A week from today, the NFL kicks off another season. Already two of my fantasy football teams have drafted, this weekend the final three will have their drafts. In other words, yes, I'm ready for some football.
Today, I'm going to put up my preseason predictions for where all of the teams are going to finish, who will make the playoffs, and what those teams will do in the playoffs.
Let's get started...
NFC
East
1st-Philadelphia Eagles 11-5
2nd-New York Giants 10-6
3rd-Dallas Cowboys 8-8
4th-Washington Redskins 8-8
West
1st-Arizona Cardinals 9-7
2nd-Seattle Seahawks 8-8
3rd-St Louis Rams 6-10
4th-San Francisco 49ers 5-11
South
1st-New Orleans Saints 11-5
2nd-Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-7
3rd-Carolina Panthers 5-11
4th-Atlanta Falcons 2-14
North
1st-Chicago Bears 12-4
2nd-Minnesota Vikings 10-6
3rd-Green Bay Packers 7-9
4th-Detroit Lions 3-13
I have the Vikings and the Giants making the playoffs as the wild card teams and the Bears surprising the NFL to take the #1 seed in the NFC due to the surprising (to some people) play of Kyle Orton and the stellar defense and special teams.
AFC
East
1st-NY Jets 11-5
2nd-New England Patriots 9-7
3rd-Buffalo Bills 8-8
4th-Miami Dolphins 3-13
West
1st-San Diego Chargers 14-2
2nd-Oakland Raiders 7-9
3rd-Denver Broncos 4-12
4th-Kansas City Chiefs 3-13
South
1st-Jacksonville Jaguars 12-4
2nd-Indianapolis Colts 10-6
3rd-Houston Texans 10-6
4th-Tennessee Titans 4-12
North
1st-Cleveland Browns 11-5
2nd-Pittsburgh Steelers 11-5
3rd-Cincinnati Bengals 10-6
4th-Baltimore Ravens 2-14
The Steelers and Colts make the playoffs as wild card teams, the Texans and Bengals left out due to tiebreakers, and the Chargers look almost unbeatable.
Most Valuable Player-LT
Offensive Player of the Year-LT
Defensive Player of the Year-Brian Urlacher
Offensive Rookie of the Year-Matt Forte
Defensive Rookie of the Year-Glenn Dorsey
Coach of the Year-Norv Turner
Playoffs
NFC
1st round-
New York Giants at New Orleans Saints
Minnesota Vikings at Arizona Cardinals
Giants and Vikings move on.
2nd round-
New York Giants at Chicago Bears
Minnesota Vikings at Philadelphia Eagles
Bears and Eagles move on.
NFC Championship Game
Philadelphia Eagles at Chicago Bears
Da Bears are in the Super Bowl for the second time in 3 years
AFC
1st round-
Indianapolis Colts at NY Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns
Jets and Steelers move on.
2nd round-
NY Jets at Jacksonville Jaguars
Pittsburgh Steelers at San Diego Chargers
Jags and Chargers move on.
AFC Championship Game
Jacksonville Jaguars at San Diego Chargers
San Diego Super Chargers are Super Bowl Bound.
SUPER BOWL
Da Bears vs the Super Chargers
DA BEARS!!!!!!
Okay, I admit that I'm a huge Bears fan. But I truly believe that the Bears are going to be much better then anyone else is predicting, and I'd rather have predicted them to win the Super Bowl the year that they do then predict that they wouldn't and be proven wrong. What type of fan would I be then?
Other Predictions...
The Cowboys are going to be hurt by a suspect Offensive Line that played better then they were last year for Tony Sporano. This year they'll come back to earth. The defense is very suspect. The offense will fall apart if there is an injury to either TO or Witten, and the running game will suffer because Barber will be unable to carry the full load and will miss Julius Jones, because Felix Jones is not going to be able to cut it.
The Eagles will be good thanks to the resurgence of Donovan McNabb who will be the best QB in the league.
The Patriots will struggle because of their Defense which will show its age this season. The offense will still be explosive, but without a good defense they'll lose some high scoring games.
Arizona will go 6-0 against their own division and 3-7 against everyone else (3-8 counting the playoffs).
Aaron Rogers will be hurt by week 3 while Farve has a pro bowl season for the Jets.
Can't wait to see how my predictions turn out.
Are You Ready For Some Football?
