Performance Review: NFL Playoff Predictions Gone Horribly Wrong

Anyone who predicted this again was way off...

With Week 14 of the NFL season nearly in the books, the playoff picture is starting to take shape, with the exception of the AFC Wild Card race, which is just as muddled now as it was in Week 1.  Some teams have already clinched home field (Indianapolis), while other division races may come down to the final week (AFC & NFC East).

While we need to wait until the end of the season to see which of us here at Cubicle GM did the best in their preseason NFL predictions, it’s never too early to take a look at some of the utterly terrible things we prognosticated way back when, which now have no chance of coming true.

Predictions were made by me, Gideon, Smokey and Joey, so to be fair, I’ll take a look at one terrible prediction from both conferences from each one of us.  Enjoy.

JACOB

Terrible NFC Playoff Pick: Bears to finish 11-5 and win the NFC North.

That one is pretty self-explanatory.  Let’s just stop there.

Terrible NFC Commentary Prediction: “I think the Giants, Panthers and Seahawks will all compete for playoff berths but come up just short.”

I may have got one of these right, but the other two were way off.

Terrible AFC Playoff Pick: Steelers to finish 12-4 and win the AFC North.

A pretty common misconception predicted by many, but it’s the 12-4 record that makes this one so bad.

Terrible AFC Commentary Prediction: “The Chargers could make the playoffs at 7-9.”

Pretty sure Denver is  8-5 right now.  Oops.

GIDEON (didn’t provide commentary)

Terrible NFC Playoff Pick (tie): Seahawks to win NFC West / Falcons to win NFC South.

Both of these teams are under .500 and have been all but eliminated from contention.

Terrible AFC Playoff Pick: Steelers to win the AFC North.

See above.

SMOKEY

Terrible NFC Playoff Pick: Not picking the Vikings to make the playoffs.

He chose the Packers to win the North and the Falcons to get the second NFC Wild Card spot.  Oops.

Terrible NFC Commentary Prediction: “Each division will have 2 really good solid teams, and 2 drooling stooges.”

Not true for the NFC West or NFC South (one good team) or the NFC East,  AFC East, AFC North and AFC South (less than two drooling stooges).  So he went 2-for-8.

Terrible AFC Playoff Pick: Texans to finish 10-6 and be an AFC Wild Card team.

He also picked the Steelers, but I went with some variety here.

Terrible AFC Commentary Prediction: “[Mike] Tomlin is proving to be an all-around better coach, even if he isn’t the cold-hearted strategist Belichick is. Expect [the Steelers] to duke it out for the AFC title.”

Um, false.

JOEY

Terrible NFC Playoff Pick: Redskins to finish at 10-6 and be an NFC Wild Card team.

Clearly a bit of homerism here, but that’s just not even close to true.

Terrible NFC Commentary Prediction: “I’m going against the grain here, a bit.  I don’t think the Saints will make the playoffs.  I actually think the Falcons will take the division, and the Saints, at 9-7, will lose the tiebreaker to the Giants.  That’s right, the NFC East will have three playoff teams, including the Redskins.”

You could have stopped reading after he said the 13-0 Saints won’t make the playoffs.

Terrible AFC Playoff Pick: Colts to finish at 10-6 and be an AFC Wild Card team.

The Colts have wrapped up home field throughout the playoffs with 3 weeks to play.  Oh yeah, and they are undefeated.

Terrible AFC Commentary Prediction: “Ravens finish behind Steelers but are not a team that you want to see in the playoffs.”

With the issues plaguing the Ravens defense and the fall of the Steelers, you could argue that both parts of the previous statement aren’t true.

If you want to revisit all our picks, just click here, but be sure to check in after Week 17 to see how we did predicting the playoff teams.