Finally, the NFL season is upon us. In places such as Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Franciso and Jacksonville, there is undoubtedly an air of excitement, where in places such as Phoenix, Houston, and Tampa(?) there is a feeling of existential dread. So, without rambling on aimlessly since I definitely am NO expert on football (I'm like the movie "Sliver," I like to watch), here are my picks for the season, and week one games.
In the AFC, my guesses to win the division are Buffalo in the East, Cincinnati in the North, Jacksonville in the South, and Kansas City in the West. My wild cards are Pittsburgh, Miami, and Denver. Sorry Jets fans, not even Aaron Rodgers can save y'all. In the NFC, I have Philadelphia in the East, Minnesota in the North, New Orleans in the South, and Seattle in the West. My Wild Cards there will be Detroit, Washington, and Dallas. There is too much drama and uncertainty with the Bucs to make a serious playoff run in my opinion. My Super Bowl pick in Vegas this year, a rematch of last year's big game, with the Eagles exacting revenge on the Chiefs.
Now let's go to the rest of the games for week one.
I'm starting off in a hole already because Kadarius Toney couldn't catch COVID if it were thrown his way last night, and the absence of Travis Kelce (which was announced just as I had finished my last blog post) was very apparent as the Lions upset the defending champion Chiefs, 21-20. 506 Sports once again has a trusty map to follow along as far as which television markets are showing which games, and you can find it here. Plus since it's Week One, we get the double-doubleheader, as both CBS and Fox have it. Locally here in Tampa, we'll see TB-MIN (CBS), or SF-PIT (FOX), followed by MIA-LAC (CBS) or GB-CHI (FOX).
For the Bucs-Vikings matchup, Tampa fans will finally get to see how good (or not) Baker Mayfield plays in regular season game speed as a member of the pewter and red. However, there's already other than fair winds and following seas for the krewe, as Rachard White simply missed practice altogether on Wednesday, and contract talks with Mike Evans have hit an impasse, so now there's a possibility of him not being a lifetime Buccaneer, which doesn't make many fans happy at all. By the way, if you ask me, he should have scored a TD in Super Bowl LXV. Oh, and we're having to play against Mr. "YOU LIKE THAT?!" on Sunday. Like Bucs fans said a few years back when we absolutely were putrid, "It's a Bucs Life." Minnesota takes this one.
As for the rest of early slate:
CIN over CLE
BAL over HOU
NO over TEN
PIT over SF
WSH over AZ
JAX over IND
ATL over CAR
the late games:
PHI over NE
MIA over LAC
DEN over LV
CHI over GB (Aaron Rodgers no longer has ownership of the Bears at Soldier Field anymore)
SEA over LAR
Sunday night I have the Giants beating the Cowboys (is it just me or does it seem like these two teams always play each other on week One? and on National TV at that?). For the Monday night game (not available in certain markets, THANKS A LOT SPECTRUM!) I have the Bills over the Jets.
Hopefully this season (from a picking standpoint) won't suck as bad as I did last season, which caused me to abandon all hope by Week 8. My late sister Jean would used to tell me that I lacked follow-through on certain things, and last year was one example. Need to saddle up, take charge and power through; you never know who you might influence going forward. Enjoy the games everyone!
BS
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