The Great Swami Says...

Here we are. Week 8 is in the books. Week 9 marks the midway point of the 2011-2012 NFL season. The point of the season where teams start prepping for their playoff runs. There are no more excuses for poor performances anymore. The "Lockout Hangover" is long over, playbooks should be engraved in players minds, chemistry should be good enough and only continue to grow. After watching the games up until this point and writing all these articles about the weeks of football I'm going to be that bold asshole and make my predictions far too early. 

I'll start with who I see as playoff teams.

AFC

North: Pittsburgh Steelers

South: Houston Texans (FINALLY!!)

East: Buffalo Bills 

West: Oakland Raiders (Bengals)

Wild Card: Baltimore Ravens

Bubble Teams: New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals, 

NFC

North: Green Bay Packers

South: New Orleans Saints

East: New York Giants

West: San Francisco 49ers

Wild Card: Detroit Lions

Bubble Teams: Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys

Conference Champs

AFC: Baltimore Ravens

NFC: Green Bay Packers

Super Bowl Champions

Baltimore Ravens

And now for my individual performers.

Rookie of the Year

Cam Newton - Carolina Panthers

Stats thus far in the season

147/287 for 2,393 yards, 60.6% completion percentage, 11 TD, 9 INT, 87.1 QBR

63 Rushing Attempts for 319 yards, 7 TD

League MVP

Aaron Rodgers - Green Bay Packers

Stats thus far in the season

171/239 for 2,372 yards, 71.5% completion percentage, 20 TD, 3 INT

29 Rushing Attempts for 75 yards, 2 TD

Offensive Player of the Year

Aaron Rodgers - Green Bay Packers

Defensive Player of the Year

Jarius Byrd - Buffalo Bills

Stats thus far in the season

50 Tackles (39 Solo), 1 Sack, 4 Passes Defended, 1 INT, 1 Forced Fumble, 1 Fumble Recovered

Comeback Player of the Year

Steve Smith - Carolina Panthers

Stats thus far in the season

46 catches for 918 yards,  20.0 yards per catch, 4 TD

Dud of the Year

Chris Johnson - Tennessee Titans

Stats thus far in the season

107 attempts for 302 yards, 2.8 yards per carry, 1 TD

27 receptions for 160 yards, 0 TD

Well let's see how this all pans out. Do you agree/disagree? Comment below or message me on Twitter @iedlund and share your thoughts with the community. Come at me bro.

Surrounded by White Noise

Experiments always have a chance of failure when they are first conceived. If it fails, look back at your process, reevaluate your techniques, and set it for success. The New England Patriots and Bill Belichick took on 2 extensive experiments this offseason in defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth and wide receiver Chad Ochocinco. So far one is looking on the upside and the other is about to explode in the organizations face. I'm talking about you Chad. Since you love all the criticism and attention here's my two cents.

If you haven't heard or aren't one of Ochocinco's 2.7 million followers on Twitter, Chad likes to fill in those 140 characters more than the Steelers like to turn the football over. He has somehow managed to turn it into a self-branding and promotion; probably one of the first athletes to start an account as well. The biggest debate over Ochocinco has been if the account is distracting to his game. Ever since he has been on the Bengals it gets brought up once a season at least. Well... Teddy Bruschi has had enough of the Twitterverse nonsense and had to put his foot down on Ocho. After Monday night's performance against the Dolphins, Chad sent out a tweet regarding Tom Brady's stellar performance and the fluidity of the Patriot's offense:

@ochocinco: Just waking up after a late arrival, I've never seen a machine operate like that n person, to see video game numbers put up n person was WOW.

Seems pretty harmless. He hasn't been a part of this offense before during a regular season game. Brad and the offense did look pretty good. This is the full transcript of Bruschi's beatdown on Chad's actions the next day:

"Drop the awe factor, OK, Ocho, Chad, drop the awe factor. You're not a fan, all right? You're not someone who's on another team or watching TV. You're not an analyst. You're a part of it. They want you to be a part of it. So get with the program because obviously you're not getting it and you're tweeting because you're saying, it's amazing to see? It's amazing to see because you don't understand it! You still don't understand it and it's amazing to you because you can't get it. Stop tweeting and get in your playbook. … Close your mouth. Put your hand under your chin and close your jaw. Then open your eyes and watch some film. That's what you need to do. If you're still in awe that means you don't get it because you don't understand it."

Sweet baby Jesus. Talk about going apeshit. Sad part is, Teddy knows probably the most about that organization outside Belichick and the front office. 13-year vet, 4 Super Bowl appearances, 3 Super Bowl wins; that's his resume with this one team. Probably bleeds Patriot colors.

Ocho certainly didn't have a very good game (1 catch, 15 yards, 18 plays on the field). Considering the lockout and when he arrived in the New England organization I would have to give him a bit more leeway than Teddy wants to. But this is what Ocho gets with his type of flaunting personality, lots of attention and lots of criticism. So until he can prove he is worthy of a Patriot uniform, no one will question Bruschi's comments.

I want to tie in one more Patriots story here that happened this week with the beautiful UGG wearing of a quarterback named Tom Brady. He didn't have the hotest media week either. Within the past day or two he had this to say about the fans at their home opener this coming Sunday. When asked if he had a message for the fans this coming Sunday, he responded with this:

"Yeah, start drinking early," Brady said with a snicker. "Get nice and rowdy. It's a 4:15 game, a lot of time to get lubed up. Come out here, and cheer for the home team."

And contrary to popular belief, he isn't talking about water and being properly hydrated. You have officially heard it all people. The prettiest face in the NFL encourages getting hammered. I am all for it. Here's where it ties back to Sir Ocho. Brady says go get drunk and yell a bunch, but because he is Brady it's no big deal. Being one of the most popular players in the NFL kind of earns you that right it seems. Of course he's receiving a bit of criticism for it. But he is right. Gillette Stadium is one of the quieter places within the league. But Chad, being one of the more hated players by analysts and players, can't burp in public without getting chewed out by someone somewhere.

I am going to end with this. Bill Belichick is the man. Master of media control. Expert in player remodeling. This is the message he will be sharing with Ochocinco. As you exit here, read closely the sign hanging by the door. "IGNORE THE NOISE". Who cares what people are saying outside this team and off that field. If you find your way to perform and you start playing football, it'll all go away.