NFL Power Rankings: Week 16

1.            San Francisco 49ers 10-3-1 (U3)

That was a dominant win over what most considered to be the best team in the league, at this point last week. Even if they lose to the Hawks this weekend the Niners only have to beat the Cardinals in SF to clinch the West. Plain sailing you would think.

2.            Denver Broncos 11-3 (-)

Denver just demolished a once sturdy Baltimore squad, and with it put down a claim for the best in the AFC. We’ll have to wait for the play-offs to put that to the test, as I don’t see visiting Cleveland causing too many headaches for Manning and co.

3.            New England Patriots 10-4 (D2)

Despite the loss the Pats rallied hard from behind, coming close to snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. You can never count Brady out, and they will still be confident of a deep post-season run. They can take out their frustration over last week on the Jags, who I feel a little sorry for going into this one.

4.            Houston Texans 12-2 (D1)

Houston win, but don’t deserve to be on the podium after their lop-sided loss to NE 2 weeks ago. They’ve had a fantastic season, but will be wary of another match-up with the Pats come January. Next they face Adrian Peterson (and 10 other anonymous offensive players).

5.            Atlanta Falcons 12-2 (U1)

The Falcons curb stomp the Giants 34-0, and will have recovered a huge amount of confidence with the manner of the win. Next they face Detroit, who just lost to the Cardinals. Yep.

NFL Predictions: Week 16

A solid week of predicting among a week of blow outs in the NFL. It's almost refreshing after all the upsets and narrow results this year to see teams flexing their muscles on Statement Sunday and with the play-offs a mere fortnight away it should be an exciting end to the 2012 season.

Week 15 = 11-5

Overall = 142-83

Saturday Night Football:

Falcons @ Lions

After Atlanta's demolition of the Giants and the Lions' lop-sided loss to Arizona, this one is something of a no-brainer. I do think Detroit will make it competitive though.

DBL Coverage Prediction: Falcons by 7

College Bowl Season Week 2

Thursday, December 20th

BYU vs San Diego State
San Diego County Credit Poinsettia Bowl @ 01:00 on ESPN

Two former WAC rivals will face each other in what should be a hard fought and physical matchup. BYU's are better than their 7-5 record belies, their losses came against three ranked teams in Boise State, Oregon State and Notre Dame and two more quality teams in Utah and San Jose State, non of which were blowouts. The Azetecs also took a loss against San Jose State but came out at 9-3 in what was a slightly weaker schedule, but one that did include a 21-19 victory over the previously mentioned Boise State. As all the analysts have been saying this week, the key area to watch is SDSU's run game against BYU's run defence, but I would also keep and eye on how Cougar WR Cody Hoffman performs against a very average pass defence.

Players to Watch
BYU: Ezekiel Ansah, LB/DE #47. If you haven't heard about him yet, you will do quite a bit in the run up to the NFL draft so this is a good chance to watch him perform in college before he goes pro. At 6'6" and 250 lbs he is one of those height/weight/speed guys who's not only steadily improving his pass rush skills, but is also good at stuffing the run, which will be important come Thursday night. And just before you get all the spiel from the analysts on Thursday, he's from Ghana and wanted to play basketball and ran the 100m in 10.91 blah blah blah....

Sand Diego State: Adam Muema, RB # 4. You know you need to keep an eye on a player when he has 211 carries and averages 6.4 yards per touch. With his backup now being out for the season, Muema will need to have a even bigger game than usual.

My Pick: BYU
Confidence: 6

Friday, December 21st

Central Florida vs Ball State
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburg @ 00:30 on ESPN

Despite the fact that neither team really reached a national audience during the regular season, it's hard to fault their bodies of work. Ball State may have the slightly more prolific offence, but that should match up nicely against a Knights team that has been very effective in the turnover department with 26 takeaways during the season.

Players to Watch
UCF: Blake Bortles, QB #5. A very efficient passer who is very safe with the ball and has shown a knack for finding the endzone with his feet when it counts as he has 7 rushing scores on the year.

Ball State: Jahwan Edwards, RB #32. After an up and down start to the year, Edwards came on strong in the last six games, only narrowly missing have 100 yards in each by 'only' having 98 against Miami of Ohio.

