Sunday Night Football Afterword: Redskins vs Cowboys

Rookie RB Alfred Morris holds the Redskins' record for
rushing yards in a season and carried the team to the
NFC East title against Dallas. Photo credit to Redskins.com

So with 11 playoff spots already determined, only one was left to award, the NFC East champion. The winner of the Dallas Cowboys/Washington Redskins matchup on Sunday Night would win the division and host the Seahawks in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The loser would go home empty-handed.

It was a fantastic game. As a Redskins fans, I couldn’t breath for about half of it. But it was everything the NFL fan in me could hope for – a close game where every play mattered, where mistakes and successes were amplified.

The Redskins offense took a while to get into a rhythm, but their defense came up with interceptions on two very poor passes by Tony Romo to keep Dallas from scoring, despite moving the ball well early on. The second interception was by fellow DeMatha grad and Terps alum Josh Wilson.

The Cowboys did strike first with a touchdown pass to Jason Witten on a controversial play – it looked like Tony Romo got the snap off about a full second after the play clock expired, but no flag was thrown.

Washington struck right back with a long drive of their own, culminating in a 17-yard touchdown run by Alfred Morris, his first of three scores on the day.

Kai Forbath missed his first field goal of the season on a windy night in Landover, but the Redskins defense came to play in the second half and all but completely shut down the Cowboys, who have been significantly better in the final quarter all season. Dallas did score 10 points in the fourth quarter, but the Redskins scored more and came away with the NFC East Championship.

Alfred Morris had a terrific game with 200 yards to go with his three touchdowns. The sixth round draft pick broke Clinton Portis’ team record for rushing yards in a single season.

Morris was my MVP of the game, but my runner-up was absolutely DeAngelo Hall. I give him a hard time, and I will absolutely not say that I have been wrong to do so. He’s had good games in the past, but more recent performances make those games look like flukes. Who knows, last night may have been a fluke, too. But right now it doesn’t matter, because after a rocky start early in the first quarter, Hall played shut-down defense all night, taking away Dez Bryant and allowing Washington’s blitz packages to work properly. He may make a fool of himself against Seattle, but he was a hero last night.

And it’s hard not to feel bad for Tony Romo. He is a quality quarterback, but he is now 1-6 as a starter in elimination games in Week 17 or the playoffs.

It was a fantastic season and it ended in a way I never would have expected, with a fantastic division championship game between two bitter rivals. Not focus turns to the postseason.

I am not yet sure what I will publish tomorrow. I may write a 10 Things post or I may come up with something else. Ideas are certainly welcome. Wednesday I will publish my predictions after The All-Sports Crew show. Thursday I will publish previews for Saturday’s wild-card games and Friday I will do the same for Sunday’s.

Thanks for reading, have a safe New Year’s Eve, and a special shout out to my mom, whose birthday is today. Happy birthday, Mom! Thank you for all of your constant support and I love you so much!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 17 Late Games

Adrian Peterson ran hard yesterday but came up short of the
all-time rushing record. It really puts Dickerson's season
in perspective. Photo credit to NY Times.

The later Sunday games were the exciting ones – though the Bears/Lions matchup did have some late-game excitement.

The Denver Broncos finished the season on an 11-game winning streak as Peyton Manning led Denver to an 11^th consecutive win of seven points or more. It is the second time he has had a streak of 10+ consecutive wins of seven or more points. Only two other quarterbacks have done so once. On the Chiefs’ side, an emotional year came to an end and Romeo Crennel was fired as their head coach this morning.

While Denver was romping Kansas City, New England was doing the same to a division opponent of their own in a 28-0 thrashing of the Dolphins. Miami had a decent year and will look to improve on it with a young quarterback who had enough good and bad games this season that he will learn anything he needs to in order to improve next year.

With Houston’s loss to Indianapolis earlier in the day, their wins locked up the AFC’s #1 seed for Denver and #2 seed for New England.

San Diego got off to a hot start, returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown at home against Oakland. Though the official announcement has not been made today, Norv Turner is expected to be fired, and he even said he expects that the organization will begin looking for another coach. The question is whether Turner will ever be a head coach in the NFL again.

