2018 NFL Playoff Picture and Predictions

By: Adamo Marinelli

December 29th, 2018

    This season has been a very interesting one in the NFL. Many teams we didn’t expect to be in the playoff picture that are in it like the Seahawks and Bears after last year’s 5-11 record and teams we expected to be secured in a playoff spot aren’t there like the Steelers, the Packers, the Eagles, even the Broncos looked like they would get in after their 3 game win streak.  Let’s take a look at the playoff picture.

In the AFC playoff picture, this is what we have after 16 weeks:

1. Kansas City Chiefs, 11-4
2. New England Patriots, 10-5
3. Houston Texans, 10-5
4. Baltimore Ravens, 9-6
5. Los Angeles Chargers, 11-4 WC
6. Indianapolis Colts, 9-6 WC

In the hunt:

7. Tennessee Titans, 9-6
8. Pittsburgh Steelers, 8-6-1

    On Sunday night’s game which sees the Colts battle the Titans, the winner will take the sixth seed in AFC, and the loser will go home. The Chiefs can lock up first seed with a win against the Raiders and a Broncos’ win over the Chargers. The Chargers can get first seed in the AFC if they beat the Broncos and the Chiefs lose to the Raiders. If both the Chiefs and Chargers win, Chiefs get the tiebreaker. With a Patriots win against the Jets and a Texans loss against the Jaguars, the Pats can lock up the AFC’s second seed. With a Pats loss and a Texans win, the Texans grab the second seed. If both teams win, Pats will get the tiebreaker because of the head-to-head win. The Pats can get the first seed with a win, and a loss by the Chiefs and Chargers. If the Ravens win or the Steelers lose, the Ravens will clinch their division, make the playoffs and the Steelers will go home. If the Ravens win and the Steelers win, the Ravens still get in with a better record. If the Steelers beat the Bengals and the Ravens lose to the Browns, Steelers get in; Ravens go home.

In the NFC playoff picture, this is what we have after 16 weeks:

1. New Orleans Saints, 13-2
2. Los Angeles Saints, 12-3
3. Chicago Bears, 11-4
4. Dallas Cowboys, 9-6
5. Seattle Seahawks, 9-6 WC
6. Minnesota Vikings, 8-6-1 WC

In the hunt:

7. Philadelphia Eagles, 8-7

    The NFC is a lot simpler. The New Orleans Saints have clinched the first seed and a first-round bye. The Rams have clinched their division but if they lose to the 49ers and the Bears beat the Vikings, the Bears will take the second seed and a first-round bye because they beat the Rams head to head. Rams would then get the third seed. The Cowboys have locked up their division with a week 16 win against the Buccaneers and have locked up the fourth seed. They will host the Seahawks, who have clinched the fifth seed, or the first wildcard spot on wild-card weekend in the NFL playoffs. Finally, the Vikings currently hold the NFC’s sixth seed, the second and final wildcard spot. If the Vikings beat the Bears, they lock up the final wildcard spot, regardless of whether or not the Eagles beat the Redskins because the Vikings have the tiebreaker over the Eagles with their week 5 win. However, the Bears are a good team and it is uncertain whether Kirk Cousins, Vikings QB, can perform in big games. If the Vikings lose and the Eagles win, the Eagles take the sixth seed and play the Bears in Chicago in the wildcard round. However, depending on whether or not the Rams are destroying the 49ers dictates whether or not the Bears start their starters against Minnesota. If the Rams are beating the 49ers badly at halftime, even if the Bears win, the Rams will maintain second seed, thus they will rest their starters. If it is a close game at the half, the Bears will assume the 49ers will upset the Rams (this is unlikely) and will play their starters. Surely, that plays a role in who gets the sixth seed.

    Come playoff time, I see the playoff seeding staying the exact same as it is now. I think the Chiefs will beat the Raiders and the Chargers will lose to the Broncos, giving the Chiefs first seed and the Chargers the fifth seed. I see the Patriots beating the Jets and the Texans beating the Jaguars but the Patriots maintain the second seed because they hold the tiebreaker over the Texans who get the third seed. I see the Ravens beating the Browns, as Lamar Jackson is playing just as well as Baker Mayfield lately, and regardless of whether the Steelers beat the Bengals, this clinches the division for Baltimore who earns the fourth seed while Pittsburgh is eliminated. I also see the red-hot Indianapolis Colts, led by QB Andrew Luck beat the Titans to earn the sixth seed sending the Titans home, despite Derrick Henry’s amazing season, especially as of late.

    The Saints have already locked up the first seed in the NFC. However, I see the Rams beating the 49ers pretty easily which gives them second seed. This will allow the Bears to rest their starters, making a Minnesota victory over Chicago relatively easily which will give the Bears the third seed and will sneak the 9-6-1 Vikings in as the sixth seed. The fourth seed has already been locked up by Dallas, Seattle has locked up the fifth seed.

    Finally, my playoff predictions and Super Bowl winners. To win a Super Bowl, a team must have an amazing offence, defence, special teams unit and a stellar coaching staff. The last three Super Bowl champions 2017 Eagles, 2016 Patriots and 2015 Broncos checked off all those criteria.

For the playoff picks in the AFC:

    In the wildcard round, the first game sees the Colts visiting the Texans. The Colts have been playing well as of late, especially with Andrew Luck at the helm. Luck has had one of the best seasons in his career this year, with 4,308 yards, 36 TDs and 14 INTs. The season series between these two division rivals are tied at one win each. Wide receiver TY Hilton has also had an amazing year, and tight end Eric Ebron has had a breakthrough year, really getting involved in the offence. The Colts defence is also playing amazing this year, they’ve had one of their better years being middle of the pack or better in all main defensive categories. However, I think the Texans win, even with the injury to Demaryius Thomas and Will Fuller. The Texans offence is too powerful with Deshaun Watson and Deandre Hopkins. RB Lamar Miller does not only rush but he can also catch the football and make plays in the backfield. The Texans also have a complete defence. Their stellar pass rush with J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney, their solid run defence and secondary can lead them to victory with a mediocre offence, the Texans have a great offence.

