The 2018 NFL season will kick off Thursday night between the Falcons and Eagles. Some questions heading this season:
Is this the end of the Patriots dynasty?
Will Brady and Belicheck get along?
Who will Brady throw to?
Who will represent the NFC? Eagles? Packers?
Who will represent the AFC? Patriots? Steelers?
Who are the sleeper teams?
Will Trump and his band of crybabies continue to whine about players kneeling during the anthem?
How will the new helmet rules going to destroy football?
Are players going to be penalized for playing football?
Finally, how will the Jets fare this season.
Prediction: They will finish 8-8 or 9-7 and sneak into the playoffs.
It’s not the end for the Patriots. They will win the division again. It’s pretty much the only certainty in the NFL. What they do afterwards is another matter.
I think the Rams will represent the NFC. Vikings, Saints, Falcons, Eagles, and Packers are all good teams too.
I am predicting the Chiefs for the AFC. Steelers aren’t going anywhere. Not with that D.
Sleeper teams could be the Bears in the NFC and Browns, LOL, yes Browns in the AFC.
Of course Trump will continue as long as kneeling continues. Do you expect anything less?
The new helmet rule will be a nuisance. It’s one of those penalties you can call on every play. The refs will randomly call it now and then.
Yippee! At least our long NFL drought is over in a couple of days.
I’m terrible at predictions, but think it’s safe to say Seattle is going to have a long, hard time of it. They went 0 for 4 in the preseason, and play their first two games on the road against the Broncos and Bears.
Am really hoping the Vikings have a great season and make the SB this year. Not predicting they will, only that I will be so happy if it happens.
Rams will win the superbowl. Very good on offense and at least four future Hall of Famers in their prime on defense. Probably be playing against the Pats though the Chargers could make some noise.
Jets will win 4 games at best unless Darnold gets hurt and McCown has to take over. Then they might win six games. Nothing against Darnold but he’s very young and is going to struggle once he faces real defensive schemes.
Biggest surprise - Dolphins. With Tannehill healthy he’ll pick up where he left off before he hurt his knee two seasons ago which was taking the Fins to the playoffs.
Biggest flop - Chiefs. The Mahomes experiment will struggle given his relative lack of actual experience. He might be good some season, it just won’t be this one.
I’m not sure what you’re going by, but it certainly can’t be the starters since they barely played. When they did have the starting defense out there they didn’t give up a point. First two games were 14-0 and 10-0 when they came out. The last two games had all backup offensive lineman (most of which were cut) and the rookie with a backup QB and backup running back. Backup defense too.
There is literally no time during the season you’d see so many backups on the field at the same time. In fact, most aren’t on the team anymore.
Some of this is subjective on my part and from watching the offensive starters when they did play. I have seen a culture of mediocrity plague the Cowboys for some time, wasting the talent they do have.
In any event, better to take a dim view before hand and maybe be pleasantly surprised, than to take an optimistic view and have your hopes crushed yet again.
I never worry about how my team plays in the preseason because other than punters / kickers there is nothing that projects to the real season. On both sides of the ball they are running vanilla schemes with backups or guys that won’t even make a team in many key spots. That throws everything off kilter for everyone except the punter and kicker (barring a block) as a kick is a kick.
The utterly crap defense they’ve had over the past 8 years played a role. The coaching staff is highly suspect as well. Add to that they have no depth. But unlike the past decade this starting D for the Cowboys looks like they can hang with just about any offense. We’ll have to see.
I don’t think it has anything to do with forced or paid patriotism, I just think people expect a show of respect. Similar to how you would show respect to your teacher, a customer, your boss. Even if they’re wrong you show them some level of respect.
The KC Chiefs are going to be playing against the Chargers in LA tomorrow. The Chiefs have an 8 game win streak against the Chargers. The Chargers need to break that 8 game win streak that he Chiefs have on them if they want to win the AFC West this season. I think that it will be the Chargers or the Chiefs that will win the AFC West this season.
Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns - The Browns have had bad luck playing against the Steelers. And the Browns went 0-16 last football season. The Steelers will likely beat the Browns again. Also, weather could end up being a factor there tomorrow.
Seattle Seahawks at Denver Broncos - A repeat of the 2014 Superbowl, except that these two teams are not good as they were back then. It will be interesting to see which team this game.
Washington Redskins at Arizona Cardinals - The Arizona Cardinals are likely not going to do that good this season, but they should win this game tomorrow.
