Who's gonna win the Superbowl?

Spang · Post by **Spang** » November 30, 2004, 11:10 am

my pick is the Colts. Manning is having a record breaking season. they got the running game. they only lack defense but it's getting better each week. of course that's against shitty teams. i think manning and the colts can be so defistating on offense that defense won't matter.

Colts vs. Eagles
42 - 27

Animale · Post by **Animale** » November 30, 2004, 11:52 am

Considering the Colts are the 4th best team in the AFC (Patriots, Steelers, and Denver are all superior teams) it's going to be tough for them to make the superbowl.

Whoever the NFC team is will probably win the game though. The AFC teams are going to destroy each other in the playoffs and playoff races.

That being said... Patriots and Eagles. Close game, another field goal to win it, although this time its Akers, not Vinateiri.

Animale

Homercles · Post by **Homercles** » November 30, 2004, 12:09 pm

I dont think Denver is superior to Indy. Both the Bengals and Raiders beat Denver. That shows how vunerable and inconsistant they can be. Indys only bad loss is against the Chefs.

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » November 30, 2004, 12:10 pm

Skins!

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » November 30, 2004, 12:20 pm

Denver is definately not in the same class as the colts, but it's all gonna come down to who is on the IR come january, I'll make my descisions then. Take out Big Ben, and kiss the steelers bye bye, take out Tom Brady and the Pats are toast, etc. It's a tough league and as the ground gets frozen, bodies start breaking even more

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 30, 2004, 1:43 pm

Eagles vs Patriots

Eagles win

Colts and Steelers will roll until they run into the Pats in the playoffs. Packers could frustrate the Eagles but I'm counting on Westbrook staying healthy.

Aaeamdar · Post by **Aaeamdar** » November 30, 2004, 2:52 pm

Clearly the Cowboys will win it all, but since you failed to include them on your poll, I voted for the second most likely - Green Bay

Tenuvil · Post by **Tenuvil** » November 30, 2004, 3:15 pm

This is a dumb poll to be posting in late November. Oh wait, I just noticed who posted it. QED.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » November 30, 2004, 5:49 pm

I think the Eagles will choke once again (as will the Vikings, but we all already knew that) due to a number of factors. First being the mass distractions caused by Owens, who while a great player creates too many issues with his antics, much like Moss in MN. Second being the complete inability to stop the run, which will get you killed in the playoffs, especially the NFC. Third, they have not exactly had a rough schedule, outside of Pittsburg, so I don't think the intensity is going to be suddenly there for a team that has petered out year after year in the playoffs.

Packers are a dangerous team and no one will want to play them in the playoffs for the simple reason that they are unstoppable with Favre is hot. Unfortunately, a lack of pass defense and some serious injuries will probably mean we will crap out in the second round of the playoffs again.

Vikings and Seatle will both be gone in the first round of the playoffs, per normal.

My honest opinion is that the Falcons will win the NFC championship this year, now that they have a running game. Vick is a lot more mature and extremely dangerous this year and they are winning tight games, not the blowouts that other teams have been coasting by with. I think that the Falcons will win the Superbowl, unless they face Pittsburg.

In the AFC, anyone could go. I think mental toughness is what ultimately gives teams an edge in the playoffs and the Patriots, Chargers, Steelers, and Colts all have it in spades. I would go with the Steelers, but usually a quarterback won't shoulder the pressure of the playoffs very well their first time. If their QB keeps his head, Steelers will be in the Superbowl and probably win it. If not, I expect the Pats to repeat (unless they face either GB(unlikely) or Atlanta) as champs.

My final prediction:

Atlanta 27 New England 21

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 30, 2004, 6:14 pm

Jice Virago wrote:I think the Eagles will choke once again (as will the Vikings, but we all already knew that) due to a number of factors. First being the mass distractions caused by Owens, who while a great player creates too many issues with his antics, much like Moss in MN. Second being the complete inability to stop the run, which will get you killed in the playoffs, especially the NFC. Third, they have not exactly had a rough schedule, outside of Pittsburg, so I don't think the intensity is going to be suddenly there for a team that has petered out year after year in the playoffs.

