Tag: football

NFL 2026 Playoff Predictions

AdamLeave a comment

That’s right! I’m back with a new sports piece on here for the first time in forever! I know there’s at least a couple of my followers that have been waiting for something like this. Since the NFL playoffs are on the rise, why not do my own predictions on how I believe things are going to go down in the postseason for 2026? Will I be wrong on nearly every single pick? Possibly, but hey, these are fun to make anyways!

American Football Conference Wild Card Rounds

Houston Texans (#5 Seed) vs Pittsburgh Steelers (#4 Seed)

Date: Monday, January 12th, 7:15 PM CST

Pick: Houston Texans

Reason: Another year, another incredibly mid Steelers team that’s able to pixie dust their way to another record over .500, keeping Mike Tomlin’s winning streak as head coach alive. However, just like the past several playoff trips for Pittsburgh, this is where the end of the road will likely be. Even if Houston’s offense leaves much to be desired, the Texans defense will keep the Steelers at bay very easily. The Steelers will be exposed once again as frauds and literally NO ONE but Pittsburgh ownership will be shocked by this.

Buffalo Bills (#6 Seed) vs Jacksonville Jaguars (#3 Seed)

Date: Sunday, January 11th, 12:00 PM CST

Pick: Buffalo Bills

Reason: When looking at playoff history, analytics and odds favor Jacksonville. The Jaguars are 4-1 at home in playoff games, while Josh Allen himself has yet to win a single playoff game on the road. Not to mention, Liam Coen has been the perfect fit in coaching Trevor Lawrence, who has been red hot for the past five stats. So, why would I go with the Bills here? Because Allen can carry a playoff run, Buffalo still has a running game around James Cook, and the Bills have had enough playoff experience to be able to match the moment this time around. Plus, with no Patrick Mahomes in the way, you just know Allen won’t tolerate one playoff game and go home! While the Jaguars have elite talent, the Bills have more experience in the playoffs and will use that to achieve victory!

Los Angeles Chargers (#7 Seed) vs New England Patriots (#2 Seed)

Date: Saturday, January 11th, 7:15 PM CST

Pick: New England Patriots

Reason: As much jokes have been made about the cake walk schedule that the Patriots have had all year, they are facing an absolute perfect storm in the LA Chargers! Their offensive lines are beat to hell, their defense hasn’t been much better, nearly all their free agent signings have been flops, and I don’t think there is a playoff team that has been bitten by the injury bug this hard. New England is still a far cry for what they once were from their two-decade long dynasty but they will have enough here to at least make it past one round.

National Football Conference Wild Card Rounds

Los Angeles Rams (#5 Seed) vs Carolina Panthers (#4 Seed)

Date: Saturday, January 10th, 3:30 PM CST

Pick: Los Angeles Rams

Reason: Some might cry foul on this predictions after Carolina’s recent victory against Los Angeles in Week 13. However, as history tends to show, the playoffs is a different animal all together. The Rams will most certainly learn from this experience, studying every move that the Panthers will make and come back stronger than before. Matthew Stafford getting Davante Adams back will definitely give the team a big boost along with beating aided by Puka Nacua, Krysten Williams, and the NFL’s best scoring offense. The Rams offensive lines will be too much for them to handle, certainly exposing the Panthers for playing in a garbage fire of a division.

San Francisco 49ers (#6 Seed) vs Philadelphia Eagles (#3 Seed)

Date: Saturday, January 11th, 3:30 PM CST

Pick: Philadelphia Eagles

Reason: San Francisco has had a good run but they are way too battered up right now. Trent Williams and Ricky Pearsall are key pieces that are injured, Brock Purdy has been sloppy the last four games (73.4% completion percentage in that time span), and the defense has allowed over 145 rushing yards per game in the past two contests. Not to mention, Philadelphia is 4-0 S/U at home when it had 100 rushing yards. For once, I’m going with what analytics says and go with the defending champs! Unless the 49ers are able to continue spreading their pixie dust, it will all run out here.

