Good afternoon, everyone. Now that the 2023 NFL season is over with, might as well go over how close I was with my picks before the season vs. how the season played out. Turns out that I got half of my division winners right, thanks in part to collapses by Jacksonville and Miami. The Jaguars came from 8-3 ahead only to lose 5 out of 6 and lose the division to the Houston Texans. Meanwhile Miami blew a three-game lead on the Buffalo Bills to lose the AFC East. I didn't foresee Joe Burrow getting hurt this season, but he did, and the Cincinnati Bengals missed the playoffs despite having a winning record (9-8). Also, the AFC North became the first division in nearly 90 seasons to have all of their teams finish over .500. I did hit on two of my three wild cards, as Pittsburgh and Miami made it. I missed with Denver, who was tied for the AFC West lead before they fell apart and finished with an 8-9 record. Interestingly enough, the Cleveland Browns got the other wild card.
So, the AFC playoffs look like this: Baltimore gets the bye, 2-seed Buffalo plays 7-seed Pittsburgh in what could be a snow game at Orchard Park, 3-seed hosts 6-seed Miami in what may be a freezer bowl of sorts in KC, and 4-seed Houston hosts 5-seed Cleveland in what seems like the usual 4pm Saturday game for the Texans.
In the NFC, my Super Bowl pick (Philadelphia) was on track to get top seed in the NFC, then the wheels seemingly fell off. As a result, the NFC East had yet another non-repeat winner in Dallas. The South saw a surprise as my Bucs proved everybody wrong and captured their third straight division title. San Francisco took the West instead of Seattle, who fell short of the playoffs via tiebreaker, and Detroit took a step forward in winning their first division title since I was in the Naval Nuclear Power Training system. Green Bay and the LA Rams got the wild cards along with Philly.
So, in the NFC, we have 1-seed San Francisco with the bye, 2-seed Dallas hosting 7-seed Green Bay (and flashbacks of playoffs past), 3-seed Detroit hosts 6-seed Los Angeles and the return of Matthew Stafford to Ford Field, and 4-seed Tampa Bay hoping to exact revenge on 5-seed Philadelphia on Monday night.
As for right now, I see the playoff going like this: Cleveland upsets Houston followed by Kansas City dismantling Miami. Then on Sunday, Buffalo wins a tight one against Pittsburgh, Dallas finally gets one over on Green Bay, and the Rams get the upset win over a depleted Detroit squad. Monday night, my Bucs do indeed get their revenge on the Eagles.
Then on Divisional weekend, the Ravens take down the Browns and Buffalo shocks KC in the AFC, while Tampa's Cinderella run comes to an end in Dallas, while San Francisco gets past the Rams in the NFC. Championship weekend sees Baltimore and San Francisco coming out triumphant and meeting in Las Vegas for a rematch of Super Bowl XLVII eleven years ago. Let's hope the power stays on for this one. My picks are subject to change by Friday night, so check my Twitter page for any updates.
Now that I've mentioned my picks, watch the NFL somehow finagle the games so that Kansas City winds up at home for all three rounds of the playoffs, and Philadelphia catches fire somehow and we wind up with my original pick for the Super Bowl. Then I'll almost be convinced that the NFL is indeed fixed...
Looking at YOU, Taylor...
BonyScribe
No comments:
Post a Comment