Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Well RichardBak, after having now his first winning season in what seems like forever, Stafford can now try to focus on winning the division and making a playoff run. Can the Rams go all the way ? Will the owners "want" Kroenke to win the SB in LA ? ... haha, stay tuned ...

As of right now it's looking, to me, like N.E. vs. K.C. for the A.F.C. championship in a few weeks. In the N.F.C. I'm less sure but as of right now I'm thinking that it'll be the Bays going up against one another (again).

Going back to my predictions I whiffed on a few. Most notably how CIN, AZ, and PHI would do this season (in my defense on CIN I was in Panama a couple of years ago and while there I spoke with a Bengals fan who told me that "as long as Mike Brown is in charge of the team they won't do anything."). For the first round of the playoffs I think things are pretty wide-open (a sentiment echoed by Coach Dungy on TV the other day). I honestly think that each Saturday game could go either way (this is our first chance to see B.B. as a H.C. in the playoffs without T.B. at QB for him). Maybe a slight edge to N.E. 'cause of B.B.'s playoff history (but I personally wouldn't put much money down on that).

For Sunday I don't see a Jalen Hurts-quarterbacked team beating a Tom Brady-quarterbacked one, especially not in the playoffs. And I certainly don't see PIT going to K.C. and getting the upset - not after what K.C. did to the same team just a couple of weeks ago. Then again - in this crazy season nothing is completely outside the realm of possibility.

For the remaining two games of the first round I'm really, really, really hoping that SFO wins on Sunday and as for Monday's game: I'm pulling for the team in red but in all honesty I don't have faith that either of those two teams has a QB that can get them to the S.B.

We'll see what happens; should be a fun, exciting, and unpredictable playoffs!

Looks like only three of us posted 'full' predictions this year -used to have a lot more- so easy to check how they did.

JWL got 6 division winners correct, Reaser got 5 and 74_75_78_79 got 4
74_75_78_79 and Reaser each got 9 playoff teams correct, JWL got 8

All three still have their SB prediction alive:

74_75_78_79 had TB over BUF
JWL had KC over LAR
Reaser had TB over KC

The best prediction I heard was made prior to the last weekend of games. One of the regular sports radio guests...I think it was Mike Florio...kept going on and on about "the one AFC team you don't want to face in the playoffs is the Colts! They grind you down, play tough defense, etc. etc. etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the Colts made it to the Super Bowl!"

I guess now it would be VERY surprising if the Colts made the Super Bowl. Typical lunacy from the talking heads.

Bryan wrote:The best prediction I heard was made prior to the last weekend of games. One of the regular sports radio guests...I think it was Mike Florio...kept going on and on about "the one AFC team you don't want to face in the playoffs is the Colts! They grind you down, play tough defense, etc. etc. etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the Colts made it to the Super Bowl!"

I guess now it would be VERY surprising if the Colts made the Super Bowl. Typical lunacy from the talking heads.

Yeah, considering they aren't in the playoffs. They'll have to wait for next season!

superbowlfanatic wrote:I think Bills will beat the Browns in the AFC Title game.

That's all I know.

No, I did not know.

^Not a bad prediction. Buffalo can still play in the title game.

This year was very difficult to predict with the new 17-game season plus the Covid protocols. Very impressive predictions by our members to get so many playoff teams correct. Whoever picked the Raiders, that was especially impressive, IMO.

The playoffs are going to be equally tough to predict because of the extra regular-season game, the fluid bracket system, and we don't know who might miss games due to Covid.

A few things that really interest me about the first round and what we know about the second round:

A lot of years at least one team with a bye week tends to come out flat and it will be interesting to see if the Titans and Packers can overcome that trend.

The Steelers/Chiefs game is particularly interesting in that you've got Big Ben and Mike Tomlin who know how to win playoff games going up against the two-time defending AFC Champion. Only the Dolphins, Bills, and Patriots have won 3 straight AFC Championships, so history favors at least someone to defeat KC. Could it be the Steelers who scrapped their way into the playoffs? Are they going to be able to push that wagon up the hill to win what we could reasonably call the playoff tournament? They aren't the best team but you don't need to be the absolute best team to win the Conference. You just have to win 2-3 tough games in a row. Not debating the system but that's the way it is and I do believe the Steelers have a chance to cause trouble.

The Packers clearly look like the best in the NFC. They do have special teams issues that could hurt them, they have wasted many time outs this season on offense at the LOS (although they've gotten better the last couple of games), and they are 100% reliant on Aaron Rodgers to play. They are likely the best bet to win the NFC but I do think the Cowboys could cause some problems and so could the Rams. Then, of course, there's the Tom Brady factor. The Cardinals might surprise in a game or two but I really think the NFC probably comes down to those 4, with the strongest chance being Green Bay.

The AFC is tougher to predict, especially without knowing Derrick Henry's status. I see the winner of the Patriots/Bills having a great chance to get to the Super Bowl. The Titans have been impressive and I think they have a good chance of being the ones to knock KC out, if they play them. I don't see them losing to the Bengals/Raiders winner, I think they'll win at least one.

If I have a hunch, not knowing how the exact scheduling will be, I would say Dallas vs Green Bay in the NFC and Titans vs Patriots in the AFC Championship.

Questions I got...

WHY is there a lingering Monday Night Game instead of, simply, three playoff games per weekend day?

and

WHY did Flores get fired?? Oh, wait, this is the 21st Century Dolphins we're talking of! Sorry.


And I'm sure you're all asking why I picked Joe Judge (or Belichick) as Coach of the Year? I don't know, I thought I saw some signs last year. He is from the School of Belichick. I personally would have given him just one more year. Just one more year.