St. Louis gave Seattle quite a scare, and gave some NFC playoff teams a little hope that they can slow a Seahawks offensive attack that had been on a tear the three previous weeks. The Seahawks won though, and are plenty hot heading into the postseason.

The 49ers locked up the NFC West with a 27-13 victory over the Cardinals. I don’t think Ken Whisenhunt will be fired, though there are plenty of opinions on both sides around the nation, but I’m sure we’ll get a more concrete answer on that front within a few days.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Vikings played a heck of a game and knocked the Bears out of the playoffs and locked up a wild-card spot for themselves with a 37-34 win over the Packers. Poor Bears fans, who had to pull for rival Green Bay for three hours only to come up empty-handed. Adrian Peterson finished 9 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson’s rushing record but should end up winning MVP now that the Vikings have locked up a playoff birth.

I hadn’t been planning on it, but my afterword for the ‘NFC East Championship’ game was a little long. I will lengthen it slightly and publish it separately from this post to keep the length of this post reasonable. Come back a bit later and check that post out. Thanks for reading!

UPDATE - The firings of Norv Turner and Ken Whisenhunt were announced this afternoon. I won't begin to speculate on who will end up with either San Diego or Arizona, but I think Andy Reid would be a good fit in Arizona.

Norv Turner should not get another head coaching position. I could see him getting a coordinator position somewhere, but I wouldn't give it to him. Whisenhunt, on the other hand, absolutely deserves another head coaching opportunity. I see him in a similar light as Andy Reid. The teams need a change of pace and the coaches could use a change of scenery.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 17 Early Games

There wasn't too much positive news for teams in yesterday's
early games, but Super Bowl winning head coach Sean Payton
will return to the Saints' sideline in 2013.
Photo credit to NY Daily News.

It was a long Sunday with all sixteen games played yesterday. The Buccaneers snapped a five-game losing streak by winning their season finale. After being in playoff contention in early December, they dropped way out but really knocked around the Falcons in Week 17. With the NFC South clinched, Atlanta still played their starters and suffered injuries to two defensive leaders. Hopefully neither is significant.

Buffalo crushed the New York Jets at home, 28-9 to end their season. It was not enough, however, to save Chan Gailey’s job as head coach. On the Jets’ side, General Manager Mike Tannenbaum is out. Rex Ryan, however, will return to coach the Jets in 2013.

Baltimore only played their starters early in the game, and Cincinnati followed suit shortly after, but Cincinnati proved to have a slightly better second team than the Ravens. Both teams will play next weekend and I will preview their games later in the week.

Houston struggled in consecutive weeks, first to the Vikings and then to the Colts, who they beat two weeks ago. This time, Chuck Pagano was on the sideline and it was in Indianapolis, where the Texans are 0-11 all-time. People try to keep from reading into that stuff, but come on; the Colts beat the Texans in Indy last year when they won two games and Houston won the AFC South. There’s something to that stat.

In New Orleans, the Saints looked to be headed to a .500 record but a poor defense – New Orleans set the NFL record for yards allowed in a season – and a Drew Brees pick-6 allowed Carolina to take a significant lead. The Saints’ offense came back firing, but their defense could not keep the Panthers from scoring more and Carolina ended up winning the game.

In New York, Tom Coughlin wants answers. The Giants have been the most inconsistent team in the past six or so weeks of any team I can ever remember seeing in the NFL. They closed the season with a 35-point victory over the Eagles, spurred on by the fact that they could still get a playoff spot with some help, but they would need the win. Michael Vick got the start for Philly but looked no better than he did early in the season. However, the celebration for the win was short-lived, only about five-minutes long, in fact.

Chicago’s defense kept Calvin Johnson from eclipsing 2,000 receiving yards, but nearly let the Lions come all the way back from a 20-3 deficit late in the second quarter. The win gave the Bears a playoff spot if the Packers could beat the Vikings in a later game. It also eliminated the Giants from the playoffs just a few minutes after they concluded their defeat of the Eagles. The Bears were ultimately knocked out of the postseason (I will get into that in my later post) and Lovie Smith was fired this morning.

With Ben Roethlisberger starting this time around, the Steelers avoided turning the ball over eight time, and in doing so beat AFC North rival Cleveland in both teams’ season finales. The Browns’ head coach Pat Shurmur and GM Tom Heckert were both fired this morning.

