On the day after our first taste of regular season games, and the eve's eve of the first day with a full slate, we still have time to drop some predictions. If Thursday night's tilt between two of the three early NFC favorites has shown us anything, it's that you might not need a top notch defense to survive early on. The Packers won a game where their defense looked competitive for approximately 10 plays. The Saints were in the game until, literally, after the last second with a group completely disinterested in wrapping up.
Big offenses are going to rule the first month of the season, at the very least. As I look at our team, I say to myself 'We got that'. Hopefully by the time the weather changes, the Cowboys defensive roster has some positive surprises for us and we are able to enforce some of our will on our opponent's offenses.
Some of the BTB staff decided to try our hands at predicting the upcoming 2011 season. I swear we haven't been sipping any Kool-Aid for at least 24 hours (fingers crossed) and these predictions will not include any (blatant) Cowboy homerism. You can believe me, really.
Follow the jump for some of our season predictions.
Rationalizing my way to 12 11 wins, despite obvious flaws
Losses I'm conceding: (2) @Patriots, One of the Eagles game
Victories I'm counting early: (9) Both Redksins games, both Giants games, one Eagles game, and the four teams we are clearly better than: @49ers, Seattle, Buffalo, and Miami.
I'm not buying the Redskins this season at all and I also think the Giants are in for a huge collapse this year. I know their fans will dismiss these predictions, but there are so many signs for each. That's 9-2 with six up in the air, in my humble opinion. The Jets game Sunday night is really the hardest game of the season for me to call at this point. I'll chalk that up as a loss even though I think we have a great chance of pulling out the victory. 9-3.
That leaves Detroit and St. Louis, both visiting Cowboys Stadium, and at Arizona and Tampa Bay. You're telling me you don't like the Cowboys chances to go 3-1 in these games? 12 wins. NFC East Champion.
The Laws of What If bring my projection down one game. The Cowboys will probably lose at least one game, possibly two, that they should win. So I land square in the middle at 11-5 on my season's projection. Oh, and still NFC East Champion.
Let's take a look at how myself, Tom and O.C.C. see the rest of the season playing out, as well as some meaningless playoff brackets and winners. Hey, everybody else is doing them. I must be fair, Tom and O.C.C. did not have the liberty of watching the game last night before submitting their predictions. After last night, I see Green Bay as a 13-3 team, but I would have given them either 11 or 12 wins prior and still the #1 seed in the NFC.
KD | Tom | OCC | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
DALLAS |
OVERALL RECORD |
11-5 | -- | 10-6 |
NFC EAST |
CHAMPION | Cowboys | Cowboys | Eagles |
NFC Playoff Seeds | 1 | Green Bay (13-3) | Green Bay | Atlanta (12-4) |
2 | New Orleans (11-5) | Atlanta | Green Bay (11-5) | |
3 | Dallas (11-5) | Dallas | Philly (11-5) | |
4 | Arizona (9-7) | St. Louis | Arizona (10-6) | |
5 | Philly (11-5) | Philly | Dallas (10-6) | |
6 | Atlanta (11-5) | Detroit | New Orleans (10-6) | |
NFC WILD RD | 1 | Dallas over Atlanta | Dallas over Detroit | New Orleans over Philly |
2 | Philly over Atlanta | St. Louis over Philly | Dallas over Arizona | |
NFC DIV RD | 1 | Dallas over New Orleans | Atlanta over Dallas | Dallas over Atlanta |
2 | Philly over Green Bay | Green Bay over St. Louis | New Orleans over Green Bay | |
NFC | Championship | Dallas over Philly | Atlanta over Green Bay | New Orleans over Dallas |
AFC | Champion | New England (12-4) |
Pittsburgh | San Diego (13-3) |
NFL | Super Bowl | New England over Dallas | Atlanta over Pittsburgh | San Diego over New Orleans |