NFL 2024 Season - PS3
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Articles published multiple times per week, offering insights and picks on upcoming games.
 
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Conference Championships
Top-Flight QB Duel
Looking for a First
Cold Reality
Three and One
Divisional Playoffs
Winter Wonderland
Yes We Can
Getting Better
Three-Peat Begins
Correction
Challenge Accepted
Wild Card Weekend
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What to Like
Rookie Quarterbacks
Broken Fever
That's That
Week 18
Checking the Boxes
Needs and Wants
Four and Out
One or the Other
Point Spread Clouds
Fix It
Hollow Revenge
To Win or Not to Win
Week 17
All Knowing
Complicated Made Simple
Advanced Calculus
Glow Dimmed
Brink of Elimination
Game of Survival
Pleading for the Fifth
Need over Nothing
Christmas Grinch
Week 16
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers
Vintage 2018
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Dog Day
Playoff Position
Rest of the Story
Different Sundays
Run Some Tests
Without and With
Week 15
Two Tonight
Playoff Chances
Wild Card Challenge
Best of the Best
Next
Dire Straits
And It's Good
Bloated Lines
Week 14
Running up the Score
Challenge Me
Finding Reasons to Win
Crab Feed
Week Off
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Week 13
Mile High Hopes
Top and Bottom
Fourth Time the Charm
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Out in the Cold
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Motivation on Steroids
Week 12
Second Best
Heavyweight Bout
QB's Ins and Outs
Everybody In
Too Easy
Walk the Plank
Hot to Trot
Try, Try, Try, Try, Try Again
Week 11
Mouse Trap
Must Game
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Easy Does It
Old Foes
Falcons Fly into Mile High
Matter of Time
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To the Brink
Week 10
Odd Man Out
Lions come Calling
Rookie versus Veteran
Call to Action
Full Reverse
When 8-0 is 4-4
Game of Contradictions
NFC West Bunch
Early Boarding
Week 9
Not Enough, Too Much
Real or Imposters
Groin Shot
Best Show
Saddle Up
Dull Edges
Telling Actions
Annihilation Formula
Week 8
No and No
Old Glory
Rookie Face Off
Adding it Up
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Jets Down
Unload and Reload
No Surprise
Career Paths
It Hurts
Week 7
Harbaugh Monday
Kids Camp
Barkley Back
Bird Battle
Mouse Time
Too Many?
Gone Shopping
Not Bad
40 for 3
Week 6
Try New
Night Vision
Trap Door
Looking Up
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All Good Things
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Unexpected
Fire One
Week 5
Yes & Yes
Old Rivals
Rookie Sensation
So Close
Lunch in Seattle
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No Respect
Too Sweet
Turtle Flip
Week 4
Landmine
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Winners and Losers
Call Me
Short Line
Reality Bites
Like Tonight
Uptick
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Week 3
Two Times
Reduced Value
Stars Down
The Other 21
Opportunity Knocks
Lots of Questions
Move Along People
Times Up
Week 2
Confidence Game
First and Second Picked QB's
Avoiding the Donut
Do or Die
One for the Road
Likewise
Adjustment Bureau
Down ... Not Out
Week 1
Time Marches On
Cashing the Trade
Start Here
Say What
Quick Up, Quick Down
Brazil Play Date
Top Two Open
Super Bowl Pick
Season Win Totals
Moving on Up
Breakout to Breakdown
Preseason 4
Preseason Wrap
Rookie Playoff Run
Preseason 3
Short Memory
Two In, One Up
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Winning Formula
Preseason 2
Quarterback Shuffle
One Two, or Two One
Starters Sit
Remote Control
Money be Damned
Preseason 1
One Season to the Next
Public Shift
Comets in the Night
Offseason
Mahomes Chasing History
All's Well that Ends Well
Ups and Downs
     
 
Sing It
by Dennis Ranahan

When I was in high school, Simon and Garfunkel came out with a song called, At The Zoo.

It begins with the words, “Someone told me it’s all happening at the zoo.” Well, in the NFL this year, it’s all happening at the NFC South Division. I point this out even though no team in this grouping of four NFL teams has a winning record.

If Paul and Art were putting lyrics behind it, it might go something like this:

It’s a short journey from the bottom to the top

From a division title to a near last place spot

From these four squads just no good team to choose

And most expect an NFC South team to lose

Okay, I’m no song writer, and it would be a lot nicer to see how the singing duo would have sung about the division comprised of the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers. And what do I mean it is all happening in this division?

I mean, any of three teams, none of which have a winning record, will win this division and land in the postseason. And, the Panthers currently have the worst record in the league, and if they finish that way they will match what the Jacksonville Jaguars got in consecutive drafts a few years back, seasons in which they had the first pick in the draft two years in a row.

Unfortunately, for the Panthers, they have already lost the opportunity the Jaguars got when they had the worst record in the NFL in back-to-back campaigns because they have already traded next year’s first pick to the Chicago Bears.

The Jaguars got the first pick in the draft by compiling the worst record in 2020 and 2021 before cashing the ensuing high draft picks to vault them into the playoffs last season and have them looking like a playoff team again this season. The Panthers got the first pick last year by trading away their first round picks in both this year’s and next year’s draft to the Chicago Bears. Which means this, it might be Chicago that ends up with the first pick in the upcoming draft and they could bolt to the top of their division after years of disappointing campaigns.

Oh yeah, it’s all happening in the NFC South Division, and it may be paramount to turning the NFC North Division into the strongest in the league. The Detroit Lions already have reversed years of losing seasons into a Super Bowl contender this year and if Chicago reemerges as monsters of the midway and joins the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers for supremacy … well you get the idea.

All the other divisions have better teams than the NFC South, but that doesn’t erase the fact that this division could have the most competitive race to the playoffs with the division winner hosting a Wild Card Weekend game and the other three teams eliminated before the playoffs begin.

The Saints are truly an unholy thing

And the Falcons hope to find their wings

The Buccaneers are still hanging around

And the Bears hope the Panthers stay down

I do believe it’s all happening right here

In the NFC South

In the NFC South

In the NFC South

In the NFC South

In the NFC South

Did I mention that the Falcons are looking to get their wings when they play the Saints this week. Oh yeah, that too.

Qoxhi Picks: Atlanta Falcons (pk) over New Orleans Saints