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Danny O'Neil covers the Seahawks for The Seattle Times.

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January 2, 2009 4:38 PM

Upon further review

This isn't just a time for resolutions, but also review. So with the regular-season concluded, it's worth taking a peek back at what I predicted would happen in our NFL preview section, which was published on Sept. 4, three days before the season began.

As always, the results are mixed. I correctly predicted only three of the eight division winners, but got eight of the 12 playoff entrants correct. I foresaw the Cowboys wouldn't end up in the playoffs, but the Saints didn't quite turn out to be the Super Bowl caliber team I predicted they would be.

Anyway, it's always entertaining. Here's my predictions compared to what actually happened:

	Prediction	Actual result

AFC North	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh

AFC South	Indianapolis	Tennessee

AFC East	New England	Miami

AFC West	San Diego	San Diego

AFC wild card	Tennessee	Indianapolis

AFC wild card	Houston	Baltimore


NFC North	Minnesota	Minnesota

NFC South	New Orleans	Carolina

NFC East	Philadelphia	New York Giants

NFC West	Seattle	Arizona

NFC wild card	Arizona	Atlanta

NFC wild card	Carolina	Philadelphia

My Super Bowl prediction: the Colts, but I'm way less confident of that prediction now than I was back in September even though Indianapolis has won nine consecutive games, the longest winning streak of any team in the playoffs. I don't think Indianapolis either runs well enough nor stops the run sufficiently to get deep in the playoffs.

I also picked three teams that I saw on the rise: Houston, Carolina and Arizona. Two of those turned out OK, but my affection for the Texans proved to be misplaced especially since I thought their defense would be formidable. It was not.

My predictions on three teams on the downswing: Dallas, Cleveland and Minnesota. I got two out of three there, too, but the Vikings won 10 games and will host a playoff game.

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