by Andy | Dec 5, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks
Andrew Luck provided Indianapolis fans with another comeback win, this time ruining the weekend for the Detroit Lions. The level of success Luck is having early in his career has created speculation about just how far this team can go in 2012, which was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
Greg Cowan, managing editor and senior writer with Colts Authority, says he’s intrigued by that question too given that “on paper, they probably should have stopped winning about two wins ago.”
Cowan is realistic. If the Colts do make the playoffs they probably should be one-and-done. But he also thinks they could be capable of a first-round shocker, particularly if they get a match-up with a flawed Baltimore squad.
“Are they going to win it all? Not this year,” he says. “But beyond this year, the sky is the limit.”
Cowan joined Zoneblitz.com as week 14’s guest blogger. He follows Steve Spooner, team editor at 49ers Gab.
Spooner struggled to a 7-9 mark during another wild, upset-filled week. Tony was 10-6. Andy was 11-5. This put some distance between the brothers and the bloggers, but tightened the match between the two of them, err, us. Tony retains a two-game lead for the season.
|
Week 13 |
Season |
| Tony |
10-6 |
125-66-1 |
| Andy |
11-5 |
123-68-1 |
| Celebrity bloggers |
7-9 |
116-75-1 |
There are four weeks left in the regular season. Here are the picks for week 14. (more…)
by Andy | Dec 4, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Random Thoughts
One of the highlights of the 2012 season continues to be the play of rookie quarterbacks throughout the league. Andrew Luck of the Colts and Robert Griffin III are the most highly publicized, and both continued helping their respective teams toward turnarounds on Sunday and Monday night.
But Russell Wilson also had another career-defining moment, helping the Seahawks to a comeback win over Chicago. In a year without Luck and Griffin, Wilson himself might be in consideration for the Rookie of the Year award.
Brandon Weeden continued his improvement in Cleveland’s win over Oakland. And while Ryan Tannehill and Nick Foles, who showed dramatic improvement Sunday night over what he looked like during the first game against Dallas a month ago, also have had moments.
The game Sunday wasn’t Luck’s best, but he got the job done, particularly when it mattered. The surprising Colts are 8-4. Griffin pulled the Redskins to within a game of the first-place Giants and evened Washington’s record at 6-6. It’s been years before this team has been relevant in December.
Of the league’s 32 teams, six are starting rookies and another seven are starting second-year guys right now. We’ve started some research on how these guys look at this point. We’ve got a ways to go before we’re ready to put anything out, but as guys like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees (still three of the top five or six in the game) continue aging, it does appear as though the league is in good hands in its search for the stars of tomorrow. (more…)
by Andy | Nov 30, 2012 | Hall of Fame
Six first-year candidates are among the 27 modern-era semifinalists still alive for potential induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2013.
Offensive linemen Jonathan Ogden and Larry Allen, defensive linemen Michael Strahan and Warren Sapp, kicker Morten Andersen and safety John Lynch make up an incredibly deep pool of first-year candidates still in contention. Another first-time semifinalist is Kansas City defensive back Albert Lewis, a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time First Team All-Pro who retired after the 1998 season.
Otherwise there were few major surprises in the announcement. The survivors also include three wide receivers, each of whom many voters and observers believe are qualified for Hall enshrinement, who seem to be canceling each other out in the final voting process: Andre Reed, Cris Carter and Tim Brown.
Disappearing from last year’s semifinalist lists from recent years include linebacker Clay Mathews, defensive back Donnie Shell and contributor Ron Wolf. One notable absence from the list is Steve Sabol, one of the forces behind NFL Films, who died from brain cancer in September. Sabol’s father, Ed Sabol, founded the company in 1962 and was enshrined in Canton in 2011.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee culled the list of nominees to 27 from 127, which had been comprised of 89 former players, 14 coaches and 24 contributors.
Semifinalists
RB Jerome Bettis, Roger Craig, Terrell Davis
WR Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Andre Reed
OL Larry Allen, Will Shields, Joe Jacoby, Jonathan Ogden
DL: Charles Haley, Warren Sapp, Michael Strahan
LB Karl Mecklenburg, Kevin Greene
DB: Steve Atwater, Albert Lewis, John Lynch, Aeneas Williams
K Morten Andersen
Special Teams: Steve Tasker
Coaches Don Coryell, Bill Parcells
Owners Edward DeBartolo Jr., Art Modell
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
Contributor George Young
These modern-era candidates will be reduced to 15 finalists that will be announced in early January. That list will then be cut to 10 and then to five on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Those five will be voted on individually for inclusion, as will two senior-era candidates, Curly Culp and Dave Robinson.
Between four and seven enshrinees will be selected for enshrinement. The final voting process takes place prior to the Super Bowl.
The inductees for the class of 2013 will be announced at the Super Bowl. They will be enshrined in August 2013. (We made our predictions here.)
by Andy | Nov 28, 2012 | 2012 season, Hall of Fame, NFL Random Thoughts
Pride of Detroit wrote this week that Calvin Johnson is on pace to come within 20 yards of breaking the all-time single season receiving yardage record this year, which surprised me because it seemed like until a couple weeks ago he was having a somewhat down season compared with the number he put up in 2011.
As it turns out, Johnson is on pace for an 1828 yard season – just off the pace of Jerry Rice, who had 1848 in 1995. He’s just not getting in the end zone as much – he’s been tackled at the one yard line a ridiculous number of times – but he’s still having another monster year.
After seemingly taking a couple seasons to get acclimated to the NFL game after spending his college days at the wishbone stalwart Georgia Tech, Megatron has been on fire the last couple seasons. In 2011, he led the league in receiving yards with 1681, was second in touchdowns to Rob Gronkowski with 16 (Gronk had 17) and had 96 catches.
His stalwart numbers through the first six years of his career made me wonder how he stacked up with a couple of the league’s all-time greats. And yes, it appears as though these last couple amazingly prolific seasons have put Johnson right in the mix with the likes of Randy Moss and Jerry Rice, whose careers were compared on this site previously.
Barring injury, Johnson will eclipse Rice’s reception total for their first six years. Rice had 446. Johnson has 439 right now with five games left in the regular season for Detroit. He’ll likely fall just short of Rice in yardage, though he’s got a shot to catch him (7,129 with five games left to Rice’s 7,866). Rice’s 79 touchdowns through a half-dozen years has both Moss (77) and Megatron (53). (more…)
by Andy | Nov 20, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Random Thoughts
I’m not going to say the Atlanta Falcons are a bad team. At 9-1 they deserve more respect than that, but they may be the least convincing 9-1 team I’ve seen in awhile.
The offense remains explosive, but the team lost five picks to Arizona at home last weekend in a game that shouldn’t have been as close as four points. The run game is nonexistent and now news has leaked that an already injury-tainted offensive line will now be down Joe Hawley for four games due to a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy.
This isn’t a good thing for a team whose top runner has put up just 61 yards in the last two games. The defense isn’t much better either. LaRod Stephens-Howling broke the century mark and scored against this tackling-challenged bunch.
Truth be told, Atlanta’s impressive record has been built on close wins against less-than-stellar opponents. Six wins have been by a touchdown or less. And some of those victories have come against Kansas City, San Diego, Washington, Oakland, Philadelphia, Dallas and Arizona. (more…)
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