Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager/president/player personnel (snicker) guru Jerry Jones Friday, on 105.3 The Fan ESPN radio in Dallas/Fort Worth, revived one of my least favorite ideas regarding the NFL: Expanding the playoffs.
“From the standpoint of looking at how exciting it is for a city or a community to be involved in the playoffs and the fact that you can have a team that might have literally operated at .500 or in that area … you can have that team win the Super Bowl,” Jones said. “That makes a big case for adding a couple of more cities or communities that have NFL teams to make the playoffs.”
This argument may be a bit self-serving from Jones. I was in attendance at the last playoff game the Dallas Cowboys actually participated in, a 34-3 whipping at the Metrodome at the hands of Minnesota in 2009. Under Jones’ lead as, cough, cough, general manager of the Cowboys, an expanded playoff may be the only way his team qualifies in the near future (though a two team expansion would not have helped him in any of the last four seasons).
But as Jones was finishing his speech on the radio, Vince Lombardi, who actually stood for excellence, just rolled over in his grave. Back in his day, the championship was decided by pitting the best team in the Western Conference against the best team in the Eastern Conference. Don’t win your conference? Don’t play for the championship.
That is pushing for greatness. That is requiring a team to accomplish something before they get to play for the big prize. (more…)
So, yeah. Playoffs start today. You’ll be inundated with info on the games, so we’ll keep it brief. Here’s what we think.
Saturday, January 4
Kansas City at Indianapolis
3:35 central, NBC
Line: Kansas City by 1.5
Over/Under: 46.5
Earlier in the week I picked Kansas City. Then I had a chance to watch some of the NFL Network replay of the game these two teams played two weeks ago in Kansas City and I feel much less confident. The Colts went through a rough stretch after losing Reggie Wayne. But Andrew Luck in the last month has pulled a Peyton Manning and started finding unsung receivers with whom he can distribute the ball. Meanwhile the Chiefs finished 2-5 after a 9-0 start and blew an opportunity to capitalize on Denver’s sloppy play toward the end of the season. I’ll stick with Kansas City because Jamaal Charles should have a solid day and the defense is legitimately one of the league’s toughest. But I don’t feel as good about this as I did at the beginning of the week.
Picks: Kansas City -1.5, Under 46.5
New Orleans at Philadelphia
7:10 central, NBC
Line: Philadelphia by 3
Over/Under: 53.5 (more…)
As the playoffs begin I thought it would be a good idea to provide some accountability for our preseason selections by taking a look back at our playoff previews to see where we hit and what we missed.
I was surprised to see that I hit six of the eight division champions, including nailing all four in the AFC. Just as anyone does when making preseason projections, I also had a couple humbling picks, as well. I failed miserably, as did the rest of us at ZoneBlitz, in predicting the ascensions of Carolina in the NFC South and Philadelphia in the NFC East.
Tony hit five of eight division champs. His biggest miss was Houston – a reasonably excusable oversight, I think, since most thought the team would be pretty good and it’s hard to predict injuries. If you predicted a 2-14 season for the Texans heading into the season, I tip my cap.
Fantasy editor Anthony Maggio hit half of his predictions on division champs while contributing writers Tim Madsen and Rich Larson each hit three.
Again, the biggest misses across the board seemed to be not predicting that Philadelphia and Carolina would rise from the ashes to division titles and not seeing the falloffs in Houston, Washington and Atlanta. (more…)
Wild Card Weekend this season illustrates one of the flaws in the NFL’s playoff system.
You’ve got arguably the second or third best team in the NFC in San Francisco facing off with Green Bay. But the 12-4 team has to go to Lambeau Field as a visitor to the 8-7-1 Packers.
None of the Zoneblitz pickers, however, think it’s going to make much difference. The 49ers have beaten Green Bay soundly three consecutive times. Despite the return of Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb, it seems Tony, Anthony and I all think the wild card team in this case has a pretty good shot to win.
San Francisco isn’t the only road team seen as a favorite by our pickers. Kansas City is given the nod by two of the three. What road team do you think has the best shot to win this weekend? Check out our picks and then vote on the poll below.
Andy
Tony
Maggio
Saturday, January 4
Kansas City at Indianapolis
Kansas City
Indianapolis
Kansas City
New Orleans at Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Sunday, January 5
San Diego at Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
San Francisco at Green Bay
San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco
Which road team has the best chance to win on Wild Card Weekend?
As we ring in the new year and celebrate 2013, it seems like a fitting time to wrap up the standings for our regular season bets and picks.
We had a couple rough weeks toward the end of the season picking games, but week 17 was a solid effort all around. Tony, Anthony Maggio and I wrapped up with 13-3 weeks while Rich nailed 12 of 16. Our season totals ranged from 154 correct to 166. For what it’s worth, that would rank us toward the middle to top end of the ESPN experts, save for Ron Jaworksi, who hit 174.
It also puts us in the upper 20th percentile or so at NFLPickwatch.com, which ranks experts from a number of sites.
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