    The next wildcard game in the AFC sees a rematch of the week 16 game when the Chargers visit the Ravens. Quite frankly, the Chargers are a very complete team having a good offence and defence. But for the past several seasons the Chargers have been ‘all bark but no bite’, this is the first time since 2013 the Chargers made the playoffs because they’d always start strong and choke towards the end of the year or fail to win a big game to get them into a playoff spot. I say this year is no different. The Ravens, with Lamar Jackson who has been playing amazing all season long and with the NFL’s highest-scoring defence takes care of business at home vs LA.

    In the divisional round, we have two rematches: Baltimore visiting Kansas City and Houston visiting New England. In the first AFC divisional round game, we have two mobile quarterbacks in Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes going at it. The two teams also have very good offences, but with confidence, I say the Ravens will win this game. The difference between the Ravens and Chiefs is their defence. Despite the Chiefs run defence and pass rush have been pretty good this year with Justin Houston and Chris Jones, Baltimore’s defence has been better in those two departments. Sure, the Chiefs have 52 sacks, and the Ravens have 43, but the Ravens are the highest scoring defence in the NFL and have more turnovers. Not to mention, the Ravens have way more forced fumbles and fumble recoveries from sacks that lead their offence to score points. Their offence is better under Jackson than Flacco, but it was still great under Flacco. The Ravens lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Chiefs already, they don’t want that to happen again. Not to mention, the Ravens also have a much better secondary. Apart from Eric Berry and maybe Orlando Scandrick, the Chiefs don’t have any playmakers in their secondary and they are not playing with as much confidence as they used to with Marcus Peters. They are one of 10 teams to have a passer rating of over 100 to opposing QBs and a team that averages giving up just over 300 yards per game. Baltimore’s defence, with fewer interceptions, doesn’t give up those huge numbers, that’s what’s helped them win games. And the Chiefs would have fewer sacks and interceptions than the Ravens if their schedule wasn’t so easy. Playing the Bengals, Browns, 49ers, Raiders twice and the Broncos’ beat up offensive line twice early in the season when Keenum threw too many picks, that is the only reason. The Ravens had a tough schedule including playing the Steelers’ amazing o-line twice. Ravens have more elite names on their pass rush unit too. The Chiefs also don’t have a solid running back after losing Kareem Hunt, the Ravens do in Alex Collins; you must run the ball in the cold to win. Collins isn’t the best back, but he is pretty good.

    The next playoff game sees the Houston Texans visiting Gillette Stadium to play the Patriots. I see the Texans winning this game, by 3 to 7 points. Mainly because the Patriots haven’t been playing their best football as of late. Sure, the Patriots handily beat the Bills and Jets in the last two games, however, the Jets and Bills are both mediocre at best with two rookie QBs at the helm. So that doesn’t leave the Patriots in the best light going into the playoffs despite their first-round bye with an 11-5 record, good enough for the AFC’s second seed. Brady’s number’s have deteriorated with age, like expected, however, he has still played really well this season for the most part. Despite having an unstable wide receiver core, with Edelman suspended the first four games, Josh Gordon stepping away from football to focus on mental health issues and Amendola being traded. He started the year better than he finished it, he had 16 TDs and 7 INTs in his first 8 games and 13 TDs and 4 INTs in his final 8 games, but he has played sloppier football and took more risks and made more mistakes he normally doesn’t make (the game-clinching pick against the Steelers). All in all though, he’s had a good season for a 41-year-old, but with several weapons gone on their offence, like Flash and with Gronk being kept in check, along with the Patriots defence playing soft (minus their last two games of the season), I say the Texans control the game this weekend. Even with Demaryius Thomas out with injury, Deandre Hopkins is a threat and feasts against anyone, especially secondaries that are mediocre like New England’s and a mobile QB like Watson can extend plays by scrambling and either keeping the ball and running or throwing the ball downfield. In addition, the Texans have two amazing playmakers on the pass rush unit in Watt and Clowney who led the team to 43, which is tied for 5th in the league, 1 sack back of the Broncos’ 44 sacks and they have a secondary that has played pretty well this year, arguably a top 10 with 15 interceptions and only 28 touchdowns allowed through the air. The Patriots might still win, but I say the magic’s gone. Houston goes to the AFC Championship.

    That leaves an AFC Championship between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans. It seems a bit far-fetched because the Chiefs and Chargers, even the Patriots are the favourites, but they all have their flaws, and despite Baltimore and Houston aren’t perfect teams, I see them fighting for a trip to Atlanta for Super Bowl 53. Both the Ravens and the Texans have each played incredible football all year: the Ravens won 6 of their last 7 games, to clinch their division and the Texans won 9 consecutive games after starting 0-3 to lock up their division. The Ravens offence and defence has been electrified by the emergence of new QB Lamar Jackson, potentially a new Michael Vick in terms of his ability to run the football. The offence is being revitalized by the presence of Jackson and they’ve been playing much better football than with Flacco. Their defence also became the #1 scoring defence with Jackson at QB. The Texans even with injuries to Will Fuller and Demaryius Thomas have been playing excellent football on offence and defence, they have a top 10 unit on both sides of the ball and they are very dangerous especially with a mobile Deshaun Watson throwing to a quick Deandre Hopkins, but the Ravens’ have the number one scoring defence in the league, which has been playing well in the pass rush game, run defence game and secondary game. Unless the Texans can get creative with Lamar Miller and disguise coverages to mess with Baltimore’s defence, I see Baltimore’s defence being too much for Houston; which sends Baltimore to the Super Bowl with a seven-point win.

