The Kecker's Mid-Season Predictions Tally
So how close am I? A while back, I picked a bunch of teams and
said they would do well. Here were my original calls on Sept.
27th:
My picks for the year in terms of teams to watch:
Vikings (obviously - Favre + Adrian Peterson = playoffs)
Cardinals (I know they sucked last night but Warner is the magic
man)
Bengals (yes - the freaking Bengals. Carson Palmer is here to
help those ugly looking zubaz helmet-heads)
Cowboys (I'm a little biased but if their defense and o-line show
up, Romo will wake up and lighten the running load)
Patriots (Brady is back - nuff said)
Jets (This team has beaten the best of the league already - oh
and rookie QB Mark Sanchez is pretty much flawless - oh and
they're 3-0)
Here's the current reality:
Vikings: 8-1
(Favre can still throw 65+ yards in the air in one
lunge and Peterson is 2nd in the NFL with 917 rushing yards -
but this was kind of a no brainer pick)
Cardinals: 6-3
(Winning 5 of their last 6 games, Warner may be old but
he's no slouch with receivers like Fitzgerald, Hightower
and Boldin grabbing his pinpoint throws. I'm pretty happy
with this call.)
Bengals: 7-2
(I don't think ANYone could have called this. Leading the
AFC are the Colts, the Patriots and...the BENGALS? Palmer
is staying healthy and their big D led by sackmaster
Antwan Odom is shutting down big teams. This is my
proudest call yet.)
Cowboys: 6-3
(Eesh. I'm kinda torn here because I'm a lifer Cowboys fan
but Romo is becoming a little flaky and they lost what
should have been an easy game to the lackluster Packers
today. It will be interesting to see how they fare against
some harder teams in the next few weeks.)
Patriots: 6-3
(Losing a 35-34 heartbreaker and dealbreaker to the Colts
tonight, Brady is still back and hungry for a title. No one
can defend Randy Moss with any measure of success. They
can't be counted out.)
Jets: 4-5
(Alright - I admit it. I jumped on the Mark Sanchez
bandwagon way too fast. Rex who? No one cares about
this team anymore. At best, they can finish the year at
maybe 9-7 but they would have to catch fire to even
break .500 - dumb call on my part. I guess I was just
very excited that they beat the Giants.)
