{"id":3807,"date":"2014-09-05T12:40:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T16:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=3807"},"modified":"2024-09-06T21:23:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T01:23:28","slug":"nfl-predictions-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2014\/09\/05\/nfl-predictions-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Predictions, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whoo, what a busy week. I\u2019m on library duty for all three girls this year, and I decided to stack those assignments in the same week. That makes them easier to remember, but also sucked up a lot of time this week. In addition to that, I have a small work project I\u2019ve been hammering away on. I\u2019ll share more about it later.<\/p>\n<p>So here we are and it\u2019s Friday already. I put this together last night, because I think I\u2019d have to shut down the blog if I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>After five months of watching baseball nearly every night, I am now, on Thursday night, watching pro football. Seems like as good of a time as any to crank out my patented NFL previews for the coming season.<\/p>\n<p>But before I cart those half-assed guesses out, a few observations from the opening moments of the NBC broadcast.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A little odd, at least to me, that the Seahawks used the opening refrain from The Verve\u2019s \u201cBittersweet Symphony\u201d as they unveiled their Super Bowl banner. Great song.<sup id=\"fnref-3807-1\"><a href=\"#fn-3807-1\" rel=\"footnote\">1<\/a><\/sup> Not sure there\u2019s anything bittersweet about winning a Super Bowl. Or maybe they\u2019re saying it\u2019s bittersweet that their six months of celebrating have come to an end. Whoa. That\u2019s kind of brilliant. If that\u2019s what they meant. Otherwise it\u2019s dumb.<\/li>\n<li>Now I know Arianna Grande is the flavor of the month. And I know the first Thursday night game of the year is a national showcase, not a local one. I still think it\u2019s a little weird to have a girl from Miami sing the National Anthem in Seattle. By the way, is she like 4\u20199\u2019\u2019, 80 lbs? She\u2019s like the tiniest thing ever. Well except for her voice, obviously.<\/li>\n<li>Wait. Were the guys in that DirectTV commercial with the Cowboys and Giants fans tackling each other supposed to be a gay couple? Didn\u2019t he say they were \u201clike any other couple?\u201d My mind is kind of blown. I have a feeling NBC and DirectTV are going to get letters and a bunch of Fox News blowhards will have a field day with that. \u201cHOW DARE YOU INJECT YOUR LIBERAL, GAY AGENDA ON MY FOOTBALL!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>OK, one more whoa. Icky Woods? Man, that dude blew up. \u201cGonna get some cold cuts!\u201d is a solid line, though. Not quite \u201cCut! That! Meat!\u201d But still good.<br \/>\nNow on to the picks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>AFC East: New England<\/h3>\n<p>One day this won\u2019t be such an easy pick. But not this year, and likely not for another two or three years.<\/p>\n<h3>AFC North: Ummm, Baltimore, I guess<\/h3>\n<p>I don\u2019t trust a team in this division. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, or the Ravens could all win it. Whoever does win, it won\u2019t be pretty.<\/p>\n<h3>AFC South: Indianapolis<\/h3>\n<p>I saw Peter King picked the Colts to make it to the Super Bowl this year. That seems optimistic. I think Houston hangs with the Colts all year. In fact, I bet they\u2019re in first place for the first half of the season. But the Colts will close the year on a six or seven game winning streak to take the division.<\/p>\n<h3>AFC West: Denver<\/h3>\n<p>Also pretty easy, as long as Peyton stays healthy.<\/p>\n<h3>AFC Wildcards<\/h3>\n<p>Houston<br \/>\nKansas City<\/p>\n<h3>NFC East: Philadelphia<\/h3>\n<p>This Chip Kelly thing is fun.<\/p>\n<h3>NFC North: Chicago<\/h3>\n<p>Green Bay is the better team. But they always have a bunch of big injuries. This year will be no different.<\/p>\n<h3>NFC South: New Orleans<\/h3>\n<p>They play 11 games in domes (or semi-domes in Dallas\u2019 case). They\u2019ll be good for nine or ten wins in those games.<\/p>\n<h3>NFC West: Seattle<\/h3>\n<p>Hangover? Maybe. But San Francisco is fading a bit, between injuries and age and suspensions.<\/p>\n<h3>NFC Wildcards<\/h3>\n<p>Green Bay<br \/>\nSan Fransisco<\/p>\n<h3>Playoffs<\/h3>\n<h3>AFC<\/h3>\n<p>Indianapolis over Kansas City. Like always.<br \/>\nHouston over Baltimore<br \/>\nDenver over Houston<br \/>\nNew England over Indianapolis. Like (almost) always.<br \/>\nDenver over New England<\/p>\n<h3>NFC<\/h3>\n<p>Green Bay over Chicago<br \/>\nNew Orleans over San Francisco<br \/>\nSeattle over Green Bay<br \/>\nPhiladelphia over New Orleans<br \/>\nSeattle over Philadelphia<\/p>\n<h3>Super Bowl<\/h3>\n<p>Damn. I really picked a rematch? Well, Denver doesn\u2019t have to be as good on offense this year, because they will be much better on defense. And if they get the #1 seed, nobody is beating them in Denver in the playoffs. Same deal for Seattle. Unless Philly can steal the #1 seed away, no one is going to Seattle and winning in January.<br \/>\nPeyton Manning has played in three Super Bowls. He\u2019s played like garbage in all three. Surely, if he gets one more shot, he finally has a performance for the ages and cements himself as the greatest QB in NFL history, right? Surely, after last year\u2019s beat down, Peyton will find a way to crack the Legion of Boom, right? Surely the improved Denver D will play better than last year\u2019s banged up unit, right?