For the playoff picks in the NFC:

    In the first game of the wildcard round, we have the Vikings visiting the Bears. It is incredible how the Bears go from 5-11 to 11-4, possibly 12-4 in one season, that just proves they have talent on both sides of the ball. But the real catalyst, in my opinion, was when the Bears acquired pro bowler pass rusher Khalil Mack from the Raiders at the expense of a few draft picks. Khalil Mack has electrified the Bears defence, making their pass rush a top 10 unit in the NFL joining the likes of the Chiefs, Ravens, Broncos, Texans, Steelers, Rams, etc. Their secondary, though flagged a lot, the majority of the fouls coming from Prince Amukamara, is pretty good, it was projected to be a middle of the pack unit, and quite frankly that’s where they are; only allowing 26.3 points per game, which is 9th in the NFL, and they rank 21st in yards and pass yards per game. The Bears offence has been middle of the pack. Trubisky had a decent year with 3200 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 14 games, Chase Daniels played the other two when Trubisky was injured. Their rush game was excellent too, with 12 touchdowns from their running back duo in Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard. The Vikings have many pieces from their excellent defences from last year, when they went 13-3, only to lose to the Eagles in the NFC Championship. The Vikings thought they could improve and go to a Super Bowl with a new QB, so they signed Kirk Cousins to a 3 year $84 million guaranteed contract. So far, Cousins’ stats have been excellent. He’s thrown for nearly 4300 yards, with 30 TDs and only 10 INTs. However, the Vikings 8-7-1 record told us something. Cousins cannot play in big games. He is only 1-6 against teams with a winning record this season. That only win was week 5 against the Eagles. His inability to perform in the clutch when it matters, in addition to the Bears’ excellent defence and semi-productive offence, tells me the Bears win.

    The next wildcard game sees a game in which we’ve seen a lot before. The Seahawks visiting Dallas to play the Cowboys. A wild card game in 2006, saw Romo fumble the snap on a 19-yard field goal down 21-20 with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter. This is a wild rivalry and will be a great game. The Seahawks were projected to finish in the NFC’s basement with a 4-12 record according to ESPN, because of their lack of a defence, but due to stellar play from linebacker Bobby Wagner and a career season from Russell Wilson with 3,448 yards, 35 TDs and only 7 INTs, they clinched the 5th seed with a 10-6 record, beating some incredible teams on the way like the Chiefs. The Cowboys with amazing play from their first-round draft pick Leighton Vander Esch and thanks to another stellar season from Zeke who had 1,434 rush yards and six rush touchdowns. He also had 3 receiving touchdowns despite 1 lost fumble. Amari Cooper, who came via trade from Oakland after week 8 also helped electrify the Cowboys’ offence with 1,005 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns through the air. He was the much-needed 2nd WR behind Beasley after Dez Bryant left. This game is a coin toss. I can see either team win. I’ll go with the Cowboys, who despite winning a weak NFC East, looked pretty good all season long.

    That makes my two divisional round matchups Dallas visiting New Orleans and the Rams hosting the Bears. Two rematch games from four heated rivals. For the first matchup, we have the Cowboys visiting the Saints. The last time these two teams played, in week 13, the Cowboys’ defence led by Demarcus Lawrence and Leighton Vander Esch absolutely stopped the Saints’ red-hot offence flat on their feet and shut down Brees, Kamara, Ingram, Thomas and shocked the world with a 13-10 win at home. The Cowboys have a good team with an offence and defence that has played particularly well all season long with players like Dak, Zeke, Cooper, Vander Esch, Lawrence, etc. But personally, I have the Saints winning. Not only do I think they have the better offence and defence, but the Cowboys barely beat the tanking Giants after starting more than half their starters. Mind you, one game doesn’t tell the whole season’s story, but after what the Cowboys did to the Saints last time they played, I predict the Saints go all out at home - where they’ve played excellent this season - against the Cowboys and beat them by over two touchdowns.

    The next matchup sees the Rams hosting the Bears. Both teams have had incredible seasons, and despite the Bears beat the Vikings to eliminate the Vikings and get the Eagles into the playoffs, the Rams also handily beat the 49ers to secure the 2nd seed in the NFC which gives the Bears the 3rd seed. The Rams have a potent offence with Jared Goff, Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods and Todd Gurley and a very strong defence: an excellent pass rush with Aaron Donald, Ndamaka Suh, Samson Ebukam, etc and an amazing secondary with Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib who is back from an injury that left him sidelined for most of the season. But running back Todd Gurley, the electrifying running back that has been very helpful in making this Rams offence top 3 in the league with the Saints and Chiefs, is injured and head coach Sean McVay isn’t 100% sure, he’ll be ready for the playoffs, even with the extra week of rest because of the bye. C.J. Anderson, the Rams backup running back is good but was at his prime with the Broncos, and as of this season, considering he only played two games, is no Todd Gurley. And sure, the Bears will be tired from their wildcard clash with the Eagles, which they will handily win, even with Nick Foles making Christmas miracles happen every week; but the Bears beat the Rams already this year. And they shut down the Rams’ offence even with Todd Gurley and kept them to 6 points in a 15-6 win. Matt Nagy the Bears’ head coach operated his offence beautifully to control the game against a Rams’ defence that was tired because they were on the field so long, Bears had 60+ % possession and his defence led by Khalil Mack, shut down the Rams’ run game and interrupted the passing game by getting to Jared Goff. I say the Bears repeat the formula and upset the Rams. The Rams have a complete team, but so do the Bears and I think the loss of Gurley is too much to overcome. Bears win by a touchdown or by 10 points max.

    That means the NFC Championship will be the Bears visiting the Superdome to play the Saints for a chance to win a trip to Super Bowl 53. Both teams are loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. This game will be a coin toss, either team can win it because both teams have a potent offence and defence hence the Saints’ 13-3 record and the Bears 12-4 record. Both teams have potent weapons on offence although, I’d argue the Saints have the better offence in both the pass and rush game with all-stars like Brees, Thomas, Kamara, Ingram, Taysom Hill, Benjamin Watson, etc. In 15 games in 2018, he threw for 8 yards under 4000, had 32 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions with a 74.4% completion rate. The running game featuring Kamara and Ingram had a very productive season. Kamara had 883 rush yards and 14 touchdowns and 709 receiving yards with 4 touchdowns through the air. Mark Ingram had 645 yards and 6 touchdowns. The Bears offence was pretty good this season too, but not as good as the Saints’. Trubisky had a decent year with 3200 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 14 games. Their rush game was excellent too, with 12 touchdowns from their running back duo in Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard. Both defences are pretty good too. I will give the edge to the Bears in the pass rush department, Bears have 50 sacks on the season compared to the Saints 49, both teams have 19 forced fumbles. So statistically it is close, but the Bears have more super-stars on their pass rush with Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks, Roquan Smith, Eddie Goldman, etc. Those guys are more well known have more experience than players like Cam Atkinson, Marcus Davenport and Alex Anzalone, defensive lineman and linebackers for the Saints. Both units are very good though, but Bears get the edge. Also, the Saints have more well known and disciplined secondary than the Bears, the Saints take fewer penalties in the secondary (Prince Amukamara, Bears CB is the most penalised CB in the league) but the Bears have 27 INTs compared to the Saints’ 12. Playmaking defences like the Bears’ are what gets you wins in the regular season or playoffs, especially when a team has an excellent offence like the Saints’. The Saints have a better offence, but the Bears have a better defence because they have the fewest points against with 17.7 per game, a league-leading 27 interceptions, the fewest rush yards per game allowed with 80, the lowest passer rating allowed to opposing QBs with 72.9 and a league-leading 6 defensive TDs, 2 from Mack. However, the Saints can contain blitzes when they're against stellar defences, like the Bears’, Brees doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, that includes throwing interceptions and when their offence gets going, no one can stop it. Saints win a close game and go to the Super Bowl.