Green Bay Packers (#7 Seed) vs Chicago Bears (#2 Seed)

Date: Saturday, January 10th, 7:00 PM CST

Pick: Green Bay Packers

Reason: The good news for the Bears is that they are finally good again. The bad news for the Bears is that this might be where the road ends. This should be a tight game all around, with both teams being evenly match, as their two showdowns during the regular season proved. However, I can’t help but get the feeling that Jordan Love will shine under the spotlight, with Matt LaFleur keeping the aggression on offense. Chicago will have to rely too much on the running game and Caleb Williams won’t be able to match Love on the passing and throwing gain. It’s nice to have the Bears playing in important games but they are not ready to take the next step forward this year.

American Football Conference Divisional Rounds

Houston Texans (#5 Seed) vs Denver Broncos (#1 Seed)

Date: TBD

Pick: Denver Broncos

Reason: I know it’s easy to favor Houston here since Denver will CLEARLY be plagued with the #1 seed curse. To be fair, I can see the concerns. While their defense has been excellent with the most amount of sacks from any team, their offense has been inconsistent as hell and only seems to pull the UNO wildcard when the timing is convenient. The thing is, the EXACT same thing can be said about the Texans! And considering Denver has home field advantage and proven they can thrive in super close games, I still say Houston’s success will stop here and Denver will move on!

Buffalo Bills (#6 Seed) vs New England Patriots (#2 Seed)

Date: TBD

Pick: Buffalo Bills

Reason: While New England’s can succeed against a injured-plagued mess like the Chargers, Buffalo is a different story. Despite the glaring flaws of the Bills, they are a team of scrappy dudes and grinders. Josh Allen will continue to carry the team on his back along with his masterful running mates while the youth of the Patriots will not be able to thrive in the spotlights this time around. It’ll still be a good year overall for New England! Take this core and build upon it for the future!

National Football Conference Divisional Rounds

Los Angeles Rams (#5 Seed) vs Seattle Seahawks (#1 Seed)

Date: TBD

Pick: Los Angeles Rams

Reason: This will be Seattle’s worst nightmare. The Rams are Sam Darnold’s kryptonite, they know his every move and expose him as hard as TMZ when they cover a big celebrity! Not to mention, Seahawks offense lines always tend to need time to settle in each game, something which they can not afford against LA’s stellar offense lines. LA will advance and the memes of Sam Darnold will be eternal!

Green Bay Packers (#7 Seed) vs Philadelphia Eagles (#3 Seed)

Date: TBD

Pick: Philadelphia Eagles

Reason: The Packs flaws will be on full display here, a solid enough offense line that will not be able to overcome their messy and beaten up defense. The Eagles will overcome their also messy and flawed offense by keeping Green Bay in check on the defensive of side. Once again, the tush push will prevail! Philly better hope that the NFL doesn’t ban it because all they can do and spam it to even sniff at the Super Bowl for a second year in a row!

American Football Conference Round

Buffalo Bills (#6 Seed) vs Denver Broncos (#1 Seed)

Date: TBD

Pick: Buffalo Bills

Reason: Denver’s luck will run out here! Buffalo’s offensive lines will cause them problems too early and by the time they have some momentum, the damage will be done and it will be far too late! All it takes is for the Broncos to be out of their comfort zone and they will be finished. That tends to be the case with most #1 seeded teams! The Bills will pass and literally run their way to victory, leading Allen to his first Super Bowl appearance in his career!

National Football Conference Round

Los Angeles Rams (#5 Seed) vs Philadelphia Eagles (#3 Seed)

Date: TBD

Pick: Los Angeles Rams

Reason: I don’t know how or why but I just got the gut feeling the football gods will randomly give LA mega powers and take out the defending champs on their home turf, preventing a second straight SB appearance and third of this decade. I can see the Eagles putting up a fight but since the sports gods want to torture me, they will allow the team owned by Satan himself in is Stan Kroenke to another Super Bowl appearance! Please, don’t fail me again, Josh! You are my only hope!

