Looking Back...NFL Season Predictions

A few weeks into the NFL season, I was sitting with my friend and fellow comedian Dylan Shelton at a show, and Dylan said something along the lines of, "Your NFL predictions sucked." He was right. Just a few weeks into the year, and it was already pretty obvious I was headed for a bad season based off my September 5 predictions post. It makes me feel slightly better than many prognosticators and bettors haven't had a great year dealing with the NFL. Bill Simmons's regular weekly picks columns have covered his own personal demise this season. But, it still seems worth it to look back on what went horribly wrong.

AFC East

This isn't impressive. It's pretty easy for anyone to pick New England to win the division, and that's what happened. The records I predicted were all off with the New York Jets actually doing far better than expected and possibly having the chance to be a playoff team had they had any consistency at the quarterback position. I did predict that the Miami Dolphins would not make the playoffs, but had them at 7-9 and not even in the hunt rather than them fizzling out in the final weeks of the season when controlling their own destiny.

AFC North

I had three teams from this division making the playoffs. Oops. Despite the Ravens overspending for Joe Flacco, I still thought they had the elements that always got them to the playoffs. They didn't, and neither did the Steelers (my selection from the AFC to make the Super Bowl. Yikes.) The Bengals dominated the division. The Browns did even worse than I predicted as usual.

AFC South

Houston's incredibly disappointing year highlights this division. With a difficult schedule, many expected Indianapolis to not make the playoffs (I had them at 8-8), but they won the division. To my expectations, Tennessee did better yet still fired head coach Mike Munchak. Jacksonville did better than many expected and have some hope with new coach Gus Bradley.

AFC West

It seemed pretty easy to expect Denver to win this division and Oakland to be at the bottom. But, even with an easy schedule, I didn't expect Kansas City to start off the season 9-0 and make the playoffs. San Diego was also impressive under new head coach Mike McCoy. They were enigmatic at times, and likely could have even had a better record, but found their way into the AFC Wild Card berth.

NFC East

If there's one immediate regret that I had with my predictions, it was thinking that Washington would win this division. They seemed very set up for the wreck of the season that they did have, but the NFC East was wide open with teams that didn't look impressive. Surprisingly, first-year coach Chip Kelly led the Eagles to the title. I was correct in predicting the Cowboys at 8-8, but so was probably everyone else.

NFC North

Green Bay won the division, but not as easily as I expected, but with one of the most entertaining games of the season in a win over Chicago. As the season progressed, Detroit became a disappointment and Jim Schwartz was deservedly fired. For the foreseeable future, this still seems like Green Bay's division.

NFC West

I didn't realize it until now, but I hilariously did not include my records for the NFC West in my original post. I had Seattle winning the division and San Francisco making the playoffs, which wasn't a surprise that it happened. Though, Arizona's performance this year is worth noting, and was nice to see them in the hunt.

NFC South

With the way the season started, Carolina looked like they were preparing for another disappointing year and Ron Rivera to be fired. But, they stepped it up, and won the division with Atlanta being yet another huge disappointment that I expected to win the division. As I predicted, New Orleans did come in as a Wild Card, but it's looking less likely that they'll win the Super Bowl as I forecasted.

Now, for what I expect will be extremely wrong predictions on how these playoffs will turn out:

AFC PLAYOFFS

Indianapolis defeats Kansas City
Cincinnati defeats San Diego

Denver defeats Indianapolis
Cincinnati defeats New England

Cincinnati defeats Denver

NFC PLAYOFFS

New Orleans defeats Philadelphia
Green Bay defeats San Francisco

Seattle defeats New Orleans
Green Bay defeats Carolina

Seattle defeats Green Bay

SUPER BOWL

Seattle defeats Cincinnati

Should I stick by New Orleans? In a way, I should. But, if the road to the Super Bowl runs through Seattle, it's going to be very difficult for any team to walk in there. It's just too difficult to bet against Seattle. In recent years, there's always a team from the first weekend of games that finds their way to the Super Bowl. Despite suspect quarterback play from Andy Dalton, I'll take the risk and say that it's Cincinnati, but I do think that San Diego, New Orleans, and Green Bay have the potential to be those teams as well.

Well, I'm looking forward to my predictions going just as wrong as the season went for me.

    These frightening people get a Super Bowl?

Looking Back...The 5 Keys To The Browns Improving This Year

The Cleveland Browns ended their season in a familiar manner, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in a pathetic fashion to end another pathetic season with a 4-12 receord. Surprisingly, though, they ended their season exactly as they did last season by firing their head coach.

Let's take a look back at my post from September 8 on how the “5 Keys to the Browns Improving This Year” panned out this season:

1. Brandon Weeden must become the starting quarterback.

As we know, this key to victory did not remotely happen. Weeden got injured after two lackluster games and Brian Hoyer was anointed the starter. Hoyer looked like a far better quarterback and leader in guiding the team to two straight victories before a knee injury ended his season. Weeden returned as a starter only to perform so poorly that he was benched for backup Jason Campbell. Weeden came back yet again when Campbell got injured only to receive more boos from Cleveland fans that had enough with his lowest point coming in a Jacksonville loss in which he inexplicably was responsible for three turnovers in the last three minutes of the first half. Weeden finished the season with 1,731 yards passing, 9 TD, and 9 INT, for a quarterback rating of 70.8. He's likely to be released by the team, and at the age of 30, may at best be third on a team's depth chart next year.

2. Trent Richardson must have a 1,000 yard rushing season.

Richardson was dealt to the Indianapolis Colts for a first-round pick on September 19. At the time, it was a shocking trade that angered most Browns fans. But, Richardson's poor performance with the Colts makes the Browns look like the winners of the deal for the time being. It's still possible that Richardson could turn his career around and that the Browns pick they received in exchange could be a bust. Richardson finished the regular season with 458 yards rushing and 3 TD with a 2.9 yards per carry average. He was benched by the Colts in favor of Donald Brown.

     3.  The Browns need to have a top 15 defense.

The Browns ended the year as the number 9 ranked defense in the league. But, the numbers that determine who has the best defense in the league by the NFL's standards can be deceiving and rely solely on yards given up. Football Outsiders ranks the Browns as 24th. Their second half defense was likely even worse. The Browns were 8-6-2 in the first half of games this season.

 Chudzinski likely had a similar reaction when being handed his pink slip.

4. No dumb coaching mistakes.

It's unclear whether Chudzinski can really be blamed for any specific miscues. Any mistakes didn't stand out as badly as Pat Shurmur's did last season. But, there were definitely major gaffes that cost the team games particularly the special teams performance in the game in Cincinnati. A coach doesn't lose seven straight games to end the season without some dumb things going on.

5. Don't be the Cleveland Browns.

This key may be the saddest one that I wrote because, by the end of the season, the Browns were even more Browns than they have ever been. After one season, the front office fired Chudzinski, making the team seem even more dysfunctional than it has ever been since returning in 1999. By firing Chudzinski, Haslam defied the points that he made in this interview with Peter King, and chose against consistency at the head coaching position. In their press conference on the firing, Haslam and president Joe Banner regularly mentioned their determination to win. It's nice for Browns fans to have a group that claims to be passionate about winning. But, there's a fine line between the mad genius determined to win (Bill Belichick) and someone who is just plain mad in his decision making when trying to win (Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones). Browns fans are hoping that Haslam isn't the next Daniel Snyder, but with Haslam's Pilot J scandal still lurking, an entire coaching overhaul again, and uncertainty at the quarterback and running back positions, the Browns look as lost as they have ever been. The Cleveland Browns are looking like the organizational equivalent of Dwayne Rudd's helmet throw.