Mikey D

New York Giants versus New England Patriots. New York and Boston once again. Well, the season is all but over, and I will take a look back on my year of picking winners.

Before I do so, let me start with the Giants-Packers game from yesterday. One hell of a game. Eli Manning has shown he can be big-time. Now I can sit here and take credit for successfully predicting a three-point win for the Giants yesterday, but I cannot do that out of good conscious. Why? Well, for all the negative things I've said about Eli and the Giants this year, I don't deserve to take praise for predicting them to beat Green Bay. They've proven me completely wrong this year, and I deserve to eat crow. Here's what I've said this year:
1) In my preseason predictions, I predicted the Giants to finish last. "Eli has looked serviceable, but not great. Now he has to step-up and be the leader of this team. He has Shockey and Burress for weapons, but if one of those guys goes down, they're in trouble. He no longer has Tiki to bail him out in the passing game." Not a complete knock, but "serviceable" is exactly a compliment.
2) After week two of the season: "The top 5 picks in the 08' NFL Draft: 1) Kansas City Chiefs 2) Atlanta Falcons 3) New York Giants 4) Cleveland Browns 5) Oakland Raiders." Yeah, I thought they'd be that bad.
3) My playoff pick against the Cowboys: "All signs are pointing to the upset, but less we forget Dallas has already beaten the Giants twice this year, they are at home, they are the number one seed, have 11 pro-bowlers, and oh yeah, the Giants have Eli Manning. Yes, that is a knock on Eli Manning. Sure they've won eight games on the road this year, but what does that say about your QB? He's not mentally tough to handle the pressures of his own home crowd. He's lost more at home than on the road. I don't want to ride a mentally weak QB into Dallas in the second round of the playoffs because THAT'S pressure. In Eli I don't trust."

So yes, I thought the Giants would beat Green Bay. In Eli I do trust...now. I guess there comes a point in some QB's career where everything kind clicks all at once. It just took Eli awhile to get there. As much crow as I'm eating, however, Tiki Barber must be eating more. That guy rips Eli all year in the media, and the year after he leaves the team, Manning takes them to the Super Bowl. The key words in the last sentence were 'Manning takes them to the Super Bowl'. That must have been sweet for Eli. A little sweeter than shutting me up =).

Congratulations Eli, I'm glad you made it- you earned it.

NFC Picks- Review
NFC East:
1) Philadelphia Eagles
2) Dallas Cowboys
3) Washington Redskins
4) New York Giants

NFC North:
1) Chicago Bears
2) Detroit Lions
3) Green Bay Packers
4) Minnesota Vikings

NFC South:
1) New Orleans Saints
2) Atlanta Falcons
3) Carolina Panthers
4) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West:
1) Arizona Cardinals
2) St. Louis Rams
3) San Francisco 49ers
4) Seattle Seahawks

Playoff Seeds:
1) Philadelphia Eagles
2) New Orleans Saints
3) Chicago Bears
4) Arizona Cardinals
5) Dallas Cowboys
6) Atlanta Falcons

Things I got right:
1) Even though I picked Minnesota to finish last, my comments about them were dead-on: "Travaris Jackson is your quarterback. Icky. Solid backfield with Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson and a great O-Line to work with. I'm no NFL coach, but I would just pound the football. Otherwise Jackson will be forced to throw it to guys I've never heard of, and that will inevitably be a bad thing. This team is rebuilding in every sense of the word...and yet the Lions will probably still lose to them at least once this year."
2) Not buying into the preseason San Francisco hype: "In my opinion, the offense is doomed. Alex Smith isn't ready to carry a team yet, and Jackson has to prove he can stay healthy for more than six games a season."
3) Nothing else. I was ridiculously wrong about the NFC.

Things I got wrong:
1) The Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, and New Orleans Saints. Not one of those teams one their division like I had predicted, and most were not even close. To top it off, only the Cowboys made the playoffs out of my six picks.
2) The Atlanta Falcons- I know, I know, Joey Harrington. I thought the team would gel and band together around the whole Michael Vick fiasco, but it turned out to be just the opposite. They completely fell apart. It was a gamble pick, but I looked at the rest of the division and thought Tampa Bay and Carolina were in the decline. Still, as my chic pick, they made me look awful, and will now be picking in the top-5 of the draft. Major oops.
3) The Lions (again). "Yup, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. If the defense can stay healthy, and we get Calvin in training camp and Jones comes back, I think this team will be decent. I like the offense with Williams, Johnson, and Furrey at receiver, and backfield of Jones, Bell, and Duckett. But will we have an O-Line this year? A secondary? Remains to be seen." Still remains to be seen. Oh, and goodbye Mike Martz.

AFC Picks- Review
AFC East:
1) New England Patriots
2) Miami Dolphins
3) New York Jets
4) Buffalo Bills

AFC North:
1) Baltimore Ravens
2) Pittsburgh Steelers
3) Cincinnati Bengals
4) Cleveland Browns

AFC South:
1) Indianapolis Colts
2) Jacksonville Jaguars
3) Tennessee Titans
4) Houston Texans

AFC West:
1) Denver Broncos
2) San Diego Chargers
3) Oakland Raiders
4) Kansas City Chiefs

Playoff Seeds:
1) Denver Broncos
2) New England Patriots
3) Baltimore Ravens
4) Indianapolis Colts
5) San Diego Chargers
6) Pittsburgh Steelers

Things I got right:
1) The AFC South. All right! Although I think it was the easiest division in the NFL to pick. I don't think it ever changes year after year.
2) Seeing the Bengals and Jets as frauds. The Jets were coming off their playoff run last year, and the Bengals were predicted to "take the next step". I called out the Jets weak ass schedule from last year and the Cincinnati defense, and the Jets showed they can't play with the big boys, and the Bengals showed they can't play a lick of defense.
3) Believing in the Steelers. The Steelers were awful the year before, brought back the same personnel for 07', and lost Bill Cowher. Still, this team had too much talent, and there was no way Big Ben would be as bad as the year before. Thanks for proving me right.

Things I got wrong:
1) The Denver Broncos. I thought San Diego, with all their coaching changes and high expectations, would take a step back this year (and for about ten games I was right). That means a team in the west would step up...and I thought that'd be Denver. The things that I normally bank on with Denver teams didn't happen, though. Denver didn't run the football with much success this year, and the defense couldn't stop anyone. That doesn't happen typically with Mike Shannahan teams. But since it did, that makes me wayyyyyyyy off.
2) Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens. Both are picking in the top-10 in this years' draft. I did terrible with these picks. Both QBs for these teams showed their age, and when they went down, all the teams could do was pray to the NFL gods for mercy.
3) The Cleveland Browns- but didn't everyone???

Super Bowl Pick: New England versus Philadelphia
Well, I had AFC East versus NFC East. Close enough. New York, Philadelphia...same thing.

Better luck next year, I guess.

~Mikey D