A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
The NFL season is half over, and many stories that seemed oh-so important back in August now have little bearing on the season.
We fans fretted and conversed about the lockout and missed training camps, the kickoff rule change, a certain “Dream Team” in Philadelphia, and a #1 overall draft pick who just wasn’t going to cut it as an NFL quarterback; but few predicted the Bengals, Giants and 49ers would lead their divisions at this point.
Before we get to the Week 9 fantasy football start/sit advice, I want to add a couple more thoughts on my Tebow article from yesterday. (And don’t worry; I’ll analyze his fantasy prospects for Week 9 too.)
I thought there was a chance that we would have three close, competitive games and one boring blowout last weekend during the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs. I thought the games between the Saints-Cardinals, Cowboys-Vikings, and Colts-Ravens would all come down to the final quarter. The Chargers-Jets game I was pretty sure would be an easy victory for San Diego.
Hmm…yeah, about that…
I tell you this in an effort to be up front about the fact that while I was pretty accurate at predicting things during the regular season (57% against the spread), my radar has been way off for the playoffs (2-6 record).
Still, that is not going to stop me from trying, and I have already submitted my Conference Championship Sunday picks: Colts to win and cover, Vikings to cover and probably win. This would give us a Super Bowl matchup between the Colts and Vikings that would be quite compelling.
But how compelling would an Indy-Minnesota (aka Favre-Manning, let’s be honest) matchup be in relation to the other three possible Super Bowl matchups?
Featured in today’s link dump is MSF’s all-time favorite whipping boy: Braylon “Dropsie” Edwards, who is immortalized in a post by Major League Jerk doing what Braylon does best…dropping passes.
Also, Charles Woodson is named AP DOY, why the best dunkers in college basketball seem to come from the small conferences, and a link to poll where you can choose the best Conan O’Brien lookalike.
Last night I had a very entertaining Twitter conversation with our good friend Robert Littal of Black Sports Online regarding who should be the NFL MVP in 2009.
Robert is a strong proponent of Titans’ running back Chris Johnson, and with good reason. Johnson had one of the most statistically impressive seasons of an any player at any position in NFL history.
I took a little bit of a different view, stating that Johnson’s position (RB) and his team’s record (8-8 and out of the playoffs) puts him at a reasonable disadvantage in comparison to quarterbacks, who play a much a tougher position, who have terrific individual seasons while leading their teams to 12-, 13-, 14-win seasons.
And we had three such quarterbacks this year, all of whom I rank ahead of CJ when it comes to the 2009 NFL MVP voting.
