Real Football Predictions

Before the Cowboys/Giants opening kickoff this evening, I thought I'd get my official predictions for the real football season on here.  I actually took a few minutes to look at the entire NFL schedule (yes, every single game), and I did a very quick and dirty prediction for all of them.  It's always tough to tell who is going to improve and who will fall off from year to year, so it's a pretty silly exercise.  But it was also kind of fun.

I was left with was the following:

NE	BUF	NYJ	MIA
14-2	11-5	7-9	4-12
BAL	PIT	CIN	CLE
13-3	11-5	6-10	1-15
HOU	TEN	JAC	IND
11-5	5-11	5-11	3-13
SD	KC	DEN	OAK
10-6	9-7	8-8	7-9
NYG	PHI	DAL	WAS
11-5	10-6	8-8	6-10
GB	CHI	DET	MIN
14-2	12-4	11-5	4-12
ATL	NO	CAR	TB
11-5	7-9	7-9	6-10
SF	SEA	STL	ARI
10-6	7-9	4-12	3-13

Do I think the Redskins will add a win onto last year's record?  With the addition of RGIII and Pierre Garcon, sure.  I think that's worth a W.  Can the Buffalo Bills be that improved of a team?  Fred Jackson went down mid-season last year, Fitzpatrick was playing with a rib injury virtually all season, and in the offseason they improved their already impressive defensive line with Mario Williams.  So yeah, I think this is the year the Bills stay healthy and make it into the playoff picture.  And maybe I'm being a little hard on the AFC South (aside from the Texans), but we'll see.  I'm also being pretty hard on the Browns.  It looks like I'm saying they'll have the first pick in the 2013 draft though, so that's something.  Goodbye Brandon Weeden...Hello Matt Barkley!  (What?  Brandon Weeden's old!)


Needless to say, I'm sure I missed a game or two in there somewhere, but whatever.  If I were to make any kind of changes to them, I'd consider taking KC over SD for the AFC West and Philly over Detroit for the final NFC Wild Card spot.  But I'm just going with it, so here are my predictions:

AFC East: New England
AFC North: Baltimore
AFC South: Houston
AFC West: San Diego
AFC Wild Card1: Buffalo Bills
AFC Wild Card2: Pittsburgh Steelers


NFC East: New York Giants
NFC North: Green Bay Packers
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons
NFC West: San Francisco 49ers
NFC Wild Card1: Chicago Bears
NFC Wild Card2: Detroit Lions

Super Bowl Prediction: New England over Chicago