Super Bowl LX

Buffalo Bills (#6 Seed) vs Los Angeles Rams (#5) Seed

Date: Sunday, February 8th, 5:30 PM CST

Pick: Buffalo Bills

Reason: This will be Buffalo’s year! I can feel it! The Bills have probably the most wide-open change imaginable to secure their first ever Super Bowl trophy than I think they ever will for the immediate future! No Mahomes, No Burrow, and No Jackson! Josh Allen will play the game of his life, Bill’s No. 1 rushing attack will lead the charge and expose the holes in the LA Rams, and Buffalo’s rather flawed defense might do a LOT of bending but they will NOT break! This may not be the best Bills team of this core or the best NFL team on paper but as we have seen many times before, the best team on paper is NEVER guaranteed a championship! Congrats, Mr. Hailee Steinfeld! You finally got your ring!

Why The St. Louis Blues Firing Craig Berube Will Backfire

AdamLeave a comment

After yet another tough loss on Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings, the St. Louis Blues announced that they have fired their head coach Craig Berube, a man who has been the coach for them since 2018 and let the team to their first ever Stanley Cup championship in 2019. Hired to take his place in the meantime will be Drew Bannister, coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds, St. Louis’ AHL affiliate. General Manger Doug Armstrong has gone on record claiming that this is only a hire to fill in the gap for the time being and will be looking for a new head coach that will guide the Blues for the future.

In hindsight, you can see why the Blues were compelled to let the one man that was able to win a cup in St. Louis go. The Blues were coming off a massively underwhelming season last year and this year seems no different so far. Much like the previous year, there have been stretches were the team got red hot and looked like they could make a potential playoff push but that momentum would easily get killed when they cut back to reality and play like crap for a good portion of the season. The biggest reason for this is the inconsistency of the regular players, key injuries, and the addition of veteran players that have not gone as planned.

At the moment, St. Louis sits one point out of the last wild card spot in the Western Conference. The Blues are 26th in goals per game, 22nd in goals against per game, and land in an ABSYMAL 31st place in power play goals. They’ve been hurt by the lack of production of top players such as Jordan Kyrou and Torey Krug along with a lack of a reliable or consistent back up goaltender, forcing franchise star Jordan Binnington with more work than ever behind the net. Of course, losing key pieces of that 2019 cup core in recent years such as David Perron, Vladmir Traenskeo, and ESPECIALLY Alex Pietrangalo has not helped any wonders either.

When it comes to Craig Berube, while he was undoubtedly the perfect man to lead the team to their Stanley Cup run in 2019, that presence he brought when he was hired as head coach back in 2018 has not seem to carry over five years later. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that Berube’s prior teams were more filled with older veteran and experience skaters that could handle the toughness which these newer core of players can not. Perhaps he’s just a coach that’s always in a “win now” mindset that he has no problem ripping into players in ways that younger hockey players can not handle which leads to worse results on the ice. Or perhaps that he has been given a roster that is just absolutely lackluster and is not meant to strive deep into another Stanley Cup run that those brief hot stretches are more of just quick blimps in the radar! Even if I can understand a reason or two, I along with many Blues fans strongly believe that this firing is going to backfire spectacularly.

I know the first thing someone will point out is how the last time the Blues fired their coach in Mike Yeo back in 2018 and brought in a new voice in Craig Berube, that ended up being the voice that the team needed to hear and that group would go on to become Stanley Cup champions later on down the road. However, these are MUCH different circumstances with this current Blues team. That 2018-2019 team was always a good team that just had a poor coach that couldn’t keep the team together. This 2023-2024 squad on the other hand is an example of a good head coach doing what he can to win with a team that simple is not qualify or build to win meaningful games. With how many holes this roster has in terms of sloppy play and constant poor response to adversity from game-to-game, I don’t see how a new coach is going to change that much.