Green Bay plays at Philadelphia this week so we'll learn a lot from that. I disagree that Owens is a true distraction to the team. McNabb and Owens have a good rapport and Owen's antics on the field are mosty just sideshow entertainment. He doesn't pick up any crucial excessive celebration penalties or anything. If the Eagles keep winning up to the playoffs, there will be no time for a losing streak to impact the psyche of Owens or the team. I do think the Eagles are most prone to collapse by losing a key player (not counting the quarterbacks for every team). If Owens or Westbrook go down, it's all over.

xZiBiT · Post by **xZiBiT** » November 30, 2004, 6:17 pm

I understand that they are in NFC but how the hell can you even think about putting the Seahawks and the Panthers in as Superbowl contenders.

You might as well put the suckass Lions, Bears, and Cardinals as choices if your gonna put those teams in.

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » November 30, 2004, 8:31 pm

Winnow wrote:
Jice Virago wrote:I think the Eagles will choke once again (as will the Vikings, but we all already knew that) due to a number of factors. First being the mass distractions caused by Owens, who while a great player creates too many issues with his antics, much like Moss in MN. Second being the complete inability to stop the run, which will get you killed in the playoffs, especially the NFC. Third, they have not exactly had a rough schedule, outside of Pittsburg, so I don't think the intensity is going to be suddenly there for a team that has petered out year after year in the playoffs.
Green Bay plays at Philadelphia this week so we'll learn a lot from that. I disagree that Owens is a true distraction to the team. McNabb and Owens have a good rapport and Owen's antics on the field are mosty just sideshow entertainment. He doesn't pick up any crucial excessive celebration penalties or anything. If the Eagles keep winning up to the playoffs, there will be no time for a losing streak to impact the psyche of Owens or the team. I do think the Eagles are most prone to collapse by losing a key player (not counting the quarterbacks for every team). If Owens or Westbrook go down, it's all over.

I agree that this upcoming game will be a very deciding factor. If the Pack can take revenge on the 4th and 26 then they will go all the way however if they can't handle the Eagles then they will die in the playoffs.

My heart and vote go to the Packers however, I really like the Colts and suspect they will make it. Most likely against the Falcons.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » December 1, 2004, 7:45 am

Tenuvil wrote:This is a dumb poll to be posting in late November. Oh wait, I just noticed who posted it. QED.

i'll post another one just before the playoffs and then again with only 2 teams standing.

feel free to tell me how dumb those polls are too

xZiBiT wrote:I understand that they are in NFC but how the hell can you even think about putting the Seahawks and the Panthers in as Superbowl contenders.

You might as well put the suckass Lions, Bears, and Cardinals as choices if your gonna put those teams in.

anything can happen.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » December 1, 2004, 11:22 am

The colts have an amazing Offense but Defenses win championships. Look at Baltimore several years ago. My pick in the AFC is Pittsburgh. They have a great defense this year and their offense, while not spectacular, is good enough to get the job done. The Colts are beating people this year because they are forcing teams to play their style of ball, i.e. run and shoot. The Colts score fast and get a lead and speed the pace of the game up. To beat them, teams need to be patient and keep the Colts offense off the field.

The NFC is much tougher to predict. The Packers are on fire right now but their Defense is still barely adequate at best. Their game against the Eagles this week will define how far they can go.

Atlanta is kind of the black sheep of the league. Their defense is playing well but their offense is not that great. They have also probably had the easiest schedule of any winning team and they are in the weakest conference.

Philadelphia is a good shot to get to at least the title game IF they can stop the run a little better. Owens has filled the need they were missing in the offense.

My pick for the Super Bowl is Pittsburgh to win.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » December 1, 2004, 8:12 pm

Considering the Colts are the 4th best team in the AFC (Patriots, Steelers, and Denver are all superior teams) it's going to be tough for them to make the superbowl.

You are on some serious crack there. Denver better than Colts? Yah right!

Packers and Colts defenses are both improving quite a bit lately as well.

I still think Patriots will win it all unfortunately, but.. Go Packers!

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » December 1, 2004, 10:29 pm

The one unusual aspect of most of the dominant teams this year is a lack of solid running from most of them, especially in the AFC. Pittsburg and Denver are two obvious exceptions (San Diego and New England are more balanced offenses, though) in the crowd. The Colts will beat teams like Seatle, Jets, and perhaps even the Pats because they can get a shootout situation going and these teams do not have a strong enough running game to slow them down. The Packers fell into this trap against them earlier in the season, choosing to try and match passing with them (despite a reciever corps that is vastly inferior to that of the Colts) when they should have just pounded away with Green to slow down the damn game. Denver and Pittsburg will not make that kind of mistake and will absolutely kill the Colts if they face them in the playoffs.

