AFC East
The New England Patriots would
need a utter collapse to prevent winning the Division Championship
Things get a little more dicey for
home field advantage as the entire offensive line has been hit by injuries,
as well as their top running back
The undefeated Patriots have to
hold off the 8-0 Bengals and 7-1 Broncos for the number one seed and they
honestly
have a decent shot at running the
table as their remaining schedule contains only three teams with a winning
record.
All three of those games (Giants,
Jets and Denver) will be on the road though so the Pats will have to earn the
home field edge
The real race in the division is
for the number two spot and possibly on of the wild card berths.
The Bills put themselves back in
the picture with their second thumping of the Dolphins this year.
That impressive Buffalo win and
the Jets troubling difficult win over the Jags last week sets up a Thursday
Night Showdown
with the Bills and Jets this week.
A Jets win will basically put Rex Ryan and his Bills to sleep for the season.
A Buffalo win ties things up and
may result in that final playoff spot being settled when these two teams meet
again in Week 17 in Buffalo.
The Dolphins are a team in
distress and will need a near miracle turnaround to get back in the playoff
picture
AFC North
Like the Patriots, the undefeated
Bengals are running away with the division. Cincinnati has only the two teams
remaining on their schedule with winning records but those two teams are tough.
The Bengals will have to beat Arizona in the desert and beat Denver at Mile
High to get that Number one seed. Even if the Bengals manage that, they still
have to deal with Andy Dalton's horrendous history in the post season. The
Bengals are an intriguing story and I interested in seeing how the rest of
their season unfolds.
At the time of this writing the
Pittsburgh Steelers are holding on to the sixth and final playoff berth. Pitt
got a huge OT win against the Raiders, who they were tied with for the final
spot going into the game. Now the Steelers are a game up on both the Raiders
(who they also now own the tie breaker) and the Bills.
Unfortunately for Steeler backers
Big Ben is hurt again as a bum ankle will keep him out of the line up for at
least two games.
I am NOT feeling optimistic if I
am in the Steel City at the moment.
Amazingly the Ravens are
completely out of the playoff picture at 2-6. I have to admit that is a shock
to this writer.
Not so amazingly the hapless
Cleveland Browns are also dead and buried, as usual, at 2-7
AFC South
The Colts, despite some horrendous
play this year have the division lead by a game, after a resounding home win
against the formerly undefeated Broncos Sunday. Andrew Luck has been hurt and
also heard some boos this year but this division is so bad, that the Colts sub
par .500 record (4-5) is actually leading the pack.
Houston is second at 3-5 and
really has not shown much this year. Houston three wins have come against
Tennessee, Jacksonville and Tampa. Those teams are combined 7-17 this year.
Houston vaunted defense has been burned at home twice this year. Giving up 27
points to both the Chiefs and the Colts in two losses. The offense has been
worse, scoring less than 21 points per game
The Titans stunned the Saints in
the Big Easy Sunday but are still just 2-6 for the season and 0-4 at home. Not
good.
Tennessee's future does look
bright as first round pick Mariota looks to be the real deal. I must admit I
had my doubts that Mariota could perform at this level but so far those doubts
seem to be unfounded
Jacksonville stinks.
AFC West
Denver QB has gotten more flak for
being 7-1 than Hillary Clinton did in Bosnia. The future hall of famer is
certainly not as good as he once was but he looked pretty good tying up that
game up versus the Colts after trailing by 17. Denver's defense is still
outstanding and will present the biggest hurdle to New England and Cincinnati's
run to the Super Bowl.
Oakland plays in the Black Hole
and accordingly are the division's dark horse. The Raiders lost a heart breaker
to the Steelers in OT
Sunday but superior play by QB
Derek Carr definitely has the Raiders on the come. Oakland has a legitimate
shot at 10-6 with only the Broncos and Packers as teams with winning records
still on the schedule. Ten and six should be playoff worthy.
The Chiefs made some noise with a
big win against a horrible Lions squad across the pond ten days ago but still
sit at just 3-5.
The Chargers are a surprisingly
bad 2-6 despite Phillip Rivers leading the league in passing yards. Admittedly
many of those yards have come in garbage time when San Diego was hopelessly out
of the game.
NFC East
The Giants have no running game
and the league's worst defense but somehow lead the division even after blowing
the first two games thanks to Eli Manning mental meltdowns.
While Eli may be a mental midget,
he has been a physical Giant (get it?) behind the center. Manning has thrown
for nineteen touchdowns in the first eight games and is the number six ranked
QB in the NFL.
