The NFL season isn’t over yet, but it’s close enough to see what an idiot I am when it comes to predicting the future. It’s funny to even look back at my mid-season analysis and see how wrong I was there.
NFC North
Chicago Bears
Yea, I got it right! Although, this one was a gimme. Everybody else in the division was coming off of dissappointing years and had new coaches. I can’t get too high on myself because I foresaw another quick exit from the playoffs for Chicago. Whoops. NFC South
Carolina Panthers
Do me a favor. Next fall, when I get in line again to pick the Panthers to win the division, go to the Super Bowl, or even just make the playoffs… slap me. Ever since their Super Bowl appearance, I’ve picked them to be a force in the NFL every year. And every year they suck it up. So, please, don’t let friends pick the Carolina Panthers in their preseason polls. NFC East
Philadelphia Eagles
I wasn’t so confident of this pick a few months ago: “I definitely did not drink the Giants Kool-Aid. I thought they would have collapsed by now. Although, with all those injuries, maybe they will. And then this might make me right if Philadelphia tries to do something crazy like run the ball.” Turns out I was right… eventually. NFC West
Seattle Seahawks
Even with some major injuries, they had enough to get it done. Thanks, The Goat! NFC Wild Cards
Tampa Bay Bucs
Minnesota Vikings
Wow, the Bucs were awful. What makes it worse is that my Bengals lost to them. Shiver me timbers. And the Vikes should have been able to beat out the Giants for the final spot. I guess they just ran out of juice. NFC Championship Game
Seahawks over Bucs
Obviously, Tampa Bay was worse than shit. As for the Seahawks, I guess you can blame it on either the Super Bowl hangover, the Madden Curse, or the Chunky Soup Jinx. Or maybe all three. I’ll let you decide. AFC North
Cincinnati Bengals
I will give the Ravens credit: their defense bounced back and their offense wasn’t terrible. In the regular season, that is. It’s frustrating because if you look at the head to head match-ups, the Bengals seem to be a better team than Baltimore. Too bad they couldn’t play that well against everyone else. AFC South
Indianapolis Colts
I was so confident of this no-brainer I wrote it in pen. On my computer screen. AFC East
Miami Dolphins
What a disaster this franchise has become. I thought if Gus Frerotte could lead them to 9-7, surely someone else could take them to the playoffs. Looks like the greatness of this team gets further and further in the past. AFC West
Denver Broncos
Maybe if they put the rookie in sooner, they could have saved their season. I will freely admit, I really underestimated the Chargers. At least, before they got into the playoffs. Wild Cards
New England Patriots
Pittsburgh Steelers
What can I say? The Patriots are the Patriots. And the Steelers? A-HA HAHAHA!!! Suck it, Pittsburgh! Where’s your precious Bus now?! AFC Chamionships
Bengals over Broncos
If I have time tomorrow, I’ll try to fire off my reaction to Cincinnati’s dissappointing 2006 season. I haven’t filed a proper autopsy yet. Don’t know if I will tomorrow but I’ll try. There’s a LOT to get to. Super Bowl
Bengals over Seahawks!
Yeah, I’m an idiot.
I finally got around to aquiring the Madden NFL game. Yes, I actually waited until 2007 to get Madden 2007. While I was excited to get the game, it didn’t take long to grow disillusioned with the product. Not only was this not a major advancement on the ‘06 model, in a lot of ways, it seems like a step back.
What’s my biggest problem? Major Glitches. In an overtime playoff game, the first OT expired. But it didn’t reset the period and go to another kickoff. It acted just like it was another quarter break. Also, you can freeze the playclock and gameclock just by pushing a button. There’s lots of problems that can be exploited because I’m weak and can’t stop from cheating.
The overall gameplay just doesn’t seem to work very well. the action buttons seem overly complicated and needlessly complex for my playing style. There are just certain things I can’t seem to do like in the olden days.
Presentation seems to have been largely ignored, even demoted from previous incarnations. There’s very little difference in tone or if this is the first pre-season game or the Super Bowl. I don’t remember these problems in past years or on ESPN’s previous collaboration with Sega on NFL 2K5.
When they try to personalize the epxerience, it’s during the newspaper phase. But a lot of what they write doesn’t make sense. A game between the Bengals and Colts is considered a Super Bowl preview? Technically, this one could still happen, but the paper called a match-up between a 4-0 team and an 0-4 team a potential playoff match-up. No wonder the Cincinnati Enquirer took their name off this rag.
And the much-ballyhooed music that has been a staple of the franchise is pretty much crap. I think I heard some of these lousy songs on the DVD menu of some more adult movies in my collection.