    As a result, Super Bowl 53 will feature a matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the New Orleans Saints, a rematch of the week 7 matchup between these 2 teams. This is the ideal Super Bowl in my opinion. Number one offence vs the number one defence. Like in Super Bowl 48, the Broncos had the best offence, and the Seahawks had the best defence (the game would’ve been close if not for the safety at the beginning by Denver). A Super Bowl matchup like this is something I’d look forward too. When the Rams vs Chiefs games was on, everybody was hyping it up because ‘the two best offences’ in the NFL at the time, were battling it out, and don’t get me wrong, that game was amazing to watch, Jared Goff single-handedly won my fantasy matchup that week, we’ve never seen a game where both teams scored 50 or more points in a Rams’ 54-51 win, but I just like many other football enthusiasts like to see both offence and defence in a football game, because a good defence changes the outcome of a game just as easily as an electrifying offence. Another great thing about the best offence vs the best defence in a game, especially in a Super Bowl, is that the first team to cause the other team to make a mistake will win the game. Seattle’s defence forcing a Denver safety is proof of that. If Baltimore’s defence is able to disrupt the Saints offence and cause turnovers, they will win the game. If the Saints’ offence is too much for the Ravens’ defence, chances are the Saints will run away with the game and win. After all, the Saints have scored over 30 points 10 times this season and have scored 40 points 6 times, even scoring 51 against the Bengals. So the Saints’ offence is amazing, but so is the Ravens’ defence. The Bears have the highest scoring defence, but the Ravens and Bears are 1&2 in the league when it comes to talent and production on defence. Either way, this game is a coin toss. Both teams are good and have played excellent football on both sides of the ball all year and have had great coaching to lead them to this point. So, I predict the Ravens’ stellar defence keeps the Saints offence in check and keep it a close game for the most part, however, I think Drew Brees will lead another game-winning drive with less than two minutes left in the game to win his 2nd Super Bowl (the second in Saints’ franchise history) and he rides off into the sunset and calls it a career after the win just like Peyton Manning after winning Super Bowl 50. After all, Brees beat the Ravens for the first time in his career in the week 7 matchup this season, to improve to 1-5 against them, so I don’t see why Brees can’t beat the Ravens again, this time in the Super Bowl.

    Those are my playoff predictions. Considering the week 17 games haven’t happened yet, a lot can still change. But I don’t see anything changing. I believe the same teams in the playoffs right now, after week 16, will be in the playoffs after week 17 and they will remain in the same seeding too. The only possible change I see happening is the Eagles making it in over the Vikings, because the Eagles have a guaranteed win against a very injured Redskins team with a 4th string QB in Josh Johnson who is playing on his 9th NFL team in his 12 year NFL career. He’s also played for several AAFL and UFL teams too. The Redskins have over 25 players on IR and over 35 out with injury. Also, the Bears will likely play their starters against the Vikings, according to HC Matt Nagy, and try to beat the Vikings so that they can grab the NFC’s second seed with a Rams loss a. Even if the Rams beat the 49ers, the Bears still want to end the season on a good note, going to wildcard weekend. And maybe the Browns play spoiler to the Ravens and get Pittsburgh in the playoffs, that is way less likely than the Eagles getting into the playoffs to defend their title.  

    What do you think will happen in the playoffs? Who will get in? What will the seeding look like? What two teams will get to the Super Bowl? Who will lift the Lombardi Trophy as world champions?

A recap of the Denver Broncos’ 2018 Season

By: Adamo Marinelli

December 28th, 2018

    For the first time since 1971-1972, the Denver Broncos have posted back-to-back losing seasons. In 2017, they started 3-1 and finished 5-11; in 2018 they started 2-0 and will finish 6-10 or 7-9 depending on if they beat the Chargers on December 30th.

    In the 2017 offseason, the Broncos went out and signed QB Case Keenum to a 2 year, $36 million deal in hopes of solving their QB problems. They traded Trevor Siemian to Minnesota, Brock Osweiler to Miami and cut Paxton Lynch. Also, Chad Kelly, potentially the future QB of the organization, was cut after he was arrested for drunken misconduct in late October of 2018. So that leaves Case Keenum as the starter and Kevin Hogan as the backup.

    Compared to Keenum's 2017 campaign with the Vikings, his 2018 campaign has been lacklustre with only 17 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, but he has played okay enough to give the Broncos a chance to compete this season. He is no franchise QB but he is a good transition QB. He has regressed back to his normal production of numbers. Last year with Minnesota was his good year. The numbers might not have looked that great on paper but keep in mind, Keenum’s offensive line went through a lot of changes throughout the year, he lost his favourite tight end targets in Jake Butt and Jeff Huereman to injury, Demaryius Thomas was traded away, Emmanuel Sanders got hurt and Courtland Sutton, Deshaun Hamilton, Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman and Matt Lacosse are all rookies on the offence. Even Lindsay was injured on Christmas Eve against the Raiders; so Keenum did his best with what he had. He also threw most of the interceptions because Vance Joseph told him to take risks and throw the ball downfield. In the six games he played conservative, he threw no interceptions, had no turnovers and added five touchdowns. There were very few deep shots down the field during this conservative play but it was done when necessary. When he took risks, he had 12 TDs and 14 INTs but the play action worked better. He also set up the run game better when he was conservative because defences weren’t sure if the play would be a run or pass. If he threw it down the field, everyone would block up front and it would be an obvious pass, not run. Keenum also added two rush touchdowns and led two game-winning drives against the Raiders and Chargers and could have had three more against the Chiefs, Texans and Browns if it wasn’t for a crucial penalty or sack.

