2013 Preseason Afterword

The 2013 preseason was very interesting and has made me rethink
how the regular season will turn out, as you'll see in my 're-predictions.'

If there’s anything that this year’s preseason taught me, it’s that I was very wise to schedule my fantasy football league’s draft for the Sunday after the last games of the preseason. All these knee injuries, and now Andre Brown’s fractured leg, have ruined several fantasy teams before the season has even started.

But here are a few other interesting notes about this preseason. Do most of them mean anything going forward? No they don’t. But I’m in a generous mood, plus I haven’t written a blog post in a while, so I feel like sharing anyway.

Undefeated Preseason

The Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks each notched their franchises’ third undefeated preseason. For the Redskins, it is the first time since 1985 they have won all four preseason contests. They finished that regular season 10-6 but did not make they playoffs, finishing third in the NFC East.

For Seattle, all three of their 4-0 preseason finishes have come since 2009, and they are the first team since the Baltimore Ravens in 1999 and 2000 to finish the preseason undefeated for two consecutive years (the Ravens also finished undefeated in the 1998 preseason). Only the Packers have had more consecutive undefeated postseasons than the Ravens, with four of them from 1960-63.

Preseason Futility

The Falcons recorded their fourth winless preseason and the Steelers their sixth. For Atlanta, it is their second in three years, but they did make the playoffs in 2011, losing in the wild card round. The Steelers, meanwhile, have never made the playoffs or won more than eight games after going without a win in the preseason.

Only three teams in NFL history have gone 0-4 in the preseason and went on to appear in the Super Bowl. The Bills lost the Super Bowl in 1990 and the Giants lost in 2000. Only the 1982 Redskins have gone winless in a preseason and gone on to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

Seahawks Strong

Only the Baltimore Ravens scored more points this preseason than Seattle, though that was certainly helped by their 44-point outing against Tampa Bay, who gave up an NFL-worst 115 points over their four games.

On defense, the Seahawks were as strong and deep as they were last year. They gave up jut 36 points, a touchdown fewer than San Francisco and 17-points less than the Redskins.

Tebow Time

Tom Brady did not play in the Patriots’ preseason finale against the New York Giants, but Ryan Mallett led New England to a 14-10 halftime lead.

Tim Tebow played the entire second half, fighting for a place on a Patriots roster that has carried more than two quarterbacks just once in the past four seasons.

New England gave up their lead over the course of the third quarter and entered the final period trailing 20-14. But after nearly 20 months, we finally got another dose of Tebow Time as he hit Quentin Sims for two fourth-quarter touchdown passes, leading New England to a 28-20 victory.

Tebow finished the game 6/11 for 91 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception and an 83.7 passer rating. He was also sacked four times and carried the ball 6 times for 30 yards.

Puff’s Picks

First, I’d like to mention that the six teams I predicted to make the playoffs in the NFC finished a combined 12-12, while my AFC teams finished 15-10 combined (Miami played five games).

With that said, I am going to do something I’ve never done before and re-predict my regular season standings and playoff brackets.

NFC

1.     Chicago Bears (13-3) – NFC North Champions, Home Field Advantage

2.     Atlanta Falcons (11-5) – NFC South Champions, 1^st Round Bye

3.     Washington Redskins (11-5) – NFC East Champions

4.     San Francisco 49ers (11-5) – NFC West Champions

5.     New Orleans Saints (11-5) – 2^nd Place NFC South

6.     Green Bay Packers (11-5) – 2^nd Place NFC North

NFC East

Washington Redskins (11-5)

Philadelphia Eagles (8-8)

New York Giants (8-8)

Dallas Cowboys (7-9)

NFC North

Chicago Bears (13-3)

Green Bay Packers (11-5)

Detroit Lions (8-8)

Minnesota Vikings (4-12)

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons (11-5)

New Orleans Saints (11-5)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-9)

Carolina Panthers (5-11)

NFC West

San Francisco 49ers (11-5)

Seattle Seahawks (10-6)

Arizona Cardinals (8-8)

St. Louis Rams (6-10)

AFC

1.     Denver Broncos (13-3) – AFC West Champions, Home Field Advantage

2.     New England Patriots (11-5) – AFC East Champions, 1^st Round Bye

3.     Baltimore Ravens (10-6) – AFC North Champions

4.     Houston Texans (10-6) – AFC South Champions

5.     Miami Dolphins (9-7) – 2^nd Place AFC East

6.     Kansas City Chiefs (8-8) – 2^nd Place AFC West

AFC East

New England Patriots (11-5)

Miami Dolphins (9-7)

Buffalo Bills (4-12)

New York Jets (2-14)

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens (10-6)

Cincinnati Bengals (8-8)

Cleveland Browns (8-8)

Pittsburgh Steelers (6-10)

AFC South

Houston Texans (10-6)

Tennessee Titans (7-9)

Indianapolis Colts (6-10)

Jacksonville Jaguars (5-11)

AFC West

Denver Broncos (13-3)

Kansas City Chiefs (8-8)

San Diego Chargers (8-8)

Oakland Raiders (4-12)

That will do it for today. I will write blog posts daily throughout this season, beginning on Monday, so check back then for new content. Also, I will be with my All-Sports Crew co-hosts tonight recording a new podcast of Football Freaks. You can check that out on The All-Sports Crew’s PodOmatic and iTunes accounts.

You can also like Puff on the NFL and The All-Sports Crew on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl, for links to blog posts and talk show podcasts.

Sunday Night Football Afterword: Cowboys vs Dolphins

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Hall of Fame.

Preseason games are rarely newsworthy. In fact, there is a good chance that I won’t dedicate a whole blog post to any of Washington’s preseason games this year.

The Hall of Fame game is a little different for me. Most importantly, it marks the end of the NFL’s six-month hiatus from on-field action. Baseball usually holds me over, but between my Yankees’ roster changing almost every day and now these PED suspensions, I’m ready to get back to the gridiron.

In addition to marking football’s return, the Hall of Fame game is a great occasion to celebrate all of the members of Pro Football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The new members offer insight into their induction speeches from the night before, and old members reunite with former teammates and rivals and share stories from their days in the league.

The game itself was pretty much what you expect a preseason game to be. We didn’t see very much from the starters, but we got our first sense of which backups will make the 53-man roster.

I think the player who stood out the most to me was Phillip Tanner, the Cowboys’ running back in his fourth year out of Middle Tennessee State. On one play, he was hit so hard his helmet flew off, and he still bounced off the tackle and kept running despite a new rule that calls the play dead as soon as the runner’s helmet comes off. He made several other spectacular plays spinning out of tackles, bouncing off defenders and hitting holes through the trenches.

Miami struggled, but nobody should expect their second and third string defense to do very well. They have a very solid starting unit, but Joe Philbin hasn’t had enough time in Miami to get the depth that unit wants. On offense, losing Reggie Bush hurts them, but I think their running game will still do well enough as long as Mike Wallace is healthy and can be used as a threat down the field. I look forward to seeing him player later in the preseason.

As for Dallas, they didn’t play very many of their starters at all in this game, but their backups were clearly better than Miami’s. Unfortunately, in the preseason there isn’t much more analysis you can get beyond that.

Be sure to keep an eye out for blog posts throughout the preseason, as well as podcasts of The All-Sports Crew and our new NFL show. I post links to all of them on Facebook and on my Twitter, @cpuffnfl.