Well here we are again at the start of the football season. My favorite time of year. This year, I’m actually going to not talk about the Bears very much here, because I’m starting a Bears podcast with a co-worker of mine. We’re still sort of in the beginning stages, but keep an eye on www.bearstalk.net for more details and podcasts. There’s nothing up yet, but there will be soon.
So for this column, I’ll just do my basic picks for the week, and thoughts therein.
Last Season Record: 128-96
New Orleans @ Indianapolis
I have all kinds of fantasy players in this game, so I’m hoping for like a 40-38 final.
Denver @ Buffalo
Little bit of an upset here.
Miami @ Washington
Yeah, Miami blows.
Pittsburgh @ Cleveland
As much as I’d love to pick Cleveland…. um, yeah.
Tennessee @ Jacksonville
I’m so not sold about Jacksonville this year.
Kansas City @ Houston
Yeah, KC stinks too.
Philadelphia @ Green Bay
Who’s the starting RB for Green Bay? Yeah, there you go.
Carolina @ St. Louis
Yeah, not much to say here.
Atlanta @ Minnesota
I’ll be the first person chanting “Joey” though when watching this.
New England @ NY Jets
Man what a fantastic opening day letdown this could be for NE, but I still can’t pick it.
Tampa Bay @ Seattle
yeah, i got nothing
Detroit @ Oakland
Talk about a couple crappy teams playing an opening game. However, that actually might make this a somewhat interesting game.
Chicago @ San Diego
Oh man, this is a crazy opening game. I really do think the Bears can win this game, but I might be playing the homer a little bit.
NY Giants @ Dallas
Yeah, whatever.
Baltimore @ Cincinnati
I don’t really get why Cincy is favored in this game. If I was a betting man, I’d throw some money down on this one.
Arizona @ San Francisco
2 favorite sleeper teams going at it. Should be a pretty fun game to watch.
So, I had the Lions winning too. But only because of who they were playing. Mitch Albom’s column heading for Monday morning:
MITCH ALBOM: Take a bow, Lions! Your walk lived up to all the talk
Give me a break!! They played the only team certifiably worse than the Lions (Oakland) against a quarterback (McCown) who last year wasn’t good enough to win a starting job with the Lions!
Yeah I definitely agree. I just can’t wait to see all the press that’s going to come out about the fact that the Bears were the only team in the NFC North that did not win yesterday. And more than likely those articles will fail to point out the fact that the Bears played San Diego (arguably the best or one of the best teams in the league). Ah, overreaction.
I don’t think anyone will over-react too much to the Bears opening up 0-1. Almost everyone expects New England, Indianapolis, and San Diego to be the class of the NFL this season. The Chargers won a defensive battle at home. The Bears defense will be awesome against lesser opponents and they’ll win at least 10 games and be in the playoffs this season.
Legit eye-opening statement wins:
Colts – defense shut down the #1 offense from last season
Pats – went on the road against a playoff team with a reasonable defense and scored at will
Don’t count your chickens wins:
Cowboys – The Giants are mediocre
Lions – Mediocre is kind for the Raiders
Vikings – I want to see that kind of win on the road before I sit up and take real notice
I don’t know how eye-opening the Pats Jets really was. We knew going in that the Pats were way better than the Jets (even though the Jets played them well last year), so I wasn’t entirely surprised to see the Pats whip them up. I think what was more eye opening to me was how bad the Jets were. We’ll see.
It could be also because I’m totally rooting against the Patriots this year. I’m sorry Tim, they are like the Yankees of football right now in my mind. Maybe that will change, and I hope so because I always legitimately liked them, but man it’s hard for me to root for them this year.
I would agree with the Cowboys one for the most part, although I do think the Cowboys are going to be very good this year. Totally agree about both the Vikings and Lions assessments.