    The quarterback wasn't the only problem this year for the Broncos. There were disputes over ownership and Pat Bowlen’s brother, Bill, is suing CEO Joe Ellis and two other trustees who Bill claims have been taking advantage of his brother, Pat Bowlen during his battle with Alzheimer’s. He claims they’ve been overusing their power, and he thinks Joe Ellis and company shouldn’t have that much power because the agreement was signed when Pat was in his battle against Alzheimer’s. Hence Bill thinks the agreement should be void, which is a recipe for disaster. If management is bad on your team, you cannot expect to win.

    Also, the coaching staff didn’t have a great year. Vance Joseph, the head coach is now 11-20 with the Broncos, a franchise low record since Josh McDaniels went 11-17, in the 2009 season and the first 12 games of 2010. That is unacceptable for a second-year coach. Joseph is expected to be fired at the end of the 2018 campaign. The guys still respect Joseph and want to win for him, so expect a huge effort against the Chargers, but it’s too late, the damage is done; Joseph is coaching his last game as a Bronco. The OC and DC are questionable to return.

    The OC Bill Musgrave is in his first year with the Broncos but his play calls weren't creative enough to use Keenum's excellent abilities outside the pocket with play actions and bootlegs. In his defence, the offensive line, wide receivers, and tight ends were all ravaged with injury, but the NFL is a performance league, and he hasn’t held up to par. The pass offence is middle of the pack being 17th in the NFL, but his rushing offence is top 10, thanks to Philip Lindsay and Royce Freeman. He has to keep running the ball to open up and effective passing game.

    The DC Joe Woods also seriously underperformed this year. Granted the secondary was really banged up, they had 12 starters in the secondary this year, third-most behind the Packers and the Eagles. Also apart from three games where the defence gave up 200+ rush yards in each game, the rush defence has been pretty good. The pass rush has been great too, the team has recorded 43 sacks, tied for 4th in the NFL and the secondary despite being banged up has played pretty well considering they played against pretty elite talent at the wide receiver position like Antonio Brown, Deandre Hopkins, Keenan Allen, Larry Fitzgerald, Tyreek Hill, etc. Covering tight ends though is something the Broncos cannot figure out how to do and it’s killing them: Will Dissly, Travis Kelce, Jared Cook, Antonio Gates, etc.

    The Broncos have been riddled with injuries at a variety of different positions that negatively affected the outcome of this season.

    Firstly, the Broncos lost three tight ends, which is three fewer weapons for Keenum to electrify this offence. Jake Butt was injured with a torn ACL in walkthroughs after the Broncos’ week three loss to the Ravens. He would have been a massive game changer in the passing game if he stayed healthy. Jeff Heureman, playing in his second season was also injured in the 24-17 win against the Steelers. He lifted the Broncos’ offence in both the passing and blocking game. It was unfortunate to see him get injured. Troy Fumagalli, drafted by the Broncos this year also was lost to an injury before the season started. It’s too bad. He would have had a great rookie season. This negatively impacts the Broncos’ pass game.

     Secondly, the Broncos lost 3 offensive linemen in a matter of weeks: centre Matt Paradis, guard Max Garcia and guard Ronald Leary. This caused the Broncos to have plenty of scrambling on the offensive line. They moved guard Connor McGovern to play centre, moved Garret Bolles to right guard from tackle, moved Billy Turner to left guard (Turner is the team’s 3rd LG this season), they kept Jared Veldheer as right tackle, and added Elijah Wilkinson as right guard in an all-important, must-win game for the Broncos against the Chargers. The new offensive line played amazing, allowing 0 sacks against the two-headed pass rush monster on the Chargers: Melvin Engram and Joey Bosa. They kicked it right into high gear when it mattered. They played their hearts out. They also allowed only 3 sacks in the next game, 2 against Pittsburgh and 1 against the Bengals. Despite injury all season long, they played well. There were a few games where they allowed 4-5 sacks, and there was 1 costly sack against Cleveland that ended the game but other than that, the line played great.

    After Demaryius Thomas was traded, Emmanuel Sanders was the only main veteran wide receiver left on the team. After he was injured in practice on December 5th before the week 14 game against the 49ers, the team’s starting wide receivers were all rookies: Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick as wideouts and Daesean Hamilton played in the slot. The production was great before Thomas got traded, even after Thomas was traded and it was just Sanders leading all the rookies because teams didn’t know if the Broncos would run or pass the ball which helped their young pass game and young run game under Freeman and Lindsay be very effective. Once Thomas and Sanders were out of the picture, teams knew the Broncos would be run heavy and were able to load the box and stop Lindsay in his tracks. Lindsay had less than 100 yards and no touchdowns in the game against the 49ers and Browns. However, he was better against the Raiders, before he left the game with a moderately severe wrist injury. It will require surgery and 3-4 months of rehab, the undrafted free agent will miss the regular season finale and his first Pro Bowl.