My Pick: Ball State
Confidence: 2

Saturday, December 22nd

East Carolina vs Louisiana - Lafayette 
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl @ 17:00 on ESPN

If you ask me, this is the type of game that makes bowl season so much fun to watch, it may look like two average 8-4 teams squaring off in one of the fringe bowls, but if you delve a little deeper, it has a couple of intriguing sub-plots (thanks ESPN). The Pirates haven't won a bowl game in their past three attempts whilst the Ragin' Cajuns, who ran the Gators so close this year, are only in their second ever bowl game after defeating San Diego State in their first one last year. Okay, those sub-plots are not THAT compelling, but usually these smaller bowls turn out to be the most exciting ones to watch.

Players to Watch
ECU: Justin Hardy, WR #2. Shane Carden's favourite target and Biletnikoff watch list member Hardy is easily ECU's biggest threat out wide, accounting for 43% of Carden's completions this year.

Louisiana - Lafayette: Terrance Broadway, QB #8. The Baton Rouge native is a dual-threat QB that has accounted for 26 scores for his team and does a good job at sharing the ball around the offence. ECU are ranked 105th against the pass, so look for Broadway to have some big numbers through the air.

My Pick: Louisiana - Lafayette
Confidence: 5

Washington vs #19 Boise State
MAACO Bowl Las Vegas @ 20:30 on ESPN

The highest profile matchup of the week takes place in Vegas and will give us a look at two teams that have had 'down' years by their standards, but are still very good and will be looking to carry some momentum into 2013. The Huskies have had a very up and down year, having knocked off two ranked teams in Oregon State and Stanford before suffering a season finale defeat to lowly Washington State in OT. Boise State haven't lost three games in a season since 2007 and will want to retain their top 25 position going into next season with a win over the Huskies.

Players to Watch
Washington: Bishop Sankey, RB #25. Against a team that ranks fourth in the nation against the pass, Sankey's job on offence is going to be to have a big enough impact to bring the Boise defenders into the box so as to help QB Keith Price out in the passing game.

Boise State: Demarcus Lawrence, DL #8. This sophomore has been very disruptive up front for the Broncos, having 8.5 sacks, 13.5 tackles for loss, 4 forced fumbles and even a touchdown on a fumble return. If Boise are needing a big play on defence, look for this man to deliver.

My Pick: Boise State
Confidence: 18

Double Coverage teams up with School of the Legends

Double Coverage is pleased to announce its new partnership with online training source School of the Legends.

SOTL is an online based resource for players of all levels and age ranges to go online and get streamed online content to help them improve their basic football fundamentals.

Whether you are a high school player or an NFL superstar the basic football fundamentals are the same throughout, with many NFL teams running drills that would be familiar to ones you might see at your team’s practices.

SOTL offers online classes broken down by position; each clinic is presented by an NFL player. It is broken down into anywhere between 5-8 classes that teach different aspects of that position.

For example Tony Gonzalez teaches the intricacies of the tight end position, breaking down the classes into stance, run blocking, pass blocking etc.

Maurice Jones-Drew takes you through RB basics with Stance, footwork, pass protection and open field moves.

Defensively Darren Sharper helps safeties improve their pass defence, run defence, and blitz packages.

Over the coming weeks SOTL will be giving Double Coverage readers some pro-tips each week from a specific position. This will give our readers a snap shot of the classes on offer.

Have a look at what's on offer from their promo video on YouTube:

We have also secure a special discount of 10% off any class using a special redeemable code:

DBLCVG13

SOTL and Double Coverage will be working together in the coming months to promote SOTL’s new training scheme for more advanced players, filmed at Football University camp in Williamsburg, VA and Nashville, Tennessee. The new series sees multiple camera angles, slow motion replay and different age range players, from high school, NCAA and NFL alongside a coach. This new series is set for release in early 2013.

American Footballers as Rugby Union players

While carrying out my usual early morning Facebook perusal I came across an interesting angle on an old argument.

Who would you take from the NFL to make up a Rugby Union starting 15?

Often the Rugby vs American football debate focuses on the fact that American Footballers wear pads and rugby players don’t, but I thought it was interesting to compare the athletic ability of NFL players with players in comparable positions in a Rugby Union team.

Now obviously this debate needs some caveats attached. We presume that the Americans will be able to practice tackling with their head the other side of the ball so they don’t die and get an opportunity to work on their anaerobic energy systems so they aren't puffed out by the 15 minute mark.

Also someone is going to have to learn to kick a little (I could just play Ben Graham, the Lions punter, at Fly half. He played Aussie rules football originally), either that or we’ll take a scrum for penalties and enjoy the sight of a 350lb Nose Tackle try and kick a conversion.