NFL 2024 Season - PS2
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Articles published multiple times per week, offering insights and picks on upcoming games.
 
SEASON:

Article Archive

Divisional Playoffs
Challenge Accepted
Wild Card Weekend
Early Celebration
QB matchup
Starting and Ending Spots
Wild Card Trend
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
Penix Debut
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
Good Enough
Buyers Regret
Pulled the Rug
Week 13
Mile High Hopes
Top and Bottom
Fourth Time the Charm
Bounce Back
Engage Spark
Line Up
Out in the Cold
Thanksgiving Visitors
Good Enough
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
Malfunction
Easy Does It
Old Foes
Falcons Fly into Mile High
Matter of Time
Improv
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
Holding On
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
Wake Up Call
All Good Things
Bad Idea
Unexpected
Fire One
Week 5
Yes & Yes
Old Rivals
Rookie Sensation
So Close
Lunch in Seattle
Wake the Roosters
No Respect
Too Sweet
Turtle Flip
Week 4
Landmine
Bottoms Up
Winners and Losers
Call Me
Short Line
Reality Bites
Like Tonight
Uptick
Challenge Generates Performance
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
Eagles Hunt
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
     
 
Second Fiddle
by Dennis Ranahan

You know who the best teams are in the National Football Conference this year. That’s not a question, that’s a statement. If you don’t agree that the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles are the three best teams in the NFC you simply are not paying attention.

It doesn’t mean any of them are going to win the Super Bowl necessarily, but if you can find someone to give you even money with those three teams versus the field, take it.

If any or all of them get tripped up in the NFC playoffs who are the likely candidates to cash the upset?

Still looking.

Well, I don’t see any team that is going to clear the hurdle of tripping up by one of those top three NFC teams, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be giving it their all to get into the six team postseason tournament. This week, a couple hopefuls meet at Lambeau Field when the Green Bay Packers host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Neither team has a winning record, and the Packers only path to the postseason is likely via the Wild Card route. It appears catching the Detroit Lions in the NFC North Division seems unlikely, although their victory in Detroit on Thanksgiving did breathe life into that prospect.

The Packers chances would have been a lot better, and they would have a winning record, if they could have defeated the New York Giants on Monday night at MetLife Stadium. They didn’t, allowing New York to travel the length of the field to kick the winning field goal on the game’s last play.

The Buccaneers used the last minute of their must win game on Sunday to score the winning touchdown against the Falcons in Atlanta. Their victory, coupled with the New Orleans Saints win over the Carolina Panthers, leaves the NFC South Division in a three way tie for first place. There are so many combinations of tiebreakers that favor the Bucs, Saints or Falcons, that it is best left unsaid until the results send one of these three teams that currently have a losing record into the fourth seed of the playoffs.

That’s right, the winner of the NFC South with be the fourth seed and have a home playoff game, while the team that wins the highly competitive battle between the Cowboys and Eagles will have the first or second seed and the team that fails to win the NFC East will drop to the fifth seed. That means an excellent team with a winning record will open the playoffs on the road in the Wild Card round.

Now, somebody is going to complain that teams as good as the Eagles and Cowboys, with both teams owning winning records much better than the division winner in the NFC South, should be granted home field over the lesser team.

No they shouldn’t.

Read the rules, division winners are seeded one through four and the two Wild Card teams, squads with the best records that didn’t win their division, are five and six.

Change the rules because it looks bad this year and you will create monster problems in the future. Whenever the league looks to correct, they usually make a mistake. Just look at the ability to challenge pass interference and the mess that caused in the wake of bad officiating sending the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl instead of what should have been the New Orleans Saints if the pass interference call wouldn’t have been blown.

But, don’t get me off on the officiating in the NFL, so much there I will lose focus on what I’m here to say. That is, the Buccaneers proved last week they are capable of winning even on the road against a team with a better record. The Packers proved this is not their year … and probably not their week this coming Sunday either.

Qoxhi Picks: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+3½) over Green Bay Packers