Mid-season NFL Ramblings
The top 5 questions / talking points as we are midway through the 2006 NFL season.
1) What’s up with the Pittsburgh Steelers?
As much as we (as in, the Seattle folks) hate the Steelers for spoiling our Super Bowl party that fateful day in February, their dip in form has been alarming, to put it mildly. Usually, what Championship winning teams in other sports do, is trade some of their best players for a lot of money to other teams, right after winning the Championship. But the Steelers did not do that and except for Antwaan Randle El, had all their stars coming together again for this season. In the draft, they picked up the hugely talented wide receiver Santonio Holmes from Ohio State. Coming in with almost the same team, the Steelers at this stage of the season are virtually out of the playoff picture. 2-6 is not the way one had expected the Super Bowl champions to start the season with. They reached the nadir last week, when they lost to the Raiders, inspite of just giving up 98 total yards on offense. Their remaining schedule does not look pretty either - 2 divisional games against the Ravens and a road game against the Panthers. Like my friend here says, Crapsburgh would be a better name for them.
2) Is this finally Peyton Manning's year?
Well, the analysts covering the game have been asking this question every season, for the last 3-4 years. I really thought last year was their best chance of going to the Super Bowl, bcos of their vastly improved defense complimenting the omni-potent offense. But their defense, particularly the rush defense, has sucked so far this year. Plus, Edgerrin James leaving them has made their offense very one-dimensional (though I have to admit here that Joesph Addai is getting better with each passing game). So, given all these, if I have to answer this question in one word - NO would be my answer. I would like to see Peyton win the Super Bowl but they say Defense wins Championships and the Colts defense in their current state can't do that.
3) Will the Seahawks escape the Super Bowl losers jinx?
For starters, the Super Bowl losers jinx is that none of the Super Bowl losing teams since 1999 have gone to record a winning season, right after their Super Bowl appearance season. So, when Shaun Alexander and then Matt Hasselback were injured (making them miss a combined 9 games), the jinx was rearing its ugly head again, here in Seattle. After the Monday night victory over the Raiders, the Seahawks are 5-3 and if Hasselback comes back as expected in 2 weeks' time, I am picking the Seahawks to become the first team to break the Super Bowl jinx and record a winning season & ultimately make it to the playoffs.
4) Will the Cardinals ever wake up from their slumber?
Just like number 2, another prediction that is perennially made every pre-season is that the Cardinals are the sleeper team of the year. Every year there is this one team which no one would expect to do well but they end up doing extremely well and they are called the sleeper team of the season. For example, that billing would fit the 6-2 New Orleans Saints this season. But the Cardinals? Everything they did during the off-season - signing Edgerrin James, drafting Matt Leinart and inaugurating a state-of-the-art stadium - suggested that this is finally the year that they will turn the corner in their franchise's history. The fact that they arguably have one of the best wide receiving core in the NFL made everyone look forward to with hope. But at 1-7 with the worst record in the league, this has turned out to be another disappointing season for the Cardinals and Leinart is yet to register his first win as a starter.
5) Will the NFC East get less-competitive ever?
It is just unbelievable on how tough this particular division is - Redskins, Eagles, Cowboys and Giants. We have conferences like AFC south & NFC West (with 2 abject bad teams) and then we have a division where all 4 teams are tough to beat most of the time. The Giants are currently ahead in the race for the divisional winner but the Cowboys and Eagles are not far behind. Save for one year during the last 4 years, one of the 2 NFC wild card spots has always gone to the NFC East. Even away from the conference, their schedule is pretty tight. I was taking a look at the remaining schedule of the Washington Redskins and it looks brutal. The Giants are the favorites to win the division this season but in a tough division as this one, you never know what will happen. I am rooting for the Eagles, who inspite of a 4-4 start, look pretty good.
My predictions for the NFC and AFC Championship match-ups:
NFC: Bears vs Panthers and Panthers advance
AFC: Patriots vs Chargers and Chargers advance
I am sure many of us here would have come across jokes about the typical life style of desis (basically “You are a desi if” forwards like this). I have always wanted to come up with my own list but haven’t gotten many to make up a list. Anyway, the reason I am mentioning here is that there is atleast one item that I would add to this list. So, here it is - you are a desi IF you show more patriotism for your hometown football/ basketball/ baseball team that you would have ever shown for a team form your home country, say, the Indian cricket team :)
1) What’s up with the Pittsburgh Steelers?
