The Sports Inquirer

Music to listen to: Runaway by iio

Season: 28-30-1

Were nearly halfway through the season and while we’ve seen some strong performances among teams such as Denver, Kansas City, New Orleans and players like Peyton Manning, the biggest story of the first half of the 2013 year in the NFL has been the bad level of football.

The NFL tries to sell the factor of parity when discussing the great virtues of the league. The league wants the fans of all of the franchises, even you Jacksonville, to believe that their team can win the Super Bowl or at least get to the postseason. In the past 20 years, we’ve seen downtrodden franchises such as the Browns, Bengals and Lions make the playoffs and two events that I didn’t think would happen in my lifetime; the historically terrible Arizona Cardinals make the Super Bowl and the Tampa Bucs win a world championship.

If you started following the NFL around the early 1990’s like I did, you could always rely on the Cardinals, Bucs and the Jets being terrible. One day I’ll have to write about the season I spent watching Browning Nagle try to lead the Jets. It was a comedy that wrote itself. Anyway, as a New York Giants fan, the Cardinals used to be in the NFC East with them even though they’re located in the southwest (baseball once had the Atlanta Braves in the NL West and the NHL once had the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Western conference…in other words, pro sports and common sense geography sometimes don’t mix well). I would wait in joy for the Cardinals to get on the Giants schedule because it was a guarantee two wins. The fact that they made the Super Bowl with Kurt Warner and were a late-drive from Pittsburgh away from bringing home a world championship seems stranger and stranger over time.

Tampa put on a pathetic effort last night on national TV at home against Carolina. The Panthers looked like the best team in the NFL instead of a squad that would be lucky to reach a winning record. We’ve seen the Bucs be bad, especially in the 1980’s, but since the mid 1990’s Tampa has always shown some form of life particularly with Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden.

Jacksonville’s struggles can be tied to bad draft picks, weak coaching, new ownership trying to clean up messes and general apathy. The Jaguars have the worst roster in the NFL which is hard to achieve when you’ve consistently had top-10 picks in the last six seasons.

In 2013, the five worst teams have been Tampa, Jacksonville, Oakland, New York Giants and Pittsburgh, in some order. The latter two teams have been among the most storied and proud franchises in the NFL but injuries and age have caught up with them. Oakland has had strong moments in history but hasn’t resembled its glory years in more than a decade. However, this shows that no franchise is immune to having a bad run.

Let’s get to the picks (home team in CAPS):

JACKSONVILLE (+15.5) San Francisco: I took the points when the Jags traveled to Denver and covered the 28-point spread. I’m going with Jacksonville again because the line is too high against a San Francisco squad that’s traveling across the country and doesn’t have the offense to blow out opponents in a decisive manner. The 49ers will win the contest but not by more than two touchdowns.

DETROIT (-3) Dallas: Why did Stephen Jones, Cowboys executive and son of owner Jerry Jones, compare Tony Romo to Lebron James? Because he can is the easy answer but lets look deeper. Romo is probably in the top-five as far as being the most scrutinized player in the NFL because of his style of play and position as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys which still carries weight in the football world. James easily has received the most criticism of any pro athlete of the past decade and maybe ever. I can also see how Romo would lose many of this critics with a Super Bowl win similar to what happened with James and his titles with Miami. Outside of that, I don’t see it.

PHILADELPHIA (-5.5) New York Giants: Now that that Giants have won one game, they can now fully throw themselves into tank mode for better draft positioning. I know you’re not supposed to cheer for your team to lose out of principle but if you’re not going to make the playoffs, what’s the point of going for a four or five-win season? The worst thing you can be as a pro team is right in the middle of the pack. Compete for a championship or gain assets which New York desperately needs. Michael Vick will be back for Philly and he always gives the Giants trouble so the Eagles should win this one easily.

KANSAS CITY (-7.5) Cleveland: Chiefs roll at home

NEW ORLEANS (-11) Buffalo: If EJ Manuel was playing, I would give the Bills a fighting chance but Saints are too tough at home.

Miami (+6.5) NEW ENGLAND: The Dolphins aren’t going to win but I see this one not being decided until late.

CINCINNATI (-6.5) New York Jets: This has been Rex Ryan’s best coaching job with the Jets and the fact that they’re 4-3 at this point of the season needs to be commended. I’ve been his biggest critic but Ryan should be in the Coach of the Year discussions. However, Geno Smith still turns the ball over too much for his team to win a road contest against a strong Bengals’ defense.

Pittsburgh (-2.5) OAKLAND: I’d avoid this game if real money was involved but you come here for picks and I just gave you one.

WASHINGTON (+12) Denver: The Broncos are still the best team in the AFC but they weren’t going to keep steamrolling teams this year and that reality set in last Sunday night in Indianapolis. The Redskins still have room to improve, especially on defense, but Robert Griffin III will do just enough to keep this one in single digits.

Atlanta (+2.5) ARIZONA: I know the Falcons are dealing with injuries and can play at an inferior level on the road but the Cardinals aren’t a strong team either. This line is perfect in that a field goal will win it and it comes from the road team.

Green Bay (-9) MINNESOTA: Christian Ponder at home…the boos will be lustful by the second quarter. Packers roll on the road.

ST. LOUIS (+11) Seattle: Potential upset special with this one and if the Rams pulled it out, it wouldn’t be shocking. However, St. Louis is without Sam Bradford and starting the immortal Kellen Clemens. And no, I won’t mention that the Rams contacted a certain retired quarterback about his services. I’ll leave the overanalysis to ESPN.

Those are my thoughts, what are yous?