On the NFC side of things, the main reason I predict Philly and the Vikings from choking again is that they combine a weak running game with piss poor running defense. If Sherman is smarter than normal next week, you will see Ahman Green up the gut all fucking day and the Eagles withering as a result. Unfortunately, despite having one of the best offensive line and running crew in the game, Sherman seems to have this aversion to running the ball at the oddest times and that has cost us a lot of games over the last couple seasons. Atlanta with a healthy Dunn and Vick will also put the hurt on Philly, come playoff time but will probably lose due to a lack of a true dominating physical run offense. Vikings will lose to the first playoff team they face that has any kind of running game, end of story.

What will this all mean? Well, in my opinion, some of these bigshot teams are going to lose to wildcard entries if they happen to have a good running game. A couple likely examples would be if the Colts faced the Ravens or Broncos, the Eagles facing the Packers or Panthers, or the Patriots facing the Jets. On paper, the Steelers should win it all, but there is no telling how their rookie QB will handle the added pressure of the playoffs, so I am leaning Falcons at the moment.

Sueven · Post by **Sueven** » December 1, 2004, 11:01 pm

I disagree with your assessment of the running games in the league.

Edgerrin James has run for 1,186 yards, second best in the NFL. Average rush is 4.9 yards. He's carried the ball 243 times, fourth in the NFL. His presence makes the Colts play action effective, which is a big reason why Manning is setting records.

I also don't know what you're talking about dismissing the Jets running game. Curtis Martin ranks third in the NFL with 1171 yards, first in the NFL in attempts and averages 4.5 yards a run. The Jets aren't winning games because of the stellar play of Quincy Carter.

Seattle, another team you dismiss as not having a strong running game, features Shaun Alexander, only the NFL's leading rusher with 1190 yards and a 5 yards per rush average.

So you've taken the team that features the NFL's leading rusher, the team that features the NFL's second leading rusher, and the team that features the NFL's third leading rusher and said that they cannot win because of their lack of solid running.

I'm aware that the running back is not the sole factor determining the quality of a team's running game. Each of the three teams you named is in the top ten in the NFL in yards rushing, yards per game, and yards per rush. Neither Denver or Pittsburgh has accomplished this.

The only cinch playoff teams with suspect running games are Philadelphia (self-evident), San Diego (gimpy LaDainian) and Denver (untested Droughns). Atlanta doesn't have a single great running back but leads the NFL in rushing yards and yards per rush.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » December 2, 2004, 12:56 am

I don't count Jets as being a dominant team, much less Seattle. I am saying that the Jets will potentially upset one of the front running AFC teams because they HAVE a strong running game.

The Colts have won mostly by burning teams with the passing and generally having too many weapons to cover. The best way to beat a team like this is to keep their offense off the field and wear down their defense, which is power running. I don't think anyone would classify the Colts, Eagles, Suckhawks, or even Patriots as a power running team. Pittsburg, Greenbay, and Denver are all power running teams, with the ability to grind an opposing defense down and keeping the other teams offense off of the field. The Patriots (arguably the most balanced team in NFL history since the Lombardi era Packers) and Pittsburg are probably the least vulnerable to a ground pounding, out of all the top contenders at the moment, but many of the other frontrunners have issues stopping the run, particularly Minnesota and Philly. I think you are going to see some division winners get bumped by .500 teams in the playoffs this year because of that.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » December 2, 2004, 1:13 am

Seattle, another team you dismiss as not having a strong running game, features Shaun Alexander, only the NFL's leading rusher with 1190 yards and a 5 yards per rush average.

A lot of people, me included, doubt if Shaun Alexander can get a lot of the really tough, hard yards necessary to win playoff games. He has proven to get a lot of yards, but not exactly (imho) proven to get the tough ones.

As for Colts.. you claim you need to keep their offense off the field.. good luck, they can score in 30 seconds and every single time they touch the ball.

Kilmoll the Sexy · Post by **Kilmoll the Sexy** » December 2, 2004, 10:10 am

The one thing I do like about pitt this year is that they have become a team. Even Plaxico Burress is out there blocking as hard as he can every down.....and when you have Plaxico Burress motivated, you have something special going on.

With the Bus pounding people over the last 4 games and giving Duce a month of rest, there will be a Duce with fresh legs down the stretch and into the playoffs. Even if they were to split a lot of carries, what defense wants to be looking at Bettis coming into the game in the 4th quarter completely fresh....after you have been worn down for 3 quarters? Now to really add something into the mix, you have a rookie QB that is deadly accurate and has not had to throw the ball much. He has seen the best defenses in football over the last 9 weeks and has beat every one of them. New England? check. Washington? check. Philadelphia? check Miami? check Hell, even the Cowboys, Browns, and Bengals were all playing good D when Pitt rolled through them.

