Five "Expected" Playoff Contenders Who'll Disappoint

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.

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

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

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....."

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.

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.

4 outta 5 aint bad.