The Division Race
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First off, was very happy to see the Browns whoop on the Steelers - in even more dominating fashion then we did.
Now here's the current divisional standings (most of you probably already know this, just putting it here as a reference.)
Bengals 3-1-1Ravens 4- 2- 0Brown 3- 2- 0Steelers 3- 3- 0Looking at the schedules for each team, it plays out to be a tight race.
Bengals: They haven't beat anyone of significance other than the Ravens Week 1 and the tied against the Panthers. They lost to the Patriots in dominating fashion.
This isn't to say they aren't a threat, but they aren't going to easily run away with the division. They face the Colts at Indy next week, which will be tough, as well as many other good teams left on the schedule, such as the Saints, the Texans, the Broncos, the Browns, and they still have to play the Steelers twice and against the Ravens again, at Cincy though. I see them easily losing at least 4 of their remaining 11 games.
Prediction: 11-5
Ravens: Up one week, lousy the next, that's the theme of the season so far. Whether we again any traction going forward remains to be seen. We dominated this week, but hard to tell how much credit to give when the Bucs seemed so bad. The offense looks downright lethal at times but we do have substantial injuries at the offensive line that the Colts took advantage of the week before Tampa. Atlanta, while hardly a great team, will be a good measuring stick to see if we can continue trending upwards. After this coming week we face a crucial 5 week portion of the schedule where we face the Bengals at Cincy, the Saints at NO, the Chargers, and the down but still dangerous Steelers. We need to go at least 2-2 in this stretch, better to go 3-1. After that, Couple of should win games with the Titans and and Jags on our schedule, then some teams like the Titans and the Dolphins who are certainly capable. If we beat the Bengals, we have a shot at the division and probably a 10-11 win season. Of course, who better to wrap the season up with than a game with the Browns which should have huge playoff implications if they keep up the early success.
Prediction: 11-5 / 10-6
Browns: Only 6 points have kept the Browns from being 5-0 instead of 3-2. The domination of the Steelers shows the two close wins weren't just valiant efforts by a Cinderella team, but that the Browns are at least in the playoff contenders picture. The offense seems to know it's identity, the defense needs to build more impressive performances like this last one, as the first 4 games they struggled at times. You have 1 big game coming up, which is the Bungals at Cincy. Other than that you have a favorable schedule for the next 5 weeks, where at worst you should come out 6-4. Then comes the final 6 weeks, 4 out of 6 on the road and a slew of tougher teams: The Falcons and Bills while not great teams are certainly capable and you face them on the road; then two home games against the Colts and Bengals- the only saving grace of this 6 game stretch is you get two of the toughest teams in this 6 weeks at home in Cleveland; then two more road games at Carolina and then of course Baltimore. So if at worst you enter that stretch 6-4, you can afford to maybe go 3-3 and finish 9-7, which could give you a wild card and at least a winning season for the first time in years. Again, this is just fun to breakdown and predict, it's just my opinion, so who knows what happens.
Prediction: 9-7
Steelers: The Titans are the only team on their remaining schedule who I can look at and think "They should win this game." Everyone else, they could just as easily lose as win. Tough to imagine the Steelers and Big Ben having a losing season, but I can't see in their present state with that defense and inconsistent offense how they have a winning season. At best they go 8-8, maybe even worse.
Prediction: 8-8, 7-9
Anyways, that's my two cents. Feel free to disagree and tell me where you do so, I'm most certainly posting this to invoke a response and engage in discussion, so let's get at it.
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It's too early.....so G-O A-W-A-Y for a while......thanks
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It's too early.....so G-O A-W-A-Y for a while......thanks
Close to halfway through the season is too soon?
In a month it'll be a lot less fun to make predictions as there will only be a month left and it'll just come down to a handful of games and who wins those.
Or do you not like talking about this because the big bad Ravens fan posted it?
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The predictions seem pretty realistic. However, we don't play the Broncos this season
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ill take him any day over vag and douche. You're cool with me Ravens fan, just don't turn into a doucheIt's too early.....so G-O A-W-A-Y for a while......thanks
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ill take him any day over vag and douche. You're cool with me Ravens fan, just don't turn into a douche
I take my anti douche vitamins everyday.
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Zombo said:
Cleveland* 10-6
Cincinnati* 10-6
Pittsburgh 8-8
Baltimore 7 - 9
*Denotes playoff teams
Care to explain your choices?
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The Bengals have come back to reality after they played some tougher competition and will even more so this week against the colts.
