With my energy levels being unpredictable, I am getting off to an early start to TWITAFCS.  My intent is to have them posted no later than Thursday as normal practice, but this week I decided to post it a little early.  Hope you guys don't mind.

At last, the 2018 regular season is upon us.  Before we get into the predictions this year, let’s take one last glimpse of what the teams did last year.  In Jacksonville, the Jaguars finally made the leap people had been predicting for years and became contenders, winning the division, reaching the playoffs, beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh (again) and dominating the Patriots for 3 quarters in the AFC Championship game before finally relinquishing the lead with 2:37 left in the game.  The tacks were the wild card team, registering a stunning come from behind win over the Chiefs in Arrowhead before being trounced in New England.  Their ascent into a playoff team was not enough to save Mike Mularkey’s job.  The Texans seemingly were cursed last year, starting with Duane Brown’s holdout, getting hit by the hurricane, and then by a slew of injuries that deprived them of the services of J.J. Watt, Whitney mercilus, and prized rookie QB Deshaun Watson for most of the year.  Meanwhile, the Colts were unlucky in more ways than one.  Despite many proclamations by Irsay that QB Andrew Luck would be fine for the 2017 season, it turns out Luck wasn’t.  After a disastrous week one showing by the backup, the Colts traded for Patriots backup Jacoby Brissett.  While eventually he played better than his immediate predecessor on the Colts, he still wasn’t good enough to overcome the major lack of talent on the roster.  Neither was head coach Chuck Pagano, who wound up losing his job after the season.

Framed against the happenings of last year, let’s take a look at what has transpired this past offseason.  As would be expected after the sudden and dramatic improvement, there wasn’t any coaching turnover by the Jaguars this year.  The team made one major free agent splash with Panther All Pro OG Andrew Norwell.  The team seemed to draft more for 2019 and beyond, with at least three of the first four picks not needing to be immediate starters.   A couple of down notes:  WR Marqise Lee was lost for the year in the 3rd preseason game with an ACL injury, and DE Dante Fowler was suspended for the first game, resulting from an off field incident last year.  The tacks named inexperienced coach Mike Vrabel-who had one year as a coordinator-as their new head coach.  They took their offensive coordinator from Sean McVay’s staff on the Rams, and their defensive coordinator from the Ravens.  After trading up a couple of times in the draft, the tacks only had four picks, bolstering the defense with three of them, and adding youth and ability to their LB corps with their first two picks.  The Texans replaced Mike Vrabel at defensive coordinator with the guy who was there the year before in long time defensive guru Romeo Crennel.  Because they traded away their first two picks in QB related deals, they did not have the draft ammunition to address the really bad OL early, so they added a couple of middle tier free agents.  Their highest rookie OL drafted-3rd rounder Martinas Rankin, suffered a foot injury in minicamp that required surgery, and he missed some of training camp.  After dumping Pagano, the Colts had a spectacularly failed dalliance with Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who gave every indication he would take the job, only to walk away from it later.  But that might have worked out better for the Colts, as they landed former Eagles Super Bowl winning offensive coordinator and former NFL QB Frank Reich.  They followed that up by executing a trade down from 3 to 6, getting them three second round picks in return.  They promptly bolstered the trenches with Guards Quentin Nelson and Braden Smith from Auburn and a couple of pass rushers in Turay out of Rutgers and Tyquan Smith out of Ohio State. 
Having caught up, let’s look at the week one match-ups.

Jaguars (0-0) at New York Giants (0-0)-based solely upon last years’ results, this would appear to be a mismatch.  But make no mistake, this will be a tough game for the Jaguars,  The Giants’ offensive skill positions rival the Steelers’ in overall quality.  They have a two time Super Bowl winning QB in Eli Manning, who was taken in the same draft as Big Ben.  They have their own version of Leveon Bell in prized rookie Saquon Barkley.  The Giants have a battery of outstanding receiving threats in OBJ, who, when healthy, is often in the conversation about the best WRs in the game.  Opposite him is Sterling Shephard, who is a good target, and tall, lanky and fast second year TE Evan Engram.  Their OL should be much improved with the additions of former Patriots’ LT Nate Solder, and nasty rookie G Will Hernandez, though the right side should represent a weakness with former Jaguars Patrick Omameh at G and Ereck Flowers, the disappointment, at RT.  Defensively, they are switching to a 3-4 after many years in a 4-3 favored by Coughlin.  While they have some good pieces, notably NT Harrison, ILB Alec Ogletree, CB Janoris Jenkins and S Landon Collins, they are far from a complete unit (keep an eye on Ray Ray Armstrong).  I am not sold on Olivier Vernon as a 3-4 OLB (who is also dealing with ankle issues) or on half their secondary, with the whispers of “bust” being spread on former first round CB Eli Apple.  I think with the Giants switching schemes on both sides of the ball, they may have some surprises in this game, but I think there are some matchup problems that could hurt the Giants against the Jaguars.  The right side of their OL doesn’t seem to be a good match against the talent, depth and versatility of the Jaguars defensive line-even with Fowler suspended for the 1st game, and I don’t think they yet have all of the personnel needed to run the 3-4 effectively, especially in their first game.  I think the Jaguars, with most of their receivers being experienced with a full year in the offense an improved OL, should be able to find some success against the defense that is in a new scheme.  Jaguars win 23-16.

Cincinnati (0-0) at Indianapolis (0-0)  Another game featuring scheme continuity against scheme change as the Bengals travel to Indy to face the Frank Reich led Colts.  Make no mistake-this game will hinge upon whether Luck will be close to his old self.  But even if he is, the Colts have a tall task ahead of them to win this game.  They will be heavily reliant on rookies coming in and making an impact.  Geno Atkins will be a tough assignment for Nelson and Smith.  Turay and Smith and the Colts rookie pass rushers will go against an experienced and accomplished LT in Cordy Glenn, and at the end of the day, I don’t see the Colts having an answer for A.J. Green.  Bengals win 23-13.

