Quote:
Originally Posted by Gmanc711
Exactly.
With the talent we have on this team, thats gotta be a minimum. We have the talent to win in this league, and against the teams we play. I only really saw us outmatched once and that was against Indianapolis and the first game against Dallas/Philly; other than that there isnt a game I can look at and say we shouldnt have won.
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I agree with you that only a few times this season we were significantly outplayed, although I would add the first New York game to that list.
In spite of everything that has happened to us, injuries, playcalling, subpar performance, midseason QB change, inability to force turnovers, there is still no real reason why this team doesn't have 7 wins. Looking at the six close losses; Minnesota, Tennessee, @ Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and @ St. Louis, and even throwing in close wins like Dallas and Jacksonville...our record was 2-6 in those games. In a fair world, should we not be 4-4 in those games? If you just look at those 8 games, we weren't outplayed at all (on the average) by our opponents in those 8 games. So how else can you explain us only winning 25% of those close games other than it not being our year?
The very simple answer is this: We got better than expected efforts from most of our opponents this year. We had a lot of games with teams coming off their bye or teams with their backs against the wall. Tennessee was 0-5. They are 8-2 since playing us. Philly had lost 3 in a row going into the Week 11 matchup with us. Atlanta and Tampa Bay were both on losing streaks.
It gives me hope for next year because even if we play no better than this year (something that shouldn't be too hard), if things even out and we go 6-2 in close games next year, that puts us in great shape to go 10-6 with no improvement. And I fully expect us to improve.