The NFL is a little past the midway point and it is time to evaluate and make predictions regarding who will be playing in San Diego at the end of the season.
First and foremost, my beloved Green Bay Packers seem primed to make a serious Super Bowl run in the NFC. Everything is clicking on the offense and if they can improve on stopping the run, then they will definitely have home field throughout the playoffs, and we all know what that means. The Packers have never lost a home playoff game in the friendly, yet frozen, confines of Lambeau Field.
Brett Favre is the leading candidate to be MVP of the league this year for the fourth time, and he is looking absolutely superb this season. That is if you don’t count the two games they played in a dome this year against New Orleans and Minnesota.
The only other team that is worth a nickel in the NFC is the Rams. They still have as much talent if not more than anyone else. They have won five times in a row and are about to get their starting quarterback Kurt Warner back. The Eagles looked decent except for those three disappointing losses. Now that McNabb is out 6 to 8 weeks, their season is a rap. It’s over.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a good record but we all know what they have always been, paper champions. They look good on paper until you put them in a big game and expect them to perform. As long as Brad Johnson and Rob Johnson are their quarterbacks they will never win the big one. They have a lot to prove. We’ll see if they have “the juice.”
As far as the AFC is concerned, the Broncos and the Chargers look to be the early favorite with 7-3 records, but it’s hard to peg either one of these teams as a tough out in the playoffs. They both are suspect at best. If the Patriots can slip into the playoffs, then I’d like them to go to the Super Bowl. They are trying to pull it together for the final stretch. If “the man they call Brady” can get it together and string together a few wins then they will have a chance.
Other than that, the AFC isn’t’ even worth mentioning. It’s the AFC. They don’t matter in the whole scheme of things.
For everybody who is upset that I didn’t mention your team (like Dolphins and 49ers fans), don’t worry, the NFL draft is only five months away and your team can begin to focus on next year.
Until then, sit back and watch as the Packers do what they do best. Win.
Brandon Ward, 21, is a senior newspaper journalism student from Riverdale, Md. He can be reached at blove_13@hotmail.com.