NFL 2016 - new season
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The Autumn Wind
Assistant Pro
Halfway through the season, time to review predictions !
AFC championship game - the Patriots look a dead certainty to be #1 seed and have home field advantage. I think they'll be playing one of the 2 best teams from the AFC West, either the Chiefs or Raiders. Patriots to win the AFC Championship game though.
NFC championship game - I'll stick with the Falcons making it, but against the Cowboys now as the Vikings are on a losing streak. Seahawks also looking good. But I'll go for Atlanta beating Dallas in the championship game.
Superbowl - Patriots to beat the Falcons
AFC championship game - the Patriots look a dead certainty to be #1 seed and have home field advantage. I think they'll be playing one of the 2 best teams from the AFC West, either the Chiefs or Raiders. Patriots to win the AFC Championship game though.
NFC championship game - I'll stick with the Falcons making it, but against the Cowboys now as the Vikings are on a losing streak. Seahawks also looking good. But I'll go for Atlanta beating Dallas in the championship game.
Superbowl - Patriots to beat the Falcons
MendieGK
Tour Winner
Phil, Broncos chances of the playoffs remain on a knife edge! Looks like i might be right.
MendieGK
Tour Winner
Without trying to wind you up, you're predictions have fallen a bit flat this year!
Been a crazy season so far all around!
Norrin Radd
Tour Winner
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i agree with most of your predictions ,the only difference being the cowboys in the bowl with the pats winning.
D
Deleted member 15344
Guest
Are they ever mate
The AFC West is brutal right now , Raiders it appears will wrap up the title and prob no 2 seed , Broncos just outside playoff spot at the moment but some big games coming up - lack of running game killing us
Piece
Tour Winner
The other week, there was a huge amount of kicks missed! Any reason for that? Balls not inflated properly? 
Dallas doing great at the moment, using their offence to sneak close games. Defence is OK at the moment but secondary isn't top notch and suffering injuries. EE and DP are phenomenal so far....
Dallas doing great at the moment, using their offence to sneak close games. Defence is OK at the moment but secondary isn't top notch and suffering injuries. EE and DP are phenomenal so far....
Beezerk
Money List Winner
Don't talk daft soft lad, Cowboys all the way 💃
Pathetic Shark
Tour Rookie
The Raiders are this year's "flattering to deceive" team but they are 9-2. How they handle their last three division games will be the making of their season. Right now the AFC goes through New England but don't rule out KC after their wake-up call loss at home to Tampa Bay last week.
The NFC is the Cowgirls right now so what everyone else needs is for Jerry Jones to put Romo back on the field and cause a full blown QB controversy. One Dallas defeat will start everyone talking and will force the NFL Network to focus 95% of their coverage on the Cowboys instead of the 80% they are doing now.
A sleeper team right now is New Orleans who can outscore anyone. They have two left with Tampa to get themselves into the post-season and there, no-one would want to play them. Detroit are the NFC version of Oakland. Seattle's offensive line is hurting hence why the Bucs dropped the hammer on them on Sunday at RJS.
If I had to make a pick right now, I would still go New England v Dallas as I had about six weeks ago.
Coaches to be fired. Gus Bradley in Jacksonville, Mike McCoy in San Diego (when they move to LA in February), Chip Kelly in San Francisco (back to the college game) and Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati. Also for the Bengals' lunatic LB Burflict to get himself a season-long ban for his next on-field head-hunting move (scheduled for 2nd quarter this weekend)
The NFC is the Cowgirls right now so what everyone else needs is for Jerry Jones to put Romo back on the field and cause a full blown QB controversy. One Dallas defeat will start everyone talking and will force the NFL Network to focus 95% of their coverage on the Cowboys instead of the 80% they are doing now.
A sleeper team right now is New Orleans who can outscore anyone. They have two left with Tampa to get themselves into the post-season and there, no-one would want to play them. Detroit are the NFC version of Oakland. Seattle's offensive line is hurting hence why the Bucs dropped the hammer on them on Sunday at RJS.