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Olympics (My thoughts on the Games so far, plus I Solve the Gymnastic Judging Problem)
I'm not going to lie, I love the Olympics. Partly because I love competition. That's part of it. But a larger part is probably the pageantry excites me. I like the dedication that the Olympics requires of a majority of its athletes. That's impressive. And there are always good stories at the Olympics and I'm a sucker for good stories.
These Olympics have been outstanding so far. There have been many memorable moments, Jamaican Usain Bolt winning gold and setting world records in the 100m and 200m while jogging, Jonathon Horton going all out on the Men's Horizontal Bar to win Silver, Jason Lezak in the Men's 4x100 freestyle relay to keep Phelp's hopes alive, and the comeback against the Belgium team to keep Misty May and Kerri Walsh from losing even a set in Olympic play all come to mind. For me, the most memorable moment will always be the men's 100m Butterfly. I was watching with a group of friends all of whom felt like as it happened that Phelps's quest was over. However, just as his hand hit the wall I knew that somehow against all odds he had won. I immediately yelled out that he had won and was quickly vindicated by the screen, his name and the number 1 appearing in his lane. I'll never forget watching the numerous slow motion replays from multiple angles confirming that which I was already sure of, that Phelps was the greatest athlete I had ever seen.
There have been many shocking moments as well, including early this morning when the US women's softball team lost the gold medal match to Japan. The first time ever that the US hasn't won the Softball gold. In fact, many people believe that the reason Softball isn't in the Olympics anymore after this year is because the IOC didn't believe that the US Softball team could ever be beat. I for one didn't think that there was anyway the US wouldn't be coming home with gold in softball, yet they'll have to settle for silver. Meanwhile in Baseball (also in it's last hurrah at the Olympics) people are shocked at the extra innings rule. If the game goes into the 11th inning, both teams will start the inning with runners on 1st and 2nd, no one out, and can start their lineup wherever they want. (For more on my thoughts on this, check out my post at 100 Years Later.) But perhaps the most shocking is the tie breaker in Woman's Gymnastics.
This tie breaking procedure was brought to light due to the Woman's Uneven Bars Final. Both He Kexin of China and Nastia Luikin of the US finished with an execution score of 9.025 (the difficulty for both was 7.7). Under the old rules, both would be awarded a Gold Medal.
The way that they come up with the execution score is that 6 judges all score the gymnast on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being perfection). The highest score and lowest score are dropped. The remaining four scores are averaged together.
Here are the four scores remaining for each in this case.
He Kexin
9.1 9.1 9.0 8.9
Avg. 9.025
Natsia Luikin
9.1 9.0 9.0 9.0
Avg. 9.025
So, under the new rules, if tied at this point, the lowest remaining score is now dropped. This appears sort of arbitrary it could just as easily being the highest remaining score that is dropped. If that had been the case, Luikin would have won gold. As it is, she had to settle for silver.
Gymnastics have always been controversial. Everyone has talked about how the Chinese gymnasts are most likely under the Olympic required age of 16, but I don't really think that there should be an age requirement. If an 11 year old can compete at this level, she should be allowed to. That's just me. The new scoring system was brought about because of controversy. It is hoped that the difficulty score would take out some of the subjectivity from the judges.
Also, judges from the countries involved in the medal rounds are not allowed to judge, again trying to remove bias. This causes new problems, however. Primarily because the most experienced judges are from countries that are involved in the medal round and therefore the judges in the medal round are from countries that don't have a strong gymnastic program and therefore aren't as experienced at judging the execution of the athletes.
Of course, the bias of judges is a problem, even when the countries competing aren't being judged by judges from their own country or another country competing against them. While the NBC commentators are certainly biased themselves, they all agreed that Nastia Luikin had outperformed He Kexin, but the cheers of the Chinese crowd probably influenced the judges and caused slightly higher scores then she deserved.
So, what can be done about this? It seems no matter what there will be bias. Judging for gymnastics is just too subjective. Perhaps we should just stop watching it.
But wait, maybe there is an answer. And I am here to provide it.
If you've watched football recently (American football, but congrats to the US Women who just won the gold medal in the other football against Brazil) then perhaps you've seen the new technology that allows the announcers to turn all of the players into computer generated versions of themselves, allowing us to see the play from all different angles. The same thing could be done to the gymnasts.
In my idea, the judges would be seperated from the crowd, not allowed to watch the competition live. Instead, they would be shown a digital representation of the event. Not knowing who the gymnast was or what country he or she was from would remove all subjectivity, all bias, from the judging and allow the best judges to work throughout the contest.
