Are you Ready for Some Chips?

It’s that time of year again. 

Potato Chip time. 

Time to throw caution to the wind and see how much chip and dip we can stuff down our gullet in the name of football.

I was reminded of this recently on an airplane flight when I sat down next to the largest woman in America, one whom should have been declared “too big to fly.”   Now I’m used to doing the elbow room dance on flights, so I was ready to tangle.  But she wasn’t.  She was ready to eat.  So, she pulled out a king size bag of potato chips.  Right before my eyes, she began to devour an entire bag like it was the Super Bowl, and never offered me a single one. A good 60 minutes of crackling and snapping, soon I was ready for some football. 

Off to the first Saints game Sunday, and I’m not feeling too confident.  Have the Saints really changed into a perennial contender?  Will they revert to their days of making stars out of new quarterbacks?  Could they possibly be good enough to win while a GM, Head Coach, and Interim Head Coach serve various suspensions?  Can Brees carry the load he will be asked to carry this year?  Could any team survive the kind of turmoil that the Saints have endured this off-season, and make it to the first ever home team Super Bowl? 

Call me about 4 pm Sunday and I’ll have a better answer. 

It was revealed in the off-season that Head Coach Sean Payton was a cocky, arrogant, control freak, who disregarded NFL admonitions in his quest to build an empire.  He’s a real prick to the media, and generous to Hurricane Victims.  In other words, the perfect NFL head coach.  His innovative offense is hard to stop, but in reading his book, it becomes clear that during the Saints Super Season he pushed every button to perfection.  In fairness, he’s also lost 3 playoff games because a) he couldn’t or wouldn’t run the ball, and b) Gregg Williams was playing macho intimidation man to man war games.  

 

The NFL is not an easy place to make a living.  Last year should have been Super Bowl number 2 for the Saints, but Williams was too busy trying to “affect the head” instead of trying to “tackle.”  Oh well, disappointing, but not the end of the world.  Sure is fun to watch, especially in a league where defenders aren’t allowed to defend. 

 

Which brings me to new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnolo, who has a history of stopping great offenses, but stumbling against good ones.  You’ve got to give the Saints credit, they don’t stand pat in the off-season.  Along with him, they brought in some great free agents on defense, most of whom are already injured.  Now, that’s life in the NFL.  My hope is that with a running coach at the controls for the first 6 games, the Saints may establish a nice rotation of their running backs and ground and pound a little more. 
So, can the Saints overcome all this adversity?  I just don’t think so, unless come playoff time, they don’t have to leave the friendly Super-confines.  That’s their only hope, and I’m sure they’ll be playing for it, but the division is stronger, the 49ers, Packers, Bears, and Lions all figure to improve.  What to do, what to do?

My predictions for the year:  The Jets will not Tebow their way into the playoffs.  The Broncos will have early success, until Manning gets a load of December in the Rockies.  The Ravens and Houston will be the class of the AFC, but they’ll have to outplay the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, which thus far they haven't been up to.  The Eagles will start off hot but fade because Vick won’t be able to stay on the field.  The NFC Central will be thrilling as the Bears, Packers, and Lions could all be great.

Because the NFL is such a quarterback driven league I’m tempted to say the Super Bowl will again be Brady, Manning, or Roethlisberger  vs. Rodgers, Brees, or Eli Manning. 

But, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that teams and quarterbacks ready to take the next step, will take it.  Thus, I add the the group Flaco, Ryan, Schaub, Cutler, and Stafford to the contenders.  The Lions remind me of the Saints of 2008 – desperately trying to get a defense worthy of their offense.  I think they will. 
My Super Bowl predictions are
1) I won’t get tickets, and  
2) Detroit beats Houston 28 – 24 

Sunday, I look for the Saints to beat the Redskins 35 – 31.
RGIII will run for about 150 and pass for 180, and give me a lot of chills in section 116.  With the Saints receivers a little nicked up, I look for Joe Morgan to emerge from the pack and have a big game. 

Yep, take those predictions right to Vegas.