Much of the blame involving the current state of the St. Louis Blues has to go back to General Manger Doug Armstrong, who has been in his role as GM since 2010. While he has plenty of success with the Blues in terms of the number of winning seasons, playoff appearances, and bringing home the franchise’s first every Stanley Cup, he has made quite a number of mistakes that has hurt the team since the 2020s rolled around. There was letting fan favorites and key core pieces of that 2019 squad walk such as Alex Pietrangelo, Vladmir Tarasenko, Ryan O’Reilly, and David Perron, there was the poor signings of the likes of Torey Krug, and there’s the incredibly poor play from young players such as Jordan Kyrou. There is also basically betting the farm of goaltender Jordan Binnington for their future, who has been quite inconsistent since his phenomenal 2019 rookie season. Needless to say, Armstrong has not handle this team very well since their Cup win.

Even going back to that Cup win in 2019, a big reminder that the team was HORRIBLE to start off the 2018-2019 campaign. They were literally in dead last place in the entire NHL by the time that New Years rolled around. It was only once Craig Berube was able to settle in nicely as the interm coach along with the call-up of breakout rookie star goaltender in Jordan Binnington that the Blues were able to take off completely and make their remarkable Cup push. Imagine if neither one or those two worked out and the Blues ended up having as underwhelming of a season that they have had for the past two seasons. Would Doug Armstrong have the reputation he has gained for being one of the better GMs in hockey or would he have likely been shown the doors by the time that season ended, struggling to find a new job somewhere else? Your guess is as good as mine but no doubt, it was Berube and Binnington that made Armstrong look much better in 2019 than he is looking right now.

Which honestly convinces me that this firing will completely backfire on the Blues. Even if the Blues finish in a much better place by the end of the year or are even able to squeak into the last Wild Card, that will not fix the roles that are currently present on this roster. It’s not strictly the coaching that has been a factor into the lackluster play of the Blues as of late, it’s quite simply the roster construction. You have an offense who can’t score a power play goal to save their lives, you have a defense that is as soft as glass and are made as hard as swift cheese, you have backup goaltenders that can’t finish their own games on nights that Binnington needs a rest, you have a group of overpaid veterans whose mind is only on how much money they are stealing from Tom Stillman’s wallet, and lastly, you have a group of young players who crumble when facing even the slightest bit of adversity. As much as Craig Berube has not been able to get much results this year, you can’t make lemonade without proper lemons. It’s only when the right tools at play where a great coach like Berube can do some proper fixing.

I don’t know what the future of the Blues hold but there is one thing that remains clear, Doug Armstrong MUST pick a proper direction for this team going forward. Either go all in and pursue more talent or tear it all down and start over from scratch. This “one foot in, one foot out” approach doesn’t work and will only constantly lead to inconsistent results because of the team’s refusal to evolve and Armstrong being so ego-filled. Even if I don’t approve of the firing of Berube, what’s done is done. I along with other Blues fans can only hope that he has finally woke up and realize that major changes have to be made.

The biggest change out of all them that must come is Doug Armstrong being removed as his place as General Manager. He’s had a good run but it’s clearly time for a fresh voice, with someone that has a proper direction of where to go from here on out and know how to handle a rebuilding/reloading process. Despite all the success that Armstrong has had with the Blues, he has dug quite a hole for himself and the team ever since their Stanley Cup victory. All of those signs and more indicate that he no longer has anything to offer to the St. Louis Blues and it’s time to pass that mantle onto someone else. I don’t know if owner Tom Stillman agrees but clearly Armstrong has to be filling some sort of pressure with the way things have played out as of late.

Regardless, the St. Louis Blues will be playing in their first game under interm coach Drew Bannister tonight against the Ottawa Senators. It’s only then we will see if this firing is the actual correct move and will turn around this massively inconsistent season that the Blues are having. Guess we will all have to wait and find out!

Even so, despite his abrupt firing, Craig Berube will always be a legend in St. Louis. He will always be remembered as the man who led this this franchise to their first ever Stanley Cup championship and there is NOTHING that can take anything away from that! I wish him the best of luck wherever he goes next! Wouldn’t be surprised if he has a new job by the time the New Years rolls around!

Thanks for everything, chief!

Thanks for allowing me to see the team that I rooted for my whole life win their first every Stanley Cup!