If I had to make a pick right now, I would still go New England v Dallas as I had about six weeks ago.
Coaches to be fired. Gus Bradley in Jacksonville, Mike McCoy in San Diego (when they move to LA in February), Chip Kelly in San Francisco (back to the college game) and Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati. Also for the Bengals' lunatic LB Burflict to get himself a season-long ban for his next on-field head-hunting move (scheduled for 2nd quarter this weekend)
D
Deleted member 15344
Guest
http://m.nfluk.com/news/internation...utm_source=m.facebook.com&utm_medium=referral
Really good news and just a natural step to a franchise in the U.K.
Really good news and just a natural step to a franchise in the U.K.
MendieGK
Tour Winner
Cant wait for them to announce more disappointing match ups!
I really really hope they don't do a franchise. we dont need it, just keep the individual games coming over - genuinely think interest will remain stronger that way, rather than going to watch a terrible team 8x a year - where most of the fans will be supporting the 'away' side
Pathetic Shark
Tour Rookie
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Don't think you can ever say never with these things. I know Shahid Khan (Fulham chairman and Jacksonville Jaguars owner) has long held a desire to own a London based NFL franchise. I guess it depends how much pressure owners put on and how open the NFL would be to developing a foreign franchise
Pathetic Shark
Tour Rookie
Yes I can because outside of the owners who are trying to make even more money, the players, coaches and front office people all hate the idea of even coming over here. Just a few basic reasons why it will never happen:-
1 - Location and time difference
The simple and most obvious reason. Right now for London games, the two teams travel over on the Thursday night/Friday morning, do a brief walk-through practice, play the game and then fly home with a bye week to follow to allow them to recover. So do you offer every team that has to play London a bye week after their trip? And that is just East Coast teams who have the eight-hour flight. What about when San Diego, Seattle or Oakland have to come over? And of course London would have eight road trips in the regular season alone. How do they manage the jet lag and travel problems? Quite simply, until Concorde II is even invented, the travel logistics make a London franchise a total non-starter.
2 - The British fan base
So if Wembley sells out in hours for each International Series game, why would a London team not do the same? Because the October games are novelties, special events that people travel to all over the country from. They will spent vast sums on travel, accommodation and tickets because it is a one-off for them. There is no way your average fan from 100 miles away does the same more than once a year. So the fan base for a Wembley team would have to be around 30-40 miles around London and even that is generous knowing how bad the access is to the stadium itself. And British fans will not give up their current allegiance to follow a new franchise. The only reason they would go, would be to see their own team PLAY the London one.
3 - Stocking the roster with players
So let's say you have invented a fast new plane and have convinced 80,000 mugs to shell out huge amounts for season tickets for the new franchise. Now you need players. There are two ways of stocking an NFL roster, free agency and the draft. Just how do you convince a player to move to pretty much the other side of the world to ply his trade for a new team. To uproot his family, to move away from friends and other interests. Or the draft - how long would the NFL draft last under legal threat from a player being selected and told he has to move to England to play. From the initial forays done by a legal friend of mine in the States, this could shoot down the entire NFL draft faster than anything.
4 - NFL expansion at all
So you have a franchise with no fans and no players and no conceivable way to play their games. So why bother at all? The NFL already has a couple of weak franchises and several large TV markets in the country without a team at all. It has an ideal number of teams already playing a pretty-much perfect schedule and the interest in the game has never been higher. So why would you go to London at all? The International Series games work well to promote the game outside of America and long may they continue. But not just in London but in Germany, Scandanavia, Japan and Mexico. The narrow-minded morons on the NFLUK forum who think that games should only be in London are typical of the self-serving British fans who do much to detract from the great sport.
The NFL is a massively successful league which is loved around the world. It brings in huge revenues, massive TV audiences and will continue to do so in the future. But just not with a team based outside of the United States. Not now, not ever.
