Annual NFL Predictions

It's that time again, kiddies! Time for the Vulture's Guaranteed-to-be-wrong picks for the the NFL Season. Last year I picked the Saints to repeat as league champions, with the Ravens as runner-up. Wrong! The Saints wheezed out in the Wild Card round, and the Ravens were defeated by eventual AFC champion Pittsburgh in the Divisional round.

I didn't do so great in my general playoff predictions, either. I predicted that the 49ers would win the West at 10-6; they under-achieved to a 3rd place, 6-10 finish.

Overall, I predicted one division winner (Colts - like THAT was hard) and one Wild Card (Philadelphia). I can take half credit for picking New England as Wild Card and New York as Division winner, since both made the playoffs, just in opposite order. Okay, maybe not.

Even with that complete display of ineptitude, I still feel a need to make predictions. I guess it's just part of The Season.

NFC East: Eagles (13-3)
NFC North: Packers (12-4)
NFC South: Buccaneers (11-5)
NFC West: Rams (8-8)
NFC W/C: Saints (11-5) and Falcons (10-6)

AFC East: Patriots (14-2)
AFC North: Ravens (12-4)
AFC South: Texans (10-6)
AFC West: Chargers (11-5)
AFC W/C: Steelers (11-5) and Jets (9-7)

NFC Championship Game: Packers at Eagles
AFC Championship Game: Ravens at Patriots

NFC Champion: Eagles
AFC Champion: Patriots
Super Bowl Champion: Patriots

And what of the 49ers? No lofty predictions this year. New coach, new offensive and defensive systems, same old sorry-ass Michael Crabtree. The 49ers will finish 5-11 this year, but will get better as the season progresses. Jim Harbaugh will have the 49ers in contention next year. That's a guarantee. In the mean time, there's still too much to overcome for a young team that desperately needed an offseason together. Curse you, lockout!

Kick-off is in 30 minutes. "It's the most wonderful time of the year!"

New Tizona Post

A huge victory for the cause of freedom: a Federal court has ruled that cops can no longer treat videoing them in the course of executing their duties as a criminal offense.

With regard to my prolonged absenses

Not that my detractors would care, but I haven't been posting much in the past month or so. Okay, that's a major understatement: I've barely been posting at all. The problem? My current work situation. I've been handling responsibilities once performed by 4 people by myself for 16 months. I had once considered myself burnout-proof. I've since learned that no one is burnout-proof. Some of us are burnout-resistant. But no one is burnout-proof. So the combination of an insane workload and a long-ass commute have left me too beat to post on weekdays and too brain dead to post on weekends.

That situation is approaching a resolution, however. Not to disclose any details (don't want to count those chickens before they've hatched), but I am quite confident that I'll return to doing the work of a single person very shortly.

This, of course, means that soon I'll once again be contributing to the incivility of our national discussion. Deadeye can hardly wait.