Where the Giants really struggle
is when they face team with a winning record, with just a single win since
2012. That is bad.
The Giants have three games
remaining against teams above .500 plus the Eagles so they are probably in
trouble for both the division crown and a playoff berth.
The Eagles trail the wildcard
final spot by two game so their gateway to the post season will have to come by
winning the division.
Philly has two tough games left
plus the season finale with the Giants. The Eagles have a realistic shot at
10-6 and that will win the weak NFC East.
Washington is still kind of in the
hunt at 3-5 but look to win with Kirk Cousins at the helm.
I just don't see that being a
smart move. We shall see.
The Cowboys got Dez Bryant back
and will get Tony Romo back soon but the damage has been done. Dallas will need
to win out to have any kind of chance and with Carolina and Green Bay still to
play that seems unlikely.
NFC North
The Minnesota Vikings have pulled
a Rocky and stunned the world so far as they are tied atop the division with
the Mighty Green Bay Packers. The two division leaders have yet to meet and the
Vikings have yet to beat a team with a winning record so perhaps Minnesota's
early success is just another Norse Myth. The Vikings do look good for a
wildcard berth.
The Packers have not looked so
mighty the past two weeks getting manhandled in Denver and then falling short
in an epic fourth quarter comeback in Carolina Sunday. Aaron Rodgers is still
great but the Packers defense has shown some cracks the past few weeks and will
have to rebound. Green Bay pretty much has their own destiny in their hands
with those two remaining games with the Vikes.
The Bears are 2-5 and have no
chance of catching either the Pack of the Vikings.
The Lions have less than no chance
of doing either.
NFC South
The Panthers are 8-0 and have a
2.5 game lead on the Falcons. Carolina won a huge game at home versus the
previous undefeated Green Bay Sunday. Carolina holds their own destiny in their
hands as split with Atlanta in the final weeks of the season will be enough to
seal the division. That win Sunday against Green Bay also plays a monumental
role for deciding home field advantage as even if Green Bay gains the game
back, the Panthers win the tie breaker.
The Falcons looked to be a
potential powerhouse then lost to Tampa Bay at home. There was nothing
powerhousey about losing to an erratic Tampa Bay club at home. The Birds then
visited the City by the Bay and played like the pop rocker group Journey,
instead of an NFL team headed for the playoffs. Atlanta still has to play the
Panthers twice as well as the Vikings and Colts. At 6-3 the Falcons remains a
good shot to sew up one of the wild card berths.
The Saints looked to have had
turned it around with three straight wins including a 52 point explosion against
the hapless Giants.
That all ended with a loss to one
win Tennessee in the Big Easy Sunday. This loss really hurt the Saints but they
have to catch the Falcons for a wild card and they already have beaten the
Dirty Birds once this year so perhaps all is not lost.
Tampa Bay is in the same boat as
Tennessee. Nothing doing this year but Jamesis Winston is a keeper and the Bucs
may need to buy some shades because their future is so bright.
(My apologies to the '80s group
Timbuk3)
NFC West
Arizona has a two game lead on the
Rams and Seahawks and are playing well. The Cards do have a whale of a
remaining schedule.
Two games with the Seahawks, a
game with Rams, a game with Vikings and a game with the undefeated Bengals. The
Cardinals are extremely tough to beat in the desert and the Vikings, Packers,
Bengals and one of the Seahawks games will be played in Tempe so Arizona looks
to be OK.
The Seattle Seahawks are suffering
from the dreaded Super Bowl Hangover, only they lost the Big Game. The NFC
Champs have four losses
but three of those came against
teams undefeated at the time, Green Bay, Carolina and Cincinnati. Seattle has
two games left with the Cards and one with the Rams, the rest of the schedule
is against the dregs of the league. Don't count out Pete (Rah Rah) Carroll's
crew yet but they have a long road to hoe.
The Rams would have been sitting
pretty at 5-3 if they could have pulled off an OT win in Minnesota.The Vikings
coach made a reckless gamble by choosing to kick off in OT but the Rams went three
and out and the Vikings then kicked a field goal to make Mike Zimmer look like
a genius instead of a moron. The Rams only have the Seahawks, Bengals and
Cardinals as winning teams still on their schedule so with an upset or two,
could still see the post season.
The 49ers ownership ran a great
coach out of town, COMPLETELY screwed up the head of a young quarterback who
looked to have limitless potential not even two years ago and generally have
shown themselves to be totally underserving of owning an NFL franchise. The
49ers are still mathematically in it but the only Promised Land Blaine Gabbert
will lead you to will be on the Boss's Darkness on the Edge of Town CD.
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