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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject: GRIDIRON GOOD THINGS (ANTEPOST)
Well folks its that time of year again when the giants of the gridiron strap on the shoulder pads and get ready to do battle for the Vince Lombardi trophy.
I will start with the off season comings and goings and the biggest one is certainly Brett Favre.After leading the Packers to the NFC Championship game last season,he retired with his head held high with records galore beside his name but after sitting doing nothing he got itchy hands and asked to come back to Green Bay.Unfortunately for him the Packers had already hitched their wagon to Aaron Rogers for the new season and were not prepared to change their whole preseason training to accomodate Favre.After much debating,arguing,deliberation and finally intervention from the NFL Commissioner,he was traded to the NY Jets.
The Jets got him after releasing Chad Pennington to Miami who were in dire need of a leader after going 1-15 last season.Pro bowl Tight End Jeremy Shockey left the New York Giants to join New Orleans and Defensive End Pro Bowler Michael Strahan retired.There are quite a few more but i would say that these are probably the biggest ones.
With the season starting on thursday,defending champions Giants taking on their old enemy Redskins,its time to have a look at who will win what.
AFC CONFERENCE.
Once again we have the premier teams in the league in this conference with the Patriots,Colts,Chargers and Steelers leading the way with the quality of Tennessee and Jacksonville backing them up.I wouldnt be at all surprised if these were the teams that got to the playoffs although it might be difficult for Indy,Tennessee and Jacksonville to qualify from the same division but not entirely impossible.
The Patriots will be hurting after going 16-0 in the regular season and coming up just short in the Superbowl.Tom Brady has been suffering all preseason with a right foot injury and he needs to be healthy for them to win games.They kept their ofensive stars but got hit badly on defence especially their secondary due to free agency.Still a certainty to win the division but wont go 16-0 even with their apparently easy schedule.
San Diego are in one of the poorest divisions in the league with perennial under achieving Raiders,Kansas who have no stars apart from Larry Johnson and Denver who are just too old.Once again they look certainties to win their division with a very easy schedule but might struggle with defensive star Shawn Merriman playing with 2 tears in knee ligaments.If he goes down,who knows how their explosive defence will manage.Philip Rivers has to step up his game to make a difference and not put all the load on star Running Back Tomlinson.
Indianapolis are in arguably the hardest division in the league with Jacksonville and Tennessee pushing them hard to take the division crown that they have won for the past few years.Peyton Manning is struggling with a knee injury,Marvin Harrison has the same problem,Dallas Clark is injury prone and age is also a factor for the whole team.Tony Dungee has permission to spend more time at home in tampa which cant be good for team morale.I would take a chance on Tennessee winning this division with Vince Young at the helm.Chris Henry coming over from Cincinatti is an obvious boost to their run attack,giving them a blend of speed to go with the straight ahead attack of LenDale White.If Indy really struggle you could argue a case for Jacksonville to take the runners up spot and possibly relegate Indy to missing the post season for the first time in years.
Pittsburgh are a class apart in their division with only Cleveland probably giving them a battle to win the division.Cincinatti players are more famous for their off field activities and invariably shoot themselves in the foot and Baltimore are in transition and their defence is REALLLY old.
NFC CONFERENCE.
Not much strength in this conference with probably Dallas,Seattle and Minnesota leading the way with Philly,New Orleans and possibly either Washington or Tampa Bay sneaking in.
Dallas have a plethora of stars and if they put it all in,they can put any team to the sword quite easily.In a tricky division with the current champs,a progressive Redskins team and Philly who can do anything when it clicks,i make them the choice to win.
Minnesota have and awesome defence,top class Running Back in Adrian Peterson.Their downside from last year was their inability to stop the passing game.If they can sort that out then they have a real chance to make a huge impact in the post season.Green Bay will need time to re-adjust to life without Favre,Detroit will always win games but never consistent and Chicago will always have problems at QB to be real contenders.
New Orleans with the addition of Shockey can win an interesting division at the expence of most probably Tampa Bay.New Orleans will need to tighten up their defence to be serious contenders though.
Seattle will be looking to give Mike Holmgren a decent sendoff in his last season at the franchise and they are in a really poor division so should win it with probable 9-7 or 10-6 record but i wouldnt expect them to go far in the playoffs.
For preseason predictions im gonna have a few different runners in different markets so here it is,
I will endevour to do a weekly column highlighting games mainly on sky and C5 but if any other game grabs your attention,let me know so hopefully we can make a few £££s this season.
Thanks for reading and happy punting. _________________ sticks & stones may break my bones but whips & chains excite me
Just a short update on where we landed on the ante post front,
Minnesota eventually landed us the 10pt win at 6/4
Tennessee landed us a 1pt win at a monster 10/1
Pittsburgh chipped in with a 4pt win at 5/4
Tennessee are going strong with home field advantage throughout the playoffs and anybody sitting with a voucher for 79/1 on betfair should be feeling quite good about themselves as they are trading around the 8/1 mark just now.Lay off if you must but wait until this weeks games are played as they arent playing and we will have a better idea of what to do next week.
The only downside to the whole antepost book has been Dallas.Even up to the last game they had a chance to qualify but the same old problem emerged with Dallas and they choked under the pressure.
Even so,for a 25pt outlay,we have made a profit of 30 pts and with the chance of another 156pts coming our way depending on how you play your position.Either way i would say that the antepost book has been kind to us for a change.
Many thanks for reading and i hope you made a few £££s from the enemy.
_________________ sticks & stones may break my bones but whips & chains excite me
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