    Not to mention, the Broncos’ secondary was very injured this year. Chris Harris Jr. got hurt with a fractured fibula on the Bengals’ first offensive drive. This was the worst of the many injuries in the secondary; he was the glue holding the secondary together. When he was not on the field, the Broncos secondary deteriorated a lot. The Broncos have been injury riddled in the secondary, they’ve had over 13 starters in their secondary due to all the injuries, only behind the Eagles with 14. Including Chris Harris, they’ve had: Bradley Roby, Isaac Yiadom, Brendan Langley, Adam Jones, Justin Simmons (a safety who had to move to nickel corner with all the injuries), Will Parks, Darian Stewart, Dymonte Thomas, Shamarko Thomas, Craig Mager, Jamar Taylor and Horace Richardson. That is a lot of players to start in one season. The Broncos after parting ways with DC Wade Phillips and cornerbacks Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward have seen their “No Fly Zone” defence which helped Peyton Manning’s electrifying offence win Super Bowl 50 turn into a defence that has been walked all over for the most part this year. The Broncos are not playing with enough confidence as they used to and they do not have enough star-power at the position like when they did with Talib, Harris Jr., Ward playing together, says Louis Riddick, an ESPN analysis and a former NFL defensive back. Teams like the Chiefs, Buccaneers and Saints have also allowed an average of 300+ receiving yards per game for the majority of the season like the Broncos, but in an offensive heavy league in 2018, who can blame these secondaries, especially when riddled with injury. “I think (offences) are being aggressive,” [Vance] Joseph said. “Offensive football, right now, is hard to stop.” 10 teams, including the Broncos, have an opponents passer rating of over 100 all season long. Denver’s run defence played excellent all year except for 3 200+ rush yard games from a single running back (Kareem Hunt, Isaiah Crowell and Todd Gurley) and their pass rush is tied for fifth in the NFL with Baltimore, Green Bay and Arizona with 43 sacks on the season. Von Miller has 14.5 of those sacks and needs two more to reach 100 regular season sacks and rookie Bradley Chubb has 12, he needs three more to break the single-season rookie sack record. But with may mobile QBs like Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson, your team needs a secondary to compete, no matter how good your run defence or pass rush is.

    The Broncos also had a lot of rookies like Courtland Sutton, Deshaun Hamilton, Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman and Matt Lacosse and new players from other teams coming in free agency. A young team with a lot of rookies not only makes it hard to develop chemistry on offence and defence but it also decreases play efficiency. Teammates of 5 years on defence would know who covers who and what happens if there is a cross route or a switch. A QB and a WR who’ve been on the same team for five years know what the other person will do, the quarterback knows the route the receiver will do and can take more risks when throwing him the ball, the QB also knows if the receiver will change routes and the receiver will know if the quarterback throws him the ball earlier or later and if the QB changes up the play call. It’s hard to do this on a team mainly built around rookies on both offence and defence. The Broncos have the 5th most rookies in the league on their team. Same applies with traded players from other teams.

  Furthermore, the Broncos have also had very tough schedules the past two seasons. In 2017, they had the toughest strength of schedule, being at .573, meaning the teams they played in 2016 had a combined record which had a winning percentage of .573. In 2018, it was their strength of schedule was top 5, at .519, which is a disadvantage for the Broncos.

    Also, the Broncos lost some games they could have and should have won, some to inferior competition. They beat the Steelers in amazing fashion, had extraordinary comeback wins against the Raiders in week two and the Chargers, a hard-fought win against the Seahawks and a blowout win against the Cardinals and Bengals, but the win column should be bigger. They lost to the Chiefs twice, and they had a chance to win both of those games. The first game, they shouldn’t have blown a 10 point fourth quarter lead by playing defence with a huge cushion from the line of scrimmage, which isn’t good when playing a QB like Mahomes who can throw the ball fast. However, the Broncos had the chance to win it, but Keenum overthrew Thomas on a 3 and 10 from around the Chiefs 25 which fell incomplete. The Broncos failed a hook and ladder on the next play. The Broncos also could’ve won the second matchup against the Chiefs, but too many penalties throughout the game, but the Broncos down by 7 in their final drive and the Broncos couldn’t get into the end zone. The Broncos also should have beat the Rams. They lost 23-20, but the Broncos had a touchdown called back because Sanders was down at the 1-yard line. It was the wrong call -the refs have been terrible against Denver all year making ridiculous calls like this one - but its okay, just punch it in with Lindsay. However, on top of that, the refs threw a 15-yard flag for taunting because Emmanuel Sanders was throwing his hands up in celebration. Even though his hands were gesturing towards the defender, he didn’t mean any harm, that is a weak call. Surprise, Broncos had to settle for a field goal on that drive. Those 4 extra points off that denied touchdown would have given the Broncos a win. Also, they should have beat the Texans, but Vance Joseph’s inability to manage a game clock is another problem. Late in the first half, Vance Joseph attempted a 62-yard field goal to tie the game 13-13. Brendan McManus missed and the Texans with 18 seconds and two timeouts left drove an incredible 11 yards to get into field goal range before they extended the lead 16-10 at the half. Then at the end of the game, Joseph’s incompetence was as bright as day: he had a first down at the Texans’ 36-yard line with 44 seconds to go in the game, down 19-17 with two timeouts. Instead of running several plays, at least two run and a pass to make the field goal easy for McManus, who’s already missed one today, he decides to run only 1 play, wasting 30 seconds of clock, a play which Lindsay gained a mere four yards. With three seconds left, McManus missed a game-winning 51-yard field goal. He probably could have hit that, but shame on Joseph for not getting closer. Finally, they should have beat the 49ers but they just didn’t show up to play and tight end George Kittle owned them going for 210 yards and a receiving touchdown. The same thing happened with the Raiders on Christmas Eve, the Broncos were simply outplayed. And in Cleveland, the Broncos were penalised way too excessively, which ultimately cost them the game after a Jabrill Peppers sack on a Broncos 4th down from midfield to end it officially. Same deal with the Ravens, the refs were terrible as they have been all year against the Broncos. Lindsay being ejected for jumping into a pile to grab a fumble was called “punching” and a blocked kick touchdown return was called back because of an illegal block in the back, which was nowhere near the play is absolute malarkey. The Jets, mainly Isaiah Crowell just outplayed Denver. The Broncos had no answer for him: he rushed for 219 yards and a touchdown on the ground. In the regular season finale against the Chargers, expect the Broncos to play hard and play spoiler to the Chargers’ hopes of getting the AFC’s first seed.

    Despite it has been another rough season for the Denver Broncos, because of injuries, bad referees and bad play calling and time management, it is also their second consecutive losing season; last year they finished 5-11 and this year they are 6-9 so far (the Broncos haven’t had consecutive losing seasons since 1971-1972), the Broncos can expect improvement with all their injured players being back to start the 2019 season. Also, Vance Joseph is expected to be fired at the end of this season, with Joe Woods and Bill Musgrave, so change is coming soon in Denver.

Marinelli Podcast - Inaugural Episode

---Week 16 Matchups and Playoff Implications---

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Marinelli podcast. I’m your host, Adamo Marinelli and today, I will preview all of the week 16 matchups in the NFL and all the playoff implications. Incredibly, 14 of the 16 games this week have serious playoff implications. That hasn’t happened in a while; so without further ado, let's get started.

