Five "Expected" Playoff Contenders Who'll Disappoint | Page 3

OnTheClock · 2012-05-19T16:27:45-07:00

Okay, so I've already got the thread going for five under-the-radar teams (in my opinion) that I think could make serious pushes for playoff berths, now I will list five teams that I believe may disappoint and miss the playoffs, despite expectations. I think it'd be interesting to see who we all think about these five other teams I'll list. Here they are: 1) Saints Yes. I said it. I'm not buying the "all of this will motivate us" stuff. The Saints have pretty much no easy games this year. If you think Tampa is easy for New Orleans, you may have missed how the Saints -- for some reason -- have struggled mightily against the Bucs, losing one of their three last year to them. The Saints had little to work with to improve their team. Brees is still looking for a monster contract, and the team had barely any draft picks to use, and the players they did pick were in rounds where you wouldn't expect much of an impact anytime soon. New Orleans must deal with improved versions of the Falcons, Eagles, 49ers, Packers, Panthers, Chiefs, Broncos, Raiders, Giants, and Cowboys who they play on the road and have had trouble with lately as well. Tack on the devastating loss to us to end last season, and I see lots of reasons to believe the Saints will falter this year. 2) Chargers San Diego doesn't have the toughest schedule, but something tells me they just haven't added enough to make up for the issues they had last year. Their GM has been terrible lately, and Norv Turner simply isn't a great HC. While many expect the Chargers to at least be a wild card, I don't see them winning enough games in the end to make it. The Raiders owned them last year, and the Chiefs beat them with backups. Peyton Manning is in Denver and I think San Diego is in real trouble. 3) Cowboys Some might say, "Dallas? Really? I don't think they're expected playoff contenders." After several years of disappointing, maybe not, but this year.. all the praise of their draft, along with a softer schedule has people thinking they could crack the playoffs once again. Personally, like I think most here will say, I believe they'll fall short again. I think especially if DeMarco Murray gets hurt, that team will become one-dimensional, and quickly fade out of contention. 4) Bengals I like the Bengals and wouldn't mind seeing them succeed, but it's possible Dalton and the other high-performing rooks from last year could go into sophomore slumps. Cincy's early schedule looks soft, but toughens up later on. Of course, it could turn out in reality to be the opposite when we really get into the season, but if Cincy's opponents turn out as expected, the Bengals could have a rough time returning to the post-season. 5) Falcons I thought the Falcons had a rather uninspiring draft. Their best pick was Peter Konz, but outside of him, they didn't really get much. Pass-rusher Massaqoui was a solid pick with potential, but all their other selections probably won't contribute much this year. I felt their third round pick, OT Lamar Holmes, was a horrendous reach. He was expected to go in the later half of the draft, more toward the 6th or 7th rounds. They did the same thing last year with LB Akeem Dent who had the same projection, and unsurprisingly make a whopping ONE tackle in the regular season in 16 games. Sure, the Falcons added Asante Samuel to the secondary, but they pretty much neglected every other need they had this year. The added no linebacker support, no tight end of the future to pair with Tony Gonzalez, and no extra-extra receiver depth or explosiveness at running back like we, the 49ers, did to further bolster their offensive attack. Their division strangely tends to see the bottom teams rise to the top while the top teams fall. Along with New Orleans, Atlanta could flounder next season.

May 21, 2012 at 11:59 AM

#31

JTsBiggestFan
Veteran
Posts: 7,758

Originally posted by mike:

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by PopeyeJonesing:
Nice list. 9ers absence from it is conspicuous, though. :)

You saying they will disappoint?

It's possible. Our success had a lot to do with getting lucky turnovers and Alex playing a safe/turnover free game, that's not always a stat you can count on every year. Alex opens up his game, gets picked off more often, while teams will have a better idea on how to keep the ball out of the hands of our dbs. Don't get me wrong this year has a lot of potential to move up another notch, but nothing's a guarantee. Our schedule gets harder and teams will be more prepared for our gameplanning.

At the end of the day, one thing though:

Still have an elite defense.....with potential to get better.

Can't game plan for that.

We'll be in every game we play, just like last year.

May 21, 2012 at 12:34 PM

#32

sincalfaithful
Veteran
Posts: 27,712

Originally posted by mike:

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by PopeyeJonesing:
Nice list. 9ers absence from it is conspicuous, though. :)

You saying they will disappoint?

It's possible. Our success had a lot to do with getting lucky turnovers and Alex playing a safe/turnover free game, that's not always a stat you can count on every year. Alex opens up his game, gets picked off more often, while teams will have a better idea on how to keep the ball out of the hands of our dbs. Don't get me wrong this year has a lot of potential to move up another notch, but nothing's a guarantee. Our schedule gets harder and teams will be more prepared for our gameplanning.

Yeah our defense was just plain lucky to get only 38 turnovers

..hopefully next year we get lucky since we can't force any

May 21, 2012 at 1:03 PM

#33

ChaunceyGardner
Q46 Draft Winner
Posts: 23,891

Giants - they came on late last year and pushed hard then lost some pieces plus I think they start hot and fade missing to Eagles or Cowboys

May 21, 2012 at 6:36 PM

#34

49erfeeeever808
Veteran
Posts: 31,326

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:

Originally posted by mike:

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by PopeyeJonesing:
Nice list. 9ers absence from it is conspicuous, though. :)

You saying they will disappoint?

It's possible. Our success had a lot to do with getting lucky turnovers and Alex playing a safe/turnover free game, that's not always a stat you can count on every year. Alex opens up his game, gets picked off more often, while teams will have a better idea on how to keep the ball out of the hands of our dbs. Don't get me wrong this year has a lot of potential to move up another notch, but nothing's a guarantee. Our schedule gets harder and teams will be more prepared for our gameplanning.

Yeah our defense was just plain lucky to get only 38 turnovers ..hopefully next year we get lucky since we can't force any

i always hated when people used that argument....

"You're lucky you won. it's only because our QB threw 4 interceptions."

"dude we MADE your QB throw 4 interceptions....."

May 21, 2012 at 7:12 PM

#35

mike
Veteran
Posts: 1,827

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:
Yeah our defense was just plain lucky to get only 38 turnovers ..hopefully next year we get lucky since we can't force any

Yet we couldn't force any against the Giants when it mattered.

The fact is turnovers fluctuate from year to year on many teams. I'm not saying all of a sudden we'll get no turnovers, but last season could definitely have been a peak. A fluctuation of 5 or 6 turnovers is not uncommon. Combine that with at least 5 more interceptions once alex starts throwing the ball more often and it's not hard to see our biggest advantage disappearing.

For example, from 2010 to 2011:
Bears went from 43 to 32 turnovers, obviously the Eagles downfall was well noted, Falcons and Cowboys lost 6 turnovers each, Cards went down by 8, Steelers turnovers cut in half, Tampa lost 5 turnovers and racked up the interceptions(my fear is alex will have a nightmare year like freeman). There are more examples but I'm getting lazy.

Now, Alex could make up for it if he's a lot better on 3rd downs and the redzone. But just like none of us saw us going 13-3, anything can happen on any given Sunday. People like to point out these teams that basically disappointed last year and say that they'll disappoint again while wholly discounting the fact that we could end up disappointing just as easily.

May 26, 2012 at 3:36 PM

#36

BayArea
Veteran
Posts: 3,664

I would swap out the Bangals with the Bears and then I agree.

I picture a meltdown for the saints like everybody else says. I also don't think they will recover from it once Peyton is back either.

Nov 20, 2012 at 9:21 PM

#37

zillabeast
Veteran
Posts: 20,042

4 outta 5 aint bad.