Help me pick my NFC North Division winner this year

[Assani Fisher]

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the preseason means absolutely nothing.

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Ah, yes, the cry of a fan whose favorite team's first squad has failed to score any points in 3 games.

[/ QUOTE ]No, its the cry of a rational person. Preseason has never meant nothing. I am more than willing to bash the Redskins when I don't think they're playing well or if I don't think things look good for them- preseason is not one of those times.

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I'm a huge nit about superlatives, but to say preseason means nothins is wrong IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]It means something for certain teams. Veteran teams with a veteran coaching staff who are super bowl contenders generally don't worry much about the preseason. Point taken about the superlative though

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FWIW, With the exception of the Patriots second title every team that has won the Super Bowl since 2000 has had a winning preseason.

Lately the Colts have done very little in the preseason and had very good years. I used to think that the preseason was all about who won the first team battle, but I have learned over the years that it has alot to do with your overall team depth and with the amount of injuries in the NFL that really corolates to a better team.

[/ QUOTE ]But I think a lot of it has to do with the coaching staff and how much they want to win those games. IIRC under Marv Levy the Bills went 0-4 in a bunch of preseasons even during their run to 4 straight SBs.

I would agree that if a team and coach have a history of playing hard and winning in the preseason and then they aren't winning, then that might be cause for concern.

[Assani Fisher]

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I would have gone with Dallas.

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Giants take the East

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FWIW I went with Philly

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I'll take the team that went 5-1 in the division last year including blowing out all 3 division rivals in late season games. The team that advanced further in the playoffs than anyone out of the division. I'll take the Washington Redskins. Would love to hear you guys back up your opinions a bit with some reasoning. I don't see how you can pick the other teams....


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That's true aside from the fact that the Eagles & Giants games weren't blowouts.
FWIW I was the first person on the planet to jump on the Skins bandwagon last year but I don't see Brunell holding up this yr + Dallas should be better than last yr on both sides of the ball.

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As for the Giants game, the Redskins went up 35-20 within the first few seconds of the 4th quarter starting the game never got any closer than that. Heres a video of that game. BTW, Santana Moss absolutely owned the Giants secondary that day.

Then the next week they went into Philly and won by double digits.

I totally agree with you about Brunell. Him staying healthy will be key, but you could say that about a lot of teams. If P Manning gets hurt, how good will the Colts(a lot of people's SB pick) be?

Dallas brought in T.O. and lost Keyshawn. So far T.O. is injured and hasn't played in any preseason game. Not sure how much of an upgrade that is. I havn't really heard much about them bringing in any defensive guys- what led you to say that they were improved there? I'm not doubting you, just asking for some reasoning.

Edited to add: Oh and good call on the Skins last year. I actually had a number of great calls last year on the Skins(I'm usually very hit and miss with sports forcasting, so let me toot my own horn here for a sec).....After week 2, I started a huge thread on footballguys under my other sn jwvdcw there. I said that I thought the Redskins would finish 10-6. I got bashed endlessly for it, especially as they went through their downward spiral. The Redskins finish? 10-6. Then I predicted they'd beat TB and all of the TB homers jumped all over me. Finally, I admitted that Seattle would probably win in the next week, and they did.

Like I said, I'm hit and miss so I felt like bragging for a bit [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Go check it out though....one of the biggest threads ever on FBGs.

[holeplug]

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I would have gone with Dallas.

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Giants take the East

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FWIW I went with Philly

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I'll take the team that went 5-1 in the division last year including blowing out all 3 division rivals in late season games. The team that advanced further in the playoffs than anyone out of the division. I'll take the Washington Redskins. Would love to hear you guys back up your opinions a bit with some reasoning. I don't see how you can pick the other teams....

Dallas was swept by the Skins last year, they didn't make the playoffs, and their big addittion looks to be causing more trouble than helping out so far.

Philly was also swept by the Skins and they were by far the worst team last year.

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So by using this logic there was absolutely no doubt last year that the Eagles would win the NFC East again right?

[Artdogg]

Assani- the Cowboys have a very young defense including 3 very good players who were rookies last year, they should definately improve, and offensively a healthy Julius Jones for the whole year would help a ton in terms of both production and protecting Bledsoe, along with TO. So yes, they should easily be improved on both sides of the ball.

[Assani Fisher]

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Assani- the Cowboys have a very young defense including 3 very good players who were rookies last year, they should definately improve, and offensively a healthy Julius Jones for the whole year would help a ton in terms of both production and protecting Bledsoe, along with TO. So yes, they should easily be improved on both sides of the ball.

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Fair points, but I think I could say "they have a lot of young players who should improve and if Player X doesn't get hurt like last year then they'll definitely be better" about a ton of teams. Now I'm not discounting that those things COULD happen for the Cowboys, but there are bound to be other players injured and some players will be too old and downgrade their performances.

Bottom line, of course, is that we're going to have to just wait and see what happens. And obviously theres a ton of luck and random bounces of the ball that will decide things so nobody is definitely right or wrong in these debates.

[TuneTools]

Philly is going 10-6 and winning the pathetic division that is the NFC East.

Order of finishing:

Philly
Washington
Giants
Dallas

[Assani Fisher]

BTW, the last time the Redskins went winless in the preseason....they won the superbowl.

I'm not saying their winless preseason means they'll do well; I'm saying its meaningless.

[Assani Fisher]

And LOL at the Cowboys new improved kicking situation: Vanderjagt misses 2 FGs in OT.