The first game of the week is a 4:30 pm start on Saturday, December 22nd between the Titans and the Redskins. The Titans have a must win on their hands because they are fighting with the Dolphins, Ravens, Colts and Browns for the AFC’s final wildcard spot. The Redskins are in the hunt with Minnesota, Philadelphia and Carolina for the final wildcard spot of the NFC so a win would be very beneficial. Titans win.

The second Saturday game between the Ravens and Chargers is an 8:30 kickoff. This game is important in AFC playoff implications because with a Ravens win and a Steelers loss against the Saints, the Ravens can overtake the Steelers for the division lead. If the Chargers win and the Chiefs lose, the Chargers can become the first seed; the Chiefs would have to play a home wildcard game, which they are 0-6 in their last 6 home playoff games. Chargers win.

The next game is Buccaneers visiting the Cowboys. The Buccaneers have been eliminated from the playoffs; this game is meaningless for them, however, they can play spoiler to the Cowboys who can clinch the NFC East with a win this weekend. They’re only one game ahead of the Eagles in the division and if they want to win the division, they must win this week. Cowboys win.

The next game sees an NFC North divisional clash between the Vikings and the Lions. With a Vikings’ win and an Eagles’ loss to the Texans, the Vikings can clinch the final wild-card spot. The Vikings have the final NFC wild-card spot and are trying to hold off the Eagles, Panthers and Redskins. The Lions have already been eliminated from the playoffs but can play spoiler. Vikings will win this game.

The game between the Falcons and Panthers also has playoff implications. While the Falcons have already been eliminated from postseason contention; the Panthers, who lost six straight games after starting 6-2, are fighting for their playoff lives against a beat up Atlanta Falcons’ team, whose defence is the most injured part of their team. Panthers win.

In the next game, the Texans visit the Eagles. The Texans have a 10-4 record, good enough for first place in their division, and the second seed in the AFC. With a win against the Eagles, the Texans will clinch their division and a make their third playoff appearance in four years. If they win and the Patriots lose, the Texans will clinch the second seed. The Eagles need to win and they need the Vikings to lose to grab the sixth wildcard spot. If the Eagles lose and the Vikings and Cowboys win, the Eagles are eliminated from the playoffs. Texans win.

Another of the 14 games with playoff implications is when the Giants visit the Colts. The Giants are officially done from the playoffs, and because they won 4 of the last 6 games, they look to be out of a top 5 draft pick. So not only could they not make the playoffs, they won’t be getting a great draft pick either, but it will still be a top 10 pick. The Colts are 8-6, good enough for the 7th seed in the AFC. The Colts would have to win on Sunday and have the Titans, Dolphins, Ravens and Browns to lose to take the final wildcard spot. Colts win.

The next game sees the red-hot Cleveland Browns, who are still alive in the playoff race in late December, which hasn’t happened in a while, host the injury-riddled Cincinnati Bengals who have already been eliminated from the playoffs. The Browns have the 10th seed and are 6-7-1; it is a long shot for them to make the playoffs: they need to win out, need the Dolphins, Colts, Titans, Ravens and Steelers to lose 2 of 3 games and they need the Colts vs Titans game to end in a tie, but it could still happen which is awesome! Browns win.

The Bills have been eliminated from postseason contention but can play spoiler when they visit Foxboro to play the Patriots. The Patriots have lost 2 consecutive games and have looked lifeless in those 2 games. Their offence has struggled, Brady has made abnormal mistakes and their defence is soft. They have looked the worst they have looked in a while in those 2 losses, but have the Bills and Jets to close out the season. That could get them the second seed, if not third. Patriots win.

The Packers and the Jets game has no playoff implications: both teams have been eliminated from the playoffs. For the Jets, it is understandable as they have a rookie QB who’s learning the system and needs time to be a starter. However, it’s disappointing for the Packers because they said last year was bad only because Rodgers was injured. If this season is what the Packers do with Rodgers, they are in a lot of trouble. They don’t have a second wide receiver behind Davantae Adams, a running back because Aaron Jones is out with injury and their defence isn't that great either. Jets win this game.

The Jaguars at 4-10, are having a very rough season and are officially out of the playoffs. This comes after going to the AFC Championship game last season. This game has no implications for the Jaguars but the Dolphins are still alive in the AFC playoff hunt and need a big win to stay alive in the hunt for the last wildcard spot because the Dolphins are currently ninth seed in the AFC. The Jaguars with their deteriorating defence, and offence with a non-productive Blake Bortles and Leonard Fournette. Dolphins win, keep playoff hopes alive.

The 49ers with a 4-10 record are only competing for the 1st overall draft pick this year and their season kind of ended after QB Jimmy Garapollo’s ACL injury. The Bears, at 10-4, have clinched their division and a playoff spot as the third seed, but if they win and the Rams lose, they will take the 2nd seed from the Rams, because they beat the Rams in the head-to-head matchup.

When the Rams visit the Cardinals, they look to take advantage of a 3-11 Cardinals team who have been eliminated from the playoffs for several weeks. The Rams have the second seed in the NFC at 11-3, have clinched a playoff spot already by winning their relatively non-competitive division minus the Seahawks; but they want the first seed in the NFC. That might be hard to get after losing to the 12-2 Saints head to head and losing while the Saints won in week 15. If the Rams win this week and the Bears lose though, they lock up 2nd seed and a first-round bye. Rams win.

Another very important game for both sides is when the Steelers make a visit to the Super Dome to play the Saints. The Steelers beat the Patriots 17-10, after losing three straight games to AFC West opponents starting with a loss to the Broncos in week 12. They are 8-5-1, only a half-game ahead of the Ravens at 8-6, and it isn’t a must win by any means, the Steelers have the Bengals in week 17; whereas the Ravens have the Browns. A win and a Ravens loss would help the Steelers clinch the division. The Saints are 12-2, have already won their division, clinched a playoff spot and with a win this week and a Rams’ loss, they will lock up the NFC’s first seed. Saints win.

