NFL 2008

[Meacon Keaton]

If Shannahan takes the position he'll have been in charge of 3/4 of the AFC West. Just wait for Turner to choke a couple more years and Tan Shan can take over in San Diego, too.

[naiwf]

I don't understand why Shanny wants to coach the Chiefs. I don't see why he wouldn't sit out a year and see if a better spot opens up next season.

[sahyder1]

If I had to guess I'd say he'll wait till next year and take the Dallas job.

[Lowerdeck]

If he wanted anything good now, he could have gone to Indy.

I'm saying he might wait for Dallas next year.

[alldaws1]

Indy had already named Dungy's replacement last season so that wasn't a possibility really.

Another one and done in the playoffs for Dallas will hopefully make Jerry Jones see that a change in coaching is needed.

[JStarr]

NFL.com is reporting that Larry Fitz is willing to restructure his contract to get Anquan Boldin paid.

Smart man, and with class to spare. If Boldin goes, I'm not 100% sure they're a playoff team again next year.

[naiwf]

If Warner retires, they should just try to swing a trade for Boldin since Leinhart won't be able to approximate what Warner can do, and there's no point in paying 2 stud WR if you don't have a QB.

[sahyder1]

ESPN is running a Super Bowl pick'em with 20 Super Bowl related predictions. I created an EWB group called "EWB" and the pw is "ewb".

[livid]

So...

The 49ers hired their Offensive Coordinator and it's....Jimmy Raye.

Not the sexiest pick, but he seems to fit Singletary's philosophy with a run-first offense but I can't help but feel a bit underwhelmed that it took this long to hire this guy.

We'll see how it works out but I'm a bit wary until I see him make some play calls.

[JStarr]

So...

We're about 33 hours from the game, so who ya got?

I know of one person who has the balls to pick Arizona, and I think they can make it a tight game, as long as the Steelers D doesn't score. If Polamalu, Harrison, or anyone else comes up with big momentum-killing turnovers, Arizona's fucked. But I'm gonna head out onto the limb and say...

Arizona 23, Pittsburgh 17.

And guys, when Chase comes in and picks the Steelers, try to keep it clean.

[alldaws1]

If Polamalu, Harrison, or anyone else comes up with big momentum-killing turnovers, Arizona's fucked.

When do one of those guys not come up with big momentum-killing turnovers? Steelers D is one of the few who can shut down Arizona's offense I think. Steelers 23, Cardinals 10.

[HailtotheYo]

Screw it, Cardinals by 9 or more.

[VerbalPuke]

My heart says Arizona, and I'd like to see Arizona win.

That said, Pittsburgh 27 - Arizona 17.

[livid]

I think the Steelers will win, sadly.

I'd say it's going to be a fairly high scoring game though, with Warner make some mistakes against the Steelers defense to put their offense in some good spots to score some points but the Cardinals offense is too high powered to not score at least a little bit, even against the Steelers defense.

So I think it'll end up being around Steelers 31, Cardinals 24.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Johnny Quid

[SeanDMan]

Cardinals in a blowout.

[Maxx]

Defense always wins, so I'm going with Pittsburgh sadly.

Rooting for Arizona, but I'm fairly positive it's going to be a Pittsburgh victory.

[Meacon Keaton]

Cardinals Steelers in a blowout.

Unfortunately.

[naiwf]

I don't know that I agree with the defense always wins argument. Last year's Giants are the only team to win a SB by scoring less than 20 points since SB IX. In the last 25 SB (I only went that far back because that's when teams learned how to play offense ), the losing team ends up scoring about 16.9 a game, but the winners are averaging almost 33.6 per game which is insanely high if you consider this is the biggest game of the year. I wouldn't say that your average SB is similar to Ravens/Steelers where the first team to 6 usually wins, but most of the games have been blowouts lately so it's hard to tell.

Having said that I could easily see the losing team tomorrow scoring 21-27 points, or it being a complete blowout somewhere along the lines of 38-14 which is basically on par with what we've been seeing for the last 25 years on average.

Edited January 31, 2009 by naiwf

[Slogger]

Arizona's on a roll and Ben will screw the pooch. Plus I heard he banged his ribs up against the Ravens.

Arizona 37

Steelers 14

[Maxx]

And the Pats weren't on a roll last year? The Steelers aren't on one?

If you're in the Super Bowl, you're on a roll.

I mean I hope you're correct, but really, you can't exactly claim the Steelers aren't on a roll themselves.

Edited January 31, 2009 by Wing Commander Maxx