Football Forecasters

Well another football season is done and now we wait. Through the playoffs I went 8 – 3 0n straight up picks and 7 – 4 against the spread. For the season I was 176 - 80 straight up and 139 - 113 – 4 adding in the post season that makes the percentages .689 straight up and a very respectable .555 against the spread. It sets a difficult standard to meet for next season.

A couple Super Bowl comments seem appropriate. The Saints out coached the Colts; the key play being the onside kick to start the second half. That play rates to work about seventy percent of the time. (Of course, if it had not worked, the play would be being dissected as being questionable. It is amazing how an idea is good or bad depending upon the outcome.) Other good coaching decisions included going for the touchdown at the end of the quarter. It ran time off the clock and got the conservative response that was likely from the Colts. All of this blends with a game plan that was very patient, running underneath patterns against the cover-two and playing patiently. Compare these choices with the conservative play calling by the Colts at the end of the first half and the very questionable fifty plus yard field goal attempt.

One comment on the Porter interception.  This was a great play by Porter.  Contrary to other comments though Manning’s pass, while not perfect, was not the problem.  With the jump Porter had on the ball he would have intercepted a perfect ball because he broke on the route better than Wayne did.  Which gets me to this observation, perhaps Wayne telegraphed the stop because of his bad knee.  He may have shortened his stride giving Porter the play as it appears that Porter actually broke toward the ball before Wayne did.  Could be that Porter just jumped the route but the pivot by Wayne looked a bit sloppy.

The labor situation looks ominous. The uncapped season hurts players and owners alike to some extent. The free agent market may be lucrative but the talent pool is going to be somewhat thin. It seems that the owners and the union are engaging in a game of chicken with billions of dollars at stake. It is hard to believe that there will be a lock out this season but it might be possible.

We will be back before the draft with our predictions and then with our preseason predictions during training camps. In the mean time, we will be studying the front office moves and looking for the edge for next season.