cowboys won they only beat the Chiefs and Washington, in fact let’s not even go there since it just upsets me.

Buffalo and Cleveland could just be the two worse teams to have played in the NFL and to say that the game on Sunday was dreadful would be an understatement.  6 – 3?  I have been to higher scoring football games (that is proper football!)

The Colts and the Giants both look good and I expect that you properly won’t get very good odds for a Manning bowl in Miami at the end of the season.  Both the Manning brothers are also clear MVP leaders along with Jared Allan of the Vikings.

Finally week 5 showed that a lot of teams are still searching for an identity.  Take Jacksonville and Seattle for two good examples.  Either these teams are either good or rotten but they are hardly good or rotten two weeks in a row.  Look for the Jags to bounce back this week and play well and if you do fantasy football but little Jones-Drew in your team since he should see a lot of the ball versus St Louis.

Predictions for NFL week 5

Ravens to beat the Bengals

Baltimore is playing well but so are the Bengals but I just think the Ravens will have too much for them.  Look for the Ravens defence to play much better after last week.

Panthers to beat the Redskins

Is anyone interested in this game?  Really two bad teams and I fancy the Panthers to win because they are at home.

Bills to beat the Browns

The Browns can’t score on offence and to make things worse they have traded Edwards to the Jets.  Guess they have already written off the season.  The Bills aren’t much better but are at home at least.

Steelers to beat the Lions

Detroit has won one game this season but they aren’t going to get win number 2 this weekend.

Cowboys to beat the Chiefs

Chiefs need to get a win soon but I can’t see it happening this weekend versus the Cowboys.  Look for the Dallas defence to play well and for Romo to have a slightly better game than he has been having.  Though it is nice to see Romo getting found out for what he really is a decent QB rather than this superstar people were making him out to be.

Vikings to beat the Rams

Peterson to get over 200 yards? Wouldn’t put it past him or for Favre to have a big game.  The Rams are probably the worse team in the NFL at the moment.

Giants to beat the Raiders

Oakland just isn’t that good and won’t be when they have a thug has head coach or a nut job as an owner. Manning and the Giants look good and should make it 5 – 0.

Eagles to beat the Buccaneers

McNabb is back and they defence is playing well whereas noone is playing all that well for the Bucs.

49ers to beat the Falcons

San Fran is playing well and I thing they will have enough to beat the Falcons on Sunday.

Cardinals to beat the Texans

I can see both teams putting up a lot of points this weekend and also look for Fitzgerald and Johnson to have big games.  Fancy the Cardinals since they are home.

Broncos to beat the Patriots

Broncos are playing well which isn’t good news for all the McDaniels haters but something I’m personally not shocked about.  Orton is playing well enough to win games and the defence is finally showing how good it can be.

Jaguars to beat the Seahawks

Just not sure about this game since both teams aren’t that great but the Jags are slightly better.

Colts to beat the Titans

When you are winless the last team you want to play is the Colts on fire and Manning playing as well as he has for a few years.  Peyton is already MVP favourite and quite rightly since without this team would be average at best.

Jets to beat the Dolphins

Two young inexperience QBs in this game but the difference is Sanchez has a great defence to get him the ball back a lot.

MVP favourite

Washington Redskins

I finally managed to get back online and instead of posting anything I have been busy playing with my new son.  Today though I thought I had to blog something especially after the Redskins lost to the Lions.

For all my faults the Redskins are my American Football team and each year they seem to get worse.  Long gone are the days of deep play-off runs and Super Bowls but surely they should be handling teams like Detroit and St Louis.  I’ll cut them some slack they did manage to beat St Louis but only just. 

Detroit though are a totally different team, even with 340 yards from Jason Campbell (who normally gets the blame) and 178 yards from Santana Moss (who usually goes missing) they still failed to beat the Lions.  Two people are to blame for the terrible start to the season Jim Zorn and Clinton Portis.  Zorn for poor play calling and Portis for failing to move the chains often enough or even to get a 100 yards on the ground very often. 

Washington had a chance of being 5 – 1 going into week 7 but instead they are going into week 4 1 – 2 which isn’t could enough. If Zorn lasts another two weeks I will be amazed but I actually think he will be moved down to QB coach rather than sacked.  Personally I think Mike Shanahan will head up head coach but that might not be till next season.

Anyway I need to get over the Lions beating the Redskins and focus more on watching the Colts beating the Cardinals tonight.

In other NFL news, the Titans have problems, the Jets look good defensively but are still frail on offence, the Chargers can’t run the ball and Miami have the wildcat and not much else.

Dallas Cowboys the 21st best team in the NFL

Life in Dallas just keeps on going, the team have released their best receiver, they have a fantastic new stadium (but can’t get anyone to buy the rights to name it) and Tony Romo has ditched Miss Simpson.  Really just another off season for the Dallas Cowboys.

Dallas has a few problems they will need to sort out this season if they are to progress to the play offs (something I don’t think they’ll do) and if the head coach is to have a job next season.  The offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, also needs to prove that he can win games for this franchise.  This summer all the talk has been about how poorly Garrett did in the run in to the season when last year the poor man was being linked with every job in the NFL.

