Get ready to hear some theories

When your team is picked by millions of pundits to go to the SuperBowl and then starts 2-4, people are going to theorize. 

I tend toward the notion that, at the highest level of football,  the competition is so tight and the talent so evenly distributed that week-to-week results are more or less just random.  Sometimes a ball doinks off of the goalpost and still counts for three points, sometimes not.  Sometimes, a little striped leprechaun with the power to stop and reverse time can arbitrarily bend reality with the toss of a yellow handkerchief.

There's not much you can do to anticipate or alter the course of these events.  You're really better off just spending the whole summer in West Virginia playing golf and stuff.  Then once the games start.. que sera, man.  Who knows what could happen!  This is why Las Vegas exists and is filled with money.

But more linear thinkers are going to demand an explanation that adheres more closely to the conventional wisdom of the game. Expect to see many of these trotted out over the coming week.  Here's the "team needs leaders" version.