As much as we (as in, the Seattle folks) hate the Steelers for spoiling our Super Bowl party that fateful day in February, their dip in form has been alarming, to put it mildly. Usually, what Championship winning teams in other sports do, is trade some of their best players for a lot of money to other teams, right after winning the Championship. But the Steelers did not do that and except for Antwaan Randle El, had all their stars coming together again for this season. In the draft, they picked up the hugely talented wide receiver Santonio Holmes from Ohio State. Coming in with almost the same team, the Steelers at this stage of the season are virtually out of the playoff picture. 2-6 is not the way one had expected the Super Bowl champions to start the season with. They reached the nadir last week, when they lost to the Raiders, inspite of just giving up 98 total yards on offense. Their remaining schedule does not look pretty either - 2 divisional games against the Ravens and a road game against the Panthers. Like my friend here says, Crapsburgh would be a better name for them.
2) Is this finally Peyton Manning's year?
Well, the analysts covering the game have been asking this question every season, for the last 3-4 years. I really thought last year was their best chance of going to the Super Bowl, bcos of their vastly improved defense complimenting the omni-potent offense. But their defense, particularly the rush defense, has sucked so far this year. Plus, Edgerrin James leaving them has made their offense very one-dimensional (though I have to admit here that Joesph Addai is getting better with each passing game). So, given all these, if I have to answer this question in one word - NO would be my answer. I would like to see Peyton win the Super Bowl but they say Defense wins Championships and the Colts defense in their current state can't do that.
3) Will the Seahawks escape the Super Bowl losers jinx?
For starters, the Super Bowl losers jinx is that none of the Super Bowl losing teams since 1999 have gone to record a winning season, right after their Super Bowl appearance season. So, when Shaun Alexander and then Matt Hasselback were injured (making them miss a combined 9 games), the jinx was rearing its ugly head again, here in Seattle. After the Monday night victory over the Raiders, the Seahawks are 5-3 and if Hasselback comes back as expected in 2 weeks' time, I am picking the Seahawks to become the first team to break the Super Bowl jinx and record a winning season & ultimately make it to the playoffs.
4) Will the Cardinals ever wake up from their slumber?
Just like number 2, another prediction that is perennially made every pre-season is that the Cardinals are the sleeper team of the year. Every year there is this one team which no one would expect to do well but they end up doing extremely well and they are called the sleeper team of the season. For example, that billing would fit the 6-2 New Orleans Saints this season. But the Cardinals? Everything they did during the off-season - signing Edgerrin James, drafting Matt Leinart and inaugurating a state-of-the-art stadium - suggested that this is finally the year that they will turn the corner in their franchise's history. The fact that they arguably have one of the best wide receiving core in the NFL made everyone look forward to with hope. But at 1-7 with the worst record in the league, this has turned out to be another disappointing season for the Cardinals and Leinart is yet to register his first win as a starter.
5) Will the NFC East get less-competitive ever?
It is just unbelievable on how tough this particular division is - Redskins, Eagles, Cowboys and Giants. We have conferences like AFC south & NFC West (with 2 abject bad teams) and then we have a division where all 4 teams are tough to beat most of the time. The Giants are currently ahead in the race for the divisional winner but the Cowboys and Eagles are not far behind. Save for one year during the last 4 years, one of the 2 NFC wild card spots has always gone to the NFC East. Even away from the conference, their schedule is pretty tight. I was taking a look at the remaining schedule of the Washington Redskins and it looks brutal. The Giants are the favorites to win the division this season but in a tough division as this one, you never know what will happen. I am rooting for the Eagles, who inspite of a 4-4 start, look pretty good.
My predictions for the NFC and AFC Championship match-ups:
NFC: Bears vs Panthers and Panthers advance
AFC: Patriots vs Chargers and Chargers advance
I am sure many of us here would have come across jokes about the typical life style of desis (basically “You are a desi if” forwards like this). I have always wanted to come up with my own list but haven’t gotten many to make up a list. Anyway, the reason I am mentioning here is that there is atleast one item that I would add to this list. So, here it is - you are a desi IF you show more patriotism for your hometown football/ basketball/ baseball team that you would have ever shown for a team form your home country, say, the Indian cricket team :)
posted by Filbert at 8:59 AM
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