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The biggest drag of having to wait two weeks between the conclusion of the AFC and NFC Championship games and the kickoff to the Super Bowl is that we are forced to endure a fortnight of tired coverage that simply wants us to get to the god damn game already. This year, the first week was largely dedicated to all of the (pun not originally intended, but I won't change it) overblown controversy surrounding balls in the AFC title game being allegedly deflated by the Patriots. Keeping in mind that New England won this game by a final score of 45-7, it is fairly ridiculous for some people to have screamed as loudly as they did about the damage this revelation caused. For most level-headed sports fans, it was another disappointing example of how one team will look for any edge it can find, but it wasn't exactly the 1919 White Sox here.
Our second week of Super Bowl coverage devoted entirely too much time to Marshawn Lynch's antics in dealing with the media. Again, a tired and essentially boring non-story, but some members of the thousands-plus credentialed media members want us to believe that we should be outraged. Sorry. Don't care. Get to the football.
When this game finally does kick off, it looks like we'll be in store for another good one. Much like last year's big game, I really could find myself satisfied with either one of these teams emerging victorious. I'm hoping for one major difference from last year though in that this year's Super Bowl will actually be a much closer game. Seeing as predictions tracked at Pickwatch currently have an even 50/50 split, I think it's a reasonable expectation. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Just as soon as I remove my fingers from my ears.
According to handy Pickwatch chart, I was one of only nine observers to correctly predict all four playoff game outcomes last weekend. Additionally, the two winners and two losers in the AFC matched my pre-season predictions—although in different matchups. So we end up with a championship round in which three of the four teams I had being here are still alive, and the one I didn't pick is probably the team I'm leaning most heavily toward winning the Super Bowl next month.
Once again, the biggest story to come out of last week was another controversial call. And maybe because I'm a Bears fan who remembered that infamous Calvin Johnson catch that wasn't in 2010, I immediately thought back to that terrible call as soon as I saw the Dez Bryant play this past weekend. Thus, it couldn't have been less surprising when referees made the correct call as far as the dumb rule is written. Of course, the outrage in the Lions-Bears opener was nowhere near what it was in the Twitterverse following a critical play late in an NFL playoff game. So maybe this off-season, the league will actually do something about the rule. But I'm not holding my breath.
I will cross my fingers and hope that we can get through these final three games without any more officiating concerns dominating the discussion afterward. That would be nice since there seems to be good reason to believe that we could get some fairly entertaining contests to conclude this season.
As I said back in June after our daughter came into this world, certain "annual" posts were probably going to be abandoned. And while I included the Oscar predictions I've been making for more than two decades as a category that would be among those that would be safe, I did not realize until late this afternoon that Academy Award nominations are getting announced tomorrow morning. As you might guess, I haven't gotten out to the movies very much, what with a baby and all (although Mom says little Lucy has actually slept peacefully through the two films she took her to).
So it is with some regret that I post this notice that I will not be doing my semi-usual posting of predicted nominees. I have not been following the race at all this year and I would basically be regurgitating the predictions made by two or three other "experts" I read. It was fun in the past to spend these evenings putting together the gold-bracketed pictures of expected nominees and then changing the colors to the lime green that corresponded to correct guesses or red for wrong ones. But that will not be the case this year.
I was right on there only being one road team victory last week, but I just picked the wrong road team to pull off an upset. For a good while there last Sunday, it certainly appeared that the Lions were going to make me look good (figuratively speaking, of course), but then a mysterious flag-that-wasn't ended up being the most discussed aspect of the weekend. Nice job, NFL.
So two right, two wrong for me in the first week of the playoffs. A lot of other observers certainly did a lot better. But if I want to feel somewhat better about myself, I'd point out that I had all four of the AFC teams playing this weekend being active in this round in my pre-season predictions. Yes, completely different matchups, but let me enjoy the sunshine where I can find it please.
It once again appears that all the home teams this weekend are overwhelming favorites, but we know that there's bound to be at least one underdog that leaves us stunned. Maybe it won't have to be the result of some very questionable officiating.
Watching the inaugural college football playoff games on New Year's Day, I briefly regretted not posting my predictions here for those contests. Of course, I really haven't dedicated any space on this blog to collegiate athletics. And really, I haven't dedicated much space here to anything in recent months. Babies will do that, I suppose.
Still, with the NFL playoffs beginning this weekend, it's as good a time as any to look back on my predictions from the beginning of the year. As has so often been the story, I was right on a few, and wrong on many more. My pick for Super Bowl winner this year indeed made the playoffs, but my predicted big game loser did not. I had no divisions this season in which I got all four finishes correct. So on, so forth.
I don't really know how much of the playoffs I'll actually be able to watch, but I will say that very early on in the young daughter's life, it has seemed as though she's perhaps more spellbound by football than any other sport I've had on in the bedroom while holding her. Maybe it's the uniforms, the maybe it's the bright colors. Maybe it was just all a matter of timing (I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that hockey ultimately appeals most to her). I'll probably be getting a few more chances to test the football theory over the next month though.