This was the first year I didn’t run out and buy Madden on the first day it was released. Boy, did that turn out to be a smart move. It’s a far inferior product to it’s NCAA counterpart.
A Sock Point oes to everyone who sounds off on the Madden franchise and it’s latest installment.
Sorry, non-football folks, but the gridiron is taking over the Sock Drawer this week. The days leading up to Super Bowl Sunday require much hype and build-up and I am going to comply. I don’t think I’ll spend much time on the game itself, other than Sunday probably. I’ll take a look back at the previous season and my predictions for it. I’ll take a look back at my Bengals season. I’ll look at Madden NFL 2007 which I just got. And there’s room for a couple other surprises. So, it’s football football football for the next week. Sorry, some of you. Everybody else: Hooray for football!
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
I’ll be talking about Firefly today, but the good news I list here is really too small to get too excited about. The ‘Verse will be made into a MMORPG. That’s great news… if I played MMORPGs. Those who know this kind of stuff better than I wonder if Firefly and MMORPG is a good combo. I’d rather have a new movie or TV show, but I guess I couldn’t get that lucky.
Another good thing about the show is the loyalty that exists between the fans and the cast of the show. For example, Firefly actors showed up and partied with fans at a cancelled convention. That’s right, the event organizer bailed on the Flanvation at the last second. But that didn’t keep the actors from still spending time with the fans who travelled there from all over the country. In fact, some actors who weren’t even scheduled to be there showed up to party with the Browncoats. Captain, I salute you and your crew.
“Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a little plastic rocket… “
Despite what the headline sounds like, I am trying to keep this site relatively family friendly. What you are about to see is also known as “noodlin’”. Hmm… that doesn’t make it sound any better. Well, see for yourself.
This has been a “Football Friday” for the last few months. But, alas, there will be no football this weekend. Unless you count the Senior Bowl tomorrow at 3 pm. But since it’s on the NFL Network and my bastard cable company doesn’t carry it, I can’t really count that. Even though I would love to see it.
So, I’ll just put up this picture of Lisa with the new man in her life. She took advantage of the first snowfall of the year earlier this week. I threw some snowballs, but that’s about it. I probably should be a little jealous, but I have made arrangements to make sure he doesn’t stick around here very long. Heh, heh, heh.
“Knowing you is like going into the jungle: I never know what I’m going to find next, and I’m real scared.”
Anytime I get linked to, I feel good. When it’s a bigger site (and I one I enjoy) like Comics Should Be Good, I get a littly giddy. Comic Book Resources linked to me that time I talked about Femtroopers. When I started this blog, I never set out to be known for one thing. Well, I tried a couple things, but it never stuck. If I had known that it might be for chicks dressed up as stormtroopers, I would be very proud. Okay, it’s only a passing mention, but I’ll take what I can get.
“I’m public speaking. Stop public-interrupting me.”
I guess yesterday was the birthday of one Herbert Royal Dean. And he had to tell me on my blog before I realized that. Sorry, paco. I knowI already used this picture but I didn’t have any other options readily available that I liked. The only old school photo of Herb I had access to implicated me as well. So that wasn’t going to work. I’ll try to be prepared for next year.
Anyway, let’s all wish Herb a happy birthday. There’s a Sock Point in it for you.
I’m putting up this picture from the Pirates of the Carribean gift shop because I just saw the Mythbusters pirate special. Very interesting take on why the pirate-folk wore patches, even if they had two good eyes. You can find out all about that and the other myths at the link above. The show’s always enterformative (entertaining and informative) and they did a good job with these legends and misconceptions.
By the way, very freaky thing: As I was looking at the TV.com profile on this episode, I started reading one of the quotes as the Mythbusters began to say it. Kinda eerie.
“When they put me in a home where I can’t hurt myself, this is undoubtedly what they’ll make me wear.”
The championship games are in the books and we know who’s going to the Super Bowl. For a while it looked like we were going to get a rematch of Super Bowl XX. But Peyton Manning finally gotten over the hump an led a hell of a comeback. Alas, Drew Brees could not. No offense to you Bears fans but that offense is abysmal to watch. If I want to see a QB complete a third of his passes, I’ll ask to play catch with the seven year-old kid next door. And that was a good game for Rex Grossman! Then again, calling back to back stupid plays in their own end zone really wasn’t too bright and that alone should disqualify New Orleans from moving on. They had their chance, but calling the same damn play after it failed on the previous attempt when you’re dropping back into your end zone… not wise. No surprise that your dumb asses got called for a safety.
Anyway, I was pleased to get a great game last night and am looking forward to the actual Super Bowl game in two weeks. As for the “hype”, I may have to induce a coma for the next ten days or so.
Yeah, go ahead and get a Sock Point if you talk about the NFC or AFC championship game results.