1 - Location and time difference
The simple and most obvious reason. Right now for London games, the two teams travel over on the Thursday night/Friday morning, do a brief walk-through practice, play the game and then fly home with a bye week to follow to allow them to recover. So do you offer every team that has to play London a bye week after their trip? And that is just East Coast teams who have the eight-hour flight. What about when San Diego, Seattle or Oakland have to come over? And of course London would have eight road trips in the regular season alone. How do they manage the jet lag and travel problems? Quite simply, until Concorde II is even invented, the travel logistics make a London franchise a total non-starter.
2 - The British fan base
So if Wembley sells out in hours for each International Series game, why would a London team not do the same? Because the October games are novelties, special events that people travel to all over the country from. They will spent vast sums on travel, accommodation and tickets because it is a one-off for them. There is no way your average fan from 100 miles away does the same more than once a year. So the fan base for a Wembley team would have to be around 30-40 miles around London and even that is generous knowing how bad the access is to the stadium itself. And British fans will not give up their current allegiance to follow a new franchise. The only reason they would go, would be to see their own team PLAY the London one.
3 - Stocking the roster with players
So let's say you have invented a fast new plane and have convinced 80,000 mugs to shell out huge amounts for season tickets for the new franchise. Now you need players. There are two ways of stocking an NFL roster, free agency and the draft. Just how do you convince a player to move to pretty much the other side of the world to ply his trade for a new team. To uproot his family, to move away from friends and other interests. Or the draft - how long would the NFL draft last under legal threat from a player being selected and told he has to move to England to play. From the initial forays done by a legal friend of mine in the States, this could shoot down the entire NFL draft faster than anything.
4 - NFL expansion at all
So you have a franchise with no fans and no players and no conceivable way to play their games. So why bother at all? The NFL already has a couple of weak franchises and several large TV markets in the country without a team at all. It has an ideal number of teams already playing a pretty-much perfect schedule and the interest in the game has never been higher. So why would you go to London at all? The International Series games work well to promote the game outside of America and long may they continue. But not just in London but in Germany, Scandanavia, Japan and Mexico. The narrow-minded morons on the NFLUK forum who think that games should only be in London are typical of the self-serving British fans who do much to detract from the great sport.
The NFL is a massively successful league which is loved around the world. It brings in huge revenues, massive TV audiences and will continue to do so in the future. But just not with a team based outside of the United States. Not now, not ever.
Pathetic Shark
Tour Rookie
And as for Shahid Khan, he is seen as an utter buffoon around NFL circles, owner of the worst-run and least-successful franchise in the NFL. No-one in league circles even takes him seriously.
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Funny enough it's much the same with Fulham.
Beezerk
Money List Winner
For it to work the team has to be like London/British Lions or summat, not The Panthers Inc in Britain, something to get the younger generation interested. They'd also need a competitive team at least a couple of years down the line, not end up the perennial whipping boys like the 49ers 😉
Pathetic Shark
Tour Rookie
Got all the coaching predictions spot on outside of Marvin Lewis where the Bengals tight-fisted ownership don't want to pay off the rest of his contract. Seattle looked good in the Wild Card game last night as their O-Line has started playing a lot better in the past month. But the road to the Super Bowl still goes through Dallas and New England.
The Raiders' chances went down the toilet when Derek Carr broke his leg. The scary teams are the Giants who could win in Dallas and the Steelers who could win in New England. They are the teams the favourites are afraid of simply because of the match-ups they bring.
Norrin Radd
Tour Winner
.
i have always regarded the Giants as the Pats bogey team ,they always seem to pull something extra when they play.
but not this season as Brady and co will romp it this year.
U
User62651
Guest
Anywhere online I can see highlights of yesterdays wild card games other than waiting for BBC highlights on Tuesday?
Hoping Steelers or Kansas can win SBOWL but clever money will be on New England as usual.
Hoping Steelers or Kansas can win SBOWL but clever money will be on New England as usual.
