JFG Nation, the 2015 NFL Season is over? And it went EXACTLY according to plan, didn’t it?  Pffft. Putting fantasy sports aside (REMINDER: NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR FANTASY TEAM) I’m not sure I saw more injuries in an NFL season than this one. Then again, I’m pretty sure I said the same thing last year. Still, just to name a few/several: Jamaal Charles. Le’Veon Bell. Edelman. Jimmy Graham. Jordy Nelson, Tony Romo, the list goes on and on.

Storylines? How many came and then fizzled? The Patriots were going to destroy everyone and light the league on fire after the whole Deflate-Gate mess…they sort of did, finishing 12-4, but they definitely didn’t look as dominant as year’s past. The Falcons look liked they were going to torch everyone with revelation running back Devonta Freeman…until they remembered they were the Falcons, finishing 8-8. And each year there is always a worst to first story…I thought it was going to be Tampa Bay (DAMN YOU JAMEIS), but it turns out it was the local Washington Redskins, finishing 9-7 with Kirk Cousins at the helm, who…leads the NFL in passer rating?? WTF.

So, HOW DID my NFL predictions end up?

Predicted AFC North Champ: CINCY. Actual: CINCY. Nailed that one. Certainly didn’t see it happening with AJ McCarron at the helm and going 2-2 in their last four, but hey – a win is a win.

Predicted AFC East Champ: NEW ENGLAND. Actual: NEW ENGLAND. Chalk W number 2 up in the air. Not that tough of a call; still, does it concern anyone else that they couldn’t beat the Dolphins in the final week? Yikes.

Predicted AFC South Champ: INDY. Actual: HOUSTON. GROSS. Houston will be going into the playoffs with Brian Hoyer at the helm and no Arian Foster.  Yuck.

Predicted AFC West Champ: KC. Actual: DENVER. Ok, so maybe I was wrong about Denver. Well not COMPLETELY wrong; I was right about the decline of Peyton, but that D carried them this year. I smell a first round exit.

Predicted AFC Wildcards: MIAMI and PITTBURGH. Actual AFC Wildcards: KC and PITTSBURGH. Pitt got in by the skin of their teeth, but KC wasn’t that much of a surprise since I predicted them getting the division win. “KC will get 10 wins quietly and win the division” is what I said, and they did get 10 wins.

Final Tally: 2 correct Division Winners, 1 correct Wildcard, and 4 correct overall postseason teams out of 6. Not bad. I’ll give myself a B+ for that effort.

Predicted NFC North Champ: GREEN BAY. Actual: MINNESOTA. Well that’s what happen when you lose Jordy Nelson and every other WR on your team is apparently unable to catch. Plus, I suspected Teddy Bridgewater would step up.

Predicted NFC East Champ: PHILLY. Actual: WASHINGTON. Just baffling to me, proving once again that I, and everyone else, knows nothing about football. Well, that’s not true – clearly Scot McCloughan, GM of the Skins, knows something. BUT EVERYONE ELSE: NOPE.

Predicted NFC South Champ: TAMPA BAY. Actual: CAROLINA. I WHIFFED on this one big time. Still, despite their 15-1 finish, I do not see a Super Bowl run here. SORRY. Five of those wins came from the putrid NFC South, four more came from the awful NFC East, four more came from the trifling AFC South. The other two wins came against Green Bay, who is deceptively not-good this year, and Seattle, before they started to explode.

Here’s the thing: I realize to get to 15 wins, you HAVE to be great, which Carolina is. And I also realize that it’s easy to say all those divisions are bad when part of the reason they get Ls is because Carolina is picking up Ws. So while I am nitpicking Carolina’s wins, I fully recognize they are a top 3 team in the NFC. I just happen think they rank 3rd on that list.

Predicted NFC West Champ: SEATTLE. Actual: ARIZONA. I did NOT see Carson Palmer and his old man arm making it this far. There’s something about that Phoenix air, I guess. Er…I mean, that Glendale air. Whatever.

Predicted NFC Wildcards: MINNESOTA and DALLAS. Actual AFC Wildcards: GREEN BAY and SEATTLE. Seattle still made the cut, although I certainly didn’t expect it to take an injury to Jimmy Graham to FINALLY stoke that Seattle offense. Good God, Doug Baldwin. And Green Bay is the only playoff team whose arrow I see pointing down. They’ve looked suspect all season.

Final Tally: 0 correct Division Winners, 0 correct Wildcards, and 3 correct overall postseason teams out of 6. Not great. D+ effort. Stupid NFC.

All in all, a solid year of predictions, and I’m exhausted. Between fantasy football, survivor pools, betting against the spread, and avoiding daily fantasy commercials at every turn, I’m sort of glad football is over*….. Ah crap, playoffs start this weekend????? Crickey.

Let me know how your predictions ended up in the comments below, or what YOUR biggest surprise of the NFL season was. Meanwhile…

Today’s junk food: New Ritz Salsa Verde Toasted Corn Chips!!

New Ritz Salsa Verde Toasted Corn Chips! I’ll be honest, I tend to avoid all of the Ritz Chips varieties – I’ve had them before and they’re fine, but I love basic Ritz so much that I tend to stick to it. Which I know doesn’t make sense – I’m a junk food reviewer, and I have no problem leaping on the new-flavor-Oreo-grenade. Yeah, I dunno – maybe it’s because I don’t think Ritz Chip snack form does anything special. A Ritz is round, flaky, buttery. The Ritz Chips just taste like any other snack cracker.

Still, when I saw Ritz make a leap into CORN chips, well, now I knew I had to try these. Plus, Salsa Verde flavor?

The salsa verde part of these New Ritz Salsa Verde Toasted Corn Chips is represented by the images of jalapeno, tomatillo, and onion. Which is a good start, although I’d add in some lime and cilantro too.

Opening up this bag of New Ritz Salsa Verde Toasted Corn Chips, I stuck my nose right into the bag and inhaled deeply. Faint notes immediately hit my nose: Cilantro, for sure. Lime? Yes. Anything else? Honestly, not really. Not sure if that’s a good or bad sign. I’m going to guess more bad.

I munched on a single one of these New Ritz Salsa Verde Toasted Corn Chips – the texture reminds me of Wheatables from back in the day. A very thin snack cracker with decent crunch. They did not remind me of tortilla chips, despite the addition of corn, and I didn’t REALLY get a corn flavor. Oddly, the flavor of these reminded me of Wheat Thins – that sort of sweet dough taste. Maybe that’s where the corn came in, adding a bit of sweetness. I dunno. Not super impressed by the overall texture.

The flavor? Well, it’s not bold. When eating one chip/cracker, the seasoning was sooooooooo faint, like the smell. If anything, the flavor of the underlying cracker just overwhelms the seasoning. These were not salty, at all, so there was nothing to punch up whatever flavor was there.

I took a BIG STACK of these and crunched them all at once – NOW I could actually taste what they were going for. That faint salsa verde taste was noticeable – tiny bit of citrus taste, despite me smelling lime most of all. At least Ritz didn’t go overboard with the lime like a lot of other snacks do. TINY TINY bit of heat – a little bit of tingle on the tongue, but not much. Small tomatillo flavor and small jalapeno flavor. No real savoriness. No boldness.

Sigh. The unfortunate thing about these chips/crackers is that if the season was dialed up, what I DID taste seemed spot on in terms of balance. But basically these BARELY tasted like salsa verde, on top of a not-memorable chip/cracker format. Save your money on these, JFG Nation. Sorry, Ritz.

PURCHASED AT: Target, Germantown, MD

COST: $2.89

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy