Final Thoughts on 2013 NFL Season: In case you hadn't been reminded half-a-million times, "Defense Wins Championships"

It only figures that after I talked about how long it had been since we had a good ol' fashioned Super Bowl blowout when making my final pick, that's exactly what the endlessly hyped big game ended up being. We had been led to believe that the game would certainly be a lot closer at the half—or hell, even at the end of the first quarter. Instead, Seattle dominated from start to finish and capped off a wildly successful year.

While I did indeed have the Broncos losing the Super Bowl when I made my original predictions this season, I only had the Seahawks going as far as the NFC Championship. For one reason or another, I believed this would finally be the year that the Detroit Lions broke through in the biggest way. So, oops. I was right about a Rodgers injury impacting the Packers negatively, but Detroit never capitalized. 

Looking back on all of my picks, Detroit was one of only two division winners I was incorrect about this year (with the Cowboys blowing an opportunity to win the East in the season finale). Overall, I had 15 of the 32 teams in their actual final spots (getting the orders exactly right in the NFC South and AFC West, but having absolutely none of the teams in the NFC East) and correctly predicted nine of the dozen teams that made the playoffs (five of the six in the AFC and four of the six in the NFC).