Stuff I've learned

Halfway through the NFL season, and league parity doesn't seem so significant anymore. One 0-8, two 1-7, and four 2-6 teams will kind of do that, and while no one team seems to be hogging the victories, there are still a swath of teams you just know won't make the playoffs, even those with 3+ victories.

For starters, Buffalo may be the best 0-8 team I've ever seen. To the contrary, Chicago is easily the worst of any team with 5 or more wins (they're 5-3), and I believe a lock to miss the playoffs entirely. The NFC north and west divisions will field a combined zero wild card teams, but I maintain gleeful hope that the NFC west winner will have a losing record and then make the super bowl. Nothing to confuse pundits like any kind of gray area.

Realistically, I believe the NFC wild card can only come down to New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, with Washington, Seattle, and probably in some peoples' minds Chicago as potential contenders, though 2 of the better teams mentioned will win their divisions. Seattle won't win enough road games, Washington isn't good enough to make the playoffs without sweeping the Giants, and Tampa Bay has a shaky defense. I think the Eagles, Packers, Saints, and 49ers will win their respective divisions, with Giants and Falcons as wild card playoff entrants.

As for the AFC, I've learned to take the points on Buffalo as much as feasible, but avoid picking them as an upset special for the rest of the season. Still, I feel good that they were my choice to finish with the over worst league record prior to the season starting. In the classic AFC vs NFC battle, it seems clear that tiers 1.5-whatever are better in the AFC. Tough to tell if the AFC south is the best division in football; I believe even without a consensus amazing top team, it still is. Even Jacksonville, beleagured and mocked consistently by many, is 4-4, and has a potent enough offense to warrant being the division bottom dwellar in the league.

Denver, on the other hand, is simply deplorable. Without two of their remaining games consisting of NFC west competition, they would surely finish 3-13. I still don't buy into the Browns as a legitimate force to be reckoned with, but they seem to have a great chance of further humiliating the Bengals by finishing decisively ahead of them, avoiding being the last place team in the AFC north. I can't really tell what the deal with Miami is: they don't seem very good, and they certainly don't seem like they're going to pull out many games decided in the 4th quarter. It seems like a case of beating bad teams and losing to good ones, and 9-7 isn't making it into the AFC playoffs this year.

I like the New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, and San Diego Chargers to win their respective divisions, with the Steelers and Patriots to get in as wild card teams. Hardly a leap I'm taking.