Each year, a slew of experts spend each week analyzing the 31 NFL teams and then delivering their predictions as to which teams will win and which will lose. Some are right and some are wrong, and really nobody is more right than anyone else.
This is particularly true in the first week of the season. After all, each year a couple of teams with losing records the year before all of a sudden become world-beaters (Baltimore, Philly last year) and a couple of teams which were highly-rated fall of a cliff (hello, Redskins). Let's be honest, you might as well just pick the games by picking names out of hat.
Or, you can allow the Lycos users to pick the games for you. That's right, we've chosen winners for each of this week's NFL games based entirely on Lycos user searches. We checked only searches that mentioned the team specifically -- for example, NY Giants is in but just Giants is out.
The Lycos 50 hereby recommends that you make your picks in your fully-legal, no money changing hands office pool (yeah, right) as follows:
Buffalo Bills over New Orleans Saints
New England Patriots over Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns over Seattle Seahawks
Dallas Cowboys over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Green Bay Packers over Detroit Lions
Oakland Raiders over Kansas City Chiefs
Minnesota Vikings over Carolina Panthers
New York Jets over Indianapolis Colts
Pittsburgh Steelers over Jacksonville Jaguars
Baltimore Ravens over Chicago Bears
Philadelphia Eagles over St. Louis Rams
Washington Redskins over San Diego Chargers
Atlanta Falcons over San Francisco 49ers
Tennessee Titans over Miami Dolphins
Denver Broncos over New York Giants
Whoops, I forgot the team that has a bye this week?
Bladder Infection over Arizona Cardinals
The closest game here is Tennessee-Miami, which might be the closest game in real life as well. Tennessee Titans got exactly one more search than Miami Dolphins last week.
Which team would make the most Lycos users happy by winning the whole thing? Here are the top five overall most-searched NFL teams from last week:
1) Dallas Cowboys
2) Green Bay Packers
3) Minnesota Vikings
4) Pittsburgh Steelers
5) Denver Broncos
Well, that's as good a list as any, isn't it. After all, last year who would have picked Baltimore to win the Super Bowl? Dallas has a couple of good receivers, and Emmitt Smith is an all-time great, and that Quincy Carter could really surprise some people.
We're kidding, of course. Dallas is going to be horrible. They could get a more accurate quarterback if they signed Rick Ankiel, and Stephen Davis might run for 400 yards on them. Yet they continue to be the most popular NFL team on the Internet. Troy Aikman was actually the most-searched football player last week.
Attention Dallas fans: Troy retired. Your team is ghastly. Please watch your step while exiting the bandwagon.
In other football news, thanks to all the Lycos 50 readers who have written me to point out that worldwide most soccer leagues start in late August. In addition, World Cup action has heated up lately. That explains why soccer searches surge in September, and why it is #33 this week on the Lycos 50. Chalk this up to my own personal America-centric sports attitude -- I'll take Joe Nedney over David Beckham any day.
Nonetheless, as a public service to English soccer fans, we'll let Lycos users pick some of those games too:
MONDAY: Yes, it's true, nerds use the Internet.
