And then there were eight. We had a couple of wild finishes in the Wildcard Round, but overall most favorites didn’t leave much doubt in their matchups. I think these will be four great games – so let’s break them down!
One X-factor for each team in the NFL playoffs:
The longest regular season in NFL history is in the books and we saw one of the craziest finishes to it that I can remember, climaxing in the Sunday Night thriller, in which the Chargers and Raiders could have both made the cut with a tie in overtime, but Las Vegas decided to kick a game-winning field goal with time running out, to send their division rivals home. Now the postseason is set and we already have some great matchups in the first round already, while overall this thing might be as wide-open as we’ve seen in a long time.
So as we enter this 14-team tournament, I want to talk everybody squad here a little bit and instead of describing their strengths and weaknesses, like I usually do in weekly previews, I thought it would be fun to bring one X-factor to the table for each of them. So these are not marquee players – outside of maybe one of them, because of a reason I will explain at that point – or even starters in some cases, but rather guys, who I believe could make an impact in a certain role or matchup.
Here are the names I came up with:
The longest regular season in NFL history is in the books and we saw one of the craziest finishes to it that I can remember, climaxing in the Sunday Night thriller, in which the Chargers and Raiders could have both made the cut with a tie in overtime, but Las Vegas decided to kick a game-winning field goal with time running out, to send their division rivals home. Now the postseason is set and we already have some great matchups in the first round already, while overall this thing might be as wide-open as we’ve seen in a long time.
So as we enter this 14-team tournament, I want to talk everybody squad here a little bit and instead of describing their strengths and weaknesses, like I usually do in weekly previews, I thought it would be fun to bring one X-factor to the table for each of them. So these are not marquee players – outside of maybe one of them, because of a reason I will explain at that point – or even starters in some cases, but rather guys, who I believe could make an impact in a certain role or matchup.
Here are the names I came up with:
Figuring out week 18 of the 2021 NFL season:
There’s still so much on the line in week 18 of the NFL season – seven teams are fighting for the final three playoff berths and other than the Packers having locked up home-field advantage, all the seeding will still be decided! Let’s try to figure this thing out!
(I forgot to mention that the Ravens also need the Patriots to beat the Dolphins, to keep their playoff chances alive.)
Josh Allen puts on the cape vs. Patriots (Week 16):
The Bills went up to New England in week 16 with a chance to re-claim the AFC East lead. When his team needed him most, Josh Allen put on the cape and got them back into the driver’s seat with some incredible individual plays!
How the Saints defense shut out Brady & the Bucs:
After not allowing the #1 offense in the league to score a point in week 15, the Saints D had to be my next topic, but I didn’t feel like a couple of plays could really capture how Dennis Allen had his troops prepared & some of the little tweaks he put in the gameplan – so here’s an extended look at what they did!
Who should be in the 2021/22 Pro Bowl?
Join me in filling out my 2021/22 Pro Bowl ballot! I’ll talk a little bit about issues with the structure, give insight on statistics and cast my votes at every position.
NFL Power Rankings heading into the fourth quarter of the 2021 season:
There are five weeks left in the NFL season and with the last four teams wrapping up bye weeks, this is as close to the three-quarter mark as we’ll get to. Therefore, it was time for me to go through all the numbers, watch some more film and rank all 32 teams against each other heading into the final stretch.
I think there’s a fairly clear top-five, which you could order a few different ways and a couple of teams with the potential to join that group. And similarly, there’s a group at the bottom, which consists of about the same amount of teams, that have practically – and one even technically – eliminated themselves from playoff contention – and their play also reflects that. The middle group is really what’s hard to figure out, because some of those teams look like contenders one week and then let us down the very next.
Still, this is the list I came up with in the end, not just purely ranking the teams based on record, but also taking recent form into account and where they should come in, as I evaluate them at this very moment. Let’s dive into it:
There are five weeks left in the NFL season and with the last four teams wrapping up bye weeks, this is as close to the three-quarter mark as we’ll get to. Therefore, it was time for me to go through all the numbers, watch some more film and rank all 32 teams against each other heading into the final stretch.
