Tag: afc north

AFC NORTH Q1 CHECK-IN 2019

Game by game breakdown here

Baltimore Ravens (2-2)
Preseason prediction: 11-5 #5
Q1 Prediction: 11-5, #3
Something to change:
Get Earl Thomas to stick to his coverages.
Something to keep the same:
Using Lamar Jackson better than anyone else would except probably Evil Emperor Belichick.

Cleveland Browns (2-2)
Preseason prediction: 10-6 #6
Q1 Prediction: 8-8
Something to change:
Return some of those high-priced free agents to get at least one pass blocker back.
Something to keep the same:
The locker room’s us-against-the-world mentality.

Pittsburgh Steelers (1-3)
Preseason prediction: 12-4 #2
Q1 Prediction: 6-10
Something to change:
Offense. Everything about it. Un-injure Ben? Make JuJu a #2WR again?
Something to keep the same:
Defense. Just… Keep sacking guys?

Cincinnati Bengals (0-4)
Preseason prediction: 3-13
Q1 Prediction: 4-12
Something to change:
Time to end the Andy Dalton era.
Something to keep the same:
I honestly haven’t cared enough about the Bengals to notice anything they’re doing well. Oh, John Ross! That guy’s fast. Keep being fast, little dude.

2019 Preview: AFC North

Full schedule prediction here

Pittsburgh Steelers
Predicted record: 12-4 #2
Last year’s record: 9-6-1
Vegas over/under: 9 (over)
Why they’ll win the super bowl:
Addition by subtraction. Without the distractions of Antonio Brown and LeVeon Bell, the Steelers can get back to winning. JuJu Smith-Shuster and James Conner can step in to form a new triplets with Ugly Ben because that’s just what the Steelers do. They have solid coaching and one of the best o-lines in the league, as well as a young defense featuring an OROY candidate.
Why they won’t win the super bowl:
Subtraction by subtraction. There’s no replacing the talent of AB and LeVeon. And Pittsburgh only got rid of 2/4 of the culprits in the Brown-Bell-Roethlisberger-Tomlin Drama Machine. Even if all the pieces are here to be a competitor, the same was true of last year’s team, which missed the postseason.

Baltimore Ravens
Predicted record: 11-5 #5
Last year’s record: 10-6
Vegas over/under: 8.5 (over)
Why they’ll win the super bowl:
Last year, John Harbaugh devised a whole new style of football to unleash on the NFL. With Lamar Jackson in year 2 and the RB stable fully stocked after the addition of Mark Ingram, these birds are ready to storm the league again.
Why they won’t win the super bowl:
That revolutionary offense? All it took was an Anthony Lynn 7-DB defense to completely take the wheels off. This team has so few passing options that they have no chance of overcoming deficits, so they’ll be too reliant on an iffy defense to keep games in reach.

Cleveland Browns
Predicted record: 10-6 #6
Last year’s record: 7-8-1
Vegas over/under: 9 (over)
Why they’ll win the super bowl:
It takes the lowest lows (going 489-1-1 under Hue Jackson) to reach the highest highs (Baker launching it to OBJ and Jarvis Landry ad infinitum while Myles Garrett and Olivier Vernon pulverize opposing passers.)
Why they won’t win the super bowl:
Um, you do realize these are the Browns, right? They took a junk car and flipped it, put in a fancy engine and gave it a great paint job, and then they handed the cars to a guy with no driving experience (Freddie Kitchens) and put cheap oil in it (crappy o-line.)

Cincinnati Bengals
Predicted record: 3-13
Last year’s record: 6-10
Vegas over/under: 6 (under)
Why they’ll win the super bowl:
Maybe Andy Dalton is set for a fantastic year. Maybe Zac Taylor is the next Sean McVay. Maybe like half of the Bengals roster are secret superstars.
Why they won’t win the super bowl:
But probably not. Probably Dalton is an average QB who becomes subpar when AJ Green is out (he is), and probably Taylor is the second-best Coach Taylor you know of, and probably only a small handful of these players will exceed expectations.