At the beginning of the season, I forewent (I hope that’s the past tense of forego, or I’ll feel somewhat silly) the standard “who’s going to win the division†column and just went with the Vegas over/unders for how many wins teams would get. It actually worked out well for two reasons. First, it was something a little different than a lot of the other columns out there and second, I turned out to be pretty good at it.
Since this is the worst month of the year for sports, I’m combining my NFL season post-mortems with my gloating session for how right I was with most of my picks. Since I don’t follow much sports in February, and since I don’t think people on Tailgate Crashers care much for my views on Lost, we’ll milk the NFL stuff for a couple of weeks.
NFC North
Detroit Lions: Prediction, Under 6.5 (5-11). Actual, 3-13. There are times in life where it becomes all right to apply for a divorce from your favorite team. The Lions reached that point last season when Matt Millen got a five year contract extension. This year after a dismal 3-13 performance following, bringing Millen’s team to a less than dismal 24-72, Lions’ ownership announced Millen would be brought back for the 2007 season, ensuring the early Thanksgiving next season will be awful. Amusingly, Lions fans have openly rooted for their team to lose at home, yet still go to games. Hint guys: the only protest that works is the one involving an embarrassing amount of empty seats at your stadium. Jim Dolan is learning that now.
Minnesota Vikings: Prediction, Under 8 (6-10). Actual, 6-10. Go me. I said a patchwork team under a new coach probably wouldn’t fare well, and they didn’t. Brad Johnson suddenly remembered he was old, ring or no, and the rest of the team didn’t fare much better. Put that all together and you have a team pretty much dead out of the gate. Expect some coaching staff tweaks in the offseason and a quarterback in the draft.
Green Bay Packers: Prediction, Under 6 (5-11). Actual, 8-8. Fortunately, Favre announced his intentions for next season already so, instead of a full offseason of “will Favre play?†we’ll instead have an entire offseason of “how will the Packers be next year?†After the way the Pack wrapped up their last four games, finishing up 8-8, there was no way The Chosen One was going to leave. The Packers benefited from being in a crummy division in a crummy conference. That said, if the Pack doesn’t fix their offensive line in the offseason, it’s likely the NFC isn’t going to be quite so crummy and they’re in for less than 8 wins next season.
Chicago Bears: Prediction, Over 9 (12-4). Actual, 13-3. Allow me to take this moment to quote our own favorite golf specialist Eric Szulczewski: And good try with the serious ass-kissing, but I’m being a bit more realistic for the Beloved. 10-6 and another first-round playoff exit sounds about right. I’ve given the wound a week to heal before gloating and now allow me to gloat.
The Bears’ quarterback situation is going to be a debacle next season. The fans will be done with Grossman. They’ll be merciless. He’ll be booed when he walks on the field, he’ll be booed when he walks off the field, he’ll be tortured when he screws up, and the media will be calling for his head after the first turnover of the season. There’s nothing left in Chicago for him. Unfortunately, as the esteemed Mr. Szulczewski (I finally can spell his name without looking, so I’m peppering it throughout the column) pointed out last week, the options are limited. Do you dump a 13-3 quarterback for whatever guy falls to #31 in the draft? Do you put Griese in the prime time and see what happens? I don’t envy what the Bears faithful are in for next season. They’re in for a season-long quarterback controversy and a trip through the NFC East and AFC West. Next season could be ugly.
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens: Prediction Under 7.5 (6-10). Actual 13-3. I’m glad I don’t have to gloat about this one. Didn’t see that coming, honestly. I expected McNair to play most of the season like he played against the Colts. He didn’t and their scheduled turned out easier than I anticipated. Add that up and you have 7 more wins than I expected (San Diego, Cincinnati, Tennessee, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh). They will probably go with McNair again next season as the loss won’t be blamed on him, it’ll be blamed mostly on Jim Fassel.
Cincinnati Bengals: Prediction, Over 9 (10-6). Actual 8-8. When your season involves you being able to staff the prison football team, you’re in for a long season. The culture of this team is going to have to be overhauled in the offseason; much like the Patriots have done in recent years. They stock talent but take their personality as part of the inventory. Cincy might want to look into this theory.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Prediction, Over 10.5 (11-5). Actual 8-8. Didn’t see this one coming either, though I should have. Their quarterback just had his brain scrambled. Their spiritual leader retired. Bill Cowher had his ring and was waiting to retire and move on. It was over. Even still they managed .500.
Cleveland Browns: Prediction, Under 6.5 (6-10). Actual 4-12. Everyone knew the Browns were going to be awful, it was just a matter of degree. It’s hard to say that, at six wins, they overachieved… but they did.
Total so far, 4-4. We’ll look at the West later in the week.
