The Running Game: Preseason Blues

I hate the preseason. There, I said it. Everyone gets so excited, like, "oh, yay, football is back!"

But it's not real football, it's preseason. Christ, it might as well be college football, for all it matters. The players are nobodies, crazy $#*! happens, and I don't care about it.

A team could lose all of their preseason games and then win the Super Bowl, and the team that won all their preseason games can go 2-14. It means nothing, none of the outcomes have any bearing on the season, at all.

Oh, except for one, like when the best player on the team tears an ACL or breaks a collarbone on a stupid first quarter preseason play. That's why I had no problem with the cancellation of the Hall of Fame game this year. My Packers don't need that.

The Running Game: Preseason Predictions

Earlier this summer, I noticed that the site I had leveraged heavily for ranking different parts of teams last year was not putting out the same rankings this year. Since then, I've been working overtime to figure out what information I should use instead. I've discovered other rankings, played with weightings, and even created my own ranks from fantasy projections to get to a calculation that is one last data point away from the final product.

So, after all that, the NFC projections danced around a bit, but thanks to an easy early season and good projections, despite the 30 to 1 odds, Oakland is still predicted to win it all this year. Taking a look at their games this season, I don't see one that I would expect them to lose until week 12 when Carolina comes to town. Kansas City could have a chance in week 6, then maybe Denver in week 9, if their defense can make up for their unfortunate quarterback situation, and Houston has a chance, I guess. Still, I'm starting to wonder if a modest investment of my own isn't a bad idea. Of course, I'll know much more after Week 1.

Perhaps it's not just a distant memory.