Final Thoughts on 2011 NFL Season: My Quietest Year Yet

Yep. The number of posts during NFL seasons used to make this annual conclusion involve a number of loose ends to tie up. And the total number of posts had been going up every year for the past three (52 last year, 45 the year before that and 34 in apparently the first year), but this year? This will be only the 12th post about the NFL season.

And that's not to say it was a bad season, by any means. Another good Super Bowl, a pair of good Championship games and a few other memorable playoff games thrown in there. The regular season certainly had its usual share of moments and now there's the long six months until there's more football played.

I'd normally be showing grand totals amassed during confidence pool picks throughout the year, but I didn't participate in any of those this year. Yes, I hope to be back in them again next year, although I wouldn't count on myself to organize one.

I already talked about that fantasy stuff, and obviously with no confidence pools, there aren't any Power Rankings to post either. You may recall that this Bears season is not one I'm going to be recalling very warmly, and certainly not itching to revisit right now.

But, hey, at least we had a season. Oh, unless you were Peyton Manning. Sorry. And therein lies one of the most compelling stories to follow this off-season. A legendary quarterback now seeming bound to be wearing a different uniform at the start of next season after the Colts presumably draft Andrew Luck. I'm going to go ahead and guess there's no way the rookie can have the immediate impact that Cam Newton did this year.

Alas, there's a little bit of green this year in those playoff predictions made way back at the beginning of the season, but ultimately the success was minimal. The same sort of goes for the predictions I made during the playoffs, final standings which are below the fold.

Yes, because I picked the Pats at the beginning of the year and I stuck by my guns in hopes of saying, "I told you so!" (for once, in regards to yearly football predictions)and finishing alone in first in playoff prognosticating, we instead end up with these totals:

1. (1) Merrill Hoge, ESPN: 9-2
1. (1) Chris Mortensen, ESPN: 9-2
3. (4) Mike Freeman, CBS Sports: 8-3
3. (4) Clark Judge, CBS Sports: 8-3
3. (4) Dave Richard, CBS Sports: 8-3 
3. (1) YOURS TRULY: 8-3 
7. (9) Will Brinson, CBS Sports: 7-4
7. (9) Ron Jaworski, ESPN: 7-4
7. (9) Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: 7-4
7. (4) Adam Schefter, ESPN: 7-4
7. (4) Mark Schlereth, ESPN: 7-4
12. (9) Les Carpenter, Yahoo: 6-5
12. (9) Jason Cole, Yahoo: 6-5
12. (14) Eric Allen, ESPN: 6-5
12. (14) Mike Golic, ESPN: 6-5
12. (14) Seth Wickersham, ESPN: 6-5
17. (17) Michael Silver, Yahoo: 5-6

Maybe I'll look back and this will go down as some sort of incredibly memorable year in some regard and I'll wonder why I posted so little, but this was the first football season to follow after relocating. So new places, new faces. Maybe I'll meet some folks who want to run a confidence pool. And maybe we'll make it out for more Bears games now that we know there's a place that shows them. And perhaps I'll crank out, like, 13 posts or something.

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