Tennessee (0-0) at Miami (0-0)  yet another game featuring a team with a new scheme (tacks) against a team with scheme continuity (Fish).  Miami has issues along the OL, with Laramey Tunsil struggling last year, and the jettisoning of Pouncey.  Having OL continuity/performance issues is not a good thing to have with a QB in Taneyhill coming off a knee injury and a strong defensive team like Tennessee.  While the tacks have changed coordinators and will emphasize different things, they maintain the 3-4 defense.  That should represent enough continuity to give a Miami team with those issues some problems, and that isn’t even counting the addition of rookies like Evans and Landry.  The tacks have the offensive line good enough to block well for Mariota and Henry and make the new scheme effective from that perspective, but do the tacks have any receivers? Supposedly they have improved, but I have my doubts.  Tacks win 20-17.

Houston (0-0) at New England (0-0)-In one of the week’s most interesting games, the Texans travel to Foxboro to face the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots.  Last year, the Texans gave the Patriots all they could handle up in Foxboro with a rookie QB in Watson and minus Watt and other contributors on defense.  Watson is back, having recovered from a torn ACL and is now experienced.  Their OL remains a question mark, though.  Can the Patriots exploit it?  Sure, Belichick can outscheme anybody, and the Pats will be tough for any team to run on with the addition of Shelton from Cleveland.  But they don’t have a particularly dominant pass rusher.  But perhaps most concerning for the Patriots is the other side of the ball.  Brady is 41, and while he still had a typically great, Brady-esque year last year, he can’t continue to stave off father time, can he?  Besides his advancing age, there are huge questions at WR with Amendola’s and Cook’s departures and the 4 game suspension of Julian Edelman.  But Brady has succeeded with relative obscurity at WR.  More uncommon for him is similar obscurity at LT.  Gone is Matt Light and Nate Solder, who have given him excellent blindside protection throughout his long career.  They will  have HUGE  journeyman Trent Brown manning his blind side.  That is a tall order against the likes of Jadeveon Clowney, Whitney Mercilus, and J.J. Watt.  In an upset, Houston wins 30-24.
 
Last Year:  32-20
Last Week:  N/A   
This week:  TBD

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

Jags
Bungles
tacks
The GOAT

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Original Season Ticket Holder - Retired  1995 - 2020


At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.
 

Jags
clots
tacks
pats

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Jaguars Fundamentalist

Jags
bungles
phins
pats

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Jaguars, Bengals, tacks, Pats

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Its finally here!! Looking forward to another great season guys. No better time of year than Jags season.

Jags win in TCs return to NY. Ramsey backs up his talk and shuts down Odell

Bengals win as they do to Luck what they did to Allen in the preseason.

Tacks win (gross) Miami is bad.

I'm taking NE only because its in Gillette. I think this one will be more defensive than their last meet up.

35-17 last year (not including playoffs)

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IT WAS ALWAYS THE JAGS

I think I agree with most of the sentiment here.

Jaguars should win if they're ready to stop the run, I can see Eli tossing a couple of pick-sixes.

Bengals should win, the colts aren't very good, but at the same time I could see it going the other way if it's somehow close at the end. A lot of tightening sphincters on the bengals sideline as the legend of Luck grows against another team that tends to throw games away at the end.

The tacks game is clear cut, they got the easiest week one draw by far, and if they're not 1-0 with their fanbase giddy and mistakenly thinking they're going 16-0 then the titans will have massive problems this season.

I think the pats should win because they're a great team and belicheat has seen enough of watson to scheme against him, but the pats have also become rather famous recently for starting seasons slowly, so it could easily go the other way if they're still in the process of waking up for the season.

However, in the end I'll go Jags, bengals, tacks, and pats. None of those last three going the other way would shock me right now.

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Guess i have to ride with my "jags start 0-3 prediction" so

Giants
Bungholes
Tacks
TB12

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Jags
Bengals
Titans
Texans in upset (Pats will be 0-2 to start season)

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I never end up keeping up with this thread, but here goes for a week 1 prediction anyway...

Jaguars
Colts
Texans
Titans

Good week for the AFC South if it happens.

I know the Colts aren’t exactly a great team, but I’m thinking the Bengals are the hapless team from Ohio this year.

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I never end up keeping up with this thread, but here goes for a week 1 prediction anyway...

Jaguars
Colts
Texans
Titans

Good week for the AFC South if it happens.

I know the Colts aren’t exactly a great team, but I’m thinking the Bengals are the hapless team from Ohio this year.

I could see Cleveland passing Cincy in the standings this year.

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

I always forget about this thread. I'll make an attempt to keep up this year.

Jaguars
Bengals
Texans
Titans

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Jags
colts
titans
Pats

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Giants over Jaguars
Colts over Bengals
Titans over Dolphins
Patriots over Texans

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We learned in the Sunday School who made the sun shine through.  I know who made the moonshine too, back where I come from.

Jags
Bengals
Fins
Pats

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Looking to troll? Don't bother, we supply our own.

 

 

Giants over Jaguars
Colts over Patriots
Titans over Dolphins
Patriots over Texans

Pats sending their JV team to take on the colts?

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https://twitter.com/CaptAndrewLuck/statu...38880?s=19

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IT WAS ALWAYS THE JAGS

Jags
Bengals
Dolphins
Pats

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Giants over Jaguars
Colts over Patriots
Titans over Dolphins
Patriots over Texans

Well, well, well... look who's shown up.  

I'm wondering how the Patriots are going to play both the Colts and the Texans this weekend.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

Jags
Bengals
Dolphins
Patriots

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