The Cowboys let T.O. go and I do understand why they did but they have to really hope that Williams steps up to the plate or this team is doomed.  They play 3 top defences in their own division not to mention playing the Bucs, Panthers and Chargers.  All of these teams will simply load up the box to stop the running game if none of the wide receivers show that they can be a threat down the field.  Then the Cowboys have to hope that Romo can produce anything down the stretch since they last two seasons he has simply collapsed.  The loss to the Eagles at the end of last year might go down as one of their worse in history.

On the defence side of the ball they still have Ware, how is quite simply one of the linebackers in the NFL but they also have a dodgy secondary that teams are not afraid to attack.  The whole secondary unit needs to really improve this year or they are going to fail reach .500 mark this season.

In reality I think this will be a dreadful season for the Cowboys with them finishing 6 – 10 or maybe I am just hoping that because I really don’t like them.  Though at least the fans get a shiny new stadium to sit in.

Cincinnati Bengals the 22nd Best team in the NFL

This is a make and break season for so many of the Bengals organisation.  Starting right at the top with the coach and the quarterback.  Marvin Lewis is lucky to still be in a job after producing some mediocre seasons lately.  This year he has no excuses since his number one QB Carson Palmer is back to full fitness or at least the Bengals hope he is.  Lewis also came to the Bengals with the reputation of being a good defence coach but so far this has yet to be shown by his team.

Carson Palmer came out of college with a lot of pressure on his shoulders and in truth he has handled this well and has shown at times that he can be one of the better QBs within the NFL.  Though since he was injured in a game versus the Steelers he has still to show he can find the form he had before.  Palmer will be without one of his favourite targets the last few years, T.J. Houshmandzadeh going to the Seahawks, so instead he will need to hope Chad Johnson or Chad Ochocinco as he likes to be called now (what a stupid name by the way) actually plays as well as he tweets.

The Bengals have a tough season ahead fo them and they need to make sure they get off to a good start but since they play Pittsburgh, Green Bay and Baltimore in the first 5 weeks this is unlikely to happen.  So when the Bengals are sitting at 2-5 or worse at their bye week then Chad will be off in one of his moods and there will be some serious heat on Lewis and the Bengals season will be over again.

For these reasons I think the Bengals will end up with a record of 5 – 11 and they should have a new coach by the start of the 2010 season.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers the 23rd best team in the NFL

Tampa Bay have finally lost the great Lame Kiffin to the Vols and now the team most decide what path they are going to take in defence.  Do they stay cover 2 or do they go more man for man or do they blitz like Pittsburgh?  Personally I think they will stay in a cover 2 defence but with more twists.  Lame Kiffin was a great defensive coach but he did stick to a plan some times too much.  The difference for this team is the fact on defence is the fact that they have lost Derrick Brooks and haven’t replaced him with anyone near the same standard.  Like many people who follow the NFL I would have liked Brooks to finish his career in Tampa but it wasn’t to be.  I actually more surprised that no one has taken a chance with Brooks yet. 

Under Gruden Tampa stockpiled QBs and although they have a new coach, Morris, nothing seems to have changed with them again stockpiling QBs via free agency and the draft.  This team had a solid draft and I do like Freeman in round 1 since he should become a franchise QB but like Stafford up in Detroit I think he needs to sit for a whole season and learn.  That means you are trusting your team to an experienced QB, properly Leftwich.  An individual who has performed well has a back up in Pittsburgh but had has had a mixed career in the league.

Tampa Bay have also gotten Winslow via a trade with Cleveland and this means they have finally a catching tight end on their books, though if you have read my blog about Cleveland you will understand that I think Winslow is a bit of a show pony who needs to progress a lot this season to justify the trade.

The Buccaneers have a tough schedule and are in a tough division and so will struggle this season, especially under a new coach and having lost some keys players. 

Due to this I think that the Bucs will end up with a 5 – 11 season but should enjoy their trip to London in October.

Miami Dolphins the 24th best team in the NFL

Last year was such a great year for the Dolphins, they replaced such a large quantity of players and still came out of the year winning the very difficult AFC East division but the Patriots losing Brady for the year certainly helped them.  This year it is going to be much more difficult for them and that is not just because Brady will be fit all year (hopefully).

 Another problem for the Dolphins will be the fact that teams will have spent most of the summer working on schemes to handle the wildcat formation.  This is formation was one of the main reasons the Dolphins won so many games last season and is one of the reasons the Dolphins drafted Pat White.  White is like Michael Vick in many ways though not with the prototype height but then he can actually throw the ball to his own team more often than not.  Due to the NFL being a copycat league then I’m sure more teams will start to run the wildcat next year but the basis will be of a run first throw second.

The Dolphins have an interesting team with a lot of high draft picks, some who have performed to there potential (Jake Long) and some who haven’t (Ted Ginn Jr).  For them to maintain the high level they produced in 2009 they need all there players to play to a high level again.  Personally I’m not sure that Pennington is going to have that good a year again.  You seen in the playoffs how badly the Dolphins struggled when they turned the ball over.

Due to all this I feel that the Dolphins will end up 5 – 11 and will again get the chance to use a top ten draft pick.