NFL

the Road to the Super Bowl

Wild Card Round

AFC

6 – Miami Dolphins v. 3 – Pittsburg Steelers

This game should be won easily by the Steelers who will have the luxury of playing at home against a team lacking offense. With Tannehill, the Miami starting quarterback, missing another game due to two sprained ligaments in his left leg the Miami offense will yet again be helpless, as it has been in most games lacking their leader. The Steelers have a dynamic offense led by stars like Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, and Antonio Brown and should knock out Miami’s dreams of a ring.

Final Score — Pittsburg 27 – Miami 10

  • I hate the Steelers

5 – Oakland Raiders v. 4 – Houston Texans

While Oakland did look like an unstoppable force this season, without their starting quarterback, not even their unstoppable offensive line can generate offense. They have looked lost since they lost Carr to injury and don’t have an established, playoff ready run game to fall back on. The underwhelming should win this game due to still having their key pieces intact, for the most part (they are still missing some of their biggest game changers like JJ Watt). Both teams in this game are severely lacking offense, but the winner of the worst division in football will prevail.

Final Score — Houston 14 – Oakland 13

  • If Oakland did have Carr, this game would be a complete rout, showing his dominance as a quarterback and he is emerging as one of the best QBs in the league

NFC

6 -Detroit Lions v. 3 – Seattle Seahawks

This game will be close but I think that in a dramatic upset, the Lions will come close to setting back the Seahawks dreams of a championship but will ultimately fail. Both teams have great offenses but the Seattle defense is still one of the best and will carry their team to victory. Stafford and Tate, in what is his first game back in Seattle since he left in the offseason before the 2014 season, will come up short mainly because of the great secondary defense established by the Seahawks and without a great running game to keep the Seahawks guessing, the Lions will go back to Detroit.

Final Score — Seattle 27 – Detroit 24

  • if the Lions are down by a touchdown or less going into the fourth quarter they will win
  • if the Lions win this game they will make it to the Super Bowl

5 – New York Giants v. 4 – Green Bay Packers

I really, really hope that the Giants lose this game. Sadly, I don’t think they will. The teams are evenly matched (Green Bay is stronger offensively, while the Giants are a bit stronger on the other side of the ball) and it will be a very close game. However, being a superstitious man when picking games, I think that the fact that the Packers haven’t lost in six games will work against them and the Giants will take one step closer to another Super Bowl appearance.

Final Score — New York 20 – Green Bay 17

  • I think Green Bay should win on this game but superstition man

Divisional Round

AFC

3 – Pittsburg Steelers v. 2 – Kansas City Chiefs

The Steelers will win this game as long as Antonio Brown is able to have a noticeable impact. The Chiefs have looked like one of the best teams in football behind a team that has learned game management and have played good football on both sides of the ball but the AFC North winner will overwhelm them now that they have all parts of their offense ready to go. It will be a close one in Arrowhead but ultimately yet another post-season loss for Reid, Smith, and co.

Final Score — Pittsburg 30 – Kansas City 20

  • I hate the Steelers
  • I really hate them

4 – Houston Texans v. 1 – New England Patriots

This game will be a rout and I shouldn’t need to explain why. One of the worst teams to ever make the playoffs will be going into Foxborough, where they lost 27 – 0 with their entire team health against a Patriots team lacking Brady, Gronk, and Ninkovich in Week 3. Now Houston has to come back and play another game, but this time going up against a rested Brady and lacking key parts, it will not be a close game.

Final Score — New England 31 – Houston 7

  • Brady has been playing with a fire in him ever since his Deflategate suspension and expect him to continue along that path, if not play even better in the playoffs

NFC

3 – Seattle Seahawks v. 2 – Atlanta Falcons

I think that Atlanta will overcome their playoff struggles and the Georgia Dome will get an unforgettable in what is likely the last game by a professional sports team that will be played their. The number one offense in the league led by Matt Ryan, the All-Pro and probable MVP, will face a tough task ahead of them facing one of the best defenses in the league but the combination of Devonta Freeman (one of the best running backs in the league), Julio Jones (arguably the best wide receiver in the league), and Ryan will lead the Falcons to victory.

Final Score — Atlanta 24 – Seattle 14

  • Apparently Atlanta deems a stadium “old” after 25 years of use

5 – New York Giants v. 1 – Dallas Cowboys

I am not going to do a write up of this game, all I can say is that Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliot, and the rest of the Cowboys organization will not lose to the Giants three times this season.

