The Year in Review (NFL Style)

The 2009 NFL season has just landed. Whew! For one, I'm glad it's over. I think Snickers got the idea for its popular commercial from my aging Seachickens. But enough of the sour grapes, let's look at the picks and see how it all turned out. Just in case you need a refresher of what the original picks were, here you go. Now to the observations:

1. First, my pre-season picks turned out to be rather prescient, especially after they seemed so ill-begotten at the midpoint of the season. Tennessee roared back after starting 0-6 and finished a respectable 8-8, making my 11-5 prognostication not look so preposterous. Denver imploded after going 6-0 to finish 8-8, making my 4-12 also understandable.
2. Spot-on predictions: Oakland, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, New England, Minnesota and Detroit.
3. Way-off-base forecasts: Seattle, Green Bay, New Orleans, Dallas, the New York Jets and, in a way, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
4. I got three out of the eight division winners correct: Minnesota, Indianapolis and San Diego.
5. I got six of the eight division losers correct: Cleveland, Jacksonville, Buffalo, St. Louis, Detroit, Tampa Bay and Washington.
6. My playoff predictions were mostly sorry. I had six out of the twelve playoff teams right. No Wild-Card winners right, even though San Diego did advance to the Divisional round. Three of the eight Divisonal round teams correct. But from then on, I was as knowledgeable as one of these people.
7. If we want to bring in my mid-season audible, there were some interesting things to note from those picks: both hosts of the conference championships were correct as were both Super Bowl contenders. I faltered in picking Indy over Naw'lens, though.

All in all, it was a fun year. Not for my picks. Not for the Seahawks. But, hey, my fantasy team finished second as a #7 seed. And there's always next year (especially since my 'Hawks totally revamped management and have two, count 'em, two, high draft picks--Yipee!). Now we'll have to see who wins the Tim "I Generate Revenue w/o Even Playing" Tebow Sweepstakes.