Saver Sports: NFL

Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Week 11 Picks

Forgot to put my picks in last week, here they are for this week.

New York Jets over Denver

Baltimore over Cincinnati

Jacksonville over Cleveland

Detroit over Carolina

Green Bay over Tampa Bay

Buffalo over Miami

Minnesota over Oakland

Dallas over Washington

San Francisco over Arizona

Seattle over St. Louis

Tennessee over Atlanta

Chicago over San Diego

New York Giants over Philadelphia

New England over Kansas City

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Teams are catching on to the Anti-Patriots O forumla

Power Rankings, Week 9 Picks

The Arizona Cardinals are the Worst Team in the NFL

Power Rankings, Week 8 Picks

The 49ers are the new Jets

Playoff Predictions, Power Rankings, Week 7 Picks

Dont' jump ship on the Jets, Power Rankings + Week 5 Picks

I feel like I've heard this story with the Jets before. Yet, for whatever reason, whenever this team has their back against the wall they always seem to respond. That's as true in a game (Browns, Lions and Texans games last year and Cowboys game this year) as it is over the season.

Remember the Ravens-Jets game in Week 1 last year? The Jets offense couldn't do anything, and they were immediately written off. Analysts and fans are saying the same thing this year after that same game, and the Patriots are suddenly 9 point favorites over a Jets team that is 3-2 against them under Rex Ryan.

Its shaping up a bit too similar to how everything sounded leading up to the Jets upset of the Pats in the playoffs last year. No one is picking them and the Pats are expected to win in a blowout. I called it last year before the playoff game in this article, and I feel it could shape up the same way.

NFL Power Rankings, Week 4 Picks

I counted on Elvis Dumervill's return
from injury helping Denver, not him
getting injured again.

I usually let my 2011 Predictions speak for themselves for the first couple of weeks, but after the season's been rolling for a couple weeks you start to get a better handle on how the season might shape out.

For instance, my pick of the Broncos going to the playoffs might have been a bit off. I might have given the Chiefs too much credit with six projected wins, and the Bills are one win away from matching the season total I had projected for them. I also didn't predict rookie quarterbacks making such an early impact despite the lockout.

So, here are my power rankings for the NFL through the first three weeks and my picks for Week 4. I rank these teams as who I think would win a best of seven series.

2011 NFL Predictions

I'll fill in explanations later, it's late. Haven't had internet while moving so doing this day before season starts, click read more to see all the predictions, each teams schedule game by game. Looking at the schedules, I think the Broncos will have a big year.

I also did this last year, see how I did for the 2010 season, click here.

Big Ben will lift Pittsburgh to their seventh Super Bowl victory

Ben Roethlisberger doesn't get nearly the amount of respect he deserves for the quarterback that he is.

Forget the off-field controversies of the past two summers. Instead, take a look at what he does on it. He's one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the National Football League, right up there with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Is he elite? You bet.

It may not look pretty,
but Big Ben wins games

In this year's playoffs, the New York Jets faced a trio of great quarterbacks. They knocked off Manning and then Brady in succession -- two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. However, when they got to the last of the three, Big Ben, he was too much for them to handle.

Roethlisberger presents a unique challenge for defenses. He's hard to defend because he can get out of the pocket and extend plays. Even when you do get to Ben -- listed at 6-5 and 241 pounds -- he's hard to bring down.

"This guy keeps just bouncing off of tackles, pushing guys down like a big kid in the playground," said former Giants-defensive end and current Fox NFL analyst, Michael Strahan, on ESPN's The Herd radio show. "They don't call him Big Ben for nothing...He's a big man, he's probably 280 [pounds]. He's a lineman with an arm."

A Steelers victory could have Pats in 2011 season opener

In a recent blog post, ESPNBoston's Mike Reiss makes an interesting point regarding the Patriots and the upcoming Super Bowl. Though New England obviously won't be playing in this year's championship game, the outcome could have an effect on the Patriots in 2011.

The Steelers are heading to the big
game once again, where they are 6-1.

"If the Steelers beat the Packers in the Super Bowl, it puts the Patriots in play to be part of the NFL's season-opening game in 2011," writes Reiss. "In recent years, the defending Super Bowl champion hosts the NFL opener on a Thursday, and the Patriots are scheduled to visit Pittsburgh next season. Pittsburgh also hosts Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Tennessee, St. Louis and Seattle."

It seems obvious that if the Steelers were to win next Sunday it would be either the Patriots or Ravens traveling to Heinz Field to break in the 2011 season. The Super Bowl winner has hosted the NFL opener every year since 2004 and in that time the defending champion has never lost.

If any team would have a chance to change that, it would be the Patriots against the Steelers. Tom Brady seems to have Pittsburgh's number, boasting a 4-1 record against them when starting under center. It would be compelling to see if New England could break the streak that's held up for seven years.

Now it's a rivalry

Up until last Sunday, the Patriots-Jets rivalry didn't feel quite like a rivalry.

Sure, there was some history. There was Belichick resigning as "HC of NYJ" and Mangini leaving New England and starting spygate in '07. Tom Brady went as far as to say he hated the Jets and their coach Rex Ryan proclaimed that he wasn't going to "kiss Belichick's super bowl rings" and hasn't stopped talking since he took over in '09.

However, while there may have been some dislike over the last 10 years, it never truly felt like a rivalry to most fans. There wasn't the same intensity as Red Sox-Yankees or even of Indy-Pats.

Over the last 10 years the Jets have been in New England's shadow. Yet, for a long time the Jets and Patriots fans had a lot in common.

"There was a certain kinship with Patriots fans and Jets fans [until the Patriots] started winning super bowls," said ESPN's Boston sports guy Bill Simmons on his podcast, the BS Report. "Neither of us had really had any success. They had won the one super bowl [Super Bowl III], but other than that just two fan bases that always got kicked in the teeth."

How the Jets could attack Patriots defense + Playoff picks

If the Patriots defense showed any vulnerabilities in it's final two blowouts of the season, it was to the deep ball.

In a 34-3 rout of the Bills, the Pats gave up three passes of 30 yards or more. In that game, Kyle Arrington failed to defend passes of 41 and 40 yards to Buffalo rookies C.J. Spiller and Donald Jones respectively. Later in the game, Patrick Chung also got caught behind Naaman Roosevelt on a 30 yard bomb.

While there were significantly less completed deep balls the following week in a 38-7 thrashing of Miami, Dolphins' quarterback Tyler Thigpen did have some success going long. In the third quarter he completed a 27 yard strike to Brandon Marshall and later attempted a 32 yard throw to Marshall which drew a pass interference call from Darius Butler.

It's a slight trend that the Patriots have almost certainly spent a portion of the past two weeks attempting to fix. The Jets have some dangerous threats in Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards in their receiver corps. Whether or not the Jets try to test Arrington or Butler deep will be something to watch for in Sunday's game especially if the game is close late.