Now that I have thoroughly analyzed the hypothetical college football season, I have decided to engage in a similar analysis for the National Football League. I have never made a set of pro football preseason predictions before, but given the uncertainty of the college season in 2020, I thought I would do some NFL analysis in case that is the only game in town this fall. Much like my college preview, I have gone through and analyzed every NFL team’s regular season and postseason, as well as selected my disappointment and surprise teams and upsets to watch out for.
My final football preview entry for this year will be my NFL regular season upset picks are listed below in chronological order. The five upset picks that will be the most impactful to the NFL playoff picture are marked in bold. Also, the (H) and (A) written on each line represents whether or not the the team pulling off the upset is playing the game at home or on the road. Feel free to comment or debate on this post as well as any others included in this preview guide.
| Preseason Upset Picks of the Year | |
| 1 | Cincinnati over Philadelphia (A)- September 27th (1:00) |
| 2 | Miami over Seattle (H)- October 4th (1:00) |
| 3 | Philadelphia over San Francisco (A)- October 4th (8:20) |
| 4 | Washington over LA Rams (H)- October 11th (1:00) |
| 5 | Chicago over New Orleans (H)- November 1st (4:25) |
| 6 | Indianapolis over Baltimore (H)- November 8th (1:00) |
| 7 | Carolina over Tampa Bay (H)- November 15th (1:00) |
| 8 | Tennessee over Baltimore (A)- November 22nd (1:00) |
| 9 | Denver over New Orleans (H)- November 29th (1:00) |
| 10 | Washington over Pittsburgh (A)- December 6th (1:00) |
| 11 | Carolina over Denver (H)- December 13th (1:00) |
| 12 | Miami over New England (H)- December 20th (1:00) |
| 13 | Arizona over San Francisco (H)- December 27th (TBA) |
| 14 | Jacksonville over Chicago (A)- December 27th (1:00) |
| 15 | LA Chargers over Kansas City (A)- January 3rd (1:00) |
My predicted upset of the year will be a late December upset by the Arizona Cardinals over the San Francisco 49ers. While I don’t see this season to be a breakthrough year for Arizona like some people do, I think they will provide some hope for the 2021 season by knocking off the NFC # 1 seed two days after Christmas. The Cardinals played the 49ers well in both meetings in 2019 and are much better defending the rush than the the pass, which makes them a good matchup against San Fran.
Ramblings of the Ultimate Sports Sentimentalist 