The Titans let Jacksonville stay in it early but ended up rolling to a 38-20 victory over Jacksonville, mostly due to three interceptions by Chad Henne, two of which were returned for touchdowns by rookie Zach Brown, and two punt return TDs by Darius Reynaud. Jacksonville GM Gene Smith was fired today after the Jaguars suffered their worst record since the franchise was created in 1995.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the seven late games. Thanks for reading everyone!

2012 Week 17 Preview: Redskins vs Cowboys

The Cowboys/Redskins rivalry began before Dallas even got
the expansion team and is one of the best in the NFL.
Photo credit to Dallas Observer Blogs.

The Redskins’ playoff hopes hang in the balance, but not as much as the Dallas Cowboys, at least not currently – by game time, they may be on equal ground.

The Cowboys will win the NFC East with a victory. A loss knocks them out of the playoffs.

Likewise, the NFC East goes to Washington with a win, but they will need Minnesota and Chicago to both lose their matchups in order to get in with a loss to Dallas.

This is the first time Washington and Dallas will meet for a Week 17 matchup in which the winner clinches the division title, but they are no strangers to meeting in intense circumstances.

The Redskins/Cowboys rivalry is one of the most intense in all of sports. Some even go so far as to say it is the most intense in the NFL. They have met twice in the NFC Championship Game, and the Redskins won both meetings, going on to lose to the ’72 Dolphins and beat the ’82 Dolphins in those Super Bowl appearances.

NFL.com counted down the Top 10 games in their rivalry. Both NFC Championship meetings made the list, and you can see the other eight games here.

But those games are history. All that matters now is tomorrow’s game and the matchups within it.

Washington’s secondary has overachieved the past few weeks, but in the Thanksgiving matchup, Dez Bryant torched the Redskins with 8 catches for 145 yards and two scores. His thumb isn’t 100% but I expect him to be a major part of Dallas’ game plan Sunday.

On the Cowboys’ side, their defense has had to patch up a lot of holes with half of their defensive starters missing the past several games. So far they’ve done a good job of doing so, and their performance against New Orleans, up until the final few minutes, is why I give them a chance to shut down a Washington passing attack in which RG3 may or may not be at full strength.

The problem is that Washington also has an excellent run game – tops in the league, or near the top at least. If RG3 is healthy, that adds a lot to it, but Alfred Morris seemed to do all right for himself last week despite Philadelphia’s linebackers not having to worry about which rookie would be carrying the ball on any given play.

Washington’s offensive line has been one of the best in the NFL, for the first time in decades. Usually, that would not be enough for me to give them the edge over Dallas’ defensive line, mostly because of DeMarcus Ware. But Ware has been battling injury all season. He has still put up impressive numbers, but he has not been quite as intimidating a force as in past seasons.

I give Washington the edge in this one, but I expect it to go down the wire, which is the way it should be for a game like this between these two teams. This one ought to have Redskins and Cowboys fan alike on the edge of their seats until the clock reads 0:00. Anything less would be a disappointment.

Puff’s Pick: Washington Redskins over Dallas Cowboys

2012 Week 17 Preview: Vikings vs Packers

Brett Favre's time in Minnesota ignited a lot of dislike for the
Vikings in Packers Nation. Photo credit to Bleacher Report.

This is the only game this weekend, other than the Redskins/Cowboys game (which I will preview tomorrow), that features a team in a win-and-in situation.

The Minnesota Vikings are at home for a 4:25 p.m. kickoff against the Green Bay Packers in a game that will seal their playoff fate. If the Vikings lose, it would take a miracle and a half to get them in the playoffs. A win clinches them a spot and knocks Chicago, New York, and the loser of the Skins/Cowboys game out of the playoff picture.

Adrian Peterson has been phenomenal all season. A week ago, I predicted that he would not break the all-time single-season rushing record because he had to play Houston and Green Bay. He didn’t top 100 yards against Houston, and it looks like I may have been right about him not breaking the record. But he is still my top choice for MVP if the Vikings get into the playoffs.

Side note: AP is still my top choice if the Vikings miss the playoffs, but the NFL rarely, if ever, awards the MVP to a player on a team that misses the playoffs.

