We're down to the final four. We have the Patriots playing the Broncos for the AFC Championship and the Cardinals playing the Panthers for the NFC championship and one of these teams will eventually win the Super Bowl on Febuary 7th. While we could wait until the NFC and AFC championships are decided I believe it's more fun to pick now while there are more possibilities to choose from. Take your pick and let's see who's right. The poll will only last through this Friday and it would be nice if you explain why you believe the team you selected will win.
I wish I could... I simply don't know enough about it to make an educated guess. I always wondered though how you can be loyal to franchises that move around. Sports in Europe is tied to the cities and have wonderful histories. I don't get the same impression with American sports. I will watch the final as usual though. It is fun to watch. Although the games are way too long.
The NFC and AFC championship games are usually much better football than the SuperBowls, so It's right to start your poll now with 4 instead of joining the hype parade at the end. Lots of folks socialize while the SuperBowl is on, but real football fans intently pay attention to the playoffs.
In fact, of the four, the Arizona Cardinals is the only franchise to have ever changed cities, moving to its present location in 1988. The Carolina Panthers only began play in 1995 and have remained in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos have been in their respective locales since they were formed in 1960. Predictions are essentially guesses at this stage, wishful thinking being the primary determinant. Since 2000, the Patriots have won 4 Super Bowls, Denver none, Carolina none, and Arizona none, so I'll guess the Patriots.
Thanks for the info. Always nice to learn Still... These are franchises. Not like say Bayern Munich who has been in the city since it was founded in 1900 and is owned by the fans. Or take Torino who has a long history of rivalry between the working class team Torino and Juventus. Of course. With the disappearance of the old political parties much of the political side of football has died down. But you still have extremely left wing clubs like Bologna or right wing clubs like Lazio. Unfortunately a lot of clubs are being bought by multi billionaires and one even moved city in the UK. Well... sorry for the long post. Sports is and was an important part of local communities and it is one of the best ways to integrate foreigners. Not sure if it is the same in the US.
The smart money says Carolina, but after they set cruise control and nearly blew it last week, the Patriots seem to be back in contention.
The Patriots may have won four Super Bowls, but as Janet Jackson sings, what have you done for me lately? I'll go with the Panthers.
In the AFC it's a battle of two aging Hall of Fame quarterbacks with good but not exceptional teams backing them up. They are both the teams that should be in the AFC Championship game this year. I'm not sure whether the Patriots will win or Denver but I'd put my money on Denver after watching Payton Manning on Sunday. The bigger question is the NFC Championship between the Panthers and the Cardinals. Both have been cited as the powerhouses of the NFL all season along with Seahawks that the Panthers defeated on Sunday. I've seen Seattle as being over-rated and when the chips were on the line the Cardinals defeated the Seahawks in Seattle easily earlier this year. Of course Seattle did defeat the Cardinals in week 17 when the Cardinals had no reason to win and treated it like a pre-season game pulling Carson Palmer in the second half. Seattle was the 6th ranked team going into the playoffs and didn't deserve the win over the Vikings where a missed 27 yard field goal in the final seconds allowed them to move on to face the Panthers. Facing Carolina the over-rated Seahawks gave up 30 points in the first half but then shut out the Panthers in the second half and almost won the game. Wilson had over twice as many passing yards when compared to Cam Newton in the game and the Panthers showed that they couldn't play a full 60 minute game to me. This coming weekend the Panthers will play the Cardinals and both are about equal but here's what I see. Cam Newton and the Panthers will have future Super Bowl opportunities while this is probably the last hurrah for Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald, and Dwight Feeney. While any turnovers would be huge neither team is prone to turnovers. I'm not going to call the game based upon a turnover because of that. What I see is the desire and ability of the Cardinals to put pressure on Newton because it can play man-on-man defense and bring the blitz while Caroline often relies on zone defense. I also see Larry Fitzgerald being used more throughout the game while he was only used in the 2nd half of the Green Bay game last Saturday. In the end I see Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald, and Dwight Feeney making the difference resulting in a Cardinal's win over the Panthers. I don't see either the Patriots or the Broncos defeating either the Panthers or the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Because I believe that the Cardinals will win this coming weekend against the Panthers I'm predicting the Cardinals to win the Super Bowl.
I don't see how anyone can bet against the Patriots at this point. This would be their 7th superbowl appearance in 16 seasons. This Sunday will be their 10th conference championship game in 16 seasons. There has never been anything like the Belichick and Brady brain trust in NFL history. Every single piece around them has moved and they have found a way to win, consistently.
I certianly think that Belichick is one of the most outstanding coaches in NFL history and Brady is unquestionably headed to Canton Ohio after his career ends but they go up against Denver that also has one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history in Payton Manning that played an awesome game this last weekend. Denver's problem was dropped passes on Sunday while Manning was playing one of his best games ever. Brady does have Gronkowski and Edelman back and they're game changers but the Patriots were only able to eek out a 7-point win over the KC Chiefs last weekend. I wouldn't be to quick to dismiss the Broncos in the AFC Championship game. It's promises to be a head-to-head battle between two titans of football. In the end though I don't think that either the Patriots or the Broncos have the quality of team to compare with either the Panthers or the Cardinals. Even great players can't carry a team when faced with a team that's superior overall. Cam Newton has demonstrated exceptional ability as a young quarterback but mostly because of his running ability. If Newton can be contained so he can't run then he's in trouble as last weekend's game showed. He only managed about 166 yards passing as I recall and was shutout in the second half of the game. The best game last weekend was unquestionably the Packers v Cardinals. Carson Palmer and Aaron Rogers are both HOF quarterbacks and both played that way and their teams fought it out for a full four quarters. It was only in overtime when Arizona won (the 2nd) toss that the difference between the two became apparent. Larry Fitzgerald, that is playing his best season ever from the slot position, was not going to be denied a win and he carried the Cardinals to the win. The overall receiver corps of the Cardinals trumps the Panthers' receiver corps and that's where I see a Cardinal advantage. It's going to be a hell-of-a weekend leading up to the Super Bowl because the four best teams are going to be duking it out.
