Don't Ask Me About the Eagles Game

I’m back, and there’s been a lot that’s happened since my last sports post.  Being an Eagles fan, some might think I have a few choice words for Terrell Owens.  I really don’t.  I said what I had to say in the off-season.  I was finished with the guy personally back then.  I was glad when he made plays on the field, but now I say good riddance.  A wide receiver can’t win games by himself, and especially when your superstar quarterback has been hobbled like Donovan McNabb has been. So now we come to a critical spot in the season for the Eagles.  Can the team win with Mike McMahon at the helm?  I think they probably can, but it won’t be easy.  They’ll have a very small margin for error against the Giants this weekend, and honestly if they lose this one, they can pretty much say goodbye to any postseason hopes to which they may still cling.  

But you know what?  That’s okay.  I don’t think they’ll make the playoffs as it stands right now, and not because they’re a bad team.  I think they’re still a good team that’s extremely banged up right now and that has not been able to be mistake-free when they needed to be.  The problem this season is that the NFC East won’t allow them to make up the ground that they need.  I think this may actually be—I won’t say a good thing—but maybe a not-so-bad thing for them in the long run.  It could give the injured players some time to get healthy, and give the healthy players more time to get ready for next season.  It’ll give the coaches and management more time to prepare for next season.  I’m not making excuses for this team, because I think they’ve played well below what they’re capable of (especially defensively), but I think this season has been an aberration.  If you watch the rest of the year, regardless of wins and losses, I think you’ll see a group of players who are in this thing together.  That’s not something you could have said a few weeks ago, and I think that’s probably a big part of why we are where we are right now.  But enough of my home team for now.  Let’s have a look around the league, shall we?

I’ve been calling the Colts semi-overrated all season.  I think this is a very very good team that has had a very very easy schedule up to this point.  That schedule gets a lot tougher down the stretch, but they’ll still probably win 14 games.  Cincinnati is the popular pick to knock them off at home this week, but I’m not so sure.  They can definitely pull it off, but Indy will be up for this one.  I’m seeing the Colts beating the Bengals in a close game.  If you look at the rest of the season, the Colts have Pittsburgh (in Indy), the Jags (in Jacksonville), the Chargers (in Indy), and the Seahawks (in Seattle).  I can see them dropping games against San Diego and Seattle.  That having been said, I still think they’re the favorites for the Super Bowl right now (I know, that’s a tough pick to make, right?).

Speaking of San Diego and Seattle, don’t sleep on these guys.  The Chargers will run off four straight wins over the next four weeks (Buffalo, Washington, Oakland, Miami) before going into what will be a huge final three weeks of the season for them (Indy, K.C., Denver).  If they can get two out of those last three (I think they will), that gives them 11 wins and that’s gotta be enough for a playoff berth—even in the AFC.  Even though Indy is the favorite for the Super Bowl, I’m still sticking with my preseason pick until they’re out of it.

In the NFC, I have no more illusions of the Eagles making the Super Bowl at this point, so I need to get myself an NFC favorite.  The Panthers will make a run at it, and they’re the popular choice right now to take the conference.  I say look out for the Seahawks.  They’ve exorcised the St. Louis demons (losses to the Rams have sent their last two seasons into a tailspin), and at 7-2, they’ve got the Giants, Colts and (potentially) Eagles as tough games left on the schedule.  That puts them at a worst case scenario of 11-5 at the end of the year.  The Panthers, on the other hand, have Chicago, Atlanta (twice), Tampa, and Dallas down the stretch.  I still think they’ll win the NFC South, but Seattle will be on more of a roll toward the end of the season.

There wasn’t much to write about as far as this past week’s games (yes, I’m avoiding talking about the Eagles-Cowboys game—it’s much too painful), so I guess I’ll leave it at that for now.  I’ll be back with this week’s picks later this week (probably Friday), and I’m planning on finally getting my UFC post up this week, leading up to this Saturday’s pay-per-view event.  I’m really looking forward to that one.  Until then, enjoy your sports.