Despite Peterson only gaining 86 yards, the Minnesota defense did pretty well for itself, holding the Texans to just six points in Reliant Stadium. Christian Ponder has yet to top 200 passing yards in a game since the team’s Week 11 bye – he had six such games in the first ten weeks of the season.

On Green Bay’s side, they have had three different leading rushers in the past four weeks and Aaron Rodgers has had only one game since their Week 10 bye in which he didn’t pass for at least 200 yards. He also only had one sub-200 game in the first nine weeks.

The Vikings are on a 3-game winning streak, also beating the Bears and Rams in the past three weeks. Green Bay’s winning streak is slightly longer at four games, but it includes a 23-14 Week 13 win over Minnesota and they are coming off a 55-7 romp at home against Tennessee last Sunday.

Remember what I said about how much Minnesota is playing for on Sunday? Well, don’t expect Green Bay to just let them in. Green Bay can lock up a first-round bye with a win over their NFC North rival.

The biggest question for me is how set Minnesota is on getting the rushing record for Adrian Peterson. He needs 209 yards to break the record. He gained 210 in that earlier loss to Green Bay. Christian Ponder said earlier this week that he’s sure AP is more concerned with getting the win, which I’m sure is mostly true. But Peterson did say a day or two ago that he still plans on breaking that record.

Ultimately, I just don’t think there is much the Vikings can do to slow down a markedly better Packers team that isn’t resting anyone and has really gotten things rolling after a 38-10 loss to New York in Week 12, their only one since that Week 5 loss in Indianapolis.

Puff’s Pick: Green Bay Packers over Minnesota Vikings

2012 Week 17 Preview: Bengals vs Ravens

The Bengals look to avenge their Week 1 loss while
the Ravens hope to move up in the AFC playoff seeding.
Photo credit to WhoDeyFans.

The AFC playoffs are set as far as who is in and who is out. The Bengals are in. The Ravens are in. The Bengals are locked into the 6^th seed and the Ravens are very unlikely to move up from their #4 seed.

After a four-game win streak after their bye week, Baltimore lost three straight – to Pittsburgh, Washington and Denver – and then handily beat the New York Giants at home last Sunday, 34-17.

Looking at the teams they’ve played this season, a big thing stands out to me. They have struggled against teams with solid rushing attacks. They’ve beaten a few of them, but not without trouble. Though Ray Lewis has been taken off IR, he will not play this week and so they’ll be another week before I trust them to stop a back like BenJarvus Green-Ellis.

Cincinnati has come a long way since that Week 1 Monday night loss to Baltimore in which I jumped the gun and said Joe Flacco was a top-tier quarterback with the way he ran the hurry-up offense. The 44-13 final score is no doubt something that will drive the Bengals through practices this week.

Even though they aren’t playing for playoff positioning, they are playing for pride, and Marvin Lewis made it clear this week that he wants Cincinnati to be mentioned in the same breath with Baltimore and Pittsburgh when we look at AFC North teams. He knows the way to do that is to back up last week’s win over the Steelers with a win this week against the Ravens.

If you listened to The All-Sports Crew on WMUC Sports last night, or if you checked my predictions post I put up yesterday evening, you know I picked the Bengals to win this game. I think Cincinnati is a more complete team right now.

Andy Dalton has struggled at times, but he has really stepped up in crunch time this season. He has a running back in BenJarvus Green-Ellis who only had one particularly good year in four with New England but has found a home, and his mojo, in Cincinnati. Perhaps only slightly more importantly, Dalton has a terrific receiver in A.J. Green who is young, incredibly athletic and talented, and is already drawing comparisons to Calvin Johnson, which I tend to have trouble arguing against.

On defense, Cincinnati is 8^th in points allowed per game (slightly better than Baltimore) and 6^th in yards allowed per game (much better than Baltimore’s ranking of 20^th). Additionally, Cincinnati is one of the least penalized teams on defense in the NFL. Geno Atkins has been terrific all year, and his efforts have been rewarded with a Pro Bowl bid. Leon Hall and Terrence Newman have been great on the corners, and they have a great linebacker corps.

To top that all off, Cincinnati is at home. If Baltimore is going to win this game, Joe Flacco is going to need to kill his ego and let them center the game plan on Ray Rice.