I think it will be the Cardinals. Whoever does win though, I got to say that as of today (1/19/2016) that Packers v Cards game was the best of the year.
Aaron Rogers v Carson Palmer was unquestionably the best game I've watched all year. Two awesome quarterbacks that both made some mistakes but that also made the plays when the chips were down. The Hail-Mary pass by Rogers at the end of regulation, his second of the year, was insane while the two passes from Palmer to Fitzgerald that ultimately won the game for the Cardinals in OT were also exceptional. What a game! But this weekend promises even better match-ups. We have unquestionably the best two quarterbacks of the modern era in Brady v Manning. The experts are still debating who's the best. Is it Manning that holds all of the records but no Super Bowl title or Brady that has four Super Bowl rings? Many say Manning is over-the-hill but he didn't look that way last Sunday. He's in excellent health and no one disputes his knowledge of the game and ability to execute the game to perfection. Then there's Brady's arm that's the best in all of football. It's going to be a game that shouldn't be missed. This is probably the last time we'll ever see the match-up between Brady and Manning and it will be a historical match-up not to be missed. The storybook ending would be if Manning can defeat the Patriots and go on to win the Super Bowl. On the other side we have the first match-up in NFL history of two Heisman Trophy quarterbacks in Palmer (2002) Newton (2010) facing each other in a Conference Title game. Both teams are powerhouses on both offense and defense and it's going to come down to which quarterback executes best. Many are calling this a game of youth v experience and there's a lot of validity to that. Of interest to some on Inside the NFL there's a split decision on the Patriots v Broncos game with Boomer Esiason picking the Patriots and Brandon Marshall picking the Broncos. Phil Simms is broadcasting the game and didn't reveal his choice. When it comes to the Cardinals v Panthers Esiason, Simms, and Marshall have all picked the Cardinals to win this weekend. Of course the "experts" can be wrong but they've got a pretty good record of picking the winning teams overall.
My Prediction for the weekend is Broncos win, and Cards win. I have more faith in the Cardinals winning then the Broncos though. I think Pats vs Broncos will be the better game. Hope I'm wrong, and both games are great.
Carson Palmer played his worst game of the season, only staying in it due to dropped Packer interceptions and a ricochet lucky touchdown. I don't see him pulling off that kind of luck against the Panthers secondary. Panthers win. Peyton Manning just doesn't look like his arm has any real strength anymore. Pats are a cohesive team that's used to this stage... a stage that's usually choke territory for Mr. Manning. Patriots win. The Panthers will beat the Patriots.
There's no question whatsoever that Palmer played his worst game of the season against Green Bay but you can't expect that to happen again against the Panthers. In post-game interviews Palmer admitted why his game was off. As he put it the reason was that he was so focused on defeating Green Bay that he tried to force passes into coverage where normally he wouldn't have. This Sunday he plans on playing his "regular" game treating the Panthers just like any other team that the Cardinals met during the regular season. I've heard the expressed by other players on both the Cardinals and Panthers. Both teams have to just play their game without any focus on who the opponent is or how important the game is. On a side note the rookie David Johnson has stated he needs to focus on "North-South" running as opposed to trying to dodge and weave through the opponents defense. He's going to depend on the offensive linemen to open up the hole where it's supposed to be to avoid any negative yardage rushes like we saw against Green Bay. David Johnson is one of the key players in the match-up with the Panthers because he's both a powerful runner and a great receiver out of the backfield. He can have a substanial impact on the game as do all good running backs that open up the play-action pass. If both the Panthers and the Cardinals play their normal game it's a toss-up IMHO. They're both that good on both offense, defense, and special teams. As is often the case it could come down to mistakes that can be either stupid penalties or turnovers. Composure and execution can make the difference in the game because I believe both are very well prepared for the game this Sunday and both teams have the players necessary to win. Payton Manning doesn't have the greatest arm in the NFL and never has had the strongest arm but that's not where his advantage lies. The Patriots have the most complex defense in the NFL but no one in the NFL, including defensive coordinators, can read a defense better than Payton Manning. Manning will almost always be able to find the open receiver and he has more than enough arm strength to make the completion. What's also interesting is that the vast majority of Brady's passes are less than ten yards and his average release time is less than 2 seconds making it almost impossible to sack him. He doesn't depend upon arm strength for ten-yard passes but instead it's his quick release that results in completions. The challenge for the Broncos is to stop the receivers from getting off the line to prevent Brady's 2-second pass completions allowing the Broncos to sack Brady. Of course the problem is how do you stop Gronk from getting off the line. Gronk a brute that is virtually unstoppable. When the Patriots have been beaten this season it was based upon preventing the short passing game. That's a challenge for the Bronco's defense but the Broncos do probably have the best overall defense in the NFL. It promises to be a hell-of-a-game in any case. If it comes down to the Panthers and Patriots in the Super Bowl I'd agree with you but I'm not so sure that it will be the Panthers and the Patriots.
Something I've found interesting is the expert analysis of the upcoming Championship games tomorrow. While all of the contests involve great quarterbacks the focus of the experts has been on the running game of each team and the defensive match-up.