I think there’s a fairly clear top-five, which you could order a few different ways and a couple of teams with the potential to join that group. And similarly, there’s a group at the bottom, which consists of about the same amount of teams, that have practically – and one even technically – eliminated themselves from playoff contention – and their play also reflects that. The middle group is really what’s hard to figure out, because some of those teams look like contenders one week and then let us down the very next.
Still, this is the list I came up with in the end, not just purely ranking the teams based on record, but also taking recent form into account and where they should come in, as I evaluate them at this very moment. Let’s dive into it:
NFL week 13 preview (2021-22):
We’re a dozen of weeks into the NFL season and there’s still a lot of questions about the pecking order, but it’s time to break down another weekly slate & get closer to our answers! (Sorry for the little part where the audio is gone for a second between a couple of the games. No idea what that is.)
NFL week 11 preview (2021-22):
We’re ten weeks into the NFL season and major upsets upsets have ruled the landscape. Which ones might be added to the list? Who can stay hot and win the big-time matchups of week 11?
Mid-season NFL awards for 2021/22:
We have now officially reached the mid-way point of this NFL season, with 136 of 272 games in the books. There’s been plenty of surprises, when it comes to certain players and teams, some groups have been buried by injuries, while others have risen above those, usual suspects have faced adversity, while a few new teams are trying to prove themselves as contenders. We’ve had several great primetime games and shootouts between exciting teams, and then of course week nine kind of flipped everything on its head, when we had two double-digit underdogs pull off upsets and there were quite a few other head-scratching results.
So now, as I like to do every year, I think is a good time to reflect a little bit and talk about who I think would win all the major NFL awards, if the season ended today. Once again, just like I did when I put together my season predictions before we kicked things off, I will list and discuss my top three candidates for each category, to go with mentioning two or three other players, that deserve consideration. This is not a prediction of what I believe this will look like at the end of the year, but rather my personal opinion, based on numbers and all the tape I watched.
Let’s get into it:
We have now officially reached the mid-way point of this NFL season, with 136 of 272 games in the books. There’s been plenty of surprises, when it comes to certain players and teams, some groups have been buried by injuries, while others have risen above those, usual suspects have faced adversity, while a few new teams are trying to prove themselves as contenders. We’ve had several great primetime games and shootouts between exciting teams, and then of course week nine kind of flipped everything on its head, when we had two double-digit underdogs pull off upsets and there were quite a few other head-scratching results.
So now, as I like to do every year, I think is a good time to reflect a little bit and talk about who I think would win all the major NFL awards, if the season ended today. Once again, just like I did when I put together my season predictions before we kicked things off, I will list and discuss my top three candidates for each category, to go with mentioning two or three other players, that deserve consideration. This is not a prediction of what I believe this will look like at the end of the year, but rather my personal opinion, based on numbers and all the tape I watched.
Let’s get into it:
We have now officially reached the mid-way point of this NFL season, with 136 of 272 games in the books. There’s been plenty of surprises, when it comes to certain players and teams, some groups have been buried by injuries, while others have risen above those, usual suspects have faced adversity, while a few new teams are trying to prove themselves as contenders. We’ve had several great primetime games and shootouts between exciting teams, and then of course week nine kind of flipped everything on its head, when we had two double-digit underdogs pull off upsets and there were quite a few other head-scratching results.
So now, as I like to do every year, I think is a good time to reflect a little bit and talk about who I think would win all the major NFL awards, if the season ended today. Once again, just like I did when I put together my season predictions before we kicked things off, I will list and discuss my top three candidates for each category, to go with mentioning two or three other players, that deserve consideration. This is not a prediction of what I believe this will look like at the end of the year, but rather my personal opinion, based on numbers and all the tape I watched.
Let’s get into it:
Halil's Real Footballtalk 