NFL Preview, AFC North
Holy crap! It's football in less than a month! You know what that means? That's right! It's time to lose most of my baseball fan readers by doing a whole lot of preview posts! 9 of them, to be exact! With even more exclamation points! ! !!!!!
I leave that "It's foot ball season in less than a month!" part in there mostly to remind me that I'm lazy and it's taken me this long and I still haven't finished. I'll whip up a another feature length post to the AFC tomorrow, incorporate the AFC East into the Monday WIR and slip in my championship look with the Tuesday NFL Recap. Sound good? It should, because I'm in charge here.
OK then. Many are calling the AFC North the best in football, and I can live with that. I would personally say the AFC East and the NFC West could give them a run for their money, but the North is pretty good, and they have the one team for everyone to pick on and get their wins against. Unfortunately, I don't believe the race in the North will be particularly close. Maybe for that second wild card spot. We'll see.
Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens have been remarkably consistent since Brian Billick arrived in town. Even though he is a brilliant offensive mind, he has left his offense pretty much
comatose or the past 10 years while ensuring that his defense remained intact, and it has paid off. There are some offensive players there, of course, but none that really strike fear in the hearts of anyone. Ed Reed will probably get more touchdowns than Todd Heap this year. No matter, because their 13-14 wins will garner another division title, and maybe a Super Bowl berth.
Cincinnati Bengals: Carson Palmer should have a functioning knee again, which will mean that Chad Johnson will be back to his old antics. They don't have a defense. Like, at all. Unless you count Chris Henry's attorney, of course. But this potent offense isn't quite refined enough to completely overcome their defense. The Colts at least had a good pass rusher and a solid secondary. I'm at a loss as to what the Bengals have to offer on that side of the ball. Even scarier, I think this is the year Rudi Johnson suffers a devastating knee injury.
Pittsburgh Steelers: I really don't like the Steelers offense. I mean, I think these guys are going to be painful to watch offensively. Well, compared to expectations. I think Willie Parker is wildly overrated without Jerome Bettis there for a change of pace, and Ben Roethlisberger hasn't really proved to me that he can be the quarterback for an explosive offense. Which is good, because the Steelers don't have the receivers needed for an explosive offense either. Pittsburgh usually has a good defense, but the departure of Joey Porter can't help. A good team, but not one of the top two teams.
Cleveland Browns: Someone should tell Romeo Crennel that when someone refers "taking the Browns to the Super Bowl", nobody is thinking about football. But what they are thinking about is pretty much on par with the team.
Ravens and Bengals in the playoffs. That's it.
I leave that "It's foot ball season in less than a month!" part in there mostly to remind me that I'm lazy and it's taken me this long and I still haven't finished. I'll whip up a another feature length post to the AFC tomorrow, incorporate the AFC East into the Monday WIR and slip in my championship look with the Tuesday NFL Recap. Sound good? It should, because I'm in charge here.
OK then. Many are calling the AFC North the best in football, and I can live with that. I would personally say the AFC East and the NFC West could give them a run for their money, but the North is pretty good, and they have the one team for everyone to pick on and get their wins against. Unfortunately, I don't believe the race in the North will be particularly close. Maybe for that second wild card spot. We'll see.
Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens have been remarkably consistent since Brian Billick arrived in town. Even though he is a brilliant offensive mind, he has left his offense pretty much
comatose or the past 10 years while ensuring that his defense remained intact, and it has paid off. There are some offensive players there, of course, but none that really strike fear in the hearts of anyone. Ed Reed will probably get more touchdowns than Todd Heap this year. No matter, because their 13-14 wins will garner another division title, and maybe a Super Bowl berth.Cincinnati Bengals: Carson Palmer should have a functioning knee again, which will mean that Chad Johnson will be back to his old antics. They don't have a defense. Like, at all. Unless you count Chris Henry's attorney, of course. But this potent offense isn't quite refined enough to completely overcome their defense. The Colts at least had a good pass rusher and a solid secondary. I'm at a loss as to what the Bengals have to offer on that side of the ball. Even scarier, I think this is the year Rudi Johnson suffers a devastating knee injury.
Pittsburgh Steelers: I really don't like the Steelers offense. I mean, I think these guys are going to be painful to watch offensively. Well, compared to expectations. I think Willie Parker is wildly overrated without Jerome Bettis there for a change of pace, and Ben Roethlisberger hasn't really proved to me that he can be the quarterback for an explosive offense. Which is good, because the Steelers don't have the receivers needed for an explosive offense either. Pittsburgh usually has a good defense, but the departure of Joey Porter can't help. A good team, but not one of the top two teams.
Cleveland Browns: Someone should tell Romeo Crennel that when someone refers "taking the Browns to the Super Bowl", nobody is thinking about football. But what they are thinking about is pretty much on par with the team.
Ravens and Bengals in the playoffs. That's it.
posted by Ryan | 6:18 PM
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