Yet another problem solved by me. Same thing could work in Ice Skating in the Winter Olympics.
I'm just here to help.
These Olympics have been outstanding so far. There have been many memorable moments, Jamaican Usain Bolt winning gold and setting world records in the 100m and 200m while jogging, Jonathon Horton going all out on the Men's Horizontal Bar to win Silver, Jason Lezak in the Men's 4x100 freestyle relay to keep Phelp's hopes alive, and the comeback against the Belgium team to keep Misty May and Kerri Walsh from losing even a set in Olympic play all come to mind. For me, the most memorable moment will always be the men's 100m Butterfly. I was watching with a group of friends all of whom felt like as it happened that Phelps's quest was over. However, just as his hand hit the wall I knew that somehow against all odds he had won. I immediately yelled out that he had won and was quickly vindicated by the screen, his name and the number 1 appearing in his lane. I'll never forget watching the numerous slow motion replays from multiple angles confirming that which I was already sure of, that Phelps was the greatest athlete I had ever seen.
There have been many shocking moments as well, including early this morning when the US women's softball team lost the gold medal match to Japan. The first time ever that the US hasn't won the Softball gold. In fact, many people believe that the reason Softball isn't in the Olympics anymore after this year is because the IOC didn't believe that the US Softball team could ever be beat. I for one didn't think that there was anyway the US wouldn't be coming home with gold in softball, yet they'll have to settle for silver. Meanwhile in Baseball (also in it's last hurrah at the Olympics) people are shocked at the extra innings rule. If the game goes into the 11th inning, both teams will start the inning with runners on 1st and 2nd, no one out, and can start their lineup wherever they want. (For more on my thoughts on this, check out my post at 100 Years Later.) But perhaps the most shocking is the tie breaker in Woman's Gymnastics.
This tie breaking procedure was brought to light due to the Woman's Uneven Bars Final. Both He Kexin of China and Nastia Luikin of the US finished with an execution score of 9.025 (the difficulty for both was 7.7). Under the old rules, both would be awarded a Gold Medal.
The way that they come up with the execution score is that 6 judges all score the gymnast on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being perfection). The highest score and lowest score are dropped. The remaining four scores are averaged together.
Here are the four scores remaining for each in this case.
He Kexin
9.1 9.1 9.0 8.9
Avg. 9.025
Natsia Luikin
9.1 9.0 9.0 9.0
Avg. 9.025
So, under the new rules, if tied at this point, the lowest remaining score is now dropped. This appears sort of arbitrary it could just as easily being the highest remaining score that is dropped. If that had been the case, Luikin would have won gold. As it is, she had to settle for silver.
Gymnastics have always been controversial. Everyone has talked about how the Chinese gymnasts are most likely under the Olympic required age of 16, but I don't really think that there should be an age requirement. If an 11 year old can compete at this level, she should be allowed to. That's just me. The new scoring system was brought about because of controversy. It is hoped that the difficulty score would take out some of the subjectivity from the judges.
Also, judges from the countries involved in the medal rounds are not allowed to judge, again trying to remove bias. This causes new problems, however. Primarily because the most experienced judges are from countries that are involved in the medal round and therefore the judges in the medal round are from countries that don't have a strong gymnastic program and therefore aren't as experienced at judging the execution of the athletes.
Of course, the bias of judges is a problem, even when the countries competing aren't being judged by judges from their own country or another country competing against them. While the NBC commentators are certainly biased themselves, they all agreed that Nastia Luikin had outperformed He Kexin, but the cheers of the Chinese crowd probably influenced the judges and caused slightly higher scores then she deserved.
So, what can be done about this? It seems no matter what there will be bias. Judging for gymnastics is just too subjective. Perhaps we should just stop watching it.
But wait, maybe there is an answer. And I am here to provide it.
If you've watched football recently (American football, but congrats to the US Women who just won the gold medal in the other football against Brazil) then perhaps you've seen the new technology that allows the announcers to turn all of the players into computer generated versions of themselves, allowing us to see the play from all different angles. The same thing could be done to the gymnasts.
In my idea, the judges would be seperated from the crowd, not allowed to watch the competition live. Instead, they would be shown a digital representation of the event. Not knowing who the gymnast was or what country he or she was from would remove all subjectivity, all bias, from the judging and allow the best judges to work throughout the contest.
Yet another problem solved by me. Same thing could work in Ice Skating in the Winter Olympics.
I'm just here to help.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
