Another season has come and gone, and another Baller can lay claim to superior football knowledge. The final results are in the table below. I’m only showing the “delta” tabulations – the difference between our guesses and the final result.
MWalsh26
Earl
Copanut
Eleven
TomPaul
BillyBob
tennbob
drock
Estimated
Prophet
Tuskegee
_Brown
JAMESH
Steelers
4
3
1
2
0
1
4
2
0
7
Bengals
2
9
1
3
1
2
3
2
2
6
Browns
6
3
5
5
4
5
8
8
6
0
Ravens
0
12
1
1
0
0
0
1
1
9
Base
12
27
8
11
5
8
15
13
9
22
Bonus
-1
-1
Total
12
27
8
11
4
8
15
13
8
22
This year, by popular request, I added a bonus point for the person who most closely predicted the Steelers’ final result, although you may be happy to know that it didn’t matter. TomPaulBillyBob and Tuskegee_Brown both accurately chose the Steelers final tally of 10 wins, but Mr. BillyBob blew everyone away by also accurately predicting the Ravens’ 12 wins, and missing out on the Bengals by only one point. With his bonus point, he pretty much lapped the field with a total score of 4. There was a three way tie for second place between Tuskegee_Brown, Copanut, and tennbob, but I think we can give the edge to Tuskegee_Brown for more accurately predicting the Steelers’ record.
Last place goes to Earl, who took a big hit for not submitting guesses for the rest of the division, but on his Steelers pick he beat out MWalsh26 and drock, with their chronic underestimation of the Power of Tomlin to pull out yet another winning season. If we’re going for last place on the Steelers prediction, we’ll have to give the edge to MWalsh26, because drock edged him out on the tiebreakers. They both correctly guessed the 2nd most receiving yards (Friermuth) and exactly divined the total touchdowns thrown (21), but drock predicted Wilson would have the most starts, while MWalsh26 went with Fields.
Dishonorable Mention goes to JAMESH, who had a ghost writer submit his usual 17-0 prediction. He finished with a score of 22, which is kinda sad, until you consider that Earl finished with 27.
And so ends another season in less than perfect fashion. The glass is not half full, but it’s a long way from empty, and closer to half full than the last two years combined.
Let us be grateful for the many positives of the 2014 edition of the Steelers. Here are some of them off the top of my head.
The Steelers reclaimed the division crown.
Despite the above, the Steelers will have better draft positioning than the Ravens and possibly the Bengals.
The offense has grown to the brink of greatness and has not yet peaked.
Elements of the defense solidified although much work remains to be done.
One Hairball is gone from the league.
Although they won, the Ravens continue to suck. Suggs is still butt ugly and stupid as dirt.
Andy Dalton… enough said.
The Factory of Sadness remains the destination where high draft picks go to die, and Comedy Central of the NFL.
We are one year closer to the end of Tom Brady’s career. Please, god, let it happen soon.
Please add your positives. There will be plenty of time for whining and hand-wringing later.
Hey, we’ve been asking that question all year, as it seems the Steelers can shine one week and stink the next. But perhaps it’s time to give credit where it’s due. Through 15 games, the Steelers have never had a losing streak longer than one game. Meanwhile they’ve had two 3-game winning streaks and with a final victory over Cincinnati they could push the current streak to 4 games. They are 7-2 in their last 9 games and have had only one truly putrid performance in that span, versus the Jets.
Although this more stable and positive period has more or less coincided with the resurrection of James Harrison, perhaps greater credit goes to the solidification of the offense and stabilization of what had been a horrid defense (and now is approaching sort of average). The biggest variable during this period has been the play of Ben Roethlisberger.. In their current configuration, the fate of this team is tightly tied to Ben’s performance. If he is hot in the playoffs, they can have a good run.
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