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Zombo said:
Cleveland* 10-6
Cincinnati* 10-6
Pittsburgh 8-8
Baltimore 7 - 9
*Denotes playoff teams
Care to explain your choices?
afcnorthravensfan509 said:
Care to explain your choices?
Oh, sorry, those were my preseason picks.
So I will amend them now:
Cleveland* 11-5
Cincinnati* 9-6-1
Pittsburgh 8-8
Baltimore 6-10
Zombo
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ill take him any day over vag and douche. You're cool with me Ravens fan, just don't turn into a douche
Douche , at least isn't in denial like Vagi-tard..At least he stood up and took crow, Vagi-Tard on the other hand, can disappear and never come back.. he wouldn't be missed.
Nickers...."There are no old running QB's in the NFL "~Sam Rutigliano~ -
afcnorthravensfan509 said:
Care to explain your choices?
Oh, sorry, those were my preseason picks.
So I will amend them now:
Cleveland* 11-5
Cincinnati* 9-6-1
Pittsburgh 8-8
Baltimore 6-10
Zombo
Zombo said:
Oh, sorry, those were my preseason picks.
So I will amend them now:
Cleveland* 11-5
Cincinnati* 9-6-1
Pittsburgh 8-8
Baltimore 6-10
Zombo
....I'm sorry, I can sort of see the Cincy pick and the Pitt pick, but 11-5 for the Browns it just aiming pretty high. Nothing personal, I'm actually exciting and on board with the Browns being a much improved team, but 11-5 is tough. You have a 6 week stretch at the end of the year where you'll be lucky to just lose 3 games, which would bring your loss total to 5, and there's still 5 other games before that.
And even if Cleveland does perform that well, to say the Ravens are only winning 2 more games the rest of the year just shows how biased you are. No way we finish worse than 10-6. 9-7 if we really tank, but 6-10 is a pipe dream.
Edit: Upon further review, it appears you might just be "yanking my chain". I apologize.
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Zombo said:
Cleveland* 10-6
Cincinnati* 10-6
Pittsburgh 8-8
Baltimore 7 - 9
*Denotes playoff teams
Care to explain your choices?
afcnorthravensfan509 said:
Care to explain your choices?
You may consider your chain officially yanked.
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afcnorthravensfan509 said:
Care to explain your choices?
You may consider your chain officially yanked.
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1) We aren't even 1/3 of the way in, much less 1/2 way and, until we play each team from the division, we dont know how we stack up. So this would be a better discussion after the Cinn game. None the less, at this point I am staying with my preseason predictions....
Cleve 10-6
Cinn. 10-6
Balt 8-8
Pitt 6-10
Edit: Guess Im wrong with Cinn due to the tie.....so Ill make them 10-5-1, which gives us the division
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afcnorthravensfan509 said:
Oh...lol.
Well, not knowing people here very well yet, hard to tell sometimes.
If you check out Z's "This Week in the AFC North" threads, he always picks the Puke to lose badly.
It never--ever--fails to get howls of indignation from the lurking Steeler trolls. You would think that
they would have learned by now. No worries, nothing personal.
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1) We aren't even 1/3 of the way in, much less 1/2 way and, until we play each team from the division, we dont know how we stack up. So this would be a better discussion after the Cinn game. None the less, at this point I am staying with my preseason predictions....
Cleve 10-6
Cinn. 10-6
Balt 8-8
Pitt 6-10
Edit: Guess Im wrong with Cinn due to the tie.....so Ill make them 10-5-1, which gives us the division
1) We aren't even 1/3 of the way in, much less 1/2 way and, until we play each team from the division, we dont know how we stack up. So this would be a better discussion after the Cinn game. None the less, at this point I am staying with my preseason predictions....
Cleve 10-6
Cinn. 10-6
Balt 8-8
Pitt 6-10
Edit: Guess Im wrong with Cinn due to the tie.....so Ill make them 10-5-1, which gives us the division
What's 7/17? Over 1/3. Or say 6 /17, still over 1/3... and there's only 16 games so well over a third for a lot of teams and close to half of the games have been played. In a month there won't be as much to predict.
All reasonable guesses except Baltimore. Our schedule is more than soft enough to get us to 10 wins. It's after 10 that we have room to debate really. I think we hit 11, more than that is pretty optimistic, but less than 10 (or at worst 9, but I doubt it) wouldn't happen barring major injury/other circumstances.
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Cleveland 14-2
Cincinnati 8-7-1
Baltimore 4-12
Pittsburgh 3-13
"You planning on having a long relationship with that glass or are you going to drink it? Drink up, man. Maybe we can get another.” - Janis Joplin, 1970.
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