Wednesday, August 22, 2012

NFC East and South


Finally got a proper day to myself, no hassles, no messing about. Right, NFC East.

Actually, before I start, the last one of these I did was on the NFC North and since then the Packers have gone out and picked up Cedric Benson, I'm sure as part of a devious plan to ruin my predictions. Personally I think that's a really good move on their part as Benson is a good runner and a solid body in pass protection, which understandably is something the Packers are quite big on.

Now on to the NFC East. Promise.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Luck of the draw

The main reason I started this blog was to address some of what I perceived to be the major issues that I have with mainstream coverage of the NFL. One of the biggest problems I've always had is the elevation of certain people unfairly onto "Superstar" pedestals, that is to say that certain people are essentially manufactured into personalities that they are not, because it makes good TV and juicy articles on websites. The similar but in some ways opposite of this is to vilify certain individuals unwarrantedly because it sounds good and again generates mountains of comments and page views, regardless of how accurate or not the analysis is.

Friday, August 10, 2012

A Quick Rant

My next full post will be a look ahead at the NFC East, but just briefly I want to touch on something that came up after tonight's pre-season game involving the Broncos against the Bears.

Basically Peyton Manning took the field and did ok, nothing special, then got picked off. But what drives me nuts about football commentating and analysis is how the NFL Network crew, who naturally made a flurry of snide remarks about the receivers not being used to having accurate passes thrown to them during the short lived Tebow era, then proceeded to pour all the blame on the offensive line and the receivers.

Now in that respect, they're right; the Broncos have a bad O-line and their receivers are on their own unique level of terrible. But during the Tebow era it was all described as Tebow's fault and he was the sole cause of all the problems. Now that Manning has arrived however, oh now everyone has suddenly changed their tune. Despite the fact that Manning had a fairly average showing, suddenly it was all the fault of everyone else and Manning was perfect.

This kind of thing just makes my blood boil. When it's Tebow throwing to those receivers, he gets all the flak and the receivers are painted as being blameless. Enter the golden boy Manning and all of a sudden everyone has reversed course. It's total hypocrisy and the trouble is that it leaves an indelible impression on fans who turn to the TV experts for guidance.

And high school coaches wonder why parents are so ignorant to the game, or college coaches wondering why news reporters covering them are the same. There's your reason why. Shit like that.

Monday, August 06, 2012

NFC North 2012

TA DA!

Yes, well, perhaps not quite the fanfare I'd anticipated. Anyway, finally I am back to writing this blog as the football season slowly begins to lurch into action with the Hall of Fame Game tonight between the Cardinals and Dog the Bounty Hunters new favourite team, the Saints. So it's only appropriate that I pick this day to jump back on the saddle and actually produce a meaningful post.

I'm not sure whether the time away has been good or not. I was pretty burned out on football, just sick and tired of watching game after game of draftees in College. But at the same time I kind of regret spending so much time away, as I've really not followed football at all during the off season. I forgot that Raheem Morris had been fired from the Buccaneers for example. Football has lost some of it's lustre, but I'm hoping that getting back to the meat of football will bring that back.

I'm going to ease myself in today by taking a quick look at the NFC North and how I think the teams will get on. Begin!

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Back

So it's August now and training camps are back in full swing. The Football season awaits us, finally. To be honest I haven't followed much of the off season goings on for the first time in years, mainly because I'm busy and I'm burned out with all the non-news that is generated about every last little scrap that the press generates.

But now I'm finally getting back in the swing of things and my plan over the course of training camp is to look at each division and assess where I think they're headed this season. So keep an eye out over the coming days, as I'm going to start in the NFC North, go clockwise around the states, and then do the same for the AFC.

It's good to be back and good to be excited about football again.