Peter King Picks Dallas/New England Super Bowl

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Originally Posted by MonkManiac

Thanks for the insights, 5RINGS.

This may be just me playing logical semantics, but:

1) If Dallas did not fill more holes than Washington; and
2) Dallas was 9-7 last year, did not make the playoffs, and was swept by Washington; and
3) Washington was 10-6 last year, reached the second round of the playoffs, and swept Dallas...

then how can one reasonably make the claim that the Cowboys are favorites to win the division/Super Bowl, much less perform better than the Redskins? The head-to-head matchup record, as well as overall season performance, would indicate that the Redskins were the better team last year. In order for the Cowboys to now be the better team, they would have had to fill more holes, because a lesser team couldn't possibly have fewer holes than a greater team to start with.

Granted, the use of "holes" as a barometer for improvement is not well-defined or easily measured, but I thought I'd post the argument. So much of the Cowboy-love coming out of the media is about how they have filled all their needs, while the Redskins-bashing centers around having spent a lot of money without really doing much.

To make the prediction that the Cowboys will finish better than the Redskins in 2006, you must assume that the predictor also believes that the Cowboys roster was superior to Washington's going into last year. Its possible that there could have been reasons outside of roster talent that the Redskins swept the Cowboys and finished a game better. Favorable Schedule, injuries, and simple luck could have produced skewed results. This happens a lot in the NFL where the best team finishes behind someone in the division. Just last year it happened in the AFC North, AFC West, and NFC South. So this is a frequent occurance.

But I don't buy it because I predicted Washington to finish ahead of Dallas prior to last year, actually projecting Dallas correctly at 9-7. So I also find it hard to believe that so many "experts" could pick Dallas to win the division this year. I could justify the predictions of a few, but when they seem to be the consensus pick in the East, you know something is wrong with the world.