Best wishes and prayers go out to John Fox, who is undergoing heart surgery. He'll probably miss the rest of the regular season at least. Jack Del Rio will be the interim head coach while Fox is out.

er sitting through (and I did stay to the end!) yesterday's 55-31 debacle (or tremendous offensive output if you root for the Patriots), its prob. time to come to grips that it's most likely not happening for the Steelers in 2014. But as a diehard fan, you have to keep believing. Until they tell you that your team is officially eliminated from playoff contention, you hope your team continues to fight and can somehow play meaningful games the last quarter of the season.  

Usually with veteran teams, however, that anticipated challenging for the playoffs like the Steelers (and Ravens or Falcons ) but have greatly underperformed, they too realize its not going to happen at some point either. The focus begins to drop in meetings, the players lift a few less weights, watch a little less film, etc. Sure, they'll say all the right things publically ("We're professionals and we'll never quit"), the reality is that on Sunday's the performance and effort won't be there completely.  

So with the season now at its half way point, here are my predictions, sure to go wrong (who the heck can actually prognosticate the NFL anyway)

AFC East: Pats
AFC North: Nati
AFC South: Cots
AFC West: Denver
Wild Cards: Chiefs, Chargers

NFC East: Dallas
NFC North: Packers
NFC South: Saints
NFC West: Seattle
Wild Cards: 49er's, Panthers