Puff’s Pick: Cincinnati Bengals over Baltimore Ravens

2012 NFL Predictions: Regular Season Week 17

Week 15 was a solid week for me. With two weeks left I’m almost guaranteed to reach 160 wins, but now I’m eyeing 165 or so, which is only 11 correct picks per week, so I’ve got a solid shot.

	Game	Puff’s Pick
Sun., 1:00 pm	Tampa Bay at Atlanta	Atlanta Falcons
	NY Jets at Buffalo	Buffalo Bills
	Baltimore at Cincinnati	Cincinnati Bengals
	Cleveland at Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh Steelers
	Chicago at Detroit	Chicago Bears
	Jacksonville at Tennessee	Tennessee Titans
	Philadelphia at NY Giants	New York Giants
	Carolina at New Orleans	New Orleans Saints
	Houston at Indianapolis	Indianapolis Colts
Sun., 4:25 pm	Green Bay at Minnesota	Green Bay Packers
	St. Louis at Seattle	Seattle Seahawks
	Miami at New England	New England Patriots
	Kansas City at Denver	Denver Broncos
	Oakland at San Diego	Oakland Raiders
	Arizona at San Francisco	San Francisco 49ers
Sun., 8:20 pm	Dallas at Washington	Washington Redskins

	Puff on the NFL
Week 17 Record	12-4
Current Season Record	167-88-1

Games to Watch (Predicted winners in Bold)

Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, 1:00pm – Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals

The Ravens still have a chance to clinch the #3 seed in the AFC with some help and have already clinched the AFC North crown. The Bengals will use this game as a warm-up for the playoffs, and it will be important for them to play hard in order to ensure they are fully prepared, especially since they might have to face the Ravens in the postseason. I’ll write a full preview of this game on Thursday.

Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, 1:00pm – Chicago Bears @ Detroit Lions

I will not be writing a full preview for this game. The Bears are the better team and the Lions will likely make it their priority to get Calvin Johnson up over 2,000 receiving yards.

Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, 4:25pm – Green Bay Packers @ Minnesota Vikings

The Packers have the #2 seed in the NFC to play for, while the Vikings are in a win-and-in situation. If Minnesota loses, it’s very unlikely they will have another game this season. I will write a full preview of this game on Friday.

Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, 8:20pm – Dallas Cowboys @ Washington Redskins

The Cowboys and Redskins are both in win-and-in scenarios. If the Cowboys lose, they’re out. If the Redskins lose, they are most likely out. In either situation, the winner of this game will be the NFC East Champion. It feels like I’m living in an NFL History film, it’s been so long since both of these teams were good at the same time, much less were playing in a playoff game or a game of the same magnitude. I will write a full preview of this game on Saturday.

Stay tuned for recaps of this week’s games. Thanks for reading and enjoy the final week of the regular season!

10 Things You Need to Know: NFL Regular Season Week 17

ESPN ranks the Broncos #1 and they'll enter the playoff
red hot and likely with a first-round bye.

Merry Christmas everyone!! ‘Like’ The All-Sports Crew on Facebook to keep up with updates! The All-Sports Crew will air on WMUC Sports, live, tomorrow from 7-8 p.m.

10.            Chuck Pagano Back to Work

Coach Pagano returned to work as the Colts’ head coach on Monday. I never thought I would see a more emotional press conference than when Jim Irsay and Peyton Manning announced his release from the Colts. I was wrong, and Chuck’s press conference is one worth watching.

9.            NBC gets Sunday Night Playoff Game

I know, I know, technically it’s not the playoffs. But if Dallas loses, their season is over. If Washington loses, it’s almost certain their season would be over. So for both teams, it is almost definitely going to be a win-and-in, loser-go-home situation. Makes for great football, and NBC will get such a game from the NFC East once again (they’ve gotten NFC East games with similar circumstances each of the past three years (NYG vs Philly in ’10, NYG vs Dallas in ’11, and now Dallas vs Washington in ’12)). Let’s see what Troy Aikman has to say this time around.

8.            Playoff Implications: AFC

Houston Texans – A win against the Colts would clinch home-field advantage, otherwise they need New England and Denver to lose. If only one of them lose, they would at least get a first-round bye.

Denver Broncos – With a win or a New England loss, Denver clinches a first-round bye. With a win and a Houston loss, Denver clinches home-field advantage.

