The reigning NFL MVP Tom Brady left Sunday’s game against Kansas City after being hit on the left leg, depriving the New England Patriots of the quarterback who last season led them to a 16-0 regular season and their fourth Super Bowl in eight years. The Patriots are claiming Matt Cassell is their QB due to the complicated offense the Patriots run. They will need a 3rd QB on their roster and rumors have made way that Chris Simms and Tim Rattay will be working out for the Patriots in the days to come. We fully expect to see Matt Cassell take over the position next week against Brett Favre and the New York Jets. Isn’t it ironic that the first time Tom Brady wasn’t listed on the injury report he gets injured?

With the injury to Tom Brady this opens up the AFC and with the Colts and Jaguars losing their opening games, the AFC is up for grabs. This goes to show that in the NFL you have to expect the unexpected and no one expected this to happen. The Patriots have won the AFC East 6 times since 2001 and have won 3 Super Bowls out of 4 appearances in this time. Is this foreshadowing of a story book run for Brett Favre and the Jets? I doubt it but the Jets are now serious contenders to win the division, however, they will face serious contention in the AFC from San Diego, the Colts, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Tennessee and yes even the Brady less Patriots.

Although this is a terrible injury and we never like to see such a great football player take an injury, it will be exciting to see another AFC team step it up and clear the path for another team to go to the Super Bowl. Yes, Manning was there 2 years ago and Big Ben 3 years ago but Brady has been the face of 4 Super Bowls since 2001. The AFC race will now become close like the NFC has been in recent years with no clear cut, hands down lock.

I for one will be interested to see how Cassell handles the pressure to step in a play QB. He is surrounded by a very good team and a great coach. Let’s not forget he has Randy Moss at WR and Laurance Maroney at RB to help ease his load. It seems that if you throw it in the vasinity of Moss he will make a catch. It seems that if you have somewhat of a “strong arm” Moss can beat any DB off the line and make a big play at any time. So are the Patriots really out of contention now that they have lost Brady? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet considering the Patriots have one of the weakest schedules in the NFL.

If I were to make a prediction right now, I like Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers to head back to the Super Bowl representing the AFC. The Steelers were at the top of the AFC class at the beginning of the season and after watching them in Week 1, I fully believe that Big Ben’s experience could help lead them back. A solid defense and explosive threats on offense, Pittsburgh is the cream of the crop in the AFC. I believe the Colts will faulter this season with Manning’s injury and Harrisons legal problems and the Jets will win 9-10 games but I don’t think Brett Favre will be able to get over the hump for the second straight year.

If a Super Bowl prediction must be made after Week 1 it folds out like this, an all Pennsylvania Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers representing the AFC and the Philadelphia Eagles heading back to Florida to represent the NFC. This prediction should stir the pot up!

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Tags: AFC, Brett Favre, New England Patriots, NFC, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl, Tom Brady

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 5:09 pm and is filed under NFL Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.