Personally, I always think this is the best time of the NFL season to look back at the silly picks we all make at the start of the season, and, because I'm a Detroit native and Lions fan, I always put the 2 together in one blog.
Anyway, on to the review of my picks...
The picks.
Lets see, at the start of the year I picked the Patriots, Colts, Chargers, Arizona and the entire NFC East to take some steps back this year and, given the number of teams on this list, I didn't too bad I think.
I'm not surprised at all about the Colts, Arizona or the NFC East-especially Dallas and the Redskins. How did I know? If you read my picks post way back in September I stated why: these teams are on the old side on both sides of their interior line positions. The Chargers are a total surprise. I know, I know, they do this just about every year-a late season charge into the playoffs; but, how many times can the same core group of players do this?
The Patriots really aren't a surprise to me. No team lead by Bill Bellichick or Tom Brady will ever surprise me. Truth be told, I wasn't expecting them to have a losing record, just to not have those double digit wins this year. I picked them to be on the slide for 2 primary reasons: youth on defense and the same age issue in their interior line play on both sides of the ball. Well, I was wrong about the Pats, and, since they are my "2nd" team, I have no problem being wrong about them this year.
Teams on the rise: Packers, Lions, Falcons, 49ers, Houston, Tennessee and Miami.
OK, so I was wrong about all here except for the Falcons and Lions.
Of all of these, the only team at the start of the year I had issues with picking to be on the rise was the 49ers-I simply bought into their hype. The rest, except the Lions, I legitimately believed would be playoff teams this year-particularly Houston and Tennessee. So much for that idea eh?
That all said, I did believe the Falcons would win their division this year, but I didn't (and still don't) see them as a possible Superbowl contender. They are living up to my expectations and, within in a couple of years, I expect them to actually be as good as their record is this year.
My Superbowl pick was the Ravens vs. the Packers. Since the Pack aren't going to make the playoffs-thanks to my Lions :)-this idea is waaaaaay out the window, but that is OK because this is why we love football-any given Sunday anything can happen, and, more often than not, the best laid plans are useless when it's all said and done.
The Lions.
How close was this team to 8-8 this year? They were close-very close. Perhaps as close as that blown call at the Bears opening week. Think what might have been had that call gone the other way? The Lions road and division loss streaks would have ended, and that monkey they wouldn't have had to carry on their back most of the season.
The Lions had 5 or 6 games (off the top of my head) that were decided by less than 5 points-2 or 3 of which I believe they would have won had they just gotten that call opening week. Up to this week, they led 10 of their games at the half. Over the last 2 weeks us Lions fans have, I believe, watched our Defense grow up a lot and learn how to close out football games-at the very least they have learned to not let them get away by giving up big plays or crucial scores late. At the same time, for the first time in over a decade, we are seeing a team that, even with nothing to play for, is still playing hard for their coach and not quitting. This is an important sign as it tells me that a) we finally have a good core of quality, hard working talent that actually cares about their job and b) we have a coach and staff worth keeping for more than 3 years...
A few words about Suh
Suh is a beast, lets just be straight up honest about that. The guy is the first top 5 pick since Manning that I can remember actually living up to the hype of his draft status. The guy is a rookie, gets double and triple teamed every play and still wreaks havoc on offensive schemes. He leads all D tackles, much less rookies, in sacks and is-did I say-a freaking rookie! I can't believe that, as a Lions fan, we actually can say we have a "dominant defensive line"! Wait, let me pinch myself...OW!...Yup, not dreaming-the Lions have a dominant defensive line and all they need is a true lock down corner or an above average outside linebacker and they could have one of the top 5 defenses in the league within 2 years.
The most impressive thing about their D-line play is that the guys around Suh are good enough to take advantage of their one on one match ups. It's amazing really-my whole life the only truly great thing about the Lions was their running backs. Both Billy Sims and Barry Sanders fell within my Lions lifetime of viewing, but the team never could do jack shit on Defense-which is where you build winning programs from...
I'll leave the rest of the Lions chatter for my regular season wrap up, for now all I can say is that, for the first time in almost 2 decades, I am truly excited about the Lions and their future...Better go pinch myself again...OW!
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