<\/p>\n<h3>Denver 31, Seattle 9<\/h3>\n<p>Mark it down, take it to Vegas, etc.<\/p>\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr \/>\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn-3807-1\">\nOne of my 20 favorites of all-time!&#160;<a href=\"#fnref-3807-1\" rev=\"footnote\">&#8617;<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whoo, what a busy week. I\u2019m on library duty for all three girls this year, and I decided to stack those assignments in the same week. That makes them easier to remember, but also sucked up a lot of time this week. In addition to that, I have a small work project I\u2019ve been hammering away on. I\u2019ll share more about it later. So here we are and it\u2019s Friday already. I put this together last night, because I think I\u2019d have to shut down the blog if I didn\u2019t. After five months of watching baseball nearly every night, I am now, on Thursday night, watching pro football. Seems like as good of a time as any to crank out my patented NFL previews for the coming season. But before I cart those half-assed guesses out, a few observations from the opening moments of the NBC broadcast. A little odd, at least to me, that the Seahawks used the opening refrain from The Verve\u2019s \u201cBittersweet Symphony\u201d as they unveiled their Super Bowl banner. Great song.1 Not sure there\u2019s anything bittersweet about winning a Super Bowl. Or maybe they\u2019re saying it\u2019s bittersweet that their six months of celebrating have come to an end. Whoa. That\u2019s kind of brilliant. If that\u2019s what they meant. Otherwise it\u2019s dumb. Now I know Arianna Grande is the flavor of the month. And I know the first Thursday night game of the year is a national showcase, not a local one. I still think it\u2019s a little weird to have a girl from Miami sing the National Anthem in Seattle. By the way, is she like 4\u20199\u2019\u2019, 80 lbs? She\u2019s like the tiniest thing ever. Well except for her voice, obviously. Wait. Were the guys in that DirectTV commercial with the Cowboys and Giants fans tackling each other supposed to be a gay couple? Didn\u2019t he say they were \u201clike any other couple?\u201d My mind is kind of blown. I have a feeling NBC and DirectTV are going to get letters and a bunch of Fox News blowhards will have a field day with that. \u201cHOW DARE YOU INJECT YOUR LIBERAL, GAY AGENDA ON MY FOOTBALL!\u201d OK, one more whoa. Icky Woods? Man, that dude blew up. \u201cGonna get some cold cuts!\u201d is a solid line, though. Not quite \u201cCut! That! Meat!\u201d But still good. Now on to the picks. AFC East: New England One day this won\u2019t be such an easy pick. But not this year, and likely not for another two or three years. AFC North: Ummm, Baltimore, I guess I don\u2019t trust a team in this division. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, or the Ravens could all win it. Whoever does win, it won\u2019t be pretty. AFC South: Indianapolis I saw Peter King picked the Colts to make it to the Super Bowl this year. That seems optimistic. I think Houston hangs with the Colts all year. In fact, I bet they\u2019re in first place for the first half of the season. But the Colts will close the year on a six or seven game winning streak to take the division. AFC West: Denver Also pretty easy, as long as Peyton stays healthy. AFC Wildcards Houston Kansas City NFC East: Philadelphia This Chip Kelly thing is fun. NFC North: Chicago Green Bay is the better team. But they always have a bunch of big injuries. This year will be no different. NFC South: New Orleans They play 11 games in domes (or semi-domes in Dallas\u2019 case). They\u2019ll be good for nine or ten wins in those games. NFC West: Seattle Hangover? Maybe. But San Francisco is fading a bit, between injuries and age and suspensions. NFC Wildcards Green Bay San Fransisco Playoffs AFC Indianapolis over Kansas City. Like always. Houston over Baltimore Denver over Houston New England over Indianapolis. Like (almost) always. Denver over New England NFC Green Bay over Chicago New Orleans over San Francisco Seattle over Green Bay Philadelphia over New Orleans Seattle over Philadelphia Super Bowl Damn. I really picked a rematch? Well, Denver doesn\u2019t have to be as good on offense this year, because they will be much better on defense. And if they get the #1 seed, nobody is beating them in Denver in the playoffs. Same deal for Seattle. Unless Philly can steal the #1 seed away, no one is going to Seattle and winning in January. Peyton Manning has played in three Super Bowls. He\u2019s played like garbage in all three. Surely, if he gets one more shot, he finally has a performance for the ages and cements himself as the greatest QB in NFL history, right? Surely, after last year\u2019s beat down, Peyton will find a way to crack the Legion of Boom, right? Surely the improved Denver D will play better than last year\u2019s banged up unit, right? Denver 31, Seattle 9 Mark it down, take it to Vegas, etc. One of my 20 favorites of all-time!&#160;&#8617;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,66],"class_list":["post-3807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14211,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3807\/revisions\/14211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}