I guess I was looking at the power rankings [ESPN] this morning out of curiosity (I know they don’t matter) assuming they’d still have us in the mid-teens. I was surprised to find they actually have us at number 9. At first it seems kind of “generous” until I looked at the teams immediately below us and realized for all the talk of how “stacked” the AFC is, there really aren’t that many “good” teams and literally no team that are “un-beatable”. Even the teams that are ahead of us in the conference are all incredibly flawed. KC’s offense is a shell of it’s self, Miami’s defense is “ehh” at best (23rd in scoring), Jax got us with no Minkah and still hand-cuffed to a MC led offense, and we’ve had Lamar figured out for a number of years now. Absent any other major injuries, I can totally see us going on another run to end this season (possibly even winning out) while Baltimore still has games against Miami, SF, and JAX. I don’t see them winning all 3 of those (in fact, I really don’t see them beating either MIA or SF) and if they drop 2 and we keep winning, there’s a chance that game against them in week 18 doesn’t even matter. The division is very much still in play and I guess what I’m saying is: why can’t we go to the superbowl this year? Now that Canada is gone, I feel like no one actually knows what this team’s ceiling really is. I get that this past Sunday was one game and admittedly against a pretty bad defense, but it was also only the first week operating under a completely different work regimen. I think people are sort of taking for granted that the team improved as opposed to regressing given they only had one week to adjust to a new coaching paradigm. My guess is, they’re probably only going to improve from here. 16 points isn’t really anything to hang your hat on, but anyone watching that game saw that we easily could’ve hung 30+ on that team if they just clean up the details. I’m legitimately excited again for this season and I feel like there’s nothing really stopping this team from making it to the “big game”.
PS: All that said, I don’t really see us winning a superbowl if it’s either SF or PHI, but it’d be cool to see an all PA superbowl.
Our defense has gotten better and they haven’t given more than 20 since our loss against Houston. The offense could’ve easily scored 30+ the last game if we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties just outside of fieldgoal range. Our run game is at least top 5 in the NFL right now and has gotten much better since Broderick Jones has become a starter. The offense looked to be in a rhythm against the Bengals something that they never were under Canada.
Our defense will most likely keep us in every game and create turnovers. If our offense can show that they can consistantly move the ball like they did against the Bengals then we could beat anyone in the league and win the Superbowl, because it should’ve been a blowout against the Bengals.
The biggest concerns with this team are if we can move the ball consistantly, we need to convert our yards into points and was this a one off game for Kenny.
Personally I believe we will heat up and we should at least win a playoff game, but it could also be our year.