I hope they keep blitzing him. At some point Cowhere is going to turn him loose and they are going to burn people with the long ball. Plaxico being out the last 2 weeks has hurt them a bunch.....with Plaxico in the game he has a great deep threat to throw to when the saefties come.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 2, 2004, 1:16 pm

Sueven wrote:
The only cinch playoff teams with suspect running games are Philadelphia (self-evident), San Diego (gimpy LaDainian) and Denver (untested Droughns). Atlanta doesn't have a single great running back but leads the NFL in rushing yards and yards per rush.

San Diego has proved that they can win with a gimpy LaDanian for the last 8 games or so. Jesse Chatman is a quality back and I believe he managed two 100 yard games playing less than half of the game this year.

After hamstring pulls, groin pulls suck almost as bad for their nagging injury factor. After getting one, you're pretty much not 100 percent the rest of the year. LT2 isn't 100 percent but he's close now and the past two games, Chatman hasn't been in the game much at all.

I didn't mention the Chargers as strong contenders because I don't want to jinx them but they're playing as well as anyone and may be the most balanced team in the league on offense and defense.

IeailandDokktur · Post by **IeailandDokktur** » December 2, 2004, 11:24 pm

VIKINGS ALL THE WAY!

But really, the steelers~

miir · Post by **miir** » December 6, 2004, 1:07 pm

First time in 10 years I've not been embarrased to admit im a lifetime Chargers fan.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 6, 2004, 1:37 pm

miir wrote:First time in 10 years I've not been embarrased to admit im a lifetime Chargers fan.

I'm a Bronco hater so the Charger victory yesterday was sweet.

The Eagles rule the roost in the NFC but the AFC playoffs should be very competitive this year. I really like what the Chargers have managed this year but my gut tells me they'll lose to New England or Pittsburgh mostly due to the experience factor in the playoffs.

Drew Brees will be the hottest free agent in a long time this off season. The Chargers are in a major bind with the huge Phillip Rivers contract. They should franchise Brees and resign him and eat the Rivers contract and keep him as the backup but that probably won't happen.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · December 6, 2004, 3:03 pm

I just don't know about the AFC. Pats, Steelers, and Colts appear to be on a whole other level than the rest. I would be shocked if anyone other than these three went to the bowl. From the NFC, I don't see anyone even close to the Eagles. As a Redskin fan, that hurts to say. Finally Atlanta got shown for the farce they are.

Eagles vs. Steelers. Pennsylvania Superbowl. Steelers win.

miir · Post by **miir** » December 6, 2004, 7:01 pm

I just don't know about the AFC. Pats, Steelers, and Colts appear to be on a whole other level than the rest.

Don't discount SD.
Brees, Tomlinson and Gates are probably the most dangerous offensive trio in the NFL this year.

Gates and Brees both had terrible games yesterday but LT2 was able to carry the entire offense to beat a quality opponent. The past 2 weeks have been real character builders for the Chargers. 2 ugly wins against 2 divisional rivals.

Sueven · Post by **Sueven** » December 6, 2004, 10:22 pm

I would counter with the obvious Manning, Edge, and pick-a-receiver. Maybe that doesn't count because the receivers are basically interchangable.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » December 7, 2004, 5:35 pm

if the Falcons WRs were at all worth a shit, they would be an extremely dangerous team.

as it stands, they still have a lot of upside, but they are vulnerable to inconsistency. but Vick can be ridiculous for stretches.

if he gets hot in the playoffs and they are able to put together any kind of scheme where somebody besides Alge Crumpler gets open, they could make a nice run.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » December 7, 2004, 5:38 pm

Midnyte tells the guild, 'I'm so glad I picked <somedude>, <someotherdude>, and <someotherdude> to be the focal point of my fantasy team.'

Xanu tells the guild, 'I'm so sorry the focal point of your fantasy is 3 big black men.'

Adelrune Argenti · Post by **Adelrune Argenti** » December 9, 2004, 3:53 pm

I have suffered through so many bad seasons, it is so nice to see my Chargers doing something.

VeeshanVault

Who's gonna win the Superbowl?

Superbowl winner will be?

Who's gonna win the Superbowl?