Final Score — Dallas 27 – New York 10

  • I don’t think Jerry Jones can live with himself if the Giants were to win this game

Championship Round

AFC

3 – Pittsburg Steelers v. 1 – New England Patriots

This game will be very close, but the Patriots will ultimately win another one in Foxborough. In what will be another showdown between the Brady and Roethlisberger, the game will be close the whole way thru and with two amazing offenses on the field, defense will decide the game, and the Patriots secondary will shut down the Steelers’ passing game, leading to Brady taking another step towards a ring.

Final Score — New England 24 – Pittsburg 20

  • The running core of LeGarrette Blount, Dion Lewis, and James White will be the key players for New England and they will control the tempo with the combination of short passing and quick runs

NFC

2 – Atlanta Falcons v. 1 – Dallas Cowboys

The Falcons will prove that they are the best team in the NFC with a convincing win over the Cowboys in Dallas. The Falcons will come out swinging and head into Houston with a big win locking the Cowboys rookie duo out of the promised land.

Final Score — Atlanta 31 – Dallas 17

  • The playoffs require experience to advance and survive, and while the Cowboys have many players with experience, their two best players lack it and it’ll stop them this year, but they will be back

Super Bowl

New England Patriots v. Atlanta Falcons

benspn’s Super Bowl Prediction this year goes to the New England Patriots, as Tom Brady will show America why he is one of the best football players of all time on the biggest stage there is. Again.

Final Score — Patriots 34 – Atlanta 20

  • Brady will win Super Bowl MVP

another LA franchise

benspn is back and as decent as we’ve ever been! To all the loyal fans out there, I know, and you know, that the one thing that you’ve been missing in your life is a benspn article so we’ve decided to give you one.

As many of you may know, the St. Louis Rams moved to Los Angeles for the start of the current season and played their games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, to a 4-11 record, one might add. (What’s worUnknown.jpegse, their most recent loss jeopardized benspn’s chances of repeating as winner of their knockout pool.) But the team will move into its massive new stadium in Inglewood, named (wishfully) the City of Champions Stadium, in 2019. The building’s estimated cost is $2.66 billion. The Rams’ move marked the return of pro football to LA after 21 years. The Raiders left the city to return to Oakland in 1995, a year after the Rams themselves took off, first for Anaheim and then St. Louis.
And there may be more moves: The Chargers and Raiders are both in the midst of discussions of also moving to the City of Angels, and now let me explain to you why either of those teams moving, whether to LA or anywhere else, is a horrible idea.

Twenty years ago, LA obviously struggled to support two NFL teams so when the Rams returned, that should have been the discussion should’ve been over. Teams moving players around is risky business, and teams changing cities is completely detrimental to their fan bases. Both the Raiders and Chargers have developed devoted fan bases in their cities (which are already in California). Moving would leave these fans without a team to support, even as it’s possible that adding more competition to LA would cause over saturation in the city.

The plan that would move the Chargers to LA is still up in the air, but seems likely. Chargers owner Dean Spanos is most likely going to exercise his option to move to LA for the upcoming season before his deadline of January 15. But his plan for actually getting his team a place to play in LA has not been solidified after his first two plans were rejected by the public. Spanos’s original plan was to have a joint, $1.7 billion stadium with the Raiders in the LA area, but the plan was rejected because it called for a 4% hike on LA’s hotel tax and the use of approximately $1.15 billion of taxpayer funds.

This is one of the major problems with teams switching moving cities: Owners want taxpayers to pay for large parts of their new stadium with very little in return. The money taxpayers spend on a new stadium could be used for nearly anything else that to definitively benefit the city. More than a billion dollars can go a long way towards helping the public. Even after the owners would receive the money they would do very little to pay the city back when they are finished building. There would be no revenue sharing between the team and the city and profits from everything from parking to ticket sales wouldn’t be used to payback the city, leaving the city much, much poorer.

The other options for the Chargers involve using other stadiums while they explore further options to build a new home in the city. The team could attempt to share the Rams’ new stadium when it opens in 2019, which would still require them to find a temporary home until then. Venues such as the StubHub Center, a soccer stadium which seats 30,000 could be used but the Chargers would still be forced to build temporary practice space until moving into the Rams’ building.