New England Patriots – A win and either a Denver or Houston loss clinches a first round bye. A win plus loses from Denver and Houston would net New England home-field advantage.

7.            Playoff Implications: NFC

Green Bay Packers – Already in the postseason, this week’s matchup with Minnesota is still important. A win secures a first round bye. If they tie the Vikings, they need San Francisco to lose or tie the Cardinals, and if Green Bay loses, they need San Francisco to lose and Seattle to lose or tie the Rams.

San Francisco 49ers – A win or tie or a Seattle loss or tie clinches the NFC West. A win and a Green Bay loss would clinch a first-round bye.

Washington Redskins – A win over Dallas clinches the NFC East. If they lose, they’ll need Chicago to lose to Detroit and Minnesota to lose to Green Bay to still get in.

Dallas Cowboys – Dallas wins the NFC East with a victory in Washington. They have no other playoff scenarios.

New York Giants – They need to beat Philly (Michael Vick is starting) and they need Dallas to lose or tie, Chicago to lose and Minnesota to lose.

Minnesota Vikings – A win gets them into the playoffs, otherwise things rest on Chicago, Dallas and the Giants.

Chicago Bears – They can clinch a playoff spot with a win and a Minnesota loss.

6.            Fantasy Disappointments

Not many leagues continue this late into the season, but mine uses all 17 (this is the last year of that nonsense). There were plenty of fantasy disappointments this week, so I’ll just list a few that stood out to me.

• BenJarvus Green-Ellis has been on a tear this season, especially during the second half, but just 14 yards on 15 carries yesterday and 1.5 fantasy points had to be disappointing.
• Frank Gore has been a rock in fantasy football all season long, like BJGE, but he only managed 2-points against Seattle in a rough day for the entire San Francisco team.
• Atlanta won without Tony Gonzalez? Not exactly, but it isn’t far from the truth as he had one catch for less than 10 yards, netting him 0.5 points in my PPR league.

5.            Fantasy Surprises

• How about Dez Bryant, who had 42.5 fantasy point in my league on the strength of nine catches for 224 yards and a pair of 58-yard touchdown catches.
• Roddy White topped 30 fantasy points for the second time this season with a 33-point performance against Detroit on Saturday night.
• After being relatively quiet since his Week 2, 34.5-point performance, Reggie Bush emerged again with 30 points against Buffalo on Sunday, with one rushing touchdown and two receiving touchdowns.

4.            Games to Watch

Like last week, I’ll be more specific on why these are the biggest games to watch in my predictions post tomorrow.

• Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
• Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins (Sunday, 8:20 p.m.)

3.            Power Rankings

Because Around the League does their rankings later on Tuesday Afternoons, I instead used a different set of Expert Rankings on ESPN. You can see the rest of the list, but I will, as usually, only list the top and bottom six here.

1. Denver Broncos	27. Tennessee Titans
2. Atlanta Falcons	28. Detroit Lions
3. San Francisco 49ers	29. Philadelphia Eagles
4. Green Bay Packers	30. Oakland Raiders
5. New England Patriots	31. Jacksonville Jaguars
6. Seattle Seahawks	32. Kansas City Chiefs

The Redskins are in there at #9 and the Ravens are #10. The Cowboys and Giants are in the 14 and 15 spots, respectively on the ESPN list. This actually looks like a more accurate list than what ATL publishes on NFL.com. They put a little too much emphasis on record in my opinion.

2.            Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta seems to be peaking around the right time. I don’t give too much credence to their wins over New York and Detroit, but they did end Drew Brees’ touchdown pass record and bounced back after a loss they shouldn’t have suffered against Carolina. This week’s game against Tampa Bay will give us an indication of whether they have any chance of ending their playoff woes.

1.            Denver Broncos

I know Denver’s second-half schedule has been among the easiest in the league (maybe the easiest), but 10 consecutive wins, likely to be 11 if they don’t stumble against Kansas City, still make a team hot and confident. The fact they haven’t lost to a team they were supposed to beat, and that their three losses all came to good teams and when Peyton was still new to the team, spells good things for this team in the playoffs. I predicted them to lose six of their first seven and then win nine straight after that, so this season has gone better than expected.