I wasn't right about much this NFL season, and I'm not terribly optimistic about how I'll fare in predicting games over the next few weeks either. I'll flat out admit that I could really pick any of the eight teams playing this weekend to win, and I won't be the least bit surprised if I get all four of the following predictions wrong.
Nonetheless, here's a few guesses just to humor myself. I suppose.
While the Bulls season tips off tonight, the regular season technically began last night. So again, my apologies for being a day late in posting these picks that are largely reprints of what I had last year.
The major exception this time around is that for the first time in some five years, I don't have the Miami Heat winning a division and coasting into the NBA Finals once again. While the loss of LeBron will certainly be devastating, the Heat should still be able to hang around in the one division in the East that has a little bit of doubt. But the debate in the East essentially boils down to which one of the two teams in the Central you like more: the Bulls or the Cavs.
The West remains an absolute freak show of talent, with some 10 teams having a realistic shot at making the playoffs. I had a hard time deciding which one of last year's teams I wouldn't pick to make it again this year.
It's still somewhat amazing for me to see the Spurs as such predominant favorites in most of the picks I've seen thus far, not because I don't think they're not talented and able to repeat but more because I've grown so used to them being dismissed as "too old" year in, year out. Still, I know we're bound to get (at least) one major injury that screws everyone's picks and possibly eliminates a very popular title favorite.
All of that said, I'll still take a stab at how I see every team finishing and which one will be hoisting the Larry O'Brien next June.
And please forgive me for the spacing and font size issues as I'm posting this while
I'm
on
my
lunch
break.
One right, one wrong in last round with neither series lasting as long as I had predicted. Since the Wild Card round concluded, the only consistency in my predictions has been that I've been right about the Giants, wrong about the Royals, and incorrect on the length of every series. I'm 2-6 for this October, so fans of either team going into this last round would be right to hope that I don't pick their club.
It's not as though the baseball postseason has been necessarily bad, as there have been a number of very close games decided very late. However, none of the series have approached the maximum length and I don't really sense that the pattern's about to change—no matter how much I personally might be hoping otherwise.
This year's Fall Classic gives us one team that is seeking its third title in the past six years (dynasty?), and a club that hasn't won anything since it last appeared in the playoffs the same year Ronald Reagan was beginning his second term as president and my beloved Bears began a Super Bowl season by winning their first dozen games. It should be clear who I (and probably most of America) are pulling for, although what's really the point in getting my hopes up now?
After another abysmal round for me, I am now one for six in picking winners this postseason. At this point, I would almost be better served just pasting the predictions I made before the season began even though most of those teams have been eliminated.
This will be a somewhat strange rooting interest for myself (and a lot of fans) as it relates to this pair of series. Over in the American League, we have two relatively likable squads from cities that are three decades (or more) removed from their last World Series appearances.
And in the National League, we have the same two teams that have alternated as pennant winners for the past four years.
So we're left with a feeling of "Finally!" for one series and "Again?" for the other. It's already pretty clear which league I will be pulling for when we're down to the last two teams, but there's certainly reason to believe that we'll at least get two competitive series over the next week or so.
And having said that, now watch us get two sweeps.
So I was unable to get these picks up before the puck dropped last night (Blackhawks season, after all, begins tonight). I don't think being a day late gives me any sort of profound advantage or additional insight that any of the experts out there didn't have for the months leading up to making their own predictions.
And as the graphic here indicates, my beloved Blackhawks are quite the popular pick this year. While at the bank yesterday, a segment on PTI simply asked Tony and Michael "Kings or Blackhawks?"
Such is the way of the NHL, where much like the NBA, the West is seen as the overwhelming favorite. And while Chicago and L.A. are understandable favorites, you really couldn't fault anybody for liking other clubs in the West that upgraded this off-season, such as, say, St. Louis or Anaheim.
While seeing the Blackhawks being the choice of so many admittedly bolsters my optimism about a prolonged first viewing of the NHL Playoffs with the newborn (who will be a year old by the time the Cup is awarded), I'm also left a little uneasy by the distinct likelihood that an overwhelming favorite probably won't pan out.
Nonetheless, with the Bears being such a disappointment thus far this season and my still being left with a fair bit of skepticism about how much hope to invest in the Bulls (and let us not even speak of the Braves), hockey arrives at just the right time. Oh, how I have been longing to hear the voice of John Wiedeman again.
Well, that didn't go so well. At least I specifically admitted that I wasn't "terribly optimistic" about how I'd do, and I'm no more optimistic this round than I was in those two Wild Card game.
Sure, there seems to be a couple favorites here, but strange things happen in the baseball postseason. I suppose that if nothing else, I should just sit back and take a moment to appreciate that we won't have to endure the possibility of another October featuring the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
However, we've still got the Cardinals. And the Dodgers. But at least those two clubs are playing one another in this round, so one will be gone by the next time I'm posting picks. It's going to be hard to top the thrill of that extra-inning Kansas City victory, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.