In Sunday night’s game, kickoff is at 8:20 pm, the Chiefs will meet the Seahawks in Seattle. Seattle at 8-6, would clinch the 5th seed in the NFC with a Seattle win and a Vikings’ loss. Whereas, the Chiefs would likely lock up the 1st seed in the AFC with a win and a Chargers’ loss this week. The Chiefs, if they get home field advantage throughout the playoffs this year, hopefully, won’t lose again and make it 7 straight losses. Chiefs win.

The last game of the week is on Monday Night Football between the Broncos and Raiders on Christmas Eve. This is the second and final game with no playoff implications this week but it is still interesting to talk about. The Raiders, are having a terrible season at 3-11, under John Gruden. They’ve traded away arguably their best defensive player in Khalil Mack and their best offensive player in Amari Cooper. Gruden hasn’t had very much luck in the first season of his 10-year tenure and Raiders fans can only hope for improvement. The Broncos, apart from some amazing wins against the Chargers and Steelers have had a disappointing season: for the first 12 games or so, they had one of the toughest schedules in the NFL. Arguably, if their schedule was a little easier, if the Broncos avoided one or two costly mistakes that cost them a loss against the Rams, Chiefs twice, the Texans; or if the Broncos actually won games in which their opponent is worse than them, which they had a hard time doing this season, they would have had a better record. They are also having a bad year because of a lacklustre coaching staff, and many key injuries to both the offence, particularly the line and the receiving core and their defence, notably the secondary where they have had over 10 starters this year. Either way, their record should have been better than it is, but right now it is 6-8 and the Broncos are out of the playoffs but are trying to avoid back-to-back losing seasons since 1971 and 1972 with a win on Monday and next Sunday. Looking ahead to next year, Vance Joseph will likely be fired at the end of the season, which means change is coming in Denver and soon. Broncos win, but not in blowout fashion by any means.

Note: The YouTube video for this article will be out soon. Just spent time with family and I'm having some technical difficulties.

We Welcome Another NHL Expansion Team

By: Adamo Marinelli

Wednesday, December 5th, 2018

    It is official. Seattle has become the NHL’s 32nd franchise after the league unanimously approves the expansion bid.

    Their inaugural season will be in 2021-2022. This means the next expansion draft will be June of 2021. That expansion draft will have the same rules as the Las Vegas one.

    The Seattle organization will play in KeyArena, the old home of the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics who moved to Oklahoma and became the Thunder.

    The arena hasn’t been used in a while, so many renovations will have to be made. The NHL hopes that the $800 million renovations will be done by 2020, but with a huge task at hand and an unclear completion date, the parties involved decided a later date would be ideal, probably the start of 2021.

    Seattle’s team is unnamed and they will receive a name at a later date. However, it is likely that the Seattle Metropolitans, their 1917 Stanley Cup winning name won’t be coming back considering there is a division with that name.

    There is a poll on Twitter where fans can vote for the name of the team. The NHL wants to involve the fans as much as they can and having them choose from a select group of names is a great way to do so.

    It is astonishing how Seattle has already secured more than 30,000 deposits for season tickets since submitting its expansion application this past February.  

    “The league’s expansion decision was only made possible because Seattle will possess the three pillars essential to the success of any franchise: terrific committed ownership, a thriving market, and a state-of-the-art venue”, said Gary Bettman, in a press conference.

    Those three reasons are why Seattle was chosen over Quebec. Undoubtedly, there is a great market, arena and ownership in Quebec but it is better in Seattle, and by picking Seattle over Quebec, it avoids adding another Canadian team who has to pay their players in American dollars which gets very expensive and can drive up ticket prices and affect the salary cap.

    Besides, with the addition of Seattle, both the Eastern and Western conferences now have 16 teams. Arizona will be moved to the central division and Seattle will be in the Pacific division.  This is better than having 17 East teams and 15 West teams if Quebec was added.

    The NHL and Gary Bettman, the commissioner, are thrilled that NHL hockey will exist in Seattle, a city with a proud hockey history and the first American city to ever win the Stanley Cup, the Seattle Metropolitans. He is excited to experience NHL hockey in one of North America’s most innovative, beautiful and fastest growing cities.

    This was an excellent move for the NHL, but maybe Quebec can rejoin the NHL again sometime soon also. That would be fun!

Domestic Violence In Cleveland

By: Adamo Marinelli

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018

    Kareem Hunt was released by the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday after a video was published to TMZ that shows him shoving and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel in February 2018.

    The Chiefs said in a statement that Hunt was dishonest with them when they initially talked about the alleged crime back in February and when the video came out that proved he lied to them, the Chiefs immediately released him.

    Despite the fact that no criminal charges are being laid on Hunt, because the investigation was ended by the Cleveland police a month after the incident, the NFL is continuing its investigation of the situation and has placed Hunt on the “Commissioner’s Exempt List”, meaning he can not play in or attend games or practices while the NFL is doing their investigation.

    Apparently, the woman called Hunt the ‘N word’, however, that still doesn’t give him a right to act violently in response to what she said. Other non-violent measures could’ve been used.

    It appears that serious fines and suspensions are coming Hunt’s way. Hunt was also involved in a separate incident in June of 2018 where he allegedly punched a man at an Ohio resort.

    “I want to apologize for my actions. I deeply regret what I did,” Hunt said in a statement issued to many news outlets shortly after he was released from the Chiefs. “I hope to move on from this.”

    Hunt was released from the Chiefs, he went unclaimed off waivers yesterday and is now an unrestricted free agent and even if he is signed somewhere he cannot play until the NFL’s investigation is over - so at least not for the rest of this year - and who knows if he will ever get another chance in the NFL. It is unlikely.

    This is disappointing, considering Hunt led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2017, with 1,327 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground helping Kansas City make the playoffs only to lose in the wildcard game to the Titans. He was also a threat in the receiving game with Tyreek Hill with seven touchdowns and about 800 yards through the air. This year, he had another great performance, with seven rushing and seven receiving touchdowns and 824 rush yards this season with about 400 receiving yards too. He only fumbled the ball once in his career and it was on his first carry in his first game in the 2017 opener against the Patriots. He has been perfect ever since.

    It’s truly a shame to see such amazing and God-given talent go to waste because of irresponsible decisions made off of the football field.