The Raiders, have more options: The team is also willing to move to Las Vegas and management has declared that if Vegas gives them a stadium they will move there instead. This move makes even less sense than the Chargers’ plan. The Raiders would be moving out of the country’s sixth-biggest media market (the Bay Area) to the much smaller Vegas region. It would be nearly impossible for the Raiders’ large Oakland fan base to get to games in Las Vegas, almost completely alienating their original base (again). This plan also calls for infamous casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to put $650 million toward the $1.9 billion project in exchange for part ownership of the team, which seems pretty unfavorable for Mark Davis, the current owner. The Vegas offer may be lucrative but it could isolate the team and doom it to failure.

Super Bowl Ending

The Super Bowl is officially over and we here at benspn are moving on (but expect nonstop coverage for another two weeks on ESPN). In the end the Patriots are victorious, like we predicted, and our final score was only three points off from the final score of 28 to 24 (we predicted it would be 28 to 21). Benspn also hit a milestone number because of viewers like you.

Also was it only me who saw Katy Perry riding ‘the more you know’ symbol…

Super Bowl 49 Live Blog #1

Well, one quarter has gone by and Seattle has picked off Brady… It was Jeremy Lane, who injured himself during the play. It seems the Pats can’t tackle Russell Wilson but it also seems Wilson can’t find anyone who’s open, so expect a back and forth the rest of the night between bad and worse.

SUPER BOWL XLIX

Yes it is now the time that we here at benspn must make our Super Bowl predictions. On behalf of the company, I, Ben Drevitch have been tasked with writing this so lets do this thing!

I believe that the Patriots will emerge victorious because of their fantastic offense and a defense nearly as good as Seattle’s. The Patriots will be able to drive down the field against an injured Seattle secondary and Blount will have another big week. The Patriots will also be able to stop the run with their very strong defensive line led by soon to be hall of famed Vince Wilfork. Seattle may have a chance in this game if Russell Wilson comes out of the gate throwing. If this occurs the Patriots will then most likely drop more guys back into coverage meaning Lynch will be able to run it up the middle for huge gains.

The winner of this game will be the Patriots stopping Seattle to be the first team to repeat since Brady himself did it 10 years ago. The final score will also end up being 28 to 21, meaning the total will be 49 points accordingly.

Deflate-gate, or Gronk-flate-gate?

While the NFL investigates the New England Patriots for allegedly deflating the footballs they used during the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts, the team’s players and staff have had some very different reactions:

Tom Brady laughed off the accusation, saying, “I think I’ve heard it all.”

Head coach Bill Belichick, a man full of words, when asked by the media about the investigation by league officials, said, “Any questions on that you should talk to them about.”

Yet there is one player who seems to know what actually happened. Rob Gronkowski, known for his legendary spikes after scoring touchdowns, revealed it in his latest tweet: “WARNING GRONKING MAY CAUSE DEFLATION,” and I believe this is the best theory so far.

Regardless, the Patriots played a great game and in two weeks the NFL season will wrap up and we here at benspn predict that…the coin toss WILL BE heads.

More predictions to come.

Finally! An Honest Jet!

As the Jets were preparing for their game with the Pittsburgh Steelers today (and they will almost certainly lose because of their quarterbacks—you know, the one who throws more completions to the opposing team than his own and the one who fumbles like the ball’s grenade) some angry tri-state area fan flew, or hired, a plane (which I believe is the only winning Jet in this situation), trailing a banner reading, FIRE JOHN IDZIK (the Jets’ GM).

The Jets are so bad this year that EVERYONE in their front office should get the boot, but maybe the fan couldn’t afford a banner big enough to hold everyone’s name. Idzik is so unpopular that there’s a website and Twitter page devoted to his firing. The sites’ hosts say they did not hire the plane, but they did raise more than $10,000 to place FIRE JOHN IDZIK billboards near MetLife stadium.

The plane and the billboards combine to deliver a far more potent air attack than the Jets have mounted this season. . .

Devon Still

After the Bengals announced 100% of profits from Devon Still’s jerseys would go pediatric cancer Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints head coach, ‘spontaneously’ bought 100 to help the cause. Stills’s daughter is in the middle of a fight against stage four pediatric cancer and is getting tons of support from the Bengals community along with everyone else. Still was recently promoted from the practice squad to the 53 man roster. At least in the world of sports today there is Still something to smile about.